1Seek not to be like evil men, neither desire to be with them:Non portare invidia ai malvagi, e non bramare di star con essi:EMVLATE not euil men, neither desire thou to be with them:Ne æmuleris viros malos, / nec desideres esse cum eis: 2Because their mind studieth robberies, and their lips speak deceits.Perocché la loro mente medita rapine: e le loro labbra parlano di tradimenti.because their mind doth meditate robberies, and their lippes speake deceites.quia rapinas meditatur mens eorum, / et fraudes labia eorum loquuntur. 3By wisdom the house shall be built, and by prudence it shall be strengthened.La casa si edificherà colla sapienza, e per la prudenza renderassi stabile.By wisedom the house shal be built, and by prudence it shal be strengthened.Sapientia ædificabitur domus, / et prudentia roborabitur. 4By instruction the storerooms shall be filled with all precious and most beautiful wealth.Mediante la scienza saran ripiene le guardarobe di ogni specie di cose preziose, e più belle.In doctrine the cellars shal be replenished with al precious, and most beautiful substance. A wiseman is strong: and a lerned man,In doctrina replebuntur cellaria, / universa substantia pretiosa et pulcherrima. 5A wise man is strong: and a knowing man, stout and valiant.L'uomo saggio ha fortezza, e l'uomo, che ha scienza, è robusto, e vigoroso.strong and valiant.Vir sapiens fortis est, / et vir doctus robustus et validus: 6Because war is managed by due ordering: and there shall be safety where there are many counsels.Perocché col buon ordine si governa la guerra: e la salute si troverà, dove son molti consigli.Because warre is managed by due ordering: & there shal be saluation where manie counsels are.quia cum dispositione initur bellum, / et erit salus ubi multa consilia sunt. 7Wisdom is too high for a fool; in the gate he shall not open his mouth.Ardua cosa per lo stolto è la sapienza: egli non aprirà sua bocca alla porta.Wisedom is high for a foole, in the gate he shal not open his mouth.Excelsa stulto sapientia; / in porta non aperiet os suum. 8He that deviseth to do evils, shall be called a fool.Chi pensa a mal fare, avrà il nome di stolto.He that thinketh to doe euils, shal be called a foole.Qui cogitat mala facere stultus vocabitur: 9The thought of a fool is sin: and the detractor is the abomination of men.Il pensier dello stolto è peccato: il detrattore poi è l'obbrobrio degli uomini.The cogitation of a foole is sinne: and a detracter the abomination of men.cogitatio stulti peccatum est, / et abominatio hominum detractor. 10If thou lose hope, being weary in the day of distress, thy strength shall be diminished.Se stancandoti tu perdi speranza nel dì dell'angustia, la tua fortezza si impiccolisce.If thou despaire being wearie in the day of distresse: thy strength shal be diminished.Si desperaveris lassus in die angustiæ, / imminuetur fortitudo tua.
11Deliver them that are led to death: and those that are drawn to death, forbear not to deliver.Cava di pericolo quelli, che sono condotti a morte: e non esser tardo a liberare quelli, che sono strascinati al supplizio.Deliuer them that are led to death: and those that are drawen to death cease not to deliuer.Erue eos qui ducuntur ad mortem, / et qui trahuntur ad interitum, liberare ne cesses. 12If thou say: I have not strength enough: he that seeth into the heart, he understandeth, and nothing deceiveth the keeper of thy soul, and he shall render to a man according to his works.Se tu dirai: Non ho forze abbastanza; colui che vede i cuori, egli conosce, e nulla è ascoso al Salvatore dell'anima tua, il quale renderà all'uomo secondo le opere sue.If thou say: I am not of force: he that seeth into the hart, he vnderstandeth, and nothing deceiueth the keeper of thy soule, and he shal render to a man according to his workes.Si dixeris: Vires non suppetunt; / qui inspector est cordis ipse intelligit: / et servatorem animæ tuæ nihil fallit, / reddetque homini juxta opera sua. 13Eat honey, my son, because it is good, and the honeycomb most sweet to thy throat.Mangia, figliuol mio, il miele, per che è buono, e il favo sarà dolcissimo al tuo palato.Eate honie my sonne, because it is good, and the honiecombe most sweete to thy throte:Comede, fili mi, mel, quia bonum est, / et favum dulcissimum gutturi tuo. 14So also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul: which when thou hast found, thou shalt have hope in the end, and thy hope shall not perish.Tale sarà all'anima tua la dottrina della sapienza, e quando tu l'avrai trovata, avrai speranza negli ultimi giorni, e la tua speranza non verrà meno.so also the doctrine of wisedom to thy soule: which when thou shalt finde, thou shalt haue hope in the later end, and thy hope shal not perish.Sic et doctrina sapientiæ animæ tuæ: / quam cum inveneris, habebis in novissimis spem, / et spes tua non peribit. 15Lie not in wait, nor seek after wickedness in the house of the just, nor spoil his rest.Non tendere insidie al giusto, e non cercare l'empietà nella casa di lui, e non isturbare il suo riposo:Lie not in wayte, nor seeke impietie in the house of the iust, nor spoile his rest.Ne insidieris, et quæras impietatem in domo justi, / neque vastes requiem ejus. 16For a just man shall fall seven times, and shall rise again: but the wicked shall fall down into evil.Perocché sette volte caderà il giusto, e risorgerà; ma gli empj precipitano nel male.For seuen times shal the iust fal, and shal rise againe: but the impious shal fal into euil.Septies enim cadet justus, et resurget: / impii autem corruent in malum.
17When thy enemy shall fall, be not glad, and in his ruin let not thy heart rejoice:Non ti rallegrare della caduta del tuo nemico, e il cuor tuo non trionfi di sua rovina,When thine enemie shal fal, be not glad, and in his ruine let not thy hart reioyce:Cum ceciderit inimicus tuus ne gaudeas, / et in ruina ejus ne exsultet cor tuum: 18Lest the Lord see, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.Affinchè il Signore, che ciò vede, non se n'offenda, ed egli ritirerà da lui il suo sdegno.Lest perhaps our Lord see, and it displease him, and he take away his wrath from him.ne forte videat Dominus, et displiceat ei, / et auferat ab eo iram suam. 19Contend not with the wicked, nor seek to be like the ungodly.Non contendere co' malvaggi, e non portar invidia agli empj:Contend not with the most wicked, nor emulate the impious:Ne contendas cum pessimis, / nec æmuleris impios: 20For evil men have no hope of things to come, and the lamp of the wicked shall be put out.Perocché i cattivi non hanno speranza in futuro, e la lucerna dell'empio si spegnerà.because euil men haue not hope of thinges to come, and the lampe of the impious shal be extinguished.quoniam non habent futurorum spem mali, / et lucerna impiorum extinguetur. 21My son, fear the Lord, and the king: and have nothing to do with detractors.Figliuol mio, temi il Signore, ed il re, e non far lega co' detrattori;Feare our Lord, my sonne, and the king: & with detracters medle not:Time Dominum, fili mi, et regem, / et cum detractoribus non commiscearis: 22For their destruction shall rise suddenly: and who knoweth the ruin of both?Perocché scoppierà repentinamente la loro perdizione, e chi sa quai supplizi l'uno, e l'altro farà soffrire?because their perdition shal sodenly rise: and the ruine of both who knoweth?quoniam repente consurget perditio eorum, / et ruinam utriusque quis novit ? 23These things also to the wise: It is not good to have respect to persons in judgment.Queste cose ancora sono pei sapienti: il fare accettazione di persone in giudizio, non è cosa buona.These thinges also to the wise: to know a person in iudgement is not good.Hæc quoque sapientibus. Cognoscere personam in judicio non est bonum. 24They that say to the wicked man: Thou art just: shall be cursed by the people, and the tribes shall abhor them.Quelli, che all'empio dicono: Tu se' giusto, saran maledetti dai popoli, e detestati dalle tribù.They that say to the impious: Thou art iust: peoples shal curse them, and tribes shal detest them.Qui dicunt impio: Justus es: maledicent eis populi, / et detestabuntur eos tribus.
25They that rebuke him shall be praised: and a blessing shall come upon them.Quelli, che lo condannano saranno lodati, e sopra di essi verrà la benedizione.They that rebuke him, shal be praysed: and blessing shal come vpon them.Qui arguunt eum laudabuntur, / et super ipsos veniet benedictio. 26He shall kiss the lips, who answereth right words.Colui che risponde secondo la verità, da un bacio sulla bocca.He shal kisse the lippes, who answereth right wordes.Labia deosculabitur / qui recta verba respondet. 27Prepare thy work without, and diligently till thy ground: that afterward thou mayst build thy house.Metti in buon ordine fuori il tuo lavoro, e coltiva diligentemente il tuo campo, e poi fabbricherai la tua casa.Prepare thy worke abrode, and diligently til thy ground: that afterward thou mayst build thy house.Præpara foris opus tuum, / et diligenter exerce agrum tuum, / ut postea ædifices domum tuam. 28Be not witness without cause against thy neighbour: and deceive not any man with thy lips.Non volere senza motivo render testimonianza contro il tuo prossimo, e non adular nissuno colle tue labbra.Be not witnes without cause against thy neighbour: neither alure any man with thy lippes.Ne sis testis frustra contra proximum tuum, / nec lactes quemquam labiis tuis. 29Say not: I will do to him as he hath done to me: I will render to every one according to his work.Non dire: Farò a lui quello, che ha fatto a me: renderò a ciascheduno secondo le sue azioni.Say not: As he hath done to me, so wil I doe to him: I wil render to euerie one according to his worke.Ne dicas: Quomodo fecit mihi, sic faciam ei; / reddam unicuique secundum opus suum. 30I passed by the field of the slothful man, and by the vineyard of the foolish man:Passai pel campo di un infingardo, e per la vigna di un uomo stolto,I passed by the filde of a slothful man, and by the vineyard of a foolish man:Per agrum hominis pigri transivi, / et per vineam viri stulti: 31And behold it was all filled with nettles, and thorns had covered the face thereof, and the stone wall was broken down.E vidi, come tutto era pieno di ortica, e le spine l'avean coperta quant'ell'è grande, e la muraglia a secco era rovinata.and behold nettels had filled it wholy, and thornes had couered the face therof, and the wal of stones was destroyed.et ecce totum repleverant urticæ, / et operuerant superficiem ejus spinæ, / et maceria lapidum destructa erat. 32Which when I had seen, I laid it up in my heart, and by the example I received instruction.Veduta tal cosa, la riposi nel mio cuore, e con tal esempio imparai a ben regolarmi.Which when I had seene, I layd it in my hart, and by the example I lerned discipline. A litle I say, thou shalt sleepe,Quod cum vidissem, posui in corde meo, / et exemplo didici disciplinam.
33Thou wilt sleep a little, said I, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to rest.E dissi: Un poco tu dormirai, un altro poco ti appisolerai, un pochetto starai colle mani in mano per riposarti;a litle thou shalt slumber, a litle shalt thou ioyne thy handes together, to rest:Parum, inquam, dormies, modicum dormitabis; / pauxillum manus conseres ut quiescas: 34And poverty shall come to thee as a runner, and beggary as an armed man.E ti sopravverrà, come un corriere, la indigenza, e la mendicità, come un uomo armato.and as a poste, pouertie shal come to thee, & beggerie as a man armed.et veniet tibi quasi cursor egestas, / et mendicitas quasi vir armatus.
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Like. Be not allured by their prosperity to imitate them, Psalm 36:1.
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Wisdom and virtue, and not by injustice can the house be established.
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Calmet
Valiant, as well as a good economist, ver. 4. (Calmet)
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Counsels. "Consult many what ought to be done, but only a few of the most faithful, or rather thyself alone, what thou art about to do." (Veget. 3:9., and 27.)
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Calmet
High. Thus the fool excuses himself. But wisdom condescends to our weakness, if we be truly in earnest, Deuteronomy 32:12. Mouth. To defend himself, or to give advice. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Of a fool. In as much as he is wicked. Though he may have some pious thoughts, he attends not to them. (Haydock)
Calmet
He thinks how he may commit evil, and renders himself hateful. (Calmet)
Hebrew, "a wicked thought is the sin of folly." Septuagint, "the fool dieth in sins."
Haydock
Detractor. Hebrew, "scoffer." (Haydock)
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Haydock
Diminished. This is the sad consequences of too much dejection, Ephesians 4:19. Despairing, they abandon themselves to impurities. (Haydock)
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Calmet
Deliver. The Jews often put people to death without any formal trial, pretending zeal, as they did St. Stephen, etc. Our Saviour rescued the adulteress from such a situation, as Daniel had done Susanna. Yet this text may regard poor debtors, Psalm 71:4. (Calmet)
Christian bishops used all their influence to preserve the lives of those who did not deserve death. (St. Ambrose in Psalm cxviii. Ser. viii. Off. 1:36., and ep. xxv., and xxvi.)
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Haydock
I have. Hebrew, "behold, we know not this man." (Pagnin) (Haydock)
Calmet
He is a stranger. But all mankind are brethren, and have a charge to assist one another, even though they be enemies, Ecclesiasticus 17:12., and Exodus 23:4. (Calmet)
Keeper. Hebrew notser, "preserver." As thou hast received many good things from God, shew mercy to thy neighbour.
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Menochius
Honey. Of wisdom, which is most delicious. (Menochius)
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Montanus
Thou shalt. Hebrew, "yea, it is the last." (Montanus)
"Then there shall be a reward." (Protestants)
Calmet
Thou shalt enjoy old age, or have posterity. (Calmet)
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St. Augustine
Fall into smaller sins, (St. Gregory vi. in 2 Reg. xv. etc.) or into disgrace, as yippol (Haydock) rather intimates. (Vatable) (St. Augustine, City of God 11:31.)
Calmet
Both significations agree with the context. See Job 5:27., and Matthew 18:21. (Calmet)
Worthington
He who is not subject to mortal sin, may still be exposed to many failings, and venial sins, which do not deprive him of the title of just; whereas the wicked consents to mortal sin, from which he riseth not so easily. Hence the wise man admonishes us not to lie in wait, or calumniously seek impiety in the house or soul of the just. (Worthington)
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Calmet
From. To punish thee. (Calmet)
Haydock
Thus will thy thirst of vengeance be disappointed. (Haydock)
Calmet
The Hebrews believed that there was no evil, which was not caused by sin; and this was true in some sense. But still God often afflicts his servants, (ver. 16,) as the whole book of Job tends to prove. (Calmet)
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Contend. Or Hebrew, "associate."
Like. Ver. 1., and Psalm 36:1.
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Calmet
Come. Protestants, "no reward," (Haydock) posterity, etc., as designated also by the lamp, ver. 14. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Detractors. Or those who speak ill of God or the king. (Calmet)
Protestants, "that are given to change," (Haydock) and relapses.
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Haydock
These. Septuagint have an addition, and then our Proverbs 30:1-15., after which follows the remainder of this chapter and the ten first verses of the 31st. [chapter.] (Haydock)
Calmet
Solomon here resumes the sententious style, Proverbs 22:17. (Calmet)
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Menochius
Lips. And be deemed a friend. (Menochius)
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House, and support thy family. Before building, great deliberation is requisite, Luke 14:28. Those who attempt to instruct others, must first set good example.
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Cause, and necessity. Septuagint, "be not a false witness against thy fellow-citizen."
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Work. Revenge is often reprobated, though the law allowed of retaliation, which the more virtuous did not insist upon.
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Calmet
Man. Those who neglected their land were despised. (Calmet)
Cato
The ancient Romans esteemed agriculture as a most laudible and profitable employment. (Cato, Rust. i.; Cicero, Off. i.)
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Which. Septuagint, "at last I repented: I looked forward to receive instruction."
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Calmet
Said I, is not in Hebrew, Proverbs 6:10. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "I will slumber a while," to rest. Septuagint, "I will enfold my breast in my hands a little." (Haydock)
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Flee euil companie, lest thou be alured to vice. VVisdom and vertues, not wickednes, do prosper temporally and spiritually.
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Counsel in warres, and other great affayres.
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Good purposes. Report wel of others. Fortitude.
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VVorkes of mercie, according to our ha biliue.
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VVisdom is swete: and geueth hope.
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Toleration of others imperfections:
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16. Seuen times shal the iust sal.] A iust man, that is to say, Gods true seruant, A iust man falling into venial sinnes is not therby vniust, nor Gods enimie. free from mortal sinne, is subiect during this life, to manie tentations, imperfections, and may often fal into venial sinnes, and not lose iustice, nor the true title of a iust man (as here he is called) nor become the diuels seruant, nor Gods enemie: but through Gods grace helping his weaknes, he riseth againe from smal sinnes, stil perseuering in Gods fauoure: wheras contrariwise the impious falleth into euil, towitte, into more and more sinne, through malice, and lacke of grace, & riseth not so easily. And therfore the wisman here admonisheth, not to lie in waite, nor calumniously to seke impietie in the house, (that is, in the soule) of the iust. For though he committe some faultes, yet he Al sinnes are not mortal. riseth againe, and is not impious, vniust, nor guiltie of mortal crime, as the wicked man is.
Oftentimes. S. Aug. li. 11. c. 31. ciust.
VVith out which none liueth. Charitie towards enemies.
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Haue peace with al: so much as may be. Loial•ie to God & king.
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Equitie in iudgement, condemning the guiltie, & deliuering the innocent, is very gratful to al.
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Order in al affaires. Discretion in bearing witnes. Reuenge not.
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Diligent labour, and vigilance to prouide necessaries, and to auoide beggerie.
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 2.4
… Herein lies wisdom, herein lies intelligence and understanding without which our inward house cannot be built, nor can spiritual riches be gathered together, as it is said: “A house is built with wisdom, and again it is set up with intelligence. With understanding the storehouses are filled with all precious riches and good things.”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.25
… How can Marcion or Eunomius be wise, who prefer to have an evil rather than a good God? And how can he be wise who does not fear his God? For: “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Elsewhere, too, it stands: “The wise turn not aside from the mouth of the Lord, but come near Him in their confession of His greatness.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 19
… Therefore, to him who became a learner, the grace of the Spirit was given. But as for those Jews who persisted in their ignorance; as the proverb saith, ‘Death came upon them. For the fool dies in his sins
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.36
… Wherefore holy Moses gave this as a first proof of his fortitude in war. For when he saw an Hebrew receiving hard treatment at the hands of an Egyptian, he defended him, and laid low the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Solomon also says: “Deliver him that is led to death.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 1
… Wherefore, I beseech you, let us do all things in simplicity. For let us even suppose that he is an impostor that comes; you are not bidden to be curious about this. For, “Give,” saith he, “to every one that asketh thee” ( Luke vi. 30 .); and, “Forbear not to redeem him that is to be slain.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 10
And again it is said “Redeem [Ransom] those who are ready to be slain: spare not.” (
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 2.13
… from your own experience to sympathize with those in trouble, and never to terrify with destructive despair those who are in danger, nor harden them with severe speeches, but rather restore them with gentle and kindly consolations, and as the wise Solomon says, “Spare not to deliver those who are led forth to death, and to redeem those who are to be slain,”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 17.19
… would you prefer to hide them with a similar falsehood, saying in the same way: “They passed on after tasting a little water,” and thus fulfil the command: “Deliver those who are being led to death, and spare not to redeem those who are being killed;”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 10.36
… And, even if thou shouldest be unable to do any good, the very devotion of thy heart, which Almighty God has given, is enough for Him. For it is written, Rescue them that are drawn unto death, and forbear not to deliver them that are ready to be slain (
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Tertullian † AD 220 A Treatise on the Soul 15
… We are taught by God concerning both these questions—viz. that there is a ruling power in the soul, and that it is enshrined in one particular recess of the body. For, when one reads of God as being “the searcher and witness of the heart;” when His prophet is reproved by His discovering to him the secrets of the heart;
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.96
In Solomon, in the Proverbs: “Bring not the impious man into the habitation of the righteous.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 14.17
… for folly is the more led on, because a stubborn servant is not improved by words, for even though he understands, he will not obey.” And “Do not say anything in the ears of an imprudent man, lest haply he mock at thy wise speeches.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 The Refutation of All Heresies 5.2
… And this, (the Naassene) says, is what is declared in Scripture, “The just will fall seven times, and rise again.”
St Peter of Alexandria † AD 311 The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras 8
… in order that contending the more constantly, they may be counted worthy of “the prize of their high calling.” For “seven times,” he says, “a just man falleth, and riseth up again,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 122.3
… neither shall the righteous be able to live for his righteousness in the day that he sinneth.” The Lord judges every man according as he finds him. It is not the past that He looks upon but the present. Bygone sins there may be, but renewal and conversion remove them. “A just man,” we read “falleth seven times and riseth up again.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 2
Prov. xxiv. 16 . Explains this, “The righteous falls, but sins again.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 11.31
… On this account it is often put for all numbers together, as, “A just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 119.21
… 164 ). The words “seven times a day,” signify “evermore.” For this number is wont to be a symbol of universality; because after six days of the divine work of creation, a seventh of rest was added; and all times roll on through a revolving cycle of seven days. For no other reason it was said, “a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again:”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 145.13
… they are, as it were, falling. But “God strengtheneth.” For “the just falleth seven times, and riseth again; but the wicked shall be weakened in evils.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 20.12
… But for those small offences in which, as it is written, “the righteous falls seven times and will rise again”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 20.7
… For suppose that we see him still prosperous, then we are ready to die of chagrin; but if in an adverse condition, we are in fear, lest some propitious turn of events should take place. But for both of these there is stored up for us an inevitable punishment. For, “Rejoice not,” he saith, “when thine enemy stumbleth.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 40
For if them that exult over their enemies, He suffer not to go unpunished (“For rejoice not,” it is said, “when thine enemies fall, lest at any time the Lord see it, and it displease Him”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 5.15
… and was thy leader in the great and terrible wilderness.” Solomon also says in Proverbs: “When thine enemy shall fall be not glad, and in his ruin be not lifted up, lest the Lord see and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him,”
Early Popes (Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals) The Epistles of Pope Fabian 2.2
… Fret not thyself because of evil-doers, neither be thou envious at the wicked: for the evil have not the hope of the future, and the candle of the wicked shall be put out. Envy not evil men, neither be thou desirous to be with them; for their mind meditates rapine, and their lips speak deceits.”
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St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Smyrnæans: Shorter and Longer Versions 9
Moreover, it is in accordance with reason that we should return to soberness [of conduct], and, while yet we have opportunity, exercise repentance towards God. For “in Hades there is no one who can confess his sins.” For “behold the man, and his work is before him.” And [the Scripture saith], “My son, honour thou God and the king.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 52.14
… An arrow never lodges in a stone: often it recoils upon the shooter of it. Let the detractor learn from your unwillingness to listen not to be so ready to detract. Solomon says:—“meddle not with them that are given to detraction: for their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the destruction of them both?”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.19
… Wherefore the same wise man says: “meddle not with them that are given to detraction: for their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 1.31
161. Wherefore we must imitate the nature of the earth in this respect, which is wont to return the seed she has received, multiplied a thousand-fold. And so it is written: “As a field is the foolish man, and as a vineyard is the man without sense. If thou leavest him, he will be made desolate.”
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St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 2.13
13. Thou seest that it is good to make confession. Thou seest that there is salvation for them that repent. Solomon also fell but what saith he? Afterwards I repented
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For "wicked men" in Hebrew is "men of malice," who are namely not simply wicked, but wholly devoted to malice, so that they meditate nothing but rapines and frauds. For "rapines" in Hebrew is שׁוֹד scod, that is, desolation, ruin, destruction. For "frauds" in Hebrew is עָמָל amal, that is, labor; but labor among the Hebrews is often taken for fraud, iniquity, injury, injustice. For in contriving this the impious labor, and cause labor and sorrow to those in whose harm they contrive it, so that they overturn them in their fortunes. Whence the Chaldean renders it, iniquity. The sense therefore is, as if to say, "Envy not," that is, do not begrudge the prosperity of the wicked, so as to desire to enter into partnership with them to attain it, and to imitate their malice, because their mind thinks of nothing but modes of stealing and robbing, and their mouth speaks nothing but frauds and iniquities; wherefore their association is as wicked as their prosperity, and therefore not to be envied, but pitied, both because it cannot last long: for riches obtained by injury and crime quickly flow away and vanish; and because they will shortly pay atrocious penalties for their crimes, either in this life or in hell. See the sayings at chapter XXIII, verse 17. The Septuagint renders it, because their heart meditates lies and deceits, and their lips speak labors; which words render the same sense. Some, however, understand by lies, deceits and labors, riches also lawfully obtained: for these are not true riches, because they do not satisfy the mind, nor make it blessed; but are merely painted over, and therefore like harlots, who, being deformed, procure for themselves form and beauty by paint and pigments, not true and natural, but painted, that is, painted and feigned, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, homily On Riches and Poverty. Mystically, the Author of the Chain of the Greeks understands by wicked men demons; for these suggest evils and frauds to men, and impel them to evils by their counsels, so that they drive them to ruin and hell. Moreover they do this with great art and fraud. For, as the Apostle says: "Satan transfigures himself into an Angel of light;" for where Satan is recognized, he is easily repelled. Wherefore the first care in temptation, which he himself suggests, should be for man to recognize that this is a temptation, sent not by a good spirit, but an evil one, namely by Satan. For he who notices this resists with all zeal both Satan and his suggestion. Again, Satan is full of lies, deceits and frauds; wherefore he covers the gall of his malice with the honey of pleasure and the paint of honesty, and makes what he suggests appear to be honest and just. Wherefore with great care and discretion must his deceits be uncovered, and his sophistries resolved; for thus it will come to pass that their emptiness and imposture appear, and easily like a spider's web they are dissolved and vanish.
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This is an antithesis of the preceding verse, as if to say, Bede remarks: Do not associate with the wicked, so that through frauds and robberies you may equal your own wealth and enlarge your house. Furthermore, wisdom can be understood in three ways: first, as prudence; for this is the practical wisdom of the just, which Solomon teaches throughout this entire book; second, as industry, art and skill; for those skilled in their craft are wise; third, as virtue and integrity; for this is the wisdom of the saints. Hence a threefold sense arises equally. The first, as if to say: By wisdom, that is, by prudence, a house is built, both material and especially civil, namely a large family and long-lasting, rich and splendid posterity. By the same it is also strengthened, grows and is perfected; for by those things through which matters are made and consist, by those same things they are strengthened, grow and are perfected. This sense is genuine, and is properly and primarily intended by Solomon and the Holy Spirit. This maxim therefore teaches both the use and fruit of prudence, and the manner of preparing houses and families, to consist not in robberies, not in riches, not in nobility, not in a multitude of friends, but in prudence; for a prudent man prudently investigates suitable means, but just and honest ones, by which he can easily increase his affairs, and he pursues them, and avoids contrary ones, which appear to him to be harmful to his affairs, so that he may diminish them; whence by this way he securely and justly increases and advances his affairs. This is what Wisdom says, chapter VIII, 18: "With me are riches, and glory, proud wealth and justice." The second, as if to say: By wisdom, that is, by industry and art, a house and family is built, and by the same it is strengthened. This is clear in a material house; for it is fabricated by the art of architecture, and the greater this art is in the architect, the more beautifully the building rises, and walls, vaults, substructures are made, which appear impossible to nature destitute of art. Consider the ancient and new buildings in Rome, for example the Pantheon, without columns, beams, windows, compacted in one continuous vault, and open upward in a circle, so that it receives light by which the entire structure is illuminated. Thus the amphitheater, the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, the colossi and pyramids; and especially the basilicas of St. Mary Major, St. Lawrence, St. John Lateran, St. Paul, and especially St. Peter, which is the marvel of the city and the world, and you will see that all these have been constructed by the art and industry of great craftsmen, and remain firm and robust through so many centuries. Again, prudence dictates that in building houses equally as cities, as Aristotle teaches in the Politics, two things especially are to be observed and sought, namely wholesome waters and airs, that is, air and winds, as they seek the North Wind in Rome; for this is healthful and vital to the Romans; because both air and water penetrate and pervade the innermost parts of man. In a civil house, that is, in a family, the same is clear from experience. For we see craftsmen, merchants and other intelligent and industrious men, through their skill, attain to great wealth and fortunes, and form and establish them for themselves. The third, as if to say: Not through robberies, frauds and injustice, but through wisdom, that is, through virtue, integrity and justice, are large families raised up, and by the same are preserved, strengthened and grow, both because God gives this to virtue, not so much as a reward (for virtue deserves a greater reward, namely heavenly and eternal), but as a gift and bonus, which is accustomed to be added and superadded to the laborer beyond the reward; and because virtue is lovable to all, and conciliates the favor of all, so that all strive to help and advance one endowed with virtue. Riches therefore and families obtained through virtue are stable and firm; whereas those which are obtained through robberies and crime immediately collapse and fall. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 2 on the epistle to the Ephesians: "What force, he says, impels you to rob? Poverty, you will say, and fear about necessities. On the contrary, for this reason you ought not to rob; for such riches are not stable and firm. But you do the same as if someone, asked why he lays the foundations of a house in sand, should say: On account of cold and on account of rain. For this reason indeed one ought not to lay foundations in sand; for storms and winds certainly overturn them. Wherefore if you wish to be rich, do not be avaricious, nor desirous of having more; if you wish to hand down riches to your sons, possess just ones, if any such exist: for these remain, and stand firm and stable." This is what he said in chapter XXIII, 17: "Let not your heart emulate sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all the day long; for you shall have hope in the latter end, and your expectation shall not be taken away." Note: For "shall be strengthened" the Hebrew is יִתְכּוֹנֵן itconan, which signifies many things and is translated variously. First, the Chaldean translator renders it, "and in prudence is prepared," that is to say, the wise man builds a great house and family, because he first prepares and makes ready for himself at a suitable time all things necessary for its construction, and calculates all expenses by just reckoning, lest he exceed his strength and resources, according to the counsel of Christ: "For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon the charges that are necessary, to see if he have wherewithal to finish it?" Luke XIV, 28. Secondly, the Septuagint translates it ἀνωρθώθη, that is, it is corrected, amended, restored. Whence the Author of the Catena of the Greeks translates it, "by wisdom a house is built from its foundations, and by prudence a collapsed house is restored anew." For by care of domestic affairs and the virtue of providence, both new houses and families are constructed, and collapsed ones are restored to their former state; as by this virtue he restored the failing family of Jesse, indeed he raised David to royal dignity. Whence it is said of him, I Kings XVIII, 14: "And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him. Wherefore Saul seeing that he was exceeding prudent, began to fear him." And verse 30: "And David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul, and his name became very famous." Thirdly, Vatablus translates it, "by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is completed"; R. Levi, "prudence shall be completed and adorned," that is to say, the wise man, just as by his wisdom and prudence he prudently begins to build a house and family, so also he completes it prudently and happily: because the wise man sets the limits of his family according to his prudence and fortune, and is content with these, nor does he ambitiously and imprudently aim to extend himself beyond them. For he knows this to be both proud and dangerous and full of cares and anxieties; wherefore that he may live in peace, measuring himself by his own standard and content with his lot, he does so: on the contrary, the foolish and arrogant aim at greater things than they are able to accomplish; whence they expose themselves to the mockery of all, and of them is said that word: "This man began to build, and was not able to finish," Luke XIV, 30. Fourthly, our translator most excellently renders it, "shall be strengthened": for the Hebrew כּוֹנֵן conen signifies to make firm, to strengthen, to establish, and thus to complete and perfect a thing; whence Pagninus translates it, "and understanding shall be established"; the Syriac, "is made firm." A family is strengthened by prudence, both because this assigns to each member in the family his proper office, rank and order necessary or useful to the family; and because it removes the seeds of quarrels and procures all things that make for peace; and because it establishes the family by annual revenues, estates and income, from which it provides and procures for it abundant grain and furnishings opportunely, as follows. Fifthly, Cajetan and others translate it, "is directed" or "is arranged." For it is the part of prudence to the family, first, to raise it up; secondly, to direct and arrange it so that it assigns to each his own office; and thirdly, to provide for it with grain and furnishings. Antistrophic to this maxim of Solomon are those seven maxims of the wise men of Greece, which Plutarch recounts in the Banquet of the Wise. For when asked what seemed to them the best house and family, each in his turn answered thus. Solon: "That house," said he, "seems to me best, where the property is neither unjustly acquired, nor is there in it any place for distrust in preserving it or regret in spending it." Bias: "In which the master conducts himself of his own accord such as he does abroad on account of the laws." Thales: "In which the greatest leisure is granted to the master." Cleobulus: "In which there are more who love than who fear the master." Pittacus: "Where neither superfluous things are sought nor necessary things are lacking." Chilon: "A house ought especially to be like a city which is under a king"; and he added that Lycurgus, when someone asked him to institute a popular government in Sparta, answered: "First do this in your own house." Allegorically, Christ by wondrous wisdom built and strengthened the house of His Church, as is evident from the Gospels, both from its firmness and propagation through all nations and through all ages. By similar wisdom the founders of Orders founded their religious houses and families, as did St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, as is evident from the innumerable wise and holy men who have come forth and continue to come forth from them. Tropologically, the spiritual house, which consists in the perfection of virtues, namely a holy soul, is built by threefold wisdom, namely first, prudence; second, practice and diligence; third, virtue. For Cassian teaches from this passage that discretion and diligence are of great value for the perfection of virtue, Conferences II, chapter IV, and experience makes this clear. First indeed, those who follow the state and virtue to which they are naturally apt, capable and inclined, make great progress in it; but those who follow the state and virtue to which they are naturally unsuited and from which they shrink, these advance little or not at all: for they navigate against the stream and wind, which cannot endure; but those others are borne along by the stream and wind. For nature obeys grace, and grace perfects nature; when therefore these two conspire together, they effect something great. For man seems to have been made and fashioned by God for this very purpose. Second, many undertake great labors, fastings, austerities, and make little progress in virtue, because they do not know that the force of virtue consists not so much in bodily labor as in spiritual vigor. The wise man, knowing this, applies himself chiefly to this; yet he does not neglect the other. Whence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 23: "The acuteness of the soul," he says, "when it approaches piety, begets zeal; and zeal is the safeguard of faith." Third, many do not know, or do not think of adding right intentions to an indifferent work, or otherwise a good one; for these increase the goodness of the work by as many virtues as there are intentions. The wise and diligent man therefore, when he prays, when he studies, when he preaches, etc., will think and say: I wish to perform this work and destine it to be done from virtue, or from the intention and motive of charity, namely so that I may please God more; and at the same time from the virtue of gratitude, so that I may give him thanks for the innumerable benefits bestowed upon me; and from the virtue of penance, so that I may make satisfaction to God for sins committed against him; and from love of neighbor, so that I may benefit them and lead them to salvation; and from imitation of Christ, so that I may conform myself to his life and passion, etc. Fourth, many do not know which is the greater virtue and which the lesser. But the wise man knows that the most powerful virtues are three, namely humility with obedience, religion and charity; wherefore he exercises himself assiduously in these, and especially in charity: for this is the queen of virtues, and their knot, bond and union. Wherefore he who does all things from charity and pursues it daily, he grows wonderfully in virtues and merits, just as one who chooses gold in preference to silver, bronze and other metals, when all are indifferently offered to him, so that he may take what he wishes. This the Apostle urges upon the Colossians III, 14, saying: "Above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection." And I Corinthians chapter XVI, 14: "Let all your things be done in charity." And Galatians chapter V, 13: "By charity of the Spirit serve one another." And to Timothy, epistle I, chapter I, 5: "Now the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned."
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In Hebrew, in knowledge the storerooms are filled with every precious and beautiful substance; the Chaldean [version says], and pleasant; Vatablus, with all kinds of rare and pleasant riches; the Septuagint, by sense and understanding the storerooms are filled with all precious and good riches; the Syriac [version], the storerooms are filled with every possession, and glory, and pleasure. Doctrine, or knowledge, is the same as prudence and industry, as I have often noted. The sense therefore is, as if to say, that the work and fruit of prudence is first to build a house and family; second, to establish and strengthen the same, as I said in the preceding verse; now I add third, that it is the work of prudence to furnish the same family both with abundant provisions and with beautiful and precious furnishings: for thus the house and family will obtain all its perfection, all its dignity and ornament. It signifies therefore that these three things are laborious and difficult, and consequently great prudence and industry are necessary to prepare them. Again, it notes that prudence prescribes the proper order to be observed in these three things, namely first, the house and family must be prepared, suited to each one's station and means, so that there be as many servants, handmaids, clients, horses, carriages, as the station requires, and as one is able to support; second, the same must be strengthened both by works properly divided among servants and handmaids; both by procuring their honesty, peace and harmony; both by providing for the annual income and estates necessary to support them. Hence third, provisions and suitable and choice furnishings must be obtained. For the provision of both must be made in the following months and years at the opportune time, according to the laws of domestic prudence. This is the genuine sense of our Vulgate. Cajetan and other Hebraists, who translate the Hebrew יִתְכּוֹנֵן itconan as, is not strengthened, but is directed or disposed, translate and explain it somewhat differently, as I said in verse 3; but the sense comes to the same thing. Alluding to this, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus I, 21, says: "All his house, he says, he will fill from generations (with fruits and products generated and produced by himself), and his storerooms with his treasures." An example is in Joseph, who by his wisdom foreseeing the coming famine, filled the granaries of Egypt with wheat, by which during seven years of sterility he nourished Egypt, and almost the whole world, Genesis XLI, 47 and following. Mystically, Rabbi Levi [says]: By the care of wisdom, that is of holy law, you penetrate the mysteries, the storerooms, that is the inner things of man, namely the mind will be filled with beautiful and precious goods; for far more glorious and pleasant to a man is the possession of this perfection than any precious riches. Most excellently describing these spiritual riches of the just and vigorous man, St. Prosper, book II On the Contemplative Life, chapter XIII, says: "Those, he says, are the riches to be sought by us, which can both adorn us and protect us, which we cannot acquire unwillingly, nor lose, which arm us against hostile attacks, separate us from the world, commend us to God, enrich and ennoble our souls; when they are with us, they are within us." And immediately, so that he might make these most ample riches more clearly manifest, he adds: "Our riches must be believed to be modesty, which makes us modest; justice, which makes us just; piety, which makes us pious; humility, which makes us humble; gentleness, which makes us gentle; innocence, which makes us innocent; purity, which makes us pure; prudence, which makes us prudent; temperance, which makes us temperate; and charity, which makes us dear to God and men, powerful in virtues, contemners of the world, and followers of all goods."
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R. Solomon, the wise man always prevails in strength; Aben-Ezra, a wise man endowed with strength is found; and he who is endowed with knowledge strengthens and fortifies his powers. He said that wisdom builds, increases and enriches houses and families; now he adds that the same is robust, and makes the wise strong and valiant for any difficult matters, whether to be accomplished or to be endured, even if they be weak and infirm in body. The reason is, because bodily strength, such as that of bulls, consists in the robustness of muscles; but the strength of mind and virtue, which surpasses the former as much as the mind surpasses the body, and which accomplishes and perfects the greatest things, consists in wise counsel, direction, art, and industry, which through small and weak forces effects great and wonderful things, as is evident in wars of which the following verses speak. Whence in Hebrew it is, a wise man is in strength; and a man of knowledge, strengthening power, or precisely, raising up virtue. For the Hebrew אָמַץ amats signifies to raise up and erect the forces of body or mind, to be vigorous, to be of upright mind or virtue. For prudent counsel suggests a thousand ways of accomplishing a difficult matter, and thus it raises up and stirs the forces and spirits to accomplish the matter bravely. Add: A wise man is a man, as Solomon here says: wherefore he is of manly and strong spirit; hence also virtue, which is proper to the wise, is called from man, as it were virility. Hear St. Bernard, tract. On the Life of Solitude, to the Brethren of Mount God, somewhat before the end: "What is virtue? daughter of reason, but more of grace. For there is a certain force from nature; but that it may be virtue, it has it from grace. Force is from the judgment of approving reason; but virtue from the appetite of enlightened will. For virtue is voluntary assent to good. Virtue is a certain equality of life in all things agreeing with reason. Virtue is the use of free will according to the judgment of reason." Secondly, Vatablus thus translates and explains, a wise man is in power; and a learned man strengthens his own forces, that is: "A wise man avails much by authority, and thereupon grows in it." Thirdly, R. Levi thus translates and explains, as if to say: A man becomes wise on account of strength and robustness; for a mortal becomes possessed of wisdom on account of the force by which his mind prevails to restrain the desires of matter, and to overcome them entirely. "A learned man, robust," as if to say, He who is filled with learning strengthens and fortifies the forces by which the mind excels, so that it may restrain the other faculties, and bring them into its power, which indeed happens on account of the excellence of knowledge, and its incredible love, by which it snatches the learned man to itself, so that he places all his study and vigils in it, and watches over it constantly, and the other forces are subjected to this one alone for its acquisition. Thus he. Fourthly, the Syrian, Chaldean and Septuagint read the Hebrew מֵאַמֵּץ meammets, that is robust, with another pointing מֵאַמִּיץ meammits, that is more than robust (for מ min is of comparison, having the same force as more than, or better), and thus translate: Chaldean, better is a wise man than a robust man, and a man of knowledge more than he who is girded with his own strength; Syrian, better is the wise than the strong, and the learned than a giant robust; Septuagint, better is the wise than the strong, and a man having prudence than a great farmer. Thus the Complutensian and Royal editions, although the Vatican translates, than a great field: for γεώργιον signifies both field and farming, and thence figuratively γεωργός, that is a farmer. The Septuagint appear to have connected this verse with the preceding one concerning grain and riches which wisdom prepares, as if to say: Wisdom is powerful and mighty to fill all storehouses with grain and precious things, more than a diligent farmer, who by his industry fills the storehouse with all abundance of grains and fruits. Or, if you translate it as a great field, as if to say, Wisdom produces more fruits and riches than a diligent farmer produces from a great field carefully cultivated by him; therefore wisdom is more powerful and richer for filling the storehouse with all abundance of things than a great and fertile field. He compares wisdom to a field, because the best produce is that which is gathered from a field. Hear Aristotle, lib. II On Household Management, after the beginning: "The best produce is that which is perceived from those things which are proper to the region; the next, which is from markets; the last, that which is from annual and recurring things." The wise man therefore is strong, first, because he undertakes strong things wisely, for example wars or heroic deeds, and accomplishes them successfully; secondly, because he forcefully restrains and curbs desires by wise reason. For, as Aristotle says in Anthony's Melissa, part I, chapter XII: "He is stronger who conquers desires than he who conquers enemies, for to conquer oneself is most difficult. Therefore he is strong who overcomes enemies, but stronger who is superior to pleasures: for many who have conquered enemies have been conquered by women," as Samson, David, Solomon, Alexander the Great. Thirdly, because he bears any adversities wisely, and therefore strongly; for wisdom makes one exalted and magnanimous. Most excellently Seneca, to Helvia, chapter V: "Neither," he says, "do prosperous things exalt the wise man, nor do adverse things cast him down." Most excellently St. Ambrose, book On Jacob and the Blessed Life, chapter VIII: "Perfect virtue," he says, "always remains amid adversities and delights, and adversities diminish nothing from his perfection, nor do delights add to perfection." And shortly after: "For men of perfection ought to sustain the community of nature with courage, with virtue, and to lead it to better things, nor to succumb to those things which appear terrible and dreadful to most, but as a strong soldier to endure the onset of the gravest misfortunes, to undergo conflicts, and as a prudent helmsman to steer the ship in a tempest, and by meeting the rising waves to avoid shipwreck by ploughing through the waves rather than by avoiding them." Thus he speaks. From which it sufficiently appears that a wise man ought not to avoid dangers, but by meeting them to overcome them. Hence the Hebrews, as Aldrovandus testifies in his work on the Ass, give the ass as the symbol of the wise man, because like an ass he ought to bear many things wisely and strongly. Deservedly Ammonius of Alexandria, famous as a disciple of the great Origen and Porphyry, is said to have employed an ass as his fellow-disciple: nor was Cleanthes ashamed of such a designation, but answered most confidently: "I am indeed an ass, but one who can carry the burden of Zeno." The wise man therefore ought according to this sense to bear all things most willingly; concerning his own son Jacob it is said, Genesis XLIX, 14: "Issachar is a strong ass;" and Issachar signifies reward and recompense: the wise man ought to esteem this in place of reward and recompense, so that he be a strong ass, nor be wearied by labors, but willingly undertake all inconveniences.
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He proves that a prudent man is strong, from the fact that by his prudent arrangement and counsels wars are waged and completed. It is an argument from example, or from a species to a genus. Arrangement here can be understood in three ways: first, for governance, or for the commander, who governs and arranges the army; second, for the order and battle line, by which the army is aptly and properly arranged; third, for the counsels by which wars are prepared and arranged. For the Hebrew word tachbulot signifies governance, order and counsels by which a ship is governed by the shipmaster, and analogously an army by a commander, or a commonwealth by a prince or magistrate, is governed, arranged, ruled. For just as a shipmaster governs a ship by his counsel, industry and experience: so also by these three a leader governs an army, and a king a kingdom. First therefore, according to the first meaning, thus you may expound it: By the counsel and art of the commander the army is ruled, just as a ship by rudder and helm. For just as it is wonderful that one man by turning the rudder can drive a vast ship at his will in every direction: so also it is wonderful that the prudence and art of one commander can restrain and rule entire armies. Third, and most genuinely, arrangement here is taken for the counsels and stratagems by which wars are to be governed and arranged so that they may produce victory; for thus properly the Hebrew word tachbulot signifies. Whence Pagninus translates it, by counsels thou shalt make war for thyself; Cajetan, war is accomplished by ingenuities; the Septuagint, with governance, that is with the reason of governing, war is made; the Chaldean, because by helms thou shalt make war for thyself: but safety shall be in the multitude of counsel. Less aptly the Syriac, because in advancement thou shalt make war; more aptly Vatablus, because by industries thou shalt make war, and safety in the multitude of counsellors, that is to say, Because thou ought to wage war by industry, which wisdom gives, which makes a man prudent and industrious. It signifies therefore first, that in wars prudence and stratagems avail more than a multitude of soldiers, or their strength and forces; second, that war requires great and careful governance, and great consideration, circumspection and diligence of leaders and governors; third, that enemies ought not to be met rashly, nor without counsel, as the Author of the Greek Catena says, "but considerately and with mature deliberation applied, whether this be done by the strength of the mind, or by whatever other means." This is what Euripides says in the Antiope: "The prudence of men is of great moment to war: for counsel wisely undertaken overcomes many hands; inexperience with a multitude is a worse evil." More excellently Plutarch in the book Against the Strength of the Body: "What, says he, seems to thee such great happiness to be strong in body, that on account of this thou thinkest nature has been a stepmother to men, but a parent to beasts? But the proper strength of men consists in the reason of the mind, by which elephants are caught in snares through forests, horses are bridled, oxen are subdued, birds are brought down with reeds, and things submerged in the deep are drawn out with nets. Who would not prefer Ulysses to the Cyclops for war?" I have said more on this matter in chapter XI, 14: "Where there is no governor, the people shall fall; but safety is where there are many counsels." For what is said there of the people and commonwealth, is said here of war and the army. And in chapter XX, 18: "Thoughts are strengthened by counsels, and wars are to be managed by helms." "And there shall be safety where there are many counsels," that is to say, The commander, if he wishes to keep his army safe, ought to use the counsels of many prudent and experienced soldiers and leaders. That this ought to be done Vegetius teaches, book III On Military Matters, chapter IX and XXVII: "What ought to be done, says he, should be discussed with many; but what thou art finally going to do, with very few and most faithful, or rather with thyself alone." And Plutarch in the Moralia: "The governor, says he, seeks the best sailors, and often brings them into counsel: so also ought a prince choose as counsellors those who are most fit for administering the commonwealth." Thus above all others did the Emperor Severus do, as Lampridius testifies in his Life. Moreover, how much a prudent leader and one experienced in the art of war avails in war, Hannibal, Scipio, Alexander, Julius Caesar taught by their example; and among the faithful David, Judas Maccabaeus, Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne, who by their prudence and skill filled the world with victories and triumphs. Hence the Author of the Greek Catena from the Septuagint thus translates it, war is happily administered through the prudence of governors; but aid is to be sought from a prudent and deliberate heart. Secondly, according to the second meaning of arrangement, the sense is, as if he were to say: Wars are to be waged not so much by the number of soldiers, as by order and suitable arrangement. For few soldiers properly arranged in battle will overcome many who fight without order in a tumultuous manner. Xenophon shows this beautifully by analogy from the structure of a house, in his book On the Sayings and Deeds of Socrates: "It is good," he says, "for a commander to know how to arrange his battle line most skillfully. For just as stones, wood and tiles, when thrown together in disorder, are useful for nothing, yet when the same things are properly arranged upward and downward, they compose a strong house that will never fall: the same judgment applies to an army. For the most densely packed phalanxes of soldiers, unless they are reduced to order, accomplish nothing: but very few warriors, if they assume right order and arrangement, are most strong and unconquerable." Hence he concludes that, just as in a house, the top and bottom ought to be most firm and strongest, but the middle parts less strong, for example they can be on the sides: so also in conflict the front line and the rear ought to be strongest, but the more timid should be placed in the middle, so that they may be led by example from those in front, and driven into battle by those behind. Wisely Macrinus in Herodian, book IV: "Let us seize arms," he says, "and, as is the custom of the Romans, observe order in the battle line, for in the battle of barbarians an unorganized multitude and tumultuous crowd will hinder and crush itself." Hence we see few Christian soldiers, well arranged, mow down and rout many Turkish columns rushing in disorderly and tumultuous fashion. Finally, Vegetius teaches that the effective way of conquering is if the commander attacks enemies unprepared, and does not give them time to arrange their battle line properly. The same Vegetius, in book III, chapters XVII and XXVII, teaches that one should not pursue an enemy already fleeing, if in the pursuit there is danger that the ranks be thrown into confusion: "For he who inconsiderately pursues his scattered troops," he says, "wishes to give to the enemy the victory he himself had received." This recently happened to Christians in Hungary when fighting with the Turk, when those of theirs who were pursuing the fleeing Turks in confused ranks were vainly recalled by Sigismund, prince of Transylvania; and to the Belgians at Neoportum when fighting with the Dutch, who, having obtained victory, confidently pursued the Dutch without order, were slain by them, and gave them the victory. "And there shall be safety where there are many counsels." Safety here is taken for any good: for sound counsels produce any good. Yet since here the matter concerns war, safety of the army is properly noted here, especially victory. Whence the Zurich version translates: wars are waged by counsels, and victory is prepared by a multitude of counselors. Mystically, in temptations and spiritual wars, which we wage against the devil, the world and the flesh, prudence avails more than strength. For prudence teaches that lust is to be overcome not by manfully resisting it, but by the skill of fleeing its thoughts and incentives: the suggestions of demons are conquered by humility, if you immediately delegate them to a superior or a prudent man: the world is overcome, if you gaze upon and consider the vanity of its pomp, that is, see and laugh at it: the flesh is tamed, if you contradict its brutal appetites, and mortify it by fasts, chameuniis, that is, by lying on the ground, hair shirts, heat, cold, and other austerity of life. Whence St. Antony used to say that discretion is the mistress of all virtues, inasmuch as it overcomes temptations, which leads the intrepid monk with steady step to God, which preserves the other virtues unharmed. "For discretion is the generator, guardian and moderator of all virtues," says Moses the Abbot in Cassian, Collation II, chapter IV, who then demonstrates the same thing by many examples. See Alvarez de Paz, volume II, tract. On the Victory of Temptations, book I, part III, chapter XI, where he lists ten imprudent and foolish military counsels to be avoided by the prudent Christian soldier.
24:7
For "on high" in Hebrew is רָאמוֹת ramoth, which first signifies high places; second, the horns of a unicorn or rhinoceros: for this animal is called in Hebrew רְאֵם reem, because its horns are high and efficacious against poisons; third, corals: thus Pagninus, Vatablus, R. David and others translate it, Job cap. XXVIII, 19. R. Solomon here judges ramoth to be a gem of the greatest price. Finally, Our Author, Ezech. XXVII, 16, translates it as silk. Moreover ramoth, that is high places, is in the plural number: and thus were formerly called temples and altars erected to God on mountains and high places, to which he here alludes, as if to say: Wisdom appears to the fool to be most sacred, and hidden in high temples, and inaccessible to him. Whence he does not dare to approach its gates. Again, for wisdom in Hebrew is חָכְמוֹת chachmot, that is wisdom in the plural: both so that it may signify that there is indeed one wisdom, but it embraces many things. For the same reason God is called Elohim and Adonai in the plural, because He, although He is one governor and lord, nevertheless transcends all kings and lords, and eminently contains them in Himself; and also because there are various kinds, parts, laws and dictates of wisdom. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Practical wisdom, namely prudence and virtue, appears to the fool, that is to the imprudent man, who follows his own imagination and desire, to be high, difficult and as it were impossible to know and practice, and therefore he thinks it easier for himself to find or obtain the horn of a unicorn, or corals, and most precious gems, than wisdom and virtue; for corals were rare and precious. Whence Pliny, lib. XXXII, cap. II: "As much as Indian pearls are worth among us," he says, "so much is coral worth among the Indians." The reason a priori is first, that some are so dull, depressed and obtuse in intellect, that they cannot grasp the lofty dogmas of wisdom. Many such exist among the Indians, and indeed among Christians in mountainous and inaccessible places, who are ignorant of the mysteries of faith, of God, of heaven, nor do they understand discourses about things of salvation, just as if they were Hebrews or foreigners. Second, that many are idle and sluggish, so that they are unwilling to hear and learn, much less to undertake the labor of carrying out those things which pertain to salvation. Third, that they are immersed and submerged in earthly goods and carnal pleasures, with the result that they cannot grasp those things which are of the spirit, nor do they raise their mind and hands to heavenly and divine things. Fourth, that many are proud, so that they are unwilling to humble themselves to hear wisdom: others on the contrary are pusillanimous, who are unwilling to rise up and lift their mind to the dogmas and precepts of wisdom. Thus St. Augustine in Psal. LVIII: "There is a twofold kind of men," he says, "who cannot attain to wisdom, the proud and the pusillanimous. Wisdom therefore is deep toward the proud (because out of arrogance they are unwilling to humble themselves to it), toward the pusillanimous it is high," because out of baseness of spirit they are unwilling to raise themselves to it. Fifth, which is more suited to this place, is that the unwise esteem wisdom so lofty and sublime, that they despair of being able to aspire to it: for they think wisdom is higher than themselves and placed in the heavens, and they say with the Jews that word from Deut. XXX, 12: "Who of us is able to ascend to heaven, that he may bring it (the commandment of God) to us, and we may hear and fulfill it in deed?" Hence the Chaldean translator renders it: the fool murmurs against wisdom, as if it were beyond his grasp and strength, and that which is prescribed to him were impossible for him to grasp and do. Hence "the fool shall not open his mouth at the gate," as if to say: He will not dare to speak or open his mouth among wise men and the chief men (such as judges who formerly exercised judgment at the gates of cities); but, as a fool and stupid man, he will be silent and stupefied on account of his ignorance and folly, and will be like an owl among birds, like a goose among swans, like an ass among lions. Solomon tacitly signifies that besides the fruits of wisdom already assigned, namely besides riches and the splendor of his family, besides strength and victory, wisdom also brings dignities, seats of office, and positions; for the wise are chosen as judges, magistrates, and rulers; but the foolish are excluded from these duties. Whence the Septuagint translates: wisdom and good counsel (or right understanding) is found in the gates of the wise; they do not turn away from the mouth of the Lord (the Complutensian edition: from the law), but they deliberate in councils, that is, as the Author of the Greek Catena translates it, being placed in the assembly of the prudent, they carefully weigh what is proposed. This is, as our Salazar rightly explains it: In the gates of the wise, that is in the senate and the benches of judges, or of magistrates, wisdom itself presides and moderates all things, and by its aid judges in pronouncing sentences do not deviate a nail's breadth from the mouth of the Lord, that is from the laws and statutes which the Lord has proclaimed by His mouth. But in those matters where the law has prescribed nothing, but the matter is to be settled by the judge's discretion, they do not judge rashly; but by long deliberation they weigh the considerations of justice, and thus finally pronounce the most just sentences. Furthermore, that you may understand how exalted this spiritual wisdom is, hear the seven degrees of it which St. Augustine recounts, in book II of On Christian Doctrine, chapter VII: "The fear of God, piety, love of God above all things, consolation of the Holy Spirit, desire of heavenly things, dying to the world, and then finally in the pinnacle of the seventh degree is true wisdom." Thus St. Augustine, who then explains each of these degrees individually and at length. Finally, wisdom is exalted if you regard the mere forces of nature; for it far transcends these; yet the same wisdom is easy and plain if you consider the forces of grace which God prepares for each person; for wisdom, that is virtue and holiness, is connatural to the grace of God, and has the same reason and order with it; but the foolish measure themselves by the forces of nature, while the wise measure themselves by the forces of grace; wherefore to those wisdom appears exalted and impossible, to these near and easy. For, as Sextus the Pythagorean says, Saying 136: "The mind of the wise is always near God; God dwells in the mind of the wise." And Saying 140: "Knowledge of God alone and imitation of Him suffices for blessedness." And Saying 40: "A holy temple to God is the mind of the pious, and the best altar is a pure heart and without sin." For, as Nazianzen says, in the Iambic 18: "He who gives himself to God receives God; for such is the nature of God who gives." And elsewhere: "The wise man is a mirror most clear to God; as the wise man sees God, so God follows the soul of the wise man." Just as the plant called heliotropium, or sunflower, always turns itself toward the sun, and in turn the sun toward the heliotropium: so the soul of the wise man continually looks toward God, and in turn is looked upon by God. "For as the sun is to the eyes, so light is to the heart, and that light is wisdom;" but this light is God and the sight of God, illumination and grace. Golden is the saying of Seneca, epistle 41: "Just as the rays of the sun touch the earth indeed, but are there whence they are sent: so a great and holy mind, and sent down into this place that we might know divine things more closely, dwells indeed with us, but clings to its origin. It hangs from there, it looks upon that and strives toward it." More briefly and divinely St. Paul: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians III, 20. See the things said there.
24:8
For fool in Hebrew is בַּעַל מְזִמּוֹת baal mezimmot, that is a man of machinations, or lord of devices, who namely devises arts, reasons, subtleties, tricks and frauds of doing evil and harming others, an inventor of evils, architect and author of crimes, who does not from weakness but from purpose intend to bring evils upon others, nay he devises them. How the Apostle calls philosophers impious toward God inventors of evils, Rom. I, 30. For when they excelled in wit and secular knowledge, they abused these to devise wickedness, and to defend it with feigned reasons, as some wickedly defended sodomy and pederasty. Our translator renders it fool, namely practically, that is impious and wicked, namely eminently by antonomasia; for such is he who devises and contrives arts of maligning and harming, as do those who devise ways of doubling and tripling usuries, new fraudulent and unjust contracts, new arts of circumventing buyers, new exactions and unjust tributes, etc.; and crafty advocates, who in hope of gain devise a thousand subtleties and quibbles to stir up lawsuits even in a clear matter, whether it be of fact or of law. For the Hebrew בַּעַל baal signifies lord, man, having, possessing, powerful, patron, husband. For such is the deviser of arts for doing evil; for he as it were rules and commands them. Whence the Chaldean renders it, having the worst cunning; the Syriac, unjust; others render it, husband or spouse of evil arts. For as a husband begets offspring from his wife, so he by his subtle and malign wit from evil arts, to which he as it were espouses himself and wholly devotes himself, begets a thousand modes of harming, a thousand evil works and crimes. Hence also Cajetan renders it, thinking to do evil, they will call him the lord of evil thoughts, to whom namely as if to malice's lord and master his evil thoughts and inventions like servants immediately present themselves, serve and obey; who therefore like the devil excels, rules and presides in the kingdom of wickedness. For thought is as it were an emperor, who resides in the heart as if on a throne: whence if it be good, it commands good things; if evil, it commands evil things, as St. Augustine teaches, Preface to Psalm CXLVIII. Cajetan adds that he who devises evils is called lord of thoughts, because thoughts serve him toward the desired success, so namely that the evils which he intends he may accomplish in deed. But the reason, he says, why those thinking evil rather than those thinking good become possessors of their wishes, is manifold. For the one thinking is himself more prone to evil than to good, and through this more inclined and zealous toward evil, and a multitude of ministers fit for evil is more at hand than for good; and good has many impediments which evil lacks, because good arises from an integral cause, but evil from any particular defect. Therefore by this maxim Solomon signifies, says Jansenius, that he is indeed worthy of pardon who from weakness and ignorance slips and sins; but he who studies to do evil, and spends his thoughts on this, so that he be of those of whom the Prophet says: "They have devised iniquity in their beds;" and who always devises new reasons for doing evil and harming, shall incur great infamy among men. For this is signified when he is said to be called wicked, or, as our translator renders it, fool. Although such a one is deservedly called fool, because he has no regard for his own salvation, nor is he turned away from evil purpose and thought of doing evil by fear of divine judgment, or because the vanity of his thoughts shall at length become known. For evil thoughts, especially frequent, deliberate, and harmful to others, cannot be hidden from the mind, but burst forth into harmful words and deeds which are devised in the mind: wherefore when they burst forth, their authors are by all called fools, that is impious and wicked, are defamed and condemned. Fourth, our Salazar expounds it, as if to say: Fool, that is impious, is so prone to evil, that when there is no opportunity of external action, by mere thought and purpose of mind he sins gravely; for he feeds himself on evil thought, when he cannot feed himself on pleasure and evil deed. Similarly the angry man, who cannot harm another in deed, rejoices to harm him by his jeers and mockeries. Fifth, Jansenius very aptly explains it, as if to say: Foolishness, that is wickedness, continually suggests evil thoughts to a man, so that he wishes only to sin, and mocks those doing well and admonishing, and detracts from them. The Wise Man proceeds, he says, to turn away from foolishness. First indeed by saying that every thought which foolishness suggests to a man, that is, every thought of the fool insofar as he is fool, is evil and sin, and tends to sin, which shall not remain unpunished. Second, by adding that he who not only thinks evil but also mocks those well admonishing and counseling, is abominable to men, so that there is no hope concerning him.
24:9
In Hebrew, evil thought, or a device of folly, is sin, and an abomination to a man who is a mocker; Pagninus, the evil thought of a foolish man is sin; Vatablus, the deed of a foolish man is sin, and men will abominate a mocker; the Chaldean, the cunning of a fool is sin, an abomination to a wise man is a mocker; the Syriac, the wickedness of a fool is sin, and iniquity will rule the wicked. First, Rabbi Solomon thus expounds it: The thought of the fool, that is, foolish counsel is sin, because he who follows it binds himself with the penalty of sin. Again, the thought and action of the fool is sin, says Rabbi Levi, because he undertakes it without any deliberation and counsel; the mocker does the same: for all deliberation is hateful to a mocker, since he is occupied only in ridiculous matters without any mature and prudent counsel; wherefore he acts imprudently and commits sin. Second, Aben-Ezra connects this verse to the preceding one, as if it gives its reason, as if to say: He who thinks evil will be called a fool, because the thoughts of fools tend only to the commission of sin; wherefore he who thinks to commit it is a fool and ought to be called one. Third, Cajetan likewise connects this verse to the preceding one, but with a deeper connection, as if to say: The people praise him who thinks evil, and call him a master of thoughts, because his thoughts serve him for the happy success of his desires, so that what he thinks he actually accomplishes, as I said in the preceding verse. But in this opinion and praise the people are gravely mistaken, because the thoughts of the foolish, such as those who intend evil, are sins, and therefore worthy of blame, not praise; and indeed the fool who has come to the point of being a mocker and of ridiculing righteous deeds, he is surely abominable and detestable to the people. But this sense cannot be fitted to the Vulgate version, which asserts that he who thinks evil is called a fool by men, and therefore is not praised but blamed by men. Furthermore, just as the wicked are wholly bent on devising and contriving evil, so that they seem to be as it were incarnate demons: so conversely the most excellent saints are wholly bent on devising new ways and means by which they may please God more, and propagate His glory more in the salvation of souls, as did St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius (whose saying this was: "For the greater glory of God"), St. Xavier, etc. For wisdom, holiness and charity are insatiable, and grow like fire, so that the greater they are, the more they embrace, and the more they strive to grow. Solomon had said, verse 8: "He who thinks to do evil, baal mezimmot, that is, a man of devices will be called;" now he explains what these devices of his are, and that they are not good, but evil, and are sins. Whence for thought in Hebrew is זִמָּה zimma, that is, a device of folly or of the fool, is sin. It signifies therefore the fool, that is, the wicked man, to be so driven and carried away by his evil thoughts and devices, that he appears to be not so much their master as their servant, in that he cannot restrain them, but like an unbridled horse strives to carry them out and perpetrate sin, and thus mocks those who admonish and correct him well, and detracts from them. For this is the difference between the wise and the foolish, that although both are assailed by evil thoughts, yet the wise by resisting immediately crush them, but the foolish by consenting to them obey them. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on Genesis: "The just," he says, "strangle every evil thought at first, but the wicked receive it and nourish it." Note: strangle; for just as a traitor or a serpent, as soon as it is caught, is strangled, lest it leave some noxious seed after it: so an evil thought, as soon as it is felt, must be suffocated, lest it leave some titillation and pestilent temptation after it. The impious therefore, because they do not suffocate it, but nourish and indulge it, hence they open their heart and mouth to speak it, and being corrected they mock those who correct them, and detract from them, which is infamous and abominable among men. Moreover the Septuagint goes another way; for they translate, to the undisciplined comes death; but the imprudent man dies in sin. There is an antithesis of that which preceded among the same: "The wise do not turn aside from the law of the Lord," as if to say, says the Author of the Greek Catena: The wise, who apply themselves to the study of virtues, apply themselves to them with all diligence and effort, nor do they turn aside from it for a light reason; but wicked and pestilent men, who obstinately cling to sins and vices, and have already turned these into a fixed and firm habit, right up to the last breath of life, that is, so long as death receives them, will not cease to sin and do evil, and thus they are extinguished in their sins. This can be seen in heretics and similar men who obstinately and tenaciously cling to their perverse opinions, which they have imbibed, even unto death, as if possessed by a spirit of error. Morally, learn here that the greatest care must be applied to thoughts, so that evil ones may be shut out and good ones brought in; for from good thoughts follow good will, good speech, good action, just as from evil thoughts follow evil. To this point tend the sayings of the Fathers found in Anthony in the Melissa, part II, chapter LXXXVII: of Clement: "It is not abstinence from deeds that justifies the faithful, but purity of thoughts and pure sincerity;"; of Philo: "The house of God is the thought of the wise man, and he who is the lord of all is properly called God, because in it as in a royal palace he walks;"; of St. Basil: "First and most blessed is that which is pure in our heart, because the counsel of the heart is the root of all the actions of the body."; and another: "You are such as you often think; carnal, if you think carnal things; heavenly, if you think heavenly things; proud, if you think proud things; humble, if you think humble things."
24:10
Some codices read lapsus; but it should be corrected with the Romans to lassus; for in Hebrew it is, if thou shalt have been remiss, or thou shalt have made thyself remiss in the day of distress, narrow shall thy strength be; Cajetan, if thou shalt have relaxed thy spirit in the day of distress, namely so that thou mayest yield to it in part and succumb, narrow shall thy strength be. For he who has begun to succumb, he says, shall no longer be in the amplitude of his strength, but diminishes and narrows it by yielding. Which we experience to be true both in temporal and in spiritual matters. Vatablus, if thou art of dejected spirit in the day of tribulation, thy strength is narrow, that is thou shalt not be able to bear tribulation; The Chaldean, if thou shalt have relaxed in the day of tribulation, thy strength shall be narrowed; Symmachus, to cease as one despairing in the hour of tribulation is the mark of the slow and cowardly; Aquila, if thou wast slow or cowardly; Theodotion, if thou wast remiss. The Syriac and the Complutensian Septuagint and some others connect this verse with the following. For the Syriac thus translates, in the day of distress deliver those who are led to death. Whence R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra and Baynus: If thou shalt have been remiss, they say, in succoring thy neighbor who is placed in distress, thou likewise by just judgment of God shalt fail from thy strength, and shalt be reduced to like distresses by which thou shalt succumb; for the law of retaliation is: "With what measure you shall have measured, it shall be measured back to you." Whence Maximus, sermon 45: "Our," he says, "beneficence through all its dimensions divine beneficence shall execute," so that as long, broad and deep as thy beneficence shall have been toward the needy, so long, broad and deep shalt thou experience in turn God's beneficence in thee, "so that in our neighbors we may as it were prelude our beatitude and happiness," says St. Augustine, sermon 20 On the Seasons, according to that Psalm XXXVI: "All the day he hath mercy and lendeth, and his seed shall be in blessing." On the contrary concerning the unmerciful St. James says, chapter II, 13: "Judgment without mercy to him that hath not done mercy." But others everywhere take this maxim as separate, broadly and generally as it sounds; but explain it particularly in various ways, yet so that all terminate in and coalesce into one general exposition. First therefore R. Levi thus explains: If thou shalt have conducted thyself remissly in the study of wisdom, surely in time of adversity thy forces shall be weak and unequal, so that thou mayest be able to resist such calamity: both because wisdom is that which by prudent reasonings and counsels strengthens the spirit to patience and constancy in adversities; and because, as R. Solomon says, if thou shalt have been remiss and slothful in sacred law, the Angels who are ministers of divine will shall not strengthen thy forces, and thus abandoned by them thou shalt lose thy strength, and shalt become weak and infirm to resist tribulation. Secondly, Jansenius: The Hebrew, he says, thus have it: If thou shalt have failed in the day of distress, narrow shall thy strength be, that is to say, If when something adverse shall have happened, thou shalt have failed in spirit through impatience, this arises from the fact that thy strength of spirit is narrow and scanty, not from the fact that adversity is intolerable or insuperable, as St. Chrysostom teaches, homily 44 to the People. This sense can scarcely be fitted to the Vulgate, which translates in the future: "Thy strength shall be diminished." Thirdly, others with Cajetan translate, if thou shalt have relaxed thy spirit in the day of distress, narrow shall thy strength be, and thus explain, that is to say, If thou shalt have relaxed the vigor of thy spirit in the day of tribulation by indulging in delights and carnal comforts, thou shalt become enervated, delicate and weak to resist adversities: for delights by relaxing the spirit dissolve its rigor and forces, and thus disarm the armed and render them defenseless; but austerity on the other hand tightens and strengthens it. Thus the delights of Capua broke the strength of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, previously unconquered, so that he was conquered and overthrown by the Romans: namely where there is rigor, there is vigor; where there is pleasure, there is laxity and weakness. St. Francis experienced this, concerning whom St. Bonaventura, chapter V of his Life: "By certain experience," he says, "he had learned that demons are terrified by austerity, but are strongly animated to temptation by delicious and soft garments. Whence when one night on account of infirmity of the head, contrary to custom he had a pillow of feathers placed, a demon, entering into it, troubled him until the hour of matins." Fourth, others very aptly judge that Solomon advises that in the day of tribulation the mind should strengthen itself, calling forth all its powers to itself, so that fortified and protected by them, as it were by gathered forces, it might resist tribulation: for thus a commander calls forth all his forces when the enemy presses in, so that he might oppose him with all his strength. Wherefore the Hebrew, if thou hast remitted or hast been remiss, thus expound, as if to say, If in temptation thou hast remitted the customary exercises of piety and mortification, for instance if thou hast abandoned prayer, fasting, penances, the duties of humility and charity; thy fortitude shall be diminished, so that thou canst scarcely resist temptation. Fifth, others judge that Solomon here advises continuous exercise of labor and struggle. For just as soldiers become robust by handling arms daily, by laboring, by fighting; but become weak and unarmed if they lay down their arms and give themselves to idleness: so likewise a faithful person becomes robust if he exercise himself in assiduous labors and struggles against adversities; but becomes weak if he give himself to rest and sloth. Sixth, our Interpreter skillfully and profoundly for the Hebrew, if thou hast been remiss, or if thou, that is thy soul, hast remitted, renders, if thou hast despaired, grown weary. For he gives a twofold root and cause of the remission of mind, which is here treated. The first is distrust and despair; the second is weariness. For when the mind distrusts that it can struggle free from the straits which afflict it, or that it can overcome and conquer them, because it thinks them superior to its strength; then it remits its vigor and strength of endurance, and becomes remiss, enervated and languid. Again, when the straits last a long time, the soft mind becomes exhausted in bearing them: whence it remits and relaxes its effort of resistance, and weary begins to yield and succumb to them. Therefore, just as the vigor and strength of mind consists in hope of struggling free or conquering: so the languor, remission, weakness and fall of mind consists in despair of endurance or victory. For hope extends, dilates and strengthens the mind, by setting before it the reward of virtue and triumph; but despair contracts, narrows and weakens it: this is to be seen in the struggle of soldiers, and in the siege of cities: for so long as citizens hope that they can sustain it, and drive back the enemy, they resist strongly; but when they despair of it, their spirits fall, and they think of surrender. The sense therefore is, as if to say, If in the day of straits thou hast been broken in spirit through despair, the fortitude of thy mind shall become more narrow, that is, through that despair thou shalt become more weak, to escape the straits that have befallen thee. By this meaning he wishes to warn, that when straits press upon us, we should not lose heart, but by greatness of mind should strive to overcome adversities, according to that saying of the Poet: Yield not to evils, but go forth against them the more boldly. Therefore the fainthearted man, and as it were despairing that he can emerge from tribulation, makes himself weaker for emerging: for victory is situated in magnanimity, which hope of conquering brings forth; wherefore hope is the root of patience and fortitude. But this sentiment avails for raising up the mind, not only when the storms of external adversities press in, but also when the conscience is troubled on account of the gravity of sins committed: for then the mind is not to be cast down, nor is one to despair of God's mercy; but through confidence in God's mercy the mind is to be raised up, lest the strength of the soul perish entirely. Thus Lyra, Hugo, Jansenius and Bede, whom hear: "Nothing is more execrable," he says, "than desperation, for he who has it loses the constancy of fortitude both in the general labors of this life and, what most harms in the struggle of faith." And St. Isidore, lib. II De Summo bono, cap. XIV: "To perpetrate," he says, "some crime is the death of the soul, but to despair is to descend to hell." From which St. Thomas, II-II, Quaest. XX, art. 3, teaches that desperation is the greatest of sins, not in itself: for infidelity and hatred of God is a greater sin; but because desperation is the cause of all sins: for the desperate man acts into these. But understand this not only in the same distress, temptation and tribulation, but also in any other that may come afterwards: for he who once in one tribulation has cast down his mind, paves the way, so that he does the same in any other; and thus he diminishes his strength so that he succumbs. The reason is, that hope adds to and sharpens the mind, and thus increases strength, and diminishes temptation and struggle: conversely desperation dulls and blunts the mind, and thus diminishes strength, and increases temptation and struggle. Wherefore the Psalmist in temptation and tribulation suggests this shield: "Act manfully, and let your heart be comforted, all you that hope in the Lord," Psalm XXX, vers. ult. And St. Peter, epist. I, cap. V, vers. 8: "Your adversary as a roaring lion goeth about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist ye, strong in faith," and consequently strong in hope; for the fortitude of faith brings forth the fortitude of hope: for he who by living faith believes God to be faithful in His promises, by which He has promised to give strength for conquering to those who place their hope in Him and invoke Him in tribulation, surely hopes for, seeks, awaits and actually obtains that very thing from God. This maxim is most certainly attested by experience, especially in the struggle with the demon. Our St. Francis Xavier experienced this on his journey to Japan, which the demon, foreknowing the future harvest of the faithful there, strove by various arts to hinder, writes in a certain letter that he then truly learned in such temptation that nothing is more to be feared than distrust: for if anyone stands strong in hope of divine aid, he will feel it, and will blow away the demon's suggestions and machinations like spider webs; but if he wavers in hope and distrusts, he will feel demons rise up most fiercely against him, so that they can scarcely be repelled. The ancient Ascetics felt and taught the same thing in the Lives of the Fathers, lib. VI, libell. IV, num. 29. A certain old man said to one being tempted that temptations are to be borne strongly, as Joseph bore them manfully, and God glorified him unto the end: "Let us see," he says, "and Job, that he did not relax himself unto the end, fearing God; whence no one prevailed to move him from the hope of God." Ibid., lib. V, libell. V, num. 10: "Abbess Sara," he says, "remained for thirteen years strongly assailed by the demons of fornication, and never prayed that such a struggle would depart from her; but only said this: Lord, give me fortitude." And num. 15, the old man says: "There are in the world Pancratiatae, who, when they have stood beaten very much and appeared strong, receive crowns. Sometimes also one is beaten by two; and comforted by the blows, he overcomes those beating him. Did you see how much virtue he acquired through the exercise of the flesh? And you stand, and be comforted, and the Lord fights for you against the enemy." St. Ephrem, in the Life of St. Abraham the Hermit, writes that he was gravely and for a long time tempted by demons, and that he constantly despised all his temptations, saying: "Anathema to you and to all your power, most foul demon; but glory and honor to the Lord, the only holy and wise God, who has delivered you to us, His lovers, to be trampled upon, and therefore we mock and despise your cunning. Know then, most weak and most wretched demon, that we neither fear you nor your phantasms." He then adds that demons harassed him with various arguments and stratagems, but to no avail, so much so that they did not even strike fear into him: "Rather indeed," he says, "by fighting they stirred up in him alacrity and the greatest charity toward God; for loving God with his whole heart and ordering his conduct according to His will, he abundantly merited divine grace, and therefore the devil was not able to harm him: for he had persevered in knocking, so that the treasures of divine grace might be opened to him." Wherefore, when he saw a great multitude of demons rushing upon him, trusting and cheerful he sang: "They compassed me about like bees a honeycomb, and they burned like fire in thorns, and in the name of the Lord I will be revenged on them." Psalm 117. See St. Basil in the Rules, discussed more fully, Rule 63; Cassian, Collation IX, chapter XXII, and Collation XXIV, chapter XXV. See also what I have said at length concerning the remedies of temptations at Ecclesiasticus II, 1 and following. The same thing philosophers see through a shadow and have learned from Solomon, whose opinion is this, that a strong man is strengthened by adversities and sharpens his own fortitude, as a sword is sharpened by a whetstone; for adversities are the whetstone of fortitude. Thus Seneca, epistle 24: "Virtue," he says, "is keener in occupying dangers than cruelty in inflicting them." And epistle 72: "For I understand virtue to be spirited and lofty, which whatever assails it incites." And in the book On the Government of the World: "Virtue is eager for danger, and thinks not what it will suffer, but whither it tends." And epistle 114: "Fortitude is an impregnable fortress of human weakness; he who has surrounded himself with it endures secure in this siege of life." Hence that saying: "Virtue languishes without an adversary. Virtue much adds to itself when provoked." Cicero, book III of On Duties: "It is proper to fortitude and greatness of soul to fear nothing, to despise all human things; to think nothing that can happen to a man intolerable." And book III of On Ends: "He who is of great and strong spirit despises all things that can befall a man, and counts them as nothing. And this man, lofty and excellent in great spirit, truly strong, holds all human things beneath him." Chrysippus said that the wise man indeed grieves, but is not tortured, inasmuch as his mind does not yield to evil. The Greeks said that fortitude is the soul of the wise man. Plato, when asked how one ought to be disposed toward adverse things, replied: "So that by foreseeing one might beware of falling into them; but if through imprudence one should fall into them, one should care nothing." Virgil: Then shame inflames his strength, and conscious virtue. Ovid: Virtue appears and is proved by evils. Lucan: Virtue grows in adversities. Silius Italicus: Adversities test men, and through rough places hard virtue strives undaunted toward glory on the steep. Horace: And oppose brave breasts to adverse things. Seneca the Tragedian: It is virtue's part to tame what all fear. Whomever you see strong, deny him to be wretched. Plautus: He who bears evil bravely, the same afterward bears good. Moreover the Septuagint varies here; for in place of what was said in the preceding verse, "The abomination of men is the scoffer," or pestilent one, namely the detractor, they translate, but uncleanness (of infamy and abomination of men) shall be defiled in the pestilent man. Then in the same manner they add from the Vatican: In the evil day and in the day of tribulation until he fails, as if to say, The scoffer and detractor is the hatred of God and men; wherefore he shall fall into tribulation, in which, abandoned by all like an abominable thing, he shall miserably die and perish. But the author of the Greek Catena expounds these things concerning the obstinate, who persist in sins until the end of life, as if to say, "In the wicked and pestilent man sin, like a habit now hardened and deeply fixed, persists until at length on the day of judgment it is corrupted and he is delivered to eternal death." But the Complutensian and Royal editions connect uncleanness shall be defiled in the pestilent man with the preceding; then with an intervening colon a new sentence is arranged: In the evil day and in the day of tribulation until that day fails, rescue those who are led to death; which reading is plain, but differs from the punctuation of the Hebrew text and the Latin Vulgate: although the Syriac followed it, as I said at the beginning of this verse.
24:11
In Hebrew, deliver them that are taken captive unto death, and those that are drawn unto destruction (deliver) if thou cease, that is, cease not; for if in Hebrew it often serves for negation, and has the same force as lest or not. Pagninus reads it by way of interrogation, wilt thou cease? as if to say, Thou shalt not cease. The Chaldean: redeem them that are taken captive unto death, and them that are led unto slaughter forbid; the Septuagint: and to redeem them that are slain spare not, that is, delay not, hesitate not. He speaks of those who are unjustly led unto death: for if justly, it is not fitting, indeed it is not lawful, to deliver them and to hinder justice, as St. Thomas teaches, III part. Quest. LXVIII, art. 10, ad 1: for justice is done that others may be terrified, and by fear of like punishment may abstain from crime; whence that saying: "Let justice be done though the world perish." The reason is, because charity dictates that we should provide for our neighbour in hunger or other necessity: but the greatest necessity is danger to life; wherefore he ought to be succoured by the law of charity. This therefore is what this maxim signifies, that we should deliver those who are unjustly led unto death, either by intercession, or by counsel, or by redeeming them with money, or even by snatching them away by force and arms, if it can be done. Thus Reuben and Judah delivered Joseph from death which his brethren threatened him with, Genesis XXXVII, 21 and 26; and Daniel delivered Susanna from calumny and death, Daniel XIII. So St. Ambrose in Psalm CXVIII, serm. 8: "Snatch away, he says, draw out him that is led unto death, that is, snatch him away by intercession, snatch him away by grace thou priest, or thou emperor, snatch him away by the signature of pardon, and thou hast loosed thy sins, thou hast drawn thyself from bonds;" Again St. Ambrose, lib. I Offic. cap. XXXVI and it is found 23, Quest. III, cap. VI, teaches that this deliverance of the innocent is an act of true fortitude: "The law of virtue is not in inflicting, but in warding off injury; for he who does not ward off injury from his companion, if he can, is as much in fault as he who commits it. Whence St. Moses first began hence to repel the temptations of weak fortitude. For when he saw a Hebrew receiving injury from an Egyptian, he defended him so that he cast down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Solomon also says: Deliver him that is led unto death." In the same place Anastasius and Pope Damasus: "They who can, say they, stand in the way and thwart the wicked, and do not, do nothing else than favour their impiety. Nor is he free from the reproach of hidden complicity who ceases to stand in the way of manifest crime." Furthermore, if charity commands that a man be snatched from bodily death, much more from spiritual and eternal: wherefore religious men, priests, indeed any faithful, when they see someone determined to commit mortal sin, or having already committed it, and there be danger that he die in it and be damned, let them think to sound in their ears: "Deliver them that are led unto death," nay unto hell. Whence Bede: "It can, he says, be understood mystically. Deliver them who are deceived by heretics, by preaching the right faith; free, by showing the example of good works, those who are drawn by evilly living Catholics unto destruction: but also if thou hast seen any fallen or about to fall in the struggle of persecution, strive to restore them to life by exhortation. If thou seest any perishing from hunger, any from cold, refresh them with food and clothing." So also Cassian, Collat. II, cap. XIII, applies this maxim to the tempted: for they are led by the demon unto the death of grace, whom therefore he teaches should be treated gently, comforted and encouraged by the example of a certain one, who harshly rebuking one tempted, was soon himself assailed by the same temptation and almost succumbed to it. Moreover God is wont to punish this sin by retaliation, so that he who was unwilling to deliver others from death when he could, incurs the same danger and finds none to deliver him. A memorable example is found in John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, cap. CLXVII. Abbot Poemen says to Abbot Agathonius that he is to be devoured by beasts; he added the reason: "In our province, he says, when I was (and both were Galatians), I was a shepherd of sheep, and I despised a passing pilgrim, and he was eaten by dogs; for when I could have saved him, I did not, but let him go, and he was torn to pieces by dogs; and I know that I too must die thus. Which also came to pass: for after three years he himself was torn to pieces by beasts, as he had said." Many similar and wonderful things are in the Life of St. Ephrem, which I briefly reviewed at Genesis XLII, 21. Note that God is called the saviour of the soul, first, because He preserves it; secondly, saviour, that is observer, because He observes all the thoughts and deeds of men; thirdly, because He guards and preserves it from many evils, so that by this title and the remembrance of this benefit He may the more stir us to preserve others in turn from death and other evils.
24:12
In Hebrew, if you say: Behold, we know not this (or this one), will not he that weigheth the hearts understand, and he that keepeth thy soul, shall he not know? The Septuagint: But if thou say: I know not this one, know that the Lord knoweth the hearts of all, and he that fashioned the spirit to all, he knoweth all things, who rendereth to every one according to his works; Aquila, will not he that weigheth the hearts understand? Lucifer, and he that fashioned the spirit to all of them. Our translator, for "we know not this," rendered it, "strength faileth," because he who knoweth not the manner of delivering the innocent from death, to him strength faileth to deliver him. Whence the Syriac translator rendered it, if thou say: I know not (how to deliver him, that is, I cannot), know that God searcheth the thoughts of thy mind, and thy saviour knoweth that perhaps thou canst deliver him. Furthermore, the Septuagint and others who translate, "if thou say: We know not this one," etc., can be expounded in two ways. First, as if to say: We know not whether this man condemned to death hath deserved the punishment of death or not, and therefore we dare not deliver him. Secondly, as if to say: If thou say: This one who is led to death is bound to me by no tie of friendship or kinship, but is a stranger and unknown; therefore I shall leave him to be delivered by strangers who know him: if, I say, thou say this, know that this is a bald excuse, because he, though unknown to thee, is nevertheless known and dear to God, who hath committed to thee as to a neighbour the care of his deliverance; wherefore thou shalt incur the displeasure and indignation of God, who hath inspired thee with soul and life, and doth continually preserve it by this law, that thou shouldest preserve the same in thy neighbour, as if to say: Thy known one is known to him. For by God, who ought to be known to thee by so many titles, he is well recognized: for the law of friendship is this, that we should embrace even the acquaintances and known ones of our friends. He addeth: "Who rendereth to every one according to his works." To God, I say, this grace is to be rendered, who repayeth our works with like things, and dealeth with us in the same manner as we ourselves deal with our neighbours. In a somewhat different way the Septuagint is explained by the Author of the Greek Catena, as if to say: All men know one another mutually, since they are of one nature and form. If, he says, thou say: I know not such a one; God will convict thee of falsehood, and thou shalt be guilty of two crimes, namely of murder and of falsehood. For since all mortals are of one origin, they cannot fail to know one another mutually, since even brute animals of one species recognize and help one another. Now first, some expound it thus, as if to say: If thou truly and not in simulation say that strength faileth thee to snatch thy neighbour from death, let not thy spirit therefore fail, but have a good will, because God, who thoroughly knoweth the hearts of men, approveth the good will of each and consulteth for good, as often as the faculty of work is lacking. And so that according to his works is the same as according to his faculty, as if to say: God weigheth not the quantity of works, but the faculty; and although works be absent, he alone compensateth the will with rewards. Secondly and truly, as if to say: If thou say: Strength faileth me to deliver the innocent from death, see that this be not a bald excuse which thou puttest forward for thy negligence or sluggish will, so that when thou art unwilling to undergo the troubles of delivering him, thou say that strength of delivering faileth thee; because God, who is the inspector of the secrets of the heart, and seeth its depths, and who is the keeper of thy soul, that is, who as he created thy soul, so doth continually preserve it, lest it relapse into its nothingness, from which he drew it forth by creation, and therefore seeth the inmost things of thy soul, as being created and preserved by him, so that thou canst not deceive him nor put him off: he, I say, seeth whether this excuse of thine be true, or feigned by thee, and therefore will render to thee and to others the deserved reward or punishment, not according to thy words and pretexts, but according to thy works; so that, if thou deliver the innocent from death, he in turn shall deliver thee from present and eternal death: but if thou be unwilling to deliver him, and falsely say that thou canst not, he shall suffer thee in like manner to fall into the danger of both deaths, and to find none to deliver thee: of which matter I have recited examples a little before; for this retaliation thy cruelty, which violateth all the laws of charity, deserveth.
24:13
The Septuagint: "Eat, my son, honey, for it is good, and the honeycomb is sweet to thy throat: so shalt thou feel wisdom in thy soul; for if thou shalt find it, there shall be a good end to thee, and hope shall not forsake thee;" The Chaldean: "Be thou wise in this manner in thy soul; and if thou hast found it, better things shall come in the end than in the beginning, and thy hope shall not be consumed;" The Hebrew and Syriac: "shall not be cut off." The sense is, as if to say: Just as the eating of honey and honeycomb is good and wholesome to the stomach and to the whole body, and likewise pleasant to the palate and sweet to the throat: so likewise wisdom is wholesome to the soul, and equally sweet to the mind: and in this honey surpasses, because honey growing old becomes sour and turns to bitterness; but wisdom, the more it grows old, the more it grows sweet. Alluding to this, Isaiah, chapter VII, verse 15, says of Christ: "He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good." See the remarks there. And the Bride, Song of Songs V, 1: "I have eaten, she says, my honeycomb with my honey." Note: Honey is a symbol of true and practical wisdom, which makes men endowed with virtue and leads them to heaven; which is therefore prudence, holiness and charity itself: and this on account of many analogies of both. The first is, that honey falls from heaven and is as it were heavenly manna. Whence Pliny, book XI, chapter XII, speaking of honey: "Whether, he says, it be the sweat of heaven, or the saliva of the stars." And chapter XIV, he calls it "divine nectar;" whence Virgil, I Georgic: "The heavenly gifts of airy honey." The same, book IV: "Others pack the purest honeys and fill the cells with liquid nectar." Again Galen, book VII On the Powers of Simple Medicines, chapter X, asserts that sugar is honey: "Sugar, he says, which is conveyed from India and Arabia Felix, grows together in reeds, as they say, and is itself a species of honey." The same teaches Pliny, book XII, chapter VIII, and Dioscorides, book II, chapter CIV. Others, however, as our Coimbra commentators, more truly judge the contrary, namely that honey is formed from dew, but sugar is generated from the juice of canes. So likewise true wisdom is from above, and therefore Christ descended from heaven, that he might bring it to earth and teach men, Baruch III, 38. Hear the causes and generation of honey explained physically by Varro, Aristotle and Pliny, as our Coimbra commentators expound them, tract. VII on the Meteora, chapter IX. When, together with that thin vapor from which dew is generated, certain subtle parts of the earth are carried forth, especially at twilight times, from the various mixture of such parts with thin moisture, if the watery moisture is not greatly dissolved, there is generated a very sweet juice, which is received by herbs, leaves, flowers and the soil itself, and this is called honey. With such liquid the leaves of trees are found dewy under the first dawn; garments anointed with it and hair congealed feel it sometimes, which have been under the open sky at night; and the same bees gather in their cells and convey into hives, nor does their honey consist of any other juice, as Aristotle teaches, book V On the History of Animals, chapter XXII. And so he says that they construct honeycombs from flowers, fashion wax from the tears of trees, gather honey from the dew of the air. And that the bees themselves do not make it, but carry it in unprocessed, he concludes by a twofold argument. First, because beekeepers find the cells filled with honey in one or two days. Also, because in autumn, when honey is taken from them, they do not repair it, although flowers are still available at that time. But if the food were greatly reduced, or they were brought to want, they would certainly repeat, with the diligence and foresight they possess, the task of making honey, if they made it from flowers. Some, however, whom Seneca relates in epistle 84, have thought that bees by some property innate to them, and as if by a ferment, change the collected dew into that flavor; but the opinion of Aristotle should be embraced, which Pliny also defends in the place cited. Second, honey is made, or rather gathered by bees, because they are chaste and virgin; whence Pliny, Columella, Varro and others teach that honey ought to be made and handled by the pure. Hence Pindar in the Pythian odes called bees "sacred ministers of Ceres;" others, "Nymphs presiding over sacrifices." So likewise wisdom loves, indeed makes men chaste and virgin. Plutarch adds in his Conjugal Precepts: "Bees receive badly those who come fresh from intercourse with women; but they attack more fiercely women who have given themselves to Venus, and those who smell of wine or ointments:" so the wise and holy hate the impure and incestuous, and in turn feel their intolerable odor, as St. Catherine of Siena felt it. Third, honey is made by peaceful bees, and with wonderful harmony working together and making honey in their hive: thus likewise wisdom is peaceful, loves harmony, flees discord. Wherefore honey was once given to Christians in baptism along with milk. "From this we taste beforehand the harmony of milk and honey received," says Tertullian, and from him St. Jerome, Against the Luciferians; and Nazianzen, oration 17: "Christian charity," he says, "and an incredible association of souls ought to be received from the very cradles of religion, especially by those who seriously wish to follow Christ." To this pertains what St. Isidore writes, book XII of the Origins, chapter VIII: "Bees," he says, "are so called either because they bind themselves to one another by their feet, or because they are born without feet; for afterwards they acquire both feet and wings," as if bee were ἄπους, that is, without feet, that is, lacking feet; for first the alpha is privative, signifying without or lacking. Thus likewise the wise man on earth is without feet, and flies on the wings of the mind to heaven to God, so that from the flowers of paradise he may gather the honey of divine wisdom. Fourth, the best honey is made by small bees. Hear Columella, book IX On Agriculture, chapter III: "Aristotle, and Virgil following his authority, greatly approves small bees, oblong, light, shining, golden, and bodies marked with equal spots, and also mild in character; for the larger the bee and also the rounder, the worse. Thus true wisdom is best learned and taught by the humble and meek, according to that saying of Christ: "I confess to thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent (of the world, namely from proud philosophers), and hast revealed them to little ones," Matthew XI, 25. Fifth, honey is the sweetest, most subtle and most healthful juice, says Pliny, which therefore is pleasing to all, and seasons all foods, sweetens and makes them savory: thus also wisdom is pleasing and sweet to all who use right reason, and sweetens all things, even if sad and adverse, and makes them light and savory. "Honey," says Varro, book III On Agriculture, chapter XVI, "is the sweetest thing, and is acceptable both to gods and to men; for the honeycomb comes to the altars, and honey to the beginning of the feast, and is served at the second course." Sixth, honey, mingling with all things, yet accommodates its taste and its sweetness to that of all; for in wine it has a winey sweetness, in vinegar a vinegary one, in meat a meaty one, in flour a floury one, etc.: thus likewise wisdom and holiness adapt themselves to all things, times, and persons; wherefore the wisdom of the young is one thing, of the old another, of priests another, of religious another, of men another, of women another, of prelates another, of princes another, etc.; for in the young it is youthful and lively, in the old senile and grave, in priests priestly, in religious religious, in kings kingly, etc. Seventh, honey is beneficial, because it is most healthful and cures many diseases, which Pliny recounts, book XI, chapter XIV, and Dioscorides, book II, chapter CI: "Medicines," says Pliny, "are not born from honey, gifts heavenly to eyes, to ulcers and to the inner organs." And soon after: "There is no other sweetness and power against the ills of mortals worthy of being called death-dealing, than that of divine nectar," that is, honey. And more fully, book XXII, chapter XXIV: "It," he says, "draws out stings and all things from the body, disperses tumors, softens hard things, soothes the pains of sinews, and encloses even desperate ulcers with a scar. The nature of honey itself is such that it does not allow bodies to putrefy, with a pleasant taste and not harsh, different from the nature of salt: most useful to the throat, tonsils, quinsy and all ailments of the mouth, and to the tongue drying up in fevers: moreover for those with pneumonia, pleurisy it is a decoction; likewise for wounds struck by a serpent, and against the poisons of fungi." He teaches the same thing about honey and mulsum, which is made from honey and water, making people healthy and long-lived: "Many," he says, "have sustained a long old age by the drinking of mulsum alone, and by no other food whatsoever, following the celebrated example of Pollius Romulus. Augustus, when he was a guest, asked him, who exceeded one hundred years, by what means he had chiefly preserved that vigor of mind and body; and he replied: Within with mulsum, without with oil." Varro reports that it was called a royal drink, because it is cured with mulsum. "It is a doctrine of the Pythagoreans to use honey very much," says Pliny, lib. XXII, cap. XXIV; and Athenaeus, lib. II Deipnosoph. cap. VIII, reports that the Pythagoreans used honey very much. Nor is it only reported that Democritus prolonged his life for some days in service to his friends by eating warm bread, but also by applying the vapor of honey to his nostrils. Altogether, however, they report that those to whom the use of honey has been more frequent prolong their life longer; on the contrary, those who delight in acidic foods have a shorter life. Indeed, Athenaeus reports that the Cyriot peoples, who inhabited the island of Corsica, lived long-lived lives, because they used honey constantly as food. For Diophanes also, who wrote books on agriculture, says that those who have delighted in the eating of honey become long-lived. It is better, however, in old age itself to be fed very much on bread and honey; for it not only, as he asserts, aids vivacity, but also keeps all the senses healthy and whole. Thus likewise wisdom is most healthful and heals all diseases of the soul, and often of the body, and makes men long-lived, indeed eternal. Eighth, pure honey is pure and not at all adulterated, and therefore golden and fragrant; whence that verse of Virgil: "Fragrant honeys smell of thyme." Thus likewise wisdom is sincere and bright, and free from all adulteration and pretense. St. James attributes these eight conditions in the same order as I have now reviewed them to wisdom, cap. III, 17: "But that wisdom which is from above, he says, is first indeed chaste, then peaceable, modest, easy to be persuaded, consenting to good things, full of mercy and good fruits, not judging, without pretense." See the words there. "The bee," says Varro, De Re rustica, cap. XVI, "is not at all harmful, in that it does not make worse the work of anyone by plucking at it: nor is it idle, so that it does not resist one who attempts to disturb its work." And soon after, when he had called bees the birds of the Muses: "Nor are they themselves idle (inactive, inert), and they do not hate the idle; and so they drive out the drones from themselves." Ninth, bees are disconcerted by nothing more and turned to flight than by smoke placed beneath them: thus wisdom hates ostentation and the smoke of vain glory, and flees the boastful and glorious. Hence Scripture often compares wisdom to honey, as Psalm CXVIII, 103: "How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to my mouth." And Psalm XVIII: "The judgments of God" are said to be "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." Deborah also the prophetess, Judges IV, 4, is interpreted in Hebrew as bee, as Adamantius, namely Origen, says. And all the Prophets, says Pierius, hieroglyph. 26, cap. XIV, are comprehended under the name of bee, and their honeycombs are those oracles which they committed to writing. And this is that good honey which we are commanded to eat. For whoever embraces those divine oracles in divine meditation, and is nourished and refreshed by the writings of our seers, he executes that divine commandment by which it is prescribed: "Eat honey, my son," and he immediately experiences in reality that it is good. But as to what was predicted concerning Christ our advocate: "He shall eat honey," Adamantius professes that honey here signifies our discourse on virtue. For whenever we discuss from the heart abstaining from pleasures, taming wickedness, justice, prudence, God feeds most willingly on the sweetness of such discourse, and seeks these liquors constantly with thirst; to whom, if we have offered the bitter cups of wickedness, of pusillanimity, of crimes and folly, he flees from the taste as offended, and abhors it as hateful gall. Tenth, bees weave honeycombs and honey with great labor, effort and industry: thus wisdom is to be acquired with great labor, diligence and industry. But let the wise consider that Pindaric saying: "Olympic victors spend the rest of their life in a honey-flowing land," namely in the heavens, where there is happiness and abundance of all good things. For just as Christ "tasted honeycombs after gall," as Tertullian says, so also the same Christians his followers will taste them. Eleventh, the best honey is read to be made from thyme and similar fragrant herbs. Whence the best honey is Hyblean, so called from Hybla, a city and mountain of Sicily, which abounds in fragrant thyme, from which bees fed produce the best honey. "From the fig, says Varro, lib. III On Agriculture, cap. XVI, honey is unpleasant, from cytisus good, from thyme the best." Thus wisdom is gathered from the excellent opinions of the Fathers, Doctors and especially the Authors of Holy Scripture. For the fame of their wisdom and sanctity breathes upon the eyes and minds of those reading or hearing the most pleasant sense and fragrance of doctrine and piety. Hear Dioscorides, lib. II, cap. CI: "Honey holds the first place, that which is of the Attic region, especially from Hymettus, next from the Cycladic islands, and from Sicily called Hyblean. It is more approved when sweeter and more acrid in odor, somewhat pale in color, not moist, heavy and not at all fluid, which on account of the same thickness is not easily broken, and when drawn stretches back to the fingers. Honey has the power of cleansing, opens the mouths of veins, draws out humors, for which reason it is most conveniently poured into foul ulcers and sinuses." Thus likewise wisdom is more approved, which has γλυκόπικρον, that is, sweetness not foolish and dull, but mixed with acrimony and sharpened by acidity, and which spreads its fragrance far and wide, and is heavy and solid, so that it draws out and cleanses the humors of vices from the mind. Twelfth, honey, if taken pure, inflates the stomach; but when mixed with other things it dries phlegm, cleanses the ventricle, nourishes, warms, and strengthens the stomach for digesting food, as physicians and Hippocrates teach, lib. II On Diet: in like manner wisdom alone inflates; but mixed with charity and virtues, it dries and sharpens the cold phlegm, that is the phlegmatic and sluggish torpor, purges the filth of the soul, nourishes the spirit, and kindles it with divine heat, and strengthens the mind for digesting all adversities, according to that saying of the Nazianzen: "Patience is the digestion of troubles." But patience is wisdom, or a great part of wisdom. Again, honey poured into wounds heals them, resists corruption, so much so that it even preserves cadavers whole lest they putrefy. Hence formerly the Egyptians preserved the bodies of the dead with honey, and thus kept them uncorrupted for many years. In like manner wisdom heals all pains of the soul, sorrows and passions, resists the corruption of concupiscence, and preserves this body which we carry about as if it were a cadaver, lest it putrefy through gluttony, lust or another vice, and finally will make this very corruptible body incorruptible, immortal and glorious in the resurrection. AND A HONEYCOMB MOST SWEET TO THY THROAT. — In Hebrew, and a sweet honeycomb upon thy palate. A honeycomb properly is the house of bees, and their cells, so called from cherishing, because in these they cherish their offspring, according to that saying of Virgil, IV Georgics: First they lay the foundations in the combs, then they suspend the tenacious waxes. Again, honeycombs contain honey, and therefore honeyed ones are not rarely eaten whole with honey. Whence Pliny: "He gave a morsel of bread and a honeycomb of honey," that is a piece of the beekeeper's work full of honey. Thus Christ after the resurrection ate a honeycomb of honey presented by the Apostles, Luke XXIV, 42. Therefore a honeycomb of honey signifies here that wisdom is honeyed and most sweet like a honeycomb: first, because true wisdom is heavenly and divine, and therefore the most pleasant food of the soul; for the food of the mind is truth, especially heavenly and divine truth. Whence St. Augustine, lib. I Against the Academics, cap. III, teaches that happiness consists in the investigation of truth: for what does the soul desire more strongly than truth? Then purity, charity, freedom from passions, peace of conscience and sanctity which wisdom brings. "Honey, says St. Augustine in Psalm LXXX, is wisdom, holding the first place of sweetness in the foods of the heart." Second, because wisdom by its reasons, counsels, and considerations seasons and sweetens all things for the wise, however harsh and adverse, which occur daily to the wise man in this life. Thus Bede: "It is evident, he says, most easily why the doctrine of wisdom is compared to honey, because namely just as that gives sweetness to foods, so this gives sweetness to other doctrines." Thirdly, because God the author of wisdom mingles with it heavenly consolations, which He frequently pours into the minds of the wise, that is, of the saints, which surpass all honey in sweetness, according to that saying of St. Bernard: "Jesus is honey in my mouth, melody in my ear, jubilation in my heart." Our blessed Xavier experienced this and cried out: "It is enough, O Lord, it is enough; for an earthly heart cannot contain such an abundance of heavenly consolations. Either therefore take them away, or transfer me to you in paradise, where with an enlarged heart I may drink the sea of your joys, which you have prepared for your elect from eternity." And the Psalmist, Psalm XXX, 20: "How great is the multitude of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for them that fear you!" And: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of your house, and you shall make them drink of the torrent of your pleasure," Psalm XXXV, 9. Symbolically Bede understands by honey the literal sense of Holy Scripture; by the honeycomb, the allegorical: "This," he says, "is the difference between the two meanings, because honey, which is ready to be eaten, suggests the moral surface of the letter; but the honeycomb, in which honey is pressed out from wax, figuratively denotes the allegorical interpretation, so that with the veil of the letter removed the sweetness of the spiritual sense is perceived with some labor or delay." He drew this difference between honeycomb and honey from Augustine on Psalm CXVIII, at those words: How sweet are your words to my palate, more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth! For thus he says, "Honey is like the open doctrine of wisdom; but the honeycomb is that which is expressed from more hidden sacraments, as it were from the waxen cells by the mouth of one speaking, as if chewing." Likewise Pseudo-Augustine, sermon 14 On the Words of the Lord, which is by Eradius the Presbyter: "When we are able to extract from divine works which are read some understanding of mystical significance, we produce honey as it were from the hidden cells of honeycombs." Conversely the Author of the Catena of the Greeks understands by honeycomb the literal sense, by honey the allegory; for this is enclosed in the literal sense as honey in a honeycomb. By honey, he says, he designates allegory, by honeycomb history; for in the latter as in a certain cell a certain more sublime sense lies hidden; by the throat moreover the vegetative powers of the soul. He eats honey who receives use and help from divine Scripture; but he who draws doctrine from those things from which the holy Prophets and Apostles drew, he eats the honeycomb. And indeed eating honey is the work of anyone willing; but truly eating the honeycomb of honey is the work of a pure and clean heart alone. The sense or taste of wisdom is nothing other than the very dogmas and decrees of wisdom itself. Again, our Alvarez de Paz, book IV On the Dignity of Perfection, part III, chapter XXXVIII, understands by honey and honeycomb the holy examples of virtues. The life of our fathers, he says, is honey, because its memory is most sweet, and its taste or imitation most delightful. This is set before us at the table of Religion, while our mind is instructed by the examples of the perfect, and is inflamed by the admonitions of Prelates, and is invited by the reading of rules to their following and imitation. Let us eat this honey, because it is truly good, and salutary to our heart, because it is most sweet, and most pleasant to the palate of consideration. Let us eat it, I say, and follow the life of our fathers, which in the hour of death will give us certain hope of salvation, which will by no means deceive us, but will lead us into the possession of that thing which we hope for. WHEN YOU SHALL HAVE FOUND IT, YOU SHALL HAVE HOPE IN YOUR LAST DAYS, AND YOUR HOPE SHALL NOT PERISH. — He alludes to banquets, in which in the last place honeyed delicacies are brought and eaten, such as honeyed cakes and honeycombs, and they were accustomed in olden times at the end of meals to season these with wise conversations and discussions, as I said on Ecclesiastes chapter XXXII, 4. Again he alludes to honey, which becomes sour with age, as if to say: Honey loses its sweetness with age and turns into bitterness; but wisdom always retains its sweetness, indeed the older it becomes, the sweeter it becomes. For to pass over other things, that wisdom in the last days, namely in old age and death, gives certain hope of obtaining happiness; and by this hope nothing sweeter, nothing more pleasant can happen to the soul. Whence the Septuagint translates it, that if you find this honey, your end (or death) will be good, nor will your hope deceive you. Our Salazar suggests two other interpretations. The first is: Honey indeed preserves life, so much so that many have reached a very advanced age in good health and strength with the aid of honey. Therefore Solomon says: "When thou shalt find it, thou shalt have hope in thy latter end," that is, thou shalt reach old age, not indeed weak and infirm, but strengthened and confirmed by hope. Whence some of the Hebrews translate thus: thou shalt have hope in old age. The second: Honey and honeyed things, as I noted just now, were accustomed to be served at the end of a banquet. Therefore Solomon in these words exhorts that the study of wisdom should never be interrupted, but this also in old age should be employed like honey at the conclusion of a banquet. What then? "And thou shalt have hope in thy latter end," or "in old age"; or, as the Chaldean translated it, the latter things shall come better than the first, that is, just as in a banquet sweet and wholesome dishes are brought forth more at the end: so also doctrine and wisdom should be cultivated in old age; for thus it will come to pass that the conclusion of thy life shall be more pleasant and more healthful, namely full of hope for future goods.
24:15
Our text reads רֶשַׁע rescha, that is, impiety; already others with different pointing read רָשָׁע rascha, that is, impious; whence they translate, do not lie in wait, O impious one, at the dwelling of the just, nor lay waste (Pagninus, seize; Cajetan, plunder) his couch or bed: for the just man, even if he falls seven times, shall rise again; but the impious fall into evil; the Chaldean paraphrase, do not lie in wait, impious one, at the dwelling of the just, nor destroy the house of his habitation; the Syriac, nor plunder. The fall of the just is twofold: the former into punishment or calamity, the latter into fault; whence a twofold sense arises here. The former concerning the evil of punishment, as if to say: Do not lie in wait, O impious one, at the house of the just, nor lay waste his bed, that you might seize his wife or children, or his couch, that is his rest, that you might disturb his peace, because God guards him: for even if He permits him to fall seven times, that is often, into some calamities, yet He causes him to rise up immediately stronger from them, as happened to St. Job. "But the impious fall prone into evil," so that they lie in it and remain without hope of rising and emerging. Thus Vatable: The just man, he says, is frequently exposed to danger, and escapes peril, according to that in Psalm 33: "Many are the tribulations of the just, and from all these the Lord shall deliver them." But the impious are wont to fall at the first peril. So also Isidore Clarius, Jansenius and Salazar, and indeed St. Augustine, book XI of the City of God, chapter 31: "The number seven, he says, is often put for the whole, as it is written: Seven times shall the just man fall, and shall rise again; as often as he shall have fallen, he shall not perish. Which he wished to be understood not of iniquities, but of tribulations leading to humility." This is what is said in Job 5, 19: "In six troubles he shall deliver thee, and in the seventh evil shall not touch thee." Most excellently Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 27: "There is, he says, a certain tree in fables, which when cut down grows green, and contends against iron, and if one must speak of a new thing in a new manner, lives by death, and sprouts by cutting, and when consumed grows. You have a fable, rightly feigning freely whatever it wishes. But to me such a man seems to be truly a philosopher; for he flourishes amid tortures and life's troubles, and considers virtue's harvest to exist in adversities, and in difficulties exults and glories; thus indeed composing himself, so that he is bent neither by the right arms of justice nor by the left, but in diverse things remains always the same and like himself, and is thus found more approved like gold in a furnace." And below, describing the unconquered and insuperable soul of the just: "Nothing, he says, is stronger than philosophy, nothing more impregnable; all things will sooner yield than that the philosopher should give way, etc. That I may say in sum, two things cannot be seized and overcome, God and Angel; a third is the philosopher, in matter devoid of matter, in body uncircumscribed, on earth heavenly, in passions impassible, yielding easily to all things except in greatness of soul, and by this very fact that he yields to suffering, he overcomes those who seem to be superior to him." The Hebrew text favors this exposition. The Vulgate, although it may seem to disagree, can nevertheless be recalled to this sense, if you explain it thus: Do not lie in wait for the just man, although afflicted and troubled, that you might attempt to draw him to impiety, nor disturb the peace and tranquility of his conscience; because, although he falls seven times, that is often, into tribulations, yet he is not cast down in spirit by them, so as to move even a hair's breadth from justice, but stands constant and immovable in it, and therefore by this constancy of his dispels all tribulations, and like a diamond struck by hammers eludes and rejects them, indeed rises from them more generous, more spirited and more joyful, as happened to the three youths in the Babylonian furnace, Daniel 3. This sense is hinted at by the Septuagint, when they translate, do not apply the impious to the pastures of the just (St. Jerome in Micah, to the tabernacle; St. Cyprian, book III of Testimonies, to the dwelling of the just: namely he reads נְוֵה, that is, dwelling, for נָוֶה, that is, pastures; both the Hebrew neve signifies; Aquila and Theodotion, in the beauty of the just), nor be deceived by the food of the belly: for seven times shall the just man fall and shall rise again; but the impious shall be weakened in evils. Moreover the Author of the Catena of the Greeks and Cassian, Collation 14, chapter 17, thus explain the Septuagint, as if to say: The pastures of the just are the more secret discourses on virtue and perfection; these are not to be applied, that is explained, to the impious, lest we cast pearls before swine. Mystically, the rest or bed of the just is called the tranquility of conscience and mind: for in this he rests sweetly as in a bed, and therefore he forbids this to be disturbed. Secondly, plainly and simply according to the Vulgate version, you should understand this of the fall of the just into sin, that is to say: Do not lie in wait for the just man, so that you may strive by calumny to find some grave impiety in his house, and thus disturb his rest and peace: because the just man, who namely steadfastly adheres to justice, repels all impiety far from himself; for although he falls into some light and venial sins seven times, that is often, yet these do not take away his justice from him, nor do they impute impiety to him, and from these he quickly rises again through penance. But the impious will fall into mortal sins, from which they cannot rise by their own strength, unless they are prevented by God's special grace and are raised up to penance. Again they repeat them, and involve themselves in them like pigs in mud and as it were bury themselves; wherefore it is more difficult for them to rise from these to grace than from death to life. And St. Gregory, book VI on I Kings chapter XV: "Concerning the fall of the just it is written: Seven times a day the just man falls and rises. The fall of the just is in a certain way their state, because they are sometimes permitted to fall, so that they may always be able to stand more strongly; they are permitted to fall into evils, lest they lose the supreme gifts of virtues through pride. These indeed, although they sometimes do not fulfill the words of the Lord, do not recede far from the Lord, because they are abandoned for a time, so that they may be held forever, and they are foolish for a little while, but afterwards they come to their senses." Note: the fall is in a certain way their state: because the just, rising immediately from their fall, establish themselves more firmly in the state of grace. Whence in the fall of the just is fulfilled that saying of St. Chrysostom, homily 12 on 1 Corinthians: "Sin, if it turns toward your soul, let it be a guest, not a resident;" because the just immediately expel sin and return to the state of grace, so that they seem not so much to have fallen as to have bent down a little; for being admonished they immediately repent and come to their senses, even if the fall has been grave and lethal, such as was that of St. Peter denying Christ, and of David when he killed Uriah and corrupted Bathsheba, who at the first word of Nathan and correction cried out: "I have sinned." The just man therefore falling is like a tree laid low by a storm, which for that reason drives deeper roots into the earth, and therefore immediately puts forth shoots and buds again. "For when covetousness is rooted out, as St. Augustine says, it quickly receives the plant of charity." Whence St. Bernard, sermon 1 on the Song of Songs: "We must watch therefore, he says, and watch at every hour, because we know not at what hour the spirit will come, or again depart. The spirit goes and returns, and he who stands while it holds him, must fall when it departs; but he will not be dashed, because the Lord again puts his hand beneath him. And he does not cease to alternate these turns in those who are spiritual, or rather whom he himself providently intends to make spiritual, visiting at dawn and suddenly testing. Finally the just man falls seven times, and rises seven times, if indeed he falls in the day, so that he may see himself falling, and know that he has fallen, and desire to rise, so that he may seek the hand of him who helps, and say: Lord, in thy will thou hast established beauty for me, thou hast turned thy face from me, and I am troubled." Note: Some read: Seven times a day the just man falls. Thus read the Author of the Greek Catena, Cassian, Conferences XXII, chapter xiii, and some manuscript Codices; from which some conclude that the just man ordinarily cannot restrain himself through one day without falling into some venial sin, indeed into seven, that is many. But truly "in the day" should be deleted: for it is neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Septuagint and Roman Vulgate and other printed editions. Whence St. Augustine teaches that the just, especially the more cautious and those devoted to the study of purity of conscience, can at some time be pure from all venial sin, in book II On the Merits and Remission of Sins chapter 11, and epistle 95, at the end, and Francis Suarez, volume III On Grace, book IX, chapter viii, who nevertheless denies that this time is long. Dominic Soto asserts that the just man can abstain from venial sin for one day, others for three or four hours. See there Suarez, number 27. Again, that certain very perfect just men, who are wholly devoted to purity and holiness, are able to live their entire remaining life without venial sin that is plainly voluntary and deliberate, Suarez teaches in the same place, num. 25, Alvarez de Paz, tom. III, De Extermin. mali lib. I, pag. 1, cap. ix, pag. 60 and 61, and Clement of Alexandria, lib. I Pædag. cap. 11, and this the Apostles seem to have done after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Concerning St. Mary of Oignies, Cardinal James of Vitry writes thus in her Life, cap. VI: "She guarded herself so carefully from even slight venial faults, that frequently for fifteen days she could not find a single disordered thought in her breast." And St. Chrysostom, hom. 20 in Matt., on that passage: Thy will be done: "For there is nothing," he says, "which, on account of the dwelling-place of earthly things, prevents men from attaining to the perfection of heavenly virtues. For it is possible that those still dwelling in the region of the earth should accomplish all things as if already dwelling in the heavens." Certainly we read of Abbot Pambo and many other Anchorites that they did not speak even one idle word for many years; yet they could have admitted an idle and vain thought into their mind. For it is more difficult to restrain the heart than the tongue. Symbolically, Cassian recounts seven falls of the just, Collat. XXII, cap. xiii. Moreover, that the just are not immune from fault, Scripture plainly declares, saying: "Seven times a day the just man falls, and rises again." For what else is falling than sinning? and yet when it is said that he falls seven times, the just man is nevertheless pronounced just, nor is his justice prejudiced by the fall of human frailty: because there is much difference between the fall of a holy man and of a sinful man. For it is one thing to commit mortal sin, and another to be forestalled by a thought which is not without sin, or to offend through error of ignorance or forgetfulness, or through the ease of idle speech, or to hesitate for a moment in the theory of faith, or to be touched by some subtle tickling of vainglory, or to recede somewhat from the highest perfection by necessity of nature. For these are seven kinds of falls, in which a holy man, although he sometimes falls, nevertheless ceases not to be just, which things, although they may seem light and small, nevertheless make it so that he cannot be without sin. Thus far Cassian. Wherefore from this passage the Orthodox Doctors rightly conclude that the just are not impeccable, but sometimes sin, and they distinguish between venial and mortal sin (for the just fall into venial sin while remaining just, the unjust into mortal sin, which Jovinian, Pelagius, Wycliffe, Calvin and Luther denied), such as Cassian Collat. XXII, cap. xi; Bellarmine, lib. De Amiss. gratiæ, cap. v, and others: for venial sin consists together with the justice of the just, with which mortal sin cannot consist: for the just man, remaining just, falls seven times a day into venial sin, and rises again from it. I know that St. Jerome, epist. 16 to Rusticus, understood this passage of a grave fall, when he says: "But he does not lose the name of just, who always rises again through penance." Nevertheless it is commonly understood of light faults, and therefore of the just man remaining just, and is more consonant with the context. For the Wise Man had said: "Lay not wait, and seek not iniquity in the house of the just, nor waste thou his rest;" and he adds: "For seven times a day he falls," where the particle for marks the connection and cause of the preceding sentence. Whence the sense is: Thou shalt not find iniquity in the just, because although he falls seven times a day, they are light offences, from which by his justice he easily rises again. Hence Augustine, lib. XI De Trinit. cap. xxxi, thus expounds: "Whenever the just man shall have fallen, he shall not be utterly cast down." Which would not be true if the discourse were of a fall by which justice is lost; and therefore he adds: Which he wished to be understood not of iniquities (that is, mortal sins), but of tribulations leading to humility. Which I judge should be understood thus, that under these tribulations are also comprehended occasions of sinning venially, both because these humble the just more than external tribulations; and also because the Wise Man distinguishes the falls of the just from impiety; therefore also from the fall of the impious man falling into evil; therefore he speaks of some fall which, although it be a fault, is nevertheless not impiety or grave sin by which the falling man falls into evil. And thus the Ordinary Gloss and Bede expound it, Jacob. III, and St. Thomas, Quæst. VII. De malo, art. 2, ad 13. Finally, some, but few, receive the fall of the just as a mortal sin. Whence St. Jerome, in his epistle to Rusticus: "Seven times, he says, the just man falls and rises again. If he falls, how is he just? if he is just, how does he fall? but he does not lose the name of just, who always rises again through penance: and not only seven times, but to him who sins seventy times seven times, if he turn to penance, sins are forgiven. To whom more is forgiven, he loves more. A harlot washes the feet of the Saviour with tears, and as a type of the Church gathered from the Gentiles deserves to hear: Thy sins are forgiven thee. The justice of the Pharisees perishes in pride, and the humility of the Publican is saved by confession." The just man, therefore, even if he sometimes falls into grave sin, yet quickly rises again, and resurrection follows upon his fall rather than his fall upon his resurrection; wherefore on account of the solicitude and speed of rising again, the name of just does not so much seem to be lost as to be hidden for a moment. Thus in David so great a splendor of sanctity was not so much obscured by sin as it was made more brilliant by penance, and, as Theodoret says, Questions XXV in II Kings: "It made the admirable glory of the king more splendid;" and, as St. Ambrose says, Apology 1 on David, chapter ii: "The fall brought no impediment, but accumulated incentives to speed, and he rose more keen to run." St. Chrysostom has similar things, homily 77 to the People. Again St. Ambrose, Apology 2 on David, chapter iii: "If David, he says, was weak, are you strong? If Solomon fell, can you be the first of the saints? Therefore if the just erred, they erred as men, but they acknowledged their sin as just men."
24:17
Chaldean, and when he shall have fallen into evil, let not thy heart rejoice. Lest perhaps the Lord see it, and it displease him, and he take away his wrath from him. The Septuagint: if thy enemy fall, rejoice not over him, and in his overthrow be not lifted up: for the Lord will see, and it will not please him, and he will turn away his indignation from him. The former verse is clear: for it forbids joy at the calamity of an enemy as contrary to charity, by which we ought to love all men, even enemies, for God's sake, and to wish them good and to avert evil from them; wherefore he who rejoices at the fall of his brother, even if an enemy, and insults him on account of the damage received, is like the devil, who desires that no one attain salvation, says the Author of the Greek Catena. For he speaks of joy in private and personal vengeance, not public: for concerning public vengeance (as St. Antiochus teaches, homily 58), inasmuch as it is an act of justice, it is lawful to rejoice; hence he says, "thy enemy," not God's or the Church's. Thus when Pharaoh and the Egyptians, his enemies, were submerged in the Red Sea, Moses and the Hebrews rejoiced, and sang a song of victory to God, Exodus xv. The same did Debora and Barac when they slew Sisara, the enemy of the Jews, Judges v. The same did Moses and Josue when they slew Amalec, Exodus cap. xvii, 15; the Machabees when they slew Nicanor, Judith when she slew Holofernes, David when he subdued the Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians and other enemies, II Kings xxii, 1 et seq. Namely: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the vengeance; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner," Psalm LVIII, 11. Plutarch agrees with Solomon, lib. On the Utility to be Derived from Enemies, where among other things he records this, that the reproaches of enemies warn us of our vices, so that we may wash them away; hence, he says, it was rightly said by Antisthenes, "he who ought to be saved has need of either good friends or very strong enemies, for the former by admonishing sinners, the latter by accusing turn them away from vices." But, since in our age friendship is endowed with a very feeble voice for free reproofs, talkative in flattering, mute in correcting, we must hear truth from enemies: for as Telephus, destitute of domestic remedy, offered his wound to be healed by a hostile spear, and when it was broken, brought health to the man: so those whom a benevolent corrector has failed, they must needs hear the word of an enemy reproving and pressing the fault, considering not the mind of one cursing, but the thing itself. Jason the Thessalian, whom he wished to kill, opened an abscess with his sword, and when it burst, brought health to the man: thus often a reproach inflicted by an angry enemy has healed a hidden or neglected disease of the soul. The latter verse gives the reason for the former, but a difficult and obscure one; for it seems to be repugnant to charity, if you say to someone: Do not rejoice at the evil of thy enemy, lest God take away his wrath from him, when charity would dictate that it should be wished that God take away his wrath from him, even though he be an enemy. For the wrath of God incumbent upon an enemy is a great evil of his, which charity therefore does not wish, but averts and deprecates: for charity embraces both enemies and friends in the same bosom of love. First, Bede answers—that it refers not to God, but to the enemy, that is to say, Do not rejoice at the evil of thy enemy, lest God take away from him his wrath, which namely thy enemy conceived against thee, and with which he is angry with thee as his adversary, that is, lest God take away from him the enmity and hatred of thee, and convert him to friendship and charity, so that he now love thee as a friend, whom he before hated as an enemy. Then indeed thou wilt grieve and blush that thou didst before exult at his evil, inasmuch as thou now hast him reconciled as a friend, to whom thou wishest all good. To this tends that saying of Bias: "Love as if thou wert about to hate, hate as if thou wert about to love." The latter indeed tends to this, and teaches that hatred should be moderated by the hope of entering into or restoring friendship. The former indeed Cicero censures, lib. On Friendship, and Aristotle in the Rhetoric. For friendship ought to be stable and perpetual, so that it never turn into hatred and cease. Secondly, Cajetan says: Solomon, he says, directs this commandment to the imperfect, and, in order to lead them to restrain themselves from the sin of rejoicing in the evil of an enemy, he sets before them the danger of their own evil, so that if not from love of virtue, at least from love of their own good they may abstain from such a sin: for he declares to them that such joy displeases God, and is displeasing to God, as being a sin; and perhaps God on account of this sin of yours will cease to punish your enemy, because your joy is to add affliction to the afflicted, and from this two evils will befall you: one of confusion, because your joy will be confounded when the wrath of God ceases over your enemy; the other, the strength of your enemy, because when the wrath of God ceases over him, your enemy will recover his strength. Therefore the reason is not brought against charity, but so that an imperfect man, having regard to his own good, may avoid this sin: for the withdrawal of divine wrath from the enemy, not insofar as it is good for the enemy man, but insofar as it would be evil for you, is brought forward as the reason. For your enemy, now restored by God to his own strength, will resist you more strongly, and will attack you more powerfully than before. You will incur this loss from your perverse joy in his calamity. Thus Cajetan. Thirdly, more aptly and more fully, Solomon here restrains joy in the evil of an enemy: first, by saying that this displeases God, which is a great punishment; secondly, that God will remove from the enemy his wrath, that is, the punishment and calamity which he, being angry on account of sins, inflicted upon him, and will restore him to his integrity and prosperity. In which matter there are two evils on the part of the adversary, namely of one rejoicing in the ruin of an enemy: the first, that God will chastise the enemy by this joy of his with sadness and sorrow. For the envious man will grieve and sorrow over the happiness of his enemy as much as he previously rejoiced in his affliction and unhappiness, and all the more because he will think that God is chastising his envy and envious joy with this sorrow; whence he will say: Would that I had myself first willingly chastised this evil joy of mine! for now I would rejoice, both because I would have done this willingly, and because I would have elicited an act of charity; but now when God chastises this perverse joy of mine, he chastises me unwilling, and he chastises my sin, namely hatred and envy for my deserts; moreover he chastises me with sorrow at the contrary happiness, which he compels me to see daily in my enemy, and to waste away with envy and sorrow, which are all great crosses and punishments for one rejoicing, so that he is far more tormented by the prosperity of his enemy than he previously rejoiced in his adversity. Fourthly and most fully; when he says: "Lest perhaps the Lord remove his wrath from him," he tacitly understands, "and transfer it to you." Whence the Hebrew texts have, lest perhaps the Lord cause to return, namely to you, his wrath. For God is accustomed to punish the envious by retaliation, so that the evil which they wished upon an enemy, and in which they rejoiced, may recoil upon themselves, nay, may be turned back from the enemy upon themselves, which wonderfully torments the envious. Thus great was the torment of Haman, in that he himself ascended the gallows which he had prepared for Mordecai, by his own procurement, and was hanged upon it. This is what the Psalmist imprecates upon the Edomites, Psalm 136: "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who say: Lay it bare, lay it bare even to its foundation in it," that is to say, Turn back, O Lord, the destruction of Jerusalem brought upon us by the Chaldeans, upon the Edomites our enemies, who exulted over it, and insulted us when we were captive. And thus God truly turned it back upon them; for the Chaldeans laid waste the Edomites in the same manner as the Jews. And Obadiah to the Edomites, verse 12: "Do not magnify," he says, "your mouth in the day of distress," that is, do not insult the Hebrews reduced to distress by the Chaldeans. He adds the reason: "Because as you have done, it shall be done to you;" for whoever insults the wretched incurs retaliation. Many similar instances occur in the Lamentations and the Prophets. Truly Tertullian, book II Against Marcion, chapter xviii: "Nothing is more bitter than to suffer the very thing which you have done to others," especially if the punishment of the enemy is transferred to you, so that while you grieve he exults, indeed insults you as you insulted him. We also read and have seen such things happen frequently. Well known is the history of Sapricius, who when he was being led to martyrdom, and Nicephorus his enemy met him asking to be reconciled with him, rejected him as he asked, and therefore abandoned by God denied the faith in death and lost the palm of martyrdom, which God transferred to Nicephorus, as Metaphrastes relates, and from him Surius, on the 9th of February. This reasoning is offered by Lyra, Vatable, Jansenius; indeed also by Bede, who adapts it to spiritual losses: "Do not rejoice," he says, "at the fall of your enemy, lest perhaps the Lord, humbling your pride, which certainly displeases him, in this manner, might humble you, so that you falling into sin, he being converted might be healed," as happened to St. Nicephorus and Sapricius. And Cassian, Conferences V, chapter xv: "If your enemy has fallen," he says, "do not congratulate yourself; and in his overthrow do not exult, lest the Lord see and it displease him, and turn his wrath from him, that is, lest perceiving the elation of your heart, he cease from his assault upon him, and you begin, abandoned by him, to be troubled again by that passion which by God's grace you had previously overcome. For the Prophet would not have prayed saying: Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee, Psalm 73, unless he had known that on account of the inflation of the heart some are delivered again to the very vices which they had conquered." The opinion of St. Chrysostom is to be noted, homily 24 on Matthew: "The greater," he says, "the envy with which you labor, the greater goods you offer to him whom you envy. For God, who sees all things, when he sees an innocent man circumvented by injury, exalts him much more and makes him illustrious, but depresses the one attacking; for if he does not allow those who rejoice at the misfortunes of their enemies to go unpunished (for do not rejoice, he says, at the fall of your enemies, lest God see and it displease him), he will certainly deliver to much greater punishments those by whom the innocent are harassed through envy. Let us therefore kill this pestilential beast." It is added that, as Isidore of Pelusium says, book III, letter 181 to Eutonium: "These two things ought to exhort to patience under insults: first, that nothing torments those who inflict insult so much as the patience of those who are affected by insult; second, that we can in no way avenge ourselves upon them so well as by cultivating virtue." He proves it by the authority of a wise man who, "when asked by someone in what manner he might avenge himself on his enemy, answered: If you show yourself to be an upright and honorable man. Therefore he who cultivates virtue and patience inflicts deadly plagues upon his enemies," etc. For which reason Father James Lainez, second General Superior of our Society, held that "the best method of refuting curses is the constancy of right actions." The same opinion was held and practiced by Father Peter Canisius, as Father Sacchinus relates, book II of his Life.
24:19
In Hebrew, with the wicked or malignant ones. He alludes to, indeed cites, that passage of his father David, Psalm xxxvi, 1: "Do not emulate the malignant, neither covet those who do iniquity;" for there in Hebrew are the same words as here, especially אל התחר al titchar, which the Septuagint translates, do not emulate; but St. Jerome and Aquila, do not contend; Symmachus, do not strive; Theodotion, do not be provoked; properly al titchar signifies do not be angry, do not be indignant, do not be inflamed. The genuine sense therefore is, as if to say, Do not be incensed, do not be indignant toward wicked and malignant men, nor emulate, that is, do not be moved by envious zeal against the impious, so that you envy them their happiness, and on account of it torture and torment yourself. It could secondly, the "do not emulate" be thus expounded, as if to say, Do not be moved by zeal and love of the impious, so that you imitate them in hope of similar happiness, and desire their life, and follow their impious ways. Thus the Chaldean, St. Cyril, Hesychius in Psalm xxxvi; for the Chaldean there equally as here translates, do not imitate the worst; the Syrian, do not envy the wicked. He gives the reason, "because the wicked shall not have hope of future things," as if to say, The impious do not expect after this life another happy one in heaven, but a miserable one in hell; wherefore they are rather worthy of compassion than of anger, emulation and envy. Our translator and Aquila render, do not contend with the worst or malignant; Symmachus, do not strive; because from anger and indignation contention follows: for if you are indignant toward the malignant, you easily contend and quarrel with them, especially if injured by them: for the malignant are evildoers, because either they cast reproaches in words upon those they meet, or in fact they injure them with wrong, whence he who is injured by them easily contracts contention and quarrel with them. Wherefore Solomon admonishes him here that he neither be angry at the malignant, nor contend with them, but rather silently suffer and dissemble their taunts and slight injuries, so that he may preserve himself in peace, and commit his cause to God the judge, and commend his own innocence, and console himself by thinking that the reign of the impious will be brief, since they do not have the hope of future things, as the pious and innocent injured by them have. Yet he does not forbid that an innocent man, gravely injured by the impious in reputation or in goods, may contend with them in judgment, so that he may recover his reputation or goods taken from him; otherwise indeed the wicked would grow insolent with impunity against the good, and the good would be deprived of all their possessions at the pleasure of the wicked. Thus Hugo, Salazar and others. To this pertains an Arabian proverb: "Do not cast your arrows at an iron idol," that is, do not cast words at a hard and stubborn man, such as the worst are, so that you may litigate and quarrel with them, where both to win is shameful, and to lose more shameful. For just as an arrow cast at an iron idol, rebounding, injures the archer himself: so the stubborn and malignant are not injured by the complaints and reproaches of the good, but rather turn them back upon themselves. Otherwise Jansenius: Solomon speaks, he says, of contention, by which one contends and disputes with himself in his mind, seeing the prosperity of the impious, which kind of dispute and disputation the Prophet expresses in himself, Psalm LXXII, 2 and following. Wherefore the exposition of Lyran is impertinent, which thus has it: Do not contend with the worst, that is, the incorrigible, with the word of correction, because this is useless; but the judge ought to contend with such by punishments, so that they may be kept from evil and others may be terrified: for here the matter is of anger and contention, not of correction. Furthermore let us add here the versions and expositions of others, which nevertheless come to the same thing: first, R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra translate, do not mingle, and do not enter into partnership with the impious, so that you studiously imitate their actions; second, R. Levi, do not engage in quarrels with the lost, lest you be removed from their midst; third, Cajetan, do not entangle yourself with the wicked; fourth, Pagninus, do not have commerce with the malignant; fifth, the Septuagint, do not rejoice in evildoers, or, as the Author of the Greek Catena translates, beware of flattering evildoers, or emulating sinners; sixth, the Chaldean, do not imitate the worst. Because the wicked do not have hope of future things. — In Hebrew, there shall not be a future for the malignant, which first, the Septuagint thus explain, for there are not made posterity for the malignant, as if to say, Do not envy the impious their prosperity, because God will soon cut it off, not only as regards themselves, but also as regards their posterity, so that he may soon destroy all their sons and grandsons, and completely abolish their line, family and name, which is a great punishment. For a king, when he punishes a criminal, leaves his sons untouched: but God takes away the sons with the fathers, so that they leave no heirs after them. He alludes to that passage Psalm xxxvi, 38: "The remnants of the wicked shall perish together." And verse 28: "The unjust shall be punished, and the seed of the wicked shall perish." Secondly, Pagninus and Cajetan translate it thus: because there will be no end to evil, that is to say, Do not be angry with the wicked and do not envy them, because they are to be deprived of their end, for which they were created, namely they are to be deprived of the kingdom of God. Or, that is to say, In the wicked there are two things, namely good and evil: the good is temporal prosperity, which like a lamp is quickly extinguished; the evil is punishment and eternal hell, which has no end, but endures forever, that is to say, Do not envy the wicked their temporal happiness, because eternal punishment awaits them. Thirdly, Vatablus: for evil will finally have nothing remaining, that is to say, All happiness, riches, and glory of the wicked quickly pass away, so that nothing of them remains, but all vanish like smoke or a dream, according to that passage in Psalm 75, 6: "They slept their sleep, and all the men of riches found nothing in their hands." Fourthly, the Chaldean: there will not be good last things for the worst; the Syriac: because the lost will not have extremities, that is to say, There will not befall the wicked a good death, a good judgment, a good lot, namely heavenly happiness and glory. And Baynus: There will be no reward for the wicked, because there was no merit of his, but many demerits, on account of which many punishments and torments in hell await him. Do not therefore demand vengeance from the evildoer who has harmed you, because God will demand it, and in place of temporal will inflict eternal, in place of light will inflict grave, in place of earthly will inflict infernal and fiery. Finally, St. Thomas, II II, Question XVIII, articles 2 and 3, teaches that neither the Blessed nor the damned have hope: not the Blessed, because hope is the expectation of a future good; but the Blessed have beatitude present, not future. "For what a man sees, why does he hope for?" Rom. 8, 24. Not the damned, because they cannot apprehend beatitude as possible for them; for they are certain that their damnation will be eternal. Therefore only and all wayfarers can hope, because they can apprehend beatitude as a future good and possible for them. In the wicked, however, hope is weak, and gradually fails and dies, so that finally they fall into despair, as Solomon says here. And the lamp (Septuagint, λαμπτήρ, that is, a lamp, a torch) of the wicked will be extinguished. — "Lamp," that is, the glory, happiness, and posterity of the wicked is extinguished by death, and is turned into eternal infamy, misery and oblivion, as I said at length in chapter 13, verse 9, and chapter 20, verse 20. He alludes to that passage in Job, chapter 18, verse 5: "Shall not the light of the wicked be put out, and the flame of his fire not shine? The light shall be darkened in his tabernacle; and the lamp that is over him shall be put out." Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena: The lamp, he says, that is, all their doctrine and fame, is fleeting, and quickly vanishes like smoke.
24:21
Syrian, and he reigned: for to serve God is to reign. And do not associate with detractors. For detractors in Hebrew is שונים sconim, that is, those who change, those who repeat, those who alter, those who vary, which various interpreters explain in various ways. First, the Septuagint, reading sconim with another pointing as שנים scenaim, that is, two, or certainly sconim, that is, various, diverse, taking it for scenaim, that is, two (for two are the first of the various, which namely first recede from unity: for the binary is the first number of multitude), translate, and do not associate with two, that is, with neither of them (namely neither with God nor with the king) be disobedient. Second, others translate, and do not associate with those acting otherwise, who namely do not fear God and the king. And thus some copies of the Vulgate edition have it. Third, Pagninus, and do not associate with those repeating iniquity. Fourth, the Chaldean, and do not associate with the foolish: for "the fool" indeed "is changed like the moon," Ecclesiasticus, chapter 27, verse 12. Fifth, Isidore Clarius, and do not associate with those varying; Cajetan, with those changing; Aben-Ezra, with those various and inconstant. Sixth, Vatablus, and do not associate with those who are eager for new things. Seventh, R. Solomon translated the Hebrew sconim as duplicating, as if to say, "Do not associate with those who affirm two gods and two powers (two divinities)." Eighth, R. Levi translated sconim as those changing, as if to say, "Do not associate with those who alter the precepts of God and the king, that is, who overturn the laws of both and act contrary to them." Ninth, most excellently our author translated the Hebrew sconim, that is, those changing, those repeating, those altering, as detractors; for detractors are accustomed to divulge, change, and alter the secret words and deeds of others, that is, to narrate them otherwise than they were done, and to interpret them in a worse light. Hence detractors in Hebrew are called sconim, that is, those who change, those who alter. Moreover, by detractors he especially understands those who detract from kings and princes. For these, as being conspicuous and imposing tributes and other burdens, men are commonly most accustomed to disparage: for thus this hemistich coheres with the preceding: "Fear the Lord, my son, and the king." The sense therefore is, as if to say, Fear, that is, honor, revere, obey, love God as the supreme lord of all things, governor, judge and avenger; and then revere, obey and love the king or prince, as God's vicar on earth, and therefore do not associate with those who detract from either God or the king, especially since, as Vatablus translated, they are eager for new things, so that they wish to depose the king from the kingdom and place another on the throne; and, as Aben-Ezra says, those who entertain various counsels in their mind and plot much for the destruction of the king and kingdom. Therefore this maxim signifies, first, the order and degree of fear and reverence, namely that God is to be feared supremely before all things and all else; then, second in place and at a far inferior degree, the king is to be feared: for the king, since he is a man, is infinitely distant from God. Hence secondly, the king is to be obeyed, when he does not command things contrary to God; for if he does that, it should be said to him: "We ought to obey God rather than men," Acts 5:29. Whence R. Solomon thus expounds: "Fear also the king, who consists of the concretion of body and blood, unless when he would call you away from divine fear; for always divine fear is to be preferred to all things." And R. Levi: "Pursue God with fear, and diligently observe His precepts and law; fear also the king, keep his statutes, nor despise them; but let divine fear follow the royal fear, nor let the fear of the king be adverse to the divine; for the king is not to be feared in those things which are adverse to the divine Godhead." For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 6 On the Words of the Lord: "The king threatens the prison, God threatens hell." And Tertullian, Apology, chapter 36: "Let the emperor make war on heaven, let him lead heaven captive in his triumph, let him station guards in heaven, let him impose taxes on heaven; he certainly cannot. Therefore he is great, because he is less than heaven: for he is of Him whose heaven is, and all creation. From this the Emperor derives his power, from this also he is a man, before he is Emperor. From this comes his power, from this comes his spirit," etc. Third, it signifies that obedience is owed to the king on account of God: for God has commanded that the king be obeyed, and thus God has instituted royal power, so that through it, fittingly to the condition of men, he might rule and govern the whole kingdom, according to that passage in Romans xiii, 1: "There is no power but from God; and those that are, are ordained of God; therefore he that resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God." And St. Peter, epistle I, chapter ii, verse 13: "Be ye therefore subject to every human creature for God's sake; whether it be to the king as excelling; or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good," and soon after: "Fear God, honour the king." Because suddenly their destruction shall come upon them; and who knoweth the ruin of them both? — Namely, when, how, and how great it shall be. The Chaldean: because suddenly shall come their destruction, and the calamity of both, who knoweth? The Septuagint: for suddenly shall they avenge the wicked, and the punishments of both, who knoweth? The Syriac: and who knoweth the term of their years? For the Hebrew שני schene signifies both both and years. The sense is clear. For kings are accustomed to punish swiftly and severely those who detract from them and rebels and their accomplices, as being those who lay snares for them and disturb the public peace, as I have already said. We have witnessed many examples of this in this age. Whence "both" refers to the detractor and the accomplice, who mingles with the detractor. For both rebels who detract from the king are deserving of death, as are those who listen to them, mingle with them and obey them. Or "both," namely of God and the king, that is to say, the ruin, that is, the punishment to be inflicted by God and the king, who knoweth? so that "ruin" is taken actively. In Hebrew it is פיד pid, that is, disaster, destruction, certain and inevitable ruin, from which no deliverance or redemption is obtained. Thus Baynus, Jansenius, Aben-Ezra. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena thus translates from the Septuagint: For suddenly indeed from wicked men God and the king exact vengeance and punishment; but the manner and method of the punishments of both, who understandeth? Others, who extend this saying to any detractors whatsoever, explain it thus, that is to say, Both, that is, as much the detractor as he who listens to him, a grave ruin impends: for each sins gravely, and therefore is to be punished gravely, either by a Superior or by God. When therefore the detractor begins to detract, tell him candidly and freely: While thou utterest some good of my brother, I listen willingly; but if thou wishest to speak evil, I do not listen, but I depart. Let us be zealous for ourselves, let us weep for our sins, let us care for our infirmities; but the words and deeds of others, which do not concern us, let us leave alone. Allegorically, "both," that is, those who derogate from Christ who is King of kings, "and the people deceived by them, or those who tear apart the faith, the heresiarchs, and their listeners," there shall be grave ruin and destruction, says Bede. After this the Septuagint of the Vatican added another verse, namely: "A son keeping the word shall be in no destruction; but he that receiveth it shall receive it;" which Our text places at chapter xxix, verse last, where I shall explain it. They then add another which exists neither in the Hebrew, nor in Our text, nor in the Complutensian and Royal editions; and it is this: "Let nothing false be said from the mouth of the king, and let nothing false go forth from his tongue; the tongue of the king is a sword, and not flesh: but whosoever shall be delivered up shall be broken. For if his wrath be kindled, he consumeth men with sinews, and devoureth the bones of men, and burneth them as a flame, so that they are unfit for food for the young of eagles." Which can thus be expounded, so that it is connected to the preceding verse, as if to say: The detractor and rebel against the king shall be driven by him to ruin and death, as I have said; but now I turn my discourse to you, O kings, and I warn you solemnly that you examine carefully the cause of him and of similar ones, lest anything false proceed from your mouth, whereby, following the false information of slanderers, from hasty wrath you falsely and unjustly condemn some innocent person: for the sentence of your mouth is inescapable, so that no one can resist it or escape it; because your tongue is like a sword, so that it delivers to death whomever it wishes. Wherefore your tongue is not so much flesh as iron or thunderbolt: for whosoever shall be delivered up by it to death shall certainly be broken and destroyed. Wherefore the wrath of the king when kindled is like a thunderbolt, which with sinews consumeth men, and leaving the flesh, as being soft, untouched, devoureth the bones, as being hard and resisting to it, that is, breaks and incinerates them, as it were a sulphurous flame, so that they are not food for the young of eagles. For eagles, especially vulturine ones, feed upon and crave the carcasses of men, unless they have been struck by lightning: for lightning infects the bodies which it strikes with a foul odor and taste, so that neither eagles nor other carnivorous birds or beasts wish to taste them, as Albert the Great and the Physicists relate. It is a metaphor, by which he signifies that the wrath of the king so rages against those, even the noble and princes, with whom he is angry, their fortunes, houses and lives, so that like a thunderbolt it strikes and destroys them, and leaves nothing to be inherited by the sons or relatives of the slain, who are noble and generous like the young of an eagle, but allows them to waste away in miseries and famine. This opinion is favored by the following verses, which likewise pertain to judges and princes, that they judge from equity, not from wrath or passion. For upon these as it were traitors, seditious persons and guilty of lèse-majesté, sudden destruction impends: for this rebellion cannot long remain hidden; wherefore kings, when they learn of it, punish all its accomplices with atrocious death.
24:23
The Chaldean: these things also I say to the wise; the Septuagint: but I say these things to you wise men: To know and respect the face in judgment is not good, as if to say: These things also which I subjoin pertain to the wise, namely to judges and princes, whose office it is to rule subjects wisely, to administer justice and to govern the commonwealth. But Vatable translates it: these things also are of the wise, as if here the Proverbs of Solomon end, and there are attached to them the following, which are of other wise men, such as Ithiel, Agur, Uchal, Lamuel, of whom chapter xxx and xxxi. For this is as it were a banquet of wisdom, of which chapter ix, 1, in which the wise mutually confer their wisdom's symbols and sentences in common, as is done in dialogues. To know the person in judgment. — In Hebrew, to recognize the face, that is, to have regard for the persons and dignity of each is not good, that is, is most evil: for it disturbs all justice and the entire commonwealth. It is meiosis: for less is said, but more is signified. Truly St. Bernard, book I On Consideration: "He who knows the face in judgment," he says, "can certainly not stand before the face of God." And Aegidius the Deacon, On the Government of Princes: "Be not a mirror, but opaque, O prince," as if to say: Do not, like a mirror, admit into your mind the deformed faces of friends or the powerful: but be opaque so that you exclude the image of all, and thus judge sincerely from equity as if with closed eyes.
24:24
In Hebrew, a blessing of good, that is, a great and distinguished blessing, which will bring them immense goods, they will be heaped up. Properly these things pertain to the wise, that is, judges and princes, concerning whom verse 23. Thus the Rabbis and Latin Interpreters teach, as if to say: Judges and princes, who in judgment respect persons, so as to favor the rich before the poor, a friend before an enemy, and therefore pervert justice, so as to pronounce the impious pious and the just, these the people will curse. It could also be translated, these will they pierce with swords (for the Hebrew nakab properly means to pierce); for not rarely does the people, indignant at a judge rendering unjust sentences, rise up against him, and pierce and kill him. Thus Baynus. But those who reprove the impious of impiety, so as either to correct him or to punish him, as an example to others, these will be praised both by God and by the people; whence in Hebrew it is, to those rebuking or chastising it will be sweet, or beautiful and pleasant, then God, as Pagninus and Baynus supply: whence Aben-Ezra: Those who reprove the wicked, he says, will be suffused with divine pleasure and sweetness, so that those who have been severe toward the guilty from justice, these may receive the nectar of divine sweetness and mercy; then the mouth of peoples, says Cajetan, as if to say: Judges chastising the impious will be pleasing to the peoples, and will be praised by them, and will be celebrated with beautiful eulogies of justice by all, as it were by the common consent of all orders and by a sweet harmony: and blessing will come upon them, both of God and of the people, namely a favorable imprecation and acclamation of those saying: May our judge and prince live, who so justly chastises the impious and rewards the pious! See the things said at chapter xvii, 15, to those words: "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, both are abominable before God." The Chaldean translates: but to those rebuking it will be pleasant, as if to say: Just judges who rebuke and chastise the impious will feel the sweetness and pleasantness both of divine praise equal to human praise already mentioned, and of justice: for justice is a most beautiful and most pleasant thing, inasmuch as it preserves and protects the good and honor of the republic in peace. Wherefore princes, while they exercise justice and punish the guilty, feel from it a wonderful pleasantness. Whence David exulting said: "I have done judgment and justice," Ps. 118. Therefore David dying said to his son Solomon that he should punish Shimei and the guilty, whom he himself had spared, III Kings ii, 5. The Seventy translate: those who reprove the impious will appear better, that is, will be held better than others by the people, says the Author of the Catena of the Greeks. Or in goodness, namely in justice and fortitude they will grow through acts of justice, which they exercise boldly, fearing no one; or they will be promoted to better, that is, more worthy grades of honors and offices. Judges and princes are accustomed to fear lest, if they chastise the impious severely, they be ill-spoken of by the people, and create danger for themselves, lest they be killed by friends or relatives of the accused whom they have condemned. But Solomon here teaches the contrary, as if to say: Fear no one, O judge, but strenuously perform your office: God, the patron of justice, will not only protect you and your life, but will also procure for you the praise and favor of the people, and will raise you to greater dignities; if you do otherwise, you will incur the wrath of God: whence you will become the hatred and mockery of God and men, and will be despoiled of dignity, fortune and life; for judges pertain to the special providence of God, inasmuch as in their hand is law and justice, and consequently the salvation of the whole republic. Secondly, this maxim can be extended generally to all, so that it may be said against flatterers who excuse, smooth over and justify the vices of others, especially of princes, as if to say: Flatterers who say to an impious prince: You are just, and proclaim that all his unjustly done deeds are just, these the people will curse. But those who freely reprove the vices of princes, these will be praised by the peoples, will be blessed by God and men: for the people are accustomed to detest those who foster the vices of princes by flattery; but to love and honor those who reprove them, and by reproving remove or diminish them. Whence Diogenes the Cynic, freely barking against the vices of kings, was held in honor by the people. For this reason Alexander the Great and other princes honored Diogenes, so as to procure for themselves the name of probity and the favor of the people. Wherefore the Syriac translates: the poor will be filled with joy. Wherefore Pliny aptly compares the flatterer to a hyena, lib. VII, cap. ii: "The hyena," he says, "imitates the human voice, and learns the name of someone, whom when called out she tears to pieces: thus certain ones fawn with obsequiousness, until they drag one into destruction." The same, cap. xxx: "What oil is to flies, ants, and almost all other insects, that is, flattery to foolish princes. For indeed those insects die when anointed with oil: these are dragged to destruction by the assent and obsequiousness of flatterers; they themselves drag the republic." The same, lib. VIII, xxiv: "Cerastes do not breed on cypress because of its bitterness, nor on box because of its hardness: thus the plague of flattery flees severe and gloomy natures, it seizes soft and easy ones." The same, lib. XVIII, cap. xxvii: "Just as the heliotrope plant always looks toward that part where the sun is, and when it sets draws in its flower: thus certain ones obey all the nods of the king, and in whatever direction they see him inclined, in that direction they are borne and themselves also." I have said more on this matter at Eccles. xxxvii, 1.
24:26
Properly the phrase 'shall be kissed' actively pertains to him who speaks right things, in that he kisses the lips of those who ask and listen. Some, however, refer 'shall be kissed' to the listener and questioner, as if he kisses the lips of him who speaks rightly. Whence they translate it in the plural, 'shall be kissed,' so that the Hebrew 'shall be kissed' is taken distributively for 'each shall be kissed,' that is, many shall be kissed. Thus the Chaldean: 'The lips of those who answer right words shall be kissed,' he says. So also the Septuagint. But Theodotion embraced both meanings: 'shall be kissed on the lips,' he says, that is, shall give or receive kisses, he who utters right words. For it is a reciprocal verb, which signifies both action and passion: for he who gives a kiss to another receives one from the other in turn; thus also he who receives gives: for a kiss is the kiss of both the kisser and the kissed. Add this: the Septuagint and the Chaldean, for po iissak, that is, 'shall be kissed,' appear to have read ישקו iissaku, that is, 'shall be kissed.' A kiss among the ancients was manifold: first, a common sign of goodwill, by which friends were accustomed to kiss friends; second, a sign of singular goodwill, by which a father kissed his son, teachers kissed their disciples, and disciples kissed their teachers. Whence in Psalm II, 12, for what the Septuagint translated as 'embrace discipline,' the Hebrew and St. Jerome have 'kiss the Son,' because a kiss was a symbol of discipline and of disciples; thus Judas, as it were a disciple, kissed Christ in the common manner, when he betrayed him with a kiss. Third, a kiss of obedience and honor, by which subjects kiss the hand of a king: but princes and intimate friends kiss his mouth and lips. Thus Xenophon teaches that the kings of the Persians honored their nobles and princes with a kiss, in books I and V of the Education of Cyrus: thus David kissed Berzellai, who was most dear to him, so as to honor him before others: thus also Darius kissed Zorobabel, in III Esdras iv, 47. Fourth, a kiss of adoration, by which we kiss altars, relics, and images of God and the Saints. Again, 'right things,' first, signifies just things; second, true things; third, soft and flattering things; fourth, fitting and as it were directly placed things, such as are answers which respond directly to what is asked and equally, and as it were meet it, so that they fully and equally satisfy it, just as a semicircle fills a semicircle equal to itself; and thus they plainly and equally satisfy it. For this is what the Hebrew נוכח nocach signifies. From these meanings four senses arise. First, many connect this with the preceding verses, so that it may regard the whole and right judgments of judges and princes. Whence the Septuagint adds 'but'; for thus they translate, 'but the lips shall be kissed of him who answers good words'; and Vatablus, 'the lips of him shall be kissed who answers just words.' The sense therefore is, as if to say, A prince or judge who in judgment without respect of persons answers right things, that is just things, bringing forth an equitable and just sentence, shall win the love and goodwill of the people for himself, just as if his lips were sweetly kissed and kissed. It is a catachresis; for to kiss is taken for to win over, to merit, to bind to oneself; for just words shall meet the words of litigants like a kiss meeting a kiss; for justice and a just sentence and decision is as it were a kiss that equals and reconciles all disputes, causes and controversies; wherefore while it resolves and reconciles them, it seems to kiss them. Thus Bede: "A kiss," he says, "is a sign of peace and love; he therefore who answers right things shall have his lips kissed, because whoever, neglecting respect of persons, follows only the words of justice, he may seem grave and austere even to the foolish; yet he shall find many prudent men with whom he may have peace, many who shall embrace his words with love. Often too those whom he had tolerated opposing his right assertions, he shall afterward receive converted to better things as friends and companions." Thus also the Gloss, Hugh and others. Hence in turn the people affected by a judge decreeing justly will be so affected as if they kissed his lips, as Aben-Ezra says: for such a man ought to be kissed by all; for a kiss, as I have said, was then a symbol both of discipleship and of obedience. Whence in Genesis, chapter 41, verse 40, for what the Vulgate has, "at thy word's commandment all the people shall obey," the Hebrew texts have, "upon thy mouth shall all the people kiss." If therefore you apply this saying strictly to judges and princes, the sense will be, that is to say, A judge and prince responding appropriately, judging, discerning, thus wins over subjects and others to himself and conciliates them to himself, as if he kissed their lips with his lips. In turn subjects so revere and love them that they hasten to kiss their hand and to be obedient in all things, and indeed kings themselves love them so much that they hold them in affection and favor, and admit such men to the kiss of their lips, and promote them to greater dignities, since they know the people are devoted to these men and kiss their hand and obey in all things; wherefore through these men they keep the whole people in duty, and bind themselves more tightly with so many kisses of reverence and obedience from subordinates. But if you take this saying in a general sense, as it sounds, you will rightly apply it to any prudent and truthful man, and especially to counselors, teachers, confessors, etc. For these, when they respond aptly and adequately to penitents, especially those who are doubtful, anxious, or scrupulous, questioning about matters of conscience; they remove from them every doubt, every anxiety, every scruple, and they pacify, calm, and gladden the conscience, just as if they were imprinting upon it a kiss of peace, and joining lip to lip by kissing, indeed joining them together. Similar to this is the saying in the following chapter, verse 11: "Golden apples in beds of silver, he that speaketh a word in due season." Such was Christ, of whom the crowd said: "Never did man speak like this man." And St. Peter: "Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life," John 6:69. Such was St. Peter, St. Paul and the other Apostles. Such was St. Athanasius, St. Anthony, St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Xavier, to whom therefore from all sides flocked those who were zealous for truth, virtue and salvation, from every nation, state, sex and condition, and entrusted their children to them to be formed in wisdom and virtue. Wherefore these men not only kissed their lips, but their hands, feet and footsteps, according to that prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 49, verse 23: "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the earth, and shall lick up the dust of thy feet," that is to say, Thee, O Church and doctor of the Church, all shall kiss and embrace. Wherefore they paid them a fourfold kiss, and still pay it to such men: first, of love and benevolence; second, of discipleship, by which as disciples they kissed their masters out of reverence; third, of obedience, by which they obeyed their words as if they were heavenly oracles; fourth, of adoration and veneration, not of latria, but of dulia, by which we kiss the garments, images and relics of the Saints. Hence a kiss is a symbol of humility and subjection. Whence if you consider the etymology, it is a diminutive from os; for osculum is said as it were a small mouth or oscillum; for in kissing we contract and diminish the mouth, and as it were make a kiss from the mouth. Moreover, when a master gives a kiss to a disciple, he seems by kissing to deliver his own mouth and heart to him, and to pour forth into him the wisdom, eloquence, grace, affection and love of his mouth. Whence the bride, asking for this kiss of the bridegroom, Song of Songs 1:1, says: "Let him kiss me with the kiss of his mouth;" where see St. Bernard. Finally, a kiss from the lips or labra is called labratum, which was the case when the people, about to revere the prince, bringing their hand to their lips and kissing it, would then reverently touch the purple or knees of the prince. Concerning which Cujacius, book 11 of Observations, chapter 27. Again, bringing the hand to the mouth they worshipped the gods through a kiss, as is evident from Job, chapter 31, verse 27. Whence Lipsius derives the etymology of adoration, book 2 of Selections, chapter 6, as if to adore were to reverently bring the hand to the mouth. Secondly, Lyra takes recta (right answers) as true ones, that is to say, He shall kiss the lips, that is, he shall restore peace, whose sign is a kiss, which recta, that is, true answers, correspond to; for he who answers obliquely, fleeing from truth, does not restore peace, but rather dissipates it. But Vatablus says: He who is truthful, he says, is held in such a place that he is not only admitted to the kiss of the hand, but is received into close friendship. For just as mothers pour food chewed in the mouth into the mouth of an infant: so a teacher pours wisdom digested by his mouth and lips into the mouth and ears of his disciples. The same thing a counselor does by giving advice to one who is doubtful and perplexed. Thirdly, others take recta (right answers) as gracious, soft, flattering ones. Whence the Septuagint translates them as good words, that is to say, A judge, even if he condemns the guilty party, yet if he softens this condemnation with flattering words, saying that he grieves that, from the allegations and proofs presented, he is forced to condemn him, but is otherwise prepared to favor him in all things and to oblige him, he will soften the harsh sentence of condemnation, and will seem to kiss the guilty party, and to embrace him with the kiss of peace, and to bind him to himself. Say the same of a Superior, a teacher, and any other who is forced to reprove and chastise a subject or disciple: for if he seasons the chastisement with soft words, he will wipe away all its bitterness, and the chastised one will seem to be kissed, just as if he had mixed gall with honey. Say the same of anyone else who answers graciously and courteously to anyone asking anything: for he seems to kiss those asking, and in turn to receive a kiss from them, that is to say, Such a one will be pleasing to all; and he will be in the delights and affections of all, so that each one wishes to converse with him, and as it were to kiss his lips so gracious. Whence St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Gentleness: "The gentle man," he says, "is pleasing and lovable to those who see him, pleasing also to those who know him by name alone. Nor will you easily find anyone who, hearing the name of a gentle man praised, does not desire to see him and to kiss him, and does not have it as part of some gain of his own to be able to enjoy his friendship." Fourthly, directly and adequately take recta (right answers) as apt, suitable, answering the question equally and exactly, which are namely not only just, true and flattering, but also so adequate and conformable to the question that they exhaust its difficulty, and plainly satisfy it, and fill the mind of the one asking. For this is what the Hebrew nocach signifies, as I have already said: for an adequate answer fits the question just as lip fits lip, and kiss fits kiss. Whoever therefore answers adequately, so charms and delights the one asking with his lips that he seems to kiss him. Whence the Zurich Bible translates it, if anyone answers aptly, it is as if he kissed with his lips. For this reason all seek his friendship, conversation, counsel and teaching, and obey him; indeed they even desire to become his disciples, and as such to kiss and embrace his hand, as that of their teacher, says Rabbi Solomon.
24:27
Understand "work" as agriculture, as is evident from the Hebrew, which reads thus: Prepare your work outside, and press forward with it diligently in the field for yourself, afterwards you will also build your house. Aben-Ezra takes the final "and" as "or," meaning: Or, if you have no work outside, construct your house. But others more rightly transpose the "and" by metathesis, meaning: "And afterwards you will build," that is, it will be permitted to build, "your house." Whence the Chaldean: Prepare your work outside, and establish it for yourself in the field, and afterwards build for yourself a house. So also the Septuagint. For agriculture was formerly in common use among all, even the Nobility and Princes, as being the most innocent art, as St. Augustine says, and the most profitable. Under it, however, as a principal form, understand every other work of mechanical art or of any other kind, equally as commerce. Aristophanes celebrates agriculture most excellently in Peace: "O faithful nurse of peace grateful to all men, Generous, bountiful provider, Daughter and sister! He called her all these; But what is your name? Agriculture." I have said more about it in Genesis II, 15, and Genesis IX, 20. For "diligently exercise," in Hebrew it is עתדה atteda, that is, press on, urge, apply yourself, act and exercise diligently. R. Solomon translates it as "he-goats," meaning: Exercise the work of the field, then place he-goats and flocks in the field, and build a house, that is, join a wife to yourself; but he errs: for עתודים attudim signifies he-goats, not atteda. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Before all things prepare for yourself the expenses both for life and for building, if you wish it, necessary by exercising your work, that is your art, your craft, which was common to all formerly as agriculture, to which afterwards various mechanical arts and commerce succeeded; and then build your house. Whence the Syrian translates: Prepare in the field, and afterwards build. This maxim therefore teaches economic prudence, namely that one must labor first in order to acquire wealth, before building a house, according to that saying of Christ, Luke xiv, 28: "For which of you, having a mind to build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon the charges that are necessary, whether he have wherewithal to finish it? Otherwise, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that see it begin to mock him, saying: This man began to build, and was not able to finish." Against this some sin, especially Religious, who rashly construct large monasteries, trusting in the alms of the faithful, when they do not have revenues by which to build, indeed by which to live. For this is a defect of prudence, which teaches that more necessary things must be obtained first, then those which pertain to splendor: it is perverse if it be otherwise; from which it happens that frequently they must contract enormous debts (which are often left to posterity to pay with great burden and damage to discipline), or leave the work begun with disgrace and damage; for the zeal of building turns away the alms of the faithful. For the faithful say, especially merchants: This building indicates that you are rich, and do not need alms; for no prudent man would undertake such a building unless he were rich. Wherefore our Holy Father Urban VIII recently strictly forbade this very thing to Religious. Therefore Solomon here advises that above all the field must be diligently cultivated, after the manner of that ancient age: for from its cultivation it will give harvest and fruits; whence that precept of agriculture: "Praise great fields, cultivate a small one." For a small field diligently cultivated will give more grain than a large one worked carelessly. Whence Pliny, book XVIII, chapter iii: "The ancients," he says, "judged it better to sow less and to plow better. In which opinion I see that Virgil also was. And truly, those who confess it, large estates have destroyed Italy, and now also the provinces." To this pertains the story or apologue of a father, who dying commanded his sons that he had hidden a great quantity of gold in the field; they should therefore dig it up after his death. The sons did so, and dug up the whole field, but no gold was found, because nothing had been hidden. But the field, worked over by that labor, gave a great harvest. Then the first of the brothers, sensing the matter, turned to the others: "This surely," he said, "is that treasure which our diligent father left us at his death, ours, O brothers, is labor and agriculture." Secondly, under this symbol Solomon looks to something deeper, as if to say: Prepare, that is, first prepare for yourself the work, that is, the art of working by which you may support yourself and yours, and then build a house, that is, establish a family by taking a wife, having children, etc.; for whoever does the contrary, as by first taking a wife and establishing a family before he knows the art of sustaining it, is imprudent, and exposes himself and his to the dangers of hunger and many hardships. The Septuagint translates: Prepare in your going forth (or for your going forth) your works, and prepare in the field, and go after me, and you shall build your house, as St. Jerome says in chapter III of Zephaniah: Rise early in the morning, so that you may begin to work and till the field; therefore prepare, that is, put forward your works for the future building of the house which you intend in your mind, as if to say: From early morning, that is, from your first youth, begin to labor, so that you may provide yourself with the necessities of life, and then, having obtained the necessary expense, build, if you wish, your house. He therefore commands that from tender years one become accustomed to labor, and shake off idleness and sloth, so that by laboring one may learn some art, whether of farming, or building, or some other, by which one may provide oneself with sustenance and other necessities for one's whole life. Solomon adds: "And go after me," as if to say: Imitate me, who from my youth began to labor, when I took up the reins of so laborious and difficult a kingdom as a youth of twelve years, as St. Ignatius holds, or as others say, of twenty years. But the author of the Greek Catena thus translates from the Septuagint and thus explains it: Prepare for your departure your works, and cultivate the field, and follow me, and you shall restore your house. Which things he says appear to look to this: do all things as if about to die; whether therefore you cultivate the field, cultivate it as a mortal; whether you are joyful, be joyful as a mortal with joy. But if you wish to establish your life rightly, set me as your lawgiver, follow behind, that is, whatever I have provided by law, or otherwise commanded, execute it faithfully. Otherwise if you look ahead to the state of future things, you will rightly govern the present. Therefore through justice and virtues and diligent actions, which are your house, you follow me: this in the Catena. So also St. Cyril, book III on John, chapter xxvii. More fully St. Epiphanius holds that death and resurrection are noted here: Prepare, he says, for your departure your works, that is, prepare yourself for death, prepare for the field, because the laying down of the body is like a field, on account of burial and the end of life. Whence, showing the resurrection, he says: "And you shall restore your house," when the house of your body, cast down into the field, shall in the resurrection be raised up again, according to that word of Christ in John II, 19: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up"; thus St. Epiphanius, book II Against Heresies, chapter lxxi. Rabbi Solomon wrongly understands by work Holy Scripture, by field the opinions of the Doctors, by house the Talmud: for in the time of Solomon there was no Talmud, but it was written after Christ, indeed against Christ by the faithless Jews. Better you may explain thus, as if to say: Before you begin to build a house through the preaching of the word of God, prepare your work through the study of Holy Scripture. For, as St. Basil says in the Ethics, Rule 26, chapter 1: "Whatever we either say or do, it ought to be confirmed by the testimony of the divine Scriptures, for the confirmation of the faith of the good and the confusion of the wicked." Tropologically, St. Gregory, book X of the Morals, chapter xi: "For what is it," he says, "to prepare the work and diligently exercise the field outwardly, except to eradicate the thorns of iniquity and cultivate our action to the fruit of retribution? And what is it after the exercise of the field to return to the building of the house, except that often from good works we learn how much purity of life we construct in thought? For almost all good works proceed from thought, but there are some sharp insights of thought which are born from action. For as the work is taken from the mind, so in turn the mind is instructed by the work. The mind, receiving the beginnings of divine love, commands good things to be done; but after the commanded things begin to be done, it learns from its own exercises, when it had begun to command good things, how much less it saw. Therefore let the field be cultivated outwardly, so that the house may afterwards be built; because often from external work we see how much subtlety of righteousness we hold in the mind." The same thing from St. Gregory was transcribed here by Bede, the Gloss, and Hugh, who understand by field also the body, but by house the conscience; Jansenius, however, understands by field the active life serving one's neighbor in constant labors, and by house the contemplative life, as if to say: First exercise yourself in the active life serving your neighbors in constant labors, and through them prepare yourself for the contemplative life, in which you rest as in a house. For just as the labors of youth prepare riches, in which you rest in old age: so likewise Martha paves the way for Mary.
24:28
Tigurina, do not bear false witness rashly against thy neighbour; for thou shalt persuade him with thy lips. For the Hebrew word is התה pitta, which the Chaldean translator renders, do not deceive; the Syrian, do not detain with blandishments; R. Solomon, do not turn thy friend aside with thy speech. First, Bede, Hugh, Lyra and Jansenius hold that here two vices opposed to each other are forbidden, namely calumny and flattery, as if to say: Do not by calumny bear false witness against thy neighbour; do not in turn flatter anyone with blandishments, so that thou deceivest him excessively and bringest him to ruin. This sense is easy and obvious, and the wit and force of the sentence in the antithesis of calumny and flattery is sufficiently clear, as if to say: Just as calumny is harmful, so also is flattery, and moreover more so; therefore flatter not one while being calumnious and injurious to another: for both vices are wicked and abominable. Yet this exposition is hindered by the fact that in Hebrew, Greek and Latin it is not false witness, but witness in vain or rashly, that is, one who testifies rashly without cause, even if he testifies truly. However, the Septuagint and the Syrian favour those who render in vain by false: Be not, he says, a false witness against thy fellow citizen, neither enlarge in thy lips, so that with a broad, flat and shameless mouth thou speakest false testimony against him. Yet if thou wishest altogether to explain the Vulgate of one thing and another, say that two vices opposed to each other are here noted and forbidden, namely harm, or enmity and flattery, as if to say: Do not rashly, that is without cause, not summoned, bear witness against someone, because he is hateful to thee, or that thou mayest support thy friend who contends against him; neither again flatter someone with vain words, promises or praises, deceiving him and bringing him into fraud. For it seems that here the matter is treated of testimony not so much as it is given in judgment, as when it is brought forth outside of it among associates or others for any reason whatsoever. Second, Baynus thus translates: be not a false witness for thy friend against thy neighbour; neither flatter him with thy lips, that is, lest, in order to flatter, that is to favour and support thy friend, thou bear false witness against a third party, with whom thy friend hath a dispute. But the phrase for thy friend is not in the text. Third, Vatablus, as if to say: Bear not false witness against thy neighbour, neither flatter and seduce a third party, so that he may approve and confirm this false testimony of thine; for this is a double crime of falsehood. So also Aben-Ezra, as if to say: bear not false witness, nor seduce another to do the same. Fourth, the Rabbis and Pagninus for flatter render, thou shalt crush, as if to say: Bear not false witness against thy neighbour, neither crush and overthrow him with this falsehood of thine. But the Hebrew pitta does not signify to crush, but to seduce, to flatter, to lead astray, to deceive, to persuade; פתח patach indeed signifies to break, to crush; הפתיתה haphitita however, which is here in the Hebrew, ascends from pitta, not from patach; perhaps St. Jerome read הפתיתה hiphitita; for this is properly the hiphil from pata or pitta. Fifth, Cajetan, as if to say: Do not offer thyself as a witness rashly against thy neighbour, that is, not summoned, not called, compelled by no necessity, so that thou mayest obey thy hatred, envy and malevolence, which thou hast conceived against him; for even if thou speakest truth, yet thou sinnest through hatred and malice, and thou art not so much a witness as an accuser. Whence the Chaldean translator renders: be not an accusing witness against thy neighbour. Thus far rightly Cajetan, but the following hemistich does not fit with this. Sixth therefore, more connectedly and genuinely from the Hebrew thus translate and explain, so that both hemistichs pertain to one and the same thing: Be not a witness in vain, that is rashly or without cause, against thy neighbour, and thou shalt flatter with thy lips, as if to say: Do not rashly, that is without cause, nor compelled, so that thou mayest obey thy passion and desire, testify secretly and in hiding against thy brother, and accuse him before others, and flatter the same or another with vain words, and feign thyself to be his friend and supporter; for this is fraud, hypocrisy and deceit. To this sense, which the Hebrew words indicate, thou mayest easily accommodate the Vulgate, if thou referest quemquam to the neighbour who preceded, so that one and the same is indicated, as if to say: Be not a witness in vain against thy neighbour, nor flatter him with thy lips, so that namely thou deceivest him by flattering him openly, and testifiest against him in secret, as liars and shameless men are wont to do. And Pagninus, be not a false witness. So also the Septuagint, cap. I, vers. 11 and 17, render the Hebrew chinnam, unjustly. This exposition is greatly favoured by what follows: "Say not: As he hath done to me, so will I do to him, and I will render to every one according to his work," as if to say: Say not: I have borne witness against him without cause and of my own accord, and have disclosed his fault, or have confirmed by my assertion what was disclosed, because he himself hath otherwise borne witness against me of his own accord, and hath stood as a witness against me, and hath revealed or confirmed my fall. Again, I have flattered and deceived the same or another with vain words, because he himself hath otherwise flattered and deceived me with like words: for I render to every one retaliation, and return like for like, and show myself malicious and harmful to the malicious and harmful, and return benevolence and beneficence to the benevolent and beneficent.
24:29
That I may take vengeance on him who takes vengeance on me, by nursing him who nurses me, and by defrauding him who defrauds me, in the manner which I have already explained. The Septuagint: "As he has dealt with me, so will I deal with him; I will repay him according to his deeds." This inclination is deeply innate in man, to return like for like by the law of retaliation, so that he shows himself beneficent to the beneficent, and maleficent and reviling to the maleficent and reviling; whence the same inclination is innate even in brute animals, as in dogs, horses, oxen, and indeed in lions and serpents. Solomon corrects and restrains this inclination here: for although in good and beneficence it is good, in evil and maleficence it is evil; for it is not lawful for anyone, not even for an enemy, to do evil. For this is the spirit of vengeance and revenge, which is repugnant to charity. Add to this, that maleficence in itself is evil and perverse, both in him who inflicts the wrong and in him who returns it. For if someone has exercised maleficence, that is, crime, against me, surely I act wrongly if I imitate this crime of his and transcribe it into myself, and I am maleficent not so much to him as to myself; for I bind my own soul with the guilt of a grave crime, namely hatred and maleficence, and render it liable to hell. Most excellently does St. Augustine say, sermon 41 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew: "When they disdain to be humbled, they wish to be avenged, as if another's punishment could profit each one; the injured party who has suffered wrong wishes to be avenged, and from another's punishment seeks a remedy for himself, and acquires great torment." For, as the same Augustine says: "You think it a great thing if you avenge yourself on your enemy; but if you wish to avenge yourself on your enemy, turn yourself to anger itself, for that is your enemy, which kills your soul." Wherefore, as the same Augustine says elsewhere, God is to be prayed to that He slay not the enemy, but enmity; for this is holy vengeance. You will say: Moses permits, nay sanctions vengeance, Exodus xxi, 24, saying: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand," etc. How then does Solomon forbid it here? It is answered: Moses does not sanction private vengeance, but public vengeance, which is exercised by a judge, so that he himself may restrain the injuries of the insolent by the punishment of retaliation, but not so as to give to anyone the power of returning retaliation, namely that he who has put out eyes should in like manner put out eyes, that he who has mutilated should mutilate, etc. Solomon, however, forbids vengeance which is done by private authority. Again, Solomon cuts off the lust of avenging, Moses sanctions the retaliation of punishing; for this is the manner and end which justice dictates. Moreover, holy vengeance ought to be done in a spirit of love, not of revenge, as St. Augustine teaches in Psalm ci, so that justice may join charity to itself, and charity may be sister to justice. See the passages cited at Exodus xxi, 24, and Ecclesiasticus xxviii, 1 and following, and St. Augustine, book Against Adimantus, chapter xvii.
24:30
For fool in Hebrew is one lacking heart; in Chaldean, one lacking understanding, and behold the whole forest has sprouted. In Syriac, a hedge of stones. Grammatically and in the literal sense of the letter, these words are to be understood as they sound concerning the sloth of the lazy, losses and poverty. For he alludes to and pursues what he said in verse 27: "Diligently exercise thy field," and by antithesis shows into what great miseries he casts himself who cultivates and exercises it negligently. And this in two ways: first, because he sets before the eyes what he has learned by experience, namely that the goods of the lazy perish through his own negligence and sloth, so that whoever has seen his field filled with nettles, which he left uncultivated, or neglected to put good seed into it, or after the seed was sown failed to cleanse it from tares; has also seen his vineyard exposed to every incursion and plunder; namely the hedge of stones destroyed which had been gathered before for the protection of the vineyard, so that what was able to bring forth good fruit produced nothing but bad, or none. Second, because from those things which he saw, he prudently gathers together within himself, and predicts to the lazy the impending poverty: "When I had seen, he says, I laid it up in my heart, and by his example I learned discipline," namely that which follows, so that I might rebuke laziness and its sloth by pricking it, saying to it: "How long, O sluggard, wilt thou sleep?" etc. Thus Jansenius, Baynus, Cajetan, Vatable and others. Now beneath this as it were bark of the letter and grammatical sense, Solomon signifies something deeper parabolically: namely through temporal sloth he describes spiritual sloth, and its damages and harms, as if to say: Just as passing on foot through the field of the lazy, I saw its squalor from lack of cultivation: so with the eyes of the mind passing through and surveying the life, soul and conscience (for these are each man's field, and property given to him by God, indeed leased to him for cultivation) of an inert man, who neglects to cultivate it, not only empty of virtues and fruits of good works, but also filled with nettles, thistles and thorns of all vices, and exposed to the incursions and temptations of demons, flesh and world, because its hedge or fence is destroyed. This hedge is intrinsically grace and self-custody, extrinsically the protection of God and Angels: for when both are destroyed by this hedge, the soul, like a vineyard with its fence destroyed, lies open to the incursions of beasts and enemies, that is temptations and demons, which devour and demolish it root and branch; whence it comes to pass that it falls into extreme sterility and want of all things, and in death the complete lack of merits oppresses it, and therefore suddenly and inevitably it is relegated to hell, where with the rich man Epulone in flames thirsting, it finds not a drop of water to cool its tongue. Thus nearly St. Gregory, book XXXIX of the Morals, chapter xx: "To pass through the field, he says, of the lazy man, and through the vineyard of the fool, is to inspect the life of any negligent person, and to consider his works, which nettles or thorns fill, because in the heart of the negligent earthly desires itch, and the prickings of vices sprout, because it is written: In desires is every idle person. The hedge of stones was destroyed, that is the discipline of the fathers was dissolved from his heart, and therefore he immediately added: When I had seen this, I laid it up in my heart, and by example I learned discipline." Thus also Bede, the Gloss and others. The former is the cultivation of one's own field and vineyard, namely of conscience, or rather the neglect of such cultivation; the latter is the cultivation of another's field and vineyard, namely of the Church, college, or community over which someone presides as Bishop, Pastor, Abbot, Prior, Rector, etc., to which therefore you may aptly apply this parable, as if to say: Surveying with the eyes of body or mind the Church or community of a lazy pastor or rector, I saw it teeming with thorns of scandals, errors, crimes, and its hedge destroyed, namely discipline loosened, and the custody of laws: wherefore demons, heretics and wicked men rush into it with impunity and lay it waste, and contaminate it with their heresies and crimes as with tares, indeed fill it. When I had seen this, I laid it up in my heart, and by example I learned discipline. — That is to say, seeing this, I took it deeply to heart, and I resolved by his example to be wise, so that I might not only strenuously cleanse my own mind, but also cultivate with all diligence those entrusted to me. Truly, as Cato says: "Fools, he says, are of great benefit to the wise, because they learn to be wise by their example; but the prudent confer nothing on the foolish, because these do not heed their right actions." Here note that this sense too is literal, as is evident from the Septuagint, who translate it expressly, as an unwise man, and as a vineyard a man lacking sense. If you leave it, it will become desolate, and will grow wild entirely, concerning which more follows shortly. For in parables there is a twofold literal sense: the first grammatical, which is signified by the very bark of the letter and parable itself, such as here concerning the field and vineyard and its lazy cultivator. The second and more important is the parabolic, which signifies the thing shadowed forth by the parable, such as here the lazy cultivator of the soul or Church; for the lazy cultivator of the field or vineyard signifies and shadows forth this. Thus Isaiah, chapter 14, verse 12, represents the fall of the king of Babylon parabolically through the fall of Lucifer: "How, he says, art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning?" And Ezekiel, chapter 28, verse 14, shadows forth the beauty and ruin of the king of Tyre through the beauty and fall of the Cherub: "Thou, he says, art a cherub stretched out and protecting, and I set thee in the holy mountain of God, thou didst walk in the midst of the stones of fire," etc. See the passages cited in both places. Furthermore, the lazy cultivator of a field or vineyard aptly signifies the lazy cultivator of the soul or Church, first, because, as Philo says, in the book On the Planting of Noah: "Let us see how in man, the lesser world, the most wise artificer God created certain trees: first in our body as in a good field he prepared the furrows of the senses, into which he planted each as a mild and useful vine; hearing in the ears, sight in the eyes, smell in the nostrils, and each of the others in their proper places. And the prophetic Seer bears witness to this opinion of mine, who in his hymns speaks thus: He that planted the ear, shall he not hear?". Secondly, because, as St. Bernard says, sermon 63 on the Canticles: "To man his vineyard is what life is; and the good vineyard of the just, nay the good vineyard is the just man, to whom virtue is the vine, to whom action is the branch, to whom wine is the testimony of conscience, to whom the tongue is the winepress of expression. Finally, our glory is this, he says, the testimony of our conscience. You see that with the wise nothing is idle. Speech, thought, conversation, and whatever else proceeds from him, why is it not all God's agriculture, God's building, and the vineyard of the Lord of hosts?" And a little before, citing this aphorism of Solomon: "You hear, he says, the wise man mocking the fool, because the goods of nature and gifts of grace, which perhaps he had received through the washing of regeneration, like that vineyard which God planted, and not man, his first vineyard, he has reduced to no vineyard by neglecting it. Finally, there cannot be a vineyard where there is no life. For the fool, in that he lives, I would judge to be death rather than life. How can life exist with sterility? A dry tree and turned to sterility, is it not judged to be dead? And the branches are dead. And he slew, it says, their vineyards with hail, showing lives deprived, which are condemned by sterility: thus the fool, by the very fact that he lives uselessly, living is dead. Therefore it befits only the wise man to have, or rather to be, a vineyard, who has life. It is a fruitful tree in the house of God, and through this a living tree; since indeed wisdom itself, by which the wise man is called and is wise, is the tree of life to those who lay hold of it." Thirdly, just as an uncultivated vineyard produces not only thorns and nettles, but becomes entirely wild: so likewise an uncultivated soul becomes a thicket and a horrible forest; wherefore lest this happen, it must be continually cultivated and pruned. Fourthly, just as a cultivated field produces more harvest than it receives in seed: so also the soul, cultivated by the grace of God, ought to produce more fruits of virtues and merits than it received at first: otherwise it is barren and ungrateful to its creator, just as he is ungrateful and rustic who repays his benefactor only precisely what he received; for he thus makes of his benefactor a seller of the benefit. Whoever therefore wishes to be grateful to his benefactor, let him repay more than he received. Hear Seneca, epistle 81: "He is ungrateful who repays a benefit without interest." And after some intervening matter: "Whoever gives benefits to a fool, loses them. Wild rusticity cannot repay the seed sown in it with interest, but devours and loses it," as if to say: The rustic is ungrateful, nay the wild field, which does not repay the seed sown in it with interest, but devours and loses it. Fifth, just as an uncultivated field and vineyard tends toward the greatest sterility and desolation, so also does a lazy and sluggish soul. Hear St. Bernard excellently recounting its damages and ruin, sermon 63 in the Canticles: "This cold," he says, "if once it pervades a soul—a soul indeed (as is customary) sleeping through the negligence of the spirit—and if thereafter (which God forbid) no one restrains it from penetrating to its inner depths, descends into the bowels of the heart and the bosom of the mind, shakes the affections, occupies the paths of counsel, disturbs the light of judgment, brings the freedom of the spirit into bondage; soon (as is wont to happen in the body of those suffering from fever) a certain rigidity of mind overtakes it, vigor grows slack, languor feigns the strength of the limbs, the horror of austerity stretches forth, fear solicits poverty, the mind contracts, grace is withdrawn, the length of life is prolonged, reason is lulled to sleep, the spirit is extinguished, the fervor of the novice grows cold, burdensome tepidity weighs down, fraternal charity grows cold, pleasure beguiles, security deceives, habit recalls. What more? The law is dissembled, justice is renounced, right is proscribed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned; finally the hands are given over to shamelessness, that rash presumption, that shameful presumption, that most base presumption, full of ignominy and confusion—the leap from the heights into the abyss, from the pavement into the dunghill, from the throne into the sewer, from heaven into the mire, from the cloister into the world, from paradise into hell." Moreover, the Septuagint translates thus, as though an imprudent man is a field, and a man lacking sense is a vineyard. If thou shalt leave it, it shall be desolate, and the whole shall grow wild, it shall be left desolate; and the hedge of stones thereof shall be dug up. Or, as the Author of the Greek Catena more clearly states: "As a field fit for cultivation is a foolish man, and as a vineyard is a man devoid of mind; if thou shalt leave it uncultivated, it shall become gradually horrible, and shall grow wild altogether, and shall finally be entirely abandoned, and the stones of its wall shall be dug up." Whence St. Ambrose, citing and explaining this saying from the Septuagint concerning gratitude, book I of the Duties, chapter xxxi: "We ought to imitate in this also," he says, "the nature of lands, which is accustomed to return the received seed by multiplication in greater number than it received. Therefore it is written for thee: As agriculture is an unwise man, and as a vineyard is a man lacking sense; if thou shalt leave him, he shall be desolate," etc. (Ambrose uses the translation of the Septuagint); "as agriculture therefore also is a wise man, and as a loan let him return to himself the seeds received in a greater measure. The earth therefore either germinates spontaneous fruits, or repays the entrusted seeds with a more abundant heap, and returns them." The Septuagint continues: Afterwards (Vaticana, most recently) I also did penance, and looked that I might choose discipline. Whence some think that by this whole parable penance is urged upon the lazy man, so that penance might wash away laziness, and he might conceive a new and efficacious purpose of diligence. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena: "Observe," he says, "the fitting and congruous order of the discourse; for unless he had done penance, he would not have chosen discipline. For no one chooses discipline before he is struck with compunction over those things which he has done badly. Therefore the aim of the present matter tends toward penance," that is to say, I, seeing the damages of the lazy man and of laziness in the uncultivated field and vineyard, reflecting and rising up to my soul which is lukewarm and sluggish in virtues, since God gave it to me that I should diligently cultivate it as the field of God, began to do penance and to be struck with compunction, and I determined in my mind to choose discipline, namely diligent study and the exercise of virtues. From these words, St. Cyril, catechesis 2, and St. Jerome, in chapter xliii of Ezekiel, probably think that Solomon did penance after his fall into idolatry and was saved: "Solomon sinned," says St. Jerome, "although afterwards he did penance," writing the Proverbs, in which he says: "Afterwards I did penance." Whence also in chapter xxx, 2, doing penance he says: "I am the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me." The same St. Jerome, at the beginning of his Commentary on Ecclesiastes, asserts that the Hebrews hand down that Ecclesiastes is the book of Solomon doing penance; whence, having experienced all the delights of this world, he exclaims: "Vanity of vanities, and all things are vanity." See Pineda, book VIII On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 1, section 6. This argument would have greater force if it were certain that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were written by Solomon after his fall, not before.
24:33
The Chaldean: you will apply your hands little to your breast, so that you may sleep. The Hebrew and Chaldean: as a man armed with a shield, that is, armed with a buckler, and therefore one who cannot be conquered and repelled; the Septuagint: sleep little, I sleep little, I soothe my breast little with my hands. But if you continue to do these things, I said to myself: Your poverty will come swiftly, and your want as an armed runner. There is a twofold exposition here, says Jansenius. Some think that Solomon here teaches what one ought to do in order to flee from want, namely that it is enough for him to sleep little, that is, that he ought to be content with little sleep and small rest; for if he does this, even if some want and poverty should come upon him, it will not cling to him, but like a runner and an armed man, who hastens to proceed to the line of battle, it will quickly pass by, and he will easily overcome it by his diligence. Others more rightly understand that the Wise Man here indicates by what means one falls into want, which he cannot flee and overcome; namely by this, that one now indulges in little sleep, then again a little, and again a little: a little sleep here, and a little there, and thus sleeping little many times, he sleeps much, although he says he sleeps little, that is, he is idle everywhere and always, and weaves various delays, pretending various causes of his idleness. For by sleep, drowsiness and the embrace of lazy hands, idleness is signified. By this cessation and idleness, therefore, it comes to pass that want arrives, just as some runner suddenly and unexpectedly is present, and in the same way as an armed man oppresses a man, so that he cannot flee from it, but is utterly consumed by it. "For hunger," says Hesiod, "is the inseparable companion of the lazy man." Furthermore, these two verses are repeated here: for they are the very same word for word in chapter vi, verses 10 and 11, where I have explained them; wherefore I will add nothing here. These therefore are sharp goads with which Solomon pricks the lazy man, so that he may shake off sloth and accustom himself to labor; for by diligent and continuous labor, a field however thorny and wooded is cleared, and is restored to its cultivation, seed and harvest. The example of an old man in the Lives of the Fathers is well-known, to whom, when someone complained that he was full of vices, and therefore despaired of their eradication, he ordered him to clear with him a certain garden overgrown with thistles and thorns; therefore applying his hand to the work daily, they gradually uprooted all of them, and completely cleared the garden within a few days. Then the old man, turning to the young man, said: "Do, O son, similarly in the field of your soul; each day cut off and uproot some vice, and pursue and continue this steadfastly, and thus you will gradually pull out all of them, and restore your soul to its original brightness." In this chapter the Septuagint of the Vatican greatly changes the order, and transposes many verses. For after verse 22, they interpose almost the entire chapter xxx, as is evident to one who looks, which is a sign that these proverbs of Solomon were once scattered, and collected and arranged by various people in various orders. The Syriac and Arabic do the same, which customarily follow the Septuagint. How long, O sluggard, will you sleep? How long will you rise from sleep? — These words exist in many Codices, but the Roman and Hebrew delete them; wherefore they appear to have been transcribed from chapter vi, verse 10, and this is sufficiently indicated by the "I say" which follows: "A little, I say;" for otherwise that should have been placed first, and it should have been said: "How long, I say, O sluggard, will you sleep?" it will come upon him, it will not cling to him, but like a runner and an armed man, who hastens to proceed to the line of battle, it will quickly pass by, and he will easily overcome it by his diligence.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
24:23
Already in the Old Testament favoritism is found condemned several times (Deut. 16:19; Prov. 24:23) and in the New Testament it is said that God abhors undue preferences (Lk. 20:21; Acts 6:34; Rom. 2:11; Gal. 2:6), and by this the Apostles meant to condemn both the claim to privileges …
24:30
… Sloth is one of the most serious obstacles to perfection, both because it renders life more or less sterile, like the field of the lazy man of which Sacred Scripture speaks (cf. Prov. 24:30-34), and, above all, because it allows temptations to become more vigorous and insistent. …
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.