1He that hath a mind to depart from a friend, seeketh occasions: he shall ever be subject to reproach.Colui che vuoi ritirarsi dall'amico, cerca pretesti: egli in ogni tempo sarà degno di biasimo.HE seeketh occasions that wil depart from a frend: he shal euer be subiect to reproch.Occasiones quærit qui vult recedere ab amico: / omni tempore erit exprobrabilis. 2A fool receiveth not the words of prudence: unless thou say those things which are in his heart.Lo stolto non ha genio agli avvertimenti della prudenza, se tu non parli secondo quello, che egli ha in cuore.A foole receiueth not the wordes of prudence: vnlesse thou say those thinges which are in his hart.Non recipit stultus verba prudentiæ, / nisi ea dixeris quæ versantur in corde ejus. 3The wicked man, when he is come into the depth of sins, contemneth: but ignominy and reproach follow him.L'empio quando è caduto nel profondo dei peccati, non ne fa caso; ma l'ignominia, e l'obbrobrio gli vanno appresso.The impious when he shal come into the depth of sinnes, contemneth: but ignominie and reproch folow him.Impius, cum in profundum venerit peccatorum, contemnit; / sed sequitur eum ignominia et opprobrium. 4Words from the mouth of a man are as deep water: and the fountain of wisdom is an overflowing stream.Le parole, che scorrono dalla bocca del saggio, sono un acqua profonda, e la fontana della sapienza è un torrente, che inonda.Deepe water wordes from the mouth of a man: and a streame ouer flowing the fountaine of wisdom.Aqua profunda verba ex ore viri, / et torrens redundans fons sapientiæ. 5It is not good to accept the person of the wicked, to decline from the truth of judgment.Non è buona cosa l'aver riguardo alla persona dell'empio per far torto alla verità nel giudicare.To accept the person of the impious in iudgement is not good, that thou decline from the truth of iudgement.Accipere personam impii non est bonum, / ut declines a veritate judicii. 6The lips of a fool intermeddle with strife: and his mouth provoketh quarrels.Le labbra dello stolto si impacciano nelle risse: e la lingua di lui provoca gli affronti.The lippes of a foole mingle him with strife: and his mouth prouoketh brawles.Labia stulti miscent se rixis, / et os ejus jurgia provocat. 7The mouth of a fool is his destruction: and his lips are the ruin of his soul.La bocca dello stolto è quella, che lo distrugge: e le tue labbra son la sua rovina.The mouth of a foole is his destruction: and his lippes are the ruine of his soule.Os stulti contritio ejus, / et labia ipsius ruina animæ ejus. 8The words of the double tongued are as if they were harmless: and they reach even to the inner parts of the bowels. Fear casteth down the slothful: and the souls of the effeminate shall be hungry.Le parole della lingua doppia paiono la stessa semplicità; ma elle penetrano fin nelle intime viscere. Il timore abbatte il pigro: e le anime degli uomini effeminati patiranno la fame.The wordes of the duble tongued, as it were simple: and the same come euen to the inner part of the bellie. Feare casteth downe the slothful: and the soules of the effeminate shal be hungrie.Verba bilinguis quasi simplicia, / et ipsa perveniunt usque ad interiora ventris. / Pigrum dejicit timor; / animæ autem effeminatorum esurient.
9He that is loose and slack in his work, is the brother of him that wasteth his own works.Colui che è molle, ed infingardo nel suo lavoro, è fratello di chi manda in malora tutto quello, che ha fatto.He that is soft and dissolute in his worke, is the brother of him that destroyeth his owne workes.Qui mollis et dissolutus est in opere suo / frater est sua opera dissipantis. 10The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the just runneth to it, and shall be exalted.Torre fortissima è il nome del Signore: a lei corre il giusto, e sarà in luogo sicuro.A most strong towre, the name of our Lord: the iust runneth to it and shal be exalted.Turris fortissima nomen Domini; / ad ipsum currit justus, et exaltabitur. 11The substance of the rich man is the city of his strength, and as a strong wall compassing him about.Le facoltà del ricco sono la sua città forte, e come la stabil muraglia, che lo circonda.The substance of the rich man a citie of his strength: and as a strong wal compassing him about.Substantia divitis urbs roboris ejus, / et quasi murus validus circumdans eum. 12Before destruction, the heart of a man is exalted: and before he be glorified, it is humbled.Prima ch'ei sia abbattuto si innalza il cuore dell'uomo, e prima di essere glorificato, egli è umiliato.Before he be broken, the hart of a man is exalted: and before he be glorified, it is humbled.Antequam conteratur, exaltatur cor hominis, / et antequam glorificetur, humiliatur. 13He that answereth before he heareth, sheweth himself to be a fool, and worthy of confusion.Chi risponde prima di aver ascoltato, si da a conoscere per istolto, e merita confusione.He that answereth before he heare, sheweth him self to be a foole, and worthie of confusion.Qui prius respondet quam audiat, / stultum se esse demonstrat, et confusione dignum. 14The spirit of a man upholdeth his infirmity: but a spirit that is easily angered, who can bear?Lo spirito dell'uomo sostiene la sua infermità: ma uno spirito facile all'ira chi potrà sostenerlo?The spirit of a man vpholdeth his imbecilitie: but a spirit that is casie to be angrie who can susteyne?Spiritus viri sustentat imbecillitatem suam; / spiritum vero ad irascendum facilem quis poterit sustinere ? 15A wise heart shall acquire knowledge: and the ear of the wise seeketh instruction.Il cuore dell'uomo prudente farà acquisto di scienza; e l'orecchio de' saggi cerca la dottrina.A wise hart shal possesse knowlege: and the eare of the wise seeketh doctrine.Cor prudens possidebit scientiam, / et auris sapientium quærit doctrinam. 16A man’s gift enlargeth his way, and maketh him room before princes.I doni, che fa un uomo aprono a lui la strada, e gli fan largo dinanzi a' principi.The gift of a man enlargeth his way, & maketh him roome before princes.Donum hominis dilatat viam ejus, / et ante principes spatium ei facit.
17The just is first accuser of himself: his friend cometh, and shall search him.Il giusto è il primo ad accusare se stesso: vien (poi) il suo amico, e lo tiene a sindacato.The iust is first accuser of himself: his frend commeth, and shal search him.Justus prior est accusator sui: / venit amicus ejus, et investigabit eum. 18The lot suppresseth contentions, and determineth even between the mighty.La sorte finisce le contese, e decide anche trai grandi.Lotte suppresseth contradictions, and betwen the mightie also it determineth.Contradictiones comprimit sors, / et inter potentes quoque dijudicat. 19A brother that is helped by his brother, is like a strong city: and judgments are like the bars of cities.Il fratello aiutato dal fratello, è una forte città: e i giudizi sono come le sbarre delle porte della città.Brother that is holpen of brother, is as a strong citie: and iudgements are as the barres of cities.Frater qui adjuvatur a fratre quasi civitas firma, / et judicia quasi vectes urbium. 20Of the fruit of a man’s mouth shall his belly be satisfied: and the offspring of his lips shall fill him.Le viscere dell'uomo si empieranno dei frutti della sua bocca, e dei proventi delle sue labbra sarà egli satollo.Of the fruite of mans mouth his bellie shal be filled: and the ofsprings of his lippes shal fil him.De fructu oris viri replebitur venter ejus, / et genimina labiorum ipsius saturabunt eum. 21Death and life are in the power of the tongue: they that love it, shall eat the fruits thereof.La morte, e la vita è in potere della lingua; e chi ne terrà conto mangerà de' frutti di lei.Death and life in the hand of the tongue: they that loue it, shal eate the fruites therof.Mors et vita in manu linguæ; / qui diligunt eam comedent fructus ejus. 22He that hath found a good wife, hath found a good thing, and shall receive a pleasure from the Lord. He that driveth away a good wife, driveth away a good thing: but he that keepeth an adulteress, is foolish and wicked.Chi trova una buona moglie. Ha trovato un bene, e riceverà consolazione dal Signore. Chi ripudia la buona moglie, si toglie un bene: e chi tiene un'adultera, è stolto, ed empio.He that hath found a good wife, hath found a good thing, and hath receiued a pleasure of our Lord.Qui invenit mulierem bonam invenit bonum, / et hauriet jucunditatem a Domino. / Qui expellit mulierem bonam expellit bonum; / qui autem tenet adulteram stultus est et impius.
23The poor will speak with supplications, and the rich will speak roughly.Il povero parla supplicando: e il ricco risponde con durezza.The poore speaketh with supplications, and the rich wil speake roughly.Cum obsecrationibus loquetur pauper, / et dives effabitur rigide. 24A man amiable in society, shall be more friendly than a brother.L'uomo amabile nel conversare sarà amico più, che un fratello.A man amiable to societie, shal be more frendlie, then a brother.Vir amabilis ad societatem / magis amicus erit quam frater.
18:1
Calmet
Reproach. True friendship resembles charity, and bears all things, 1 Corinthians 13:4. Hebrew now reads Thave, "desire;" instead of Thuane, occasion, or "pretext," which must have been in the copies of the Septuagint and Vulgate. (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants, "through desire, a man having separated himself, seeketh and intermeddleth with all wisdom." The solitary seeks heaven. (Haydock)
18:2
Calmet
Heart. Conformable to his passions. (Calmet)
Haydock
Hebrew, "unless to lay open his heart." He wishes to appear wise, and to justify his wicked designs. (Haydock)
18:3
Calmet
Contemneth both God and man, Luke 18:4. Hebrew, "is contemned" in his turn. (Calmet)
He is like a man abandoned by the physician. (Op. Imp. in Matt. Hom. 40.)
18:4
Man, who is just and wise. His advice deserves attention, Proverbs 20:5.
18:6
Quarrels. Hebrew, "blows." Septuagint, "death;" (ver. 7.) which are the usual consequences of quarrels.
18:8
Calmet
Tongued. Hebrew, "calumniator." He pretends to wish well to those of whom he speaks, or else to guard the company against deceit. (Calmet)
St. Francis de Sales
"If the devil be upon the detractor's tongue, he is in the ears of those who pay attention to him." (St. Francis de Sales)
18:9
Brother. Like him, as both end in poverty, Proverbs 10:4., and 12:11.
18:10
Name. Essence, or protection of God. The rich depends on his own wealth.
18:13
Heareth the end of the question, Proverbs 1:5.
18:14
Infirmity of the flesh, Matthew 26:41.
That is. Theodotion, "is wounded, who shall support?"
18:16
Ovid
Princes. He easily finds access by showing submission. (Calmet) Placatur donis Jupiter ipse suis. (Ovid)
18:17
Him. To see that he act with sincerity.
18:18
Calmet
Lot. Proverbs 16:33. Septuagint, "silence." (Calmet)
Haydock
But Grabe substitutes "lot." (Haydock)
18:19
Calmet
Judgments of many are more deserving of credit. Hebrew, "a brother offended, is like a strong place, and their quarrels," etc. They are not easily reconciled. Civil wars are most terrible. (Calmet)
18:20
Satisfied. Those who are guarded in their words get employment. (Haydock) (Chap. 12:14.)
18:21
Love it, and speak well or ill, shall receive accordingly, Matthew 12:37.
18:22
Haydock
Good wife. Good is not in Hebrew, but should be understood, as it is expressed in the Complutensian (Calmet) and Alexandrian Septuagint. (Haydock)
He that, etc., occurs not in Hebrew, Sixtus V, etc. But it is found in Septuagint and Arabic. The Syriac omits the last sentence.
Wicked. St. Augustine had frequently asserted that a divorce was only of counsel: but this he retracted, when he reflected on this text. (Retractions 1:19.)
Selden
The Hebrews, Athenians, and Romans, followed the same practice with adulteresses. (Selden, Ux. 3:16.; Dem. in Neaeram, etc.)
Calmet
Hermas (past. 1:4.) prescribes that the penitent shall be received again, but not often. In case of divorce, the fathers still permit not a second marriage, that the parties may be reconciled. They enjoin the husband to put away only such as are incorrigible. (St. Augustine, Adul. 2:3.) (Calmet)
18:24
Calmet
Brother. The ties of nature are not so strong as those of friendship. (Calmet)
Haydock
Hebrew, "a man that hath friends must shew himself friendly; and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." (Protestants) (Haydock)
Martial
Ut ameris ama. (Martial)
18:1
Constantamitie.
18:2
Harken to good counsel.
18:3
Speedie repentance.
18:4
a vviseman.
VVise discourse.
18:5
Equitie.
18:6
Studie of peace.
18:7
Guard of the tongue.
18:8
Auoid secrete bate makers.
Fortitude.
18:9
Constant labour.
18:10
Confidence in God.
18:11
Spiritual riches.
18:12
Humilitie.
18:13
Consideration in answering.
18:14
Quietnes of spirite.
18:15
Desire to lerne.
18:16
Almes dedes.
18:17
Acknowleging of faultes. Vse of lote to make agreement. •••ternal concord. Godhe instructions.
18:21
Right vse of the tongue.
18:22
A wiues vertue is her best dowrie. Meeknes.
18:24
Amitie with 〈…〉.
18:1
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 1
… And though in such sundry times and divers manners the Saviour shewed His Godhead and preached the Father to all men, nevertheless, as kicking against the pricks, they contradicted in the language of folly, and this they did, according to the divine proverb, that by finding occasions, they might separate themselves from the truth
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.5
… And if our faith is in Father and Son, what brotherhood is there between them? and how can the Word be called brother of Him whose Word He is? This is not an objection of men really ignorant, for they comprehend how the truth lies; but it is a Jewish pretence, and that from those who, in Solomon’s words, ‘through desire separate themselves
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Baptism, Against the Donatists 3.19
… But the enemies of this brotherly love, whether they are openly without, or appear to be within, are false Christians, and antichrists. For when they have found an opportunity, they go out, as it is written: "A man wishing to separate himself from his friends, seeketh opportunities."
18:2
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.1
I have read the letter which you in your wisdom have written me. You inveigh against me, and, though you once praised me and called me true partner and brother, you now write books to summon me to reply to the charges with which you terrify me. I see that in you are fulfilled the words of Solomon: “In the mouth of the foolish is the rod of contumely,” and
18:3
St Alexander of Alexandria † AD 326 Epistles on the Arian Heresy and the Deposition of Arius 2.5
5. By saying these things, and by unfolding the divine Scriptures, we have often refuted them. But they, chameleon-like, changing their sentiments, endeavour to claim for themselves that saying: “When the wicked cometh, then cometh contempt.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Heathen (Contra Gentes) 8
… and, not satiated with the first evils, they again filled themselves. with others, advancing further in utter shamefulness, and surpassing themselves in impiety. But to this the divine Scripture testifies when it says, “When the wicked cometh unto the depth of evils, he despiseth
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Deposition of Arius 5
5. By these arguments and references to the sacred Scriptures we frequently overthrew them; but they changed like chameleons , and again shifted their ground, striving to bring upon themselves that sentence, “when the wicked falleth into the depth of evils, he despiseth
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.23.1
1. The Ario-maniacs, as it appears, having once made up their minds to transgress and revolt from the Truth, are strenuous in appropriating the words of Scripture, ‘When the impious cometh into a depth of evils, he despiseth
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 44
… Recall your recollection of how it is written in the Scriptures that he who is falling rises and he who turns away returns; the wounded is healed, the prey of beasts escapes; he who owns his sin is not rejected. The Lord willeth not the death of a sinner but rather that he should turn and live. Do not despise, like the wicked in the pit of evil.
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… and having fallen into a depth of evil (as it is said) despise Him;
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… Only be not downcast, nor fling away good hopes, nor fall into the condition of the ungodly. For it is not the multitude of sins which is wont to plunge men into despair, but impiety of soul. Therefore Solomon did not make the unqualified statement “ every one who has entered into the den of the wicked, despiseth;” but only “he who is ungodly.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 17
… For nothing makes a person so shameless, as sin. “And yet on the contrary,” say you, “it puts to shame.” Yes; him who condemns himself: but him that is past blushing, it renders even more reckless: for desperation makes daring. For “the wicked,” saith the Scripture, “when he is come into the depths of evils, despiseth.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 8
… for why? God also helpeth: for He willeth not the death of a sinner so much as his conversion. Let no one then despair; let no one have the feeling of the ungodly; for to them properly belongs this kind of sin: “an ungodly man having come into any depth of evils, makes light of it
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 8
… thou art the more incited to give. Hast thou refused to give? thou art become so much the more disinclined. Hast thou practiced temperance for one day? Thou hast an incitement for the next likewise. Hast thou indulged to excess? Thou hast increased the inclination to self-indulgence. “When a wicked man cometh into the depth of vice, then he despises.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 6
… lest the same things should befall you. “Lest any one of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.” Seest thou that sin produces unbelief? For as unbelief brings forth an evil life, so also a soul, “when it is come into a depth of evils, becometh contemptuous” (
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 122.1
… For the same reason Ezekiel swallowed the book where were written within and without song, and lamentation and woe; the song in praise of the righteous, the lamentation over the penitent, and the woe for those of whom it is written, “When the wicked man falleth into the depths of evil, then is he filled with scorn.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 36.9
… so now they defend their sins and confess them not; but say, Why? What have I done? Such an one did this, and such an one did that. Now will they even defend what the Divine Word reproves. This is the abyss. Therefore in a certain place
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 40.3
… the very act of crying is already lifting them up. There are some deeper in the deep, who do not even perceive themselves to be in the deep. Such are those who are proud despisers, not pious entreaters for pardon; not tearful criers for mercy: but such as Scripture thus describes. “The sinner when he comes into the depth of evil despiseth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 68.7
… give thanks, saying, “Thou hast broken asunder my bonds.” But these provoking men that dwell in the tombs, are of that kind, which in another passage the Scripture pointeth out, saying, “From a dead man, as from one that is not, confession perisheth.” Whence there is this saying, “When a sinner shall have come into the depth of evil things, he despiseth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 69.18
… as is written in another Psalm, “From the depths I have cried to Thee, O Lord; Lord, hearken unto my voice.” But if there is done in him that which another passage of Scripture saith, “When a sinner shall have come into the depth of evil things, he will despise,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 115.12
… for if they choose to live from themselves, they shall die, as it is written, “From the dead, as though he were not, confession ceaseth.” But, “The dead praise not Thee, O Lord, neither all they that go down into silence” ( ver. 17 ). For the Scripture in another passage proclaimeth, “The sinner, when he cometh into the abyss of wickednesses, scorneth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 130.1
… Whoever hath understood himself to be in the deep, crieth out, groaneth, sigheth, until he be delivered from the deep, and come unto Him who sitteth above all the deeps.…For they are very deep in the deep, who do not even cry from the deep. The Scripture saith, “When the wicked hath reached the depth of evils, he despiseth.”
Socrates Scholasticus † AD 440 The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus 1.6
… And we, by stating these things, and unfolding the divine Scriptures, have often confuted them: but again as chameleons they were changed, striving to apply to themselves that which is written, ‘When the ungodly has reached the depths of iniquity, he becomes contemptuous.’
18:4
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 2.25
… ii. 9 ), and many other passages which lack their proper context. Let us ask our opponents then where these things are written, and when they are unable to tell, let us produce them from the Hebrew. The first passage is in Hosea, ( xi. 1 ), the second in Isaiah ( xi. 1 ), the third in Zechariah ( xii. 10 ), the fourth in Proverbs (
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 2.34
… The Hebrew Scriptures are used by apostolic men; they are used, as is evident, by the apostles and evangelists. Our Lord and Saviour himself whenever he refers to the Scriptures, takes his quotations from the Hebrew; as in the instance of the words
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.14
… Whence it is well said through Solomon, He that letteth out water is a well-spring of strifes ( Prov. xvii. 14 ). For to let out water is to let loose the tongue to a flux of speech. Wherefore, on the other hand, in a good sense it is said again, The words of a man’s mouth are as deep water (
18:6
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… Though hand join with hand unjustly, they shall not be unpunished. He that loveth life must be sparing to his mouth. Insolence goeth before bruising, and evil thoughts before a fall. He who closeth his eyes speaketh perverse things, and provoketh all evil with his lips.
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 11
… and he that utters a superfluity of words increases vexation; and he that is hasty with his lips falls into evil. For because of the unruliness of the tongue cometh anger; but the perfect man keeps watch over his tongue, and loves his soul’s life.”
18:9
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Trallians: Shorter and Longer Versions 7
Be on your guard, therefore, against such persons, that ye admit not of a snare for your own souls. And act so that your life shall be without offence to all men, lest ye become as “a snare upon a watch-tower, and as a net which is spread out.” For “he that does not heal himself in his own works, is the brother of him that destroys himself.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.34
… If then the strong hand of the worker carry not on to perfection the good things begun, the very slackness in working fights against what has been wrought. For hence it is that it is said through Solomon, He that is feeble and slack in work is brother to him that wasteth his works (
18:10
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 2
… Blessed the Branch Who became the Cup of our Redemption! Blessed also be the Cluster, Fount of medicine of life! Blessed also be the Tiller, Who became Wheat, that He might be sown; and a Sheaf, that He might be cut! [Blessed be] the Architect Who became a Tower for our place of safety! Blessed He Who so tempered the feelings of our mind,
18:12
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 76.1
… For I know that my master and Lord and God has said in the lowliness of His flesh: “Learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart,” and that before this He has sung by the mouth of David: “Lord, remember David and all his gentleness.” Again we read in another passage, “Before destruction the heart of man is haughty; and before honour is humility.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 14.13
… For that is true which is written, “Pride goeth before destruction, and before honor is humility;”
18:17
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Magnesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 12
May I enjoy you in all respects, if indeed I be worthy! For though I am bound, I am not worthy to be compared to any of you that are at liberty. I know that ye are not puffed up, for ye have Jesus Christ in yourselves. And all the more when I commend you, I know that ye cherish modesty of spirit; as it is written, “The righteous man is his own accuser.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 The Martyrdom of Ignatius 4
And these things he thus spake, and thus testified, extending his love to Christ so far as one who was about to
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 33
… My greatest wish is that I may be found free from wrong altogether; but if this may not be, at least to be converted from my crime; for this is the second best portion of the prudent. For if like the just man I do not become my own accuser in the first instance,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 2.7
53. Why do you fear to confess your sins to our good Lord? “Set them forth,” He says, “that thou mayest be justified.” The rewards of justification are set before him who is still guilty of sin, for he is justified who voluntarily confesses his own sin; and lastly, “the just man is his own accuser in the beginning of his speaking.”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 51.15
… Do that which you understand is most profitable for the time. “I prefer mercy,” it is said, “rather than sacrifice.” Are they not, then, rather Christians in truth who condemn their own sin, than they who think to defend it? “The just is an accuser of himself in the beginning of his words.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 An Exhortation to Theodore After His Fall 1
… “Let us then anticipate His countenance by our confession,” let us pour out our hearts before Him. For “thou hast sinned,” we read, “do not add thereto any more, and pray on behalf of thy former deeds;” and again “a righteous man is his own accuser in the first instance.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 29
… But since the sin is mine also, it is I who deserve to suffer the vengeance. For wishing to increase the crime he used the name of “Shepherd.” Thus then he stayed the wrath, thus he got the sentence revoked! So great is the power of confession. “For the righteous is his own accuser first.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 9
… “For” (it is said) “mine iniquity have I not hid” ( Ps. xxxii. 5 ); and again, “I will confess against myself my lawlessness unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart.” And “Declare thou at the first thy sins, that thou mayest be justified.” ( Isa. xliii. 26 .) And, “The righteous man is an accuser of himself at the first speaking.” (
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.13
… Listen to the same Evangelist telling us that “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We are then righteous when we confess that we are sinners, and our righteousness depends not upon our own merits, but on the mercy of God, as the Holy Scripture says,
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 2
xviii. 17 , LXX. and Vulgate. A righteous man accuses himself when he begins to speak.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 27
… Judgment also we take on ourselves; and even when it is against us, we turn it round to our own behalf; for we become our own accusers and condemn our sins: whence that scripture which says, “The righteous man accuses himself at the beginning of his speech.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 18.11
… Perhaps while you were humiliating yourself, you were hoping to hear from our lips this saying: “The righteous man is the accuser of himself in the opening of his discourse?”
18:18
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 228.12
… In this case, as it is written, “the lot causeth contentions to cease, and parteth between the mighty;”
18:19
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 51.18
… while yet, dearest brother, we ought to remember that it is written, “A brother that helpeth a brother shall be exalted;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Treatise Concerning the Christian Priesthood 1.7
… whereas there is no one to condole with us, or at least the number of such may be easily counted. Beware that we do not by separation incur much ridicule, and damage worse than ridicule. Brother aided by brother is like a strong city, and well fortified kingdom.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Concerning Lowliness of Mind 5
… seest thou a teacher’s carefulness? Hear too of loving affection of scholars towards their teacher, that thou mayest know that this was what made them strong and unconquerable—the being bound together with one another. For if “Brother helped by brother is as a strong city;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 A Commentary on the Acts of the Apostles 3
… But that in which I strive with all is this, that I love you, that I am wrapped up in you, that you are my all, father, mother, brethren, children. Think not then that any thing that has been said was said in a hostile spirit, nay, it is for your amendment. It is written “A brother assisted by his brother is as a strong city.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 9
… The strong if he be bound to the weak, will support him, and not suffer him to perish: and if again he be tied to the indolent, him he will rather rouse and animate. “Brother helped by brother,” it is said, “is as a strong city
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 19
Then he adds the perfect thing, love. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together,” which some (he says) do, and divide the assemblies. For “a brother helped by a brother is as a strong city.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 30
This is friendship; thus “brother aided by brother becomes a fortified city.” (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 9.115
… for, seeing that it is written, A brother helping a brother shall be exalted (
Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 3.5
… For he offers ( libat ) things prosperous to the Lord who keeps off things adverse from the afflicted. Whence it is written, “A brother aiding a brother shall be exalted.”
18:21
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Instructions to Catechumens 1.4
… and for what reason, says one, if this organ brings us such ruin, did God originally place it within us? Because indeed, it is of great use, and if we are careful, it is of use only, and brings no ruin. Hear, for example, what he says who spoke the former words, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 51
… how then durst thou in such sort draw nigh to God? Since in truth the tongue is the hand of them that pray, and by it we lay hold on the knees of God. Defile it not therefore, lest to thee also He say, “Though ye make many prayers, I will not hearken.” Yea, and “in the power of the tongue are death and life;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Answer to the Letters of Petilian, the Donatist 2.93
… So you too do not cease to murder us, who are just and poor (poor, that is, in worldly wealth; for in the grace of God no one of us is poor). For even if you do not murder a man with your hands, you do not cease to do so with your butcherous tongues. For it is written, ‘Death and life are in the power of the tongue.’
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Soul and its Origin 4.23
… who said, “If I should take my wings like a dove.” Moreover, if the rich man of the parable had a bodily tongue, on the ground of his exclaiming, “Let him cool my tongue,” it would look very much as if our tongue, even while we are in the flesh, itself possessed material hands, because it is written, “Death and life are in the hands of the tongue.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 73.22
… just as the devil said to God concerning Job, “Lay to Thine hand, and take away the things which he hath.” What is, lay to Thine hand? Put forth power. The hand of God he hath called the power of God: as hath been written in another place, “death and life are in the hands of the tongue.”
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 188
… Yet, in relation with women, very strict expressions are to be found; as, for instance, the words of the apostle “He which is joined to a harlot is one body” and of Jeremiah, If a wife “become another man’s shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted?” And again, “He that hath an adulteress is a fool and impious.”
St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 199
… Nevertheless, we have no canon subjecting him to the charge of adultery, if the sin be committed against an unmarried woman. For the adulteress, it is said, “being polluted shall be polluted,” and she shall not return to her husband: and “He that keepeth an adulteress is a fool and impious.”
18:1
The Hebrew here appears to differ from the Vulgate, and thus they have it word for word: He who according to desire (thus Aquila and Symmachus) seeks separated, in all existence, or wisdom shall mix himself; which first, the Chaldean thus translates and explains, he seeks desire separated, and mocks all counsel; the Syrian more clearly, he who in his silence thinks desirable things, mocks good doctrine, that is to say, He who follows concupiscence, mocks wisdom. R. Solomon: He, he says, who is torn away from God, not obeying his precepts, obeys base desires and perverse motions of the mind; and thus finally at all times he will be reproachable, that is, among the wise he will betray his shame. Thirdly, Baynus takes these of those who seek painted wisdom, so that they might display it; whence he translates, according to some desire rather than from the soul and good judgment he seeks, namely wisdom, when he is separated from wisdom; or, he who seeks some word separated or knowledge separated from true wisdom, he shall mix himself in all wisdom, that is, among all the wise he shall thrust himself with a certain ostentation, destitute namely of the virtue of the true wise man, by which he restrains his words, thinking humbly of himself. For thus true wisdom and false are distinguished, according to St. James, chapter III, verse 17: "But that which," he says, "is from above is wisdom, first indeed chaste, then peaceful, modest, persuadable, consenting to good things; but earthly, animal, diabolical, where there is zeal and contention;" which Solomon calls mixing himself with those who are wise. But the more ancient Rabbis expounded this of Lot, who torn away by his cupidity separated himself from Abraham, according to that: "And Lot chose to himself the region about the Jordan, and departed from the East, and they were divided one from the other," Genesis XIII, 11. But this verse looks to declaring his incestuous crime, which finally was divulged in all the assemblies of the Israelites and schools; for the Ammonites and Moabites, who had their origin from that wicked union, it was wicked to be admitted among the Israelites, according to that: "The Ammonites and Moabites shall not enter into the Church of the Lord," Deuteronomy XXIII, 3. Secondly, Aben-Ezra and Pagninus thus translate and explain: He who on account of desire (of wisdom) is torn away from his house or fatherland, so that he might attain wisdom, on account of the vehement desire with which he burns to obtain it, he shall mix himself in all wisdom, that is, he shall mix himself with all learned men, and shall have familiarity. And Vatablus: On account of love of his wisdom, he says, his student seeks to be separated, that is, all things despised he seeks to devote himself to wisdom alone, and is accustomed to mix himself in sound doctrine. The same subjoins another exposition, as if to say: He who through some vain or juvenile desire investigates separated things, and those which cannot be understood by men, separates himself from all true wisdom; so that against the vanity of those who are wholly occupied in trifles, the proverb is said. The former exposition is better, and agrees more with the following verse. Thus Baynus. Fourthly, Cajetan thus translates and explains, for appetite he seeks wisdom; in all statute he shall mix himself. Behold, he says, how unlike the Vulgate edition is from the Hebrew truth. A man separated in mind from common conversation shall seek, that is, perseveres seeking for appetite, that is, a manner of living according to his own appetite. For he to whom common conversation does not please, seeks continually some manner of living conformed to his appetite, and seeking mixes himself in all statute, revolves the codices of diverse statutes concerning diverse manners of living, if perhaps he might find, or draw some manner of living according to his desire: thus Cajetan. You see here, reader, how much those who depart from the Vulgate go astray in different directions, yet the Septuagint agrees with it most precisely, being both the most ancient and the most learned interpreters; who therefore, together with the Vulgate, read in the Hebrew תאוה taava, that is concupiscence, desire, more clearly and aptly, and therefore more truly as תאנה taana, that is occasion. Again תושיות tuscia, which the moderns translate as wisdom, they themselves translated better as existence; for all existence is the same as all time, as the Septuagint and our version translate it. Moreover, the same translators render it as reproachable, because in the Hebrew they read ייהגעל iitgaal, that is it shall be reproached, or it shall be a reproach; now by metathesis they read יחברע iitgalla, that is he shall mingle himself in quarrels, shall cast reproaches, shall reproach. Whence thus also reading correctly, our version and the Septuagint render it reproachable, not passively, but actively, that is, one who reproaches and casts reproaches. Thus incredible is often taken in Scripture actively for incredulous; persuasible, for persuasory, I Corinthians II, 4; desperable for desperate and one who causes despair, Jeremiah XV, 18. Finally, even if you read everything in the Hebrew as it is now read, you rightly accommodate that reading of the Vulgate and Septuagint in this way: He who for desire, that is for his pleasure, seeks separated, namely to be, that is to depart from a friend, he in all existence, that is in all things and at all times shall reproach, that is, shall cast quarrels and reproaches at a friend. The Arabic agrees with the Vulgate and Septuagint, which translates: a rich man who wishes to divide his friends seeks occasions, and at all times shall be reproaching. The sense therefore is, as if to say: He who is weary of a friend and friendship and wishes to dissolve and separate it, either on account of inconstancy of mind, or because he thinks himself injured by a friend, or in order to seize the more useful friendships of others, lest he appear to renounce friendship rashly and without reason, and therefore unfaithfully or maliciously, seeks occasions, pretexts and causes, on account of which he may appear to do so justly, now blaming the friend's vices, now his own occupations, now other things: hence "at all times shall be reproachable" passively, that is disgraced and blameworthy both to the friend himself and to others, who shall assail his infidelity and tear him apart with reproaches; because when he himself, even if injured, ought not to have departed from friendship, yet he pretended causes without any occasion for anger, and for deserting the friend. Or rather he shall be reproachable actively, that is, he shall cast quarrels and reproaches assiduously at a friend, so that he may drive him from himself and his friendship; for this is what the Hebrew signifies, whether you read iitgaal with our version, or, as the moderns, by metathesis iitgalla. And thus also you may expound the Greek ἐπονείδιστος, which the Septuagint have, actively, so that it is the same as reproachful, contumelious, casting reproaches. For the latter hemistich seems to explain the former, namely to teach that the occasions of dissolving friendship which the unfaithful friend seeks are quarrels and reproaches which he casts assiduously at a friend. Truly it is an old proverb: "Injury dissolves loves;" which nevertheless an excessive and mad lover contends is false, while in an epigram he thus sings: It is a fable which they boast, that injury dissolves loves: For thus this madness rather rekindles itself. Solomon speaks, as I said, of an unfaithful and wicked friend. Yet a similar reasoning applies to an equitable and faithful friend. For he, wishing to send away a friend because he is vicious and harmful to himself, seeks occasions by which he may do so opportunely and conveniently, lest he make the friend or others hateful to himself, and stir them up against him: for all sudden things are violent, and therefore hateful, especially if they happen inopportunely. Whence the old saying was: "Friendships are not to be broken, but to be loosened." Thus Samson, impelled by the instinct of God seeking a Philistine wife, sought an occasion for breaking peace with the Philistines and shaking off their yoke, Judges XIV, 4. Thus the king of Israel, seeing that the king of Syria had sent to him Naaman the leper to be cured of leprosy, said: "Take heed and see that he seeks occasions (of breaking the covenant and waging war) against me," IV Kings V, 7. The a priori reason is that opportunity is the fitting time for action: hence in undertaking and completing a business it has the principal importance, as I have shown elsewhere. From this Festus defines opportunity thus: "It is a fitness of time arising by chance." But Cicero, in book I of On Invention, says: "Opportunity," he says, "is a part of time, having in itself a suitable fitness for doing or not doing something." Wherefore the prudent in any matter, and especially in establishing or dissuading friendship, seek a fitting opportunity and fitness; for from fitness depends the success of the matter according to one's wish, and the prosperous effect of action, and a happy outcome. The truth of this opinion is manifest in daily experience, and especially in heretics, who, inasmuch as they are weary of antiquity, or by their own malice, seek separation from the Church, they allege anything whatsoever, exaggerating and slandering the minutest things, and assailing and traducing all things before the people, inculcating in all their sermons scarcely anything else than the vices of the Ecclesiastics, into which they continually rage. To this pertains the fable of the fox and the cock among the mythologists: For the fox, having found an opportunity of seizing the cock, accused him that by vociferating at dawn he disturbed his sleep and that of other animals. The cock excused himself. Nay rather, said he, by my voice I rouse you and all to awaken, and to seek food and prey. To which the fox: Be that as it may, said he, I must dine, and I shall not depart from you unfed; wherefore he suffocated and devoured the cock. Similar is the story of the lion who accused a deer, because entering a lake to drink, he made the water turbid with his feet, and attacked and ate him. Mystically the Author of the Greek Catena: "Opportunity," he says, "or pretext he calls in this place sins; but friends are the holy ones, to whom he was joined through the cultivation of virtues. Moreover, he shall be held perpetually bound by reproach, who lives destitute of their friendship and stability." Thus in this age Henry VIII, King of England, in order to plunder the sepulchre of St. Thomas of Canterbury, to whom he himself a little before with all England lived bound by the bond of devotion and benefits, rich in gems and gold, not only erased him from the roll of friends, but also from the list of Saints, with a sacrilege unheard of for ages. And in order that this might seem to be done justly, he prosecuted him as rebellious to Henry II, guilty of treason, and a sentence being passed in the tribunal condemned him, as Sander relates at length in book II of On the English Schism: by which deed he brought upon himself the eternal hatred and reproach of God, Angels and men. In a similar way the sinner on account of friendly pleasures, riches and desires renounces the friendship of God and the Saints, and couples himself with the society of the devil and the world, whose punishment and reproach therefore shall endure perpetually in hell. Such ones tacitly and in fact say that word of the impious in Isaiah, chapter 28, 15: "We have made a covenant with death, and we have made an agreement with hell. The scourge overflowing, when it shall pass, shall not come upon us; because we have set our hope on a lie, and by falsehood we are protected." To whom therefore God threatening with a scourge: "Your covenant with death," he says, "shall be abolished, and your agreement with hell shall not stand; the scourge overflowing, when it shall pass, you shall be trodden down by it." Moreover, the occasions which the impious, in order to renounce the friendship of God and the Saints, pretended, Christ recounts in the parable of those invited to the wedding, in Luke 14, 18: "And they began," he says, "all at once to make excuses. The first said: I have bought a farm, and I must go out and see it; I pray thee, hold me excused. And another said: I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to try them. And another said: I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Where see St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom and the other Interpreters. These St. James justly rebukes, chapter 4: "Adulterers," he says, "know you not that the friendship of this world is the enemy of God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of this world, is made an enemy of God." See what I have noted there.
18:2
The Hebrews have it, the fool will not wish to understand words of understanding, except in revealing his heart, that is, unless you reveal those things which he himself turns over in his heart. Aquila, the senseless will not wish in prudence, that is prudence, supply, to hear and to learn. It is a Hebraism; for the Hebrews construct words of contact, such as to hear, with the ablative, by means of the preposition in. The Septuagint, wisdom has no work, or rather has no use (for χρεία signifies this, and to this corresponds the Hebrew לא יחפץ lo iachpots, that is, will not wish) wisdom of a mind destitute; for foolishness is led more than wisdom; but the Chaldean, the fool will not wish understanding, but his mind dwells in foolishness; the Syriac, the fool does not love wisdom, because his heart thinks foolishness; Vatablus, the fool is not delighted in understanding, but only in those things which he turns over in his own heart. From these versions therefore, first, you may draw out this plain sense, as if to say, The fool does not love, nor does he receive sensible and prudent words, "because they seem foolish to him on account of a contrary habit," says Lyra; but only vain, light, carnal and foolish things, such as he himself loves and turns over in his mind; because his heart is full of these, according to that: "The sensual man perceiveth not those things that are of the Spirit of God," I Corinthians II, 14. Again, as if to say, The fool does not receive the wise sentences of teachers, but clings stubbornly to his own opinions which he has conceived in his heart; wherefore unless you say the same things which he himself feels, he will not hear you, but will reject you. For he is driven and blinded by foolishness, that is, by foolish desire and curiosity; wherefore he does not admit words of prudence and virtue. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks, Lyra, Hugh, Arboreus, Dionysius, Jansenius and others. According to this sense, unless is not taken as an exceptive, but as an adversative signifying but, only. Secondly, more strictly and more deeply, as if to say, The fool does not receive prudence, unless you speak and teach it through those things which he himself turns over in his own heart, unless namely you accommodate yourself to his rudeness and stupidity, so that with the inept you act as inept, and with the fool you become foolish. It teaches therefore that the teacher ought to act as if losing his wits with the foolish, and to play the fool. According to this sense, unless is properly taken as a note of exception. For from what he said, that the fool does not grasp words of prudence, he excepts one case, namely if you accommodate yourself to the fool: for thus through foolishness you will lead him from foolishness to wisdom. Therefore this maxim signifies first, that the fool is so depressed and fixed in his own foolishness, that he cannot rise to wisdom. Secondly, that the teacher, in order to teach wisdom to the fool, ought to conform himself, as far as is permitted, to his inept and foolish concepts, so that from those things which he himself grasps and loves, he may be gradually elevated and led to wisdom. Thus Christ clothed himself in our flesh, so that carnal and unwise men might be led to God and divine things; for he accommodated himself to their carnal senses; hence he taught through parables of weddings, of seed, of harvest, of tares, etc., which were known and familiar to the common people and the rude, and through these he shadowed forth, and as it were described in a gross and rude manner, heavenly and divine things, which otherwise men would not have understood, if they had been proposed by Christ naked in themselves, as they are. Imitating Christ, St. Paul, I Corinthians I, 18 and following, celebrates and preaches the foolishness of the cross of Christ: "For," he says, "that which is foolish in God, is wiser than men." And Galatians IV, 20: "I would wish," he says, "to be with you now, and to change my voice," so that I might stammer with you as with little ones and stammerers. Thus St. Ignatius, founder of our Society, taught us the practice of converting worldly and carnal men, saying: "In order to convert such men, let us enter with that which is theirs, but let us go out with what is ours," as if to say, At the beginning let us mix in discourse about worldly matters, which worldly men grasp; but from there let us conveniently lead the discourse to those things which pertain to the salvation of the soul, which is our end and aim. And St. Francis Xavier acted with the Indians and Barbarians as an Indian and Barbarian, with children he became as a child again, with soldiers he dealt about military matters, with farmers about agriculture, with merchants about merchandise; and thus becoming all things to all men, he gained all for Christ. Thus each one must be caught with his own bait, and taken with his own hook. Moreover, others explain this maxim differently: first, Rabbi Levi, as if to say, "The senseless man does not love prudence, unless when ignorance of the same and the mind opens up: then only does he judge that prudence has great force; but afterwards he is not stirred up to acquiring wisdom and impressing it upon his mind." Thus also Vatablus. Secondly, Cajetan translates it: the fool will not desire understanding; but if he does, it is to reveal his heart. And the sense is, that the fool does not strive to understand: but if he strives to understand, he strives for this purpose, that he may reveal his own heart, that is, to make manifest to others that he himself understands. Vain glory therefore is described as the end of the imprudent man, if he strives to penetrate something by understanding. But absolutely understanding of things, or of writings, does not please him. Thus Cajetan. Such are they who devise new opinions, and laugh at and reject the tried and sound opinions of the ancients; which is a mark of pride, equally as of folly. Baynus adds: He asserts, he says, that the fool does not seek wisdom for the love of wisdom, but only for ostentation, that he may reveal his heart, and that he may be held to be learned: for no other reason will he desire wisdom. For thus it is read in the Hebrew, except for the revelation of his heart. Thirdly, Cassian, Collation XIV, chapter XVII, reads thus from the Septuagint: there is no need of wisdom where sense is lacking; for folly leads more; and thus he explains it, as if to say: The way of virtue and perfection is not to be taught among the impious and unclean; for these are incapable of it, and they laugh at it and mock it, according to that saying of Christ: "Give not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest perhaps they trample them under their feet, and turning upon you, rend you," Matthew VII, 6. These senses are not to be disapproved, nor are they incongruous to this place.
18:3
In Hebrew, when the wicked man comes, contempt also comes, and with disgrace (Pagninus, with a disgraced man) comes reproach; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, in the coming of the wicked man comes contempt; the Chaldean, when the wicked man comes in foolishness, there comes also disgrace and reproach; the Syriac, foolishness and reproach and calumny come upon him; the Septuagint agrees with the Vulgate; for they have, when the wicked man shall have come into the depth of evils, he despises; but dishonor and reproach come upon him. Therefore "into the depth of sins" is not in the Hebrew, but the Septuagint and our version understood it tacitly and supplied it. For it is tacitly contained in the word "wicked man." For the wicked man here is taken in the perfect or completed act. Therefore he is called wicked who has not fallen into sin once or twice from weakness or ignorance, but who sins continually from malice and impiety, so that he has already hardened himself in the callousness of sin, who indeed has come into the depth of sins. Now various men explain it variously: first, from the Hebrew Aben-Ezra: When the wicked man, he says, is brought into the light, at the same time with him contempt will come, by which he holds others in mockery: and to those despised, reproach will be present, by which he will assail them. But the sense is that reproach arises from contempt, just as wickedness is the occasion of wickedness. And R. Levi: When the wicked man comes, he says, contempt is also present at the same time; for it is customary for him to make light of others. But besides contempt and disgrace, by which he is marked on account of foul and disgraced actions, he will affix the same contumely to others: for the stains and reproaches with which he himself labors, he takes care to brand upon others also. So also Jansenius, Cajetan, Baynus explain it, as if to say: The wicked man despises upright men, and afflicts them with disgrace and reproach, imputing and affixing to them crimes to which he himself is bound, so that he may have companions in crimes and infamy by which he may cover himself and profit. Whence the Nazianzen in the Iambic Against Spectacles to Seleucus says that the wicked strive to rub their sin's scab on others, "so that having many companions in crimes they may cover their stains." And in Oration 28: "All the wicked, he says, are easily led to suspect their vices in others partly and partly to speak of them." But the sense of our Vulgate version and the Septuagint is clear and plain, as if to say: The wicked man, daily growing in impiety, and continually heaping one thing upon another and greater upon lesser, finally slips down into the abyss of impiety; when he has slipped down into it, now he despises all admonitions and admonishers, all crimes and reproaches, all nobility and shame (whence St. Athanasius, Sermon 4 Against the Arians, explains "despises" as having cast off shame), all losses and dangers, all divine and human laws, all sacred and profane things, and indeed all the heavenly beings and Angels and God himself, whose providence, nay whose essence and existence he finally denies, according to that Psalm 13, verse 1: "The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God." Whence Hugh explains: "He despises, he says, conscience;" Lyra: "He despises punishments;" again, he despises all correction, all pardon and all remedy. But shame and reproach follow him, by which on account of continual crimes he becomes infamous, nay the disgrace and reproach of heaven and earth, of men and Angels, and finally becomes the food of hell, the eternal mockery of demons. Furthermore, the wicked man despises all the things already mentioned, both because blinded by sins he does not see, nor does he esteem the losses threatening him from sin; and because enticed by the sweetness of sin he is wholly carried away into it. And so that he may sin more freely and pleasantly, he casts off, repels and despises the fear of any evil, which could call him back from sin. Therefore the depth of sins, into which he precipitates himself, is the cause of contempt. You will ask, what is this depth of sins, which drives the wicked man into contempt, and thence into reproach and destruction? Various men assign it variously: from all the various expositions arranged in order, I shall construct the degrees of this depth and abyss from the words and mind of the Fathers. First therefore, St. Chrysostom understands by the deep a habit of sinning: for this habit brings about a certain necessity of sinning, by which it comes to pass that a man, as if beside himself, is swept away into his concupiscences, to which he has of his own accord wholly enslaved himself: whereby it comes to pass that he spurns and despises all things which could turn him away from sin: just as pigs wallowing and filling themselves with mud despise all brightness and purity, and indeed delight in and feed upon mud and filth. Hear St. Chrysostom, in his epistle to Theodore, in which he raises him up, fallen into hope of pardon, if he beware of relapse: "Only," says he, "do not relapse, do not cut off great hopes, do not admit into yourself what happens to the impious. For never has the abundance of sins, however exuberant, been wont to cast into desperation, but to have an impious soul with them. For this reason Solomon did not say simply: Whosoever cometh into the deep of evils, despiseth; but he says expressly, the wicked man: because that disease is theirs alone, after they have descended into the deep of evils; and this is what does not permit them to look back, nor to return thence whence they fell. For shameful despair, like a collar, presses upon the neck of the soul, and compelling the eyes to be cast down to the earth, forbids them to look up to their Lord." Hear the same, homily 22 on Genesis: "The wicked man, when he has fallen into the deep of evils, despiseth; for it is grievous, it is grievous, beloved, to be caught in the snares of the devil: for the soul afterwards, as if caught in nets, is dragged along, and just as a pig is immersed in a mud-wallow, so also this one, buried under an evil habit, does not even perceive the stench of his sins." For habit is as it were a bed in which the sinner reclines sweetly and falls asleep, so that he seems to taste or perceive nothing else: nay, it is as it were a centre, in which he rests completely and is fixed. Whence the deep in Greek is βάθος, that is, the lowest depth, which in a circle, namely in a globe of the earth, is the very centre. First therefore, just as all heavy things are naturally borne to the centre, so the sinner accustomed and imbued with sin is swept away by a kind of natural impulse to sin; secondly, just as a stone rests in its centre, so also the sinner rests in the allurement of sin; thirdly, just as the centre holds things fixed to it, so the habit of sin holds the sinner, that he may persevere in it unto death and hell; fourthly, just as things in the centre feel no motion or impulse: so the sinner accustomed to sin feels no remorse of conscience, or impulse of exciting grace. Habit therefore is the first degree of sins, by which one descends gradually to the lowest deep and abyss. The second follows. Secondly, St. Athanasius, sermon 4 Against the Arians, understands by the deep the blindness of mind, which follows from the habit of sinning. For sin repeated continually more and more blinds the mind, so that it does not see what it does, nor discern evil from good, nay, it esteems the evil which it does to be good. Wherefore it despises all good contrary to it, according to that passage in Ephesians, chapter IV: "That you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their sense, having their understanding darkened, alienated from the life of God, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts, who, despairing of themselves, have given themselves up to impudicity, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness," etc. Third, others understand by profundity the hardening of heart, namely shamelessness, impenitence, contumacy and obstinacy in sinning. For the sinner, blinded by the habit of sin, is hardened in sinning, and becomes shameless, contumacious and obstinate, whence he scorns and despises all other things. Thus St. Isidore, book I of the Sentences, chapter XIV: "To perpetrate some crime, he says, is the death of the soul; to despise penance and to remain in guilt is to descend into hell after death. Therefore to sin pertains to death, but to despair pertains to descending into hell. Whence also Scripture says: The wicked man, when he shall come into the depth of sins, despiseth." And Gratian, On Penance, distinction 1, canon 60, from St. Gregory: "The wicked would have wished, if they could, to live without end so that they could sin without end. For they show that they desire always to live in sin, who never cease to sin while they live. It pertains therefore to the great justice of the judge, that they never lack punishment, who in this life never wished to lack sin." Gratian then adds: "Hence Christ in the person of his members says: Let not the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me. Which St. Augustine expounds saying: The pit is the depth of human iniquity, into which if thou fall, it will not shut its mouth upon thee, if thou dost not shut thy mouth; confess therefore, and say: Out of the depths have I cried to thee, O Lord; and thou shalt escape. The Lord will shut his mouth upon him who in the depth despiseth, from whom when dead, as from one who is not, confession perisheth. Hence the same Prophet says: Enter ye his gates with confession; showing that to the gates of mercy no one can attain save through confession of sin." Hence also St. Jerome in Ezechiel I understands by profundity of sins the loss of conscience and synderesis: "We see, he says, conscience precipitated in some, and losing its place, according to that which is written: The wicked man, when he shall come into the depth of sins, despiseth;" contumacy therefore is the third degree of sinners. The fourth follows. Fourth, St. Bernard, On the Degrees of Humility, understands by profundity the contempt of God, which hardening and contumacy produce. For a hard heart fears neither men nor reverences God. Thus he says, at degree 11: "After the tenth degree therefore, which is called rebellion, expelled or gone forth from the monastery, he is immediately seized by the eleventh. And now he enters the ways which seem good to men, whose end (unless perchance God shall have hedged them in for him) will plunge him into the depth of hell, that is into the contempt of God. For the wicked man, when he shall come into the depth of evils, despiseth." Thus also Hugh, gathering together many things: "The depth of sins, he says, can be called contumacy, obstinacy, defence, boasting, despair, presumption, blindness of intellect, corruption of affection." Where note the four dimensions of this depth. For height is boasting, when someone glories exultantly in his misdeeds as if they were good deeds; opposed to this, depth is despair of pardon and salvation; length is the habit of sinning, breadth is presumption concerning God's mercy. Fifth, Bede and St. Caesarius of Arles, homily 13 On Penance, understand by the deep despair, which is produced by hardness of heart and contempt of God. Hear Bede: "He who, wrapped in the long darkness of sins, once despairs of the light, now from despair despises, that is, loosens the reins of sin for himself on all sides; but such a one in no way escapes the reproach of future damnation, whom no memory of divine fear has restrained from the practice of his iniquity." Hear St. Caesarius: "From the multitude," he says, "of sins despair is born, and from despair without any reverence the reins of sins are loosened, and that which is written is fulfilled: The wicked man, when he shall have come into the depth of sins, despiseth." Hear also the Author of the Imperfect Work, homily 40 on Matthew: "A man, who commits a grave sin, since he no longer has anything which he might hope for in God, commits worse things, as Solomon says: When the wicked man shall have come into the depth of evils, he despiseth. For just as a sick man, as long as he has some moderate affliction and hopes that he can be cured, keeps himself from harmful foods; but if he understands himself to be incurable, he no longer spares himself: so also a man, as long as he sins moderately and hopes for salvation, guards himself from evil as much as he can; but if, sinning gravely, he begins to despair, he now doubts not to do anything, as one who already by his sins overcomes the judgment of God: the wretched man not knowing that, just as in good there are degrees of glories, and each one receives glory according to the measure of his good: so also in evil there are degrees of punishments, and each one will receive punishment according to the measure of his evil. For just as God is infinite in the retribution of goods, so is He infinite in the retribution of evils." Sixth and the deepest of the depths of sins is hell itself and the infernal life which despair produces. For the despairing live an infernal life, and live as demons and the damned; indeed they sometimes even see demons, and the place destined for them with them in Gehenna, as Theodoret saw, and Chrysaorius, and that man of Iconium in St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, XXXVIII. These finally, as lost men, despise all things, swear oaths, blaspheme and perpetrate abominable deeds. Gather now these degrees of sins, and from them construct a ladder, by which one descends straight into the depths: namely, the sinner descends from sin into the first degree of the deep, which is the habit of sinning; from it he descends into the second, which is blindness of mind; from it into the third, which is obstinacy; from it into the fourth, which is contempt of God; from it into the fifth, which is despair; from it into the sixth, which is Gehenna and infernal life. By similar but contrary degrees of virtues the just ascend on high, namely to the highest of the heavens: for from one virtue one ascends to another, thence to their habit, thence to the firmness of soul, thence to certain confidence of salvation, thence to constant love of God, thence to perseverance and perpetual union with God, thence to God and the enjoyment of God in heaven, according to that: "They shall go from virtue to virtue, the God of gods shall be seen in Sion," Psalm LXXXIII, 8.
18:4
For stream in Hebrew is נחל nachal, which signifies both a river and a torrent: some wrongly translate it as a pool. Aquila translates it as φλέψ, that is, a vein. For overflowing in Hebrew is נובע nobea, which the Septuagint translates as ἀναπηδῶν, that is, it gushes forth. In many codices it is ἀναπηδών, that is, leaping forth; Theodotion, ἀνομβρῶν, that is, overflowing; Aquila and Symmachus, ἀναβλύζων, that is, bursting forth. Whence the Chaldean translates, deep water is the mouth of a man, an overflowing torrent is the fountain of wisdom. The Septuagint of the Romans and Complutensians, deep water is the discourse in the heart of a man; but a gushing forth river and a fountain of life. Yet for life, with the Hebrews, the Vulgate, the Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and all the others, it seems that wisdom should be read. Whence the Author of the Catena of the Greeks thus clearly reads and explains from the Septuagint: "The doctrine which is contained in the heart of a just man is as it were deep water; the same is as it were a gushing forth river and a fountain of life. Knowledge, such as cannot be comprehended by the mind, lies hidden in the breast of a man walking according to God, which in this place is called a fountain of life, elsewhere a river of peace. Or what he says tends to this: When anyone keeps the word of wisdom in the depths of his heart, and does not communicate it with anyone, there is produced in him a gushing forth river, that is, great and deep. But a fountain of life can sometimes produce a river from one word alone." Otherwise: "A gushing forth river is of such a kind as irrigates the subject land, and abundantly inebriates it, and prepares it for fertility and abundance." Hence it is clear that by a man here is understood one who is prudent and wise; for, as Rabbi Solomon says, the Hebrew איש isch, that is, man, in Scripture signifies one who is strong and vigorous, and on account of prudence and fortitude, great and excellent. Some from the version of the Septuagint of the Romans and Complutensians think that here the words of the wise are compared to three kinds of waters, namely first, to the deep waters of a river; secondly, to an overflowing torrent; thirdly, to a gushing forth fountain, as if to say: One of the wise pours forth abundant and flowing discourse like a great river, as once St. Jerome called St. Hilary "the Rhone of Christian eloquence"; another rolls forth his discourse like a stream; another finally emits words like a fountain. Thus Plutarch in his Life of Pericles attributes to Demosthenes a river of oratory, accommodates to Isocrates a stream, ascribes to Aeschines a fountain. Thus among Christians St. Chrysostom rolls forth abundant and copious discourse like a river, the eloquence of the Nazianzen imitates a stream, and finally the discourse of Basil represents a perpetually flowing fountain. Again, one and the same wise man according to the variety of place, time and persons now pours himself forth copiously and gravely like a river, now temperately like a torrent, now submissively like a fountain. Concerning which St. Augustine, in book IV of On Christian Doctrine, chapter XIX: "And yet," he says, "although the teacher ought to be a speaker of great things, he should not always speak of them grandly, but submissively when something is being taught, temperately when something is being censured or praised; but when something is to be done, and yet we are speaking to those who ought to do it, and yet do not wish to, then those things which are great should be spoken grandly, and in a manner suited to bending minds." If it be otherwise, it will be permissible to say what Theocritus said of Anaximenes speaking, as attested by Stobaeus, discourse 34: "A river of words begins, a drop of mind." But because the Hebrew, the Chaldean, Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and all the others, indeed even the Septuagint in the Catena of the Greeks, make this sentence bipartite, as I showed a little before, and for fountain of life have fountain of wisdom, and remove the καί, which the Septuagint of the Romans and Complutensians insert between river, or torrent and fountain; hence the genuine sense is, that the latter hemistich explains the former, and assigns its cause and origin, as if to say: Words flowing forth from the mouth of the wise are like the deep water of a river or torrent: because the heart of the wise is like a vein, or a fountain of wisdom deep, which constantly flows with wisdom, just as a fountain constantly pours forth water, which gradually collected makes a torrent or river. For the reason why the words of the wise are abundant and deep is because they flow from a heart deep and full of wisdom, as if to say: The deep mind of the wise brings forth deep wisdom like a deep, abundant and perennial fountain. For just as in the Alps we see springs gushing forth abundant waters, from which collected together arise the Rhine, the Inn, the Rhone and other rivers; and in a similar manner from Mount Parnassus arise the Bactrus, the Choaspes, the Araxes, the Tanais and the Indus, as Aristotle says, lib. I Meteor. cap. I (indeed in the Alps I have seen waters collected from the highest mountains rushing down into the valleys below with great abundance and roar, and there producing torrents and immense rivers, which swallow up men, horses and chariots, especially in winter): so likewise the mind of the wise man is a vein and a perpetual spring ever bubbling forth wise discourses, which are therefore so abundant and deep that they now appear to be torrents and rivers of wisdom. Thus Sirach explains Solomon, Eccli. XXI, 16: "The knowledge of the wise shall abound like a flood, and his counsel remaineth like a fountain of life." Therefore the words of the wise man and of wisdom are compared to the deep waters of a river or torrent: but the heart, or mind, is compared to a vein or spring, from which these waters gush forth. First, because just as a river flows from a spring, so the words of the mouth flow from the heart. Hence a spring is called from pouring forth, as Festus says, because it pours forth waters. It is also called a vein. For just as a vein is the receptacle of blood, and is called from coming, because blood comes from it and flows through it into the whole body: so also from a spring like a vein comes water, and flows through the lands and fields. In Greek a vein is called πλεθεῖν, that is to overflow, because it is full of blood or water and overflows. What therefore a vein or spring is to a river, that the heart is to the mouth and words, namely their origin and source, as if to say: The words of the wise man are not born in the mouth, but in the heart, because they flow from the depths of the heart, and thus from the abundance and depth of the heart they flow forth like a river gushing from a spring and flowing perpetually. Secondly, just as a spring never dries up, but perpetually pours forth waters: so the heart of the wise man perpetually pours forth the doctrines of wisdom, as if to say: The words of the wise man are like the deep water of a river, because they gush forth from a deep and perpetual spring, which is the heart. Thus Aben-Ezra: "The words of the wise man," he says, "are like deep waters, which are clear; for in the same way that a torrent continually gushes forth water, so the source of wisdom in a wise man cannot be exhausted." Thirdly, just as the waters of a river or torrent, flowing from a perpetual spring, are abundant, and therefore deep: so also the doctrines of the wise man flowing from a wise heart are abundant and deep. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: the words of the mouth of a man are like deep waters, and the fountain of wisdom is like an overflowing river; that is, as Vatablus says, just as deep water cannot be exhausted, so neither do the words of a wise man ever fail. Indeed, as R. Levi says, it is not easy to grasp their force and end, nor to penetrate their mysteries. Fourthly, just as from a spring as much water flows out as flows in from elsewhere: so also the heart of the wise man, the more it pours forth, the more it receives: for the more flows out from it, the more remains that can flow out from it, as R. Levi says. Fifthly, a spring first fills its own basin, then pours forth the overflowing water and shares it with others: so also the wise man first imbues his own mind, then that of others with wisdom, according to that saying of St. Bernard: "Let the teacher be a basin, not a channel," which retains no water, but pours out all that it receives. Sixthly, just as a river has broad waters above, which it shares with all, but deep waters below, which none but divers penetrate: so also the wise man shares common things with all, but reveals the mysteries of wisdom to few, so that with St. Paul he gives milk to the little ones to drink, and speaks wisdom to the wise in mystery: thus Bede. Seventhly, just as waters flowing from veins and springs percolate through the hidden windings, passages and meanders of their courses, so that they may lay aside their bitterness, saltiness, thickness, or other defect; so also the words of the wise man percolate through various meditations, considerations and examinations of the mind and reason, so that, before they reach the mouth, they may lay aside all bitterness, turbidity, anger, and lack of harmony, and may be sweet, pleasing, prudent, etc. Moreover, just as the waters of springs, while passing through the veins of gold, silver, iron, vitriol, sulphur, etc., imbibe the power of these minerals, so that they heal calculus, dropsy, inflammations, etc., as the springs of Puteoli, Spa, and Aix do: so likewise the words of the wise, passing through the veins of meditations on humility, patience, gentleness, charity, and fervor, drink in the power of these virtues, and become humble, patient, gentle, benevolent, fervent. Eighthly, just as a spring from a small opening gently pours forth a modest amount of water, which by continuous outflow grows and increases into a river: so likewise the teacher of wisdom gently teaches wisdom through modest precepts, lest he overwhelm the unlearned disciple by their multitude and weight, but gradually instilling more and more into him, he finally imbues and fills him with all wisdom like a river. St. Gregory of Nazianzus represents this same thing by an elegant comparison of violent rain or a downpour, and gentle rain or a drizzle, oration 15 On the plague of hail: for a violent storm flattens the crops and quickly ceases, but gentle rain nourishes the crops and lasts: the same is true of excessive and moderate teaching, or harsh and gentle doctrine.
18:5
In Hebrew, to cast down the just in judgment; the Chaldean, neither to decline from judgment against the just; the Syriac, neither even to pervert judgment in favor of the just; the Septuagint, to admire the person of the wicked is not good, nor is it holy to decline the just in judgment. For "accept" in Hebrew is שאת seet, which Cajetan translated as "to lift up the person"; the Septuagint, "to wonder at" or "to regard"; Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, "to take"; our version, "to accept"; others, "to bear" or "to carry." All come to the same meaning. For whoever reverences, regards, lifts up and admires the person of the wicked because he is powerful, or rich, or a friend, or magnificent, he accepts and elevates his suit and cause as if it were more equitable and better, and conversely depresses and condemns the cause of the just against the wicked man justly litigating in judgment. Whence Rabbi Levi: "It is wicked," he says, "that account be taken of the criminal in judgment, so that the innocent man's cause falls through the judgment being disturbed; for if the judge honors the wicked man in judgment, it happens that the just man's mouth is stopped, so that he cannot respond opportunely, since he persuades himself that the judge's mind favors the wicked party opposing him in judgment." This crime is grave, first, because it overturns justice, which is the foundation of the commonwealth. Whence St. Ambrose on Malachi: "Among all," he says, "the sins of priests, that is the greatest, in which they consider not causes but persons, and despising the just poor man honor the unjust rich." And St. Bernard, book II of Consideration to Pope Eugenius: "Do not think yourself guilty of a small sin," he says, "if you regard the faces of sinners, and do not rather judge causes by their merits; for it is a vice, from which if you feel yourself free, among all whom I have known of those who have ascended the seats of judgment, you will sit, in my judgment, alone, because you have truly and singularly lifted yourself above yourself. Of this most cunning little fox I have found none of the great who have sufficiently guarded against her tricks." Second, because it perverts the judgment of God and Christ, whose vicar the judge is and whose office he exercises; for God and Christ show themselves equal and the same to all, both poor and rich. "And the heavenly grace," says St. Cyprian, book I, epistle 1, "he divides equally to all without distinction of sex, without discrimination of age, without acceptance of person." Wherefore, as St. Jerome says on Amos: "Whoever is led in judging by kinship or friendship, or conversely by hostile hatred or enmities, perverts the judgment of Christ. For he is the supreme judge, and therefore all judgment pertains to him; wherefore the other judges, when they judge in the place of Christ, if they pervert justice, they pervert the judgment of Christ." Third, because they give grave scandal to the whole commonwealth, and cause men to study avarice and injustice, which they see honored and preferred by them, rather than modesty and justice, which they see postponed and depressed by them. See the words of James II, verse 1.
18:6
In Hebrew, the lips of the fool come into strife (or with strife), and his mouth shall call upon blows; Aquila, they lead him into strife; Symmachus, into quarrel; the Septuagint, the lips of the fool lead him into evil, and his bold mouth invokes death. The Hebrew word ריב rib signifies first, strife; second, quarrel; third, judgment. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, the lips of the fool bring him into judgment, and his mouth leads him into quarrel; and the Syrian, the lips of the fool enter into judgment, and his mouth brings him to death, that is to say, The fool by his imprudent, forward, cursing speech, by his reproaches, calumnies and mockeries, brings it about that he is summoned to court by him whom he has injured, and there is condemned by the judge to a fine, and subsequently to death. The sense of our Vulgate version, which has most excellently expressed the force of the Hebrew phrase, is, that is to say, The fool, whenever he hears strife and quarreling, immediately runs up out of levity, curiosity and foolishness, and mingles himself in it, ostensibly indeed to make peace between them, but in reality to increase the quarrels and stir them up against himself. For since he is imprudent, he easily blurts out something that stings the quarrelers and sharpens the strife. Again, since he is led by his passions, he easily inclines to one side, and favors its cause; wherefore he provokes the other side against himself. Moreover, since he himself is petulant, contentious and quarrelsome, he delights in quarrels, and either stirs them up or promotes those already stirred up, so that at last they can scarcely be calmed. For it is a matter of great wisdom and dexterity to settle disputes and quarrels. For this work requires that one mitigate and compose both parties, both the offending and the offended, with equal and fitting reason; which is difficult. For if one defends the right of the offense and accuses the offender of injury, one will irritate him more. Again, it is difficult to stand between two in such a way that you do not incline to either side, but show yourself indifferent and impartial to both: wherefore to accomplish this is the part not of a fool, but of a prudent man. Thus we see rash, bold and pugnacious men rush to quarrels, just as flies rush to honey, and thus kindle them with the destruction of themselves and others alike. "The fool," says Lyra, "incites quarrelers to greater brawls, like one who incites dogs to bite one another." For brawls in Hebrew is מהלמות mahalumot, that is, blows, beatings, strikings, just as a smith striking with a hammer beats the anvil. Whence Vatablus renders it, his mouth provokes to fights; R. Solomon renders it, blows: "The fool," he says, "is a craftsman for himself to be beaten;" Aben-Ezra: "The fool," he says, "is brought into strife on account of blows and beatings, that is, because he has cried out to his companion to strike and afflict with blows. Wherefore his mouth will be his ruin, that is, he brings destruction upon himself." And R. Levi: "The mouth of the fool sows strife and discord, since it utters nothing but calumnies and insults, and likewise brings upon himself heavy blows and beatings, by which a man is destroyed," and which bring slaughter and death, as the Septuagint renders it, both to himself and to others.
18:7
For ruin in Hebrew is מחתה mechitta, which signifies both terror and contusion and fracture. Whence Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion render it, πτόησις, that is, fear; the Chaldean, dread; the Zurich Bible, the mouth of the fool is a terror to him, that is, he creates for himself terrible anguishes, dangers and punishments. For ruin in Hebrew is מוקש mokes, that is, a snare, as the Septuagint, the Chaldean, Pagninus, Vatablus and others render it; the Syrian, he ensnares himself with his own lips; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion render it σκάνδαλον, that is, a stumbling block, such as is a snare in a mousetrap, which when the mouse overturns it carelessly, it dashes itself in the mousetrap and suffocates itself. Similarly the talkative fool acts. This verse coheres with the preceding one and explains it, that is to say, The mouth of the fool provokes brawls, and, as it is in Hebrew, blows both to himself and to others: so that he himself by his mouth, that is, on account of the foolish and quarrelsome words of his mouth, is beaten and bruised, and on account of those things which he has rashly and inconsiderately blurted out with his lips, he prepares ruin to his "soul," that is, his life; or to his "soul," that is, to himself, and a snare by which he may be caught and strangled both in body and in soul, according to that saying: "A mouth that lies kills the soul." Thus Lyra. Otherwise Cajetan: The mouth of the fool, he says, is his ruin, that is, it ruins, breaks and destroys itself, while, in order to defend the false and foolish things which it has blurted out, it is forced to assert contradictions; by these therefore it ensnares and entangles itself, from which it cannot extricate itself. Similar to this maxim is that one in Psalm 13, 3: "Contusion and unhappiness are in their ways," active namely, that is to say, The wicked are wholly bent on bruising others with them, and afflicting them with unhappiness or calamity; because "they have not known the way of peace," because namely they have hated the way that is peaceful, quiet and calm. And that one here in chapter 14, 3: "In the mouth of the fool is the rod of pride." And that one in chapter 17, 11: "The wicked always seeks quarrels; but a cruel angel shall be sent against him."
18:8
For the bilingual in Hebrew is nirgan, that is, a whisperer, a flatterer, a murmurer, one who praises openly and detracts secretly and sows discord, a slanderer and defamer, who carries infamy from one to another. For simplicia in Hebrew is mitlahamim, which name is found nowhere except here and in chapter XXVI, 22, where the Septuagint translates it as "words of flatterers" (in Greek κερκώπων, that is, tailed ones, those who flatter with the tail) soft; but these strike the inner parts of the bowels; Aquila, "words of the whisperer deceiving"; Symmachus, "words of the murmurer spoken in passing"; Theodotion, "words of the cunning as if simple"; R. Emmanuel, "as if bland." Recent scholars consider mitlahamim to be placed by metathesis for mithallamim. Whence Cajetan, Pagninus and others translate it as "words of the whisperer as blows, or as wounds" (for halam indeed signifies to strike, to shake, to bruise); R. Solomon, "they are as bruises and blows"; Vatablus, "they are as of the wounded, that is, of those who feign themselves struck and wounded, that is, they are mild so as to deceive"; Pagninus from the Arabic language translates it as "words of the bilingual as if absorbed or hidden." Thus also Aben-Ezra: "they are," he says, "as if hidden and involved words, words, I say, of the deceiver"; the Chaldean, "words of the whisperer afflict him with sorrow, and lead him down into the depths of hell"; the Syriac, "words of the evildoer cast him into evil"; the same lead him to the mansions of the underworld. First, R. Levi, translating nirgan, that is, the bilingual, as a slanderer, explains it thus: The discourse of the slanderer, who complains without cause, and though he has suffered no injury laments, is fashioned according to the manner of those who present themselves as wounded and maimed, so that they might more easily stir up the pity of others toward themselves. These words therefore are so grave to those against whom they are pronounced, that they penetrate the hidden things of the mind, and the mind is vehemently troubled on account of them: for it is most grievous if one is charged with having said or done something base, of which he is altogether innocent and unaware. Second, the Septuagint for nirgan, that is, bilingual, translates κερκώπων, that is, tailed ones, that is, cunning ones, such as flatterers are. The author of the Catena of the Greeks thinks allusion is made to foxes, which by their κερκόν, that is, tail, cover their ὤπα, that is, face, so that they feign sleep, and by that means allure simple birds to themselves, and capture and devour them: for cunning ones and flatterers do similar things, so that they might seize and destroy others. Others think allusion is made to dogs, which fawn with their tail upon their masters, so that they might extract food: thus flatterers fawn upon the rich, so that they might extract their wealth. Others believe allusion is made to tailed apes, which are therefore called cercopitheci, according to that saying of Martial: "If I had a tail, I would be a cercopithecus." For just as apes imitate the gestures of men, so flatterers imitate the gestures and manners of friends, as Plutarch testifies, in his book On the Difference Between the Flatterer and the Friend. The fable of the Aesopian ape is well known, which, when it had been deprived of its tail on account of its antics and mimicking gestures, so that it might conceal this disgrace of its own, or rather might turn its own shame into public honor, cunningly attempted to persuade the other animals to cut off their tails as a useless and unbecoming burden of the body, whence cercopizare is the same as to flatter. Thus Cælius, book XI, chapter XXXIII. Hence the proverb: "A gathering of cercopses," for an assembly of cunning and deceitful men. For they relate that the Cercopes were certain men of notorious fraud in Ephesus, who attempted by their deceits to impose upon Jupiter, whence they were also called Perperi, whom therefore when caught, Melampygus, that is, Hercules, the avenger, hanged, with their heads hanging downward. The words of the flatterer are simplicia, that is, they appear white, true, sincere, bland and mild, like oil; but they carry with them poison, which quickly penetrates the inner parts of the body and heart. For physicians relate that poison mixed with oil, carried by the mildness and slipperiness of the oil, immediately pervades the inner parts of the body. Truly St. Augustine in Psalm LIX: "False," he says, "is the praise of the flatterer and simulated affection softens rigid minds from the rigor of truth." Again, the words of the flatterer are "as wounds," that is, not truly wounds, but they appear as if they were wounds, because the flatterer, so that he might feign himself a friend, assumes freedom, and freely sometimes censures the vices of the friend to whom he flatters, but hypocritically, and therefore mildly and weakly censures. Thus Plutarch in the place already cited: "Never," he says, "do they flatter more than when they seem to rebuke, to strike and to speak freely." And again: "Just as the cushions of women, when they seem to resist and oppose the head, yield more and accommodate themselves: so the freedom of the flatterer swells indeed, but receives in itself the one who inclines." Thirdly, you may very well understand by "two-tongued," that is, bilingual, a detractor and a whisperer: for his words are like blows and wounds; because at first, while they are spoken simply, their detractors seem to be light bruises, indeed they seem to be words of "strikers," as if these faults of a friend strike their very heart, and wound them with compassion: but when they are exaggerated and amplified, they fix a sting in the mind of the hearers, which then being ruminated by them and considered repeatedly, penetrates the inmost parts of the belly, that is, of the heart and mind, so that they begin to make little of a friend, and finally disdain and pursue him with hatred, as if to say: It wounds, harms and pierces his inmost soul. Again, the words of a whisperer are "simple," that is, they seem sincere, naked, candid, proceeding from candor and love; but they derive malice of hatred, infamy and harm into the inmost parts of the heart. For while they pretend to narrate the faults of a neighbor from piety and compassion, they gain credence by their words, and fix them all the more in the mind of the hearer so that he believes them, and esteems him to whom he detracts as vile and infamous; wherefore their words, which seem simple, are truly blows and hammers which strike and bruise the inmost parts of the heart: for הלמות halmut is a hammer; whence mithallamim are hammeringss, or blows and bruises which are made with a hammer. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 24 in the Canticles: "Others," he says, "by a certain pretense of modesty, attempt to obscure the malice conceived, which they cannot retain. You would see deep sighs put forward, and thus with a certain gravity and slowness, with a sad countenance, with lowered eyebrows, and with a lamenting voice, a curse come forth; and indeed all the more persuasive, because it is believed by those who hear it to be brought forth with an earnest heart and with a more compassionate affection, than maliciously. I grieve," he says, "exceedingly for him, because I love him enough, and I was never able to correct him on this matter." See what follows. Siracides sings in harmony with Solomon, as is his custom, Ecclesiasticus XXVIII, 15: "A whisperer," he says, "and a two-tongued man is accursed; for he hath troubled many that were at peace," etc., where he assails this vice in many ways. And chapter II, 14: "Woe to the double-hearted and to wicked lips!" for the two-tongued are double-hearted like the partridges of Paphlagonia, which, as Pliny testifies, book XI, chapter XXXVII, have a double heart: in a similar manner whisperers have one heart in the breast, another in the mouth, while they think one thing and speak another: thus in turn they have one tongue in the presence of a friend, another in his absence, while they praise the one present and disparage the one absent. See the sayings in both places: for I do not repeat those here, lest I do the same thing twice.
Fear casts down the sluggard This verse is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Latin Complutensian and certain other versions; it exists however in the Roman: it is transcribed from the Septuagint, who expressed the following ambiguous Hebrew verse in a twofold sense, so that it could be translated in two ways. For the Hebrew mitrappe signifies both the sluggard and he who heals (as the following verse the Septuagint translate); otherwise this verse agrees with the following in matter and sense, and appears to be a paraphrase of it. For the sluggard is soft and dissolute, who therefore scatters his works, and is thus reduced to want and hunger. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Fear of labour dismays the sluggard, and makes him effeminate, so that like a woman he flees and dreads labour, and pursues idleness: wherefore through inertia he brings upon himself poverty and hunger. Whence the Author of the Chain of the Greeks: "A man, he says, who is a woman by will and inclination, shall never attain to virtue which nourishes the soul." For the effeminate in Greek is ἀνδρογύνων, as if to say, men-women, or those who degenerate from men into women: for androgynes are hermaphrodites, who have both sexes, female and male, so that the same person is at once man and woman, and therefore a half-man, effeminate, soft and pathic; such as in Africa, Pliny teaches, have the right breast masculine, the left feminine, lib. VII, cap. III; whence such monsters of nature, nay rather fatal monsters, Cicero calls them, lib. I De Divinat. And St. Augustine, lib. III De Genes. ad litt., cap. XXII, refuting those who think Adam was an androgyne, from the fact that Scripture says: Male and female he created them, thus says: "Lest anyone should think it was made so, that in a single man both sexes were expressed, as sometimes are born those whom they call Androgynes, he showed that he used the singular number on account of the unity of the conjunction." The sluggard therefore is an androgyne; because sluggishness makes effeminate, and makes from a man as it were a woman. Note here the companions and marks of acedia, or sluggishness, to be fear, softness, effeminacy. Hear Aristotle, lib. De Virtutibus: "Softness, effeminacy, torpor, love of life accompany idleness. There is also a certain timidity, and avoidance of contention." Whence also Iamblichus thus depicts idleness: "An unwarlike man in the habit and dress of a woman reclining on a cushion." The same Aristotle in Problem. sect. III, Quæst. V and XXV, gives cold as the cause of fear, which is also the cause of torpor: whence we see in winter the cold to grow numb, tremble and become torpid: on the other hand heat and warm spirit are the cause of magnanimity, agility and fervour. The same in Physiognom. cap. VI, gives the same signs of fear and torpor: "The signs of the timid, he says, are soft hair; body inclined, not erect; calves drawn up upward; about the face somewhat pale; eyes weak, and excessively blinking; and the extremities of the body weak, and small legs; long and slender hands; but small and weak loins; figure tense in movements; not rash, but supine and stupefied; a manner which is in the face mobile; sad." Now hear the harms of sluggishness and idleness through examples and similitudes. As through a crack in the bilge water secretly enters and increases, until the ship through the negligence of sailors is sunk: so from idleness and sloth depraved thoughts and concupiscences multiply, until the ship of the heart succumbing to them is endangered in sin, says St. Bernard, serm. De S. Andrea. Birds, which are prepared for feasts, so that remaining motionless they easily grow fat, are kept in darkness: so those lying without any exercise, a swelling invades the sluggish body, and in a proud shadow inert fattening grows up, says Seneca, epist. 121. As water, which lacks flow, and lies in ditches, rots, and becomes alien to human use, and is filled with poisonous and harmful animals: so also a body wasted by the decay of idleness produces the madness of carnal concupiscences, says Laurentius Justinianus, lib. De Perfectionis gradibus, cap. IX. Finally sluggishness and torpor is similar to the torpedo fish, and also to another which is called echeneis and remora; of the former indeed Pliny asserts, lib. XXXII, cap. I: "If it be touched even with a spear or rod, however powerful the arms, however swift the feet for running, they become torpid, as if by the odour alone and some aura of its body it affects the limbs." The echeneis however he says holds and stops ships driven by strong winds. "Though winds rush, he says, and storms rage, it commands the fury, and restrains such great forces, and compels ships to stand still; which no chains, no anchors cast with irrevocable weight can do. It checks the impulse, and tames the madness of the world by no labour of its own, not by holding back, or in any other way than by adhering. But armed fleets impose upon themselves the bulwarks of towers, so that even on the sea they might fight as from walls. Alas! human vanity! when those beaks armed with bronze and iron for blows, a half-foot fish can inhibit and hold bound." In a similar way sluggishness benumbs all the powers of the mind, all the members of the body, and great undertakings of the intellect, and like ships driven by wind, inhibits and stops them.
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For "soft and dissolute" in Hebrew is מתרפה mitrappe, which Aquila translated as νωχελευόμενος, that is, idle; Symmachus as στραγγευόμενος, that is, ceasing; Theodotion as ἀνειμένος, that is, slack; the Zurich Bible as "he who is cold in work, is brother to him who dissipates"; Vatable as "he who abandons his work is brother to the lord who loses," supply his resources. "Brother" is put for "like," because brothers are accustomed to be similar, as if to say: He who is negligent loses all that he has. Or "brother" is called symbolically: because each, namely both the soft one and the one who dissipates, is a son of carelessness, which does not look out for itself, but allows its things to be dissipated. For "dissipating" in Hebrew is בעל משחית baal maschit, that is, man of destruction: thus Cajetan; or man of laying waste, cutting down and losing, as if to say: He who does some work remissly, coldly and carelessly, does not so much do the work as destroy it, and thus is very similar to him who dissipates and demolishes the work done. Less properly Jansenius and some others translate it as man of bankruptcy or prodigal; for the Hebrew maschit properly signifies a devastator and destroyer, such as however in its kind is a bankrupt and prodigal, as if to say: Just as the prodigal loses his things through profusion, so the remiss loses his things through sloth and idleness. Therefore this maxim signifies that torpor, sloth and idleness do not advance the work begun to such a degree that they also dissipate and destroy what has been begun, both because the slothful does not preserve what he has worked and gained, but allows it to slip away and flow off; and because the work begun, unless it is completed, gradually decays, corrupts and is destroyed: for the beginning of a work depends on the middle and end, so that if it is deprived of these, it begins to fall. This is seen in buildings. For he who has erected walls and constructed a floor: if he neglects to put on a roof, by his negligence he causes rain, falling upon the walls and floor, to corrupt and destroy them. The same is seen in gardens and plants: for unless one constantly waters, weeds, prunes and cultivates them, they are corrupted, and instead of fruits they produce darnel, thorns and thistles: for every thing, in order to be preserved, requires cultivation. Hear Ovid, book V of the Tristia, elegy 12, demonstrating this through natural examples: "Add that genius harmed by long rust grows torpid, and is much less than it was before. If fertile ground is not renewed by constant plowing, the field will have nothing but grass with thorns. He who has stood idle for a long time will run badly, and among those released from the barriers will go the last horse. It turns into soft decay, and splits with cracks, if any boat has long been empty of its accustomed waters." Wherefore Cato in the Distichs thus prescribes: "Flee sloth, which is called the idleness of life: for when the mind languishes, inertia consumes the body." Therefore the slothful and torpid in work dissipate it, because what he works with one hand, he almost destroys with the other; for what he builds by his labor, he loses and tears down by his sloth and torpor. Wherefore such are similar to the web which Penelope wove, which what she had woven by day, she would unweave and unravel by night. Therefore this verse admonishes the same thing as the common saying: "It is no less a virtue to guard what is gained than to seek it." And it teaches that not only profusion, but also the negligence of a householder makes his household worse. Thus also the negligence of magistrates harms the commonwealth no less than any enemies. And the Church has been afflicted by the negligence and ignorance of bishops scarcely less than by the cruelty of tyrants, who have attempted to oppress it by arms. There exists a remarkable fable on this matter of Ocnus (for in Greek ὄκνος signifies sloth). For the ancients depicted Ocnus sitting in the underworld and twisting a rope; and standing by him was an ass, which immediately devoured whatever had been twisted by him: for ὄκνος is ὄνος, that is, the slothful one is an ass. Namely, whatever the slothful one does slothfully, that very thing sloth soon consumes and loses, whose symbol is the ass. Whence Propertius, book IV, elegy 3: "More worthy is he who twists the rope for crooked Ocnus, and may he eternally feed your hunger, little ass." Hence the proverb: "The slothful one twists the rope, Ocnus weaves the cord." Pausanias, book X on the Phocians, writes that Ocnus was industrious and laborious, but had a slothful wife, who consumed all her husband's gain. See Pierius, Hieroglyphics, book XII. Similar to Ocnus are today craftsmen, who what they earn during the week, on Sunday they consume by playing, drinking, and luxuriating. Thus what the long and hard labor of the man gathers, the flesh's little ass immediately devours. On Ocnus see Pausanias, Pliny, Varro, Plutarch. Furthermore this opinion is true in spiritual goods equally as in temporal. See St. Gregory, III part of the Pastoral, admonition 35. The Rabbis add that the brother of him who scatters is lazy, not only in his own works, but also in the whole world. For "his works" is not in the Hebrew, which has simply, "brother of him who scatters." For those who apply themselves to no honest study, but are idle, feast and indulge in luxury, so far as in them lies, strive to demolish and destroy the world. Thus Baynus. Mystically, R. Solomon: He who, he says, is negligent in the work and study of the law, and has given himself wholly to the profane philosophy of the Gentiles, he is the brother of maschit, that is, of him who lays waste, namely Satan. Finally, the Septuagint of Complutum and the Roman [Vulgate] translate: "he who does not heal himself in his works is the brother of him who destroys himself"; for the Hebrew מתרפה mitrappe, if it be derived from רפא rapha by aleph (for the letters he and aleph are often interchanged), signifies to heal, to cure. To heal one's works is to direct and moderate them so that there is no vice in them (for vice is to a work what disease is to the body), no excess, no defect, for instance so that they are done not sluggishly and torpidly, nor precipitously and rashly, but prudently and moderately. The author of the Catena of the Greeks from the Septuagint translates: "he who is not satisfied with his own works is like him who loses and scatters himself." And thus he explains it. The sense is: "He who spends his life in wickedness differs in nothing from him who destroys himself." But this sense is mystical; for literally, satisfaction with works is their moderation already mentioned. For he who performs them from virtue is satisfied with them; but he who is intemperate and immoderate is not satisfied with them, as may be seen in the avaricious, who work night and day, and consume the strength of body and mind in immoderate labors in order to become rich. For these men, like gain, are not satisfied with labor, and are insatiable. Parallel to this saying is that in cap. X, 4: "Poverty is wrought by the hand of the slothful; but the hand of the strong prepares riches." And cap. XII, 11: "He that tills his land shall be satisfied with bread; but he that follows idleness is a fool." And vers. 24: "The hand of the strong shall bear rule; but the slothful shall be under tribute." And cap. XXIII, 21: "Drowsiness shall clothe a man with rags." The counterpart is the parable of Christ concerning the talents, in which the master commands the lazy servant to have his talent taken away, saying: "To every one that hath (that is, uses, works) shall be given, and he shall abound; but from him that hath not (that is, uses not, works not), even that which he seems to have shall be taken from him," Matt. XXV, 29. Nor otherwise does M. Tullius, Tuscul. II, saying: "As burdens are borne more easily by bodies that are braced, so they crush those that are relaxed: in like manner the mind by its intensity drives away all weight of pressure, but by relaxation is so weighed down that it cannot lift itself up."
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Thus the Romans and others. Therefore some read less correctly, to the tower itself; although it can be translated thus from the Hebrew, and the sense comes to the same thing. For if the name of the Lord is a tower: therefore he who runs to it runs to a tower; and rustics and citizens are accustomed, when an enemy threatens, to flee to towers. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, and the just shall run in it, and shall be exalted in it; in Hebrew it is, tower of strength (Aquila and Theodotion, tower of power) the name of Jehovah; in it or to it the just shall run and shall be exalted; the Syriac, and he shall be strong; the Zurich Bible, beyond the range of missiles. Aben-Ezra translates and explains the Hebrew בו ירוץ bo iaruts in two ways: first, in it shall he run, that is, by the aid of the divine name shall he run; second, in it shall he crush his enemies; for if you derive iaruts from רוץ ruts, it means shall run; but if from רצץ ratsats, it means shall crush. These two roots, however, are often interchanged with each other, as is evident from Judges IX, 53; Ecclesiastes XII, 6; II Kings XXIII, 42, and elsewhere. He alludes to the custom of the ancients, who in cities and villages erected towers, to which, as to fortresses, they fled when an enemy attacked. Such was the one at Rome on the Capitol; whence when the city was captured by the Gauls, the Capitol saved Rome and the Romans. Hence learned men think Burg is derived from the Greek πύργος, that is, tower, because in Burgs there were towers like fortresses. Now from Burg the Germans call citizens Burgers, the French Bourgeois; hence they were called Burgundians, because they dwelt in Burgs, that is, fortified places, namely towers and fortresses, on account of the frequent incursions of the Vandals, Goths, and Alans. Such was the tower of Babel, Genesis XI, which gave its name to the city of Babylon, concerning which St. Jerome in Isaiah chapters XIII and XIV says: "The fortress, he says, and Capitol of the city is a tower built after the flood." Solomon therefore says that, just as the Romans in every attack of enemies fled to the Capitol, the Babylonians to the tower of Babel, the Burgundians to the Burg: so the just run to God by invoking him, as to the impregnable Tarpeian fortress, and an inviolable asylum, from which they not only defend themselves, but also wound and crush the enemies by casting missiles down upon them, as Aben-Ezra translates. Therefore, just as he who flees to a tower is exalted in its height: so also he who flees to God most high is exalted in him and through him. Again, "shall be exalted," that is, shall stand like a soldier in his post and station; for soldiers on garrison duty are accustomed to keep watch in towers, and from there to fight and attack enemies. Whence they are also called sentries. For he who is in a tower is higher and superior to others who are on the ground, and from on high despises enemies and all other things, because one man himself can stop and repel a hundred enemies climbing up the narrow passage. The Septuagint translates, from the magnificence of strength (another interpreter reads, from the magnitude of works) the name of the Lord; and the just running to it are exalted. Which the Author of the Greek Catena renders clearly thus: "From the magnificence and excellence of strength the Lord is named (or the name of the Lord is the magnificence of strength), and the just, who run to him, are exalted." Which the same author then explains thus: "God all-powerful and of great virtues is called Lord, and he makes such those who join themselves to him: but by the name of the Lord, the knowledge of God is sometimes also signified. To it the just shall run, etc., that is, by a right and blameless life they approach God; but by contemplation they are exalted by him. Or what is said tends to this: From created things, and their magnitude and beauty, the omnipotence and magnificence of God is known and magnified." Thus the Author of the Catena more mystically than literally. You will ask, what is the name of the Lord, to which the just man fleeing is exalted? I answer, it is manifold: First, the Rabbis grammatically take the name Jehovah, which is in Hebrew. For this was among the Jews as it were the proper name of God, as is evident from Exodus VI, 3, which when invoked protected and defended them. This also is the tetragram, and with four letters as it were with sides represents a square tower; this finally is surrounded and fortified by the names Adonai or Elohim, which are accustomed to be joined to it, as by a rampart. Secondly, more fully and more deeply, by the name of God understand God himself represented by his name; for often a name signifies the thing named by metonymy, as when we pray daily: "Hallowed be thy name," that is, do thou thyself, O God, cause thyself to be sanctified and celebrated by all, so that thy majesty and holiness may be known and adored by all. Thus St. Augustine in Psalm LXIV, 4, explaining that which is said of God: A tower of strength from the face of the enemy, speaks thus: "Christ has been made for us a tower from the face of the enemy; beware lest thou be struck by the devil; flee to the tower. Never have the devil's darts followed thee to that tower; there thou shalt stand fortified and fixed. Before thee is the tower; remember Christ, and enter the tower. Whatever thou sufferest, think that he suffered first; and think to what end he suffered, that he might die and rise again. Hope for such an end for thyself as preceded in him; and thou hast entered the tower." Thirdly, by name understand the strength and omnipotence of God; for the name of God is omnipotent, all-powerful, most strong, God of Israel, etc.; whence the Septuagint translates, the magnificence of strength is the name of the Lord, as I said a little before. In a similar sense, signing ourselves with the cross we say: "In the name (that is in the virtue) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost," supply: I begin or do this work. Fourthly, the name of God is God's aid and protection. Thus Christ says, John cap. XVII, 11: "Holy Father, keep them in thy name," that is preserve them under thy protection and guardianship, as Theophylactus and Euthymius say, according to that Psalm XC, 1: "He that dwelleth in the aid (as it were in a tower and most fortified citadel) of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven." Where see St. Bernard. Fifthly, the name of God is the naming and invocation of God by his name, that is to say Prayer and invocation of God is as it were a most lofty tower, to which in any tribulation the just flee and are exalted, because with mind elevated to God, in him as it were exalted they dwell free from every enemy, secure from any adversity, superior to earth, citizens of heaven, members of God's household. Hear St. Chrysostom, lib. II On praying to God: "As a city which is not surrounded by towers and walls easily comes into the power of enemies: so also a soul not fortified by prayers the devil easily brings into his dominion, and without much trouble fills it with every kind of wickedness. But to a soul fortified by prayers he does not dare to approach nearer, fearing the strength and fortitude which prayer supplies to it." He alludes to the station of soldiers in towers, from which the Church took the name of stations. For thus she calls the appointed days dedicated to prayer and fasting, on which as it were in station the faithful keep watch, and contend against the devil and other enemies. Whence Tertullian, lib. On Prayer, at the end, says that the station should be ended upon receiving the body of the Lord: "Will not thy station," he says, "be more solemn if thou shalt also have stood at the altar of God? If station took its name from a military example (for we too are soldiers of God), surely no joy or sorrow occurring to the camp breaks the stations of soldiers," so that on account of good or sad news they descend from the station, that is to say Thus neither should Christians abandon the station of prayer and fasting, whatever cause joyful or sad may occur. Finally, the name of God is the name Jesus; for this is the proper name of the incarnate Word, which the salvation which it signifies it bestows on all who flee to it as to a tower, according to that: "Neither is there any other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved," Acts IV, 12. See St. Bernard, serm. 15 in the Canticles. See also what I have said concerning this name Philip. II, 10; Num. XIII; Habacuc III, 18.
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We heard the first half of this verse in chapter X, verse 15, where I explained it. The latter part the Hebrews have thus, and a wall exceeding high, במשכיתו bemaskito, which Pagninus and Baynus translate, in his imagination, that is, as Vatablus says, "he himself imagines his riches to be in place of a most strong city and a very high wall;" Cajetan, in his carvings; R. David, in his picture; others, in his chambers; others, in his sight; R. Solomon, in his inner chambers; the Chaldean, as if a wall elevated is his dwelling; the Syrian, his dwelling is in strong walls; the Septuagint, but his glory doth very much overshadow; concerning which hereafter. Hence R. Levi and Aben-Ezra think this verse is opposed to the former, as if to say: To the just the name of the Lord is a tower of strength, which protects him, so that he cannot be overcome by any adversities: but to the rich his city and tower of strength are his riches; but with this difference, that to the just the name of the Lord is truly a tower of strength, but to the rich his riches are not truly, but only in his opinion and persuasion a city of strength. For he thinks himself to be safe from adversities through them, and to be exalted by their aid, just as the just man is by the divine name. The just man therefore has in God a true asylum and bulwark, the rich man in riches only a fictitious, painted and imagined one. For he himself fashions and paints this in his mind, which nowhere exists; wherefore at the least onset of adversity it is scattered and vanishes like a spider's web, according to that of Isaiah LIX: "They have woven the webs of spiders; their webs shall not be for a garment." This therefore is the first sense, in which bemaskito signifies in his imagination. The second is that in which Cajetan translates, in his carvings; R. David, in his pictures, as if to say: The rich man, when he walks about in his chambers skillfully carved, esteems himself secure and happy, just as if he were surrounded by very high walls. Or, as R. Abraham: "And he reckons a carved wall elevated, even as gold and silver, with which his house is full." The same adds that it can be translated, and as a high wall in his sight, as if to say: The rich man has his gold constantly in his sight, that is, he continually beholds it as a wall, in which his hope, salvation and protection rests. Another expounds it thus, as if to say: Just as he who stands in a high place, if he looks downward, is seized with vertigo of the head, by which turned about he falls of his own accord downward and is dashed: so the rich man, driven by his riches into pride, by reason of the weakness of his head and senses, rushes headlong and is swept into destruction. Thirdly, our author translates bemaskito, in his covering, from the root סכך sacach, that is, he covered, he protected; whence he translates, surrounding, that is, covering, fortifying, protecting him, as if to say: The rich man, while he sees himself covered and girt about with riches, thinks himself to be covered and fortified by a strong wall. Finally, the Septuagint translate bemaskito, in his overshadowing; whence they translate, but his glory doth very much overshadow. Which first can be taken thus, so that it agrees with the Vulgate, as if to say: "It overshadows," that is, it covers, surrounds and protects the rich man with the glory and pomp which he procures for himself by his riches. For while clothed in splendid garments, attended by servants, carried in horse or chariot, he proceeds in state, he seems to them to be surrounded and protected on all sides, nay even to overshadow, cover and protect others. Whence the Author of the Catena of the Greeks renders this verse from the Septuagint thus: "Riches to a rich man are in the manner of a bulwark and a fortified city; meanwhile glory and majesty are, by which they very much defend and adorn them." Secondly, the overshadowing can be referred to painting; for painters overshadow small and obscure things, so that shadows by opposition make great and clear things appear more clearly in colors, and thus the whole art of painting consists in shadows and colors rightly mixed and aptly arranged; nay and natural shadow is the image of a body: whence painters learned to paint images from shadows: "The shadow of a man drawn about with lines, which afterwards a broken potsherd first enabled Cleophantus the Corinthian to color," says Pliny, book XXXV, chapter III. Therefore the overshadowing signifies first, that riches are not a solid good body, but only a fleeting and evanescent shadow. What is more empty and fleeting than a shadow? but riches and the pomps of the world are shadows. Secondly, riches by their shadow and appearance overshadow and deceive the eyes and minds of men. For just as the shadows of bodies in the morning and evening are greatest and far greater than the body: so the appearance of riches is far greater than the reality; for they display something great and blessed, when they contain nothing of the sort, as is evident to the dying in death, and to the Blessed in heaven: for there indeed as in full light and the noon of happiness, all shadows of opulence and happiness, shadowy and earthly, are put to flight, according to that of Canticles II, 17: "Until the day break, and the shadows decline." Moreover, Pliny also, in book II, chapter X, asserts that "night is nothing other than the shadow of the earth." And soon after: "Therefore the boundary of these shadows is the limit of the air, and the beginning of the ether. Above the moon all things are pure, and full of perpetual light." Thirdly, painters, says our Salazar, when they wish to depress something, paint shadow, but when they wish to elevate it, they color it; for great shading depresses, small color elevates, that is to say, the rich man covers the greater goods, that is the spiritual and eternal, with the shadows of ignorance or passions, and illuminates other parts, namely the perishable and temporal, with brilliant colors; for this reason these appear higher to him, and those lower. Otherwise the just and pious man elevates these spiritual goods, which are in themselves greater and more worthy, with the illuminations of colors and pigments; likewise the temporal and perishable things, which are in themselves smaller and lighter, he covers and depresses with added shadows. Mystically Bede says: "Earthly substance, he says, cannot always defend; indeed many are captured or killed on account of riches. Whence also Ecclesiastes V says: Riches kept to the evil of the master thereof; for they perish in the worst affliction. It is therefore better understood that substance is praised by virtues, of which whoever abounds, as with an impregnable wall, wards off all the snares of enemies." Our Alvarez de Paz adds, in book IV On Perfection, part II, chapter XXI, who understands by substance the perfection of virtues, which protects and guards man against all vices, demons and all evils, and assigns the cause: The presence, he says, of the Lord dwelling in and protecting the soul, is the cause of this security. But in what does this security consist? Certainly in this, that the perfect man has cast down grave sins according to the measure of his life and progress, has extinguished vices, has cast down disordered affections, and has now subdued them conquered to reason and divine will. And placed in a certain loftiness of life, there is no reason why he should fear those things which disturb those who consist in the depths. He has treasured up treasures in heaven, that is in the most exalted purity of life, which bears the likeness of heaven, where no thief appropriates, nor moth corrupts, and therefore he fears neither thieves, namely external adversaries, nor moth, namely internal concupiscences of evil things, and dreads them not. For why should he tremble at the war of avarice and the possessing of temporal things, he who for the desire of perfection and love of poverty has despised all things, and scarcely admits to his body the most meager food and vile clothing necessary? Why should he fear the poisonous hiss of his own flesh, he who, in order to subject it to the empire of the spirit, tames it with every kind of harshness and afflictions, and frequently denies it even lawful things, lest it desire unlawful? Why should he dread the encounter of his own will, and the appetite for honors and dignities, he who flees even the smallest sign of honor, and dreads to follow his own will even in some small matter, as the most pestilent plague?
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In Hebrew, before breaking the heart of a man shall be exalted, and before glory humility; Symmachus and Theodotion, and before glory meekness; Vatablus, before glory comes abasement, that is to say, the proud are humbled, and the humble are exalted. The author of the Catena of the Greeks from the Septuagint thus translates it: a man's heart is not exalted before it is depressed and broken, nor does it obtain glory before it is humbled. St. Jerome, epistle 32, reads: Before glory the heart of a man shall be humbled, and before ruin it is exalted. This verse is repeated from chapter XVI, verse 18, where I have explained it, to which add that someone explains it thus morally, that is to say, a man is afflicted and broken because he has exalted himself through pride; whence in order that he may be freed from evils and return to his former prosperity, it is necessary that he humble himself. Most excellently St. Bernard, sermon 54 in the Canticles: "It is necessary, he says, to think humbly of oneself while striving for higher things, lest while one exalts oneself above oneself, one falls from oneself." And a little later: "Unless by the merit of humility, the greatest things are not obtained at all." To this pertains the proverb of the Arabs, century 1, number 3: "If you do not know how to ascend by a ladder, you will not walk upon a roof," that is, if you cannot humble yourself and submit to being led, neither will you be a leader. For those who cannot contain themselves under the dominion of others are not usually promoted to dominion; because no one rightly acts as master who has not first served as a servant, so much so that servitude is the way to empire, just as a ladder is to a roof.
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Because he answers hastily about the matter about which he is questioned, impertinently about another, or exposes himself to the danger of answering, lest when asked about beans, he answer about onions, as is commonly said. In Hebrew, he that returns a word before he hears, it is folly to him and shame; the Septuagint, it is impudence to him and reproach; the Chaldean, confusion; Vatablus, he is affected with shame and confusion. Following Solomon, Sirach says, Ecclesiasticus XI, 8: "Before thou hearest, answer not a word, and in the midst of discourse interrupt not to speak," where I have fully explained the sense of both maxims; wherefore I shall add nothing here.
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As if to say, No one, unless very patient and meek, says Lyra. For one easily moved to anger, in Hebrew it is נכאה nechea, which first, Theodotion deriving from נכה nacha, that is, he struck, translated as struck: "And the spirit," he says, "struck, who shall bear it?" Second, others deriving from כאה kaa, that is, to grieve, to be sad, to be infirm, translate it as grieving, sad, infirm; the Syriac, struck with grief. Third, the Septuagint translates it as ὀλιγόψυχον, that is, of small mind, or pusillanimous; the Chaldean, abject. Fourth, the Zurich Bible, affected by passions, which Our author translates as easily moved to anger. Fifth, others, disturbed, troubled, darkened, to whom the light of joy has been taken away through sadness or anger. First, Aben-Ezra thus explains it, as if to say, The spirit, that is, the soul, of a man shall bear his infirmity, and shall water his body: that one, namely, which filled with the possession of wisdom patiently endures sorrows; for this is the man who, excelling in fortitude, does not suffer his mind to be overcome by sorrow, but whatever happens, he receives with a cheerful mind prudently; but the spirit nechea, that is, the mind cast down, and succumbing to sorrow and anger, on account of the vanities of this age, while it cannot obtain them, who shall bear it? And R. Levi: If the mind itself, he says, is so vexed by disease that it succumbs and languishes, what shall restore it? for there is nothing by which it can be repaired. Whence also Vatable translates it, the spirit of a man shall bear his infirmity, but the spirit struck, who shall bear it? and thus explains it, as if to say, "The spirit of a man easily bears the infirmity of his body; but the infirmity of the spirit, that is, his own, he cannot, that is, if the mind be ill, there is no one who can heal it." Second, Cajetan thus translates and explains it, the spirit of a man shall bear his infirmity, and a contrite spirit who shall bear him? And thus explains it: The disparity between the evils of the spirit (evils as it were congenital, or born from within) and the evils of the same proceeding from without is described by this, that those are tolerable, but these are intolerable. Assimilating therefore the evils born from without to intrinsic infirmities, he says that the spirit of a man shall endure his own infirmities (namely, pusillanimity, hasty anger, and other such infirmities of the mind), but a spirit contrite by another (that is, not only struck and broken, but also as it were crushed by ignominies, contempts, mockeries, and other injuries) who shall endure it? as if he had said more openly: It is intolerable, not that it is altogether intolerable, but because it can very hardly be tolerated. Third, some translate it in the nominative: "A spirit easily moved to anger, what shall be able to sustain it?" as if to say, The spirit of a man, that is, manly, easily tolerates his own infirmity; but a pusillanimous spirit, which at a slight blow or word grows angry and bursts into rage, can tolerate nothing or very little adversity. But all the others translate it in the accusative: "A spirit easily moved to anger, who shall be able to sustain it?" For the Hebrew מי mi signifies who, not what; for it is an interrogative of a person, not of a thing. Fourth, the Septuagint by spirit understand anger; for the angry breathe forth from their nostrils a spirit or abundant breath. By weakness they understand a weak, vile and abject servant. Whence they translate, The anger of a man a prudent servant mitigates; but a man of small mind, who shall bear? as if to say, The anger of a man of sense, prudent and magnanimous, shall be calmed by his prudent servant through his counsel and eloquence: because a man allows himself to be led by reason and prudence; but the pusillanimous, who can endure nothing, but bursts into rage at anything, who shall bear? for he is not driven by reason, but by anger and impatience continually. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena infers: By these it is openly shown, he says, that cowardice and abjection of spirit is worse than anger: for indeed an angry man, even a domestic servant, even if he have no power, nor great freedom of speech either, shall have placated him in the course of time; but truly one broken by cowardice and fear of labor shall not at all. Fifth and genuinely, "the spirit of a man" is a manly, generous, magnanimous spirit, and therefore vigorous, joyful and cheerful; this one easily endures and bears any infirmity both his own and that of another, as if some very robust giant; but a pusillanimous spirit, which if even touched by a needle, grows angry and bursts into rage, is so unable to tolerate and bear anything, that he himself is both to himself and to others, even to the generous and robust, unbearable and intolerable: "Because, as Bede says, he who is easily moved to anger, cannot even bear himself, so that when angry he often says things which, when he becomes calm, he repents of, and often does not even know that he said them." Note, τὸ spiritus viri sustentat, in Hebrew יכלכל iekalkel, that is, bears, carries, sustains. For it alludes to porters, who, when they are of strong spirit and breath, carry weighty and heavy burdens; because, as Aristotle says in the book On Respiration, the measure of strength and vigor for carrying burdens is spirit and breathing: for the more vehemently and prolongedly a man breathes through his nostrils, the more robust he is for carrying burdens; but the more thinly and briefly he draws and exchanges breath through his nostrils, the more infirm he is, and the weaker for bearing burdens. Fittingly therefore Solomon says "the spirit of a man," that is, manly, strong and steadfast, brings sufficient strength to bear any infirmity. For the spirit of a man is a manly and magnanimous soul, indeed it is virtue itself, strength and magnanimity. Whence St. Ambrose, book I on Luke, on that passage concerning St. John the Baptist: For he shall be great before the Lord: "There is," he says, "before the Lord greatness of soul, greatness of virtue. There is also smallness of soul, and childishness of virtue, etc. John therefore shall be great not by bodily virtue, but by greatness of soul: small in the world, great in spirit." To this pertains that passage of Seneca, epistle 66: "He is magnanimous who bears all the burdens of diverse things with rigid neck, who stands above fortune. It is no wonder not to be shaken in tranquility; marvel at this, that someone is exalted there where all are depressed; that he stands there where all lie down." And again: "The magnanimous man stands upright under any weight, nothing makes him less; nothing of those things which must be borne displeases him, and whatever can befall a man, he does not complain has befallen him." And Pliny, book XVI, chapter XLIII: "As the branch of a palm tree," he says, "when a burden is imposed, does not bend to the ground as do others, but resists, and of its own accord raises itself against the weight of the load: so the soul of a strong man, the more it is pressed by affairs, and the more fortune rages, the more upright it is," and says to you: "Do not yield to evils, but go against them more boldly." Whence Lyra thus expounds, as if to say "The spirit of a man," that is, the goodness of heart sustains its own weakness on the part of the body, because it sometimes accomplishes more than one having a strong body and weak heart. Whence St. Gregory, homily 12: "The strength," he says, "which ignorance denies, charity supplies." The contrary happens in the pusillanimous; for these do not bear the burden of a straw, but immediately collapse, grow sad, complain, become angry. Whence St. Basil, homily On Giving Thanks: "Just as," he says, "worms are born in softer wood, so impieties of souls are born in softer minds of men." And St. Chrysostom, homily 38 on the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Just as healthy bodies, if they live on bread alone, are fat and vigorous; but sickly ones, even from a sumptuous and varied table, become more infirm: so it is accustomed to happen in the souls of men; the pusillanimous, even if they should obtain a diadem and immense honors, cannot return to themselves, but philosophers even in chains, in fetters, enjoy pure pleasure." Thus Christ sustained and overcame the weakness of the flesh in his passion by the strength of spirit. Whence he says: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak," as Bede says, who also adds: "It can also be understood of any holy man, who sustains the weakness of the flesh, lest it yield in temptations, by the strength of mind," as all the holy Martyrs, Confessors and Virgins did. "For torments consecrate the Martyrs of God, and in the very trial of passion sanctify them," says St. Cyprian, book IV, epistle 1 to Rogatianum. Thus St. Paul says: "When I am weak, then am I powerful," II Corinthians XII, 10. Thus the spirit of St. Francis sustained his flesh exhausted by penances and labors, so that even on the way he would take upon his own shoulders and carry with alacrity the great burdens of travelers out of charity, as St. Bonaventure says. Thus St. Paula sustained bodily sicknesses with strong spirit, as St. Jerome testifies in her Life. Moreover, the source and author of this manly spirit is the Holy Spirit: "He it is," says St. Ambrose in the Symbol, "who not only drives out sadnesses and sorrows and evil shameful thoughts, but also grants us the memory of God, so that we may rightly say with David: I was mindful of God, and was delighted. And again: I will be mindful of Thy wonderful works, Psalm LXXVI. He it is, who coming to us who believe rightly and work well, driving out darkness and straits and pusillanimity of heart, and illuminating us with His light, mingles with our sense the sense of Christ, so that we think upon our life which is hidden in Christ, and consider in the eternal and coming ages what our state shall be; following the Son of God Jesus, who penetrated the heavens, and sitting at the right hand of God, and existing in every place, leaves nothing empty of His presence." And this is the a priori reason for this opinion. For just as we draw breath by breathing, which adds to us strength and vigor to bear burdens: so likewise by breathing and invoking the Holy Spirit, we draw spirit, vigor and strength of mind to bear infirmities and any adversities strongly, according to that in Romans VIII, 26: "The Spirit helpeth our infirmity." Again, just as force is that which bears weight: whence as great as the force is, so much weight can it bear; if small, small; if great, great; for any weight whatsoever requires forces commensurate to itself in the bearer: so likewise the force of mind is its spirit and strength, which bears infirmities both bodily and spiritual, both its own and those of others: whence as great as the spirit is, so much weight of infirmities can it bear; if great, great; if small, small; so that, just as Atlas is feigned by the poets to be of such great strength that he sustains the machinery of the heavens upon his shoulders, according to that of Virgil, Aeneid IV: Of hard Atlas, who holds the heaven upon his head. So let a great spirit be as it were an Atlas sustaining all hard and bitter things, which either the earth suggests to him, or God pours down upon him from heaven, so that he is moved not at all by wind or rain. Finally, we see great burdens and ships laden with merchandise lifted by wheels and pulleys from the small strength of few men, as when sailing on the river Antwerp towards Brussels, I beheld great bridges lifted and raised by a boy through them. So also by a lever greater burdens are lifted than are the strengths of those lifting them, which we see daily, and the method Vitruvius teaches in book X, chapter VIII. Aristotle gives the cause in the Mechanical Questions, Question III, that the lever is as it were a balance balancing, and thus alleviating any weight; for it makes the mover stand farther from the center of the weight, and thus it as it were balances and suspends it, and therefore moves it more easily, as Nicholas Leonicus clearly explains there. See also more fully commenting on the Mechanics of Aristotle, Bernardino Baldo of Urbino, who also rightly notes that the sayings of Aristotle are to be limited to one having a fulcrum, or when between the lever and the weight to be lifted by the lever a fulcrum is in the middle, upon which the lever rests; for then the fulcrum is as it were the center, in which both the moving force and the moved weight are balanced and suspended, and therefore then the fulcrum makes as it were an equilibrium of both, otherwise not. The same cause is, says the same Aristotle there Question IV, why those who are in the middle of the ship, the rowers, move the ship most, because the oar is a lever. And why by a small rudder great masses of ships are moved, because the rudder is a lever." In like manner it happens in the spirit, namely we see greater things borne and carried by it than are its forces, if a wheel, pulley or lever of peculiar grace, equally as of prudence and skill, be employed. For prudence is skill in finding ways, practices, reasons and considerations, by which the weight of sadness or adversity is alleviated. So we see, if to an afflicted or melancholic person some fine saying, or reason suited to his nature, and savory to his palate, be uttered, straightway he is relieved from affliction and melancholy, if not freed, certainly lightened. Tropologically, "the spirit of a man" that is, the firmness and stability of mind, is that which strengthens a man to undertake virtue, and comforts him to overcome contrary vices; but if at the least temptation arising he straightway becomes angry, and loses heart before sadness and pusillanimity, who will not be irritated against him, who desists from good at so light an occasion?
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15. A PRUDENT HEART (Syriac, a clean and pure heart) SHALL POSSESS KNOWLEDGE: AND THE EARS OF THE WISE SEEK DOCTRINE. — Syriac, hearkens; Septuagint, the heart of the prudent possesses understanding; but the ears of the wise seek thought. In Greek ἔννουν, that is, expected reason; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, knowledge or doctrine, as the Vulgate. For in Hebrew the same word דעת daat is used for knowledge and doctrine; Vatablus, a prudent heart acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise applies itself to understanding. Aben-Ezra connects this verse with the preceding one, meaning: A spirit shattered and prone to anger does not attain wisdom; but the mind of the prudent man, bearing his affliction patiently, shall be filled with knowledge by means of his prudence. "And the ears of the wise," etc., meaning: The wise man, bearing what has happened with equanimity, shall diligently apply himself to learning. In this book, knowledge, doctrine, prudence, understanding, wisdom, and sense are the same, or nearly the same, as I have already often noted: namely, by all these is signified practical knowledge or prudence directing all the actions of man according to the norm of honesty and virtue. The conjunction and is causal, signifying because; for the latter hemistich gives the cause of the former, meaning: A prudent heart acquires and by acquiring possesses wisdom, because his ear seeks and investigates the same; for he hears teachers and the wise, and hearing them from them, he ponders them in his mind and stores them up. For in these two ways wisdom is acquired and possessed, namely, by diligent hearing and by studiously meditating upon it; see what is said at chapter I, 5, on that passage: "He that heareth the wise shall be wiser." The ears therefore are like a ferret, which tracks a hare or rabbit hiding in its burrow, and forces it to come forth; but the mind is like a dog, which seizes, occupies and possesses the hare as it comes out. To possidebit signifies first, that wisdom is the possession and peculiar property of the mind and spirit of the wise man; second, that it is most dear to him and held in the highest esteem; third, that it cannot be taken from him against his will by anyone, as external goods are taken from an enemy by a foe. Thus Lyran.
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16. A MAN'S GIFT MAKETH ROOM FOR HIM: AND BRINGETH HIM IN BEFORE GREAT MEN. — In Hebrew, a man's gift maketh room for him, and before the great it shall lead him; in Chaldean, the gift of the son of man enlargeth him, and before princes sustaineth him; in Syriac, setteth him; in the Septuagint, the gift of the son of man enlargeth him, and before princes causeth him to sit. For gift in Greek is δόμα, which the Royal and Complutensian editions wrongly translate as house; for δόμος signifies house, but δόμα signifies gift. First, the plain and genuine sense is, as it were: A gift given or sent beforehand to the doorkeepers and chamberlains, or rather to the king or prince himself, prepareth access for him who gave it, and spreadeth as it were a broad way to the king or prince, so that it may lead him before him, and maketh for him space, that is, place and opportunity of meeting the prince; nay, it maketh space for him before him, so that namely in his court and presence he may dwell, as it were the king's minister and official, or courtier and familiar. Thus Rabbi Levi: "When indeed," saith he, "one must approach a great man on account of his business, if he shall have bound him beforehand with gifts, the way shall be plain and open, by which access to the same may be granted, so that he may provide what was desired, and obtain his favour and grace in every way. Note: That a gift enlargeth signifieth first, it provideth broad access; secondly, it granteth to him broad freedom and licence of living and acting; thirdly, it leadeth him from narrowness or prison to a wider place, saith Aben-Ezra. Just as therefore forerunners, for example, Swiss guards, removing the crowd, prepare a broad way for the coming Pontiff or King to walk: so gifts, removing impediments, make a broad way for the giver to those to whom he sendeth gifts. The reason a priori is, that love expandeth the soul of the beloved, and forceth it to love in return the lover; but love and benevolence are seen chiefly in beneficence and gifts, these therefore allure the recipient's soul, expand it, and force it so that the recipient may love the giver in return, and show himself to him benevolent, nay beneficent and liberal in turn. Thus Jacob, sending gifts beforehand, prepared a way for himself to Esau his brother, and reconciled him to himself when hostile, Genesis cap. XXXIII. Thus Barlaam, feigning that he had a precious gem to be given to Josaphat the king's son, opened to himself a way closed on every side to the same, and converted him to the faith of Christ, as witness Damascenus in his History. For kings, as it were certain earthly gods and divinities, by their right exact gifts, as it were a tax and price of honour due to them. Wherefore formerly among the Persians no access to the king was granted, unless a gift were sent beforehand or brought. Following Solomon, Plato, lib. III of the Politics: "Gifts," saith he, "bend Gods and reverend Kings." And Ovid: Gifts, believe me, captivate both men and Gods; Jupiter himself is appeased by his own gifts. An anonymous writer in the Catena of the Greeks objecteth to himself: "What do I hear here? a little before thou wast saying that he who gave or accepted gifts would perish by an evil death; in what sense therefore dost thou command here that they be bestowed?" and he answereth: "Because there is no danger, if this man be cheerful and ready to give, that one on the contrary slow and not at all inclined to receive." Thou mayest answer more plainly and fully that those gifts are forbidden by which the favour of judges or the like is sought to overturn justice or like virtue; but here are approved those by which a way is prepared to great men, so that one's due right may be obtained, or undue but honest favour, and useful to the public or private good. Secondly, an anonymous author in the Catena of the Greeks translates this saying from the Septuagint thus: "He who gives liberally shall be enlarged, and shall be placed among the chief men"; and he refers it to almsgiving, as if to say: "He shall not be constrained, nor reduced to straits, who has been generous to the needy and poor; but rather by this one way shall be enlarged, and shall be made equal to men of rank." And Rabbi Solomon says: "Allegorically," he says, "this saying pertains to those who bestow their wealth upon the poor, to whom in the future age the same portion shall be amplified; and even while they are confined in the prisons of the body, they are led before the great, and are esteemed men of great reputation." But our Salazar more fully: "Solomon exhorts," he says, "to beneficence, as if to say: Liberal and lavish gifts in a wonderful way benefit and enlarge, that is, amplify, ennoble, and bring to amplitude, so that beneficence appears to be the breadth and amplitude of heart, equally as of house and family; so much so that it causes him to sit among princes, as the Septuagint translate, or as our version: 'And before princes he maketh him room,' that is, he grants him a place among princes. For liberality and magnificence is a kingly or imperial virtue; wherefore he who cultivates it is plainly to be reckoned in the number of kings and princes, because he exercises a virtue worthy of a prince. Symbolically, the Author of the Catena of the Greeks understands by gift wisdom or virtue, as if to say: Wisdom given by God spreads and enlarges the soul, and makes its master one of the number of the wise. Tropologically, Bede and Salonius understand by gift charity, that is, the gift of all gifts most excellent: "What," he says, "is the gift that enlarges the way of man, and that maketh him room before princes? This gift is the gift of charity, or of other virtues, which the faithful receive from the Lord. This gift, namely, enlarges his way, that is, his action, because each faithful person, the more he is filled inwardly with the grace of the Holy Spirit, the more does he enlarge his way outward, that is, he multiplies the steps of good works." Thus St. John the Almsgiver in a vision saw almsgiving as a splendid virgin standing by him, and saying: "I am the daughter of the Most High King, very familiar to him, and I introduce all my followers to him, and make them pleasing and familiar to him: for I have great confidence with him. Wherefore if thou dost cultivate me, I shall introduce thee to him, and shall make thee very dear to him." Thus Leontius in his Life. And indeed Tobias, chapter IV, verse 11: "Almsgiving," he says, "delivers from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness. Great shall be the confidence before the Most High God of almsgiving, for all who do it." This saying therefore signifies the powerful force of gift and beneficence, namely that it conciliates to itself all even kings and princes, yea and God himself, and merits his grace.
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17. THE JUST MAN IS FIRST IN HIS OWN CAUSE: HIS FRIEND COMES, AND WILL SEARCH HIM OUT. — In Hebrew, the just man is first in his suit (the Chaldean and Symmachus, in his judgment); his companion or neighbor comes, and searches him out; the Chaldean, and overcomes him; the Septuagint, the just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech; but when the adversary has added to it, he is convicted; the Syrian, the just man is the son of man in judgment; when his companion comes, he proves him. First, Aben-Ezra and R. Levi connect this verse with the preceding one, as if to say: The just man, bringing a gift to a great man, is first in his suit: whence he is declared innocent and just by the great man. Wherefore although another may afterwards come, who in judgment investigates crimes against him, he nevertheless cannot make him guilty. For we are accustomed, says R. Levi, to give greater credence to those who have first set forth their cause. Or more clearly, as Vatablus says, as if to say: He who is first in his suit bringing gifts to the judge, he is just, that is, he is superior and victor in the suit, because he has already by words and gifts bent the mind of the judge toward himself and his cause: wherefore although his companion may afterwards come, who examines the cause of him who was first, he will nevertheless accomplish nothing unless he brings greater arguments and gifts. Others on the other hand explain it thus: The just man is first in his own cause, that is, the just man trusting in his own justice and the equity of his cause, presents himself to the judge; his companion comes, who has given a gift to the judge, and searches and accuses him, and by accusing overcomes him, as the Chaldean has it, as if to say: By searching he will object something in appearance, which may bend the judge, already inclined toward him by gifts, to pronounce sentence for him, and condemn the just man. Second, Cajetan: It is, he says, a parable signifying that, when a suit or complaint arises against the just man, and universally when some crime is imputed to him, the just man is first to speak, he does not wait for the accuser or witnesses; but knowing himself to be just, he speaks first, trusting in his innocence. He speaks the truth, moreover, and does not wait to be examined, but of his own accord answers to the objections. But it is necessary that his investigator not be an enemy, and therefore it is subjoined: "And his friend comes," who is not moved by hatred or any passion against the just man; he comes, I say, a friend not of the man, but of justice, and will search him out by examining his cause. For if the judge were not a friend of justice, it would be easy for judgment to be corrupted. Third, Jansenius, inverting the order of the words, explains it in two ways: First, he says, let the order be this, he who is first in his suit, he is just, that is, he who speaks first in the suit and controversy which he has with another, he vindicates the law for himself, and appears to be just; but it must be waited for until his neighbor comes, who is the adversary in the cause itself, from whose inquiry it will finally be established what kind of man he was. Thus this teaching instructs that one should not judge rashly in anyone unless both sides are heard, according to that: "Hear the other side." Second, let the order be this: He who is just, he is first in his cause or suit; that is, the just man immediately at the beginning of the suit opens his cause simply and confidently to the judges, showing his innocence, and desiring nothing except what is just and equitable, so that, when his neighbor comes who litigates with him, he may securely endure being searched by him. Finally, others explain it, as if to say: The just man is first in his suit, that is, he anticipates and preoccupies the judge, and sincerely instructs him concerning the truth and equity of his cause, lest he be preoccupied by others, and be wrongly informed to the prejudice of the truth and his innocence. But all these versions and explanations differ from the Vulgate, to which nevertheless the Septuagint agrees, and indeed the Hebrew as well. For what they have: The just man is first in his own quarrel, is the same as if to say, The just man first contends with himself, reproves himself, accuses himself. Solomon speaks not precisely of sacramental confession, as if it had already been instituted and in use at that time, but of confession in general. He signifies therefore that the just man, if he has sinned in any way through weakness (for he is not just who does not sin), does not defend his sin, does not wait for another's rebuke, but before others is first in accusing, rebuking and condemning himself, and therefore also patiently bears it when his friend comes and investigates him, so that, if he finds anything worthy of correction, he may admonish him of it. For it is the voice of the just: "The just shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head," Psalm CXL. Or the sense is: The just man, before he accuses and rebukes others, first accuses himself. Thus indeed Bede understands it: Everyone, he says, who is truly just, when he perceives the errors of sinners, first bends the eye of consideration upon himself, and while he anxiously accuses his own frailty, thus at length he kindly extends his tongue to correct others, as if to say, When the just man has accused himself, then he will scrutinize his friend coming to him, and if he finds anything in him worthy of correction, he will correct and reprove him. Thus St. Ambrose, book I of the Duties, chapter XXV: "The just man," he says, "accuses himself before others. For he is truly just who spares not even himself, and does not allow his hidden things to remain hidden, etc. The just man at the beginning of his discourse is an accuser of himself. He who accuses himself, even if he is a sinner, begins to be just, because he spares not even himself, and confesses righteousness to God, whom he believes can hide nothing." Confession therefore honors truth and God, and therefore turns away His wrath and vengeance, as Pacianus teaches in his Exhortation to Penitents. To this pertains the version of the Septuagint: The just man is an accuser of himself at the beginning of his discourse; but when the adversary has added, he is reproved, as if to say, The just man in his own controversies at the beginning of his discourse so sincerely, completely and confidently accuses himself, relating and confessing all things which can truly be objected to him, so that, when the adversary comes adding and objecting to him other crimes, besides those which he himself has confessed, he is convicted of falsehood and lying, or can easily be convicted and proved wrong. St. Cyril adds, book II on John, chapter CXLVII, that these things are said by Solomon to warn that self-praise is to be avoided: for this becomes foul and vile in the mouth of one praising himself; and therefore the just and prudent man should begin from his own disparagement, not from praise. For in explaining that saying of Christ: "If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true;" he confirms it with this sentence of Solomon: "The just man is an accuser of himself in his discourse." And again, chapter XXVII: "Let thy neighbour praise thee, and not thy own mouth; a stranger, and not thy own lips. For it is certainly troublesome to hearers to wish to bear witness in their own voice, not another's, of their greatest matters; for we are born by nature so that we believe less those who claim the chief glory for themselves." Wherefore the just man, that he may avoid this vice of self-love, is accustomed to cover his own praises and to uncover his own vices and filth, and to accuse himself: which while he does, his friend comes and scrutinizes him, and in scrutinizing, finding that there is little or nothing in him that can be blamed, he exalts and praises him as much as he himself has humbled and accused himself. But the author of the Greek Catena, translating the Greek ἐπιπλέτα, which the Complutensians and others translate passively as "is reproved," translates it actively (for it is of the middle voice) "reproves," censures, reviles, thus from the Septuagint with clear antithesis translates it, and thus explains it: the just man at the beginning of his discourse is an accuser of himself; but the adversary and the unjust man begins his discourse with revilings and rebukes. He who begins to act justly, he says, accuses himself before all things. Otherwise, as if to say, "It is more familiar to the impious and unjust to hurl insults and weave calumnies than to accuse themselves or to turn to amendment." To this pertains the doctrine of St. Augustine in chapter VI to the Galatians: He who wishes to correct his neighbour and to correct some vice of his, ought first to correct that same thing in himself. To which pertains that saying of Plutarch, in the tract On the Utility to be Gained from Enemies: "But if," he says, "you are carried away to reviling, take care that you are as far as possible from those things which you object to another; examine your soul, see where you are faulty, lest your own vice sing to you that line of the tragedian: You wish to heal others, yourself teeming with sores. If you say you are unlearned, apply your effort and labor to learning; if timid, stir up your courage; if wanton, erase from your mind whatever trace of lust still lurks hidden. For nothing is more shameful or troublesome than a curse rebounding upon its author. But just as refracted light injures weak eyes more severely, so also curses offend more gravely when turned back from truth itself upon the one who curses. For just as clouds driven by the wind, so a vicious life draws reproaches upon itself. Plato indeed, whenever he encountered men acting contrary to propriety, would depart and address himself thus: Perhaps I myself also labor under such a vice? Hence St. Ambrose notes in Psalm CXVIII, the eighth section, from the beginning, that this is the order of speaking: that confession ought to be first both before God and before men; wherefore when we pray to God, it is necessary that first and before all else we make ourselves guilty and confess our sins before Him, and seek pardon for them, and then proceed to ask other benefits from God: "He is just," he says, "who accuses himself at the beginning of his discourse; but he is unjust who confesses what he had previously denied. The former finds grace through shame, the latter incurs the mark of impudence. Thus ignorance of order disturbs the nature of affairs and the form of merits." The same in Psalm XXXVII, near the end, speaking of David's confession: "First," he says, "he asks to be reproved; afterwards (which is greater), to be corrected. Then he not only confesses his sins, but also numbers and accuses them. For he does not wish his offenses to remain hidden. For just as fevers seated deep within cannot be mitigated, when they have burst forth outwardly, they bring hope of ending; so the disease of sins, while it is concealed, burns fiercely; if it is revealed through confessions, it evaporates. And therefore the just man is an accuser of himself at the beginning of his discourse, before the contagion of the wound creeps inward. For the memory of offenses burdens the conscience, unless medicine is sought. And if the physician delays, the sick man ought to offer himself, that he may be cut more quickly; just as David offered himself to the scourges of the Lord, saying: I am ready for scourges. And elsewhere: Let Thy hand be upon me, that is, render to me double for my sins, provided Thou avenge me here. This is served by that passage of Isaiah XLIII, according to the Septuagint: Declare thou first thy sins, that thou mayest be justified. Furthermore, this confession of the mouth ought to proceed from a sincere heart. Hence Abba Serapion in Cassian, Collation XVIII, chapter XI, rebuking a certain one who falsely accused himself in order to be held humble: "Perhaps," he says, "while you were humbling yourself, you expected from our mouth the sentence: The just man is an accuser of himself at the beginning of his discourse? Therefore true humility of heart is to be retained, which descends not from affected bodily and verbal display, but from the deepest humiliation of mind. Which then will shine forth most evidently in the signs of its patience, when someone has not himself cast forth crimes about himself unworthy of belief from others, but has scorned those arrogantly imposed upon him by others, and has borne injuries inflicted with the meek equanimity of a peaceful heart." Moreover, St. Ambrose, frequently citing these words of Solomon, applies them to penance, by which the Jews before the sacramental confession instituted by Christ, being contrite, confessed their sins to God, and from Him sought and obtained pardon. For such confession indeed liberates from both guilt and punishment, and easily refutes and repels the demon demanding us for torments. St. Ambrose adds, book II On Penance, chapter VIII: "The Lord knows, he says, all things, but He awaits thy voice, not that He may punish, but that He may forgive; He does not will that the devil should insult thee, and accuse thee of concealing thy sins. Anticipate thy accuser; if thou shalt accuse thyself, thou shalt fear no accuser; if thou shalt deliver thyself up, even if thou shalt have died, thou shalt live again." Again St. Ambrose in Psalm XXXV: "The just man, he says, knows how to dissolve the bonds of his sins; nor does he await an accuser, but anticipates, so that, by confessing his own, he may alleviate every transgression, nor have anything which his adversary may accuse. For he snatches his voice from the adversary, and as it were certain teeth prepared for the prey of baneful accusation, he constrains by the confession of his sins." St. Ambrose gives an example there of Eve, who confessed her sin: "The serpent, he says, deceived me, and I did eat," Genesis III. Whence St. Ambrose adds, book On Paradise, chapter XIV: "A venial fault, which is followed by the profession of transgressions. Therefore the woman was not in despair, who did not conceal from God, but rather confessed her sin," that is to say, the punishment which transgression brought on, confession drives away. And immediately concerning Cain he adds, that he, because he denied his guilt, in order to escape the temporal punishment he feared, was abandoned to the devil, so that he might be tormented together with him by eternal punishment. Cain was unwilling to accuse himself, lest he should be subject to the punishment which he feared. "And therefore, he says, his accusation is reserved to the accuser the devil, so that he may be scourged with the Angels, he who was unwilling to endure with men." Therefore he who abstains from confession is subject to condemnation; but he who accuses himself of his guilt excuses himself from his punishment. Whence St. Ambrose, book II On Abel and Cain, chapter IX: "Confession, he says, is a shortening of punishments." For even the eternal punishments which we deserve on account of transgression, we avoid on account of confession. Moreover, even Seneca, though a pagan, in epistle 28: "As much as thou canst, he says, accuse thyself, inquire into thyself, first perform the part of an accuser, then of a judge." Furthermore, many adapt this maxim to sacramental confession. For this indeed, by the institution of Christ, must precede pardon and grace, and also satisfaction and meritorious works either in fact or in intention. Solomon wrote these maxims for every age, but they are to be accommodated to the state and condition of each; wherefore they are more true in the law of Christ, and are more perfectly fulfilled through it. Finally, St. Chrysostom, oration 5 Against the Jews, urges this at the beginning of his discourse, and, as Isaiah says, chapter XLIII: "Say thou thy iniquities first that thou mayest be justified." For, rebuking Cain, who did not first, but after he was rebuked and convicted by God, confess his fratricide, and therefore did not receive pardon for his sin, but condemnation, thus he says: "For He did not simply say: Say thy iniquities; but He says: Say thou first thy iniquities. What is sought, this is, that they be not simply said, that the rebuke of the accuser is not to be awaited. But he did not say first, but awaited until he should be rebuked by God, nay rather when He rebuked him he denied. After the sin had once been made manifest, then he said his sin, which indeed is not confession. Therefore thou also, beloved, when thou hast sinned, do not await that thou be accused by another; but before thou be accused and reported, thou condemn what has been done. For if someone else then rebuke thee, it is no longer the office of confession, but the correction of him who accuses. Wherefore also another says: The just man is his own accuser at the beginning of his discourse. Therefore this is not what is sought, that thou accuse thyself, but that thou first accuse thyself, nor await rebuke from others. Peter therefore on account of that wicked denial, because he quickly remembered his own sin, and without anyone accusing said his sin, and wept bitterly, so washed away that denial, that he even became the first of the Apostles, and subjected the whole world to himself." Following Solomon in the customary manner, Sirach says in Ecclesiasticus IV, 31: "Do not be ashamed," he says, "to confess thy sins;" where he touches upon the root of the evil, namely confusion and shameful modesty, which prevents men and closes their mouth and throat, so that they do not confess their sins, but rather conceal and excuse them. But this shame is perverse; for it is shameful to commit sins, but it is praiseworthy to confess them. St. Augustine gives the reason, tract. 12 in John: "Because," he says, "he who confesses and accuses his sins, already makes common cause with God. God accuses thy sins, and if thou accusest them, thou art joined to God. As if there were two things, man and sinner. What thou hearest as man, God made; what thou hearest as sinner, man himself made. Blot out what thou hast made, that God may save what He made. It is necessary that thou hate in thyself thy work, that thou love in thyself the work of God. But when what thou hast made begins to displease thee, then thy good works begin, because thou accusest thy evil works: the beginning of good works is the confession of evil works." Symbolically, Rabbi Simeon in Galatinus, book VII On the Mysteries of Faith, chapter IV, expounds this verse of the Blessed Virgin, whom the Hebrews call the first just one, indeed the first man, and the mother of all men, because she herself was conceived in the mind of God and predestined before Adam and other men, whereas Adam and other men were predestined through her and her Son Christ: "The just man," he says, "is first in his suit (or in his judgment); his friend cometh, and searcheth him out. The sense is: When holy and blessed God shall come to judge the world on the day of judgment, the whole world shall be terrified, and shall fear that terrible day, and shall say: O David, our king, pray to God for us, because from thee came forth the Messiah. But he himself shall answer them: For this very reason that ye say, I am not sufficient. For from me many kings have come forth, who in many things offended God. Moreover, God is offended with me because of the sin of Bathsheba and Uriah." He then adds that they shall similarly approach in order to Moses, Jacob, Isaac and Abraham, and each shall answer that he is guilty of sin, and therefore is not sufficient to intercede for others on the day of judgment; wherefore finally all shall approach by common consent to the first man, that is to the mother of the Messiah, and shall beseech her, that she, as one wholly free from sin, shall intercede for all. "The just man therefore first in his suit," that is to say, "This first man, who is the Mother of the Messiah, on account of whom the Messiah himself, or Christ, the Son of man, is called just, is just in the suit by which she was accused by adversaries of having been conceived in original sin. And his friend cometh, that is God, and he investigated this suit, and gave judgment saying: Thou art all fair, O my love, and there is not a spot in thee. Which authority the ancient doctors of the Hebrews appear to have brought forward for the confirmation of the Immaculate Conception of the mother of the Messiah." Thus far Rabbi Simeon.
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18. THE LOT SETTLES DISPUTES, AND JUDGES EVEN AMONG THE MIGHTY. — In Hebrew, the lot causes disputes to cease, and divides among the mighty, namely the dispute, that is the matter in question; Aquila, διαλείψει; Symmachus and Theodotion, διαστελεῖ, that is it will divide, will judge; the Chaldean, the lot abrogates contentions, and settles them among the strong; thus also the Syrian; but the Septuagint, the silent one settles disputes, and defines among the potentates (δυναστείαις; but better others read δυνάσταις, that is dynasties, the mighty). Thus the Romans and Complutensians. But it seems there is an error, so that for κλῆρος, that is the lot, the scribes have viciously written σιγηρός, that is the silent one. This is proved first, because the Hebrew גורל goral signifies the lot, not the silent one; and thus all the others translate it. Second, because many Greek codices read κλῆρον, and Origen, homily 23 in Joshua: The lot, he says, restrains disputes, and defines among the mighty. Third, because thus reads the Author of the Catena of the Greeks, and thus explains it: "Disputes, he says, the lot settles, and the dispute arising among the mighty it resolves. The lot, which fell to Matthias, settled the dispute arising concerning the successor of Judas Iscariot; and to the mighty, namely the Apostles, it predetermined whom they ought to choose. Some in place of κλῆρος read σιγηρός, so that the sense is: Disputes and contentions arising from anywhere a patient and silent man easily settles; whereas on the contrary, he who answers the litigant and contradicts him sharpens the dispute and quarrel." Thus that author. The sense of this sentence is plain and clear, as if to say: When the matter in question is uncertain and doubtful, whose it is, either because the right of each is uncertain and doubtful, or because each party brings forth powerful arguments for itself, or for some other similar reason; then no other mode of settling disputes is available, except that the lot divide and determine them. Whence R. Solomon notes that for the mighty in Hebrew it is עצומים atsumim, by which he himself understands those contending powerfully, who namely clash with strong arguments among themselves, each confirming his cause with all his strength. And thus this word is taken in Isaiah XLI, 21. Since therefore their disputes are arduous, robust and valid; hence they are called mighty, whom no one can reconcile except the lot. Again עצם atsam signifies to stop up, to close, Isaiah XXXIII, 15. Atsumim therefore are called disputes obscure, and therefore closed, which no one can open and resolve except the lot. Whence from the Hebrew you would translate, those who strengthen themselves in contention; Vatablus, separates the contending parties. It teaches therefore that the means of settling disputes in complex and doubtful matters is the lot, and indeed where the contending parties are hard and obstinate, so that they wish to admit neither reason, nor judge, nor arbiter, recourse must be had to the lot, if the parties admit it. The reason a priori is, that just as in certain and manifest matters reason holds sway, so in uncertain, doubtful, obscure and fortuitous matters the lot and chance hold sway. Wherefore just as those are to be decided in counsels by reason, so that that part prevails which is supported by stronger reasons: so these are to be determined by the lot; for they are in the right and dominion of fortuitous things, which are subject to the lot, and over which the lot holds sway, as their king and ruler. Thus Joshua, chapter XV, divided the holy land among twelve tribes, and to each of them and their families by lots, and thus settled all the disputes of the Hebrews.
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19. A BROTHER WHO IS HELPED BY HIS BROTHER IS LIKE A STRONG CITY; AND JUDGMENTS ARE LIKE THE BARS OF CITIES. — For "who is helped" in Hebrew is פרנפשע nipsa, that is, transgressing, failing, rebelling. Whence Aquila translates, a brother rebelling before a strong city; the Chaldean, a brother who fails from his brother, like a strong city, and shut like a strong bar; the Zurich Bible, a brother if faithlessly deserted (anger becomes more vehement), than a very strong city, and contention like the bar of a citadel; Vatable, a brother rebelling (against his brother) more than a strong city, and quarrels (of brothers are) like bars of a palace, as if to say, "Rebellion of a brother is harder than a city which rebels against its prince, and quarrels of brothers are like bars, by which the doors of a palace are shut, as if he said: Nothing is more serious than the enmities and dissensions of brothers." R. Solomon: A brother, he says, failing from his brother and rebelling against him, even loses a most fortified city in his defection. Aben-Ezra connects this verse with the preceding one, as if to say: Lots divide even the gravest quarrels, such as those of brothers, when they are at odds with each other: for these are hard and strong like the bars of cities. R. David: "A brother injured is harder than a strong city, and the quarrels of brothers are like the bar of a palace." Thus also the other Hebraists. And indeed this sense very well corresponds to the Hebrew. It signifies therefore that the quarrels of brothers are bitter, and often irreconcilable. The reason is, that vehement love when injured is converted into vehement hatred: just as strong wine, if it becomes corrupted and turns sour, is converted into sharp vinegar. Whence Aristotle, lib. VII Polit. cap. VII: "In the proverb," he says, "it is said: The contentions and angers of brothers are most bitter, and those who love excessively hate each other excessively." The angers of brothers therefore are strong like a strong city, both because just as a city, fortified most firmly with walls and bars, is as it were impregnable to siege engines: so also the strong offenses of brothers can scarcely be overcome by any reasoning, conquered by no love, subdued by no benefit; and also because just as a city is impregnable where the citizens are robust, who defend it most strongly: so where brothers contend most strongly among themselves, their hatred and enmity appears irreconcilable and impregnable. But Our author in Hebrew nipsca, that is, rebelling, translates, who is helped. But by what reasoning, by what authority? For rebelling and helping are contrary things? Thirdly, we shall more easily and plainly reconcile these things by saying that Our author read not נפשע nipsca with shin: for thus it is the same as rebelling; but נפטע nipsa, with sin, that is, going, walking, as if to say: A brother going and walking fraternally with his brother (and therefore helping and protecting him) is to him in place of a strong city. Moreover, that Our author did not read and translate thus rashly is evident from the Syrian, who in like manner reads and translates, a brother who is helped by his brother is like a strong city; and the Septuagint, a brother helped by his brother is like a fortified and lofty city; and St. Cyprian, epist. 14: "A brother helping his brother shall be exalted like a great city." He adds the reason: "Namely, because fraternal compassion bears a fortification to the soul struggling, and stands like a wall against the various blows of an afflicted mind." Moreover R. Levi, although he reads nipsca with shin, and translates it offended, injured, yet accommodates it to the sense already given thus, and explains it thus: "Although a brother struck and offended by his brother's defection, is yet more useful to him than a fortified city, bringing aid at the opportune time of necessity, and preserving his brother; nor will he then object the crime of defection to him, since both consist in the same bodily composition." A brother therefore helping his brother is to him in place of a city (in Hebrew, before a city, that is, more important and stronger than a city), or in place of a fortified city, both because just as a fortified city protects its inhabitants from every incursion of enemies, so also a brother defends and protects his brother from all adversities; and also because, just as citizens in a fortified city mutually strengthen each other, and with common strength defend the city, and drive off enemies from it, so likewise brothers mutually helping each other with common arms and forces protect each other mutually, and repel adversaries, as the brothers Maccabees Judas, Jonathan and Simon did, who therefore conquered the great armies of Antiochus and were invincible. This saying therefore signifies that a few brothers united are like a strong city, and are equivalent to many citizens defending a city; for what a multitude of citizens accomplishes in a city, this intimate union and love of brothers accomplishes in a family: whence it comes to pass that a few brothers in concord are equivalent to many citizens, indeed from one robust family of brothers there arises a city, and thus a nation and kingdom, as appeared in the twelve Patriarchs, sons of Jacob, who established the kingdom of Israel. Conversely, this saying hints that citizens in a city are what brothers are in a family; and therefore just as united brothers protect a family, so citizens in concord protect a city, and render it impregnable. Whence Lycurgus, founder of Sparta, in place of walls, fortified it with the concord of citizens. For this reason Agesilaus, king of Sparta, when asked by someone why Sparta was not surrounded by walls, showed them armed and unanimous citizens: "These," he said, "are the walls of the city of Sparta;" signifying that cities are safer by no fortification than by the virtue of consenting citizens. Thus Plutarch in the Laconic Sayings. Again, when the Lacedaemonians were in danger, and deliberated about surrounding the city with walls, Isaeus the sophist recited that passage of Homer: Shield cleaves to shield, helmet to helmet, and man to man. And he added: "Thus stand for me, Lacedaemonians, and we are surrounded by walls." Thus Philostratus in the Sophists. To this pertains the proverb of the Arabs: "Strike fire for me, and I will shine for you," that is, be to me, I will be to you: help me, I in turn will be your helper. This saying of Solomon is illustrated by the example of Scylurus in Plutarch, in the Sayings of Kings: Scylurus, he says, having eighty male children, when he was about to die, handed a bundle of javelins to each one, and ordered them to break it. When each one refused, because it seemed impossible, he himself took out the javelins one by one, and thus easily broke them all, admonishing his sons with these words: "If you will be in concord, you will remain strong and unconquered; on the contrary, if you are torn apart by dissensions or sedition, you will be weak, and easily conquered." A Scythian could not have set the matter before the eyes more scythically. Sallust relates something similar about King Micipsa in the Jugurtha: Micipsa, he says, now about to die, admonishes his sons with paternal affection to be in concord, always adding a sentence to be written in golden letters: "For by concord small things grow, but by discord even the greatest things fall apart." Severus, Emperor of the Romans, falling into a most grave illness, and after he perceived that the end of his life was at hand, called to him Marcus Antonius and Geta his sons, and asked what they wished, saying: "See to it that you agree with one another, enrich the soldiers; despise all others." For he knew that his sons, most desirous of the kingdom, would dispute about the succession after his death; and unless they bent the minds of the soldiers by money, they would utterly perish. Thus Dio Nicaeus, and Xiphilinus in the Life of Severus. Finally, the truth of this sentence is evident in the Apostles and apostolic men of the primitive Church, who were impregnable to the world, indeed conquered the whole world and subjected it to Christ. On the other hand, formerly Arius, Nestorius, Pelagius, etc., and now Luther, Calvin and other heretics, impugning their faithful brothers, lacerated the Church, and gave access to the Turks to occupy Hungary and other provinces: for the Turks have always grown and grow through the dissensions of Christians, which heretics stir up. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena, who thus translates and explains: "A brother, aided by a brother, is like a fortified and lofty city. The same again, as it were a well-founded kingdom, is robust and powerful. The disciples and brothers of Christ, consenting among themselves, were, as it were, a kingdom fortified with a thousand bulwarks and defenses, strong and mighty. A few, aided by one another in good faith, become impregnable." We experience this same thing in reformed religious communities and monasteries, in which discipline, humility and charity flourish. For these are stronger than all rivals and enemies, indeed even than demons, through the concord and conspiracy of the Religious. Whence St. Basil, preferring the cenobitic life as it were fraternal to the eremitic and solitary life, gives this reason, Const. monast. cap. XIX: "For indeed I call that the most perfect communion of life, from which all private and personal possession of anything is excluded, and from which all dissension, all disturbance and quarreling is absent; on the contrary, where all things are common, minds, thoughts, bodies, and those things which we necessarily use for worship and sustenance: a common God, a common commerce of piety, a common salvation, common struggles, common labors, common rewards, and crowns of contests; where many are one, and one is not alone, but in many. To this institution of life what is there then that can justly be found fault with? what can be called more blessed, what more fitting than this conjunction, unity and relationship? what more elegant to be conceived in the mutual temperance of morals and souls among themselves? Men proceeding from diverse nations and regions have through exact similarity of morals and discipline so coalesced as it were into one, that in many bodies there appears to be one mind only, and conversely many bodies are seen to be instruments of one mind. In those who have weak bodily health, he has the minds of many as sharers in his infirmity; but he who is sick in mind has many at hand by whom he may be cured, and by whom he may be continually raised up." See more in our Jerome Platus, lib. I De Bono status Relig. cap. XXVI and XXVII. To this pertain the maxims of Philosophers. Antisthenes used to say that brothers who were in concord were stronger than any wall. Quintilian, Declamat. 321: "What else, he says, is brotherhood than a divided spirit?" P. Nigidius in Gellius, lib. XII, cap. X: "Brother, he says, is called as it were almost another." Plato, lib. II De Republ., recites an old saying: "Brother, stand by the man," which is wont to be said of faithful aid; because in dangerous matters a brother scarcely ever usually fails a brother. AND JUDGMENTS AS IT WERE BARS OF CITIES. — Lyra, Baius, Jansenius and others understand by judgments decrees, as if to say, The decrees of brothers, established by common consent of brothers, are valid as bars of cities, and therefore cannot easily be broken, because brothers handle and defend them with common minds and arms. For it can be said, says Jansenius, that what is said of judgments can be understood of the equity of judgments and sentences, which makes the state of the republic firm. So that this whole sentence may signify that a city is stabilized by two things, namely the concord of citizens and the equity of judgments. But because the Hebrew מדינים midianim does not signify sentences and decrees, but quarrels and contentions, hence it is more truly said that these are called judgments by Our author. For thus St. Paul says, I Corinth. VI, 7: "Now indeed it is altogether a defect in you, that you have judgments among you," that is quarrels and contentions. For in these litigants are wont to appeal to judgment, and to contend before a judge. Whence our Salazar thus expounds it, as if to say, The concord of brothers is like a most fortified and strongest city. "Judgments" however, that is the quarrels and dissensions of brothers, "as it were bars of cities:" I understand bars indeed for doors, that is as it were cities with doors opened and laid open to enemies, as if to say, Where brother begins to wage war against brother, and to dissent from one another, conversely they are like cities which with bars opened afford free access to enemies. And so bars or bolts in this place, which are instruments of closing and opening, are not to be referred to closing, but to opening. Thus Salazar. But "the bars of cities" are wont to signify the strength of cities: this strength, however, is afforded to cities, not when they are opened, but when they are closed and barred. Whence the Chaldean renders it, and as it were with a strong bar; and the Septuagint, μεμοχλωμένον (thus the Romans, although the Complutensian editors read τεθεμελιωμένον, that is, founded), that is, as it were a kingdom closed with a bar; Aquila, and strife as the bar of a palace. Thus also the others. The sense therefore is, as if to say, A brother helping his brother, that is, the concord of brothers is strong and invincible like a strong and fortified city; similarly discord, strife and contentions of brothers, especially public and forensic ones, are strong, irreconcilable and impregnable like bars, by which palaces and cities are closed: for just as cities are barred with bars, so discord, strife and contention as it were bar the minds of brothers, so that they give no access to reconciliation, no opening to conversation, love and benevolence. The reason is twofold: The first, which I gave at the beginning, is that love, such as that of brothers, if it be provoked, is turned into the greatest and persistent hatred, just as the best wine is turned into the strongest vinegar. The second is that an injury inflicted by a brother appears to be more bitter: for from a brother, as being most closely connected, men expect the greatest things, and think that the greatest benefits are owed to them; wherefore if they receive evils in place of benefits, they think a grave and bitter injury is inflicted upon them. Thus the brothers of Joseph, seeing that he was loved more than the others by his father Jacob, pursued him with the greatest hatred even unto death. Thus Esau propagated his hatred of Jacob to his descendants. Whence the Idumaeans and Jews were perpetual and greatest enemies. See what is said in Amos I, verse 14. Finally, just as the Moderns refer this entire maxim to the discord and contentions of brothers: so on the other hand the Chaldean and Septuagint refer the whole of it to the concord of brothers; and they declare its force and strength. Our author, however, proceeds by a middle way, and refers the first hemistich to concord, the latter to the strength of discord of brothers. The Septuagint therefore have it thus: a brother, helped by a brother, is like a fortified and lofty city: but it grows strong as a founded kingdom; or, as St. Ephrem has it, in his tract On the Reproof of Himself: "For it is like a founded kingdom, and powerful," as if to say, The concord and conspiracy of brothers is valid and impregnable like a fortified and lofty city, which is indeed surrounded by strong and lofty walls and towers: for the sublimity of kinship affords this height to brothers: for after parents, the highest degree of connection and consanguinity is brotherhood, or the bond and union of brothers; nay, this concord and love of brothers increases and grows strong, so that it becomes powerful and ample not only like one city, but like an entire founded and strong kingdom, so that it is able not only to repel the force of others, but also to invade and subjugate them. Thus Romulus and Remus, brothers conspiring with each other, gained many to themselves, subdued others by force and arms, and built the city of Rome, and gathered together the Roman people, and in it established the kingdom of Italy, nay the empire of the world. This maxim therefore signifies that concord among brothers is to be carefully preserved, and, if any controversy should arise among them, care must be taken to avoid forensic contentions, which are wont to sharpen hatreds, nay to make them immortal, and rather by lot, as the preceding verse said, the controversy should be settled. Morally, learn here how much good concord brings, and how much evil discord. The Scyrian stone, which is born in the island of Scyros, has this wonderful property, that whole it swims, broken it sinks, says Pliny, lib. XXXVI, cap. XVII. Thus a society that is concord and united stands, which being discordant and divided is scattered. For Number defends, and phalanxes joined with boss. "Common danger is to be repelled by concord," says Tacitus. Beautifully Lucan, lib. IV: With eternal bond embraces all things, The safety of so many things and mixed concord of the world, And sacred love of the orb. Allegorically Bede: "When the people," he says, "both of the Jews and of the Gentiles, consent to each other in fraternal charity in Christ, they now build one city of the Catholic Church; and just as the bars of cities fortify the gates, so the dogmas of both Testaments defend the Churches throughout the world, which make one Catholic, from the incursion of the infidels." Tropologically Hugo: Two brothers, he says, are reason and appetite, or intellect and will; these, if they agree properly with each other, namely so that the lesser agrees with the greater, that is, appetite with reason, and will with intellect, and submits itself, are strong like a fortified city: but if they disagree, and the will rebels against the intellect, there arises a dissension and internecine schism, which destroys and ruins both.
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20. OF THE FRUIT OF A MAN'S MOUTH SHALL HIS BELLY BE FILLED: AND WITH THE GENIMINA OF HIS LIPS HE SHALL BE SATISFIED. — In Hebrew, from the produce of his lips he shall be satisfied. The genimina therefore are the produce of the lips, or the fruit of the mouth, which is twofold: The first and proximate fruit of the mouth are words and discourses, both good and bad; the second and remote, are the advantages and harms which good and bad discourses bring: for by these each person is nourished and satisfied: indeed by good things and advantages as if by honey, but by bad things and harms as if by gall and wormwood, which he himself has sown. Cajetan refers these things to those who prepare their livelihood by speaking, indeed who make gain from it; for the mouth of these satisfies the belly, such as are advocates, orators, teachers, preachers. Better does R. Levi refer these things to mild and harsh words, as if to say, He who uses mild and soft discourse, by his responses softens the anger of another, and does not lack the fruit of his discourse, since he keeps evil from himself: but he who speaks harsh and bitter words stirs up anger, and is quickly struck by impending ruin. Most excellently and most fully you should take these things generally of any discourses whatsoever, whether good or bad, as if to say, Discourses cause a man good or evil, joy or sorrow, reward or punishment. For if anyone speaks well, benevolently and prudently, he will conciliate to himself all men, Angels and God himself: but if badly, imprudently, bitingly, he will irritate all, by whom he will consequently be beaten. Whence explaining, he adds: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue." He calls belly metaphorically the inmost things of man, such as are mind and conscience. For these rejoice praised and affected with reward from well-spoken things, are blamed and afflicted and tormented, grieve and lament from ill-spoken things. This verse is consonant with verse 14 of chapter XII: "From the fruit of his own mouth shall every one be filled with good things;" and with verse 2 of chapter XIII: "From the fruit of his mouth shall a man be satisfied with good things." See the things said there. Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena: By spiritual discourses, he says, the receptacle of the soul is filled, since external and sensible discourses cannot fill the belly of the soul, it remains that that vessel be filled with spiritual nourishment; but he fills his own belly not simply a man, but a man. Thus he.
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21. DEATH AND LIFE ARE IN THE HAND OF THE TONGUE: THEY THAT LOVE IT (Septuagint, they that hold) SHALL EAT THE FRUITS THEREOF. — Aben-Ezra refers these words to the preceding verse: "By the fruit of a man's mouth his belly shall be filled," as if to say: If anyone speaks evil things, death shall befall him; but if he speaks rightly, he shall be possessed of life. Understand "death and life" as pertaining both to nature and to grace and glory, both present and eternal. For heretics, such as Arius, Luther, and Calvin, by their perverse doctrine have sent both themselves and many thousands of their disciples to eternal death in hell; conversely, the Apostles and apostolic men, and holy doctors, preachers, and confessors, by their fiery tongues procure for themselves and all theirs the life of grace and glory. He alludes to the nature of the tongue; for in the embryo it is animated last, and when a man dies it is the first to lose life and to perish, as testified by Aristotle and Pliny. In like manner it happens in the ethics of the tongue, namely in the spiritual life; the perfection of the tongue's virtue is acquired last, as the completion of perfection, according to that of James III: "If any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man;" conversely, the death of the soul commonly begins from the vice of the tongue. Hear Pliny, lib. II, cap. XXXVII: "The mouth, he says, is reported to die first, last of all." For as the heart in an animal is the first to live and the last to die, so conversely the tongue is the last to live and the first to die; wherefore as life begins from the heart, so death begins from the mouth and tongue. "For it happens to all that what is made last, this fails first; and what is made first, this fails last, as if nature were to reverse its course and return from the finish to the starting-gate whence it rushed forth," says Aristotle, lib. II De Gener. animal. cap. IV. So also Pliny, lib. XI, cap. XXXVII. In like manner in the dissolution of a house, the roof, which was made last, is dissolved first, then the walls and other things down to the foundations. For this is the natural order of dissolution. In like manner it happens in moral matters. Whence St. Chrysostom in Psal. CXL: "Death, he says, has almost one sole gateway, the tongue." For this reason, therefore, death and life are said to be "in the hand of the tongue," because it is the tongue's part to preserve life, or to open wide and ample the gateway to death. For as in the generation of man the heart is perfected first, the tongue last; so in spiritual regeneration the heart and will are formed and perfected in virtue first, the tongue last. And as in man the heart dies last, the tongue first; so also the death of the soul almost begins from the mouth and tongue, and ends in the will. Now the question is first raised: whose death and life are in the hand of the tongue, that of the speaker, or the hearer, or a third party about whom one speaks? First, St. Bernard understands all these three, when he asserts that the tongue of a detractor kills three with one blow, namely the speaker, the hearer, and the third whose reputation he detracts, serm. De Triplici custodia manus, linguae et cordis: "Is not this tongue (of the detractor) a viper? Truly most fierce indeed, which so lethally infects three with one breath. Is not this tongue a lance? Truly and most sharp, which pierces three with one blow: Their tongue, he says, is a sharp sword. The sword of the detractor is indeed two-edged, nay three-edged. Nor would you hesitate to say that such a tongue is crueler even than the very blade by which the Lord's side was pierced. For this too digs into the body of Christ and member from member, and no longer digs into a lifeless body, but makes it lifeless by digging. It is even more harmful than the thorns which military fury then placed upon that sublime head; or even than the iron nails which the consummation of Jewish iniquity drove into those most holy hands and feet. Unless indeed he had preferred the life of this body, which is now pricked and pierced, to the life of that body, he would never have delivered it to the injury of death, the ignominy of the cross, for this one." Whence, exhorting, he concludes: "Surely for this reason greater diligence and more careful custody ought to be shown to it, because according to Scripture death and life are in the hands of the tongue. Otherwise if life alone were in it, not even circumcision would be fitting; if death alone, even amputation would be owed. But now we must place a guard upon our mouth, and set a door of discretion to our lips, that neither the closure of vital edification condemn us eternally, nor the lethal destruction of words obtain an exit." Laertius, lib. V, cap. 1, relates that Aristotle reproved Callisthenes, who was speaking many things indecently and too freely before Alexander, by reciting that verse of Homer: If you speak such things, you will not live much longer. And he was a true prophet; for Callisthenes was killed by Alexander. The same author, in book I, chapter IX, relates that Anacharsis, when asked what was best and what worst in man, answered the tongue: for if you use it well, you gain life; if badly, you bring death upon yourself and others. To this applies the Arabic proverb: "Beware lest your tongue strike your neck;" for many are destroyed by intemperance of the tongue. Finally, Bias, when King Amasis demanded from a victim the best and worst part, immediately sent the tongue, because it brings the greatest benefit or harm, as Plutarch testifies in the Banquet of the Seven Sages. Secondly, others understand death and life, the active of the speaker and the passive of the hearer. For the tongue of a teacher, counselor, or persuader brings present and eternal life to the hearer, if it teaches, counsels and persuades him of good and salutary things; but death, if of evil things. Whence Vatablus explains it, as if to say, "The tongue can kill by its speech, and can also save." To this applies the exposition of Hugh, who thus explains it partly literally, partly mystically, as if to say: The tongue of a detractor, calumniator, false witness, etc., brings death to the speaker, but life to him who patiently endures his calumnies, injuries and false testimonies; for it increases his patience and merits, and moreover sometimes heals his vice. Plutarch brings an example in his Moral Works of a certain man who, wishing to slay Prometheus, opened with a sword a lethal abscess of his, and thus restored to him health and life instead of death contrary to his intention. "Thus often," he says, "a reproach cast by an enemy in anger heals a vice of the soul either unknown to us or neglected; and the wound of him who wished to bring death brings life." Thirdly, others understand death and life of the speaker throughout, as if to say: The speaker, if he speaks well and prudently, gains life for himself; but if badly and imprudently, he not rarely brings death upon himself. And this Solomon seems rightly to intend; for he explains and inculcates what he said in the preceding verse: "With the fruit of a man's mouth shall his belly be filled, and with the offspring of his lips he shall be satisfied." Consequently, however, and by parity or similarity, understand death and life of the hearers and of those about whom there is speech, as I said from St. Bernard. Most excellently St. Chrysostom in homily 4 to those to be Baptized, volume V: "The tongue," he says, "is in the middle of both parts, and if it is of both, you are master. For even a sword placed in the middle, if it be seized against enemies, is found to be salutary to the receiver; but if it be brought against the bowels of the holder, it prepares death for the one bringing it; not because such is the nature of the iron, but because such is the intention of the user: thus also let the tongue be esteemed a sword placed in the middle. Let it be armed against your sins, not prepared for the wounding of your brother. And the Lord, expounding this quality of the tongue, says: By your words you shall be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. Because, if this fountain of words shall have poured forth pure water of holy words, it conduces to the justification of the speaker; but if from it foul water of wicked words shall have burst forth, it will conduce to his damnation." Hence concerning St. Francis, Bonaventure thus writes, chapter V of his Life: "He wished evangelical silence to be observed by the brothers, namely that they should carefully abstain from every idle word at all times, as if about to render account of such things on the day of judgment. But if he found any brother accustomed to empty words, he reproved him sharply, affirming that modest taciturnity and the custody of a pure heart is no small virtue, because death and life are said to be almost in the hands of the tongue, not so much by reason of taste as by reason of speech." You will ask secondly, what is the hand of the tongue, containing in itself death and life? Firstly, Salonius understands by the hand of the tongue the very words themselves: for each one, he says, shall be condemned by his words, or shall be justified by his words. "Why," he says, "is the tongue said to have hands, when it cannot have hands?" I answer: "It is said metaphorically, that is by transference, just as winds are said to have wings. The hands of the tongue are the very words themselves, by which, speaking well, one merits life, or speaking badly, one merits death. Otherwise, by hands in the sacred Scriptures works are often designated, as in that passage: The labors of your hands because you shall eat. In the hands of the tongue he says, that is in the works. For the works of the tongue are good or bad conversations, from which death or life is born." Secondly, others understand by hand danger, that is to say, Death and life are in the hands of the tongue, that is, it is in peril by the tongue, so fragile, fickle and unstable. For in a similar phrase the Psalmist says, Psalm 118: "My soul is in my hands always," that is to say, My soul, that is my life, is in the utmost peril, just as if I were carrying it in my hand, exposed to anyone, even to an enemy seeking it, to be handed over to him at his pleasure, so that he may take it and remove it from me at will. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, my soul is in peril, as if it were on the surface of my hand. And Jephte says, Judges chapter 12, verse 3: "I have put my soul in my hands," that is, I have exposed my life to certain danger, so that it might be taken from me. Thus also here life and death are said to be in the hand of the tongue, so that, whenever it moves and turns, life and death appear to be turned and imperiled in it. Thirdly, properly and genuinely the Author of the Greek Catena, the Rabbis, as commonly the Latin and Greek writers, understand by hand right, faculty and power, that is to say, It is in the power and discretion of the tongue to bring to itself and to others either life or death, as it shall please: wherefore so great is the speech, right and power of the tongue, that at its pleasure it may inflict death or life not only upon itself, but also upon others. The tongue therefore has, as it were, dominion over life and death over all. Thus we see two witnesses' tongues in judgment either to absolve or to condemn the accused, and thus to bring to him either life or death. This is the kingdom of the tongue, broad indeed and vast. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena renders it: death and life are placed in the hand and power of the tongue; whosoever rule it shall eat its fruits. Symbolically, Hugo understands by the hand of the tongue the operation, and the works of the tongue, that is, corresponding to words: "Death and life in the hand of the tongue: In the operation of speech," he says, "death of demons, and life of the faithful; for if preachers would put their hand to their mouth, that is, would do what they teach, sinners now dead would rise again alive, and demons on the other hand would waste away as if dead." WHOSOEVER LOVETH IT SHALL EAT THE FRUITS THEREOF. — First, Vatablus takes these words concerning the tongue both bad and good, that is to say, Those who are talkative and love and delight to chatter, and are prone to speaking, these are wont to eat the fruits flowing from speech either good or bad, as I said in the preceding verse. Better do others restrict this part to the good tongue, that is to say, Those who love themselves and their own tongue, and therefore restrain its volubility, and moderate their speeches prudently; these "shall eat the fruits thereof," that is, shall reap the abundant fruit and rewards of their good and prudent speech. Whence the Septuagint renders it, κρατοῦντες, that is, those who contain, restrain, rule their own tongue, shall feed upon its fruits. And R. Solomon thus explains it: "Whoever loves his tongue and accustoms himself to divine praises, feeds upon its fruits, while he is still confined in the prison of life." For whosoever speaks of God breathes holiness and life, indeed divinity into others, according to that saying of St. Dionysius in the Celestial Hierarchy, chapter 2, to Timothy: "But thou, O son, by speaking divine things make thyself divine," and make others divine.
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22. HE THAT FINDETH A GOOD WOMAN, FINDETH A GOOD THING, AND SHALL RECEIVE A PLEASURE FROM THE LORD. — In Hebrew, and shall draw from the Lord good pleasure or benevolence; Aquila, the Syriac and Theodotion, εὐδοκίας, that is grace, good pleasure; the Septuagint, he that findeth a good woman, findeth χάριτας, that is graces, and received from God cheerfulness; the Chaldean, he that findeth a woman, findeth a good thing, and receiveth his will from God. The word good is not in the Hebrew, but is understood; for it is included in the word אשה isscha, that is woman, or wife not just any, but manly, or virago: for from איש is, that is man, is said אשה isscha, as if vira or virago, Genesis II, 23. Whence the Scholiast translated, he that findeth a useful wife, such as Solomon describes in chapter XXXI. A good woman therefore is called here not only chaste, faithful, meek and obedient, but also manly, that is diligent, vigorous, industrious in nourishing and governing the family. The word findeth signifies that a good woman is a rare thing, namely a virago, and therefore to be sought out with great study and care. For many seek a beautiful wife, others a noble one, others a wealthy one, few a good and manly one, which nevertheless ought chiefly to be sought, and falls to the lot of few. For woman, by her nature fragile, is desirous, lazy, talkative, wanton, deceitful, malicious, so much so that Ecclesiasticus, XXV, 26, says: "All malice is short compared to the malice of a woman." That saying of Socrates is famous, saying that he had encountered three evils: Grammar, poverty and a pernicious wife: he had already escaped the first two, the third he could not escape. Thus Antonius in the Melissa, part II, sermon 34. And that of Menander: "A wife is a necessary evil." Secondly, the word findeth denotes that a good wife is something fortuitous: for those things which we obtain by deliberate choice, we are said to take or receive; but those which come to us by chance, we find; especially because all women, before they are taken as wives, show themselves to be good, generous and lovable, and conceal their angers, desires, idleness and vices: but after they are married, they display them. Wherefore if anyone should light upon a good one, he has obtained a good fortune. Thirdly, the word findeth hints that a good woman is a good lot, which God gives at his pleasure to whom he will; for God dispenses and measures out to each his own lot and fortune. Wherefore to each man who wishes to take a wife, this good lot ought to be asked for assiduously from God. For, as Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXVI, 3, says: "A good wife is a good portion; in the portion of them that fear God, she shall be given to a man for his good deeds." Note that the word findeth a good thing, namely something singular, rare and excellent; for a good woman cultivates peace, love and fidelity with her husband, administers the family providently and frugally, educates her offspring honestly and well, and thus upon her depends the concord, prosperity and welfare of the whole family. Whence the Septuagint translates, findeth graces, that is an abundance of graces. Whence Homer, as Seneca testifies, lib. I On Benefits, cap. III, joined one grace to marriage, as if presiding over marriage, and called her Pasithea, that is every goddess, because all the gifts of gods and goddesses flow together into marriage, where a good man and a good wife conspire together. Again, findeth the Graces, whom the Gentiles said were three and sisters of the Hours, because they embrace three differences of time, namely a good wife brings to her husband stable grace and love, which languishes at no time or circumstance, but endures and burns through time. Moreover the Author of the Greek Catena: "He calls graces here, he says, the progress which she makes, and the good actions of the family which she cares for." Graphically therefore, the things which a good wife brings into the family are increases of wealth, of provisions, of peace, of concord, of honesty and of all virtues, and thus of all joy and gladness. Whence Plutarch rightly said that grace is the mother of gladness. Plutarch suggests examples of good women, lib. On the Virtues of Women. This is relevant to the fact that a good and honest wife often makes a man good and honest, according to that saying of St. Paul, I Corinthians VII: "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing woman." St. Chrysostom gives the reason, homily 6 on John: "Nothing, he says, is more powerful than a good woman for instructing and forming a man in whatever she wishes; nor will he suffer friends, nor teachers, nor princes to admonish and counsel him as easily as his wife. For there is a certain pleasure in a wife's admonition, since he loves greatly her whom he consults. I can bring forward many men harsh and cruel, made mild and meek through a wife; for she herself, sharing with her husband table, bed, the company of children, words, silences, entrance, hearing, exit and many other things, and, as a body joined to a head, if she be prudent and diligent, will overcome all." Thus St. Cecilia converted her husband Valerian, Clotilda converted Clovis, St. Helena converted Constantius the father of Constantine the Great, etc. To this pertains that saying of Euripides in Stobaeus, discourse 65: For a good wife joined to her husband prevents the ruin of the house and preserves it. Following Solomon, Sirach gathers much to this effect, Eccles. XXVI, 1, 2, 3, 16, 18, 19. From this it is evident that this ordinance of Solomon concerning the loss of an adulteress is not merely a counsel but also a precept; for a husband, transgressing this, retaining an adulteress, is called in this place not merely foolish, but also "impious," and, as St. Chrysostom reads it, unjust. St. Chrysostom gives the reason, homily 22 from various places in Matthew: "Therefore, he says, he who puts away does not commit adultery, but he who takes another: nay rather, just as he is cruel and unjust who puts away a chaste wife, so also is he foolish and unjust who retains a harlot; for he is a patron of turpitude who conceals the crime of his wife." And St. Jerome, on that passage of Matthew chapter XIX: Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: "Fornication alone, he says, is that which overcomes the affection of a wife; nay, when it has divided one flesh into another, and she has separated herself from her husband by fornication, she ought not to be retained, lest she also make the man subject to a curse, as Scripture says: He that holdeth an adulteress is foolish and impious." Which words have been transferred into Canon Law, found at 32, Question I, chapter Dixit Dominus. Mystically, Rabbi Levi by a good wife understands a sense obedient to reason, that is to the husband; which is the supreme good of man. "Whose, he says, faculties of the soul are so ordered that, subject to their rulers, they serve them, and embrace them with love, when indeed they render their service to the mind with all effort, he has obtained good; for thus he will attain the perfect absolution of a man, and will obtain from God what he desired, God providing for the affairs of such a man with singular providence." AND SHALL DRAW ENJOYMENT FROM THE LORD. — Our text reads ויפק veiuphec, that is and shall draw; already by another pointing through the conversive vau they read ויפק vaiaphec, that is and drew; both are true, and it comes to the same thing, as if to say: He who has found a good wife, through her has drawn, draws, and shall continually and perpetually draw all good pleasure, as the Hebrew has it, that is all desirable good, all grace, and thence all happiness and enjoyment from the Lord, so that it seems to him to be in paradise, and to live the life of Adam and Eve, the first married couple, in the state of innocence. He adds from the Lord, to signify first, that a good wife is a singular gift of God; second, that God through a good wife, as it were through an instrument and channel, emanates the fountain of goods and graces into the husband and family. Mystically, you may adapt this to the Blessed Virgin; for she herself brought in all good not only into the family of Joseph, but into the whole Church and the entire world, both through herself and through her Son Christ. Whence of her a Poet truly sang: Nor is any mother more fruitful than yours (O Christ) among parents. So many goods through childbirth did one give to her own. HE THAT CASTETH OUT A GOOD WOMAN, CASTETH OUT GOOD (the Septuagint, goods, namely all already mentioned); BUT HE THAT HOLDETH AN ADULTERESS, IS FOOLISH AND IMPIOUS. — This verse is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Latin Complutensian; it is transcribed from the Septuagint, who drew it from the preceding verse by necessary consequence. For if a good woman is the good of a man and his family, therefore he who casts her out, casts out from himself and from his family good; "but he that holdeth an adulteress, is foolish and impious;" foolish, because he foolishly either does not notice the adultery of his wife, or suffers and dissembles it with grave infamy to his name, and injury and loss to his offspring; impious, because by retaining an adulteress he seems to approve and foster her adultery, and thus sacrilegiously violates the sanctity of marriage. This is especially true when a husband retains an adulteress, giving her the means to live impurely, either to satisfy her incontinence, or to gain profit from her prostitution, which is pandering; for such a man is a panderer and adulterer of his own wife. To the good woman and manly virtue he opposes the adulteress because adultery brings all evils with it. For an adulteress is shameless, infamous, litigious, proud, prodigal, and squanders and consumes the wealth of her husband with her adulterer; finally she overturns her husband, her offspring, and herself. Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena by an adulteress understands erroneous doctrine, such as that of judicial astrologers, magicians, heretics, likewise malice and wickedness. For these ought to be put away and kept far off. St. Isidore, in the book On the Office of the Church, chapter XIX, says: "Only, as St. Jerome says, that is adultery which overcomes the affection of a wife, indeed when she has divided one flesh into another, and has separated herself from her husband by fornication, she ought not to be retained," etc. It is added that a husband, retaining an adulteress, gives scandal to the whole city or commonwealth. For this reason the voice of M. Antoninus the Emperor was soft and effeminate, when his friends urged him to repudiate Faustina the adulteress, if he did not wish to kill her, he replied: "If we dismiss our wife, let us return also the dowry," signifying by the name of dowry the empire, which he had received from his father-in-law, the Emperor Hadrian wishing it, having been adopted: thus Julius Capitolinus in his Life. Understand these things concerning an adulteress impenitent and persevering in adultery. For if Christ received the penitent Magdalene, why should not her husband also receive her? Although indeed by strict law he is able to condemn her to death, yet he will act more mercifully and in conformity with Christian piety, if he forgive her the wrong. Thus St. Augustine, book II to Pollentius, On Conjugal Adultery, chapter VI.
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23. THE POOR MAN SHALL SPEAK WITH SUPPLICATIONS, AND THE RICH MAN SHALL SPEAK HARSHLY. — In Hebrew, the poor man speaks supplications, and the rich man will answer with hard words, that is harsh; the Chaldean, the poor man speaks deprecations or prayers; the Syriac, he speaks soft and gentle words; R. Solomon, the poor man speaks as a suppliant, although the rich man answers harshly; Aben-Ezra, when the poor man wishes to ask something from the rich man, he uses simple speech, the rich man answers with savage and rigid words. First therefore and properly, this maxim regards the poor, who humbly ask something from the rich, who on account of avarice or pride answer them with swollen and harsh words, as the Hebrew has it: for poverty makes one humble and suppliant; riches truly make one proud and rigid. Second, you may extend it more generally to the poor and rich not among themselves, but conversing with any others whatsoever. For the poor man, as one needy and destitute, everywhere speaks timidly and supplicantly; the rich man truly, abounding in wealth and trusting in it, everywhere breathes pride: wherefore he acts and speaks imperiously. For, as Augustine says: "In the apple is born a worm; the worm of riches is pride." Moreover R. Levi thinks these things are said for the commendation of poverty and humility, in that by his humble speech he gains the favor of all; and for the detestation of riches and pride, in that by harsh answers he turns all away from himself and provokes them. Finally Bede extends this maxim to the poor and rich, when they pray and address God: for the poor man humbly asks of God that grace be done to him; the rich man truly demands rigidly as if by right owed to him, as the poor Publican by his merits prayed saying: "God, be merciful to me a sinner;" But the Pharisee, esteeming himself rich in virtues: "I give thee thanks, he says, O Lord, because I am not as the rest," etc. Luke, chapter XVIII. "Those humble in spirit, says Beda, adore God humbly, as that Evangelical Publican; the proud boast of their merits, as the Pharisee." Following Solomon, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus, chapter XIII, 4: "The rich man, he says, has acted unjustly, and will rage; but the poor man being wronged will be silent." See the things said there. The meaning therefore of this sentence censures the harshness of the rich; but it comforts the poor and admonishes them, that they soften it by similar speech, and thus obtain from them what they ask. Nor should they wonder or think this happens to them alone as something new or rare, since this is the common custom of the rich, as if innate in riches, and naturally as if resulting from them, just as from thunder savage lightnings result and burst forth. "The poor man therefore speaks supplications," that is to say, whatever the poor man speaks, he speaks so modestly, thinly, humbly, that he seems to utter not so much words as supplications, nor so much to speak as to beseech. Therefore the poor man speaks honeyed words; but the rich man answers with hard and stony words, so that he seems not so much to speak words as to hurl stones and adamants, nay thunders and lightnings.
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24. A MAN AGREEABLE TO SOCIETY SHALL BE MORE A FRIEND THAN A BROTHER. — In Hebrew, a man of friends for loving (or rather, as Baynus says, for befriending, namely apt and made suitable, namely "inclined to exercise friendship and to show himself a friend," and is a lover adhering before a brother, or more than a brother. Whence in the Vulgate for a man agreeable, the Complutensian editors and many others read, a man befriendable; and this is somewhat more significant, and responds more to the Hebrew, and the Septuagint who translate, a man of friends for friendship, and is adhering above a brother, that is, as the Author of the Greek Catena clearly translated, a man inclined to friendship shall cultivate friendship more constantly than a brother. Now First, the Chaldean thus translates and expounds: there are companions who associate together, and there is a friend more adhering than a brother; and the Syriac, there are friends who are friends, and there is a friend who adheres more than a brother, that is to say, Many are companions and friends; but a singular friend and companion is he who loves and helps more than a brother. Second, the Zurich version translates: a man apt for friendship, and to whom friendship is dear to cultivate, loves more and adheres more firmly than a brother. Third, Vatablus: "A man of friends (supply equals) so as to show himself a friend, since he is one who loves, more closely joined than a brother, that is, a man who has many friends, ought to show himself a friend to them, so as to retain them in friendship; for in a year friendships surpass brothers." Fourth, R. Solomon, that is to say, When someone continually acquires friends for himself, perhaps there will be a time when he needs them; and these indeed will be at hand, and will help more than brothers. Fifth, Aben-Ezra, that is to say, A man of friendship shall embrace a friend with friendly love, so as to enter into friendship with him and be associated; for some of friends are bound by a greater necessity than a brother. All these things almost come down to the same thing. The sense therefore is, that is to say, "A man agreeable" or befriendable, in Hebrew, a man of friends, that is a man loving and zealous for friendship, who either by nature or by virtue seems to be born and made for society and friendship, who seems to be wholly love, benevolence and beneficence, this man surely shall be more a friend; in Hebrew, shall love more, shall love more, shall help more than a brother. Therefore agreeable is taken not only passively, but also actively, that is to say, Who is loved, who loves, and by his services binds and befriends all to himself. The reason a priori is, that just as it is the property of heat to heat, so it is the property of friendship and love to love, and of beneficence to do good. Wherefore a friend, composed of love and beneficence, cannot but love and do good, since often the grace of kinsmen and brothers also is rare, as the Poet says. For these often regard themselves and their own advantages more than those of brothers. This maxim therefore signifies the force of true friendship, not of any kind, but singular and eminent, and of a friend who is wholly benevolent and dutiful (as the Chaldean, Syriac and Aben-Ezra noted), that he in love and services often equals or surpasses brothers, and therefore such friendship ought greatly to be sought, pursued, cultivated, and preserved in all ways. Moreover, "a man of friends" can be taken as a man who strives to befriend all and to make many friends for himself. Such a friend, nay the king and prince of friends to us is Christ, who gave himself wholly to friends, nay to enemies, so as to make them friends to God and to himself, and spent and expended himself, of whom therefore the Church sings: Being born He gave Himself a companion, Eating with us in food, Dying He gave Himself as price, Reigning He gives Himself as reward. If therefore you seek a true friend, seek Christ, who will not desert you deserting all things, neither in life, nor in death, nor in time, nor in eternity; but everywhere and always will be present to you, and will heap upon you all good, all grace and glory. How well understood the soul that said: "My mind is founded and solidified in Christ!" Christ therefore is a man of loves, because a man of sorrows; because without sorrow one does not live in love. "In peace therefore in the same I will sleep and rest." Following Solomon the Philosophers have done. It is a maxim of Menander: "Consider true friends as brothers." Zeno, when asked "who was a friend," answered: "Another self," which Aristotle cites, in the book of Great Morals: "For it is, he says, as we are accustomed to say, a friend another self." Cicero has the same thing, in the book On Friendship. And St. Jerome to St. Augustine says: "with a friend one ought to speak as with another self." Whence Hesiod: Let him beware of making an equal a companion like a brother. Pythagoras, according to the testimony of Cicero in the place already cited, in the book On Friendship, wished "to effect that one be made from many." Therefore, fraternal affection, which after parents is the greatest, is equalled or surpassed by friendship: for friendship is as it were a certain brotherhood. Whence Valerius Maximus, book IV, chapter VII, at the beginning: "Let us contemplate," he says, "now the bond of friendship, powerful and very strong, and in no way inferior to the strength of blood, this moreover more certain and more thoroughly tested, because that one is the lot of birth, a work of chance, this the solid judgment of each one contracting by voluntary will. Therefore it is swifter without reproach to summon a kinsman than a friend, because the one is subject to the crime of injustice, the other certainly to the charge of levity. For since the life of man is going to be desolate, surrounded by the protection of no friendship, so necessary a support ought not to be assumed rashly: but once rightly grasped, it ought not to be despised." And soon he gives the example of Pylades and Orestes, of whom the one wished to die for the other. Whence that: That I may present Pylades, let someone present Orestes to me. This is not done by words, Marcus: that you may be loved, love. Plutarch recounts many such pairs of friends in the book On the Multitude of Friends, such as Theseus and Pirithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Pythias and Damon, Epaminondas and Pelopidas: such were Nisus and Euryalus in Virgil, Aeneid IX. Among the Hebrews, David and Jonathan were similar; among the Greeks, St. Basil and Nazianzenus. St. Thomas inquires, II II, Question XXVI, article 8, whether those joined by blood according to the order of charity ought to be loved more than others bound by any other reason, such as friendship or military service; and he answers affirmatively, because the friendship of blood relations is natural and intimate: for it is radically founded in the conjunction of natural origin; whereas the friendship of citizens is founded only on civil communication, and the friendship of fellow soldiers on military communication. He then objects with this saying of Solomon: "A man friendly to society is more a friend than a brother;" and he answers: "That although the friendship of associates is contracted by proper choice, in those things which fall under our choice, namely in actions, this affection takes precedence over the affection for blood relations, so that namely we agree more with them in actions. Yet the friendship of blood relations is more stable, as being more natural, and prevails in those things which pertain to nature; whence we are more bound to them in the provision of necessaries." Where Francis Suarez, following Francis of Victoria, teaches that there can be such great benefits of a friend toward a friend, that it is permitted to love him more than one's own father, from whom he was born and received life. Yet here envy must be guarded against, lest a brother, or father seeing a friend preferred to himself, envy him. The manner in which envy can be guarded against in this matter is taught by Plutarch, in the treatise On Fraternal Love, toward the end. Following Solomon in the usual manner, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus VI, 11: "A friend," he says, "if he remain steadfast, shall be to thee as one equal to thyself;" and verse 15: "To a faithful friend there is no comparison," etc. See the sayings there. Mystically Bede: A man friendly to society, he says, is the people of the Gentiles, who believed in Christ and the Apostles, and faithful and steadfast unto death and martyrdoms adhered rather than to a brother, that is rather than to the people of the Jews, who was akin and brother to Christ according to the flesh; but unbelieving and rebellious, persecuted Christ with the Apostles unto death.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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.