1Better is the poor man, that walketh in his simplicity, than a rich man that is perverse in his lips and unwise.Più stimabile è il povero, che cammina nella sua semplicità, che il ricco di labbra perverse, e stolto.BEtter is a poore man, that walketh in his simplicitie, then a rich writhing his lippes, and vnwise.Melior est pauper qui ambulat in simplicitate sua / quam dives torquens labia sua, et insipiens. 2Where there is no knowledge of the soul, there is no good: and he that is hasty with his feet shall stumble.Dove non è la scienza dell'anima, non v'ha nissun bene; e chi cammina frettoloso, inciamperà.Where is no knowlege of the soule, is not good: and he that is hastie with his feete shal stumble.Ubi non est scientia animæ, non est bonum, / et qui festinus est pedibus offendet. 3The folly of a man supplanteth his steps: and he fretteth in his mind against God.La stoltezza dell'uomo è quella, che spinge i suoi passi nel precipizio: ed egli in cuor suo si riscalda contro Dio.The follie of a man supplanteth his steppes: and he boileth in his minde against God.Stultitia hominis supplantat gressus ejus, / et contra Deum fervet animo suo. 4Riches make many friends: but from the poor man, even they whom he had, depart.Le ricchezze fanno crescere il numero degli amici: dal povero se ne vanno anche quelli, che aveva.Riches adde manie frendes: but from the poore they also which he had are separated.Divitiæ addunt amicos plurimos; / a paupere autem et hi quos habuit separantur. 5A false witness shall not be unpunished: and he that speaketh lies, shall not escape.Il falso testimone non anderà impunito; e chi spaccia menzogne non avrà scampo.A false witnes shal not be vnpunished: & he that speaketh lies, shal not escape.Testis falsus non erit impunitus, / et qui mendacia loquitur non effugiet. 6Many honour the person of him that is mighty, and are friends of him that giveth gifts.Molti fan corteggio alla persona del potente, e sono amici di chi li regala.Manie worshipe the person of the mightie, and are frendes of him that geueth giftes.Multi colunt personam potentis, / et amici sunt dona tribuentis. 7The brethren of the poor man hate him: moreover also his friends have departed far from him. He that followeth after words only, shall have nothing.Gli stessi fratelli hanno a noia il povero, e oltre a ciò anche gli amici se ne van lungi da lui. Chi va dietro alle parole non avrà mai nulla:The brethren of the poore man hate him: more ouer also his frendes haue departed far from him.Fratres hominis pauperis oderunt eum; / insuper et amici procul recesserunt ab eo. Qui tantum verba sectatur nihil habebit;
8But he that possesseth a mind, loveth his own soul, and he that keepeth prudence, shall find good things.Ma chi ha mente, ama l'anima sua: e chi tien conto della prudenza, farà acquisto di beni.He that purse weth wordes only, shal haue nothing: but he that is possessour of the minde, loueth his soule, and the keper of prudence shal finde good thinges.qui autem possessor est mentis diligit animam suam, / et custos prudentiæ inveniet bona. 9A false witness shall not be unpunished: and he that speaketh lies, shall perish.Il falso testimone non anderà impunito, e chi spaccia menzogne anderà in rovina.A false witnesse shal not be vnpunished: and he that speaketh lies shal perish.Falsus testis non erit impunitus, / et qui loquitur mendacia peribit. 10Delicacies are not seemly for a fool: nor for a servant to have rule over princes.Non è cosa conveniente, che lo stolto sia in delizie, né che il servo comandi ai principi.Delicacies become not a foole: not a seruant to rule ouer princes.Non decent stultum deliciæ, / nec servum dominari principibus. 11The learning of a man is known by patience: and his glory is to pass over wrongs.Per la pazienza si fa manifesta la dottrina dell'uomo, ed è sua gloria il passar sopra alle ingiustizie.The doctrine of man is knowen by patience: and his glorie is to ouerpasse vniust thinges.Doctrina viri per patientiam noscitur, / et gloria ejus est iniqua prætergredi. 12As the roaring of a lion, so also is the anger of a king: and his cheerfulness as the dew upon the grass.Come il ruggito del lione, così anche l'ira del re: e la ilarità di lui è come la rugiada sull'erba.As the roaring of a lion, so also the anger of a king: and as dew vpon grasse, so also his cherefulnes.Sicut fremitus leonis, ita et regis ira, / et sicut ros super herbam, ita et hilaritas ejus. 13A foolish son is the grief of his father: and a wrangling wife is like a roof continually dropping through.Lo stolto figliuolo è affanno del padre, e la donna litigiosa è come un tetto, per cui passa l'acqua continuamente.The sorow of the father, a foolish sonne: and roofes continually dropping through, a woman ful of brawling.Dolor patris filius stultus, / et tecta jugiter perstillantia litigiosa mulier. 14House and riches are given by parents: but a prudent wife is properly from the Lord.La casa, e le facoltà sono date dai genitori; ma la moglie prudente propriamente dal Signore.House and riches are geuen of the parents: but of our Lord properly a prudent wife.Domus et divitiæ dantur a parentibus; / a Domino autem proprie uxor prudens. 15Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep, and an idle soul shall suffer hunger.La pigrizia fa venire il sonno, e l'anima negligente patirà la fame.Slothfulnesse bringeth drousinesse, and a dissolute soule shal be an hungred.Pigredo immittit soporem, / et anima dissoluta esuriet.
16He that keepeth the commandment, keepeth his own soul: but he that neglecteth his own way, shall die.Chi custodisce il comandamento, ha cura dell'anima sua; ma chi è trascurato nel seguirne la strada, perirà.He that kepeth the commandement, kepeth his soule: but he that neglecteth his way, shal die.Qui custodit mandatum custodit animam suam; / qui autem negligit viam suam mortificabitur. 17He that hath mercy on the poor, lendeth to the Lord: and he will repay him.Chi ha misericordia del povero, da ad interesse al Signore, ed ei gliene renderà il contraccambio.He lendeth our Lord that hath mercie on the poore: and he wil repay him the like.Fœneratur Domino qui miseretur pauperis, / et vicissitudinem suam reddet ei. 18Chastise thy son, despair not: but to the killing of him set not thy soul.Correggi il tuo figliuolo; non perdere speranza, ma guardati dall'ucciderlo.Nurter thy sonne, despayre not: but to the killing of him set not thy soule.Erudi filium tuum; ne desperes: / ad interfectionem autem ejus ne ponas animam tuam. 19He that is impatient, shall suffer damage: and when he shall take away, he shall add another thing.Colui che è impaziente ne porterà il danno: e se userà violenze aggiungerà male a male.He that is impatient, shal susteyne damage: and when he shal take away violently, he shal adde an other thing.Qui impatiens est sustinebit damnum, / et cum rapuerit, aliud apponet. 20Hear counsel, and receive instruction, that thou mayst be wise in thy latter end.Ascolta i consigli, e accetta la correzione; onde tu sii saggio nella ultima età.Heare counsel, and receiue discipline, that thou mayst be wise in thy later endes.Audi consilium, et suscipe disciplinam, / ut sis sapiens in novissimis tuis. 21There are many thoughts in the heart of a man: but the will of the Lord shall stand firm.L'uomo ha molti pensieri in cuor suo; ma la volontà del Signore sarà stabile.Manie cogitations in the hart of a man: but the wil of our Lord shal be permanent.Multæ cogitationes in corde viri; / voluntas autem Domini permanebit. 22A needy man is merciful: and better is the poor than the lying man.L'uomo che nell'indigenza, è misericordioso; ed è meglio esser povere, che bugiardo.A needie man is merciful: and better is the poore then the lying man.Homo indigens misericors est, / et melior est pauper quam vir mendax. 23The fear of the Lord is unto life: and he shall abide in the fulness without being visited with evil.Il timor del Signore da vita, e sarà nella abbondanza, lungi dalla visita del maligno.The feare of our Lord vnto life: and in fulnes he shal abide, without the visitation most noysome.Timor Domini ad vitam, / et in plenitudine commorabitur absque visitatione pessima.
24The slothful hideth his hand under his armpit, and will not so much as bring it to his mouth.Il pigro nasconde la sua mano sotto l'ascella, e non la porta fino alla sua bocca.The slothful hideth his hand vnder the armehole, neither doth he put it to his mouth.Abscondit piger manum suam sub ascella, / nec ad os suum applicat eam. 25The wicked man being scourged, the fool shall be wiser: but if thou rebuke a wise man, he will understand discipline.Quando l'uomo empio sarà flagellato, acquisterà giudizio lo stolto; ma se tu farai correzione all'uom saggio, egli apprenderà la disciplina.The pestilent man being whipped, the foole shal be wiser: but if thou rebuke a wiseman he wil vnderstand discipline.Pestilente flagellato stultus sapientior erit; / si autem corripueris sapientem, intelliget disciplinam. 26He that afflicteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, is infamous and unhappy.Chi tribola il padre, e fa fuggire la madre, egli è infame, ed infelice.He that afflicteth his father, and fleeth from his mother, is ignominious and vnhappie.Qui affligit patrem, et fugat matrem, / ignominiosus est et infelix. 27Cease not, O my son, to hear instruction, and be not ignorant of the words of knowledge.Figliuolo non ti stancare di udire gli avvertimenti, e non voler essere ignorante delle parole sensate.Cease not ô sonne to heare doctrine, neither be ignorant of the wordes of knowlege.Non cesses, fili, audire doctrinam, / nec ignores sermones scientiæ. 28An unjust witness scorneth judgment: and the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.Il testimone iniquo si burla della giustizia e la bocca degli empj divora l'iniquità.An vniust witnes scorneth iudgement: and the mouth of the impious deuoureth iniquitie.Testis iniquus deridet judicium, / et os impiorum devorat iniquitatem. 29Judgments are prepared for scorners: and striking hammers for the bodies of fools.E preparato pei derisori il giudizio, e il martello uccisore pei corpi degli stolti.Iudgements are prepared for scorners: & hammers striking for the bodies of fooles.Parata sunt derisoribus judicia, / et mallei percutientes stultorum corporibus.
19:1
Calmet
Rich, is not in Hebrew, Septuagint, Complutensian, or St. Jerome. (Calmet)
Kennicott
But as there is no antithesis between a poor man and a fool, it ought to be inserted, as it is in the Syriac, which reads, "than he who is perverse in his ways, though he be rich." The Manuscript 2 confirms "ways." (Kennicott)
19:2
Soul. Wholesome and spiritual. Hebrew, "the soul or life is not good."
19:3
Haydock
Fretteth. Literally, "burneth." Septuagint, "blameth." Hebrew, "his heart rageth against the Lord." (Haydock)
Calmet
Thus Adam tacitly laid the blame on him, as all those do who excuse themselves on account of their temper, habits, stars, the violence of temptation, etc. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Only. Hebrew has lo, and the margin lu, with the Vulgate. (Calmet)
Haydock
The former word intimates that the words have no solidity, and the latter that they shall be his only portion who is so foolish as to trust in them. Sequens dicta non ispa; (Montanus) or ei ipsa, if we follow the margin. (Haydock)
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Mind. Hebrew, "heart," intelligence, Proverbs 15:32.
Loveth. This does not contradict the gospel; (John 12:25.) as those who refrain from what the soul would crave to its own detriment, truly love it.
19:10
Fool. He would eat them, so as to prejudice his health.
Princes. Proverbs 30:21. Such are commonly insolent, and should attend to Ausonius. Fortunam reverenter habe.
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Wrongs. The wise man is not vindictive or punctilious.
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Anger. Is not their dominion enough? Having none to admonish them, they do not perceive their excesses.
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Calmet
Through. It cannot be endured long. (Calmet)
Ovid
Dos est uxoria lites. (Ovid, Art. 1.)
"Quarrels are a wife's dowry."
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Haydock
Properly. Septuagint, "fitted by." (Haydock)
St. Ambrose in Luke xvi
Hence the Fathers dissuade marrying with infidels. (St. Ambrose in Luke xvi.)
All good comes from God.
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Calmet
Hunger. Both temporal and eternal. (Calmet)
Non progredi, regredi est. St. Bernard says, "Not to advance, is to go back."
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Calmet
Neglecteth. Hebrew, "contemneth." In the law of Moses, many transgressions are punished with death, but here that of the soul is meant. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Lendeth. To receive interest, foeneratur. (Haydock)
Calmet
Such usury is lawful, and God will abundantly reward acts of mercy. (Calmet)
St. Augustine in Psalm xxxvi
He engages his word for the poor. (St. Augustine in Psalm xxxvi.)
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Haydock
Killing. Protestants, "crying;" or by his complaint be not deterred. (Haydock)
Haydock
Chaldean agrees with us. The law permitted parents to sell their children, and to have them stoned to death, if they declared them disobedient, (Deuteronomy 21:18.; Calmet) and riotous, ver. 20. Timely chastisement may prevent such extremities. (Haydock)
St. Paul dissuades unnecessary severity, Colossians 3:21.
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Haydock
Thing. A child neglected will continue to steal, or to offend; (Calmet) while too much harshness will do no good, but tend to the damage of all parties. (Haydock)
Anger is productive of the worst effects.
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Firm. Ignorance and weakness cause men to change.
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Hebrew, "the desire of a man is his mercy," (Montanus; Haydock) or "shame," (R. Levi) as it leads to sin, Genesis 6:5. All wish to be esteemed merciful.
Montanus
Man of quality. Hebrew meish, "proe viro." (Montanus)
Haydock
"Rich man." (Septuagint) (Haydock)
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Calmet
Life. Both temporal and eternal, Proverbs 10:27. (Calmet)
Haydock
With evil. Literally, "the worst," pessima. (Haydock)
Sixtus V, "by the most wicked one." The devil shall have no power over him.
19:24
Arm-pit. Or Hebrew tsallachath, "in the pot," out of which he eats; which shews his negligence.
Calmet
Mouth, to eat. This hyperbole indicates that he is too lazy to take the necessary sustenance, Proverbs 26:15. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "in his breast unjustly. Neither will he bring them to his mouth." (Haydock)
St. Bernard
He will bestow nothing, and shall reap no benefit from his avarice. (St. Bernard)
St. Gregory
He will not practise what he teaches. (St. Gregory, Mor. 12:10.)
19:25
Wicked. Hebrew, "scoffer." Chastisements have always some good effect either on the sufferer, or on the spectators, who will be cautioned not to imitate what is wrong.
19:26
Infamous. Hebrew, "a son of confusion and reproach;" a spendthrift.
19:27
Calmet
Not. Hebrew seems to say the reverse. (Calmet)
Haydock
But we may read it with an interrogation. "Wilt thou cease?" etc. Or the instruction here meant is of a dangerous nature. Protestants, "that causeth to err from the words of knowledge." Septuagint, "a son who neglects to keep the instruction of his father, shall muse on bad sayings." (Haydock)
19:29
Calmet
Hammers, (Symmachus) "punishments." (Septuagint) See Judges 5:25. (Calmet)
19:1
Honest pouertie.
19:2
Knowlege of ourselues.
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Mans owne wil the cause of euil. Spiritual riches secure. True testimonie.
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Liberalitie.
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Industrious trauel.
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Solide doctrine.
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True testimonie.
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VVise & fitte magistrates. Pa〈…〉ce •• teachers. •oy•ltie to kinges, and Princes. Don estical peace.
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A good wife is Gods gift.
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Diligence.
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Obedience.
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Almes dedes.
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Moderate chastisment.
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Patience.
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Folow good counsel.
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Trust in God.
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Good wil to helpe the poore. Feare of God.
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Diligent trauel.
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Iust correction.
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Honour of parents.
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Desire to lerne.
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True testimonie.
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Feare of eternal punishment.
19:1
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… 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. The lips of a fool lead him into evil, and the foolhardy speech calleth down death. The man of evil counsel shall suffer much loss.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 3
… Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Solomon, too, in his book of Proverbs, has this answer for such as wish to find an excuse for themselves from God Himself: “The folly of a man spoils his ways; but he blames God in his heart.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 43
… Thus you will not run counter to that proverb of Solomon: “The foolishness of a man perverteth his ways, yet he blameth God in his heart.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 24.25
… But when in this way we have made the Lord’s yoke heavy and hard to us, we at once complain in a blasphemous spirit of the hardness and roughness of the yoke itself or of Christ who lays it upon us, in accordance with this passage: “The folly of man corrupteth his ways, but he blames God in his heart;”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 The Epistles of Cyprian 74.23
… and while you yourself are purged with the Church’s sanctification, you become befouled with the contact of the filth of others? And do you not fear the judgment of God when you are giving testimony to heretics in opposition to the Church, although it is written, “A false witness shall not be unpunished?”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence Against the Arians (Apologia Contra Arianos) 1.3
… and from indignation at his deliverance venture on still more atrocious schemes against him, and are ready with an accusation, fearless of the words in holy Scripture
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 7.4
… For it is a true statement of Scripture, that “God made man upright; but they themselves found out many thoughts.” The character of these then depends on us ourselves, for it says “a good thought comes near to those that know it, but a prudent man will find it.”
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.9
… For it is written, Charity is patient ( 1 Cor. xiii. 4 ). Wherefore where patience is not, charity is not. Through this vice of impatience, too, instruction, the nurse of virtues, is dissipated. For it is written, The instruction of a man is known by his patience (
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose 63.24
… they from whom the band of soldiers and the din of arms could not tear away the faith subdued the raging of the brutal mind, which was unable to hurt the saints. For, as you read in Proverbs, “the king’s wrath is as the wrath of a lion.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 3.5
5. I have heard many saying, “The threats of a king are like the wrath of a lion;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 88.5
… as it is written: “The king’s wrath is as the roaring of a lion.”
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 12.4
… For if there are two laws, the law in our members warring against the law of the mind, and the law of the mind, we must say that the law of the mind—that is, the spiritual—is man, to whom the soul was given by God as wife, that is, to the man who is law, according to what is written, “A wife is married to a man by God;”
Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 14.1
… “Fathers will divide their house and substance to their sons, but from God the woman is married to the man,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Paul's Epistle to the Romans 23
… this, I say, is the work of God’s wisdom. Hence he does not say, “for there is no ruler but of God;” but it is the thing he speaks of, and says, “there is no power but of God. And the powers that be, are ordained of God.” Thus when a certain wise man saith, “It is by the Lord that a man is matched with a woman” (
Pope St Leo I the Great † AD 461 Letters 159
… But because we know it is written that “a woman is joined to a man by God
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.15
… For the very indolence of the mind, when it is not kindled with befitting fervour, gets cut off by a torpor that stealthily grows upon it from all desire of good things. Whence it is plainly said through Solomon, Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep (
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.18.6
6. Now we make offering to Him, not as though He stood in need of it, but rendering thanks for His gift, and thus sanctifying what has been created. For even as God does not need our possessions, so do we need to offer something to God; as Solomon says: “He that hath pity upon the poor, lendeth unto the Lord.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.2
… And do not fear when thou givest alms: thou layest up for thyself a good reward against the day of need; because alms delivereth from death, and does not suffer to go into darkness. Alms is a good office for all who do it in the sight of the most high God.” On this same subject in Solomon in Proverbs: “He that hath pity on the poor lendeth unto the Lord.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 43.34
… but the hardest part of all such distress is, the insensibility and insatiability of those who possess supplies. For they watch their opportunities, and turn the distress to profit, and thrive upon misfortune: heeding not that he who shows mercy to the poor, lendeth to the Lord,
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Decease of His Brother Satyrus 1.60
60. By this alone he gave a sufficient proof of his fear of God, and set an example of religious feeling as regards men. For what he gave to the poor he offered to God, since “he that distributeth to the poor lendeth unto God;”
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Selections from the Letters of St. Ambrose sermon-against-auxentius-on-th.33
… nay, I solicit it. I have my defence, but it consists in the prayers of the poor. The blind and the lame, the weak and the old, are stronger than hardy warriors. Lastly, gifts to the poor make God indebted to us, for it is written: “He that giveth to the poor, lendeth to God.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 15
… Why, to what end dost thou display to me thy mercy shown to the poor. What! was it I that said to thee, Give? was it from me that thou didst hear this; that thou shouldest demand it back of me? He Himself hath said, “He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to God.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 63
Yea farther, God hath given thee bonds. For “he that showeth mercy to a poor man,” it is said, “lendeth to the Lord.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on First Corinthians 15
… Wherefore let these my words have been spoken to the perfect. But to the more imperfect, this is what we may say, Give of what you have unto the needy. Increase your substance. For, saith He, (
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.106
In Solomon: “He who spareth the rod, hateth his son.” And again: “Do not cease from correcting the child.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 1.28
xix. 21 . Many devices in a man’s heart.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 104.11
… I am but a man; but whatever it be, His counsel stands most sure, and incomparably excels in equity and in wisdom all that can be conceived by the minds of men. With truth is it said in our books, “There are many devices in a man’s heart; but the counsel of the Lord, that shall stand.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Holy Trinity 15.20
… For it is written, “Many are the thoughts in the heart of man, but the counsel of the Lord abideth for ever,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On the Catechising of the Uninstructed 14
… For “no one orders for the better” what he has to do, except the man who is rather ready to leave undone what he is prohibited from doing by the divine power, than desirous of doing that which he meditates in his own human cogitations. For “there are many devices in a man’s heart; nevertheless, the counsel of the Lord stands for ever.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.9
… Now, therefore, I reply that marriage was ordained by God both then, when it was said, “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be two in one flesh,” and now, wherefore it is written, “A woman is joined to a man by the Lord.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 54.13
… The lady’s age and style, her dress and mien, the indiscriminate company she kept, her dainty table and her regal appointments bespoke her the bride of a Nero or of a Sardanapallus. The scars of others should teach us caution. ‘When he that causeth trouble is scourged the fool will be wiser.’
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 11
… ‘The son that forsaketh the commandment of his father meditateth evil words
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Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 1
… With the utmost care, dearly beloved, are such persons to be guarded against, and avoided, and rejected, if they show themselves injurious. For the laws of the world, no less than those of the Church, do not admit the injurious, but reject them. Whence it is written, “The mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity.”
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1. BETTER IS A POOR MAN WHO WALKS IN HIS SIMPLICITY THAN A RICH MAN TWISTING HIS LIPS, AND A FOOL. — "Better," both ethically, that is, more just, more innocent, more holy; and physically, that is, more excellent, because more peaceful and wiser. For "in his simplicity" in Hebrew is בתכו betummo, that is, in his integrity, or perfection. Thus often elsewhere תם tam, that is, simple, is called a sincere man, devoid of deceit and malice, whole and perfect, as when Job is called "a simple and upright man," that is, perfect, Job 1, 1. For "twisting" in Hebrew is עקש iekes, that is, perverting, corrupting. Whence the Septuagint translates στριβλός, that is, tortuous, such as is crafty and cunning. Therefore the Complutensian Septuagint (for in the Roman copies this verse and the two following are lacking) thus has it: better is a beggar walking in his simplicity than one perverse in his lips, and he himself a fool; Pagninus: than one perverse because of his lips, who is a fool; Vatablus: than one who has depraved lips, and is a fool; the Syriac: than a fool whose ways are depraved; the Chaldean: than he who perverts his ways, he himself is a fool. For the word "rich" is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Greek of the Complutensian: whence some codices, and from these Jansenius, expunge it from the Latin text, and thus explain it, as if the poor man were not opposed to the rich man, but to one twisting his lips, who is a fool, as if to say: Poverty is better than foolishness, because poverty consists and is easily associated with wisdom and integrity of life: but twisting, that is, corruption of the lips, cannot consist with these, but is foolishness and depravity. For one twisting his lips is he who does not act sincerely, but composes words with falsehood, by which he may deceive, while he carries one thing in his heart and brings forth another from his mouth. Better therefore is a poor man who lives simply and innocently than one twisting his lips, who is full of deceit: for this makes a man deceitful and perverse. But the Author of the Greek Catena, Bede, and the codices corrected at Rome read τὸ rich: thus indeed the antithesis is clear between the rich man, but simple and sincere, and the rich man, but corrupting his words, and deceitful. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Better is a poor man devoid of deceit, and living candidly, innocently and wholly, than a rich man cunning, who by his deceits, arts and frauds prepares great wealth for himself: for this man is a fool, that is, impious; but the poor man is wise, that is, upright and pious. For τὸ and a fool does not signify a connection, as if one twisting or corrupting his lips could be one who is not a fool (for this is false); but it signifies a cause, as if to say: Better is a simple poor man than a rich man twisting his lips, because namely he composes and twists his lips to deceive; and, that is, because, this man is a fool, that is, impious. Solomon hints that wisdom, that is, simplicity, innocence, holiness, is akin to poverty; but foolishness, that is, frauds, usuries, injustice, depravity, is akin to riches, according to that saying: "Every rich man is either unjust, or the heir of an unjust man." The reason therefore a priori, why a simple poor man excels a deceitful rich man, is that simplicity and innocence, which poverty brings, excel deceit and depravity, which the desire for riches brings: for the former is truth, and true and pure wisdom; the latter is vanity, and vain and pure foolishness: for the former leads to heavenly happiness, the latter to the fires of hell. Whence Aben-Ezra thus expounds it, as if to say: A whole man is better than a perverse one, who perverts his words. Thus also R. Levi. An example of this matter is in St. Francis, who was poor not only in wealth, but also in sense and spirit, that is, a wonderful lover of evangelical poverty, and therefore through it he attained to great simplicity and holiness. For he was wiser, better, holier, more pleasing and honored by God and the world than all deceitful and cunning rich men. The same you may say of any Religious professing and practicing poverty. Again, examples of this saying are in poor craftsmen and merchants, who, because they work and trade candidly and justly according to conscience, gain little from this: these men in their innocent poverty excel rich men, who through deceits and frauds enrich themselves immensely. For the former have a good conscience, and therefore justice, peace, joy and hope of eternal life: but the latter have a bad conscience, and therefore injustice, disturbances, sorrows, and despair of their salvation. For, as the Apostle says, I Timothy vi, 9: "They that will become rich, fall into temptation and into the snare of the devil, and into many unprofitable and hurtful desires, which drown men into destruction and perdition. For the root of all evils is covetousness." Mystically Bede: "Better," he says, "is a simple hearer of the word of God, if he perfects by doing those things which he was able to understand in the Scriptures, than any learned man, if in those things which he has acutely understood, he twists his lips to preach heresy."
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2. WHERE THERE IS NO KNOWLEDGE OF THE SOUL, THERE IS NO GOOD: AND HE THAT IS HASTY WITH HIS FEET SHALL STUMBLE. — The Chaldean and Syriac versions render it: he that is hasty with his feet sins unto evil; Aben-Ezra: he that hastens to rapine undergoes a new expiation. It is a meiosis: "there is no good," that is, it is evil, indeed the worst evil. The word "soul" can be referred either to "knowledge," so that a comma is placed after "soul," as the Romans do; or to "there is no good," as if to say: Where there is no knowledge, there the soul is not well, but badly. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena translates: a soul destitute of wisdom is not good, that is, is not beautiful, is not well instructed. Another translates: nor is life itself without knowledge pleasant; the Zurich Bible: nor does the untaught mind fare well, as if this verse pertains to the preceding verse and gives its reason, as if to say: Therefore the simple poor man excels the rich perverse and foolish man, because where there is no knowledge or wisdom, there the mind fares badly: because it lacks an eye and a guide, and therefore like a blind man walking hastily strikes against rocks and stumbling-blocks and stumbles. But Vatablus, understanding by נפש (nephes), that is, soul, the animal and concupiscible power or desire, thus translates and explains: "Even without prudence desire is the worst thing, and the swift of foot sins: swift, namely, to fulfill his desire," as if to say: Concupiscence which is not ruled by prudence is the worst thing, because it swiftly draws man to its fulfillment, and since it is blind, it easily strikes against rocks and hurls man into ruin. Solomon therefore signifies that the proper good of the soul, and as it were its peculiar possession, is knowledge: for other goods, such as riches, honors, and delights, are extrinsic to the soul; but knowledge is intrinsic to it; wherefore knowledge is a vital good of the soul (as being its vital action, cognition and intellection), while other goods are lifeless and dead. Whence Rabbi Levi thus explains, as if to say: When someone is stripped of skill in things, it happens that his cupidity and lust are borne toward what is not honorable; but he who hastily obeys his cupidities binds himself with crime. St. Augustine gives the reason, in his tract On the Happy Life: "There is," he says, "no greater and more miserable poverty than to lack wisdom; and he who does not lack wisdom can lack nothing whatsoever. Therefore the poverty of the mind is nothing other than foolishness." And further: "To be happy is nothing other than not to lack, that is, to be wise. For wisdom is nothing other than the measure of the mind, that is, by which the mind frees itself, so that it neither runs out into excess, nor is constrained below what is full." And he adds that the wise man, who has wisdom, has God, and therefore is happy. But the Romans and others combine the word "soul" with "knowledge"; yet the sense comes out much the same. It is asked therefore what is the knowledge of the soul? First, the Chaldean takes the knowledge of the soul to be that by which the soul knows and understands itself. Whence he translates: he who knows not his own soul, there is no good for him. For, as Agapetus the Deacon says, in his Admonitions to the Emperor Justinian, no. 3: "By divine teaching and especially we men are taught that each one should know himself. For he who has known himself will know God; but he who has known God will be made like to God; and he will be made like to God who has become worthy of God; and finally he becomes worthy of God who does nothing unworthy of God, but who as he thinks the things that are his, so both speaks what he thinks and does what he speaks." Hence that inscription on the temple of Apollo at Delphi as an oracle: γνῶθι σεαυτόν, that is, know thyself. Second, others take the knowledge of the soul to be the knowledge of the spirit, which is opposed to the knowledge and wisdom of the flesh, as if to say: He who is wise in the things that are of the soul and spirit, not of the flesh, has a great good; because he who lacks it is blind and without eyes: hence like a blind man hastening he will strike against rocks. For, as the Apostle says, Rom. viii, 6: "The wisdom of the flesh is death; but the wisdom of the spirit is life and peace: because the wisdom of the flesh is an enemy to God; for it is not subject to the law of God." See the remarks there. Third, others interpret the knowledge of the soul as that which searches into, penetrates and perceives the innermost recesses of the soul, its depths, its senses, thoughts and intentions; for the whole goodness of a work depends upon good will and intention. Whence St. Gregory, in the nineteenth book of the Morals, chapter eight, explaining morally the Cherubim, whom Ezechiel, chapter 1, saw full of eyes both within and without: "Hence it is," he says, "that the animals which are seen through the Prophet are remembered to be full of eyes round about and within. For whoever arranges his external affairs honorably, but neglects his internal affairs, has eyes round about, but not within. But all the Saints, because they both look to their external affairs, that they may give good examples of themselves to their brethren; and carefully attend to their internal affairs, because they prepare themselves as blameless before the eyes of the internal judge; and are said to have eyes both round about and within, and all the more do they compose themselves in their internal affairs so as to please God, just as also through the Psalmist it is said of the holy Church: All the glory of the king's daughter is within, Psalm 44:14. Fourth and genuinely, the knowledge of the soul is wisdom, prudence and providence, by which the soul not only illuminates and foresees the present, but also the past and future, so that it may arrange its actions so honorably and perfectly that it can defend and protect them in the judgment of Christ, before the most watchful eyes of Christ, and thus merit to be adjudged by Him the prize and heavenly glory. For prudence is the eyes of the soul, and he who possesses it sees prudently, foresees and provides where he should set the steps of his action, and therefore walks securely, just as one who follows a guiding torch in darkness. But he who lacks prudence walks and stumbles in the darkness of this life like a blind man, because he hastily follows wherever blind concupiscence carries him; and therefore he strikes against many scandals and crimes, and finally falls headlong into the abyss of hell. The knowledge of the soul, therefore, is prudence, which consults the welfare of the soul, which foresees its rewards and punishments, and therefore incites man to live well and to flee from sins; which the Wise man, chapter 9, verse 10, calls "the knowledge of the Holy Ones;" and the Angel, "the prudence of the just," Luke 1:17. "For what doth it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what exchange shall a man give for his soul?" Matthew 16:26. Weighing these words, St. Chrysostom, homily 56 on Matthew, says: "You do not," he says, "have another soul which you could give in place of your soul. For he who has lost money can bring another in place of what was lost: similarly he who has lost a house, servants, or other such things; but if you lose your soul, you will never be able to give another in its place; but if you were king of the world and lord, if you offered all things that are in the world and the world itself, you could not rescue one soul." Whence he concludes: "Neglecting all other things, direct all your care, all your study, all your effort to it itself. Do not therefore care about the affairs of others and neglect yourself and your own: which most people now do; they are like those who are devoted to the work of mines: for they obtain no profit, no riches from it, but labor for others at great risk and loss to themselves, converting nothing at all from their sweat and labor and death, which they often undergo, to their own benefit. Many now imitate these, who seek riches not for themselves but for others. Indeed we are far more miserable than these; because death brings an end to their pain, but for us whom hell awaits, it brings the beginning of true affliction. The same St. Chrysostom, homily 13 on the Epistle to the Romans, teaches that the soul ought to live and govern the body as wisely and harmoniously as a citharist skillfully composes and plays the cithara, and as a ship's captain manages a ship. Mystically Bede: "The knowledge of heavenly life," he says, "is indeed necessary for the human soul, because without it, it cannot be blessed forever; nevertheless, he who with unbridled senses desires to know more than is fitting, often rashly incurs the offense of heretical folly. This was mystically signified first in the parents of the human race, who, while hastening with the appetite for greater knowledge to touch what was forbidden, deviating from the state of blessedness in which they were created, fell into the punishment of misery and mortality." AND HE THAT IS HASTY WITH HIS FEET SHALL OFFEND. — He opposes haste to knowledge, that is to prudence, because the prudent man proceeds slowly to his work (for feet are the symbol of action and work): for first he considers its reason, quality, manner, dangers, advantages, etc.; but the imprudent man, not considering these things, rashly hastens to the work, and therefore precipitates himself into dangers and losses both of guilt and of punishment. The wise man therefore is mature and slow, but the foolish man is hasty and headlong; whence that common saying: "Make haste slowly;" and: "A hasty dog bears blind puppies." Plato wisely says in the Statesman: "He who, he says, hastens too much at the beginning, arrives later at the end." The same, in book VII of the Republic: "While I hasten, he says, to run through all things quickly, I am slower." St. Augustine, Against Petilian, says that it happens to those who hasten with some disturbance that they put on their garment or shoes wrongly, which thing afterwards causes delay; the same thing happens in practice to those who attempt to do many things at once and quickly, and accomplish nothing. See the remarks on that passage, chapter xiii, verse 11: "Substance hastily gotten shall be diminished." Indeed, Augustus Caesar, as Suetonius testifies in his Life, chapter xxv, used to say, "nothing is less fitting for a perfect man than haste;" and he frequently threw about that saying: "Soon enough, if well enough." In warfare the delay of Fabius accomplished more than the precipitancy of M. Minutius; whence Ennius: One man by delaying restored our state to us. And Statius, Thebaid X, 699: Impetuosity ministers all things badly. Cyril represents this precept graphically, adorned with an apt parable of a horse and ox, with charming parables, in book I of his Moral Apology, chapter xii, whose title is: Proceed in all things with ordered gravity. "When, he says, a horse was running about agilely here and there, it met a laden ox proceeding gravely. To which it said: Why is your hoof divided, when under such a burden solidity would now be more opportune for you? But the latter replied: Surely he who made me provided for this, that I should always proceed thus, so that under the burden I might proceed with ordered gravity. Do you not know that often destruction is derived from a swift foot? For all mortal things are full of dangers; wherefore everywhere one ought to proceed with gravity, so that you might with a fixed foot, where the other is to be placed, provide healthily. Similarly slow wisdom is for men: for burdened with mortal senses and limbs, the light of wisdom hidden, situated in the highest places, they scarcely attain it in long times. And for this reason the more maturely they seek it, the more securely they find it. But we, if we proceed with slow gravity, labor more moderately, and that which we do, we perceive more clearly, and with the soul at rest, we judge all things better. For wisdom also reaches from end to end mightily, and disposes all things sweetly. Wherefore if we proceed slowly, we accomplish more quickly that which we intend. Because in this way we are led by the lamp of prudence, by which, going straight through the truth with deviations removed, we better provide for the end of the work." Then he confirms the same thing by a comparison of the heavens, a ship and rain: "Do you not see that the face of the heavens does not appear to change, and yet it is borne with the most rapid regularity? Nature does not permit the sudden, and those things which come upon us suddenly confuse and overturn the mind more. Unless a ship is hindered by gravity in immoderate course, it is dissolved, and a hastily born kitten is born blind. But with more moderate rain the earth becomes fertile, and cranes proceed not only more decently but also more healthily with ordered step. But you, dearest, because you are driven with swifter undivided hoof, are often confused by a fall, by which indeed you are also judged an unclean animal. Hearing this, the horse withdrew and blushed."
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3. THE FOOLISHNESS OF A MAN SHALL SUPPLANT HIS STEPS; AND HE SHALL BE ANGRY AGAINST THE LORD IN HIS MIND. — The Septuagint: the imprudence of a man lays waste his ways, and he accuses God in his heart; Symmachus: and his heart is angry against the Lord; the Chaldean: the foolishness of a man makes his way unstable, and his heart murmurs; the Syrian: he complains in his heart. For "fervet" the Hebrew word is זעף zaaph, which signifies to be disturbed, to be tossed about, to seethe: just as a pot of water seethes when forced by the violence of fire to boil; and just as the sea seethes when tossed by winds and waves. In a similar manner the soul of the fool, that is, the wicked man, is tossed by the waves of alternating passions, now anger, now sadness, now indignation; whence Aben-Ezra explains it, as if to say, "He is angry, he is sad, and when he is vexed, he does not place his hope in God." Now first, R. Solomon thus expounds it, as if to say: On account of his crimes a man is pressed down by adversities, when by reason of his folly he perverts his customs and incurs crimes, the penalties of which he pays; but when he is vexed by calamity, his anger seethes against God, and he devises machinations against the divine judgment, as is evident from the brothers of Joseph, who said: "What is this that God hath done to us?" Thus R. Levi: The folly of a man causes it to be that his affairs turn out badly; when he has desired something vehemently, which he has not approached with suitable deliberation: and after this, when the things he has thought out do not turn out according to his wish, his anger is vented against God, by whom he believes himself to be punished, when his intended designs are frustrated, and he does not notice that this has come about from his own folly. "Foolishness" here can be taken in two ways: first, properly for imprudence; second, for wickedness: for in this book the fool is commonly called the wicked man. The sense therefore is twofold. First, properly, as if to say: When a man has done something imprudently and foolishly, and on that account lacks the desired success, indeed has thrown himself into dangers and losses; he does not accuse his own imprudence and foolishness, but transfers it to God, and accuses God's providence, in that He has not directed and favored his actions, but has given him unhappy lots, chances and outcomes. Just as therefore the sea, when it seethes, seems to lift its waves to heaven and cast them: so the foolish, when they seethe with anger, lift their mouth to heaven, and cast murmurs and blasphemies against God, in that He has not prospered their affairs. But this is a remarkable foolishness, in that he is indignant against God and rises up against Him, to whom he can do harm in nothing, and whose hand and just vengeance he cannot escape. This is what Solomon properly intends here. Second, as if to say: "Foolishness," that is, impiety and wickedness, "of a man shall supplant his steps," that is, drives him into crimes and the penalties of crimes; but he assigns these very things not to his own foolishness, that is, wickedness (which is their true and proper cause), but to God; wherefore he murmurs against God, in that He by His providence, ordering all causes, has disposed them in such a way as to entice him into crimes and the penalties of crimes. Whence St. Augustine, epistle 105, reads: "The unwisdom of a man violates his ways, and he blames God in his heart." Thus Calvin with his followers casts back upon God as the first cause all the works of men, both evil and good. And Melanchthon sacrilegiously vomited forth that the betrayal of Judas is as much the work of God as the calling of Paul, which the Council of Trent, session VI, canon 6, condemns under anathema. The same did the Philosophers, who attributed all things, both good and evil, to fate; for they esteemed fate to be either God or God's providence, whom therefore St. Augustine refutes, book V of the City of God, chapter 1, St. Chrysostom, oration 3 On Providence; Lactantius, Justin, Athenagoras and others writing against the Gentiles. The same do rude Christians, and even the learned, when they are driven by the furies of anger and impiety. Then indeed the impious man, as the Psalmist says, sets his mouth against heaven: "They have set, he says, their mouth against heaven, and their tongue hath passed through the earth," Psalm lxxii, 9; and sacrilegiously provokes God with insults and curses. Indeed, Adam after his sin, being proud, assigning the blame of sin to Eve, tacitly turned it back upon God, saying: "The woman, whom thou gavest me a companion, gave me of the tree, and I did eat," Genesis iii, 12. Whence the Nazianzen in his Iambic on Anger: "I myself have seen, he says, stones, dust and harsh words which he cast at God." This is the sum of wickedness, this the apex and height of impiety, so that it is a wonder the earth does not gape open and swallow up the living, as it swallowed up alive Core, Dathan and Abiron murmuring against God and Moses, Numbers xvi. Whence Ecclesiasticus, rebuking such men, chapter xv, 11: "Say not, he says, God is absent from me; for what things he hateth, do thou not do. Say not: He hath caused me to err. For He hath no need of wicked men. The Lord hateth all abomination of error." See the sayings there. The a priori reason for this opinion is the very nature of foolishness and wickedness itself; for foolishness is nothing other than a foolish and proud love of oneself; for he is foolish because he labors under self-love, he loves himself excessively: hence he esteems himself too highly. Wherefore, when he errs and sins, he does not wish to see his own error and sin; but turning his eyes away from himself, he transfers it to God, taking occasion from the fact that God is the first cause of all things, who governs, disposes and orders secondary causes. But he deceives and is deceived. For God indeed disposes secondary causes, but each according to its own condition, namely necessary things necessarily, but free things freely. Wherefore He permits free things to their own liberty, so that it is in their power to work well or ill, and consequently to merit reward or punishment. Otherwise indeed God would be the cause of sin, which is as absurd as it is impious; for God, since He is most pure, best and most holy, abhors all sin, and has prepared hell for it. Therefore those speak as if they said that the sun, which is the source of light, is the source of darkness; or that fire, which is the source of heat, is the source of cold; or that the soul, which is the source of life, is the cause of death. For sin is darkness, cold and death of the soul: but God is the sun, fire and soul of our soul. Seeing this, the Manichaeans, although heretics and impious, nevertheless, in order to turn such wickedness away from God, feigned that there were two gods, one good, who would be the author of all good; the other evil, who would be the author of all evil and sin, for example the devil or Lucifer. See St. Basil, hom. That God is not the author of evils, where he says that to make God the author of sin is as much as to deny God; for God the author of sin is not God, but the devil. See also St. Augustine, On Grace and Free Will, cap. ii, where concluding, he says: "Let no one therefore accuse God in his heart, but let each one impute it to himself, when he sins."
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4. RICHES ADD MANY FRIENDS: BUT THE POOR MAN IS SEPARATED EVEN FROM HIM WHOM HE HAD. — The Septuagint: but the poor man is abandoned by his existing friend; the Syriac and Symmachus: but the poor man is separated from his friends; the Chaldean: riches bring many friends. The sense is clear, that is to say: Riches procure for the rich man many friends; because all desire to be friends of the rich man, so that they may share in his riches: wherefore they are friends not so much of the rich man as of his riches. But truly if anyone falls into poverty, he will acquire no friends; nay, he is even abandoned by others whom he had in more prosperous fortune: because all flee from the poor man and from poverty, inasmuch as they ought to expect nothing beneficial from it, but many inconveniences. For if they were true friends of the poor man, they would surely relieve his poverty with their own resources; for all things are common among friends. By this very fact, therefore, that they abandon their poor friend, they signify that they love not persons, but fortunes, and that they are not true, but mercenary and false friends. See the sayings at chapter xiv, 20, and Ecclesiasticus xiv, 25. Such therefore are like swallows, which in summer fly to warm regions, in winter flee away: so these fly to riches, they depart from the poor man. Riches therefore add many friends, in the manner that the smell of meat in cookshops attracts and allures many swarms of flies; but when the smell ceases, all fly away: so riches, by the hope of gain (for the sweet smell of profit), invite all to the rich man; but when the hope vanishes through poverty, immediately all scatter. Plato and the Philosophers drew the same from Solomon. For Plato's saying is in the Epigrams: Do you at last, having experienced it, know that ancient word, That he who has nothing has no friend at all? The Comic poets: He is a kinsman or anyone to the fortunate. And: To him whose lot is adverse, friends are far away. Petronius Arbiter: While fortune remains, you keep your countenance, friends: When she has fallen, you turn your faces in shameful flight. Plautus in the Epidicus: He is a friend who helps you in doubtful circumstances, When there is need of action. P. of the Mimes: Prosperous things procure a friend, adversity proves him. Ausonius: You prove friends in adverse circumstances. Symbolically, Jansenius understands by the rich man the liberal giver; by the poor man, the miser, that is to say: Riches liberally distributed add many friends, according to that saying of the Saviour: "Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity." But from him who is poor in spirit, that is, meager in doing good on account of avarice, even those friends whom he had are separated, being hateful to him on account of his avarice, or, as the Hebrew has it, the poor man is separated from his friend: which in the poor man through avarice has an excellent application, who is not only separated from his friend because he is abandoned by him, but because he himself abandons him first, fearing lest he be forced to spend anything on his friend, because he values money more than friendship. Mystically, Bede understands by the rich the Apostles and holy Doctors, who are rich and enrich many with grace and glory: by the poor, philosophers, as being empty of true virtues, grace and glory, that is to say: The riches of the heavenly kingdom, which are proclaimed by holy Doctors in distributing them to the faithful, acquire many friends both for the same preachers and for their giver the Lord. But from the Philosophers and other teachers of the Gentiles, because they know nothing certain of happiness in the future to promise, and those whom they had are separated, namely, those converted to the faith and the most certain hope of the Lord's passion. There is added also an anonymous writer in the Greek Catena: "It is treated here," he says, "of the riches of wisdom and knowledge; for these (inasmuch as they are adorned with virtues) join us to the friendship of Angels, from which an unclean and impure man, just as also from the Angel whom he received as a guardian from childhood, is separated. Such a one therefore according to virtue he calls poor, since spiritual friendship rests on virtue and knowledge. For through these we are associated with those sacred and heavenly virtues and powers."
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5. A FALSE WITNESS SHALL NOT BE UNPUNISHED: AND HE THAT SPEAKETH LIES SHALL NOT ESCAPE. — Namely, punishment and vengeance, either of men or of God. From the Hebrew, literally translated by Aquila, Theodotion and the Chaldean paraphrase: a false witness shall not be innocent, but innocent is taken by metonymy for unpunished, as also in Exodus xx, 7: "Neither shall the Lord hold him innocent," that is, unpunished, "who shall take the name of the Lord his God in vain." Some think the same thing is said in the second hemistich as in the first. Others more rightly judge that the first hemistich threatens punishment to a false witness only; the second hemistich extends the same punishment to anyone who fabricates a pernicious lie in any way to the harm of his neighbor, whether as a false witness, or as an accuser, or as an informer and slanderer, etc. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks, R. Levi, Jansenius and others. Whence the Septuagint, adapting it to the accuser, thus translates: a false witness shall not be unpunished; and he that accuseth unjustly shall not escape; Aquila and the Syriac: shall not escape safe. The sense therefore is, as if to say: A witness who imputes a false crime to another, or in any way testifies falsely, especially in judgment, shall not escape the punishment of retaliation justly appointed for falsifiers. For this falsity is usually discovered, either by the adverse party, which is unjustly harmed, or by the judge, or by another conscious of the falsity and hostile to it. Thus false witnesses accusing Susanna of adultery, by the law of retaliation underwent the stoning appointed for the adulterer, being convicted of falsity by Daniel, Daniel, chapter xiii. But if sometimes a false witness escapes the eyes and hands of men, certainly he shall not escape, nor shall he escape the eyes of God who sees all things and the hands of the almighty God, who shall punish this falsity and injury either with present or eternal punishment in hell. Similarly, he who speaks lies in any way, like bubbles blown from his mouth, by which he harms his neighbor either in reputation, or in fortune, or in liberty and life; because namely by his lie he is the cause that his neighbor is defamed, or despoiled of his wealth, or imprisoned, or killed: this man shall not escape the judgment and vengeance either of men, or certainly of God, who shall rise up as an avenger against him all the more sharply, the more powerful and just He is. For truth and the majesty of God are injured by this falsity far more gravely than those of men: wherefore God shall inflict a greater punishment for this greater fault and offense. But especially a false witness in judgment injures the holiness of God through the perjury which he commits; for the judge is accustomed to compel the witness to an oath, so that he swear by God that he will speak the truth; wherefore, when he swears falsely, he makes God a witness or accomplice of the falsity, which is a grave injury to God. Wherefore, wishing to vindicate His faith, God brings forth truth itself and brings it to light, and thus exposes the false witness, and punishes him as a falsifier and perjurer either by Himself or through the judge. Note: τὸ who speaketh lies in Hebrew is, who speaketh lies יפיח iaphiach, that is, breathes forth, or exhales; Vatablus, vomits. By which word is signified first, that this liar is shameless and impudent; for, since commonly a liar, being conscious of evil and fearing to be refuted, utters the lie with a trembling and gasping voice, yet when he becomes shameless and impudent, he exhales lies with a confident and strong voice, just as if he were uttering a certain truth fearlessly; second, that he breathes forth grave and abundant lies with force, just as a furnace breathes forth sparks; third, that he is worthy to have his breath and spirit cut off by strangulation, since he abuses it for breathing forth lies; fourth, that he cannot remain hidden for long. For just as the breath which we draw in by breathing we soon exhale (for breathing is a reciprocal motion of breath inspired and expired), so likewise a liar cannot long contain a lie without soon exhaling it, that is, recalling it, or betraying it by some signs. For a liar is inconstant, and what he has asserted he soon denies. Whence that saying: "A liar must have a good memory." Petrarch gives an example, book I of On the Solitary Life, in divers: "No one," he says, "lives long under water, he must burst forth, and open the brow which he had hidden:" for breath cannot be contained long. More concerning the word iaphiach, that is, breathes forth, I have said above.
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6 AND 7. MANY COURT THE PERSON OF THE POWERFUL, AND FRIENDS ARE THOSE WHO GIVE GIFTS. THE BROTHERS OF A POOR MAN HATE HIM: MOREOVER HIS FRIENDS ALSO HAVE WITHDRAWN FAR FROM HIM. — In Hebrew it is in the singular, and friend, that is each one of the friends, says Aben-Ezra, has withdrawn from him. For powerful, in Hebrew it is נדיב nadib, that is liberal, and from this powerful and prince, as Our translation renders it, as do the Syriac, Chaldaic and Septuagint, both because the liberal man deserves to be raised to principality; and conversely because it especially befits princes to be liberal, so that it may appear to them to be their own and royal gift. The Hebrew therefore word for word thus has it, many entreat the face of the liberal man, and every friend is (is, or wishes to be) to the man of gifts, that is to the munificent man, who bestows abundant gifts. Thus Vatablus, Pagninus and others. Again for many, in Hebrew it is רבים rabbim, which sometimes signifies the great men, as is evident from Jeremiah lxi, 1. Whence first, Aben-Ezra, R. Levi and Vatablus thus translate it, the great men, or the nobles will entreat the face of the liberal man; and every friend (is) of the munificent man, so as to commend liberality, as if to say, The liberal and munificent man is so distinguished and excellent, that even the great men entreat him, that he bring them aid, or that he not deny them the bond of goodwill. Our translation with the Septuagint, Syriac and Chaldaic renders it, powerful, on account of the reasons already stated, and on account of the antithesis with the poor man, of which the following verse speaks. The plain sense therefore is, as if to say, Almost all men court rich and powerful men, because they fear their power and love it; they fear, lest through it they be harmed; they love it, because from it they expect gifts and benefits. On the other hand they neither fear nor love the poor man, but hate him and withdraw from him, not only brothers, but also friends, who often love a friend more than brothers, as was said in the preceding chapter, last verse. This is what was said in verse 4: "Riches make many friends, but from the poor even those whom he had are separated;" and elsewhere often. By which he signifies first, the advantage of riches, in that they gain many friends; and the disadvantage of poverty, in that all flee from it equally as from the poor: so that by this means he may incite each one to honest labor, by which he may prepare for himself moderate means and thereby friends; and to the flight of idleness, which is the cause of poverty, which all flee and abhor. Again, that one ought not to trust in friends, because many are truly not friends of the rich, but of riches, and therefore are false and simulated, as I said in verse 4. Wherefore Agapetus the Deacon, in his Admonition to the Emperor Justinian, earnestly exhorts him to beneficence, so that through it he may gain for himself men, indeed God. For thus he says, no. 35: "Consider that you reign safely only when you rule over willing men. For what is subjected with unwilling mind wavers amid seditions; meanwhile wicked men bring reproach and disgrace to the prince rather than glory." Then he explains thus: "Those who have regard for external dignity or authority easily fall into the vice of προσωποληψίας and flattery. But the man who is sincere and truthful to the wicked, of whatever condition or quality they may be, does not flatter, nor does he cringe servilely, but whomever he knows to be such, he openly rebukes and corrects. He admonishes here those who are accustomed to be soothed by the obsequiousness of others and to be exalted by their words, such as kings and princes, lest they easily allow such flattering worship to be paid to them by the wicked, since from this scarcely anything else can result except disgrace and reproach; for whether the flatterer is given money or any other thing whatever, he always flatters basely and sordidly." Seizing the occasion; but what is governed by the bonds of goodwill maintains stable obedience toward the ruler." And no. 44: "The riches of beneficence are inexhaustible. For by giving they are acquired, and by scattering they are gathered. Having these implanted in your mind, most munificent Emperor, give abundantly to all who ask of you. For you will have infinite rewards for them, when the time of rewarding works shall come." And no. 48: "Be to your subjects, most pious emperor, both formidable, on account of the excellence of power; and lovable, on account of the generosity of beneficence. Neither despising fear on account of love: nor likewise neglecting love on account of fear; but displaying both clemency not to be despised, and punishing with harsh severity familiarity not to be despised." And no. 58: "A fortress indeed, fortified with impregnable walls, despises the enemies besieging it; but your pious empire, since it is both girt about with liberality toward the wretched as with a wall, and strengthened with the towers of prayers, becomes invincible and impervious to no enemy missiles, raising splendid and celebrated trophies against them." Mystically Jansenius: Many, he says, honor the person of the mighty one, that is Christ; for many began to honor him, and to entreat his face, and to seek his grace and favor (for in Hebrew, to honor a person is to entreat his face), after ascending on high he became mighty and generous, distributing the various gifts of his Spirit in different ways, according to that: "Ascending on high, he led captivity captive, he gave gifts to men." But also the brothers and friends of the Jewish people, after he became poor in the understanding of the Scriptures and the gifts of God, began to hate him and to abandon him, because the Apostles and Jews sprung from them became estranged from them. Moreover the Chaldean and the Septuagint read הרע harea, that is friend, with another pointing as הרע hara, that is evil. Whence the Chaldean translates, many are they that minister before the prince, and the evil one gives gifts; in Hebrew, and the evil man of gifts; Symmachus, a man of gifts, as if to say, Many serve the prince, but the evil ones flatter him more, and are more importunate and pressing: hence they extort more gifts from him; whereas the good and upright, because they are sincere, honest and modest, know not how to flatter and to make improper requests, whence they obtain fewer things; but these are honored by the prince through their probity, those are dishonored and brought to shame by their dishonesty. Whence the Septuagint translates, many honor the face of the prince; but every evil man becomes a reproach to a man. Which some thus expound by antithesis, as if to say, The prince and the generous one by his generosity conciliates and makes friends of all: but the evil one, that is the sordid and avaricious one, to a man, that is to anyone, is hateful and a reproach. But truly the Author of the Greek Catena otherwise renders this sentence from the Septuagint, and more aptly explains it from the Hebrew and Chaldean from St. Chrysostom, as if twisted toward flatterers of princes; for thus he translates, many on all sides observe and honor the face of the king; whose voice St. Chrysostom weighing, as if it contained an admonition not of flatterers, but of princes, teaches that princes ought to beware of flatterers, lest they give them place, when the Septuagint adds, everyone who hates a poor brother, also withdraws from friendship. Which you may take in two ways: First, as if to say, He who hates a poor friend shows himself truly not to be a friend: for it is the part of a friend to help a friend in necessity, for example when placed in poverty. Second, as if to say, He who hates poverty and the poor man, is unfit for friendship: for a friend adheres to and is joined with his friend in every fortune, and regards not the wealth of his friend, but his character and the honorable nature of friendship.
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8. HE WHO MERELY PURSUES WORDS SHALL HAVE NOTHING: BUT HE WHO IS A POSSESSOR OF MIND LOVES HIS OWN SOUL; AND HE WHO KEEPS PRUDENCE SHALL FIND GOOD THINGS. — In Hebrew, he who pursues words, not themselves (that is, they shall not be); possessing heart loves his own soul; keeping understanding to find good; the Chaldean and Syriac, where are those who attack with their words, nothing (of grace and friendship) shall remain for them. He who possesses a good heart keeps his own soul; he who keeps prudence shall find good. The Septuagint indeed adds more things which are not in the Hebrew, good thought shall draw near to those who know it, and a prudent man shall find (Author of the Greek Catena, shall easily discover) it. Many evils doing shall perfect malice; he who however contends (some read meconitii, that is pricks, goads) with words shall not be saved. He who possesses prudence loves himself; he who moreover keeps prudence shall find good things. For "shall perfect malice," the Author of the Greek Catena translates, shall reach the summit of malice. Now many join the first words: "He who merely pursues words shall have nothing," to the preceding verse. Whence first, the Rabbis in Berescit Rabba, that is in the Great Genesis, namely in the Great Commentary of Genesis, and from them R. Solomon here for אל חמה lo hemma, by א, that is not those, reading ול lo חמה hemma, by ו, that is those themselves, thus translate, he who pursues another with words, namely with accusations, calumnies or reproaches, those themselves, that is in that very thing shall recoil, shall be turned back upon his own head; and they explain it of Joseph the patriarch: He, they say, accused his brothers before his father falsely of three crimes, first, that they ate the limbs of the living: but this recoiled upon Joseph himself, when he himself while living was sold by his brothers to the Ishmaelites; second, that they despised the sons of his father's handmaids, namely of Bala and Zelpha: this also recoiled upon him, while he for this reason was led away into servitude by the Ishmaelites into Egypt, and was sold as a servant to Potiphar; third, that the brothers cast their eyes upon foreign women: this also recoiled upon him, while the wife of Potiphar cast her eyes upon Joseph, and when he refused to obey her had him cast into chains. But these are Rabbinic fables, indeed calumnies and blasphemies against Joseph the patriarch and an exceedingly holy Prophet: whose accusation of his brothers was therefore true, not a false calumny, as is evident from what I said in Genesis xxxvii, 2. More apt is what Aben-Ezra adds: "But he who is a possessor of mind," in Hebrew it is, he says, he who acquires heart, that is he who obtains knowledge (for this takes on the name of heart), he loves his soul, that is his life, so that he may extend it even to the age of old age. Second, better do others connect these thus to the preceding verse, as if to say, A friend withdraws from the poor man, who, while he pursues the words of promises made to him by friends, that is, while he demands them back, finds that they do not hold, but are empty and vain, and therefore he obtains nothing of those things which he pursued. But Our Author, the Chaldean, Syriac, Septuagint and others, that he who merely pursues words shall have nothing, refer to what follows: "But he who is a possessor of heart loves his soul;" for these are their antithesis. Whence first, our Salazar deeply understands by heart a secret; by him, "he who pursues words," the revealer of the secret, as if to say, Between the prudent and the imprudent this is the difference, that the imprudent man, not master of himself, with rashly poured forth words everywhere betrays his mind, and therefore keeps nothing of secret and hidden things for himself. But the prudent and cautious man "possessing heart" calls him who keeps his most prudent counsels with himself and locks them up. Secondly, more plainly, more fully, more generally and more adequately he opposes one who follows words to the possessor of mind, and to the guardian of prudence, that is, he who is nourished by words alone, to him who through wisdom possesses the heart, and he greatly prefers this one to that one, as if to say: He who is nourished by words is nourished by wind: for words, as soon as they are uttered, turn into wind and vanish: therefore he will have nothing; but he who is nourished by wisdom will possess it, indeed through it he will become possessor of the heart, that is, of the mind, so that he may wisely govern and arrange all his affections, actions, and movements according to the dictate of right reason and divine law. Wherefore such a one loves his own soul, because he consults well for himself, and procures for himself happiness and eternal glory. Therefore the guardian of wisdom and prudence will find goods both present on earth and eternal in the heavens. Whence Jansenius: The sense is, he says, as if to say: He who, whether by teaching or by hearing others, follows only words, that is, regards only the ornament of words, caring only that he speak well and elegantly, not that he bring forth or hear good and useful things; or he who does only this, that he speak or hear, but does not also do those things which he speaks or hears, will obtain no solid fruit therefrom: "For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." And: "Whosoever shall do and teach, so shall he be called great in the kingdom of heaven." But he who "is a possessor of the mind," or, as it is in Hebrew, of the heart, that is, he who is prudent, and is not content with words, but possesses wisdom within himself, and retains it in his mind, meditating continually on the law of God, he truly "loves his own soul," that is, himself, because he provides well for himself and does good to himself; and he who not only hears prudence, but also guards it in his mind and in his works, will find goods both in the present and in the future age: "Blessed are they who hear the word of God, and keep it." There is added also Lyra: "He who follows only words will have nothing." This, he says, is expounded in two ways. In one way concerning the disciple, who loves the ornament of words more than good knowledge, and he brings away nothing of truth from the teacher, or so little that it is reckoned as nothing. In another way concerning the teacher, who has good words and no deeds, and he will bring away no reward from God: and to this agrees the following letter, when it is said: "But he who is a possessor of the mind," through moral virtues, by which the sensitive powers are held in obedience to reason, "loves his own soul," because he wishes for it true good, which is the good of virtue. "And a guardian of prudence," which directs the moral virtues, "will find goods," of grace in the present, and of glory in the future. Thus far Lyra. Hence St. Thomas, I II, Question xxv, article 7, teaches that the good alone love themselves, but the wicked hate themselves, and he proves this from five properties assigned to love and friendship by Aristotle, lib. IX Ethic. cap. iv: "For each one, he says, who is a friend, first indeed wishes his friend to be and to live; secondly, he wishes good things for him; thirdly, he works good things toward him; fourthly, he lives pleasantly with him; fifthly, he agrees with him, as if delighted and saddened by the same things. And according to this the good love themselves, as to the interior man, because they also wish him to be preserved in his integrity, and they desire for him his goods, which are spiritual goods, and they also intend to attain to works; and they return pleasantly to their own heart; because there they find good thoughts in the present, and memory of past goods, and hope of future goods, from which pleasure is caused. Similarly also they do not suffer in themselves a dissension of will, because their whole soul tends to one thing. On the contrary, however, the wicked do not wish to be preserved in the integrity of the interior man, nor do they desire spiritual goods, nor do they work toward this, nor is it pleasant for them to live with themselves by returning to the heart; because they find there evils both present and past and future which they abhor; nor do they agree with themselves because of remorse of conscience, according to that of the psalm: I will reprove thee, and set before thy face thy sins. And by the same thing it can be proved that the wicked love themselves according to the corruption of the exterior man, but the good do not love themselves in this way." Therefore he who pursues words is like a chameleon which feeds on air; but he who pursues wisdom, by which he becomes possessor of mind, is like a man who feeds on solid food, by which he is strengthened and invigorated for manly and heroic works: the former is a philologist, the latter a philosopher; the former hunts after verbose and empty eloquence, the latter after real and solid wisdom; to him you might say what a wise man said to a talkative orator or quibbling advocate: "A river of words begins and a drop of mind." And that which a Lacedaemonian said to a nightingale, when he found scarcely any meat after plucking its feathers, as Plutarch testifies in his work on the Lacedaemonians: "You are a voice, and nothing besides." Wherefore Thales, who was the first of the seven Sages of Greece, says in Laertius, book I, chapter i, "many words do not argue wisdom." For a wise man speaks only when the matter demands it, and completes his opinion in few words: therefore the foolish man is a jackdaw, because he is garrulous; but the wise man is a swan, because he is silent and wise in mind. Hence that saying of Gregory of Nazianzus, epistle 1 to Celesius who reproached him for his silence: "Then will the swans sing, when the jackdaws have fallen silent." Similar to the verbose are the proverbs of the Greeks and Latins. In the epistle of Synesius to Theophilus: "Speech is the lightest of things;" of Homer, who everywhere calls words ἔπεα πτερόεντα, that is, winged or feathered; of Juvenal: "The irrevocable word flies forth;" of Cicero: "The words of Hermodorus are merchandise." For Hermodorus sold the words and writings of Plato as merchandise. To this belong those sayings worn by use: "More talkative than a dove, more vocal than a cicada; the chatter of swallows; an Arabian piper; the rattle of Archytas; the bronze of Dodona; the Daulian crow; Tongue, where are you going? Telonian Echo; λογέμπορος, one who brings nothing but words; Words for flour," when on the contrary the Jurist warns, "property is to be increased by things, not by words; to babble with words; to fight with words, not with deeds; be not moved by the noise of words."
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9. A FALSE WITNESS SHALL NOT GO UNPUNISHED: AND HE THAT SPEAKETH LIES SHALL PERISH. — Understand by "lies" those that are harmful and destructive; for these are full and perfect lies, such as those of slanderers, whisperers, seditious persons, heretics, etc., who by their lies and calumnies stir up quarrels and wars. Whence the Septuagint translates, "he that kindleth evil shall perish by it." For by just vengeance of the Godhead it comes to pass that whisperers, slanderers, seditious persons, etc., when their falsehood and perversity are discovered, pay the penalty either through a judge, or through the people, or through God, or are involved in the common calamity of the quarrel and war which they have stirred up, and are slain and perish with those who quarrel. This sentence is repeated; for we have heard the same thing in verse 5, where I explained it more fully.
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10. DELICACIES ARE NOT SEEMLY FOR A FOOL, NOR FOR A SERVANT TO HAVE RULE OVER PRINCES. — In Hebrew, it is not seemly for a fool to have pleasure, or delight, how much less for a servant to have rule over princes, repeat it is not seemly; the Septuagint, delicacies do not befit a fool, and if a servant begin to rule with insolence, or to have dominion over a potentate and prince; for the Greek δυναστεύειν signifies both, as the Author of the Greek Catena notes. First, Vatablus thus expounds it, as if to say, It is not seemly for a fool to have pleasure, that is, it is not seemly for a fool to enjoy peace of conscience, which is the highest joy. The reason is, because he has a conscience like himself, that is, foolish, rash and impious, which breathes nothing but turbidity, tumults, quarrels and strife; whence he cannot enjoy peace. Secondly, others, as if to say, It is not seemly for a fool to delight himself in false opinion of wisdom, and to flatter himself, namely by persuading himself that he is wise, indeed the eighth of the Sages, and the wisest of mortals, as we see proud fools often foolishly persuade themselves. For what is more arrogant than this? what more foolish? Much less is it seemly, if he be a servant, that is, a man of low and vile station, to carry himself so as to esteem himself to excel princes in wisdom or industry, etc., and to despise them in comparison with himself. Thirdly, plainly and genuinely, as if to say, It is not seemly for a fool to indulge himself, or to be treated delicately by a master and others, much less is it seemly for a servant to have dominion, that is, to rule imperiously and to command (for this is משל meschol) over princes. He aptly compares a fool to a servant, because a servant is of servile, that is, dull and stupid, nature like a fool; conversely a fool is a servant of his own foolishness and foolish desire. It is an argument from the lesser to the greater, as is evident from the Hebrew, as if to say, If it is not seemly for a fool to indulge himself, much more is it not seemly for a servant to have dominion, and that over men who are princes. For "are not seemly" in Hebrew is לא נאוה lo nave, that is, it is not seemly, it is not beautiful, nor comely, that is, it is base, unworthy and very harmful: it is a meiosis. Fool throughout this book is understood not physically, that is, one bereft of mind: for such a one is temperate like a brute beast, and takes no more delicacies than nature bears; but ethically, that is, imprudent, unwise, one who foolishly follows his own desires and sense before reason, human things before divine, carnal things before spiritual. The reason a priori is that a fool is free and dissolute, who immediately seizes whatever he desires, and takes pleasure in it, fills himself and becomes intoxicated. Therefore discipline rather than delights befits him, chastisement rather than feasting, the rod rather than wine; but it befits a servant by his nature, condition and character to serve, not to rule. Wherefore it is unseemly, as if the order of nature were inverted, if delights are given to an undeserving fool, who abuses them and becomes more foolish and insolent; but not to a wise man, who deserves them and uses them rightly, so that he may better and more pleasantly devote himself to prayer, study and wisdom. Much more unseemly is it if a stupid servant imperiously rules over masters and wise princes, whose office it is to rule and command, especially since a servant, if raised to principality, becomes proud and insolent, and rules tyrannically, and rages against the free and the powerful, as if opposed to him and wholly adverse by nature, which appears unworthy, tyrannical and intolerable, and is often the cause of the overthrow of king and kingdom. Whence that passage in chapter xxx, 21: "By three things the earth is troubled, and the fourth it cannot bear: by a servant when he reigneth; by a fool when he is filled with bread; by an odious woman when she is married; and by a handmaid when she is heir to her mistress." Understand these things of servants born and educated in servility, or of those who are servile in nature and character, and therefore dull, vile and abject. For a servant liberally educated, or one who excels in wisdom and spirit, is not so much a servant as free, and often commands free men and nobles, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus x, 28: "A wise servant shall be served by free men." Thus the sixth king of the Romans was born a servant and of a servant woman, and was therefore called Servius Tullius: for when a flame flashed forth around his head as he slept as a boy, Tanaquil, the wife of King Tarquinius Priscus, marveling at this prodigy, educated Servius, born of a servant woman, after the manner of a son, and raised him to the royal throne, as Valerius Maximus says, book I, chapter vi; and this Servius was the chief lawgiver, as Tacitus says, book III. Thus Joseph, servant of Potiphar, on account of his wisdom and prophecy, was raised by Pharaoh to the principality of Egypt, Genesis chapter xli, 40. But truly wise servants, when they are raised to a higher rank, or even to a kingdom, strive exceedingly for modesty and humility, so that they may mitigate the unworthiness of the matter, and lull to sleep the envy of the nobles, and win them over to themselves. Thus did Agathocles, who, made king of Sicily from being a potter, dined in pottery vessels, so that mindful of his former humble fortune he did not prefer himself to his subjects, but made himself equal to them, indeed inferior; concerning whom Ausonius speaks elegantly and wisely in Epigrams, section 1: Fame tells that King Agathocles dined from earthenware vessels and often loaded the abacus with Samian clay. When he set forth golden dishes in gem-studded vessels, and mingled riches and poverty together, when asked the reason he replied: I am king of Sicily, yet I was born of a potter father. Reverence fortune, whoever you are, if you suddenly become rich from a lowly place. Mystically, it is not fitting to indulge foolish concupiscence with delights, but rather to restrain it from them, lest it rush like a pig into mud into gluttony, drunkenness, lust and other crimes. Similarly it is not fitting for a servant to rule over his master and prince, that is, for the body to rule over the soul, and sense over reason and mind, but rather to be subject to it and to be ruled by it; for if the body obtains dominion against the mind, no spiritual delights will profit it, says the Author of the Greek Catena. And he adds: "The saints spend their lifetime in continuous delights of spiritual things. To these indeed pertains that saying: Delight in the Lord, and he will give thee the petitions of thy heart; but these delights have no place among fools and the wicked." Again, it is not fitting for a servant, that is, one who serves his passions and vices, to be raised to prince or prelate, so that he may rule over the wise and princes, namely the good and just, who wisely rule their desires, soul and affections. Thus Bede: "It is not fitting," he says, "for a heretic to have the delights of the Scriptures, because he does not know how to use them well; nor for him who is proved still to be a servant of sin to be preferred to others in the governance of the Church."
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11. THE LEARNING OF A MAN IS KNOWN BY PATIENCE: AND HIS GLORY IS TO PASS OVER WRONGS. — "Learning" here is understood not speculatively, but practically, namely wisdom, prudence, discretion. For many are learned speculatively, who nevertheless are impatient; indeed speculation not rarely causes impatience; but truly he who is wise and prudent is at the same time patient. In Hebrew, the understanding of a man prolongeth his nose, that is his anger; for anger is seen in the nostrils. Whence the Hebrews call him long in the nostrils who is slow to anger; but him short or narrow in the nostrils, they call swift and prone to anger. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Understanding and wisdom prolongeth anger, that is, maketh a man powerful against anger, patient and long-suffering. For prudence is the mother of patience; for it dictates in adversities that it, as the sole remedy of evils, ought to be exercised and undertaken. Symmachus and Theodotion, the prudence of a man is his long-suffering; the Syrian, the learning of a man is patience; R. Solomon, if a man overcome anger, he shall excel in mind; the Chaldean, the understanding of a man is to defer his fury; Aben-Ezra, by the prudence and learning of a man fury is protracted; R. Levi, the prudence of a man prepareth to prolong anger, lest he be easily inflamed by it, when those things occur which are wont to stir up bile; the Septuagint truly, a merciful man is long-suffering, because namely prudence dictates mercy, namely that the infirmities, defects, taunts and injuries of neighbours are to be borne mercifully and long-sufferingly; prudence therefore begets patience by means of mercy, according to that: "Charity is patient," I Cor. xiii. For thus also mercy is patient, nay compassionate. Now first, St. Gregory, hom. 35 in Evang., and III, part. Pastor. admon. 10, taketh these things of teachers; for it is theirs to confirm what they teach by patience. "By the vice of impatience," saith he, "the very doctrine which is the nurse of virtues is scattered. For it is written: The learning of a man is known by patience. Therefore each one is shown to be less learned, the more he is convicted of being less patient. For neither can he truly bestow good things by teaching, if by living he know not how to bear patiently the evils of others with equanimity." To this are added Bede and Lyra, who take these things of the Apostles and Apostolic men, who sealed their doctrine and preaching of the Gospel with their patience of so many labours, pains, death and martyrdom. In fact they showed how true and salutary was the doctrine of Christ, since they did not hesitate to die for it, and since they generously passed over all wrongs, that is, all the allurements of iniquities repugnant to this doctrine, so that they might conform themselves and their deeds in all things to it. It is signified therefore that the Apostles confirmed their doctrine by two things, namely by patience, and by the innocence of their life. Therefore these authors take learning actively, namely that the teacher proveth and corroborateth what he teacheth by patience and holiness. Secondly, others take learning passively, namely which the disciple receiveth and drinketh in from the teacher, as if to say, A worthy disciple showeth himself to be zealous for saving doctrine and true wisdom. First, by patience, by which he both heareth the master patiently, and from his doctrine beareth all adversities with equanimity, according to that of James cap. 1: "But let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak, and slow to anger;" for eagerness of hearing and slowness of speaking, begetteth slowness of being angered. Secondly, by the flight of iniquity, if namely wrongs are passed over; for this the teacher teacheth, and wisdom itself teacheth. Thirdly, Jansenius thus explaineth from the Hebrew: The Hebrew, saith he, have, the understanding of a man maketh to prolong (or defer) his anger. For he who is understanding and prudent is slow to anger and vengeance, both because he weigheth that he himself committeth many things which are to be punished more severely by God, if he continue to be severe towards his neighbour; and because he observeth that it is unbecoming to obey his passions, and straightway to rush forth to vengeance and anger; furthermore, anger hindereth the mind, so that it cannot discern the truth, and from the hastening of vengeance very often those things are omitted which afterwards displease. "For the anger of a man worketh not the justice of God." Our Salazar adds to this, who thus explains it from the Chaldean: The Chaldean translator renders it, the understanding of a man is to defer fury, and his beauty is to pass by malice. And it agrees with the Hebrew, the understanding of a man prolonged his nose. For what else is it to prolong the nose but to defer indignation? And to defer anger is to extinguish it: for indignation rages suddenly and ceases suddenly; and so whoever does not immediately obey it, deceives and eludes it by deferring it. And indeed in this dilation of anger the wisdom of a man is chiefly declared. For since reason alone can restrain anger, whoever immediately checks its sudden impulses (which are known to be sharp and vehement) clearly shows that reason is very vigorous in him; and so not to be angry, not to be indignant when receiving injuries, is the greatest sign of wisdom. This sense is subtle and apt, but narrower, and does not equal the force and weight of the Hebrew sentence and the Vulgate version, nor does it exhaust the meaning. For the Hebrew to prolong the nose, that is anger, signifies not merely to defer anger; but to lull it to sleep, and utterly to extinguish it through patience and longsuffering. Therefore fourthly, plainly, fully and adequately, as if to say: Doctrine, that is, as in Hebrew, understanding and prudence, of a man prolongs anger, that is makes him longsuffering, patient and slow to anger, nay rather the master and lord of anger, so that at will according to circumstances he may assume and lay it down: for true prudence dictates that patience is to be used in adversities; and therefore "doctrine," that is prudence, "of a man is known through patience," as our translator rendered it. From the fact that prudence causes patience, rightly from patience, as from an effect, you recognize prudence as its cause, so that you have a true and certain consequence, and an argument from effect to cause: This man is patient; therefore he is prudent, because prudence infallibly causes patience. Conversely from the cause you infer the effect: Peter is wise; therefore he is also patient. And conversely: Judas is impatient; therefore unwise. Conversely: Judas is unwise; therefore impatient. Solomon says this to refute the error of the common people. For the common people esteem those who patiently tolerate reproaches and injuries to be simple and fainthearted, vile and abject. Therefore Solomon teaches the contrary here, namely first, that those are remarkably wise and prudent who patiently endure reproaches and adversities; secondly, that those are magnanimous and glorious who do not avenge injuries, but transcend and despise them with great spirit. This is indeed what he adds: "And his glory is to pass by iniquity." He alludes to the physiognomy of man and animals; for all animals which have short nostrils and breathe moderately are weak and infirm: but those which have long and wide nostrils and draw in great breath are strong and vigorous, and apt for bearing great burdens, because they abound in heat, and thence in strength. For this reason they draw in great breath, because they are of great strength, and in order to temper the great heat by which they burn. So those who have long nostrils, as the Hebrew has it, that is, who draw long the breath of patience, are of great and strong spirit to endure many adversities bravely; but those who have short nostrils, that is narrow breath of patience, are of small and weak spirit to endure adversities, hard and grave. Again, the length of nostrils is a sign of wisdom and prudence, as Aristotle testifies in the Physiognomy. Whence that saying: And boys have the nose of a rhinoceros. Thus therefore Physics agrees with and serves Ethics, namely the length of nostrils designates the prudent and strong, just as length of spirit, that is patience and longsuffering, is a sign of a wise, strong and magnanimous spirit. Whence that passage in Canticles vii, 4: "Thy nose is as the tower of Libanus, which looketh toward Damascus," on which passage see St. Gregory, Rupert, Philo the Carpathian, our Delrio and Gislerius. The reason a priori is first, that the wise and prudent man wisely understands that in this life so unhappy and miserable, many adversities are to be expected and endured by man, and therefore he prepares himself so that through patience he may easily endure them; for he knows that if he be impatient in them, he will double the evil and the sense of evil: for he will be tormented both by the sense of the evil and by the sense of his impatience, when he would have only simple pain if he were patient; for he will be afflicted only by the sense of the evil, but he will diminish and alleviate even this through patience. Add that if he be impatient, he will incur the offense of God, and the guilt of new punishment and torment to be inflicted by Him. Whoever therefore is wise, in order to avoid this offense and guilt, guards against impatience and strives for patience. Secondly, that the wise man prudently understands the highest good of this life and of the soul to be peace, and that peace is born from patience; wherefore in all adversities he embraces patience, so that he may obtain the peace of soul so greatly desired. Whence St. Chrysostom, hom. 33 in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "Gentleness, he says, and patience is the root of all philosophy; wherefore a certain wise man used to say: A patient man is of great prudence." For, as Christ says in Luke xxi: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." Thirdly, that the wise man is of great soul, wherefore he tolerates great things, according to that saying of Seneca in the Troades: The more you are able to do, the more things you will patiently bear. Again, he understands that vengeance is the work of an abject and womanish soul, and therefore he deems himself unworthy of it, according to that of Juvenal, satire 13: It is the pleasure of a weak and petty soul to take vengeance: straightway thus gather, that vengeance No one rejoices in more than a woman. Hence it follows that the measure of wisdom is the measure of patience, and as much as anyone grows in patience, so much does he also grow in wisdom. Whence St. Gregory, lib. II in Ezekiel, hom. 21: "It is written, he says: The learning of a man is known by patience. If therefore patience is the index of learning, each one is shown to be learned in proportion as he has been patient." Now there are three degrees of patience: the first is to suffer adversities patiently; the second, willingly; the third, to endure joyfully whatever hardships. These are the same degrees of wisdom. Whence St. Bernard asserts this third degree to be proper to wisdom, which takes its name from taste, and therefore tastes and savors adversities: "It pertains to virtue, he says, to bear injuries bravely, to wisdom to rejoice in tribulations: for to endure the Lord is the part of virtue; but to taste and to see that the Lord is sweet, is the part of wisdom." See the same, serm. 48 in the Canticles, and the sermon On Wisdom, Obedience and Patience. Fourthly, that he often knows that anger and vengeance do not remove, but increase and exacerbate evil, both his own, who suffers it, and that of the enemy or rival, who commits and inflicts it; whereas patience soothes, calms and extinguishes both. Finally, the wise man of great soul knows it to be his part to show himself superior and more sublime than any injury, fortune and adversity; wherefore he generously despises all things, and fixes his mind on God and heaven as one superior to the world, a citizen of the Angels, possessor of his soul, lord of heaven, son of God and heir. The exemplar of this wisdom was Christ the Lord, who showed the highest wisdom in the highest patience of the greatest torments and the most bitter cross; so much so that this patience was a certain proof of his divinity, namely that he was God, who tolerated such things so calmly and strongly, especially because he tolerated them because he had said that he was God, and to show that he truly was, as he had said, God. For unless he had been truthful and holy, he certainly could not have tolerated such things. For a liar and a proud boaster would have failed a thousand times in such great torments, and would have shown his boasting and impatience. This is what the Apostle says, Ephesians iii, 18: "That you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth; to know also the supereminent charity of Christ." Where I have treated at length of the four dimensions of the cross of Christ, equally of patience and charity. On the other hand, St. Chrysostom in the place already cited: "The gentle and patient man is therefore called μακρόθυμος, that is, longanimus, because he has a certain long and great soul: for what is long is also said to be great; and hope makes the soul long." And Valerius Maximus, lib. III: "To conduct oneself with longsuffering in adversities, he says, what else is it than to turn fierce fortune, conquered by shame, to one's own aid?" AND HIS GLORY PASS BY UNJUSTLY. The Chaldean paraphrase, and his beauty (the Syrian, praise) surpasses malice; Aquila, his boasting passes over transgression; Symmachus, his splendor surpasses injustice. First, R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Bede and others explain it, that is to say, The glory of man is to flee iniquity and to pursue equity. The honor and dignity of a man, which is conferred upon him by others, consists in this, that he passes over crimes with untroubled step. But what does this have to do with the first hemistich? Second, the Septuagint translates, and his boasting comes upon the wicked, which the Scholiasts explain, that is to say, The boasting of the just is to punish the wicked, for this is the glory and dignity of vindicative justice. But this sense seems to be at odds with the preceding hemistich. Whence more plainly and fittingly the author of the Catena of the Greeks thus explains it, that is to say, While the pious and merciful man suffers, the wicked exult and boast. Third, Jansenius and Vatablus, that is to say, The glory of man is to connive at the transgression of his brother. For a man of excellence dissimulates the lapses of others, and as if does not see them; because he thinks of higher things, and his mind dwells in heaven with God and the Blessed. Fourth, genuinely, plainly and aptly to the first hemistich, that is to say, It is not shameful, as the common people think, but honorable and glorious to pass over, despise and leap over with a high step and exalted spirit the contempt, transgressions (for the Hebrew פשע pesca signifies these) and injuries inflicted upon oneself. Whence the Zurich Bible translates, A prudent man defers his anger, and by dissimulating offenses becomes greater and greater. In Hebrew it is עכר על פשע abor al pesca; which you first translate, to pass along or by transgression, or iniquity. For just as pilgrims, when they go into a distant region, are there sometimes laughed at by boys and inhabitants, and are assailed with taunts and reproaches, on account of their foreign dress, language and customs; yet they, knowing themselves to be pilgrims, dissimulate all these things, and silently, as if they did not pertain to them, pass by, and continue on their way, longing to reach the desired end of their journey. So likewise a wise and patient man, knowing himself to be a pilgrim on earth, but a citizen of heaven and a member of God's household, passes over, dissimulates, does not care about, indeed does not regard all the injuries, reproaches and adversities which he sustains in his pilgrimage through this earthly life, as if they did not pertain to him, and through patience strives on to the heavenly homeland; and says with the Psalmist: "But I, as a deaf man, heard not: and as a dumb man not opening his mouth," Psalm xxxvii, 14. Second, you translate abor al pesca, to pass or leap over transgression. For just as travelers, if they fall into filth, ditches, or sewers, do not pass through them lest they be soiled, but by widening their step or by leaping transcend and leap over them: so likewise the wise man with great spirit overcomes and transcends all taunts, insults, injuries, and despises them as vile and base things placed below him, tramples them under foot, and as if placed in heaven looks down from on high and laughs at them. St. Chrysostom gives the reason a priori, homily 22 on the epistle to the Romans, and 16 on the epistle to the Ephesians, that holy and supreme vengeance is to dissimulate and forgive an injury: "Nothing," he says, "so much brings confusion upon one who inflicts evil as the strong forbearance of the patient man, and neither in word nor in deed to return vengeance." St. Basil, homily On Anger: "If you despise an enemy, you will avenge yourself upon him more sharply. For what can be harder for an adversary than for you to bear a spirit superior to all injuries? Let him bark at you in vain, let him burst within himself." Recently Philip II, King of Spain, wonderfully patient and master of his anger, when a hasty servant poured ink instead of powder into a letter written by his own hand to the Pontiff, smiled, and asked for another sheet to rewrite the letter, saying: "He who knows not how to forbear, knows not how to reign." This is signified by the Hebrew תפארת tipharto, that is, his glory, beauty, ornament, splendor, magnificence; and it is a gradation, that is to say, It is the part of the wise man to bear adversities patiently, and so extraordinary wisdom is patience: but truly to pass over adversities, reproaches and injuries, that is, to dissimulate, despise, and as if not to see, not to care, to make nothing of them, is not only great wisdom, but also glory, splendor and magnificence; for this indicates, indeed it makes a man glorious, splendid and magnificent, as being superior to praise and blame, higher than earth; and beginning to enjoy the fellowship, happiness and glory of God and the Angels, whom no reproaches touch. Again, for "passing over iniquity" in Hebrew is עכר על פשע abor al pesca; whence St. Chrysostom, homily 41 on Acts, dares to say: "Not to avenge does not make one equal to God." St. Isidore, book II of the Soliloquies: "Great," he says, "is virtue, if you do not harm him by whom you have been harmed; great is fortitude, if even when harmed you forgive; great is glory, if you spare him to whom you could have done harm." Indeed, even Seneca: "It is," he says, "the mark of a great soul to despise injuries, etc. It is the mark of a petty and wretched man to return the bite, like mice and ants, to which if you turn your hand, they turn their weak mouths; they think themselves harmed if they are touched." A remarkable example was provided by the Emperor Theodosius, who enacted a constitution in this manner, by a single law, chapter Si quis: "If anyone," he says, "ignorant of modesty and unaware of shame, should dare to assail our name with improper and petulant abuse, and as a turbulent detractor made bold by drunkenness should speak against our times, we do not wish him to be subjected to punishment, nor do we wish to endure anything harsh or severe: for if it has proceeded from levity, it is to be despised; if from madness, it is most worthy of compassion; if from injury, it is to be forgiven." Truly a voice worthy of so great a prince, and one which princes ought to have inscribed in golden letters in their halls and display there. Socrates, the preeminent teacher of moral philosophy, perceived this in shadow, he who confirmed his teaching by a wondrous gentleness and patience of character, so much so that he not only from strangers, but even from his wife Xantippe endured not only unworthy words, but also blows, always with a calm and tranquil spirit, and finally endured imprisonment and death for truth, namely for the assertion and worship of the one God, inflicted by his fellow citizens, patiently and bravely, as Laertius testifies in his Life.
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12. AS THE ROARING OF A LION, SO ALSO IS THE WRATH OF A KING; AND AS DEW UPON THE GRASS, SO ALSO IS HIS CHEERFULNESS. — The Chaldean: the king's wrath roars like a lion, and as dew upon the grass is his will or good pleasure; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, his grace; the Syriac, his benevolence. For this is what the Hebrew רצון ratson signifies; Vatablus, clemency, as if to say, "As grass grows green with dew, so the people grows and gathers strength through the clemency of the king;" the Septuagint, the king's threats are like the roaring of a lion (Lucifer of Cagliari, Apology for St. Athanasius, reads "groanings"). For lion in Hebrew is כפיר kepir, that is, a young lion of middle age, namely midway between a cub and a lion of full age. For since this one, after the manner of youths, is hungry and has great appetite, hence he is most desirous of prey, and so roars, growls, groans and rages. The wrath of a king is similar to this, whether it be just or unjust. To the just wrath of a king St. Augustine applies this maxim, epistle 68 to Januarius, where he says that the Circumcellionite heretics attempted to stir up the Emperor's wrath against the Catholics, but God turned that same wrath against the heretics themselves: "It is written," he says, "that there is no difference between the threats of a king and the wrath of a lion. Slanderous enemies forced Daniel to be cast into a den of lions; his innocence overcame their malice, and he was raised up from there unharmed, while they themselves who were sent there perished. Similarly, your ancestors offered Caecilian and his company to be consumed by the royal wrath; his innocence was freed, and you suffer from the same kings the same things which your predecessors wished to inflict upon them, because it is written: He that diggeth a pit for his neighbour shall himself fall into it." Yet this maxim applies more fittingly to the unjust wrath of a king, as will soon be evident. Its first end and purpose is to show how much subjects ought to revere the king and obey him, lest they incur his wrath, terrible as that of a lion. For what the lion is among animals, that the king is among peoples; for the lion is the king of animals. Whence Amos, chapter iii, 8: "The lion shall roar," he says, "who will not fear?" The second is to admonish kings to restrain their wrath, lest, if they allow it to run unchecked, or rather obey it, they rage and tear the people like lions. Thus R. Levi. Whence St. Chrysostom, addressing the king, homily 4 on Matthew, admonishes him to hold and tame his wrath like a wild lion. And Seneca, book I On Clemency, chapter v: "It is not fitting," he says, "for a king to have savage and inexorable wrath. For he does not rise much above him to whom he makes himself equal by becoming angry. But if he gives life, if he gives dignity to those in peril and those deserving to lose it, he does what is permitted to none save one who has power over all things." Wherefore, in the same book, chapter vii, the same wise man admonishes kings: "If the gods," he says, "are placable and just and do not immediately pursue the faults of the powerful with thunderbolts, how much more justly should a man set over men exercise rule with a mild spirit, and consider whether the state of the world appears more pleasing to the eyes and more beautiful on a clear and pure day, or when frequent crashes shake all things and fires flash here and there? Yet the appearance of quiet and moderate rule is no other than that of a clear and shining sky; a cruel kingdom is turbid and darkened by shadows, amid those who tremble and are terrified at a sudden sound, and not unmoved is he who disturbs all things." The third is to admonish the electors of kings and princes not to choose an irascible king or prince, and one unable to control his wrath. For if such a one becomes king, he will ravage the people like a lion through robberies, slaughters, plunderings, etc.; and no one will be able to resist him. Such was Nero, who raged most cruelly against the citizens, against the Senate, against the Apostles, against all Rome. Whence the Apostle, II Timothy, chapter iv, 17: "I was delivered," he says, "out of the mouth of the lion," that is, of Nero. Wherefore those who wish well to the commonwealth should choose a king mild and gentle by nature, just as bees choose a king lacking the common sting and gentle. "Bees," says Seneca, book I On Clemency, chapter xix, "are most irascible and, for the size of their body, most warlike, and leave their stings in the wound: the king himself is without a sting, etc. Let it be a shame not to draw morals from such small animals, when the spirit of men ought to be so much more moderate as it is able to do greater harm." And after some remarks: "He errs who thinks it safe for a king where nothing is safe from the king; but safety must be secured by mutual safety. Clemency will make the king safe in the open: there is one impregnable fortification, the love of the citizens." And near the end of the chapter: "He holds a place next to the gods who conducts himself from the nature of the gods, beneficent and generous, and able to make things better. This it is fitting to strive for, this to imitate, so that he may be held greatest while at the same time being held best." Moreover, the wrath of a king is aptly compared to the roaring of a lion. First, because the lion is prone to wrath, and is almost always angry, and his wrath is grave, and therefore he roars and rages horribly. Hear Pliny, book VIII, chapter xvi: "The lion's tail is an index of his disposition, as are the ears of horses. When it is still, he is placid, merciful, and gentle-like, which is rare; for his wrath is more frequent. At the beginning the earth is struck: with increase of tail, or some incitement, his back is scourged." Thus likewise kings are by nature prone to wrath; for because they are exalted and lifted up, they do not bear to be injured or despised even in the least: whence, if this happens, they become angry, indignant and roar. Hence Seneca the poet, in tragedy 6: "The wrath of kings is always grave." And Seneca the philosopher, book III On Anger, chapter xxx: "We are disturbed, he says, by trifles and empty things; a ruddy color excites the bull, the asp rises at a shadow, all things which are by nature wild and rabid are confounded by vain things: the same also happens in quiet and dull natures, they are struck by suspicion of things, so that sometimes they call slight benefits injuries." Thus kings, not wise and grave, but proud and fierce, are struck by shadows as injuries and become indignant. Second, because just as the lion is wrathful and strong, and his wrath sharpens his strength, and conversely strength sharpens his wrath: so in a king wrath is joined with power, and therefore he is formidable. For, as Seneca says in the Proverbs: "It is a thunderbolt, where wrath dwells together with power." Hear St. Basil, homily 9 on the Hexaemeron: "Together with the lion, courage and a propensity to the heat of wrath are innate to him, a solitary life, devoid of society in those things which the race undergoes. For like some tyrant of irrational animals, he does not accept equal honors and meetings with others, but spurns them." Whence the Author of the Greek Catena: "The threats of kings, he says, are rightly compared to the roaring of lions. For if it seems so to them, they immediately kill without cause being declared. For who, if he wished, would prohibit them? Since the faculty of execution is joined to the will." Third, the roaring of a lion is so terrible that all animals are struck by it and are stupefied, so that they almost stand as if thunderstruck, nor do they move from their place, by which it happens that they cannot flee, but are seized and torn by the approaching lion. The lion therefore stops beasts far from him by his roaring; and then he runs to them and kills them. Thus likewise the voices, edicts and commands of kings strike all, however far away, nor can anyone escape them. For immediately the king's attendants are present to execute them. Hear St. Basil, in the place cited: "To which (lion) nature also provided such instruments for producing voice, that many animals far swifter than he himself are often captured by his roaring alone." St. Ambrose, book VI of the Hexaemeron, chapter iii, following in his manner St. Basil: "The lion, he says, proud in the ferocity of nature, does not know how to mingle with the kinds of other beasts, but as some king disdains the company of many; but what wild beast would dare to associate itself with him? whose voice has naturally such terror in it, that many animals, which by swiftness could evade his attack, by the sound of his roaring as if by some force struck and overcome, fail?" Fourth, the lion through wrath is carried away and rages: thus also the king through wrath puts off man, puts on a beast and a lion, nay rages like a Fury; wrath is a beast, fury is a Fury. Hear Seneca, book I On Anger, chapter i: "Some of the wise have said that wrath is brief madness, etc. But that you may know that those whom wrath has possessed are mad, look upon their very appearance. For as there are certain signs of the mad, a bold and threatening countenance, a sad brow, a grim face, a quickened step, restless hands, a changed color, frequent and more violent sighs: so the same signs are in the angry. Their eyes burn and flash, much redness over the whole face, blood boiling up from the depths of the heart, lips quiver, teeth are clenched, hair bristles and stands on end, breath forced and hissing, the sound of joints twisting themselves, groaning and bellowing, and speech broken with scarcely opened voice, and hands clapped together often, and the ground struck with feet, and the whole body agitated, and making great threats of wrath, a foul and horrible sight, of those deforming and swelling themselves." He then adds that all animals sharpen their ferocity through wrath: "The mouths of boars foam, teeth are sharpened by friction; the horns of bulls are tossed into the air, and sand struck by feet is scattered; lions roar; the necks of irritated serpents are inflated; the aspect of rabid dogs is sad. There is no animal so horrible and so pernicious by nature, that if wrath has invaded it, there does not appear in it an accession of new ferocity." Fifth, natural philosophers report that the lion dies from anger and rage, and therefore when dying groans and weeps. Whence Pliny, in the place cited: "It is believed," he says, "that the dying lion bites the ground and gives a tear to death," namely from rage and fury. Whence also Lucifer reads: "The threats of the king are like the groanings of a lion;" thus not rarely princes, from anger and fury, especially if they cannot satisfy it and avenge themselves, are struck by apoplexy and expire, or are killed by those whom they attack. See Seneca, book I On Anger, chapters ii and iii. Sixth, the roaring of a lion is a herald of death. For the lion, when it roars at someone, soon flies at him, tears him, kills him and devours him. Thus also "the indignation of the king is a messenger of death," as he said in chapter xvi, verse 14. And just as the lion cannot recall to life him whom it has mangled, so also the king cannot recall to life him whom he has killed from anger, even if he repent of the deed and change his anger into clemency, as an anonymous writer says in the Catena of the Greeks. Again, lions lay waste entire cities and provinces. Whence Polybius, in Pliny in the place cited, says that lions in old age prey upon men, "and then besiege the cities of Africa; and for this reason he saw them crucified with Scipio, so that others might be deterred from wrongdoing by fear of a similar punishment." Thus a wrathful and savage king plunders and lays waste entire cities and the whole kingdom. Whence Ezekiel, comparing Joakim king of Judah to a young lion, chapter xix, verse 5: "He took," he says, "one of his young lions, and made him a lion, who went about among lions, and became a lion; and he learned to catch the prey, and to devour men; he learned to make widows, and to bring their cities into a desert; and the land was desolate, and the fulness thereof, at the voice of his roaring." With good reason Seneca exclaims, book I On Clemency, final chapter: "What is this evil, good gods, to kill, to rage, to delight in the sound of chains, and to cut off the heads of citizens; wherever one goes, to shed much blood, to terrify and put to flight by one's appearance? What other life would there be if lions and bears were to reign? if serpents and every most noxious animal were given power over us? Those lacking reason, and condemned by us for the crime of savagery, abstain from their own kind, and safety exists among beasts through similarity of character. Among men, however, not even necessity tempers rage to itself." Seventh, lions lay aside their angers and fierce growlings if they hear the crowing of a cock, if they see fires, or wheels turned about, if you throw a cloak or garment in their eyes: for these things they fear. Whence Pliny in the place cited teaches that the method of capturing a lion is, if one throws a veil over their head: "In a scarcely credible manner," he says, "such great ferocity becoming torpid, even from a light throwing of a covering over the head, so that it is bound without resisting: namely all its strength consists in the eyes." Thus wrathful kings and tyrants fear shadows, regard trifling things with suspicion: indeed they are terrified by the gathering and throng of the people, thinking themselves to be attacked, to be sought for death, as happened to Nero; but especially if their eyes are veiled and their head threatened by a higher or greater power, which is about to strip them of their principate, they immediately lay aside their spirits and angers. Truly Seneca in the Oedipus: "He who rules the scepter with harsh tyranny, fears those who fear: fear returns to its author." And in the same author's Thyestes, act 3: "While I stood on high, I never ceased to fear, and I feared the very sword of my own side." This is what Job says in chapter xxiv, verse 22: "And when he shall stand, he shall not believe in his own life;" for, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 2 on Matthew: "Always greater power is subject to greater fear. For just as the branches of trees placed on high, even if a light breeze blows, are moved, so also exalted men are disturbed even by the light rumor of news." Thus when Herod the king heard of the coming of the Magi, "he was troubled," Matthew ii. "The Emperor Domitian was so fearful and suspicious that he had the walls of the porticoes, in which he was accustomed to walk, distinguished with sphengite stone, from whose splendor he might foresee in images whatever was done behind him," as Suetonius says in his Life, chapter xiv. Truly Petrarch, dialogue 95: "Behold," he says, "Caius, Nero, Domitian, Commodus, Bassianus, etc., you will see the usual and common end of tyrants, either the sword or poison." AND AS DEW UPON THE GRASS, SO ALSO IS HIS CHEERFULNESS. — Another metaphor and similitude (which is familiar to the Hebrews) completes the antithesis. For he compared the anger of the king to the roaring of a lion, now he opposes to it the king's cheerfulness and benevolence, and composes and compares it to dew on account of many analogies. First indeed, just as the morning dew tempers the burning heat of the sun, and moistens, cools and cheers the grass dried by the heat of yesterday's sun, equally as men, who seem to themselves to behold so many drops of dew, so many pearls of union, which both delight the sight and mitigate the heat; indeed Pliny, lib. IX, cap. xxxiii, teaches that dew, when it falls into an open shell, and is constrained by heavenly force, especially by lightning, is turned into a pearl: thus likewise the serene and cheerful countenance of the king wipes away the fears and sorrows of subjects, and cheers them, makes them pleasant, and raises them up in hope of great things. Secondly, just as dew breathes a sweet breeze and vital breath upon living creatures, and upon all living things: thus likewise the king, regarding his own with a cheerful countenance, seems to breathe spirit, vigor and life into them. Thirdly, dew is rich, and instills a rich and as it were oiled juice into buds, seeds and plants, and thus by sprinkling it fattens, thickens and makes them fertile: thus likewise the king by his benevolence, liberality and beneficence nourishes his subjects, enriches them, and loads them with all goods. Fourthly, dew gently and gradually without sensation and sweetly falls upon grass, and thus suggests to them vital juice, by which they grow and increase into leaves, fruits and flowers: thus also the courtesy and gentleness of the king gently and sweetly flows into subjects, and causes them to grow and abound in riches and delights. On the other hand, the anger and cruelty of the king is like a stormy rain, which carries with it lightning and thunder, by which it strikes down, devastates, destroys and kills crops and grass. Whence St. Chrysostom, serm. On Gentleness, tom. V: "Anger," he says, "is like lightning and a great tempest in the soul, and renders the one serving it mad." Hence the birth, life and kingdom of Christ, because it is most gentle and most sweet, is compared to dew, Isaiah xlv, 8: "Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain down the just." Where I have said much concerning dew and its symbols. Mystically Bede, Baynus and Jansenius understand these things of Christ, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. For Christ in judgment will appear cheerful and mild to the just like dew, and terrible to the unjust like a lion. He himself as a lion of the tribe of Judah will roar upon them, thundering forth the sentence of eternal damnation: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." His favor toward the just and holy, and the cheerfulness of his countenance, like dew irrigating grass, will refresh them after the sorrows and crosses of the present life, and will make them flourish in all grace and glory in the house of God forever.
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13. A FOOLISH SON IS THE GRIEF OF HIS FATHER; AND A CONTENTIOUS WOMAN IS LIKE A HOUSE WITH A CONTINUAL DRIPPING. — In Hebrew, the bruisings of his father is a foolish son, and like a distillation continuing are the contentions of a woman; Symmachus, and hastening drops are the quarrels of a woman. For as there is a reciprocation of drops in rain, so also of insults in the quarrel of a woman. Aquila, and a continual dripping are the contentions of a woman; the Septuagint, a son lacking prudence is a shame to his father, and not pure are the vows from the hire of a harlot; the Chaldee, a foolish son is heavy to his father like an acid grape (a wild grape, which never ripens and becomes sweet); and like a dripping that distills, the quarrels of a woman; the Syriac, confusion to his father is a senseless son, and like drops falling is the thought of a woman; Vatablus, calamity to his father is a foolish son, and a quarrelsome wife like a roof continually dripping; R. Solomon thus explains it: a continual dripping and rains flowing into a house vex the household, and drive them from the house, which the quarrels of a wicked woman likewise effect. Aben-Ezra translates it, misfortunes to his father is a foolish son, and a drop expelling, the quarrels of a woman, that is to say, A senseless son is the cause that adversities befall his parent; sharp-tongued, weak; whence what they cannot obtain by force and arms, this they strive to extort by words and complaints; especially when they are angry, when they are pregnant, and carry the womb from the female sex, whose physical cause Peter of Apona, a distinguished physician, gives in the Problems of Aristotle, book X, chapter xxxv. Hence Menander: "A woman in houses is a tempest to men." Ovid, in book II of the Art of Love: "The dowry of a wife is quarrels." Juvenal, satire 6: There is scarcely any cause in which a woman has not stirred up a quarrel. And a little later: The bed always has quarrels and alternating disputes, in which a married woman lies; very little sleep occurs in it. Certainly Socrates, harassed by the quarrels of Xantippe, had become so hardened to them that he was no more offended by them than if he heard the creaking of a well-wheel; and he used to say that he learned tolerance at home from her, which he had to use in public. See Laertius, book II, chapter v. Let husbands who have married Xantippes imitate Socrates. Terence in the Eunuch: I know the nature of women: They do not want what you wish; what you do not wish, they desire of their own accord. St. Jerome, book I against Jovinian, cites that from Varro Geminus: "He who does not quarrel is unmarried." Xystus the Pythagorean in the Enchiridion: "If you wish to fight, take a wife, and beget children." There exists here near Rome on the Tiburtine Way an inscription on a monument, which Jovianus Pontanus cites in his book On Obedience, Volaterran in the Philology, and others; and it is this: "Hey, traveler, a miracle! here a man and wife do not quarrel. Who we are, I will not say. But I myself will say: Here Baebius calls me drunk, drunk. Hey, wife, even dead you still quarrel!" Note: The Septuagint derives the Hebrew מדיני midiene, that is contentions, quarrels, with the yod elided, from נדה nede, that is harlotry, namely the hire which is given to a harlot, from the root נדה nada, that is he removed, he put far away, he drove away; because this hire, as it were sordid, and stained by the crime of fornication, ought to be kept away from the holy temple, and its sacred offerings. Whence Ezekiel chapter xvi, 33, נדנין nedanain with the nun paragogic calls the gifts and hire of a harlot. For this reason therefore the Septuagint translates, nor are the vows offered from the hire of a harlot chaste. It alludes to that which was sanctioned by God: "Thou shalt not offer the hire of a harlot, nor the price of a dog in the house of the Lord thy God, etc., because both are an abomination," Deuteronomy xxiii, 18. See the sayings there, and Philo in the elegant oration whose title is, The Hire of a Harlot Ought Not to Be Received. Tropologically, the Author of the Greek Catena: The hire of a harlot, he says, is the impurity of the soul, whose offering cannot please God. To this St. Ambrose adds, book III, epistle 19 to Constantius: "The whole world," he says, "is the possession of the wise man, because he uses it all as his own. What therefore is the brother circumscribed? what is the hireling defrauded? Not great, he says, are the gains from the hire of a harlot (Proverbs xix), that is from this slippery frailty. The harlot herself is not special, but public. Not one woman, but every wandering desire is a harlot." But the Vulgate version, as it is more apt and conformable to the Hebrew, so it is also more true and more genuine. gant; and just as a dripping roof drives the inhabitants from the house, so also womanly quarrels, which never cease but always drip, drive them out of the same house. R. Levi: Foolishness itself is a calamity to the parent, and ruin on account of the vehement anger and grief, to which he succumbs on account of the wicked manner of acting of the son. The same man is also most grievously troubled when he perceives quarrels and disputes being sown by his own wife, just as he is vexed by a continuous dripping flowing constantly into the house; hence it comes about that he considers it most burdensome to remain at home, which same thing happens on account of a seditious woman. Bede understands by a litigious woman heresy and heretics, who produce nothing but disputes and quarrels, by which they overturn the house of the Church. But this is mystical. Therefore according to the letter Solomon here assigns two things as it were homonymous, of the same kind and name (for a foolish son is often either born, or brought up by a foolish, imprudent and quarrelsome mother, who are most troublesome to the husband, and create grave sorrows. The first is a foolish son, that is, imprudent, free, vagrant, disobedient, rebellious, drunken, quarrelsome, etc.; for his foolishness, that is, malice and depraved morals, are attributed to the father, as if he had taught him these things, or dissembled and not corrected him. See the sayings at cap. x, 1, and cap. xiii, 1. The second is a quarrelsome wife, who by her frequent disputes and complaints, as it were by constant drops, beats and strikes the ears and mind of her husband, and finally pierces through, so as to drive him into anger, impatience and sadness, and continuous grief, which consumes him. For just as drops continually falling gradually hollow out a stone, so the constant quarrels of a wife excavate and exhaust the heart of the husband, however strong and adamantine. Again and more aptly Our author refers the dripping (as the Hebrew has it) to roofs, as if to say: Just as roofs constantly dripping eat away beams, stones, flooring, pavements, and destroy the whole house, and make it uninhabitable, and therefore compel the inhabitants to migrate elsewhere: so also a wife constantly quarreling compels her husband almost to give her a bill of divorce, and to take another, which was once lawful for the Jews, or certainly to make a divorce now permitted to Christians, so that he may separate himself from her bed and company, indeed migrate into other houses, lands and regions. For this is more pleasant than to spend all of life in complaints and quarrels: for this is not human but canine life, and death rather than life. Nor does she compel only the husband, but also servants, handmaids, sons and daughters, impatient and weary of her disputes, to aspire to and migrate elsewhere. That this is the meaning is clear from cap. xxvii, 15, where this sentence is repeated: "Roofs constantly dripping," he says, "and a litigious woman are compared." For there the Septuagint translates: drops cast a man out of his house on a day of cold; so also a woman of revilings from her own house. Moreover many women are prone to disputes and quarrels because by their nature they are proud, talkative,
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14. A HOUSE AND RICHES ARE GIVEN BY PARENTS: BUT A PRUDENT WIFE IS PROPERLY FROM THE LORD. — In Hebrew, a house and riches (are) the inheritance of fathers; but from the Lord a wife understanding; Aquila and Theodotion, knowing; the Syriac, from the Lord a wife is espoused to a man; the Chaldean, from God a woman is given to a man; the Septuagint, parents divide a house and substance to children; but from the Lord a woman is fitted to a man; St. Ambrose, from God a wife shall be prepared for a man; the Author of the Greek Catena, but God joins a wife to a husband. By house understand both what is properly so called, and family and the splendor, dignity and nobility of family; for these are transmitted by parents to sons. Note the word properly, that is to say, A prudent wife is a proper and singular gift of God. Thus Sara was given by God to Abraham, and another to Tobias, Rebecca to Isaac, Rachel to Jacob. You will say: But a house and riches are also a signal gift of God. I answer: It is true; but because those are left by parents to sons as an inheritance, a wife however, good and prudent, although she ought to be diligently sought, is nevertheless procured chiefly by God, and ought to be asked from Him; for God, although by His providence He governs, cares for and procures all things, nevertheless cares for and procures more greatly those things which are greater and more necessary: and such is a faithful wife, wise, of good character, and suited to the disposition of her husband, because upon her depend the faith, peace, salvation and predestination of the husband, of the children and of the whole family. Just as therefore in a vocation to the state of Religion, this Religion rather than that is suited to this man, and is prepared by God, if he wishes to consult, hear and follow God calling: so likewise he who is called to matrimony ought to rely not so much on his own or his parents' fancy, or desire, or care and industry, as on God, and ought to beseech Him repeatedly that He direct to him a wife suitable and congruous. In a similar sense he said in chapter xvi, 1: "It is the part of man to prepare the soul, and of the Lord to govern the tongue," as I explained there. The Septuagint for "is fitted" have in Greek ἁρμόζεται: which word is very well suited to the matter at hand, and has emphasis; for ἁρμόζω means the same as I am suited, I am adapted, I fit, I compose, I glue together, I temper: and it applies most to musicians, who temper diverse voices, grave, acute and middle among themselves, so that they produce a sweet harmony and concord. A similar harmony, that is a composition, fitting together, congruence, consonance ought to be between husband and wife; but God alone can effect this. And so by this meaning it is signified not only that matrimony, or the marriage of husband and wife, was instituted by God, as St. Chrysostom explains, homily 23 on the Epistle to the Romans, and Pope Innocent, XXVI, C. 3 Then, § If however: for this is common to all marriages, even quarrelsome and the worst; but moreover it is signified in particular, that for a prudent and upright man a prudent and upright wife is prepared by God, and that this is a great and proper gift of God. He had said in the preceding verse how great an evil a quarrelsome wife is: now he exhibits the remedy of the evil, namely that a prudent wife be sought, and therefore one of composed character, peaceful and obedient; but he asserts that this is a gift of God, and therefore ought to be earnestly besought from God. For not every wife, even a good one, is suited to every man, for example a sad woman is not suitable to a cheerful man, nor a poor woman to a rich man, nor a plebeian to a prince, nor a generous woman to a stingy man, nor a gentle woman to a stern man, and so on with the rest; but a gentle woman to a gentle man, a cheerful to a cheerful, a stern to a stern, a rich to a rich, a noble to a noble, a poor to a poor, and so there ought to be between husband and wife a proportion and congruence of affections, character, conditions, such as there is of voices in musical harmony. Since therefore God alone knows this harmony, as He alone knows and perceives the internal affections, conditions, infirmities of husband and wife, and therefore alone knows what wife is suited to what husband, hence He alone can either procure or effect this harmony of spouses and of matrimony. But, because most men, while seeking wives, do not regard this harmony, but the riches of wives, their nobility, beauty, etc., hence we see many troublesome and unfortunate marriages everywhere. For what pleasure can there be, what consonance, what happiness, where what the husband wishes the wife does not wish; what he loves, she hates; what he rejoices in, she grieves over? What recreation to live with such a one, and to be intimately joined to her, and that through the whole of life, which is altogether adverse to your character and feelings? I pass over the quarrels, disputes, jealousies, etc., which arise from this, and not rarely bring present and eternal ruin to both. Indeed many are damned, because they have obtained wives incongruous to them, and therefore troublesome and quarrelsome. Moreover, this harmony of husband and wife, so that it may be a sweet and approved marriage, is manifold and requires many things, namely first, harmony of religion, faith and piety, so that the wife is not heretical, unfaithful and impious, but agrees with her husband in faith and piety; secondly, harmony of morals; thirdly, harmony of condition; fourthly, harmony of love; fifthly, harmony in tempering prosperity and adversity; sixthly, harmony of peace and concord in the family. Therefore, a wife who is intelligent and prudent is first one who accommodates herself to the religion and piety of her husband, indeed one who recalls her husband when deflecting from religion and piety to the right way, and brings him back to it, as St. Monica brought back both Patricius and her son St. Augustine, Clotilda brought back Clovis, St. Helena brought back Constantine, etc. For this is the first and most necessary harmony of marriage. Hear St. Ambrose in chapter sixteen of Luke, book VIII, at the beginning: "Fathers divide their houses and substance to their children; but a wife is prepared for a man by God: whoever reads this in Greek does not think it to be contrary; for the Greek well said ἁρμόζεται. For harmony is called the fitting and apt connection of all things committed together. Harmony is when the pipes of an organ joined in order legitimately maintain the grace of song, and the apt order of strings preserves concord. Therefore marriages do not have their harmony when a Gentile woman is not legitimately joined to a Christian man." And after some further remarks he concludes: "Therefore where there are marriages, harmony ought to be; where harmony is, God joins; where harmony is not, there is strife and dissension, which is not from God; because God is charity. Do not therefore put away your wife, lest you deny God as the author of your union; for if he ought to tolerate and correct the morals of strangers, much more ought he to do so with those of a wife." This is the first reason why an unfaithful or heretical wife should not be taken, namely because it dissolves the harmony of faith and marriage. The same St. Ambrose gives two other reasons, in book I On Abraham, chapter nine, namely first, that she who lacks faith cannot be chaste and of good morals; for faith is the basis and foundation of chastity and other virtues; secondly, that there is danger lest the unfaithful and heretical wife pervert her husband and make him like herself, unfaithful and heretical. "For with the holy, he says, you will be holy, and with the perverse you will be perverted. If this is true in other matters, how much more in marriage, where there is one flesh and one spirit; but how can charity be fitting if faith differs? And therefore beware, Christian, of giving your daughter to a Gentile or a Jew. Beware, I say, of taking a Gentile or a Jewess, and a foreigner, that is a heretic and anyone alien from your faith, as a wife for yourself. The first faith of marriage is the grace of chastity. If she worships idols, whose adulteries are proclaimed; if she denies Christ, who is the teacher and rewarder of chastity, how can she love chastity? If she is Christian, it is not enough unless both of you are initiated in the Sacrament of baptism. You must rise together for prayer at night, and with joined prayers beseech God. There is added another notable thing for chastity, if you believe that what you have obtained, a marriage, was given to you by God. Whence Solomon also says: A wife is prepared for a man by God. Those who differ in faith cannot believe this, so as to think that the grace of marriage has been imparted to them by him whom they do not worship. Reason teaches this, but examples move more. Often enticement has deceived even stronger husbands and made them depart from religion. And therefore either consult your love or beware of error. First therefore in marriage religion is sought." Thus Nonna, the mother of St. Gregory of Nazianzus, showed herself to her husband Gregory the Elder as a teacher of faith and piety, as their son St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, oration 12. Secondly, a prudent wife is one who conforms herself to the morals of her husband, indeed shapes and forms her own morals to his. For it is not enough for a wife to be chaste, upright, and holy; but she must moreover obey her husband and comply with him, so that she may effect in the marriage a sweet and pleasing harmony in the agreement of morals. For just as in a harp, lyre, or organ it is not enough that any string or pipe render a pleasant sound, but each must be tempered in apt proportion to the other, and all among themselves, so that the sound of one may respond fittingly to another and harmonize with it, and all together may produce one melody: so likewise in society, especially in marriage, it is not enough that each be good in himself, but one must accommodate himself to the morals and sentiments of the other, so that all together may produce one harmony of civil society. Again, just as matter must be prepared and disposed by certain qualities suited to the form, for example wood by dryness and heat suited to fire, so that thereafter the form of fire may be induced into it: so likewise a wife ought to be congruent with the morals of her husband, so that she may effect one marriage with him and as it were one domestic compound. For in this the wife undergoes the analogy of matter, the husband of form. Wherefore Socrates used to say that men ought to obey the laws of the state, but wives the morals of their husbands with whom they live; for the husband is the norm of the marriage. Equity therefore teaches that they obey men as the head. Most excellently St. Ambrose, book III, epistle 25 to the Church of Vercelli, near the end: "A woman," he says, "should defer to her husband, not serve him; she should present herself to be governed, not to be coerced. She is unworthy of marriage who is worthy of strife. A husband too should direct his wife as a helmsman, honor her as a partner of life, cherish her as a co-heir of grace." Thirdly, a prudent wife is one who seeks or effects harmony of lot and condition with her husband. Wherefore a prudent virgin, if she be of slender fortune, will not consent to marry a husband of noble or princely rank, unless she wishes to be his handmaid, not his spouse; but she will seek a husband of her own lot, condition and status. For the first law of marriage is: If you wish to marry fittingly, marry your equal. Thus Ovid in the Epistle of Deianira to Hercules. The same was the opinion of the seven Sages of Greece and many others, as Tiraquellus shows at length, law 5 on Marriage, number 16 and following. Whence Ausonius introduces Solon speaking thus: Equal is joined to equal as spouse: what is unequal, disagrees. But if by some chance a virgin be given to a husband unequal, namely richer or more noble, she will strive by her labor, her virtue, her prudence to compensate for what is lacking in wealth or nobility, and thus to equal or surpass the wealth and rank of her husband. Just as therefore when a branch of one tree is grafted onto another, it conforms itself in all respects to its condition and equals it, so that it appears not grafted but grown: so likewise a wife grafted as it were onto her husband through marriage should accommodate and equal herself to him in all respects. Hence just as, in order that a scion of one tree be grafted onto another, it is necessary that it be of the same condition and kind with it; for a walnut scion is not grafted onto a pear, but onto another of the walnut kind; nor is a pear grafted onto a walnut, but onto a pear of another species: so likewise in order that a wife be grafted onto her husband, let her take care to choose one who is of the same lot and condition with her. Whence Cleobulus advised that an equal wife should be taken; for if you marry from a superior family, he says, you will acquire not relatives but masters. Thus Stobaeus, discourse 3 On Temperance. Fourthly and especially, a prudent wife is one who effects with her husband harmony of love; for this is the bond, the knot and the soul of marriage. Wherefore she will love none but her husband, will fix all her affection upon him, will give her heart to him; what he loves, she too will love; what he hates, she too will hate. For where there is love, there God is the author and mediator of marriage; but where there is hatred, there the devil is the paranymph of marriage. Hear the author of the Imperfect Work in St. Chrysostom, homily 1 on Matthew: "Boaz," he says, "is interpreted as virtue, or virtue in him, or the prevailing one, who according to the command of God receives as wife Ruth provided by God; in virtue he begets sons, and having virtue in themselves, and prevailing. But those who receive wives from the provision of the devil, that is, not with regard to religion, nor faithful, beget sons in weakness, nor ever prevailing, nor strong except in evil, and it appears they have begotten sons not for joy and consolation, but for the punishment of their irreligion." This is what God, instituting marriage in the union of Adam and Eve, ordained: "Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife," Genesis ii, 24. Fifth, a prudent wife will temper her husband's excessive joy in prosperity and excessive sadness in adversity, and will compose his anger and other immoderate affections. For just as David, playing the harp skillfully, would soothe the anger, melancholy and evil spirit of Saul, I Kings xvi, 23: so also a prudent wife, by her grace, prudence and gentle speech, as it were by the playing of a harp, mitigates and tempers all her husband's sorrows, indignations and other disturbances of mind. Thus St. Monica by her modesty, silence and prudence moderated the angers and passions of Patricius, and as it were by harmonizing composed them, as St. Augustine relates, lib. IX of the Confessions, cap. ix. Thus Abigail by her humble and gracious speech soothed the anger of David, who was already hastening to slaughter and vengeance because of the hardness of Nabal, I Kings xxv, 23. Sixth, a prudent wife by her wisdom creates harmony of peace and concord in the family, so that all, content in their station, live unanimously, and one does not envy another, but all conspire together for the common gain and advantage of the family. For this is a remarkable economic consonance of peace and unanimity, as Plutarch testifies in his Moral., in which the husband as it were modulates the bass, the sons the treble, the servants and handmaids the countertenor, the wife the tenor, as it were the middle part, which harmoniously composes and unites the bass with the treble and countertenor. Who will procure or effect such great and manifold harmony of marriage, that is, of wife and husband, except God, who is all-knowing and all-powerful, who disposes all things in measure, number and weight? Wisdom xi, 21. For God alone is he who gives prudence to a woman, and assigns a prudent and suitable wife to a man deserving it, according to that passage in Ecclesiasticus xxvi, 3: "A good woman is a good portion, in the portion of those who fear God shall she be given to a man for his good deeds." Hence it is commonly said that marriages are joined in heaven. Solomon confirms this: "House and riches are given by parents, but a prudent wife is given by the Lord." Thus Moses attests that Rebecca was prepared by God as a wife for Abraham's son Isaac. Sarah for this reason no other could take, because she was owed by divine ordinance to Tobias the younger, who feared God. Samson was asking that a Philistine girl be given to him as a wife, but his parents, thinking this marriage to be contrary to the law of God, dissuaded him from taking her; for they did not know that the matter was from the Lord, so that from those nuptials war would arise between the Jews and the Philistines, by which the Jews would be freed from long servitude. To Esther, that she might be preferred by King Ahasuerus to the other virgins, God bestowed admirable beauty, so that without external ornament, she far excelled the other virgins, who were adorned and beautified. Wherefore, if spouses desire this sixfold harmony just recounted, let them love and worship God. For if they are united to God through love, they will be united to each other: both because those who are united to the same third party are united to each other; and because it is the same love by which we love God and our neighbor, especially a spouse for the sake of God. Morally, let young men learn here, when they seek suitable wives, not to trust in themselves, nor in parents and friends, but to make God their guide, and therefore let them strive to gain his grace through penance, prayer, almsgiving and other pious and holy works, so that by him they may be led by the hand to a prudent wife suited to them. Let them read the wise and pious counsel which the Archangel Raphael gave to Tobias about to take Sarah, Tobias vi, 16, and let them apply it to themselves and fulfill it in deed. Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena thus expounds it, as if to say, "House and riches," etc., that is, teachers impart the doctrine of wisdom and virtue; but virtue and wisdom itself (which is as it were the bride and wife of the wise man) the Lord bestows. Again, the soul and mind adorned with virtue is the bride whom Christ prepares for himself and espouses. Whence St. Ambrose, lib. VIII in Luke, after the beginning: "You find," he says, "a marriage which no one doubts was joined by God, since he himself says: No one comes to me unless my Father who sent me draws him. For he alone was able to join these nuptials. And therefore mystically Solomon said: A wife is prepared by God for a man. The man is Christ, the wife is the Church: a wife in charity, a virgin in integrity. Therefore, whom God has drawn to the Son, let not persecution separate, let not luxury turn away, let not philosophy plunder, let not a Manichaean contaminate, let not an Arian turn away, let not a Sabellian infect. God has joined, let not a Jew separate. All are adulterers who desire to adulterate the faith and truth of wisdom." And a little later: "Remain therefore in your father's house, remain with the bridegroom, strive to please your husband. The mind which you have entrusted to God, be a strong woman, such as that soul or Church, of which Solomon says: Who shall find a strong woman? But she is more precious than precious stones, she who is such; her husband trusts in her." And after some things: "Come, Lord Jesus, that you may find your bride, not contaminated, not adulterated, who has not violated your house, who has not neglected your commandments. Let her say to you: I have found him whom my soul loves; let her bring you into the house of wine (for wine gladdens the heart of man), let her be inebriated with the spirit, let her know the mystery, let her speak the oracle."
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15. SLOTH SENDS SLEEP, AND A DISSOLVED SOUL SHALL HUNGER. — The Septuagint: fear or timidity (for this is the companion and sister of sloth) holds back the effeminate; but the soul of the idle shall hunger. For sleep the Hebrew is תרדמה tardema, which word signifies deep sleep and drowsiness; whence Aquila and Symmachus translate it, ecstasy. Thus the sleep sent upon Adam was an ecstasy, Genesis ii, 21. But Theodotion translates it, καταφοράν, that is, deep sleep. For dissolved the Hebrew is רמיה remia, that is, remiss or fraudulent, as I said at chapter x, 4. Whence the Chaldean translates it, and a deceitful soul (the Syriac, a proud soul) shall hunger. Solomon here assigns two evils which follow from sloth and torpor. The first is sleep. For just as labor makes one wakeful, so idleness and torpor make one sleep and snore; but sleep is a great evil. First, because sleep brings want and hunger, as I shall presently say. Second, because sleep relaxes and dissolves the nerves, and thereby all the limbs, and therefore makes a man weak, infirm, languid. "For by torpor the forces are bound and enervated," says R. Levi; and finally torpor turns into lethargy. St. Augustine gives the cause a priori, in the book On the Quantity of the Soul: "The nerves," he says, "are nourished and made more supple by moderate dryness and heat; on the contrary, they are relaxed and weakened by moist cold: and so by excessive sleep (because physicians say it is cold and moist, and this is proven) the limbs languish, and the effort of those awakening is much weaker, and therefore nothing is more broken and enervated than those with lethargy. But we see some frenzied persons, whom vigils and acute fevers—that is, heat in excess—stretch and harden the nerves, resist with greater strength than those in perfect health, even though their body is made thin and weak by illness." Third, that sleep not only weakens the body, but also dulls and corrupts the mind and intellect. For just as a sword always kept in its sheath contracts rust: so too rest and torpor bring heaviness and dullness to the mind, as it were rust. Whence Baptist Mantuan, in book I of the Partheniad: "A spur," he says, "will be to the sluggard, sloth rusting the senses which corrode, and torpor benumbing the breast." And Plutarch in his Moral Essays: "The mind of man," he says, "contracts decay and senility in idleness, and mute rest and sedentary life bring not only to bodies but also to souls a withering." Fourth, because torpor and sleep are the image of death, into which they tend, and therefore seem to be not so much life as death. Whence that saying of the Philosopher: "Idleness is the burial of a living man." For life consists in motion and action; the sluggard therefore, who is void of this, is not so much alive as dead. Hence the symbol of sloth is the torpedo fish, which from a distance through nets sends torpor and makes torpid, indeed stupefies the hands of fishermen, as Aristotle testifies, book IV of the History of Animals, chapter xxxvii, and Aelian, Pliny and others. So too the symbol of sloth is the narcissus flower, so called from νάρκη, that is, torpor, because by its odor it induces torpor and drowsiness, as Plutarch testifies, book III of the Symposium. Whence from this flower a crown was wont to be woven by the infernal Furies, as Eustathius affirms; and Sophocles called the narcissus the crown of the great subterranean gods: namely, those who devote themselves to torpor and smell this flower while idle weave a crown for the demons in hell; and just as the strenuous and diligent in good works have a crown of the kingdom in the hand of God, so on the contrary they themselves become by their sloth a crown of demons in hell. Opposed to this view are those sayings of the Philosophers and Theologians found in Anthony's Melissa, chapters xlv and xlvi: of St. Gregory of Nazianzus: "Sloth is the spouse of sleep. Weak and dissolved minds are equally remiss and languid both toward virtue and toward vice, and are difficult to move, and incline notably in neither direction; the moments of the idle are sluggish;" of St. Clement: "Those who are weak and feeble find even what is moderate to be beyond their strength;" of St. Chrysostom: "Nothing is so easy that great sloth does not make it very grave and hateful; nor is anything so laborious and difficult that zeal and alacrity do not make it most easy;" of St. Basil: "Idleness is the beginning of wickedness;" of Democritus: "Nature corrupts virtue by negligence; doctrine corrects wickedness; and easy things slip away from the negligent, but difficult things are seized by care; for just as an instrument that is relaxed and tightened delights with pleasant pleasure: so too the course of human life should be divided between idleness and business;" of Xenophon: "God so ordained that those who will not command themselves and prescribe honest deeds to themselves, he brings other masters to command them." AND A DISSOLVED SOUL SHALL HUNGER. — "Dissolved," that is, relaxed (for this is what the Hebrew רמיה remia signifies), sluggish, torpid. This is another evil of sloth, namely hunger. The reason is that sloth begets sleep, sleep begets idleness and inertia, inertia begets want and famine. For those who are unwilling to labor, but grow torpid in idleness, gain or acquire nothing by which to live. See the sayings at chapter x, 4. This maxim holds true in both spiritual and temporal goods. For just as temporal sloth begets sleep and want of temporal things, so spiritual sloth begets sleep and want of spiritual goods. For those who are unwilling to exercise acts of charity, mercy, prayer, piety, patience, etc., contract a certain torpor by which they become unfit and unsuitable for every good work, and moreover incur a want of grace, consolations, and all spiritual gifts. Thus Bede from St. Gregory, Hugh, Dionysius and others. "The sluggard," says Bede, "is called one who by right understanding seems to be awake, although by doing nothing he grows torpid. But sloth brings on sleep, because even the vigilance of right understanding is lost for a time, when one ceases from the study of doing well." Wherefore rightly Philo, cited by Antonius in the Melissa, at the place already mentioned: "God has shown to men," he says, "that labor is the beginning of all good and virtue; when this is removed, nothing good can be established among mankind. He who flees labor flees goods themselves; but he who tolerantly and bravely endures hardships hastens toward blessedness." More excellently St. Gregory of Nazianzus in the same place: "Noble natures," he says, "with reason moderating and directing, have great momentum toward following virtue." And St. Chrysostom in the same place: "For a short time, O most beloved," he says, "let us labor, lest we fall away from eternal goods. Brief is the labor of time, but rest is for many ages. Where there is greater labor, there is greater pleasure. He who is endowed with prudence does not approach labor reluctantly, on account of the fruits that follow from labors." Finally, St. Gregory treats this passage most excellently, in the third part of the Pastoral, chapter xvi: "Therefore to the sluggish it must be made known," he says, "that often, while we are unwilling to do what we can in due time, a little later when we wish, we are unable. For the very idleness of the mind, when it is not kindled with fitting fervor, is secretly slain by torpor growing strong from the loss of desire for goods. Whence it is aptly said through Solomon: Sloth brings on sleep. For the sluggard by right understanding seems to be awake, although by doing nothing he grows torpid. But sloth is said to bring on sleep because even the vigilance of right understanding is lost for a time, when one ceases from the study of doing well. Where it is rightly added: And a dissolved soul shall hunger. For because it does not direct itself by drawing toward higher things, it neglects itself and expands below through desires; and while it is not constrained by the vigor of sublime studies, it is wounded by the hunger of the lowest cupidity; so that by as much as it dissembles binding itself through discipline, by so much does it scatter itself hungering through the desires of pleasures. Hence by the same Solomon it is written again: In desires is every idle person. Hence by truth itself preaching, one spirit going out makes the house said to be empty; but returning more abundantly, while it is vacant, it is occupied."
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16. HE THAT KEEPETH THE COMMANDMENT KEEPETH HIS OWN SOUL; BUT HE THAT NEGLECTETH HIS OWN WAY SHALL DIE. — In Hebrew, he that keepeth the precept keepeth his own soul; and he that despiseth his ways (Vatable, his duty) shall die; the Syriac, shall be destroyed; the Chaldean, he that despiseth his way shall die; Cajetan, and he that contemneth his ways shall perish: his, namely of the commandment, as if to say, He that contemneth the ways, that is the directions and ordinances of the commandment, shall pay the penalty for this contempt by present or eternal death; the former the judge shall inflict upon him, the latter God. Thus Aben-Ezra: "He shall be put to death, he says, that is, shall be afflicted with death, God so ordaining, while still in the flower of his age; but it is written יומת iumat, because he shall be punished with death by judges, if it be made manifest that he hath openly despised the precepts." So also R. Levi. Hence repeatedly in Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, God annexeth to His laws the penalty of death, and threateneth it to transgressors; see among other places Levit. cap. xx, where in almost every verse He threateneth them with death. Furthermore, he calleth way the commandment or law; for this the antithesis requireth. For the commandment of God is a way prescribed to man by God, by which he ought to tend with continuous steps of the mind rightly toward virtue, salvation and God Himself. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena: "Commandments, he says, are called precepts, because they direct and impel the mind toward Him who commandeth; but ways, because they sweetly lead man instituting a journey to God, and clearly show him whither he ought to go." The sense therefore is, as if to say, He that keepeth the commandment of God, or in the place of man the commandment of God commanding, he keepeth his soul, that is his life, both present and eternal; but he that despiseth the commandment, which God hath set forth to man as it were a way to salvation, he shall be afflicted with present death by the judge, eternal death by God. This is what Ecclesiasticus saith, cap. xv: "If thou wilt keep the commandments, they shall keep thee." And Christ, Matt. xix, 17: "If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments." Hence also Plato said: "Law is the soul of a free man," both because law as it were the soul directeth man and impelleth him to honest action prescribed by law, in which life worthy of man consisteth; and because, as man perisheth when the soul departeth, so the mind perisheth when law is despised. Law therefore saveth or destroyeth the soul and life of man, so that accordingly it may rightly be called his soul. Morally, hence learn how greatly we ought to love, reverence and keep the law, and that for a threefold reason. The first is on the part of God, because he that loveth and reverceth the law, loveth and reverceth God the lawgiver. For law is nothing else than the reason, mind and will of God; for from the eternal law, which is in the mind of God, is derived all our law, as a ray is derived from the sun, and splendor from fire. Wherefore he that conformeth himself to the law, conformeth himself to the reason and will of God. Hence Christ: "If ye love me, he saith, keep my commandments," John xiv, 15. The second is on the part of the law, because the object of law is the dictate of virtue; for law prescribeth the duties of all virtues. If therefore thou lovest virtue, love the law. The third, which Solomon giveth here, is on the part of ourselves, because he that keepeth the law, keepeth his soul, but he that despiseth it, despiseth his own soul, that is the life, salvation and happiness of his soul. Therefore, as much as thou lovest that, so much love and keep the law.
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17. HE THAT HATH PITY UPON THE POOR LENDETH TO THE LORD; AND HE WILL REPAY HIM HIS REWARD. — As he who hath had mercy on the poor and done him good, so may God have mercy on him and do him good, saith Aben-Ezra; and may heap upon him his blessing, so that, whithersoever he shall stretch forth his hand, God may grant him blessing and abundance of things, saith R. Levi. But R. Solomon saith: When anyone lieth sick and walketh on the threshold of death, then almsgiving intercedeth with divine justice on behalf of the merciful one, saying: When the poor were losing their lives from hunger, this man here was calling them back to life, supplying them abundantly with necessaries; why therefore should not his soul have a long lease of life together with his body? why should it not be restored to his members? For "lendeth" in Hebrew is מלוה malue, that is, lendeth or giveth a loan, as Pagninus rendereth it, either simply, or with usury, as appeareth Deut. cap. xxviii, 12 and 44. So also the Greek δανείζω, as the Septuagint rendereth it, is ambiguous; for it signifieth both him who giveth a loan without usury, and him who giveth at usury. So also the Latin fœnerari, although it properly signifieth to give at usury, yet sometimes meaneth the same as to lend. The Hebrew therefore word for word hath, lendeth to the Lord he who hath mercy on the poor; and his reward shall he render unto him; the Septuagint, and according to his gift shall he repay him; the Chaldee, he who seeketh to lend to the Lord hath mercy on the poor, and a good reward shall be rendered unto him; the Syriac, according to his works shall it be rendered; Vatablus, according to the benefit, or office, it shall be repaid unto him. Therefore the sense is, as if to say, He who doeth good to the poor lendeth, that is, giveth a loan to God, which he shall receive back from Him with ample usury and increase; wherefore he giveth not so much a gift as a loan, nay rather usury and gain. Therefore the loan here is understood not as simple, but with increase, namely usury and gain. Thus the Interpreters and Fathers presently to be cited. Hear St. Basil in Psalm xxxviii: "Why, saith he, did He not say: He who hath mercy on the poor giveth to God? Scripture knoweth our avarice, it understood our insatiable appetite, which proposeth to itself greater things to have, and ever seeketh more; and for that cause it did not say altogether: He who hath mercy on the poor giveth to God, and lest thou shouldest think of a simple gift and repayment of the principal; but: He lendeth to God, that the covetous man and lover of gain, hearing the name of usuries, might give himself to mercy." Solomon therefore, to declare the power of almsgiving, and how much it pleaseth God, asserteth that God esteemeth as given to Himself what is given to the poor, and as it were bindeth Himself to restore it to the giver with great increase of principal, usury and gain: for God claimeth the poor and miserable as His own, inasmuch as they are destitute of all help, and as it were adopteth them as sons of His providence, and pointeth Himself out in Scripture as their peculiar God and guardian. Whence He Himself saith Matt. xxv: "What you did to one of the least of these my brethren, you did to me," as if to say, I acknowledge myself your debtor. This therefore is the usury, this is the gain of charity, holy and divine, and equally as fruitful, and far surpasseth the fruit and gain of usurers. First indeed, if thou requirest the dignity and nobility of the debtor, by this usury of almsgiving we make a debtor of ourselves not a poor and vile man, but God Himself, most noble and most rich. How great a thing is it to bind God to ourselves, and to hold Him as it were bound by His own pledge and security? Hear St. Ambrose, lib. De Tobia, cap. xvi: "I will teach, saith he, how you may be good lenders, how you may have good returns of usury. Solomon saith: He that hath pity upon the poor lendeth to the Lord, and according to his gift shall he repay him. Behold a good gain hath been made from an evil thing, behold an irreproachable lender, behold a praiseworthy usury. Do not therefore now esteem me as envying your advantages. Do you think that I take away from you a man as debtor? I provide God, I substitute Christ, I show Him who cannot defraud you. Lend therefore to the Lord your money in the hand of the poor. He is bound and held, He writeth down whatsoever the needy receiveth; His Gospel is your security. He promiseth for all the indigent, He giveth His word. Why do you hesitate to give? If some rich man of this world should offer himself to you, who should promise his faith for some debtor, straightway you would count out the money. Is the poor man to you the Lord of heaven, and the maker of this world? and do you still deliberate, seeking a richer surety?" And St. Gregory Nazianzen in the Tetrastich: From livid bruises and dark rust remove something, And prefer God before all as a debtor, He who returns the heavenly scepters with a morsel; With wings you cover and feed the poor, God. Secondly, a usurer receives beyond the principal, interest and profit, only a twentieth part of the principal, for example, if he lends one hundred gold coins, he receives one hundred and five: but God doubles the principal, indeed multiplies it a hundredfold. For this is the hundredfold promised by Christ to those who, following him, distribute their possessions to the poor, Matthew xix, 29. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 3 on Genesis: "He who has mercy, he says, on the poor, lends to God. Behold the rare and admirable nature of this interest. One person is he who receives, and another is he who makes himself guilty of lending; and not only is this admirable, but because in this kind of interest there is no place for ingratitude, nor for any other loss; nor for delay, he who promises to give once, but it is repaid a hundredfold, and not only a hundredfold; for some things are given in the present life, some in the future, namely eternal life. And in the present life indeed, if someone promised us only double for what is given by us, we would be prepared to bring all our substance. Although there is great ingratitude, delay and stupendous frauds of the avaricious; and many who are held to be good do not repay the loan, either unwilling out of malevolence, or often unable on account of poverty. But since nothing of this sort can be imputed to the Lord of all (for both the principal sum is safe, and a hundredfold is promised here to those who spend in almsgiving, and eternal life is laid up for the future), what defense therefore will we have, if we have been negligent, and have not hastened to receive a hundredfold for a little, and future things for present things, and eternal things for temporal things?" The same St. Chrysostom shows this more fully, homily 53 to the People, where among other things he accuses the foolishness of the rich, who abandon God promising a hundredfold, and entrust their riches to those who do not even return the principal: "For what, he says, does our belly return to us, which consumes very much? dung and corruption. What does empty glory return? envy and hatred. What does avarice return? care and anxiety. What does intemperance return? hell and the poisonous worm. For these are the debtors of the rich, these usuries accustomed to be joined together, present evils and future punishments. To these therefore, I beseech you, shall we lend for such great vengeance, and shall we not trust our own to Christ pushing forward heaven, eternal life and hidden goods?" If you make excuses: Christ defers the payment of this interest for a long time, Chrysostom meets this: "The good master multiplies your talent. For interest is more effective; for in lending we see money-lenders do this, who after much time gladly lend interest to those repaying: for he who returns the whole salary interrupts the course of interest; but he who retains it for a long time makes the fruit and gain of interest greater." Thirdly, that God pays this loan twice, namely once on earth, secondly in heaven. For on earth he multiplies the riches of the almsgivers, as the Apostle teaches, II Corinthians ix, 10, and St. Chrysostom, homily That almsgiving is the art of all the most profitable. The same is established by constant experience. A notable example is in the Life of St. John the Almsgiver, who the more he distributed to the poor, the more he received back twofold and threefold. But in heaven God repays far more and greater things. Whence St. Gaudentius, sermon 13: "He who has mercy on the poor lends to God. For he receives, he says, great things for small things, and heavenly things for earthly things." And St. Ambrose, in the place already cited: "What the poor received will not perish, he says, and what you gave to the needy is kept for you without a guardian. But if you seek the increase of usuries, in the law it is blessing, in the Gospel it is heavenly reward: what is sweeter than blessing? what is greater than heaven? If the interest of food is desired, that too is at hand, as we read. For he who has mercy on the poor, he himself shall be fed." See also St. Chrysostom, homily 15 on Matthew. Fourth, that the usurer exposes both principal and interest to the risk of loss. For if the debtor is not able to pay, or is unwilling to pay the interests, as being unjust and extorted, the usurer will lose them. His gain therefore is uncertain and precarious, equally as the principal. But the almsgiving man has with the principal a gain that is secure and certain laid up with God. Wherefore St. Basil wisely counsels, hom. 8 on the Rich and Avaricious: "If, says he, you have but one loaf of bread, and a beggar stands at your door, bring it forth; and raising your hand to heaven, say these pitiful and kind words: I have this one loaf, which you see, O Lord; and there is occasion of danger. But I set before me your precept, and from this small thing I give to my hungry brother. Do you also give, O Lord, to your servant in peril. I know your goodness, I trust in your power, that you will not long defer your grace; but soon, when it shall please you, the abundant gifts of your magnificence will be opened. If you do and speak in this manner, there is no doubt that this bread which you give in this strait will supply the seed of agriculture and abundance, and will return to you much from the earth as interest, a pledge of future food, a reconciler of mercy. Say again that word of the widow of Sidon, which is most fitting to this purpose, mindful of the opportunity of that history: As the Lord lives, I have nothing in the house but a handful of meal in a barrel, and a little oil in a cruse, and behold two sticks that I may go and dress it for me and my son, that we may eat it and die. You likewise will in like manner have a cruse of oil filled with the grace of God, and no less a barrel of meal continually full, if you give from what you have. For those who in giving trust in divine grace imitate wells, which when continually exhausted are in no way diminished, but become doubly more abundant. If you are in need, lend to God who is rich: believe, I say, in him who embraces what is given to the afflicted as if given to his own person, and renders it back worthy everywhere as a surety, having open treasures on land and sea. If you sail, you will recover the loan. In the midst of the sea you will receive the principal with interest. For he is magnificent in giving interest." Therefore "if you wish to lend at interest, lend to God." For God assures you of the principal and its great interest, while he gives himself as a pledge, and his promise as security. Thus St. Chrysostom, on Psalm xxxviii: "He has placed himself, says he, as a kind of mediator and surety to the poor, but as a pledge or mortgage to the creditor. You say, he has no faith on account of his poverty; believe me on account of my abundance. He who has mercy on the poor lends to God. Do not fear, says he, you lend to me." And St. Augustine, on Psalm xxxvi: "When the poor man prays for himself, as if he says to God: Lord, I have received a loan, speak for me in faith; and if you do not hold the poor man as debtor, you hold God as a fit surety. Behold God says from his Scripture: Give, be secure, I will repay." Fifth, he who receives money at interest receives great advantage from it, on account of which he binds himself to pay interest. But God receives no advantage from almsgiving, but every work of ours is to him sterile and unfruitful; and yet for it he binds himself by his promise to pay its great interest, which is his great condescension and liberality. Thus St. Irenaeus, lib. VI Against Heresies, cap. xxxiv: "He who has mercy, says he, on the poor lends to God; for God, who needs nothing, takes our good works upon himself in order that he may bestow upon us the recompense of his goods." And St. Basil, on Psalm xiv, serm. 2 Against Usurers: "When you give to the poor in the grace of the Lord, says he, it is at once both a gift and a loan: a gift indeed, because you do not expect to receive it back from the poor; but a loan or interest, on account of the Lord's munificent liberality, who when he has received small things through the poor, will repay great things for them. Do you not wish to have the Lord of all as your debtor for payment? If some rich man in the city becomes surety for others to you, you accept his suretyship; but you do not admit God, who promises to repay so much more on account of the poor?" Sixth, that he who receives at usury binds himself to the usurer only to pay usury, but does not bind himself to feed or enrich his offspring, wife and household. But God provides both to the one who gives alms. Whence St. Cyprian, in the tract On Works and Almsgiving: "He who has mercy on the poor," says he, "lends to God;" and then, objecting to himself the excuse of the rich, by which they claim they owe provision to their offspring and household, and therefore cannot give alms, he answers: "To him," says he, "assign your resources, which you keep for heirs; let him be guardian to your children, let him be curator, let him be protector against all worldly injuries by divine majesty. A patrimony entrusted to God neither the commonwealth takes away, nor the treasury invades, nor any legal calumny overturns; the inheritance is safe, which is preserved with God as guardian. This is to provide for cares and pledges for the future, this is to consult for future heirs with paternal piety, according to the faith of Holy Scripture saying: I was young, and now am old, and I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed begging bread. He is merciful all the day long, and lendeth, and his seed shall be in blessing. And St. Chrysostom, homily 7 on the epistle to the Romans: "Therefore," says he, "if you wish to leave great riches to your children, leave them to God's providence. For when he sees that the resources of your children along with the children themselves are imparted to him, will he not open all riches to them?" And after some things: "Wherefore if you wish to leave them rich with danger, leave them God as debtor, and to God himself present these testamentary tablets." Seventh, that the usurer gives his own money, not another's; but the one giving alms does not give of his own, but from that which is God's, and which he has received from God; and yet God, asking him that through the poor he return to you his own which he gave, moreover pledges interest for it: for the old credit therefore he pledges a new debt. Whence St. Basil, cited by Damascene, book II of Parallels, chapter xvi: "He who," says he, "gave you riches, through the hands of the poor asks alms from you; therefore lend to God, because although he himself receives what is his, yet just as if he were affected by a benefit, he pays back complete gratitude." Moreover God is wonderfully delighted by this credit and debt of his, and desires to become our debtor, as St. Chrysostom teaches, homily 45 on Matthew. Indeed the same St. Chrysostom says that God allows himself, as it were, to be corrupted by this credit of almsgiving, so that in judgment he may dissemble our debts and sins, not see and forgive them: just as a judge is corrupted by a defendant with money, so that he does not condemn him, but absolves him. For thus he writes in chapter xxii of Luke: "Our judge is corrupted through the poor. Therefore strike the judge's back door through the hand of the poor; for he receives your gifts through it, and perverts the laws. He receives, I say, and becomes kind from justice; he receives, I say, and sets mercy before truth, and with the scale of sins he weighs the hand of the poor against it." But again, homily on Psalm xxxviii: "If God receives from us at interest, therefore he is our debtor; do you therefore wish to have him as judge, or as debtor? A debtor fears a creditor, a judge does not fear him who is brought to judgment." Here therefore are great incentives to the exercise of almsgiving, both corporal and spiritual, which the more it is more worthy and greater than corporal, the greater interest of both riches, grace and glory it will receive from God. See St. Paulinus, epistle to Alethius, celebrating the almsgivings both of him and of Ruffina his wife, who was the daughter of St. Paula. Whence thus he concludes: "Precious to the Lord is the soul, which takes the price of a pearl from things. For she is the spouse of faith, sister of virginity, daughter of perfection, to whom Paula is mother, Eustochium sister, you husband." And the following epistle on the Treasury, where among other things exhorting he says: "Let us therefore rouse ourselves from the sleep of idleness, and as it were shake off the torpor of negligence, and break the bonds of avarice. Consult the very oracles of truth, and the Prophet will answer you: He that hath mercy on the poor, lendeth to God. This therefore is the table of the heavenly banker, building a treasure of life, and exercising God's interest to trade in the pearl; for he who lends to the poor of the Lord, awaits from the Lord God the recompense of eternal reward." Illustrous is the example in the Spiritual Meadow of John Moschus, chapter cxcv, concerning Evagrius the philosopher, who hearing from Synesius the Bishop this saying of Solomon: "He lendeth to the Lord, who hath mercy on the poor," gave him money to be distributed to the poor, and asked from him a written bond, by which he would promise to return it to him in the other life with interest; which also when dying he ordered to be buried with him; and after death appearing to Synesius, he ordered that he receive it, for it had been abundantly satisfied to him. Moreover in the written bond they found subscribed: "I Evagrius the philosopher to you St. D. Synesius Bishop send greeting. I have received the debt in these letters written by your hand, and it has been satisfied to me, and I have no right against you on account of the gold which I gave you, and through you to Christ God our Saviour."
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18. INSTRUCT THY SON, AND DESPAIR NOT; BUT SET NOT THY SOUL UPON HIM TO DEATH. — In Hebrew, correct thy son, for there is hope (of correction), and unto his death lift not up thy soul; the Chaldean, and unto his death lift not up thy soul; the Septuagint, instruct thy son; for thus he will be of good hope; but unto his reproach lift not up thy mind; Vatable, chastise thy son, while hope remains; and unto his cry attend not thy mind, that is to say, "Let him cry, and do not cease to chastise:"; so also Cajetan; who for המיתו hamito, that is his death, read with others המיתו hemiato, that is his tumult, roaring and cry; for המה hama indeed signifies to make noise, to cry out, to be in tumult. So also Pagninus in his Lexicon: "Unto the sound of him," he says, "that is unto his weeping, attend not thy heart, that is to say, Hearing him wailing, do not spare him out of compassion and hold back thy hand, but continue to chastise, until thou dost beat out the vice." The plain sense is, that is to say, Do not cease to instruct, that is to inform with good morals and disciplines, to reprove and chastise thy son; for although he be duller, harder or more perverse, yet do not despair of his correction and probity, so as to omit instruction and chastisement; for he who is not instructed today, nor corrected, shall be instructed and corrected tomorrow. For discipline and childhood have their own time to be given; and no vice is so stubborn, especially in a child, that it cannot be removed and eradicated by instruction and chastisement, if it be constant and continuous. Whence the Septuagint translates, instruct thy son, for thus he will be of good hope; the Hebrew and Chaldean, for there is hope, so that through instruction and chastisement the son may become instructed and upright, and therefore long-lived, says Aben-Ezra, that is to say, In chastisement lies all the hope of the son's probity; but if thou neglectest it, and indulgest the son in all things, thou takest away all hope of his virtue and salvation. Otherwise Jansenius explains "do not despair," that is to say, Instruct thy son, lest, if thou dost not instruct him, but loosest the reins to him, thou shouldest despair of his correction, and despair of his probity and salvation. "But unto his death set not thy soul," that is to say, Do not kill him as it were useless, nay rather shameful and harmful. But Salazar, that is to say, Let it not come into thy mind that thou shouldest persuade thyself that thy son is to be killed, if thou dost educate him more harshly, reprove and chastise him; for severer education makes sons vital, vigorous and strong, as St. Ambrose teaches, book V of the Hexameron, xiii, by the example of the halcyon bird, which by the sea in the middle of winter hatches her chicks, and exposing them naked to cold, sea and winds, educates them harshly. But because it is not said "thou shalt not put" in the future, but "set not" in the optative or imperative, hence the former explanation is the genuine one. Therefore the right of paternal power extends itself to inheritance and liberty, but not to life. For a parent can disinherit a perverse and rebellious son, and can also in a case of extreme necessity sell him into servitude, but cannot take away his life. The physical reason a priori is, that a parent cannot take away from his son that which he did not give him; but he did not give him soul and life: for the rational soul is created by God alone, and is infused in the act of creation. Therefore he cannot take it away from him, but God alone, who created it and infused it in creation, and therefore alone has the right of death and life over it. It is otherwise with other animals, whose souls are from transmission. For an ox, for example, in generating an ox communicates to it not only body, but also soul and life; just as the light of a candle produces light and kindles another candle: so the soul of an ox or cow produces the soul of a calf. Hence it comes to pass that other animals exercise full right over their offspring, and thereupon deprive them of life, as eagles, storks, etc., cast down and kill degenerate offspring. Wherefore modestly Ben-Sira, in the Alphabet at the letter Beth: "A son," he says, "not a son (that is a rebellious son, who does not conduct himself as a son, and is perverse) without letting him row in the top of the water;"; because often the oar corrects those whom paternal chastisement could not. The Japanese therefore are inhuman, and similar to other barbarous nations, who consider it lawful to kill their sons whom they are unable to support; thinking it better that they should die than live a poor and miserable life. Whence our St. Francis Xavier, coming into Japan, rescued a Japanese named Bernard who was destined to death by his parent for this reason, and became a father to him by supporting and instructing him both for the present life and the eternal. The Carthaginians were likewise impious, who sacrificed their sons to Saturn, as Plato testifies in the Minos; and the Jews, who burned their sons to the idol Moloch, as I said on Leviticus xviii, 21. The Persians were barbarous and impious, of whom Aristotle writes, book VIII of the Ethics, chapter x: "Among the Persians the father's rule is tyrannical, who use their sons as slaves." Moreover Plato, book VII of the Laws, teaches that in the education of children two extremes are to be avoided, namely indulgence and excessive severity, because by the former the mind is dissolved, by the latter it becomes servile: "This, he says, is our opinion, that indulgence renders the character of children difficult, morose, irascible, and such as are violently disturbed by slight occasions. On the contrary, excessive and savage severity renders their character humble, illiberal, abhorring the intercourse of human society." And soon after, inculcating the mean, he asserts that the right manner of living is so constituted that one pursues neither pleasures alone, nor entirely avoids pains, but embraces a certain middle course; which middle course I was just now calling a tranquil and peaceful disposition. Moreover the Septuagint for "death" renders ὕβρις, which you may first translate as "outrageous wickedness, insolence, arrogance, presumption," as if to say, Do not set your soul, that is, do not consider, nor care that your son is more wicked, insolent, presumptuous, so that on this account you omit to chastise him, as if despairing of his correction; but rather all the more chastise him, and add stripes to stripes, until you crush and break down this insolence and wickedness of his: just as unruly and fierce horses must be urged with spurs until they lay aside their ferocity and allow themselves to be governed by the rider. Secondly, ὕβρις you may translate as "insult, contumely," as if to say, Chastise your son with a quiet and calm mind; but do not tear him to pieces with reproaches and insults in anger, lest he either fall into desperation, or into insolence, and casting off shame and reverence, return insult for insult, and words for words, and even blows for blows. Whence the Apostle, Colossians iii: "Fathers, he says, provoke not your children to indignation, that they be not discouraged." For servile education makes children servile, that is, timid and faint-hearted, says St. Chrysostom there. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena translates, Instruct your son, and he shall become a man of good character and good hope; but do not be carried away in your mind to insolence, so that you wish to rebuke and crush your son proudly and insolently. And the Syriac, to his reproach do not add your soul. For when you reproach your son, you reproach yourself; for the disgrace of the son is the disgrace of the father. Hence St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his Poem to Vitalis teaches that fathers ought to chastise their sons moderately, because excessive rebuke begets shamelessness, which is the mother of crimes. For thus he sings: Let not harsh reproof break the tender shame, Which is the aid to fathers, nowhere more firmly established. For reproaches make men shameless, and kindness makes them modest. Thirdly, ὕβρις is violence inflicted, cruelty, ferocity, harm, injury to the body, as if to say, Chastise your son, but do not inflict violence upon him, so that you rage against him, when you wound, mutilate, kill him, as our translator renders it. Fourthly, Aben-Ezra takes injury and death not in the passive sense, which the son suffers from the raging father, but in the active sense, which the son inflicts upon others. Whence he thus expounds it, as if to say, Instruct your son, because there is hope; for it is to be hoped that when you have chastised him, he will prolong his life for a long time. "To his death (by which he has given others to death), do not set your soul," namely by consenting to it, so that you nourish yourself from his plunder. Or "to his death do not set your soul," as if to say, When your son has killed another, you, O father, have killed him, because by not chastising your son and indulging him in crimes and murders you have nourished him. This is illustrated by the story or fable of a boy and his mother in Aesop: "A boy," he says, "stole a book from a schoolmate at school and brought it to his mother. When she did not correct him, but rather embraced him, as he grew older he began to steal greater things. But when he was once caught in the very act of theft, he was led straight to death. And as his mother followed and wept, he begged the executioners to speak a few words to his mother in her ear. When she immediately brought her ear to her son's mouth, he bit off her ear with his teeth and severed it. When his mother and others accused him, because he had not only stolen but was now also impious toward his mother, he said: This indeed was the cause of my ruin. For if when I stole the book she had corrected me, I would not have progressed to this point and now be led to death." The moral: "The fable signifies that evils grow greater in those who are not punished at the beginning." But the preceding expositions are more genuine, and the third plainly agrees with the Vulgate. For the killing of the son here is understood not actively, but passively, namely that he be killed by the father. Whence also the Hebrew agrees plainly with Pagninus thus: and do not lift up thy soul to kill him. For this is a monstrous parricide surpassing the common conceptions, intentions and designs of the soul. Whence to that, as if to something extraordinary, it is necessary to rise up, and by force to lift up the soul of the parricide father, so that inhuman cruelty may overcome and transcend the natural piety and love of the soul toward the son. I have said more about the chastisement of sons in Ecclesiasticus xxx, 1 and following. Solomon speaks of killing which is done by private authority, not that which is public. For in Deuteronomy cap. xxi, 20, parents are commanded or permitted to bring a disobedient, gluttonous, and stubborn son to the judges, who decree that he be stoned; and yet this very thing is a disgrace and loss to the parent. Whence concerning Junius Brutus, the first consul of Rome, who expelled the Tarquins and kings from the city, and ordered his sons, who favored the Tarquins, to be struck with the axe, Virgil thus sang, lib. VI of the Aeneid: This man, the consul's power, shall first receive the cruel axes, and the father shall call his sons, stirring up new wars, to punishment—a glorious punishment for liberty. Unhappy, however the fates may bear these things to posterity. The love of country shall conquer, and the immense desire for praise.
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19. HE THAT IS IMPATIENT SHALL SUFFER DAMAGE; AND WHEN HE SHALL HAVE SEIZED, HE SHALL ADD ANOTHER. — In Hebrew, a man great in anger sustains a fine; for if thou takest him away (from it), yet nevertheless he will add, supply anger to boil up, and consequently also a fine, as if to say: He who is prone to anger will incur punishments and damages, and although he be freed from one, when anger boils up again he will recklessly cast himself into others and greater ones. This verse can be taken as connected to the preceding one, as if it gives its reason. Whence the Complutensian editors and certain others add a causal particle, namely: "For he that is impatient," etc. Therefore Vatablus thus translates and explains: if thou hast been too severe (in chastising thy son, wounding or killing him), thou shalt receive damage; if thou freest him, thou shalt again add. Cajetan: he that makes great anger shall sustain punishment; for if thou makest him escape, thou shalt yet add. And he explains it thus, as if to say: He who chastises his son with anger even unto sickness or death, punishes not so much his son as himself, because he deprives himself of a son uniquely beloved, and thus brings upon himself perpetual sorrow and grief, and the vengeance of God the avenger, and often also of human judges. "For if thou makest him escape, thou shalt yet add," as if to say: If thou chastise thy son moderately, so that he escape from chastisement safe and whole, it will still be permitted to instruct and chastise him otherwise, so that what he did not learn before, he may learn afterwards. Whence Pagninus translates plainly: a man great in anger adds punishment; for if thou takest him away, thou shalt yet add to chastise. But Aben-Ezra explains it thus, as if to say: Let thy son who is irascible be angry and rage, so that he may thus pay the penalties as he has bound himself by sin. And do not strive to free him; for when once thou hast preserved him unharmed, it will be necessary that thou labor very often at other times to rescue him, because headlong into anger he will rush into other quarrels and brawls and injuries, especially because he trusts that he will again be freed by his father. But although on the occasion of the chastisement of the son sanctioned in the preceding verse this sentence may be introduced, and can be referred to it, yet it is general, and is to be extended to any anger and impatience whatsoever. For the particle "for" is not found in the Hebrew, nor in the Greek, nor in the Latin Vulgate. Whence first, R. Solomon explains it thus, as if to say: He who is excessive in anger shall give penalties: and if anger subdued thou hast withdrawn thy enemy from impending danger, thou shalt yet add days and goods. Secondly, better, R. Levi: He who, says he, exceeds the measure of angers shall not escape, but shall pay the penalties of this abject habit; for since by this means he stirs up quarrels among mortals, if at some time he has been saved on account of anger, because he who sought him was struck with fear, having beheld his immoderate heat, yet he will become accustomed to anger, and again will flare up against others, so that finally someone will arise who will attack him and slay him; and by this wicked institution he will be the maker of calamity for himself. Note: For "when he shall have seized," in Hebrew it is תציל tatsil, which R. Levi, Pagninus and others translate, if thou shalt have freed, if thou shalt have taken away; and Theodotion, a man of great angers, says he, shall be fined; for if thou takest away, he shall yet add. Our translator, however, renders it, "when he shall have seized"; and the Septuagint ἐὰν λυμαίνεται, that is, if he shall have laid waste, corrupted. For the root נצל natsal, that is, to free, sometimes signifies to seize, to plunder, to despoil, as appears Genesis xxxi, 9 and 16; Exodus iii, 22, and II Paralipomenon xx, 24 and 25. Again tatsil and הוסיף tosiph, that is, he shall add, are of future tense, and signify both the second person masculine, as if to say, "When thou, O impatient one, shalt have seized something, thou shalt add damage;" and the third person feminine, namely: "When he shall have seized, he shall add," so that it may refer to חמה chema, that is, anger which preceded, as if to say: A man great in anger shall sustain damage, and when his anger shall have seized something, it shall add another damage. Thus either exposition comes to the same thing, as Baynus rightly observed. Whence Our translator fully rendered the sense by saying: "When he shall have seized," namely something, the impatient one, on account of impatience and anger (for the impatient one includes this in himself), "shall add another," namely the damage which preceded. Now various men explain "when he shall have seized" variously. First, some supply the pronoun "himself," that is, when the impatient one shall have snatched himself away and freed himself from one damage, relapsing into impatience, he shall bring another upon himself. In a similar phrase Horace says, lib. II Serm. satyr. 7: "Unless thou snatchest thyself hence quickly, thou shalt come to the ninth day's work in the Sabine field." And Ovid, concerning the cow, Fragment 6: "She snatched herself thither, and mingled herself with the herds." Secondly, Jansenius: "When he shall have seized," says he, "that is, when he shall have carried off and borne away one damage hastily, soon he will incur another. Thus Horace, lib. II Serm. satyr. 5, says: 'Yet so that thou mayest seize with sidelong glance what the first wax wishes in the second verse,'" that is, read hastily with oblique eyes. For in a similar manner anger, hastily bringing harm to someone, hastily in turn brings upon itself a like harm. Again, to seize is to lead away swiftly and hastily. Whence Pliny in the Panegyric of Trajan: "Throughout all this distance," he says, "when you were leading the legions, or rather (so great was your speed) seizing them, you never looked back at a carriage or a horse." Thus the impatient man, through impatience, seizes, that is, hastily inflicts damage on others, and the same thing stirs up and snatches away from himself. Thirdly and properly, to seize is to drag, pull out, or take away by force or with haste, whether with anger or fury; for these are the effects of anger and impatience. It is therefore proper to him to seize, that is, to drag and tear at him with whom he is angry, and to take from him either his hair, or his clothes, or his money, or his freedom, or his health, or his life. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Whoever is impatient, whether he rushes upon another, certainly bearing the burden of greater punishment both in destroying and correcting a son, or in enduring poverty, sickness, insults or any other adversity, he will sustain damage, because then he deprives himself of peace of mind, and his impatience torments himself; then through his complaints, angers and quarrels he creates great trouble for others, and stirs them up against himself; but if, indulging his impatience, he seizes, drags and tears at another, or takes from him his garment, reputation, money or health and life (for example, by poison or blows killing his son, as was mentioned before), then certainly he will bring far greater damages upon himself, and incur penalties either of money or of liberty in prison, or of death to be inflicted by God or the judge. Thus Dionysius the Carthusian: "Whoever is impatient," he says, "that is, is stirred to impatience by his son's sin, and thus rebukes him impetuously, will sustain damage, because he gravely harms himself in his soul, and exasperates, scandalizes and disturbs the subject more than he heals him. Therefore the Apostle says: Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, that they be not disheartened; but bring them up in the discipline and correction of the Lord. Hence Augustine asserts: Whatever you say with a torn mind, it is the impulse of one punishing, not the charity of one correcting. And Prosper: One lightly chastised shows reverence to the one chastising, but offended by excessive harshness of rebuke, he receives neither the rebuke nor salvation; and when he shall have seized, that is, treated someone violently, or taken away what is his from someone, he will add another, that is, he will incur greater damage. Thus therefore let us strive to heal the delinquent in soul, so that we do not through anger, impatience, or in any other way harm or destroy our own hearts, since the Savior says: What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose himself, and suffer the loss of himself?" This is the general and adequate exposition of this sentence, under which it is permitted to descend particularly to various species of impatience and likewise damages. Whence Bede explains and applies it, first, to correction flowing from an impatient mind; secondly, to theft and robbery. "For if," he says, "provoked by the hardness of the brother whom you have begun to instruct, you yourself fall into the vice of impatience, you certainly incur damage to your virtue; and when you perhaps more harshly rebuke him and seize the hope of obtaining salvation and doing penance which he had, you will render an account to the strict judge for having scandalized your brother. The sense of the letter is clear, because he who through impatience serves poverty by theft, or by robberies, does damage to his soul; and when he takes the property of his neighbor, even if not to man for this, certainly to the eternal judge he must render an account. Whence another edition thus translated this verse: A man thinking evil is afflicted with much damage; and if he be pernicious, he will add his soul: because namely when the violent man has taken away money, for this he will unwillingly give his soul." Lyra adds: "The impatient," he says, "will sustain damage, namely of patience which he loses. And when he shall have seized the property of another from impatience, he will add another, namely the damage of innocence along with the damage of patience." Wherefore St. Chrysostom teaches that only those experience the damages of poverty who bear poverty with difficulty, in his first epistle to the Corinthians, homily 20: "Therefore," he says, "we are poor because we fear poverty, even if we have innumerable talents. For he is not poor who has nothing, but he who dreads poverty. For even in calamities we do not weep for those who suffer many evils, but for those who cannot bear them," etc. Indeed, Seneca also, in epistle 123: "Poverty," he says, "is an evil to no one except to him who resists it." Morally, learn here that impatience is to itself its own executioner, just as conversely patience of evils is to itself the medicine and physician of all things. For the patient person bears all things gently, patiently, and often cheerfully, and therefore feels them either little or not at all; but the impatient person, torturing himself by his own impatience, increases and doubles the sense of all evils for himself. Again, he brings upon himself enmities, quarrels, and disputes. Finally, through the injuries which he inflicts on others, he makes himself guilty, so that he is punished with money, liberty, or life, because he has unjustly punished others with the same. Thus the anger and impatience of Simeon and Levi, avenging the rape committed against their sister Dinah, brought the greatest damages; for he killed all the Shechemites, and exposed the whole family and race of Jacob and Israel to the danger of destruction. Whence Jacob, dying and cursing them, said: "Cursed be their anger, because it was stubborn; and their wrath, because it was cruel." Thus the anger and impatience of Saul, not bearing that David should be equal to him, destroyed himself and his own family, while he strove to destroy David. To this the Seventy add their interpretation, who translate κακόφρων, that is, a man of evil mind, insane, impatient, thinking and plotting evil things, will suffer much damage; as if to say, The impatient man who wishes and desires evil for others creates the same for himself, and tacitly wishes and desires the same for himself. For the law of retaliation is this: what you have done to another, you deserve to have done to you. But if he shall have vexed or injured, and shall add his soul, that is to say, if his impatience shall have broken forth into external action, and he shall have injured others either in reputation, or in wealth, or in body, then indeed he will suffer graver damages; for retaliation will be rendered to him, so that he gives an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a soul, that is life, for a soul, that is the life which he took from another, and properly he binds his own soul to eternal damnation and death on account of the injury inflicted on his neighbor. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena: "Depravity of mind," he says, "is punished by itself with lesser penalty, but with greater, if it breaks forth into external action." And the Chaldean: "An angry man," he says, "will suffer punishment, that is, he will immediately feel the damages of his anger; and when he is exalted, he adds upon his burden," as if to say, If anger increases, and rushes into the harm or death of another, surely he brings upon himself the burden and debt of greater punishment. A memorable example, very well suited to this place, is related by Phaedrus, freedman of Augustus Caesar, in book III of Fables, chapter xxx. A certain man, he says, accused his mistress more freely before his master of adultery, so that he might become heir to both. The master, to discover the crime, pretended to go abroad; but at night he hastily returned home: he goes to the bed in the darkness, finds a man lying in it, whom suspecting to be the adulterer, he precipitately pierces him in his impatience. But when light is brought in, he sees it is his own son: wherefore, overcome with grief and impatience, he pierces himself with the same dagger. The wife is brought before the centumvirs as defendant for the murder of her husband and son, because she had killed both her husband and her son. Augustus Caesar, having investigated and ascertained the truth of the matter, pronounced this sentence: "Let the freedman, who was the cause of all the evil, pay the penalty: for I judge the mistress, bereft of both husband and son, to be more worthy of pity than of condemnation." Behold, the impatient father brought upon himself these damages from his impatience: first, the death of his son; second, his own death; third, the bereavement of his wife, calumny, and danger to her life. Most excellently St. Gregory, in the third part of the Pastoral Care, admonition 10: "The impatient will hear," he says, "what Truth says to His elect: In your patience you shall possess your souls. For thus we are wonderfully made, that reason possesses the soul, and the soul possesses the body. But the right of the soul is repelled from the possession of the body, if the soul is not first possessed by reason. The Lord therefore showed that patience is the guardian of our condition, because in it He taught us to possess ourselves. How great therefore is the guilt of impatience, by which we lose even the possession of what we are." See concerning the damages of anger and impatience St. Basil, homily On Anger; Cassian, book VIII On the Institutes of Renunciation, chapter 1; St. Gregory of Nazianzus in verse On Anger; St. Chrysostom, homily 5 on Matthew, and Seneca, book I On Anger, chapter ii.
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20. HEAR COUNSEL, AND RECEIVE DISCIPLINE, THAT THOU MAYEST BE WISE IN THY LAST DAYS. — The Chaldean [version reads], in thy end; the Syriac, in thy paths; Symmachus, he that heareth counsel shall receive discipline; Vatablus, hear counsel, and embrace correction, and then thou shalt be wise; the Septuagint, hear, my son, the discipline of thy father, that thou mayest be wise in thy last days. This exhortation pertains to all, but especially to the young, and it is aptly joined to the preceding verses: for just as there he taught parents to instruct and correct their sons, so here he admonishes sons to receive this correction as paternal with a humble and willing spirit. For Solomon is accustomed to commend discipline to sons and youths, because this age, since it is flexible and like a blank tablet, is capable of discipline, and has need of it, lest it be swept away into vices, to which the fervor of youth draws [it]. The sense therefore is, as if to say, O young man, hear and follow the counsels and admonitions of fathers and elders, and this not once, but constantly and continually: thus indeed thou shalt gather great wisdom and virtue, so that in old age thou mayest be altogether wise and endowed with virtue. Just as a river, for example the Rhine in the Alps, where it is born, is small, but gradually advancing is increased by the rivulets flowing into it, so that at length it becomes a full and mighty river: so likewise a boy has but little wisdom, but hearing and learning gradually collects a heap of wisdom, so that in old age he may have it perfect, and thus also be able to derive it to others and make them wise. Whence that saying of Hesiod: "Wars are for the young, works for men, counsels for the old." Wisdom therefore befits the aged, first, because it is the ornament of old age itself; second, because old age is the end of man's life: but upon a good end depends a good death, salvation and eternal happiness; in old age therefore it behooves each one to be wise; third, because it is the part of the old to teach the young prudence and virtue both by word and by example. Whence that [saying]: "The crown of the old is much experience," Ecclesiasticus, cap. xxv, 8. See the things said there.
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21. MANY THOUGHTS IN THE HEART OF A MAN; BUT THE WILL OF THE LORD SHALL ENDURE. — Aben-Ezra and Lyra connect this verse to the preceding one, as if it gives its reason, as if to say: Receive, O son, the discipline of God and of thy father, and do not turn aside after the thoughts and desires of thy heart, because although the human mind abounds with many thoughts, yet none can stand except the counsel of God. But R. Levi takes this verse absolutely, and refers it both to the benefits and to the punishments which God inflicts for sins, as if to say: It cannot happen that thy thoughts and counsels frustrate the thoughts and counsels of God, by which He thinks and determines to do good or harm to thee and others. If therefore thou hast sinned, do not follow thy thoughts, so as to find means by which to escape the judgment of God and deserved punishments; but return penitent to God, seek pardon, and win His grace. Whatever else thou mayest think and contrive, thou shalt find it fruitless. For God knows a thousand modes and ways of overthrowing it, and of establishing the benefit or punishment which He has decreed to inflict upon thee, and He wills this His decree to remain and to be carried into execution. Finally, this general maxim signifies in general that the thoughts and counsels of men are various, uncertain and fleeting; but those of God are one, certain and stable. By thoughts understand counsels, volitions and decrees. Whence for will in Hebrew it is עצה etsa, in Greek βουλή, that is, counsel. For he opposes the counsels and providence of men to the counsels and providence of God, in that those are uncertain and unstable, these certain and stable, according to that passage in Wisdom ix, 14: "The thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels are uncertain." Solomon says this to this end and fruit: First, to teach us not to trust in our own thoughts and counsels, but to subject them to the counsels and providence of God; for thus they will be stable and efficacious, and will bring the matter to the desired end. Whence Tobias, dying, gave this counsel to his son, cap. iv, vers. 20: "Bless God at all times; and ask of Him that thy ways may be directed, and that all thy counsels may remain in Him." Second, to teach us to conform our desires to the will of God: for thus they will be prudent equally as they are holy. Third, to teach us to pray to God, that He may direct our counsels by His, and inspire us with those things which are pleasing to Him, or which have been sanctioned and decreed by Him. For if we rely upon our own inventions, which are often contrary to God's counsels and will, we shall labour in vain. For God's will and providence will dash to pieces and scatter all our counsels like smoke, as it scattered the counsels of Joseph's brethren; for it made it so that by selling him they made him prince of Egypt and of Pharaoh, who, wishing to destroy the infants of the Hebrews, multiplied them the more, Exod. i. But if we commit our counsels to God's providence, He Himself will direct them, and bring them to a happy issue, according to that which is said of wisdom, Wisdom vi, 17: "For she goeth about seeking those that are worthy of her, and showeth herself to them cheerfully in the ways, and meeteth them with all providence." The reason a priori is: First, that the thoughts, counsels and providences of men are many, and therefore various, unstable, uncertain. For man, since he penetrates and foresees the future but little, while he wishes to take counsel concerning it, thinks many counsels, by which his mind is drawn in various directions, so that he knows not what to choose and pursue. Whence what pleased him at first soon displeases him; what he chose, he soon rejects: hence because he changes so often, his counsels waver and totter, and he often says what is worse, more useless and less efficacious, or will be so. But God is consistent with Himself; for He takes one counsel, the best and most wise, and by His providence and decree sanctions and establishes it, so that it is immovable, and therefore will be efficacious. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena: "The mind of man," he says, "is unstable and changeable; but the mind and judgment of God is stable and immutable." Second, that counsels for providing and wisely disposing future things depend upon many secondary causes, which are contingent, and therefore uncertain to man, because they are in themselves changeable: so that, while man relies upon them, as they fail, he fails equally, and all his counsels collapse and vanish. But God, since His providence directs and disposes all contingent things, makes it so that that which He willed and decreed certainly comes to pass; wherefore that very thing must necessarily come to pass. Third, that the will of man is weak, and cannot give efficacy to things and causes thought out by itself; but God is able to give this efficacy. Wherefore when God wills something with absolute will, that same thing must come to pass, nor can any of the demons or men hinder it, because His will is omnipotent equally as it is most wise, and therefore He is able to scatter all the counsels of men and demons contrary to Himself, and easily to find and bring forth a thousand ways of accomplishing the matter. This is what David says (to which Solomon here alludes, as being his son): "The counsel of the Lord remaineth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations," Psalm xxxii, 11. Therefore in all things, especially in uncertain, doubtful and perplexing matters, we ought to depend not so much on our own reason as on the mind of God, and to seek counsel, and to say with King Josaphat placed in straits and almost destroyed by the Moabites: "In us indeed there is not so much strength, that we can resist this multitude, that hath come upon us. But as we know not what to do, we have only this left, that we direct our eyes to thee." For the greater the dangers, the greater are the aids which God suggests; the more remote man is, the nearer is God, if he be invoked; the farther away is the help of creatures, the more present is the divine, as is evident from the promises of Holy Scripture, and from the very experience of the faithful. For each one has often experienced this in himself in reality, experiences it and will experience it. This is what in the following chapter, verse 24, Solomon says: "The steps of a man are directed by the Lord; but who can understand his own way?"
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22. A MAN DESIRING MERCY IS MERCIFUL; AND BETTER IS A POOR MAN THAN A LIAR. — The Hebrew has word for word, the desire of a man is his mercy; and a good poor man before a man of lies. Thus also the Chaldean and Syrian, who adds, than a rich man who lies. Whence first, from the Hebrew thus explains R. Solomon, as if to say: Mercy and piety chiefly make it that a merciful man is in the desires of men; whence a poor man is more excellent than a liar, who promises mountains of gold, and provides nothing. Secondly, Aben-Ezra, as if to say: A man desires to exercise mercy toward the wretched, who lack it, because piety and mercy especially befit a man: hence a poor man is preferable to one who shows himself merciful and beneficent, but deceives hope. Thirdly, R. Levi translates quite contrarily. For by chesed, that is mercy, he takes reproach and disgrace (for thus chesed is taken for reproach in Leviticus xx, 45, and elsewhere by antiphrasis); whence he translates, the desire of a man is reproach, that is vicious and shameful, since all the thought and desire of the human heart from the very cradle is prone and intent upon evil, Genesis vi, 5. Wherefore his desire and vows look to nothing else than things of flesh and matter consisting in filth, in which he agrees with mute and brute animals. And therefore a poor man, who cannot satisfy his desire, is preferable to a liar, who enjoys these vain and false things, and delights and gorges himself to satiety, nay to nausea. Fourthly, the Zurich Bible translates, it is pleasant for a man to do good; better is a poor man than a man denying, who denies alms to the poor. Fifthly, Vatable, the desire of a man is (or ought to be) his grace (namely of God, who was mentioned in the preceding verse), and more excellent is a poor man than a man lying, that is a hypocrite, who attributes something to himself. Sixthly, Baynus, as if to say: A man naturally desires to be heard merciful, and to have the name and praise of a liberal and beneficent man, so much so that even the avaricious are sometimes beneficent, that they may display their beneficence; but it is better to be poor giving nothing to others, than to be rich simulating mercy through ostentation. Seventhly, Cajetan, referring the pronoun his to God, who was mentioned in verse 21, thus translates and explains, the desire of a man is his mercy, that is the first and highest desire of a man is to experience God merciful. The same more aptly refers his to man, as if to say: The desire, appetite and propensity of man by its nature is borne toward pitying and succoring the wretched. For the Hebrew taava signifies eager desire: for the root ava is the same as the Latin aveo, that is I eagerly desire. Eighthly, more connectedly Jansenius, as if to say: Men desire that they may be able to be beneficent and liberal toward the needy, they cloak this with their desire and avarice, asserting that they desire riches for the sake of beneficence and mercy to be shown to the needy. But better is a poor man, who lives content with his lot, than one who falsely cloaks his desire for acquiring riches with works of beneficence. Or thus: All men indeed by nature desire to be beneficent; yet it is preferable to be poor and unable to be beneficent, than falsely to boast of beneficence, and to proclaim one's beneficence which one has not exercised. Ninthly, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew taava, that is desire, by karpos, that is fruit (for fruit is desire, that is the thing desired and most wished for by the farmer and laborer) to a man is his mercy; but better is a poor just man than a rich liar. Now through fruit the Author of the Greek Catena takes merit and reward; whence he translates, great gain is to a man almsgiving, or mercy, as if to say: Immense wealth and income is almsgiving: because it brings immense reward and compensation from God. Almsgiving therefore is a property more fertile than any field. Others take fruit for the effect and property, which proceeds and results from man's nature and character, as if to say: Just as from a tree or seed proceeds and is produced fruit, for example an apple: so from man's nature and character proceeds humanity, beneficence and mercy. For humanity is congenital to man, so that a man is not one who is not human and merciful, but inhuman, cruel and barbarous. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 54 in Matthew: "Not to will alone and judgment," he says, "did God commit humanity and mercy, but he also sowed no small parts of it in nature itself; whoever does not have this will fall away from human nature." Whence Job xxxi, 18: "From my infancy," he says, "mercy grew with me, and from the womb of my mother it came forth with me." Note here. Humanity and natural compassion are implanted in man by nature, so that seeing a man of his own kind in misery, he naturally grieves for him and takes pity on him: but supernatural mercy, by which one has compassion on a man, not merely as a creature, but as a man elevated to a supernatural state, namely as capable of grace and destined for eternal glory, especially if one has compassion out of charity and love of God, whose poor neighbor is the image; this, I say, mercy is supernaturally inserted into man, but aptly and accommodated to his nature, which, as I have said, is inclined to humanity and mercy. Whence just as a branch of one pear tree is grafted and inserted into a branch of another pear tree of its own kind, and through this grafting becomes better and more fruitful, and produces more and better fruits, as farmers teach, and experience confirms: so likewise when through God's grace, and through the merits and examples of Christ, supernatural mercy is inserted into our nature, then indeed it gives forth greater and more excellent fruits of beneficence and works. Thus concerning the Hebrew and Greek reading. Now it is a question in what manner our Latin Interpreter rendered taava, that is desire, as poverty, namely: "The poverty of a man is his mercy," that is, as he himself explains: "A man in need is merciful." I answer, because the Hebrews call the needy and poor אביון ebion, that is one who desires, because the poor man lacking all things desires all things, that he might relieve his poverty. The poor man therefore is ebion, that is one who desires many things (for the root אבה aba signifies to will, to desire, to wish), desiring and desirous, and as it were desire itself: because he seems to be wholly composed of desires. Hence also to desire is sometimes the same as to be lacking and to be absent, as when we say in a household there is lacking furniture, offspring, handmaids, etc., that is to be absent. Whence that ancient heretic wished to be called Ebion, that is poor, because willing and gladly he became poor, testifying that he had been one of those who laid the price of their possessions at the feet of the Apostles, as Eusebius testifies, lib. III Hist. cap. xxi. But St. Ignatius, in his epistle to the Philadelphians, aptly turning this very thing back upon him, asserts that he is truly called ebion, that is poor, because he thought most poorly of Christ, stripping him of divinity, and saying that he was merely a man. He, he says, is truly ebion, that is destitute in mind, and poor in sense rather than in wealth. Hence learn morally that the avaricious man, though rich, is poor; because he is always in need, always desires and wishes for more. Wherefore our Translator rightly rendered, a man in need, that is desiring, is merciful. Now our Translator understood by desire poverty, and thence through his, that is of the man desiring, in what manner he is desiring, namely on account of poverty, from the poverty which makes him merciful. than a mighty man, who turns from it through lies. But truly just is not in the Hebrew and Latin Vulgate; it is however in the Greek, and there you will more conveniently understand by just merciful, concerning which the discourse preceded, as if to say, "The fruit of a man is his mercy;" wherefore better is a poor just man, that is merciful, who has compassion in affection, and indeed in effect giving the little that he has, than a lying man, namely rich or feigning himself to be rich, who falsely promises much, while he performs little. truly however to be poor, because the more he has, the more he desires; but one content with his own, even if he be poor, truly to be rich. Moreover a man in need is merciful, because, as Lyra says: "Experience of his own misery moves him to have mercy on others in affection, even if he is not able in deed," according to that saying of Dido in Virgil, book IV of the Aeneid: Not ignorant of evil, I learn to help the wretched. For no one feels the misery of another as much as he who has experienced the same in himself. For this reason Christ was incarnate, that he might learn to have mercy on men: "For it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful," says the Apostle, Hebrews II, 17. For the same reason God permitted St. Peter to fall into the sin of denying Christ, and St. Paul into the sin of persecuting the faithful, that doing penance they might learn to have compassion on sinners and the penitent. Indeed Aristotle also in the Politics says: "The elderly are prone to compassion, because they are in need of many things, similarly also women." One in need therefore has mercy in affection, and indeed in deed if he can; for he gives the small things he has with a liberal mind and affection, when he cannot give great things. Therefore signifies, says Jansenius, our text, a man in need to be for the most part more merciful than the rich, inasmuch as he knows by experience how grievous misery and want are, and therefore a poor man is to be preferred to a rich liar, who in order not to do good, lies that he does not have what to give. For he, although he cannot, wishes to do good; but this one, although he can, does not wish. Or it is signified that want confers this good on a man, that he be merciful toward other wretched ones, and between two evils, namely poverty and lying, poverty is the lesser evil, although men greatly flee from it and regard it as an extreme evil. According to the former understanding it is signified that poverty confers two goods on a man, namely the will to do good, and preservation from the sin of lying. For he can truly say he is not able to do good. For this is true that saying of the Apostle: "If the will be ready, it is accepted according to that a man hath, not according to that he hath not," II Corinthians VIII, 12. See the things said there. Mystically Bede refers these things to the poverty and want of the mind: "One in need," he says, "he calls humble, who continually remembers himself to be in want of perpetual goods without ceasing; for such a one, that he may obtain mercy from the Lord, never refuses to have mercy on his neighbor. Concerning which he also connects subsequently: And better is a poor man than a liar. For better is he humble in heart, who trusts nothing in his own works, than he who, thinking himself worthy of the name of man because of the excellence of his virtues, is deceived, not knowing that, while he transfers the glory of God to himself, by pride he loses the goods which he has done." Moreover Lyra reads: "Better is a poor just man than a liar," and thus explains it, as if to say: Better is a poor man, who does not turn aside from the truth of justice,
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23. THE FEAR OF THE LORD LEADETH TO LIFE: AND HE SHALL ABIDE IN FULNESS WITHOUT BEING VISITED WITH EVIL. — In Hebrew, the fear of the Lord leadeth to lives; and he that is satisfied shall lodge, he shall not be visited by evil; the Chaldean version: the fear of the Lord leadeth to life; and he who shall be satisfied by it shall lodge, and shall not be visited by evil. Concerning the Septuagint version I shall speak below. Rabbi Levi thus explains it, meaning that the fear of God institutes a life bounded by no limits; wherefore he who fears God, suffused with satiety, shall endure, and shall never be pressed by hunger, nor shall he burn with bodily desires, nor shall anything evil be recalled to his memory that might snatch away his thought, since he is restrained by divine fear from desiring base things. Vatablus: the fear of the Lord brings life, satisfies abundantly, and thus causes one to dwell so that no evil may befall. Lyra and Dionysius thus expound it, meaning that filial fear of God, which from love of God avoids offense, leads to blessed life; and in fulness, namely of blessedness, he shall abide (forever) without being visited by the worst (thus they themselves read it for "pessima"), namely by the demon, to whom no access is open to the Blessed. For Solomon seems to allude to that passage of his father David, Psalm CX: "Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon. Because he hoped in me, I will deliver him: I will protect him, because he hath known my name." By life understand vigor, health, longevity. For, as the Poet says: "It is not to live, but to be strong, that is life." True life therefore is vigorous, healthy, long-lived: for that which is wretched, weak and frail, is rather death than life, as St. Gregory says. By fulness take satiety, as the Hebrew has it; for a full belly is filled with food; satiety therefore is the fulness of the stomach. He commends the fear of God from four excellent gifts and fruits of it. The first is life, that is vigor and health; the second, satiety; the third, sweet sleep and rest; the fourth, deliverance from all evil. It is a prosopopoeia. For the fear of God here is compared to the good and strong constitution of a vigorous and robust man. For just as a man of good and firm constitution has vigorous life and a robust stomach, so that he desires, eats and digests whatever foods are suited to nature, and satisfies himself with them. Whence it comes to pass that from good foods well digested sweet vapors and exhalations ascend from the stomach to the head and inhale the brain, and thus procure for him sweet and pleasant sleep: whereby he admits no malignant, bilious or melancholic vapors into his head, which might represent to him sad phantasms and specters, and inject bile or sadness and fear: so likewise the fear of God is the best constitution of man's inner mind, which procures for him vigor of spirit, health and strength, and a good stomach, namely a good conscience (for this is the stomach of the soul: for, as St. Augustine says, tract. 32 in John: "The belly of the inner man is the conscience of the heart"), which supremely desires, eats and digests the dictates of divine law, God's inspirations, the exhortations and examples of the Saints, etc., as it were heavenly foods of the soul, and satisfies itself with them. Whence it comes to pass that the soul of those, imbued as it were with certain divine exhalations from their rumination, rests peacefully in God and in divine things, and as it were falls asleep, saying with the Psalmist, Psalm III: "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and take my rest." This rest produces and brings forth for him a wonderful joy, free from all sorrow and sadness and evil. First therefore, the fear of God brings life, nay lives, namely temporal and spiritual, present and eternal, of nature, grace and glory, according to that passage Ecclesiasticus I, 12: "The fear of the Lord shall delight the heart, and shall give joy and gladness and length of days." I have assigned the causes there. Secondly, the fear of God brings satiety: for God alone, as being infinite and immense good, can fill and satisfy the soul and its immense capacity. Fear therefore, that is love of God, because it brings God and God's grace with it, satisfies the mind; while fear and love of the world, feeding it with the husks of swine, namely with meager and frail goods, namely with gold, silver, wine and delights, and the pomps of the world, cannot satisfy it, but leaves it hungry, dry and famished. Again, the fear of God satisfies the body and the belly, because he who fears and loves God, content with few things, does not greatly covet earthly things, is satisfied, while he has necessaries, so that he says with St. Paul: "I have all things and abound," Philippians IV, 18. And truly, since he has with him the author of all things, how could he endure hunger for anything? Thirdly, this satiety breathes into the mind quietness and a wondrous sleep of tranquility, and sprinkles it, so that amid all the varieties and tumults of the world it always remains like itself, quiet, pleasing and unmoved, according to that in chapter XII, 21: "Whatsoever shall befall the just man, it shall not make him sad." Fourthly, this quietness expels all sadness and all evil, and stirs up perpetual joy and jubilation of mind, so that both in adversities and in prosperities he gives thanks to God, exults, and says with the Psalmist: "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall be always in my mouth," Psalm XXXIII. Hence he does not fear the terrors, illusions and phantasms of demons and men, scruples and temptations; but with St. Anthony he laughs at them, and mocks them, saying: "The Lord is my illumination and my salvation: whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life: of whom shall I be afraid?" Psalm XXVI, 1. Wherefore even if he suffer something for justice, or by the condition of this mortality, he does not grieve, but rejoices, and says that word of the Apostle: "To them that love God, all things work together unto good, to such as, according to his purpose, are called to be saints," Rom. VIII. Wherefore all evil is turned to good for him. The reason a priori therefore of this sentence is, that he who fears God has him as his defender, who procures for him all good, and turns away all evil, nay, repels it with the shield of his providence and omnipotence. Who therefore can harm him? what should he himself fear? "If God be for us, who is against us?" Rom. VIII, 31. This is what the Church professes in prayer, and petitions in the collect of the Sunday within the octave of the Body of Christ, saying: "Lord, cause us to have perpetual fear and love of thy holy name, because thou never failest in thy governance of those whom thou dost establish in the firmness of thy love." Moreover the Septuagint translates, the fear of the Lord unto life; ἄφοβος, that is, lacking fear, truly shall dwell in places where there is no knowledge; the Scholiast says, wandering and full shall pass the night without visitation of evil. The Septuagint therefore seems to contradict the Vulgate version, as if to say: The pious man, who has the fear of God, shall attain unto life; the impious man truly who lacks the fear of God, like a drunkard with cupidity and vices, shall wander about, and dash against and fall into whatever comes in his way, and without fear boldly rush into all crimes, and thence headlong give himself over to hell. The pious man tends toward life in the heavens eternal, the impious man truly toward death in hell perpetual, where there is no knowledge of God and truth. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks. But this sense is opposed to the Hebrew, Chaldean and Latin Vulgate; wherefore it seems certain that the Septuagint interpreters did not intend this sense when they turned the Hebrew into Greek. Therefore τὸ ἄφοβος does not denote the impious man empty of the fear of God, but the fear of God itself, as if to say φόβος Κυρίου ἐστ ἄφοβος, that is, the fear of God lacks fear, is fearless and intrepid, as the Complutensian editors translate it. This is a paradox of fear. For the fear of God excludes all fear of other terrible things, just as the fear of death and hell drives out all other fear, and just as the light of the sun obscures the light of the stars, according to that word of Christ: "Be not afraid of them who kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul; but rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell," Matt. X, 28. Do you wish therefore to fear nothing? Fear God. For the fear of God expels all other fear. Whence Eccles. chapter XXXIV: "He that feareth the Lord," it says, "shall tremble at nothing, and shall not be afraid, because he himself is his hope." See the things said there. That this is the sense is evident from the Hebrew, Chaldean, Vulgate and other interpreters.
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24. THE SLUGGARD HIDETH HIS HAND UNDER HIS ARMPIT, AND BRINGETH IT NOT TO HIS MOUTH. — For armpit in Hebrew it is צלחת tsallachat, that is, a basin, or pot; others, a frying pan, or dish. Whence the Zurich version translates, the sluggard inserteth his hand into a dish, and bringeth it not to his mouth; R. Solomon, the sluggard putteth his hand under a pot, when it is removed from the fire, that he may warm himself with it; Aben-Ezra: "The idle man sitteth, as if he had his hands hidden and buried in a vessel; wherefore, since through sloth he findeth nothing to eat, he cannot bring his hand to his mouth;" Lyra: "The sluggard hideth his hand under a caldron, that is, in cold weather he interrupteth eating on account of warming his hands;" Cajetan: "The sluggard putteth his hand into a hot pot, and being warmed by its heat he is unwilling to draw it out and bring it to his mouth;" R. Levi: "The same happeneth to the idle as if he had enclosed his hands in a small vessel, from which he could scarcely draw them out; for through sloth his hands seem bound and torpid, so that they perform no work; and although food be lacking, so that he ought by some necessary art to earn his livelihood, yet he cannot command his hands to labour at anything whereby to preserve his life, which those words insinuate: And bringeth it not to his mouth," etc. Another translateth, the sluggard hideth his hand in a frying pan, and it grieveth him to bring it to his mouth, as if to say, The sluggard would rather suffer the food to be spoiled in the pan than straightway put it in his mouth, which indeed things that are fried and roasted straightway grow hot, and unless they be immediately taken up, they perish by burning. Our version translateth, under his armpit: for the Hebrew tsallachat signifieth this metaphorically, because the armpit or axilla, being hollow and deep, hath the appearance of a basin or pot. Whence Bain, Pagninus and others, yea and the Septuagint and the Syriac version translate, in his bosom; for under the armpit as it were in the bosom of the sluggard and cold man they hide their hands, that they may be warmed and grow torpid. Thus graphically it depicteth the habit and gesture of sloth. For thus we see the sluggard sitting idle and inert with hands folded under his armpit, so that through sloth, torpor and cold he can scarcely draw his hand from his bosom and bring it to his mouth. The armpit or axilla is said diminutively as it were a small wing, just as maxilla from mala, paxillus from palus; for arms are to man what wings are to a bird. Thus Priscian. Others more rightly derive ala from axilla by the removal of the middle letter. Thus Cicero in the Orator: "How indeed," saith he, "did your axilla become Ala, except by the flight of the broader letter? which letter also the elegant custom of Latin speech removeth from maxillae, from taxilli, and from vexillum, and from paxillus." Therefore first, there is signified and condemned here the extreme sloth of the sluggard, whereby they prefer to be torpid than to eat. It is a hyperbole. For scarcely is there found one so sluggard, who being hungry doth not bring his hand to his mouth, that he may take food, that he may drive away hunger, and satisfy his growling stomach. Yet there are some so torpid and cold, saith Bain and Jansenius, who prefer to be torpid than to eat; for cold and torpor dull and quiet hunger, so that they feel either none or very little. To these therefore it is troublesome either to take food, or to wash their face, or to comb their head, or to be deprived for so short a time of the warmth which they seek in their bosom, or of the pleasantness of oil. In short, it is signified that the sloth of some is so great, that even things which are easiest to do, and necessary for body or mind, they shrink from and refuse. That this is the meaning is evident from chapter XXVI, 15, where this sentence is repeated and explained: "The sluggard," saith he, "hideth his hand under his armpit, and it grieveth him if he turn it to his mouth." Secondly, it is signified that the sluggard sitteth with idle hands, and is unwilling to labour, that he may procure food: wherefore he hath nothing to eat and bring to his mouth. Whence Vatablus from the Hebrew thus translateth word for word, the sluggard hideth his hand in his bosom, neither will he bring it even to his mouth, as if to say, He will have nothing to put into his mouth. And thus the Vulgate version can be expounded: Neither bringeth it to his mouth, as if to say, Neither doth he apply it to procuring food for his mouth. For this reason the Hieroglyphics depict sloth as a deformed old woman, badly clothed, sitting with her head resting on her left hand which is supported on her elbow, holding a rope in her right hand, in her left hand a torpor or tortoise which she carries, with this inscription: "The sluggard grows torpid." An old woman, because the elderly are sluggish; badly clothed, because "sloth is the nurse of poverty," as Seneca says in the book On Benefits; sitting, because it makes people idle. Whence St. Bernard, stirring up the slothful: "O shameless man," he says, "thousands of thousands serve him, and ten times a hundred thousand times a hundred thousand stand before him, and do you presume to sit?" With head bowed and declining, because "through torpor strength and talent flow away," as Isidore says in book II of the Soliloquies. She holds a rope, because it binds men and makes them unfit for work. She carries a torpedo fish, because this creature delays and stops ships in mid-course: whence it is also called remora. The tortoise in its movement is very slow, as is the slothful man. Thus Caesar of Ripa in the Iconology, page 8. Furthermore the Septuagint adds "unjustly," and thus translate, "he that hideth his hands in his bosom unjustly, neither shall he apply them to his mouth;" which the Author of the Greek Catena explains variously from various sources: "He who," he says, "hides his hand in his bosom unjustly, that is, seizes and conceals what belongs to others, shall never abound, because he will always be afflicted with sterility and want of things, so that even that which he applies to his mouth, that is, eats, shall fail him." Another: "He who has drawn in virtues placed in action, yet does not lead them into practice, truly deprives himself of genuine and proper nourishment." Didymus: "He who lives wickedly, and hides his hand against his soul unjustly, and does not cultivate his land, how then could he ever be filled with bread? Since virtues occupied about actions hold the place of hands, so that they bring that bread to our mouth which comes down from heaven. Such a one, therefore, because he is lazy and idle, will not be able to obtain the beginning of any useful action whatsoever." Another: "He who knows the will of God, yet does not do it, shall never obtain eternal goods, as he who has shamefully hidden his hand in his bosom; wherefore he who performs no work shall have nothing either to put in his mouth. But observe how by a ridiculous figure the idle man here expresses his talent, namely through hands hidden in the bosom." More precisely, more aptly and more profoundly our Salazar, as if to say: Those who take away the money of others by force and injustice do not apply it to their mouth, because they perish sooner than they are able to convert it to their own uses; for thus by the guidance of experience we know that money stolen is wont to be badly spent and lost. Another and more suitable exposition is: "He that hideth his hands in his bosom unjustly," that is, he who conceals money from avarice, contracting his hands and plunging them into his bosom against right and law; "neither shall he apply them to his mouth," he truly will not dare to spend them for his own uses: for thus the nature of the avaricious is, that not only do they not spend their money on others, but neither do they dare to live on it themselves; for avarice, which forbids gifts to the poor or friends, most sordidly forbids expenditures even for their own benefit. This according to the Septuagint. Mystically and tropologically, St. Gregory in book XII of the Morals, chapter X: "For the sluggard," he says, "it is labor to bring his hand to his mouth; because the idle preacher does not even wish to do what he says. For to bring one's hand to one's mouth is to make one's voice agree with one's work." Which words Bede transcribed here. Excellently St. Bernard, sermon 63 in the Canticles, enumerating the effects and damages of sloth: "This cold," he says, "if once it pervades the soul, there enters a certain rigidity of mind, and vigor grows slack, languor feigns weakness, horror of austerity increases, fear troubles about poverty, the mind contracts, grace is withdrawn, the length of life is prolonged, reason sleeps, the spirit is extinguished, the fervor of the novice grows cold, troublesome tepidity increases, fraternal charity grows cold, pleasure flatters, security deceives, habit recalls. What more? The law is disregarded, justice is renounced, right is proscribed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned. Finally the hands of shamelessness are given: that one is presumed rash, that one shameful, that one most base, that one full of ignominy and confusion—a leap from the heights into the abyss, from the pavement into the dunghill, from the throne into the sewer, from heaven into mud, from the cloister into the world, from paradise into hell."
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25. A FOOL BEATEN WITH A PESTILENT SCOURGE SHALL BE WISER: BUT IF THOU REBUKE A WISE MAN, HE SHALL UNDERSTAND DISCIPLINE. — The Septuagint: but if thou rebuke a prudent man, he shall understand sense; in Hebrew: if one strikes a mocker, the simple becomes shrewd: and if thou rebuke one who understands, he shall understand knowledge; the Chaldean: strike the mocker, and the foolish shall become more shrewd (cautious): and rebuke the prudent, that he may understand knowledge; the Syriac: the fool, when he is scourged, becomes prudent and takes heed. "Pestilent" therefore here and elsewhere are called mockers and scoffers, who laugh at all sacred and holy things, and turn them into jest and sport, indeed they traduce and sneer at them; for these are supremely harmful and pestilent. These therefore are almost incurable, and must be restrained not by words, but by blows, so that, if not they themselves, at least others may come to their senses and become wise through their punishment. For "fool" in Hebrew is פתי pethi, that is, a little one, simple, rude, innocent, unwise. For "shall be wiser," in Hebrew it is יערים iaraim, that is, he shall become shrewd and cautious like a serpent. For physicians relate, and among them Albert the Great, in his book On Animals, concerning the serpent, that if anyone kills or burns a serpent, the other serpents, perceiving its odor and stench, flee, as if fearing the same might happen to them; and thus by the example of one they become wise and take thought for their flight; and this is a singular remedy for purging a place infested with serpents. In a similar way Solomon bids us become wise, so that, when we see some wicked person being severely punished either by God or by a judge, we may avoid all wickedness. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 17 on Genesis, teaches that God inflicted grave punishments on the serpent which deceived Eve, Genesis III, 14; and therefore imposed lighter ones on Adam, as one who had already become more cautious from the serpent's punishment. That saying is well-worn: Happy is he whom the dangers of others make cautious. Thus on account of the plagues of Pharaoh and the destruction of Amalek, Jethro came to his senses, turned to the Lord, and became a proselyte; as Rabbi Solomon says. See Exodus cap. XVIII, 9. Truly the Comic poet: Punish one evil, and you correct a thousand evils. Delay of punishment harms innocence twice over. Restrain one guilty man, you have stopped the crime. Nowhere where punishment is, can evil be; there the good cannot be. Lest the whole body waste away, we remove certain members. The scorpion must be crushed immediately upon appearing. And Seneca: "The wise man corrects his own fault from the correction of another's." This is what the Apostle ordains, I Timothy V, 20: "Those who sin, reprove before all, that the rest also may have fear." BUT IF THOU REBUKE A WISE MAN, HE SHALL UNDERSTAND DISCIPLINE. — That is to say, the pestilent and the fool only by scourges and blows; but the wise man, corrected by words alone, shall come to his senses and shall learn discipline, says Rabbi Levi, according to that saying: "Rebuke the wise by a nod, the fool by a rod." Whence the Apostle to Titus, I, 12: "The Cretans, he says, are always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies, etc.; for which reason rebuke them harshly." Thus St. Stephen harshly rebuked the hardened Jews, calling them traitors and Christ-killers, Acts VII. For just as flints are split only by frequent blows of hammers, but sand by a light touch: so likewise hard hearts are split only by sharp blows and scourges; but soft ones by gentle correction.
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26. HE THAT AFFLICTETH HIS FATHER AND CHASETH AWAY HIS MOTHER, IS IGNOMINIOUS AND UNHAPPY. — For "afflicteth" in Hebrew it is משדד mescadded, that is, he lays waste, destroys, plunders, despoils, preys upon, and likewise afflicteth, as is evident from Psalm XVI, 9: "From the face of the wicked who have afflicted me." Whence first, Pagninus translates, he who destroys paternal goods, shall chase away his mother, a son bringing shame and causing to blush; the Zurich Bible, he who giveth damage to his father, and expelleth his mother, is a disgraced and ignominious son; Vatablus, he who plunders his father, and chaseth away his mother, is a son bringing shame and reproach, namely to his parents; Aben-Ezra, he who ordereth his father to be destroyed, and taketh care to drive away his mother, this son is ignominious; R. Solomon: "He who destroyeth his father, and chaseth away his mother, bringeth ignominy upon them, and treadeth an evil path. Thus when Sara saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian (Ishmael) bearing the worship of idols, and uncovering shameful things, she cast out both the son and the mother from her house with reproach." Thus he; R. Levi: "Bringing ignominy and reproach upon his progenitors on account of the depravity of his morals, and also because he obeyeth his lusts, this one, I say, taketh care that his parent be plundered by robbers, so that he may enter into a share of the plunder with them. Or even if perchance he hath borrowed from them, these come to his parent, so that what the son owed, he may pay, and for the same reason the mother is put to flight. Wherefore it is necessary that sons be rightly instructed by their parents from their earliest age, lest ruin be brought upon them by them." The sense therefore is, saith Jansenius, as if to say, He who by his impious life afflicteth his father, and strippeth him of his goods, either by violence or by squandering of goods; and giveth cause to his mother that she be forced to flee, and to leave her house, or her country, either because she cannot bear the insolence of her son, or because through him reduced to poverty, she cannot remain longer in her house and country, such a one is plainly ignominious, and worthy of all blame and reproach. Worthy also that both here and in the future he be unhappy, because he maketh his own parents unhappy. The Hebrew words also can be translated otherwise, so that the sense be of greater weight, in this manner: "He wasteth his father, and chaseth away his mother, a shameful and reproachful son," that is, he who liveth a shameful life, often spoileth his parents both of goods and of home: or, he sinneth as much as he who driveth his parents to want and exile. Again, if for mescadded with shin thou readest משדד mesadded with sin, it signifieth he who bruiseth, breaketh, or crusheth his father: for שדד sadad indeed signifieth to break and crush the clods, whilst the field is ploughed, namely to harrow. Whence the Septuagint translate, he that dishonoureth his father, and chaseth away his mother, shall be confounded, and shall be reproachable; the Chaldee, he who mocketh his father, and chaseth away his mother, is an ignominious son, and worthy of confusion; the Syriac, he is a son incurring and bringing shame, as if to say, He who despiseth his father growing old and verging toward the earth through death, as a vile clod, afflicteth him with reproaches and injuries, and as it were trampleth and crusheth him under foot, he thus afflicteth both himself and his parents with most grievous ignominy and reproach, and therefore is and shall be unhappy. For indeed this dishonoring and affliction of parents is wont to be a presage, nay rather an allurement of future unhappiness. The reason a priori is that such a person manifestly shows himself an enemy of nature and a foe to all honesty, as the Author of the Greek Catena says. For nothing is more shameful than to afflict those from whom you have received nature and all good, and to injure them. Again, just as the honor of parents is the honor of children, so the dishonor and reproach of parents is the dishonor and reproach of children, especially when they themselves inflict this upon them: wherefore such men are wont to be reviled and cursed as wicked. And God, the author of nature, avenges this injury to parents gravely, and punishes disobedient children with grave afflictions, so that they live miserably and unhappily everywhere, and suffer from their own children the same troubles, injuries and reproaches which they themselves inflicted upon their parents, as frequent experience confirms. That saying of a father is famous, who, being dragged ignominiously from his house by his son even to the threshold of the door, said: "Permit it, my son, for thus far have I dragged my father." Thus God avenges the injury to parents by retaliation; for a father represents God the Father to his children and performs his office. Whence Plato, in book XI of the Laws, teaches that parents ought to be honored by children "as certain divinities: No other such and so efficacious image, he says, can be had in a home, if they are rightly and as is fitting honored by children;" wherefore he asserts that the teachings of parents ought to be received by children as oracles. Thus Cain, by killing Abel, afflicting and dishonoring his parents Adam and Eve, was smitten by God with trembling of limbs, and wandered miserably, a fugitive and exile, Genesis IV, 12. Thus Absalom, striving to despoil his father David of his kingdom, hung caught by his hair in a tree, and was pierced through with three spears by Joab and died, II Kings, XVIII, 14. See what I have said concerning honoring parents in Ecclesiasticus III, 1 and following. Symbolically, the Author of the Greek Catena understands by father the mind, by mother the sense, that is to say, Whoever rejects the straight paths of the mind by study, and abandoning the way of right judgment enters into the contrary, he shall be confounded. These things can also be referred to heretics: for they, rejecting truth and preferring falsehood to it, dishonor God the Father, so far as in them lies; and they provoke the Church, the Mother of God. Thus he. Finally, spiritual sons, namely disciples, Religious, subjects, who vex and afflict their masters, Prelates, rectors, bring upon themselves perpetual reproach and unhappiness of the present and future life.
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27. DO NOT CEASE, MY SON, TO HEAR DOCTRINE, AND BE NOT IGNORANT OF THE WORDS OF KNOWLEDGE. — In Hebrew it is affirmative, cease, my son, to hear doctrine, to err from the words of knowledge. It is a concession and irony, that is to say, I grant that, if it please you, you do not hear doctrine, I permit you to your deafness, but know that by it you will wander from knowledge. Whence Our Douay-Rheims clearly rendered the sense by adding the negation, do not cease to hear, my son, doctrine; the Chaldee paraphrase: grow, my son, and hear discipline, and do not cease from the words of his mouth. The Septuagint agrees, saying, a son neglecting to keep the discipline of his father will meditate upon evil words, or wicked sayings (that is, things), turns over in his mind, that is to say, "Whoever never ponders divine precepts in his mind, churns up and belches forth unclean thoughts," as the Author of the Greek Catena says. Furthermore Vatablus, Baynus, Cajetan and other Hebraists understand these things concerning evil doctrine; whence from the Hebrew they thus translate, cease, my son, to hear erudition, which leads you to err from the words of knowledge. Thus Pagninus; or: Cease, my son, to hear discipline from words of knowledge that seduce. Thus Vatablus and Aben-Ezra: Cease, he says, and refrain from erring, and set a limit to error. R. Levi goes further, who thinks that here excessive study of philosophy is forbidden, lest anyone spend his whole age in political philosophy, but rather apply himself assiduously to true wisdom, that is to the forming of morals and the acquiring and increasing of virtues. But our Vulgate version, to which the Septuagint agrees, is plain and true; for the Hebrew musar signifies good doctrine, namely the discipline and correction of the wise. The same is signified by knowledge; for knowledge here is taken throughout for sense, prudence and wisdom. Wherefore the latter hemistich is connected with the former and denotes its fruit and effect, that is to say, My son, do not cease to hear the sound doctrine of your father; for thus it will come to pass that you will not be ignorant, but will be skilled in the words of knowledge, that is the prudent and sensible words which your father repeatedly instills and sounds into your ears. Hence the Syriac translates, remain, my son, listen to correction, do not forget the word of knowledge.
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28. A FALSE WITNESS MOCKETH JUDGMENT, AND THE MOUTH OF THE WICKED DEVOURETH INIQUITY. — In Hebrew, a witness of Belial shall mock judgment, etc. For Belial indeed, that is without a yoke, signifies a man most impious, who shakes off every yoke of the law, a rebel, an apostate, such as Lucifer was at the beginning, as I said cap. VI, vers. 12. Whence some for a witness of Belial translate, a witness of the devil, that is diabolical. Thus the false witnesses, who accused the innocent Naboth of blasphemy, are called witnesses of Belial, that is children of the devil, as Our Version translates it in III Kings, XXI, 13. For, as St. Augustine says, tract. 42 on that passage of St. John VIII: When he speaketh a lie; he speaketh of his own, because he is a liar, and the father of it (namely of the lie; for this is hidden in the word liar). "How," he says, "God the Father begat the Son truth, so the fallen devil begat as it were a son the lie." And further down: "For perhaps thou art a liar, because thou speakest a lie, but thou art not the father of the lie. For what thou sayest a lie, thou hast received from the devil, and thou hast believed him." Just as therefore the truthful are members of Christ, who is truth itself, as the Apostle testifies, Ephes. IV, 15: so the liars are children and members of the devil, who is the father of the lie, as St. Augustine teaches, lib. De Mendacio. Our Salazar confirms this same thing in many places. For mocketh in Hebrew is יליץ ialits, which secondly can be translated, utters, speaks. For devoureth the Rabbis translate, covers, hides. Whence First, R. Solomon thus translates and explains: An unjust witness utters and testifies those things against another, from which he is justly afflicted with stripes and death in judgments. "And the mouth of the wicked devoureth iniquity," that is, iniquity and wickedness devours the wicked; others interpret it judgment, that is, it inclines it to the other and evil and false side. Secondly, Aben-Ezra: A false witness, he says, will affirm that his testimonies are true and sincere; just as if he were an interpreter of judgment, that is of truth and justice, or certainly will pronounce mockeries in judgment; the mouth of the wicked covers, that is hides, iniquity and crimes. So also R. Levi. Thirdly, others, as if to say: A false witness mocketh judgment, that is the law of God which ordains: "Thou shalt not bear false witness." Likewise he mocketh judgment, that is the vengeance of God, equally as judgment upon liars and perjurers, according to that: "A false witness shall not be unpunished." For he himself thinks his falsehood is hidden from men, nor is it cared for or punished by God. Fourthly, Cajetan translates, a false witness shall make judgment to be mocked, that is he exposes the holy sentences of judges to mockery and ridicule, while he twists them by his false testimony to injustice, and causes the guilty to be absolved, the innocent to be punished: which is to mock judgment and judges, and to make them ridiculous. Fifthly, Vatable translates, a useless or worthless witness sneers at equity, and his mouth devours, that is dissimulates, iniquity, and hides and conceals evil in his heart, as if to say: He hides iniquity within himself, while he keeps the premeditated iniquity with him, so that at his time he may pour it out upon others, according to that: "Under his tongue is labour and sorrow," Psalm. IX. Sixthly and genuinely: "A false witness mocketh," that is despises, makes light of, and as if laughing rejects, "judgment," that is justice, because against it he imprudently gives false testimony. Hence he mocketh judgment and the sentence of judges, because he perverts it as a thing of naught, by testifying falsely, or by obscuring the truth. He mocketh also "judgment," that is the vengeance of God, because he neither believes nor fears that it will come upon him, but is deceived. For truly by God's judgment he shall be condemned, and shall pay the penalty in the fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels; for he has obeyed him, who is the father of the lie. Whence it follows: "Judgments are prepared for scorners." AND THE MOUTH OF THE WICKED DEVOURS INIQUITY. — "Of the wicked," both of false witnesses, concerning whom the discourse has gone before, and of any others whatsoever; that is to say, the wicked most eagerly and most fully perpetrate crimes, and swallow them down into the stomach of conscience as it were, namely with that avidity, magnitude and abundance with which the hungry devour bread and delicate foods; that is to say, the wicked are gluttons not so much of wines as of crimes. Thus Bede and Lyra, who note that it is said "devours," because the wicked man does not chew, nor weighs the gravity of the crime, and the punishment impending upon it; which if he did, he would surely feel and taste its bitterness, and would reject and vomit it forth. To this pertains that passage from Job XV, 16: "Man unprofitable, who drinketh iniquity like water." For liars, perjurers, drunkards, the lustful, and other wicked men devour crimes like feasts. That wicked jest of a parasite and mocker is well known, who, flattering the lust of Henry VIII, King of England, who wished to take Anne Boleyn as wife, when the king asked, "how great a sin would it be to know both mother and daughter?" (for Anne was said to be Henry's daughter), answered sacrilegiously: "As great as devouring a pullet with a hen," as Sanders relates in his History of the English Schism. Secondly, "the mouth of the wicked devours iniquity," that is, without shame and modesty, impudently lies, as if a lie were a thing of nothing, nay rather playful, ridiculous and delightful, in which sense Christ says the Pharisees strain out a gnat, and swallow a camel, Matt. cap. XXIII. Thirdly, Baynus explains "devours," or, as he himself translates it, "hides," of unjust judges, who patronize false witnesses; that is to say, a witness of Belial, that is a witness of nothing, of no honor and reputation, swearing falsely mocks judgment and justice, and the mouth of wicked judges protects them, covers and hides them; and thus they transcribe his iniquity into themselves by consenting and cooperating, and as it were devour it; that is to say, Judgments are instituted so that iniquities detected through true witnesses and the sentences of good judges may be punished. But far otherwise it comes to pass sometimes, when a witness of Belial speaks false testimony in judgment, and covers the truth by lying, or when he keeps a premeditated iniquity with himself, so that in his own time he may pour it out upon others, according to that: "Under his tongue is labor and sorrow," Psalm IX. Moreover the Septuagint go another way: for עד ed, that is witness, they derive from יעד iaad, that is to covenant, to promise, to betroth; whence they translate, he who pledges an imprudent boy, injures justification. Or, as the Author of the Catena of the Greeks clearly translates it, he who pledges his faith for a foolish boy, injures justice: the mouth of the wicked devours judgments. Which the anonymous author there explains thus mystically: "By the pledging of justice, offense, just as by the boy the infirmity and blindness of human nature is designated." Aquila and Theodotion, will devour or swallow the law, that is will boldly transgress the law, just as if he swallowed it. But according to the letter, thus you may expound it: that is to say, he who vows and offers to God in religion, or in the temple for the clerical or priestly state, a son imprudent and foolish, reserving others more prudent and more excellent for himself and the world, he injures justification, that is the justice and holiness of God: for these, because they are best and most excellent, demand that the best and most prudent be offered to them. Whence Cain is blamed as a violator of the Divine and profane, because he offered not the best like Abel, but the worst from his flocks to God, Genesis IV. Secondly, that is to say, a father who betrothes a wife to his son who is a minor or imprudent, injures the justice and holiness of matrimony: because he exposes it to the danger of dissolution and violation, lest namely the minor, having grown older, or the imprudent through imprudence, violate and break the bonds of matrimony. For the Greek ἐγγυάομαι is said of a father, when he stipulates a wife for his son, and the Hebrew עד ed, if you derive it from יעד iaad, that is to betroth, signifies one who betrothes. Third and best, the Complutensian editors translate it thus: he who vouches for an imprudent son injures justice, that is to say, he who commends a son, grandson or friend for benefits or offices, for example that he be a Pastor, Bishop, judge, counselor, senator, governor of the Republic, and vouches that he is endowed with sufficient prudence and other gifts required for the office, when he himself is imprudent and insufficient, he certainly gravely injures justice, that is, the right of the Republic or the Church, which justly demands that Bishops and Rulers suited and worthy be placed over it, who may justly and holily administer sacred and secular laws. Wherefore he who commends the imprudent and unfit, and vouches for them, is guilty of all the damages which follow therefrom, and is bound to make restitution for them. He therefore who vouches for an imprudent and unfit Pastor or Bishop is guilty of all the souls which perish through his fault, and God will require them from him in the day of judgment as much from the voucher as from the Pastor or Bishop. He therefore who is wise and wishes to consult his own soul, let him commend none but the distinguished, whose prudence and virtue have been long proven, nor let him suffer himself to be drawn by the affection of blood and kinship, which blinds many and brings them to ruin. Unjust judges hide the iniquity of the wicked, whom they ought to have brought to judgment and punished, and especially these false witnesses.
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29. JUDGMENTS ARE PREPARED FOR SCOFFERS: AND HAMMERS STRIKING THE BODIES OF FOOLS. — In Hebrew, and strokes of fools on the back; the Septuagint, punishments are prepared ἀκολάστοις, that is for the intemperate (the Complutensians, for the luxurious) scourges and torments, similarly for the imprudent; Theodotion, and fractures on the back of the mad. For hammers striking, in Hebrew it is מהלמות mahalumot, that is grave blows, by which a thing is shattered, beaten, bruised: הלם halam indeed signifies to strike, shake, shatter, trample. The Chaldean translates it, stripes; Vatablus, welts; the Syrian, rods for a mad people. The sense is, as if to say, Scoffers deride the judgments of God and men; but let them know for certain that these are prepared for them, especially for this reason and fault, that they deride them: similarly also fools, that is any sinners, let them know that grave plagues from God are prepared and impending over their back, which as if by hammers beat and crush them. By judgments understand both judgment properly so called, by which God condemns the wicked, mockers of justice and judgment, through himself or through judges; and also punishment just according to God's judgment, or of kings, tyrants or judges, inflicted on the guilty and wicked. Whence the Chaldean translates it, pains. Our Salazar by hammers striking believes there is an allusion to crucifragium, which was customarily given to those being led to the cross; for this indeed was accustomed to be inflicted by hammers, so that the sense is: "Hammers striking the bodies of fools," or, as the Hebrew has it, fractures or bruises of fools on the bodies, that is the cross and crucifragium for those foolish scoffers, as if to say, So severely will it be done with those mockers, that they will be forced to experience extreme punishments, namely the cross and the breaking of the legs and the whole body. On crucifragium see Lipsius, On the Cross, book II, chapter 14. Lyranus refers these to punishments inflicted on the guilty by kings or judges: for others, he says, are hanged, others are beheaded, others are burned, others are punished with other bodily penalties according to the various crimes committed by them, and this to the terror of others. Thus Nebuchadnezzar is called "the hammer of all the earth," Jeremiah 50:23, because God by him as if by a hammer beat down and devastated all nations on account of their crimes. And Jael killed the impious Sisera with a hammer, Judges 4:21. Most excellently St. Augustine in Psalm 36: "What," he says, "does the wicked man rejoice in, because my Father has made a scourge of him? He takes him for ministry, He instructs me for inheritance." Bede refers these to the punishments of hell: "The reprobate," he says, "deride the judgment or threat of divine command; yet there await them prepared judgments of damnation, which as hammers beat red-hot iron, so they beat them in the furnace of hell without end." I have seen huge iron hammers raised by water mills, by which red-hot iron was beaten in the Ardennes, which indeed struck horror into those beholding, and from these I imagined the hammers of hell, by which the reprobate are beaten on a burning anvil. Most aptly Dionysius refers these to punishments both by judges in this life and by God on the day of final judgment to be inflicted on the guilty: "Prepared are," he says, "for scoffers of truth and equity judgments, because God is prepared to judge and condemn them, according to that of Isaiah: The Lord stands to judge. And Jude says: Behold the Lord comes to execute judgment, and to reprove the impious. In the divine law also and positive institutions just judgments are established against such, and hammers striking are prepared for fools, that is for the impious, on the bodies, by which also in this life for various crimes various and bitter torments and scourgings, mutilations, hangings, breakings on the wheel and similar kinds of death are inflicted, and infernal punishments also for the impenitent, as is said in the Apocalypse: For the fearful, and unbelieving, and accursed, and all liars, their portion shall be in the pool burning with fire and brimstone." Mystically, the hammers of sinners are effective preachers, who by threatening the wicked with the threats and scourges of God, crush them and convert them, Jeremiah cap. XXIII, 29. Finally, St. Augustine wisely teaches, in Psalm. XXXI, toward the end, that any scourges by which we are afflicted are not to be referred to man or to the devil, but to God, who uses man or the devil to scourge us, as He used him in scourging Job I. For God, says St. Augustine, scourges His sons for discipline, that they may be amended; but the reprobate for punishment, that they may be tormented for the example of others; yet no one has been, is, or will be without scourging in this life, not even the Only-begotten Son of God Himself. The same Augustine, in Psalm. XXXVII, on those words: For I am ready for scourges: "If my father scourges me," he says, "I am ready for scourges, because an inheritance is prepared for me. You do not wish the scourge, an inheritance is not given to you. For every son must necessarily be scourged: so much is every one scourged, that He did not spare even Him who had no sin." To this sacred oracle of Solomon agrees the oracle given to Pausanias, the Laconian leader: You must pay the penalty, injury brings disaster. And the oracle given in Greek verse to Pisistratus: Οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων ἀδικῶν τίσιν οὐκ ἀποτίσει. That is, no one of men acting unjustly does not pay the penalty. Socrates asserted that "cities are best governed when the unjust pay penalties," as Plato relates, lib. II De Philosoph. Lycurgus used to say, "the commonwealth is held together by two things, namely by reward and punishment," as Cicero relates, epist. ad Brutum, where he also cites Solon who, when asked, "what would be most salutary for the commonwealth," answered: "If the good were invited by rewards, but the wicked restrained by punishments." The censure of Cato was, "that injury, even if it brings nothing dangerous to the one committing it, is nevertheless dangerous to all." i.e., The penalty for wrongdoing is not to be neglected, lest from one unpunished injury, many be enticed to inflict a similar one on others in hope of similar impunity. Seneca wisely says, lib. De Clementia: "As thunderbolts," he says, "are averted by the danger to a few, by the fear of all: so the punishments of great powers terrify more widely than they harm."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
19:28
I Reg. 2, 26, "of iniquity": Iob. 34, 36); I Sam. 25, 25; 30, 22; II Sam. 16, 7; 20, 1; I Reg. 21, 13; Prov. 6, 12; 16, 27; 19, 28 (Eccli. 11, 32). Alone, used elliptically (for 'īl b.), b. is equivalent to "wicked" (II Sam. 23, 6; Iob. 34, 18) or "destroyer" (Nah. 2, 1), taking on a concrete sense, …
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.