1These are also parables of Solomon, which the men of Ezechias, king of Juda, copied out.Queste parabole ancora sono di Salomone, e furon messe insieme dagli uomini di Ezechia re di Giuda.THese also are the parables of Salomon, which the men of Ezechias king of Iuda wrote out.Hæ quoque parabolæ Salomonis, quas transtulerunt viri Ezechiæ regis Juda. 2It is the glory of God to conceal the word, and the glory of kings to search out the speech.E gloria di Dio il velare la sua parola, ed è gloria dei re l'investigare il senso della parola.It is the glorie of God to conceale the word, and the glorie of kinges to search the speach.Gloria Dei est celare verbum, / et gloria regum investigare sermonem. 3The heaven above and the earth beneath, and the heart of kings is unsearchable.Il cielo nella sua sublimità, e la terra nella sua profondità, e il cuore dei re, sono cose imperscrutabili.The heauen aboue, and the earth beneth, and the hart of kinges is vnscrutable.Cælum sursum, et terra deorsum, / et cor regum inscrutabile. 4Take away the rust from silver, and there shall come forth a most pure vessel:Togli all'argento la ruggine, e se ne farà un vaso purissimo.Take away the rust from siluer, and there shal comeforth a most pure vessel:Aufer rubiginem de argento, / et egredietur vas purissimum. 5Take away wickedness from the face of the king, and his throne shall be established with justice.Togli gli empj dal cospetto del re, e il trono di lui si stabilirà sopra la giustizia.Take away impietie from the kings countenance, and his throne shal be established with iustice.Aufer impietatem de vultu regis, / et firmabitur justitia thronus ejus. 6Appear not glorious before the king, and stand not in the place of great men.Non fare il grande dinanzi al re, e non ti mettere nel posto dei magnati.Appeare not glorious before the king, and in the place of great men stand not.Ne gloriosus appareas coram rege, / et in loco magnorum ne steteris. 7For it is better that it should be said to thee: Come up hither; than that thou shouldst be humbled before the prince.Perocché è meglio per te, che ti sia detto: Vieni più in su, che se ti toccasse di essere umiliato dinanzi al principe.For it is better that it be said to thee: Come vp hither; then that thou be humbled before the prince.Melius est enim ut dicatur tibi: Ascende huc, / quam ut humilieris coram principe. 8The things which thy eyes have seen, utter not hastily in a quarrel: lest afterward thou mayst not be able to make amends, when thou hast dishonoured thy friend.Non correre a furia a manifestare in occasione di contesa quello, che vedesti cogli occhi tuoi, perché dopo aver fatto disonore all'amico, non sarà in tuo potere di rimediare.The thinges which thy eies haue sene, vtter not quickly in a brawle: lest afterward thou canst not amend it, when thou hast dishonoured thy frend.Quæ viderunt oculi tui ne proferas in jurgio cito, / ne postea emendare non possis, / cum dehonestaveris amicum tuum.
9Treat thy cause with thy friend, and discover not the secret to a stranger:Tratta del tuo negozio col tuo amico, e non rivelare il tuo segreto ad uno straniero;Treate thy cause with thy frend, and reueale not a secret to a stranger:Causam tuam tracta cum amico tuo, / et secretum extraneo ne reveles: 10Lest he insult over thee, when he hath heard it, and cease not to upbraid thee. Grace and friendship deliver a man: keep these for thyself, lest thou fall under reproach.Affinchè questi quando l'avrà saputo, non ti insulti, e ti faccia sempre de' rimproveri. La grazia, e l'amicizia fanno l'uomo franco: e tu conservale per fuggire i rimproveri.lest perhaps he insult against thee, when he heareth, and cease not to vpbraide thee. Grace and frendshipe deliuer: which kepe to thyself, lest thou become reprochful.ne forte insultet tibi cum audierit, / et exprobrare non cesset. / Gratia et amicitia liberant: / quas tibi serva, ne exprobrabilis fias. 11To speak a word in due time, is like apples of gold on beds of silver.La parola detta a tempo è come i pomi d'oro a un letto di argento.Apples of gold in siluer beddes, he that speaketh a word in his time.Mala aurea in lectis argenteis, / qui loquitur verbum in tempore suo. 12As an earring of gold and a bright pearl, so is he that reproveth the wise, and the obedient ear.La riprensione fatta al saggio, è all'orecchio docile, è un orecchino di oro con una perla rilucente.A golden earlet, and a shining precious stone, he that rebuketh a wiseman, and an obedient eare.Inauris aurea, et margaritum fulgens, / qui arguit sapientem et aurem obedientem. 13As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to him that sent him, for he refresheth his soul.L'ambasciadore fedele è per colui, che lo ha mandato, come fredda neve nella stagion della messe: egli tiene in riposo l'animo di lui.As the cold of snow in the day of haruest, so a faithful legate to him, that sent him, maketh his soule to rest.Sicut frigus nivis in die messis, / ita legatus fidelis ei qui misit eum: / animam ipsius requiescere facit. 14As clouds, and wind, when no rain followeth, so is the man that boasteth, and doth not fulfil his promises.Il vantatore, che non mantiene quel, che ha promesso, è una nuvola ventosa, cui non succede la pioggia.Cloudes, and winde, and no rayne folowing, a glorious man, and not accomplishing his promises.Nubes, et ventus, et pluviæ non sequentes, / vir gloriosus et promissa non complens. 15By patience a prince shall be appeased, and a soft tongue shall break hardness.La pazienza raddolcirà il principe, e la lingua molle spezzerà ogni dura cosaBy patience the prince shal be pacified, and a soft tongue shal breake hardnes.Patientia lenietur princeps, / et lingua mollis confringet duritiam.
16Thou hast found honey, eat what is sufficient for thee, lest being glutted therewith thou vomit it up.Hai trovato il miele? Mangiane tanto, che a te basti, affinchè se te ne empissi non l'abbi a vomitare.Thou hast found honie, eate that which sufficeth thee, lest perhaps being filled thou vomite it vp.Mel invenisti: comede quod sufficit tibi, / ne forte satiatus evomas illud. 17Withdraw thy foot from the house of thy neighbour, lest having his fill he hate thee.Ritira il piede dalla casa del tuo vicino, affinchè questi non si stufi di te, e ti prenda in avversione.Withdraw thy foote from the house of thy neighbour, lest some time hauing his fil he hate thee.Subtrahe pedem tuum de domo proximi tui, / nequando satiatus oderit te. 18A man that beareth false witness against his neighbour, is like a dart and a sword and a sharp arrow.L'uomo, che attesta il falso contro il suo prossimo è un dardo, una spada, ed una acuta saetta.A dart, and sword, and a sharpe arrow, a man that speaketh false testimonie against his neighbour.Jaculum, et gladius, et sagitta acuta, / homo qui loquitur contra proximum suum falsum testimonium. 19To trust in an unfaithful man in the time of trouble, is like a rotten tooth, and weary foot,Chi confida in un uomo infedele nel dì della tribolazione, è come chi ha un dente guasto, e stanca la gamba,A rotten tooth, and wearie foote, he that hopeth vpon the vnfaithful in the day of distresse,Dens putridus, et pes lassus, / qui sperat super infideli in die angustiæ, 20And one that looseth his garment in cold weather. As vinegar upon nitre, so is he that singeth songs to a very evil heart. As a moth doth by a garment, and a worm by the wood: so the sadness of a man consumeth the heart.E resta senza mantello al tempo freddo. E un mettere aceto sul nitro, il cantare delle canzoni a un cuore molto affitto. Come la tignuola fa male alla veste, e il tarlo al legno: così la malinconia al cuore dell'uomo.and that loseth his cloke in the day of cold. Vineger in nither, he that singeth songes to a naughtie hart. As a moth the garment, and a worme the woode: so the sadnes of a man hurteth the hart.et amittit pallium in die frigoris. / Acetum in nitro, / qui cantat carmina cordi pessimo. / Sicut tinea vestimento, et vermis ligno, / ita tristitia viri nocet cordi. 21If thy enemy be hungry, give him to eat: if he thirst, give him water to drink:Se il tuo nemico ha fame, dagli da mangiare; se ha sete, dagli acqua da bere:If thine enemie shal hunger, geue him meate: if he thirst, geue him water to drinke:Si esurierit inimicus tuus, ciba illum; / si sitierit, da ei aquam bibere:
22For thou shalt heap hot coals upon his head, and the Lord will reward thee.Perocché così ragunerai sul capo di lui ardenti carboni, e il Signore ti ricompenserà.for thou shalt heape hote coales vpon his head, and our Lord wil reward thee.prunas enim congregabis super caput ejus, / et Dominus reddet tibi. 23The north wind driveth away rain, as doth a sad countenance a backbiting tongue.Il vento di settentrione scaccia la pioggia, e una faccia severa (reprime) la lingua del detrattore.The northwinde dissipateth raynes, & a sad looke the tongue that detracteth.Ventus aquilo dissipat pluvias, / et facies tristis linguam detrahentem. 24It is better to sit in a corner of the housetop: than with a brawling woman, and in a common house.E meglio il sedere in un angolo del solaio, che in una casa comune con una donna, che garrisce.It is better to sitte in a corner of the house toppe, then with a brawling woman, and in a common house.Melius est sedere in angulo domatis / quam cum muliere litigiosa et in domo communi. 25As cold water to a thirsty soul, so are good tidings from a far country.Una buona nuova, che vien di lontano, è acqua fresca ad uno, che patisce la sete.Cold water to a thirstie soule, and good tydings from a far countrie.Aqua frigida animæ sitienti, / et nuntius bonus de terra longinqua. 26A just man falling down before the wicked, is as a fountain troubled with the foot and a corrupted spring.Il giusto che cade veggente l'empio è una fontana intorbidata co' piedi, e una vena di acque imbrattata.A fountaine trubled with the foote, and a vaine corrupted, the iust falling before the impious.Fons turbatus pede et vena corrupta, / justus cadens coram impio. 27As it is not good for a man to eat much honey, so he that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory.Come il miele fa male a chi troppo ne mangia, così colui che si fa scrutatore della maestà di Dio, rimarrà sotto il peso della sua gloria.As he that eateth much honie, it is not good for him: so he that is a searcher of the maiestie, shal be oppressed of the glorie.Sicut qui mel multum comedit non est ei bonum, / sic qui scrutator est majestatis opprimetur a gloria. 28As a city that lieth open and is not compassed with walls, so is a man that cannot refrain his own spirit in speaking.L'uomo, il quale in parlando non può affrenare il suo spirito, è una città spalancata, e non cinta di muro.As a citie being open and without compasse of walles, so a man that can not represse his spirit in speaking.Sicut urbs patens et absque murorum ambitu, / ita vir qui non potest in loquendo cohibere spiritum suum.
25:1
The rest perhaps shewed his genius, but were less useful. (Tostat. in 3 Kings 4:9.)
Bayn
Out of other records, (Menochius) or "translated" into a language better understood. (Denis the Carthusian) (Bayn.)
25:2
Speech. The Scriptures will denounce the truth to them, and shew them how to reign with justice. We must adore the mysteries of God; but are allowed to examine the secret designs of princes.
25:3
Unsearchable. Their counsellors must not betray their secrets, Tobias 12:7. The greatest enterprises depend on secrecy.
25:5
Calmet
Justice. The wicked in a kingdom resemble rust on silver. (Calmet)
25:6
Haydock
Glorious, or a boaster. (Haydock)
Ovid
We must not seek the first places, Luke 14:10. Vive sine invidia, mollesque inglorius annos Exige; amicitias et tibi junge pares. (Ovid, Trist. 3:4.)
25:8
Haydock
Not. Septuagint, "repent when thy friend may reproach thee." (Haydock)
Friend. A word spoken in haste may expose him to ridicule.
25:9
25:10
Haydock
Grace, etc., is no in Hebrew, Complutensian, St. Jerome, etc. But it is in the Septuagint, "favour and friendship may give liberty; which keep thou for thyself, that thou mayst not be exposed to great shame. But guard thy ways unchangeably." (Haydock)
Avoid quarrels.
25:11
Parkhurst
Time, (Symmachus) "on its wheels," (Hebrew) flowing smoothly, (Calmet) or "according to his two faces, is apples of gold in network of silver." The Scriptures have a double sense. The exterior one leads to that sense which is interior, and more excellent. (Maimonides) (Parkhurst, p. 366.)
Gold, oranges.
Calmet
Beds. On such the kings of Parthia slept, and these metals were very common under Solomon, 3 Kings 10:27., and Esther 1:6. (Calmet)
Montanus renders mascioth "transparent cases." Protestants, "pictures of silver."
25:12
Bright. Hebrew chali cathem, "an ornament of fine gold," (Montanus; Protestants; Haydock) may probably denote a collar or ring. The eastern nations wore rings fixed at the top of the ears, and under the nose. Some were so large that they put their meat through them. The Scripture often alludes to these customs, which are so different from ours. (Canticle of Canticles 7:1.)
25:13
Calmet
Harvest. In June and July, when the heat was most intense, people of quality had snow from Libanus to mix with what they drank, Jeremias 18:14. (Calmet)
25:15
Haydock
Hardness. Hebrew and Septuagint, "bones." (Haydock)
25:16
Calmet
Up. We must moderate the sensual appetite, (Menochius) and even the study of wisdom, which is compared to honey, Proverbs 24:13., Romans 12:3., and Ecclesiastes 7:17. (Calmet)
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Martial
Having. Hebrew, "being tired of thee." No man is so perfect, but he will manifest some defect, and become importunate. (Calmet) Nulli te facias nimis sodalem. (Martial)
25:20
Haydock
And. Protestants, "as he that taketh away a, etc., and as vinegar....to a heavy heart." (Haydock)
Tirinus
The former sentence may be joined with the preceding, as it is improper to deprive a person of his garment, no less than to trust in the faithless; though some would suppose (Calmet) that this conduct, as well as the mixing of vinegar with nitre, is no less absurd than to attempt to relieve by music those who are extremely afflicted, Ecclesiasticus 22:6. (Tirinus)
Pliny
But Solomon does not speak of such, but only of those who are "heavy;" and we know that music has wonderful efficacy in relieving them, (1 Kings 16:17.) in like manner as this mixture serves to cleanse the skin and garments, (Jeremias 2:22.; Calmet) and to purify the ears, when they are deafish. (Pliny, [Natural History?] 31:10.; Vales. lx.)
Calmet
As a, etc., is not in Hebrew, St. Jerome, etc. (Calmet)
Calmet
The Chaldean has the latter part, (Haydock) "grief tries the heart, as fire does silver. As the worm eats wood, so folly," etc. (Calmet)
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Geier
Coals of charity; (St. Chrysostom in Romans 12:20.) or, if he prove obstinate, his punishment will be the greater. (Geier.)
Calmet
The former sense is more received. (Calmet)
25:23
Haydock
Rain; (Symmachus; Protestants) or marginal note, "bringeth forth rain." (Haydock)
Calmet
But St. Jerome, who live din the country, knew that this wind was rather dry; and therefore he has abandoned the Septuagint, raiseth the clouds," Job 37:9., Joel 2:20., and Ecclesiasticus 18:23. The countries north of Palestine were not calculated to produce vapours and rain, which came rather from the south. (Calmet)
St. Bernard
Tongue. If the hearers would shew their displeasure, detractors would soon be reduced to silence. (St. Jerome, ad. Rust.) (St. Bernard)
25:24
It is. Proverbs 21:9. Sixtus V does not insert this verse here.
25:25
Calmet
Tidings. Hebrew and Septuagint. The Vulgate seems rather to speak of a "good messenger." Homer said that a good messenger honoured the business most. (Pindar, Pyth. viii.) (Calmet)
25:26
Calmet
Falling into disgrace, or sin, occasions the wicked to exult, as if there were no God or religion. (Calmet)
25:27
Challoner
Majesty, viz., of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which it cannot comprehend. (Challoner)
Calmet
When the Church proposes to us any mystery, we have only to believe. Hebrew, "but it is glorious to sound their glory," and see where the wicked end, that we may not envy them, Proverbs 3:31., and Psalm 36:7. (Calmet)
Haydock
Protestants, "so for men to search their own glory, is not glory," but a sin. (Haydock)
Cat. Graec
"It is not good to eat too much honey," (Chaldean) or to sound the glorious words of God and wisdom, or the mysteries of religion. Septuagint, "But it is right to reverence glorious speeches," (Calmet) with esteem and humility. (Cat. Graec.)
25:28
Speaking. He lays himself open to every attack, Proverbs 29:11.
25:27
Majesty.... Viz., of God. For to search into that incomprehensible Majesty, and to pretend to sound the depths of the wisdom of God, is exposing our weak understanding to be blinded with an excess of light and glory, which it cannot comprehend.
25:8
Care of others fame.
25:9
Compose controuersies secretly, rather then contend in publique court. Speake in due time. Prudent admonition. Diligence in publique affaires. Performance of promised industrie. Meeknes.
25:10
〈…〉 •eare.
25:16
Temperance.
25:17
Modestie.
25:18
True testimonie.
25:19
Trust not a dissembler.
25:20
A consuming 〈◊〉 hard earth.
Striue not with the incorrigible. Alacritie.
25:21
Charitie towards enimies
25:22
Concordance Rom. 12.
25:23
Heare not detraction.
25:24
Domestical peace.
25:25
Ioy of wel doing.
25:26
Profession of truth.
25:27
Humilitie in knowlege.
25:28
Gouernment of the tongue.
25:1
St Hippolytus † AD 235 On the Song of Songs 1
… In the days moreover of Hezekiah, there were some of the books selected for use, and others set aside. Whence the Scripture says, “These are the mixed Proverbs of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah the king copied out.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 52.2
… That which is far off, and exceeding deep, who shall find it out ?’ and what is said in the Psalms, ‘The knowledge of Thee is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it ;’ and that Solomon says, ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.74
74. I know Whose ministers we are, and where we are placed, and whither we are guides. I know the height of God, and the weakness of man, and, on the contrary, his power. Heaven is high, and the earth deep;
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Defence Against the Arians (Apologia Contra Arianos) 6
Knowing that which is written, ‘Speak that thine eyes have seen,’ and, ‘A false witness shall not be unpunished
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Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 11
… down and subjugate his whole body.” And, “If a man speak, let him speak in the words of God.” And, “If there is in thee understanding, give an answer to thy brother but if not, put thy hand on thy mouth.” For, “at one time it is proper to keep silence, and at another thee to speak.” And again it says “When a man speaks in season, it is honourable to him.”
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 2.95
… before my ear had been sufficiently opened to the instruction of the Lord, and He had opened mine ear to hear without heaviness, and had set a golden earring with precious sardius, that is, a wise man’s word in an obedient ear;
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John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 15.7
… But in vain, for “he who trusteth in lies feedeth the winds: and the same runneth after birds that fly away.” For without doubt that will happen to them which we find in Proverbs: “As the winds and clouds and rain are very clear so are these who boast of a fictitious gift.”
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 27
… So that it is not the continual remembrance of God that I would hinder, but only the talking about God; nor even that as in itself wrong, but only when unseasonable; nor all teaching, but only want of moderation. As of even honey repletion and satiety, though it be of honey, produce vomiting;
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Apology to the Emperor. (Apologia Ad Constantium.) 12
… but on our part frankness in making our defence. And the question between us is not one regarding worldly wealth, but concerning the honour of the Church. He that has been struck by a stone, applies to a physician; but sharper than a stone are the strokes of calumny; for as Solomon has said, ‘A false witness is a maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 On the Duties of the Clergy 3.22
126. And Scripture also says: “A maul, and a sword, and a sharp arrow, so is a man that beareth false witness against his friend.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… Love not detraction, lest thou be rooted out. The bread of lying is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. He that gaineth treasures with a lying tongue followeth vanity, and shall come into the snares of death. Say thou nought in the ear of a fool, lest haply the wise mock at thy words.
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Origen † AD 254 Origen's Commentary on Matthew 10.14
… And in regard to him, who, as we have said, lays up treasure in heaven, we may truly lay down that not one moth of the passions can touch his spiritual and heavenly possessions. “A moth of the passions,” I said, taking the suggestion from the “Proverbs” in which it is written, “a worm in wood, so pain woundeth the heart of man.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia, and the Remedies for the Eight Principal Faults 9.2
Wherefore if we are anxious to exert ourselves lawfully in the struggle of our spiritual combat we ought with no less care to set about healing this malady also. For “as the moth injures the garment, and the worm the wood, so dejection the heart of man.”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.2
… “He that giveth to the poor shall never want; but he who turns away his eye shall be in much penury.” Also in the same place: “Sins are purged away by alms-giving and faith.” Again, in the same place: “If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him to drink: for by doing this thou shalt scatter live coals upon his head.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 To Those Who Had Not Attended the Assembly 6
… for the precept “if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink” is not the utterance of Paul in the first instance, but of Solomon.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 19.28
… "I had not known lust, unless the law had said, Thou shalt not covet." Regarding patience in not offering resistance, a man is praised who "giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, and who is filled full with reproach." Of love to enemies it is said: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink."
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 2.2
… Then, further, if it is necessary that the enemy should not know when we do our alms, how shall we do with the enemy himself so as to fulfil that precept, “If thine enemy be hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink”?
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.19
… It is not I but an apostle who says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked.” “Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the heart.” And in the proverbs Solomon tells us that as “the north wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.”
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St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Festal and Personal Letters of Athanasius 20
… neither does He give them only as much to drink as they ask; but He gives them abundantly according to the multitude of His lovingkindness, vouchsafing to them at all times the grace of the Spirit. And what it is they thirst for He immediately adds, saying, ‘He that believeth on Me.’ For, ‘as cold waters are pleasant to those who are thirsty
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 10.39
As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 13.42
We return great thanks to Almighty God, that in the mouth of the heart a sweet savour of charity is experienced, when that which is written is fulfilled, As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is good news from a far country (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 15
… And why forsooth? Because these are the arguments of children, who fear things which are not to be feared. Surely there is nothing we ought so to despise, nothing we ought so to laugh to scorn, as a bitter and malicious man. For there is nothing so powerless
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 2.4
… as it is said “Do everything with counsel, drink thy wine with counsel,” and again “like a city that has its walls destroyed and is not fenced in, so is a man who does anything without counsel.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.14
… But it uncovers its whole self to the wounds of the enemy who lies in want, because it surrounds itself with no defence of watchfulness. Hence it is written, As a city that lieth open and without environment of walls, so is a man that cannot keep in his spirit in speaking (
25:1
The Syrian version also renders these profound proverbs of Solomon, which the friends of Hezekiah king of Judah wrote down; the Arabic version renders the discipline of Solomon son of David, whose solution is admirable, which the friends of Hezekiah requested to be written. For the Hebrew word העתיקו hetiku, which is translated as "they transferred," can first be rendered as "they antiquated," that is, they gave antiquity to them, testifying that they were not new, but ancient and genuine proverbs of Solomon. Whence Rabbi Solomon renders it "they confirmed"; secondly, "they increased, multiplied, enriched"; thirdly, "they strengthened," that is, they gave them the force of authority; Lyra renders it "they fortified by placing them," he says, "in an authentic book"; fourthly, the Septuagint and the Syrian version render it "they transcribed"; fifthly, our translator renders it "they transferred." Moreover, Rabbi Levi says: "For this reason," he says, "these sentences are placed separately from the others, because they were excerpted from the sayings and utterances of the wise; for the rest, of which mention has been made up to now, were found in the order and sequence which they have among the pronouncements of Solomon." But he errs; for the title of these parables, equally as of the preceding ones, is: The Proverbs of Solomon. Whence it is clear that they were excerpted from the writings of Solomon, not from those of other wise men. You will ask, how did the men of Hezekiah transfer these proverbs of Solomon? I suppose they did not transfer them from one language into another, as Dionysius the Carthusian thought. For it is clear that Solomon wrote them in the Hebrew language, and by the same language they were transferred here by the men of Hezekiah. The common opinion of interpreters is that the following proverbs were not joined to the preceding ones before Hezekiah, but were written on another parchment, and perhaps on various parchments and sheets. For the Hebrews did not write on different leaves, which were then bound into one volume, as is done in modern books; but they wrote the entire codex on one parchment, made up of one or many skins (if the book were long), which they then rolled around a cylinder, and unrolled and unfolded it when they wished to read it, as Christ unrolled and unfolded the codex of Isaiah, in the chapter of Luke IV, 17. Therefore, lest these proverbs, being cut up and scattered, should perish, or lose the force and name of Solomon through the length of time, Hezekiah took care to have them gathered together and joined to the other proverbs of Solomon, and transcribed into the same parchment or codex with them. Thus, before Hezekiah, the book of the Proverbs of Solomon ended at chapter XXIV; but Hezekiah added chapters XXV and following. Thus Lyra, Cajetan, Jansenius, Rabbi Solomon, Aben-Ezra and other Hebrew, Greek and Latin interpreters. Otherwise our Salazar: for he thinks that this book of Proverbs is a kind of banquet of wisdom and of the wise men of Solomon, in which indeed, after the ancient manner, Solomon, Agur and Lemuel, the first wise men of that age, speak alternately. Since therefore Solomon has spoken up to this point, he yielded the turn of speaking to Agur and Lemuel; whence their sentences the Septuagint places before chapter XXV in a very ancient Vatican codex (although our translator, following the Hebrew, transferred them to chapters XXX and XXXI), and when these were completed, Solomon resumed his turn of speaking and his task of completing his wisdom, and drew forth the sentences which are placed in this chapter and following. Moreover, the men of Hezekiah, in order to join all the sentences of Solomon together, transferred them here, so that they would be immediately connected to the preceding ones, which are clearly Solomon's, but the remaining ones of Agur and Lemuel, which were formerly interspersed between both (as I said), they removed, and placed them after all the sentences of Solomon in chapters XXX and XXXI. They transferred them, therefore, that is, they moved them from place to place, so that, whereas they formerly followed the sentences of Agur and Lemuel, they now precede them, and are closely joined to the other proverbs of Solomon. This opinion seems probable and plausible. For thus Plato in his Symposium introduces Socrates, Pausanias, Phaedrus, Eryximachus and others discoursing on love; and Plutarch in his Banquet introduces the seven wise men of Greece disputing about laws. But certain things seem to stand in the way. First, that the Septuagint makes no mention of Agur and Lemuel, but takes and interprets these names not as proper names, but as appellatives, as our translator also does. Next, that after the words of Agur the Septuagint interweaves the words of Solomon, which we have in chapter XXIV, 23: "These also to the wise," etc. Add that many understand by Agur and Lemuel no other than Solomon himself, of which more in chapter XXX. Thus in this age learned men have reduced various books or treatises of St. Augustine, St. Gregory, St. Basil, St. Cyprian, St. Bernard, etc., scattered about, into one volume of their works, so that they might attribute them to their authors. I say therefore that it appears more certain what I said at the beginning, that the following parables before Hezekiah were separated from the preceding ones, and written on other pages or parchments; but Hezekiah took care that they be joined to the former ones in the same parchment and codex, so that they might obtain the name and authority of Solomon and of Holy Scripture equally as the others; whence the Hebrew hetiku can be translated, as I said, they antiquated and strengthened, that is, they added to them the strength of antiquity. Blessed Hippolytus the Martyr and Eusebius add that men chosen by Hezekiah selected the better and more useful sayings of Solomon, and transcribed them here; but neglected and left aside the others which were less notable and less useful. Indeed, if you examine the following aphorisms, you will see them breathing forth something sharper, more select, more lively and more fiery than the others. For which reason the Chaldean translator renders at this place, The parables of Solomon are profound; the Syriac, obscure. Whence Aben-Ezra says these parables are singular, and abounding in the greatest sweetness. For it is established from the third book of Kings, chapter IV, verse 32, that Solomon composed more than a thousand songs, or odes, and three thousand parables. In this book, however, scarcely a thousand parables exist; indeed, if you count them from chapter X, where the parables precisely begin, to the end, you will find precisely only 659. But hear Blessed Hippolytus and Eusebius in Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XXXIX in the Writings. Blessed Hippolytus in the Song of Songs, says Anastasius, asserts that in the days of Hezekiah king of Judah some books were indeed selected, but others neglected, and he proves this from chapter XXV of Proverbs, where the men of Hezekiah are said to have transcribed certain parables of Solomon; he himself says they wrote them separately. "Whence, he says, did they select, unless from the books which were among the thousand songs or Songs of Songs? From these the wise friends of Hezekiah selected those things which pertained to the edification of the Church." Thus he who reads in the Septuagint, αὗται αἱ παιδεῖαι Σαλομῶντος αἱ διάκριτοι, not, as is now read in the Roman edition, ἀδιάκριτοι; for it has, these are the Proverbs of Solomon discrete, which the friends of Hezekiah the king wrote. The same Anastasius, Bishop of Nicaea, reports to the same effect the words of Eusebius of Caesarea in the history of antiquity: "But Hezekiah removed the books of Solomon called Proverbs and songs, in which he had discoursed concerning the nature of plants and every kind of animal which moves on the earth and in the air, and also concerning remedies against all diseases, for this reason, that the people might refer the healing of diseases to them, and do nothing to ask cures from God." Also the Abulensian, agreeing with Hippolytus: "Concerning the parables and songs of Solomon, perhaps the matter stood thus, that they were more curious and displaying the greatness of genius, than useful, and especially the songs, therefore they were not translated into the canon of Scripture. The same must be said of the disputations of Solomon concerning trees, concerning birds, concerning fishes and beasts, which were not transcribed into the canon, because they pertained purely to natural philosophy, which does not directly profit morals. Whence it does not agree with what the Apostle says: All scripture divinely inspired is useful for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing in justice," etc. Thus the Abulensian in the third book of Kings, chapter IV, Question VIII. From which words of Eusebius and Hippolytus it is clear that the true reading of the Septuagint at this place is διάκριτοι, that is, distinct, select, discrete, namely from those less excellent and less useful, as I said. Now contrarily is read ἀδιάκριτοι, that is, indistinct, indiscrete, that is, as the Author of the Greek Catena explains, collected without certain selection. The Proverbs, he says, which up to this place have been expounded, are found to have been reduced into one body and arranged by Solomon himself. But many other sayings still in the form of apophthegms, drawn from Solomon himself, were scattered about separately, which the friends of Hezekiah the king, gathering from here and there with no certain order observed, and reduced into one bundle as it were, offered to King Hezekiah, because he was held to be very pious and religious, as if some honor. But Salazar says: These parables, he says, are called indistinct, because before Hezekiah they were distinguished from the preceding ones, which we have heard up to now, by the interposed sayings of Agur and Lemuel, the men of Hezekiah, excluding those which were of Agur and Lemuel, and transposed in chapter XXX, joined the following to the preceding, so that there was no distinction of authors, but all were attributed indistinctly to one and the same author, namely Solomon, whose they truly are. Men (that is, servants and officials) of Hezekiah. — For Hezekiah was indeed very zealous for piety and sacred matters, as is evident from II Paralipomenon, chapter XXIX and XXX. Whence he entrusted to his men that they should seek out, transcribe, and arrange in their proper place and order the sacred books, and especially those of Solomon, whole, pure and sincere; and he gave charge of this matter to Sobna his scribe, who accomplished it diligently with his men. Thus Aben-Ezra and the other Hebrews. Whence it is clear that this verse, or this heading, is not Solomon's, but was added by Sobna and the men appointed by Hezekiah to collect these proverbs. Yet this heading has canonical authority, because it exists in the Hebrew, Greek, Chaldean, Syriac, Latin, and has been approved by common reckoning both by the Synagogue of the Jews and by the Church of Christians, and therefore it has been woven in as a title to the Proverbs themselves. Furthermore, many think that among these men of Hezekiah, the prophet Isaiah held first place, as being Hezekiah's kinsman and very intimate friend; indeed the Hebrews, as testified by Eugubinus in chapter I of Genesis, and the Talmudists, as testified by Melchior Cano, book II On Places, chapter XI, and even Eugubinus himself and R. Moses Kimchi, in the tract On the Writers of Sacred Books, assert that Isaiah was the writer of the books of Solomon, especially the Proverbs, as if Solomon had not written these proverbs but spoken them, and the common people had celebrated them by word and common use, which Isaiah then wrote and committed to posterity by his pen. For Solomon was a king; and it is not the business of kings to write, but to speak, and to leave their sayings to others to write. Moreover, he was a type of Christ, who did not write the Gospels, but spoke them, and taught by living voice, and left them to the Evangelists to write. For in Christ there was "the glory of language and the kingdom of speaking," as Manilius speaks. But all the others teach the contrary, and that is far more true, namely that Solomon himself immediately wrote these Proverbs, or certainly dictated them to a scribe taking them down. For he himself asserts this expressly in Ecclesiastes XII, 9, speaking of himself in the third person: "Ecclesiastes, when he was most wise, taught the people, and declared the things that he had done, and searching out composed many proverbs; he sought out useful words, and wrote down most correct sayings." Otherwise, of these Proverbs, not so much Solomon as Isaiah would be the writer and author, just as St. Matthew is the author of the Gospel written by him, even though it was spoken and pronounced by Christ. And by what reasoning, I ask, would the people have preserved so intact and exactly so many hundreds, indeed thousands of sayings of Solomon, and those plainly diverse and disparate, through two hundred years, which elapsed from Solomon to Isaiah, in mind and memory? Some respond that the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs were written by Solomon in Hebrew verse and meter, so that they could be retained in mind and sung by mouth; for verses are easily committed to memory, because they are bound by fixed measures. Thus Nazianzenus thinks, poem 33 On the Kindred Writings, while he sings thus: Ecclesiastes is a discourse. The same opinion Amphilochius repeats in almost the same words in his iambic verse On the Writings to be Read, and Damascenus, book IV On Faith, chapter XVIII, saying: "The third group of sacred books consists of verses, namely Job, the Psalter, the Proverbs of Solomon, his Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs." Nor is it foreign to Satyric poetry to censure public corruption of morals, to note the particular vices of all orders of the Republic, and to begin abruptly, and not without indignation and bitterness. Which, as they are found in the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, are so proper to Satyric poets that they need no proof. But in the Preface to Ecclesiastes I shall show that these are written in prose, not in verse. Add that St. Jerome, in his letter to Paula Urbana, thinks that only the last part of the Proverbs, namely chapter XXXI, from verse 10 to the end, was written in verse: "The Proverbs of Solomon," he says, "closes with the final Alphabet, which is reckoned by him in tetrameter iambic from that place in which he says: Who shall find a valiant woman?"
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In Hebrew, the glory of God is to conceal the word, and the glory of kings to search out the word; in Arabic, the glory of God veils understanding, and the glory of the king honors the matter, or business. Appropriately and piously do the scribes of the pious King Hezekiah lead the beginning of this part of Proverbs from divine worship and honor, as Aben-Ezra says. Some refer the concealing to man, not to God, that is to say: It pertains to the glory of God that man from humility conceal his blessed things or good deeds; for by this very thing he detracts from their glory and ascribes it to God; or rather, that is to say: It pertains to the glory of God that priests and teachers conceal certain of His words, so that the common people, not understanding them, might admire and worship them. Conversely, it is glorious for kings through themselves or their counselors or Prelates to investigate and penetrate the mysteries which the common people are ignorant of: for thus they imitate the glory of God, who transcends the knowledge of the common people. Whence the Chaldean and Syriac versions render it, the glory of God is he who conceals the word, and the glory of kings is he who investigates the saying. Hence a priest is called a porter, as it were a concealer, from the Greek meaning to close the mouth, that is, that he would close his mouth and not open the mysteries to the people; for divine things are to be honored with chaste silence, as St. Dionysius says. But truly the antithesis of God and kings more persuades that the concealing should be referred to God, not to man. Again, Rabbi Levi thus explains it: The glory of God is to conceal the word; the force of these words is, when someone seeks something from God with prayers, it is not for God's glory to reveal what is sought, since God is conscious of all things; do you not observe that the wife of Jeroboam dissembled when she went to Ahijah of Shiloh, and before she came into his sight, he revealed to her what she sought, God revealing to him those secrets? "The glory of kings is to investigate the saying," that is to say: But the glory of kings is otherwise; for they ought rightly to investigate what is proposed to them, so that they may administer justice according to the prescription of truth. For they have only those things clearly which are explained to them, whereas it is otherwise in God: thus Rabbi Levi. But this sense is more narrow and more foreign. I say therefore that the sense is, that is to say: The immense majesty and glory of God shines forth in this, that He has certain words, that is, concepts, thoughts, and a certain most secret wisdom which men cannot search out; but the praise and glory of kings is to search out the saying, or, as it is in Hebrew, the word, that is, the matter and secret and hidden wisdom. The reason for the disparity is that God, as He is essence, so also is He supreme wisdom, which transcends all things and all created intellects and all possible understandings of men or Angels infinitely. It therefore befits His sublimity and majesty to keep many things to Himself and to conceal them, so that He may sharpen the reverence of men and secure their veneration for Himself. But kings, because they are men and have little wisdom, yet need much in order to govern so many peoples and cities; wherefore it is theirs to inquire into and search out the same with great diligence. To this pertains that saying of the Wise Man: "Divine things befit to be most remote from the use and sight of men, so that by their ignorance men might conceive admiration and veneration for them." And that of Valerius Maximus, book II, chapter VII: "Whatever is placed on a lofty pinnacle ought, by humble and worn custom, to be vacant, so that it may be more venerable." Therefore by the word generally here understand wisdom; for this is the word of the mind, both in God and in kings, which they then utter by the word of the mouth. Particularly, however, this word and wisdom is manifold. Wherefore first, by this word understand the word of Holy Scripture, that is to say: The word of Scripture, and especially the oracles of the Prophets are mysteries, symbolic and hidden, so that they may veil and conceal the glory of God among men; but it is the part of kings to uncover the same, to track and search them out, so that they may know their hidden senses and hand them on to others to be known. Whence Moses, or rather God, ordained that kings at the beginning of their reign should write out Deuteronomy for themselves and read it frequently, Deuteronomy XVII, 18. Secondly, by this word understand the mysteries and Sacraments of the faith, such as the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist, etc.; for these are mysteries and surpass all human comprehension. Whence St. Athanasius in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture reads: "The glory of God covers or obscures reason," that is to say: The glory of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Eucharist is so sublime and mysterious that human reason grows dim in searching it out, and its sight is dulled and obscured by so splendid a brightness of the uncreated sun. Hence St. Dionysius, epistle 5, and in the Divine Names, teaches that God dwells in darkness, and reveals Himself to mortals only through it. Let heretics note this, and learn to believe God when He says He is three and one, that the Word is incarnate, that in the Eucharist there is the true body of Christ, etc., even if they do not comprehend these things, because God is able to do more than the human mind can comprehend. For it is written in verse 27: "Whosoever is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory." Let them therefore captivate their intellect in obedience to faith, indeed to God. Hence the secret glory of God was represented by the chariot of the Cherubim, Ezech. I, which is full of coverings, symbols and enigmas, as Rabbi Solomon says; moreover it is the part of kings and princes, especially of prelates, to search into these things, insofar as is permitted, namely insofar as God has revealed them through the Church, both that they may teach them to their subjects, and that they may defend them against heretics. Thirdly, by the word understand the creation of things, which was made by the word of God: "For He said, and they were made," that is to say, God hid His wisdom in created things, which men, especially kings and princes, wished to investigate, that in it they might acknowledge and celebrate God as the author. This is what Sirach says, Eccli. III, 25: "Many things above the sense of men have been shown to thee;" for who can assign the precise and adequate cause of the winds, snow, hail, thunder, lightning; likewise of the motion of the sun, moon and stars, the tides of the sea, and of infinite similar things? And cap. XLIII, verse 34: "Glorifying Him, be ye filled with strength, and labour not: for you cannot comprehend, etc., many things greater than these are hidden; for we have seen but a few of His works." Thus Aben-Ezra. Fourthly, and more aptly, by the word understand the decrees and judgments which proceed from Elohim (for this is the name here in Hebrew), that is from God the judge, governor and avenger of all things; for it is often difficult to penetrate the reasons and causes of these, for example, why now the Assyrians, now the Chaldeans, now the Medes, now the Persians, now the Greeks, now the Romans hold dominion over things? why has God given the Turks so many victories, kingdoms and empires? why does He make this man rich, noble, prince, king, pontiff; that man poor, base, plebeian, etc.? Yet it is the part of kings to investigate these judgments of God, and their causes insofar as is permitted, that they may learn to revere God, to worship Him and to depend entirely upon Him. Or more plainly, that is to say, the glory of God is to conceal the reasons of His decrees and judgments, that He may show His eminent majesty, wisdom, dominion and power; but it is the part of kings to decree nothing, to judge nothing, except after careful examination, that it may be evident that the law or sentence which they are about to issue is just, honest, useful; otherwise they will issue many unjust, dishonest, useless sentences and laws, by which they will gravely offend both God and the people, with danger of sedition or rebellion. This sense is very apt, and seems to be almost inherent in the words themselves. Note that the appendix of these parables collected by the men of Hezekiah is obscure and profound, and more involved in allegories, figures and types than those which preceded, as I said from the Chaldean, Syriac and other sources, verse 1, that is to say, the glory of God is to conceal His wisdom in these parables of Solomon: but let your glory be, Hezekiah king, to collect, investigate, search into these same parables, as you do through Sobna and his associates; just as it was the glory of Solomon your ancestor to investigate and write down these same parables by meditating upon them. Wherefore some Rabbis foolishly from this maxim fabricate that the men of Hezekiah cut out the obscure parables of Solomon, known only to kings; but collected only the easier ones and those obvious to the people. St. Gregory gives this sense, in book I on Ezekiel, homily 6, where however there is a gross error of the copyists; for it directly contradicts the words of Solomon, and therefore must be corrected. "Dark water, he says, in the clouds of the air, because knowledge is obscure in the Prophets. But attested by the voice of Solomon we have heard: The glory of kings is to conceal the word, and the glory of God is to search out the matter; because it is the honor of men to hide secrets, and the glory of God is to reveal the mysteries of his speech." You have an error, which plainly inverts the text of Scripture. Correct it thus: "But attested by the voice of Solomon we have heard: The glory of God is to conceal the word, and the glory of kings is to search out the matter, because it is the honor of God to hide his secrets, and the glory of men is to reveal the mysteries of his speech." Whence he appropriately subjoins to this sense: "Truth itself indeed says to his disciples: What I say to you in darkness, speak ye in the light, that is, expound openly what you hear in the obscurity of allegories. Moreover the obscurity itself of the words of God is of great utility, because it exercises the mind, so that by fatigue it is enlarged, and the exercised mind may grasp what the idle mind cannot grasp. It has also another and greater advantage, because if the understanding of Holy Scripture were open in all things, it would become worthless. And so in certain more obscure places, it refreshes with so much greater sweetness when found, as it fatigues the soul with so much greater labor in the seeking." This is what Clement of Alexandria says, in book I of the Stromata, that truth sought out with greater study tastes more sweetly and pleasantly, and is prepared by labor, just as for hunters and dogs after long courses and the labors of hunting, the captured and possessed beast comes most sweetly. Fifth, by the word some understand a precept. Whence the Septuagint translates, the glory of God is to conceal the word; but the glory of a king honors things, or, as others read, honors precepts; namely for πράγματα, that is things, Procopius and others read προστάγματα, that is precepts. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena translates, the glory of a king makes much of his commands, not permitting anyone to violate them with impunity. Others read throughout, the glory of a king honors his precepts, namely of God, as if to say: The glory of God is to conceal the reasons and causes of his precepts, for example why he commanded that no one be clothed in a garment woven of wool and linen, that no one sow a field with diverse seed, that no one eat the first fruits of trees, etc., Leviticus XIX, 19 and following; for he himself is the absolute and supreme lord of all, and his wisdom is without number; wherefore all, even kings, ought most humbly to submit their necks, reason and judgment, and to kiss his precepts, and just as it is permitted to investigate their reasons modestly, but where it is not permitted, to rest in God's arbitration and judgment. Again our Pineda, in book III On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter VI, number 14, explaining that passage of Wisdom, chapter IX: "For the thoughts of mortal men are fearful:" indicates, he says, that the thoughts of kings ought to be consumed in one thing alone, so that they may be able to obtain what God wills; for since he wishes his counsels and wills to be diligently inquired into, he nevertheless conceals them sometimes, so that they may not be entirely open to the careless and negligent, just as it is written in Proverbs XXV, 2: "The glory of God is to conceal the word, and the glory of kings is to search out the matter," namely that very matter which God conceals. Therefore it is proper to kings to think and investigate what he wills. Mystically Bede: "The glory, he says, of the Lord appearing in the flesh is to show the weakness of his humanity rather than the eternity of his divinity to mortal eyes, and to confess himself rather through the works of miracles and mystical utterances than through open assertions as the Word, that is the Son of God. Whence much more frequently in the Gospel he was accustomed to call himself the Son of Man rather than the Son of God. And the glory of his faithful disciples is to diligently search out his speech, by which he signifies himself as God even where he does not speak plainly, such as that: I and the Father are one, and other things of this kind." Finally, concealing the eternity of the Word and pretending the weakness of the flesh, he says: Whom do men say that the Son of Man is? To which matter an excellent investigator of his speech, whom he had heard many times before, answered: Thou art Christ the Son of the living God. Nor did he merit small glory by this investigation; for immediately he heard: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, etc. From what has been said, it is clear that this saying of Solomon does not contradict that of Raphael in Tobias XII, 7: "It is good to hide the secret of a king, but glorious to reveal and confess the works of God." For by "secret" is understood that which a king wishes to be entirely concealed; but by the "works of God" are meant those things which God shows to men and commands to be revealed to them through angels or men. Here, however, it is only said that it is glorious for God to conceal many things and to leave them for men, especially kings, to investigate: whence it is clear that both are true, nor does the latter contradict the former. Some expound it thus; that is to say, it is glorious among the rude and incapable common people to conceal the lofty mysteries and judgments of divinity, lest they be despised and mocked by the unworthy and those who do not understand; but truly it is glorious for kings, if their words and deeds are carefully investigated, and when investigated are found to be just and right. Yet truly τὸ glory of kings properly signifies that this investigation ought to be made by the kings themselves. More aptly Cajetan: The honor of God and the honor of kings, he says, are opposed in these actions, namely concealing the word and inquiring into the word; therefore concealing the word is the honor of Elohim, and not of kings; and conversely inquiring into the word is the honor of kings, and not of Elohim. For these things must be understood beforehand, so that the sense of the proverb may be known. Since therefore the word of Elohim (that is of God, insofar as He is judge) is judgment itself, it follows that concealing the word signifies hiding the reasons of judgments. And the sense is: It pertains to the honor of the supreme judge to hide the reasons of judgments; for the reasons of divine judgments which He often exercises are most hidden from us in particular. And there is such a disparity between God and a king, that it pertains to the disgrace of kings to hide the reasons of their judgments, because they ought to make manifest why they judge thus, why they condemn that one to exile or death, etc.; but to the honor of God it pertains to hide the reasons of His judgments, because by this it becomes known that He has no superior or equal, that His dominion or justice does not depend on us, but on His will alone. But to the honor of kings it pertains to seek or investigate the word, that is, knowledge and truth of words, deeds and things: which it is not right to attribute to God. For to inquire is the mark of one who does not know: but God knows all things in Himself from eternity. To this pertains that saying of Cleomenes: "The judgment of the people is over the prince." For a king depends on the kingdom and the republic, but God depends on none; rather the whole world depends on God, as a ray depends on the sun. More simply Jansenius, that is to say, it pertains to the glory of God that He ought not to inquire into anything, since He knows all things, and that, since He knows all things, He nevertheless does not immediately declare that He knows all things, but conceals and dissembles all things which are done now and said among men, being about to reveal all things in His time, when He shall bring all things into judgment: for this wonderfully commends His patience and gentleness, that He who knows all things should nevertheless conceal all things for so long a time, and patiently bear them. But lest kings, who are placed here in His stead, should wish to imitate this example in God, it is on the contrary subjoined that it pertains to the glory of kings to investigate the word, that is, to inquire diligently into the state of their kingdom, and into those things which are done by their subjects in their kingdom, so that those things which are to be corrected and punished, they may correct and punish. For they ought not to consider it shameful to inquire into things, although this is the mark of those who do not know; nor ought they to conduct themselves like God, as if knowing all things; nor ought they to conceal as God does those things which they know ought to be corrected, but to uncover and punish them. The sense therefore is: Just as it pertains to the glory of God that He ought not to inquire into any matter, but that, since He knows all things, He nevertheless conceals them: so to the glory of kings on the contrary it pertains, that, since they must confess that they, as men, are ignorant of many things, they should diligently search into things necessary to be known, so that when investigated they may uncover and direct them.
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In Hebrew, the heavens in their height, and the earth in their depth, and the heart of kings is not a matter of investigation; the Chaldean version: the heavens are exalted, and the earth is deep, and the heart of kings is investigable; the Syriac: it is not investigated. First, Rabbi Solomon expounds it, as if to say: Just as the sublimity of the heavens and the depth of the earth cannot be investigated: For how often, he says, must judgment be rendered to them? how many wars also must be waged by them? to all of which a provident care must necessarily attend: but if all tongues were to pour forth speech, and the hands of all were to be free for writing, they would not suffice to describe the grave and many affairs of the empire. To this Baynus adds, who explains it thus, as if to say: A king does not have leisure to investigate the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth, because so many affairs of the commonwealth occupy his heart, that it is almost impossible for him to scrutinize all of them. Second, Vatablus expounds it differently, as if to say: Both, namely both heaven and earth, are in a definite place, and therefore both can be comprehended; but the heart of kings, because it is indefinite and as it were infinite, cannot be comprehended by any inquiry. Third, Aben-Ezra connects this verse with the preceding one, as if to say: The glory of God is hidden in the height of the heavens, and the depth of the earth, and in innumerable things most varied and most beautiful, which are contained within their bounds; wherefore the heart of a king cannot scrutinize and penetrate them, nor can it understand those things which are above in the heavens, nor those which are below in the earth. He himself therefore takes inscrutable not passively, namely that it cannot be scrutinized by others; but actively, namely that it is not able to scrutinize the heavens and the earth. Whence in Hebrew it is, of the heart, or to the heart, of kings there is no scrutiny, namely of the heavens and the earth. Fourth, Rabbi Levi, as if to say: Heaven is supremely high, and the earth is supremely deep, and the heart of a king ought to be higher than heaven, and deeper than the earth: for it ought to be as it were immense, so that it may embrace, arrange and dispatch the immense affairs of the whole commonwealth and of each of those subject to him, and therefore it is inscrutable and impenetrable. Fifth, the genuine sense, as if to say: Just as the sublime things of the heavens and the deep things of the earth are inscrutable (and, that is thus), likewise the heart of kings is inscrutable: for the inscrutable must be repeated by zeugma to the heaven and the earth, as is evident from the Hebrew, and the particle and here denotes similarity and comparison, as also elsewhere often in Proverbs, and it has the same force as thus, in a similar manner; for although Astrologers have measured the height of the heavens and the depth of the earth, nevertheless they have not been able to assign any certain and definite measure of either: whence there is great variety and disagreement among them, which our Clavius recounts in book I of the Sphere. Again, no one has been able to scrutinize all things which are contained within the bounds of heaven and earth; wherefore this scrutiny is curious, vain and useless, says St. Augustine, just as curious and vain is the investigation of the deep counsels of the royal heart. Thus Bede, Hugh, Cajetan, Jansenius and others everywhere. The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord. Thus Nebuchadnezzar's heart was moved by God to the punishment and destruction of impious nations. Thus Attila said he was the scourge of God. But who can investigate the counsels and secrets of God? Wherefore this maxim is parallel to the preceding one, as if to say: The glory of God is to conceal the word: but he conceals it in the heart of the king, so that through him he may execute it. Again, just as the glory of God, so also that of the king, who is as it were God on earth, is to conceal the words and secrets of his heart. He notes above all other kings Solomon, whose parables he here describes: for Solomon received from God infused wisdom of all things, and therefore inscrutable and impenetrable to other men. Solomon says this very thing for this end and purpose: first, that he may restrain the vanity of the curious. For there are some idle and curious persons, who do nothing else than scrutinize and conjecture the secret counsels of kings and princes; in which matter they both waste time uselessly, and often deceive themselves, because the heart of kings is inscrutable, and by as much as heaven is distant from the earth, by so much do the thoughts of kings excel and surpass the thoughts of private persons. Second, that he may teach that the private friendships, familiarities and favors of kings are not to be sought after, because since they excel like the heavens, whoever adheres to them, like the heavens rotates continually with them in their motion; but whoever is farther from them, content with little, remains quiet and firm on the earth; especially because kings often cast down those intimates whom they have elevated on high and as it were to the heavens, on account of a small offense, and prostrate them as it were in the lowest earth. In this age we have seen this done in the courts of almost all kings, because the hearts of kings are movable and inscrutable. This is what the Psalmist says: "Put not your trust in princes, in the children of men, in whom there is no salvation," Psalm 145, 3. Hence the Septuagint translate for inscrutable, ἀνεξέλεγκτος, that is, unsearchable, or that which cannot be reproved, because namely the king has no superior on earth by whom he can be reproved, or irreprehensible, above all reproof, as the author of the Greek Catena translates it, both because the heart of the king is not fully transparent to any mortal, and because it admits no reproof from anyone, as if to say: The king's power over all is supreme, so that whatever he does he does with impunity; and even if he cast down an innocent man, or as it were depress him from heaven to earth, no one dares to blame or reprove him. Thus King Philip ordered poison to be given to Aratus, who foreseeing this turned to a friend: "O Cephalus," he said, "these are the rewards of royal friendship." When Antipater learned that Parmenion had been killed by Alexander, he said: "If Parmenion plotted against Alexander, whom can one trust? If he did not plot, what is to be done?" Parmenion was as it were another Alexander in military matters. If so great a friend deceived, it is not safe to trust any friend; if Alexander destroyed one who had deserved nothing, it is better to abstain from the affairs of kings. Thus Plutarch in the Apophthegms of Kings and Emperors. The reason a priori is, first, that kings have a great heart, that is, great minds and spirits, so that they meditate great things and determine them in their mind, as Alexander the Great determined in his mind to subject the whole world to himself. But to search out these counsels is difficult, and often impossible. Thus John of Austria, the bastard of Charles V, when he was being educated in secret in Spain and was a boy, being asked who his father was, replied that he did not know, but he augured from the great heart and spirits which he then felt that he was the son of some great man, and shortly afterwards he declared himself when he defeated the Turks, in the year of Christ 1571, at the Echinades, and the Gueux in Belgium at Gemblacum, in the year 1577, with great slaughter. Second, because in a republic and kingdoms so many novelties arise daily, new movements, tumults, conspiracies, disputes, difficulties, that the king's heart must daily turn over a thousand new counsels in his mind, so that he may meet all of them: but for a private person to search these out is very difficult; third, because the heart of kings is placed as it were in a sublime ether, mobile and exposed to the winds of various passions, informations, and flatteries, so that it often changes its decrees, and what pleased today displeases tomorrow: wherefore just as a weathercock on the summit of towers is constantly turned and rotated by the blasts of winds, so also is the heart of a king; fourth, because kings affect wisdom, majesty and eminence above all: hence they conceal many things in their mind, so that they may appear to all to be eminent, and to be wiser than all, and so that what they determine they may execute successfully: for secrecy is wonderfully effective for this; fifth, because God turns and bends the heart whither He will, so that through him He may execute His decrees, punishments, and vengeances, according to that in chapter XXI, 1: "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord." Mystically, the king is a just man and a spiritual man, whose heart is ruled by the Holy Spirit, and therefore he thinks great and heavenly things, and hence to the animal man it is unsearchable, according to that I Corinthians II, 15: "The spiritual man judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man." Thus the Author of the Greek Catena. But Bede thus: "Just as," he says, "the height of heaven and the depth of the earth cannot be conjectured by men, so the knowledge of the Prophets and Apostles, who knew the mysteries of divinity through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, transcends the capacity of our frailty."
25:4
"Justice shall be established" in two ways: first, that is to say, the justice of the king and kingdom shall be firm. Whence Vatablus translates it, the king shall be just. Second, that is to say, the kingdom of the king shall be firm and stable, being supported as it were on the base of firm and stable justice. Impiety you may understand in four ways; whence a fourfold sense arises here: first, for cruelty, threats and harshness, that is to say, Just as rust is wiped from silver and silver becomes bright, beautiful and splendid: so if the king, laying aside a severe, threatening and cruel countenance, puts on a kind, clement and cheerful mind and face, like polished silver it will shine, and by its cheerful splendor will bind the minds of his subjects to himself, whereby it will come to pass that he can freely and without danger exercise justice, administer law, and punish any wrongdoers; for since he is loved by all, he will fear nothing of rebellion or harm from anyone. Thus Bede: "For those, he says, who preside over peoples, if they wish their throne to be firm, should always show faces full of cheerfulness and grace, lest by arrogance becoming more rigid they fall into the murmuring of peoples." Thus Julius Caesar, Augustus, Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne and many others, by their benevolence and cheerfulness won over the minds of all to themselves, so that they willingly received from him the laws of sanctioned justice, though severe. Thus indeed the wisdom of God divine "reacheth from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly," Wisdom cap. VIII, 1. That saying of King Antigonus is well known: "No support of a kingdom is firmer than the benevolence of citizens." And that of Apollonius, who when asked by the king of Babylon by what means he might reign safely, answered: "If you honor many, but trust few." And that of Themistocles, who when someone admonished him: "You will govern the principate well in Athens, if you wish to be common to all and gentle," answered: "I would never have sat in that seat, from which my friends would bear no more from me than strangers." Second, you may understand impiety properly of the king himself, that is to say, Take away from the king impiety, which is as it were rust of the silver royal heart, darkening it, eating away and corrupting it, and make it so that the king is zealous for piety, virtue and justice; thus it will come to pass that he exercises justice everywhere, and through it strengthens and confirms his throne and kingdom. Thus, if Saul had removed from his heart the hatred of David, he would have established his throne in justice. Third, you may understand impiety metonymically for the impious, as it is in the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Septuagint, Vatablus, Pagninus. For our text reads רשע rescha, that is impiety; but the Chaldean and others with different pointing read רשע rascha, that is the impious; whence thus they translate, remove the dross from silver, and there shall come forth a vessel to the refiner, namely precious, because refined and purified. Remove the impious from before the king, and his throne shall be directed or established in justice; the Chaldean, gather the rust from silver, that there may come forth a vessel from the refinery, and his throne shall be prepared in justice: the Syriac, separate the dross from silver, that pure bronze may come forth, the wicked shall be broken before the king, etc. The sense therefore is, that is to say, Take away from the sight and company of the king impious counselors, princes, friends, flatterers, who suggest evil counsels to him; and in their place substitute counselors, princes, familiars, who are upright, just, wise: for by their suggestion, example and aid it will come to pass that the king enacts just and holy things, and by executing them firmly, establishes himself and his kingdom in justice and probity. On the contrary Isaiah, cap. I, 23, attributes the destruction of Jerusalem and the kings of Judah to evil counselors and princes: "Thy princes, he says, are faithless, companions of thieves; all love gifts, follow rewards." Whence with these excluded he promises to substitute others, upright ones, who shall restore Jerusalem to its former splendor: for thus he says, vers. 25: "And I will turn my hand to thee, and I will clean away thy dross as with lye, and I will take away all thy tin; and I will restore thy judges as they were before, and thy counselors as in the beginning; after this thou shalt be called the city of the just, a faithful city." See the sayings there, and Jer. cap. VI, 29 and 30, where the same metaphor of silver being purified from dross is attributed to Israel. This sense is very apt; for it touches the root of all good or evil in the government of kings; for the root is the good or evil counselor, and the intimate familiars of the king: for such as these are, such will the king be; if therefore the king takes to himself just and upright men, and expels the unworthy, surely probity and justice will flourish in the republic, and his kingdom will be established in it. Thus R. Levi, Aben-Ezra, Jansenius and others. Truly Plutarch in the Moralia: "The flatterer, he says, is mixed with the prince like dross with silver most tenaciously." Antisthenes, when asked how one should proceed to take up public office, said: Like approaching a fire, lest being too close you are burned, or being too far away you grow cold. Thus Stobaeus, sermon 43. Fourth, understand broadly and generally by impiety any crimes whatsoever and criminals, as if to say: Just as a refiner, or goldsmith and silversmith, removes dross from silver by fire, so likewise a king ought to remove the impious from his sight and from that of his entire kingdom by punishment and vengeance; what therefore the refiner does in purifying silver from dross, this the king should do in purifying the kingdom from the impious. For in a republic and kingdom silver is mixed with dross, that is, integrity with dishonesty, virtues with vices, the upright with the wicked: let the king therefore separate them, retaining the good and exterminating the wicked; thus it will come about that justice and the just triumph throughout the kingdom, and consequently nothing unjust need be feared by the king or by any other. Whence the Septuagint translates: Strike the wicked silver or counterfeit, and the whole will be purified. Kill the wicked from before the king, and his throne shall proceed rightly in justice. Note here the word strike: for just as by continuous striking silver is purified from dross and restored to its purity, so also a republic, if in it the wicked are struck and killed, will be restored to justice, peace and happiness. Thus R. Solomon, Salazar and others. Most excellently Diotogenes the Pythagorean, in the book On Kingship, in Stobaeus, sermon 48: "There are," he says, "three duties of a king: to command, to judge, to worship the gods. Therefore in the perfect king, so that he may be a good commander, judge and priest, it is required; for it is the work of a helmsman to preserve his ship, of a charioteer his chariot, of a physician his patients, but of a king and commander to preserve those in peril in war." And further down: "As God is to the world, so the king is to the city, and as the city is to the world, so the king is to God. For the city imitates the structure and harmony of the world; the king, however, subject to none and being a living law, represents the image of God among men. Therefore it is fitting that the king not be overcome by pleasure, but be its conqueror. Again, whoever wishes to rule others should first learn to rule his own affections." He adds a reason worthy of a king: "For it is fitting that he always excel others in virtue, and be esteemed worthy of rule according to it, not according to wealth or power or the right of arms." Whence also he concludes with these words: "Therefore the king who is temperate regarding pleasures, generous regarding money, and prudent and grave in his rule, he will truly be a king: he will achieve these things if first he shall be venerable both in appearance and in speech, and shall conduct himself worthily of rule; then benign in conversation, in countenance and in conferring benefits: it is fitting that what he does be admirable, so that he bears himself as a king, so that being more eminent than others he carries before him as it were a certain divinity." Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena: "Whoever," he says, "sacrifices in himself the base desires of the flesh and its perverse impulses toward lust, he composes his mind to justice, in which Christ the wisdom and knowledge of God rests." For Christ is the king of minds, and the mind itself is the king of the soul and of the whole man.
25:6
For "do not appear glorious," in Hebrew it is אל תתהדר al tithaddar, that is, do not display yourself, do not adorn yourself, do not glorify yourself, so that you might wish to imitate or surpass the magnates and greater men either by the splendor of garments, or by the abundance of servants, horses, and chariots, or by wisdom or eloquence, or by some other thing, or even to contend as it were with the king himself; for all the adornment and splendor of a private man, when it is set against royal majesty and splendor, is dimmed, broken, and vanishes. The Septuagint translates it, μὴ ἀλαζονεύου, that is, do not be arrogant, do not display yourself as arrogant. The Roman version: do not display yourself as glorious; for ἀλαζονεία is boasting, noise, haughtiness, arrogance, ostentation, insolence, vain speech. The Chaldean: do not be splendid in the sight of the king; the Syriac: do not boast; Cajetan: do not make yourself beautiful, and do not stand in the place of the great, that is, as Vatable says, do not occupy the place of magnates, since you are not great. R. Solomon: Do not boast magnificently before the king so as to display your glory, and do not conduct yourself proudly before him who is superior to you in dignity; for it is better that it be said to you: Come up here, than if you should enter some place without permission, and they should order you to depart from there. Aben-Ezra: do not appear glorious, do not be splendid as if in a chariot; and do not enter and remain in the place of the great, where magnates dwell. Come up here, for it is more to your advantage that it be said to you: Come up here, and dwell with us, than that you be cast down from your seat while the king looks on, when you have been ordered to depart from his sight. This verse, as also the five preceding ones, treats of the king and his assembly among magnates: for just as in verse 2 he compared the king with God, and in the three following verses he compared the same king with subjects, so here in turn he compares subjects with the king, and teaches them modesty, so that they might act humbly and reverently with the king and magnates. The sense therefore properly is, as if to say: Do not display before the king yourself and your garments, wealth, nobility, eloquence, military skill, prudence, expertise, etc., and do not thrust yourself upon or intrude upon his magnates; for thus you will offend both the king and the magnates by your proud audacity, and you will be humiliated and cast down by both. The reason is that arrogance and ostentation are hateful to all indeed, but especially to kings and rulers, both because kings wish to excel over all, and they make nothing great or admirable in comparison with themselves: whence Cyrus in Xenophon taught his men to admire nothing, inasmuch as they have seen more admirable things, and are more admirable than other men; and also because kings wish their majesty to be acknowledged by all, and to be honored and regarded by all with great submission in all things: wherefore they detest the proud and ostentatious as those who cast darkness upon their majesty; on the other hand they love the modest and humble, who honor kings by their humility, and being content with their small lot and station, desire nothing: whence their wisdom and industry, perceived through the sagacity with which they are endowed, are gradually promoted by the kings to greater honors, and they say: Come up here. Hence consider ostentation in acting to be most dangerous to you, since from it arises envy, a great storm of the court. Therefore do what must be done without any ostentation of doing it. Wisely therefore: "Sallustius Crispus, in whom there was vigor of mind for great affairs, the keener the more he displayed sleep and idleness," says Tacitus, book III of the Annals; and Seneca in Oedipus: Emmanuel, king of Portugal, eager for the praise of eloquence, ordered Aloysius Silveira to write for him most excellent letters to the Pontiff, and added that he would also write others by his own effort and hand. Aloysius presented to the king the letter written by himself; when it was read, the king smiled, and taking Aloysius by the hand: "You have conquered, Aloysius," he said, "your letter is indeed worthy to be sent to Rome on account of its polish and acuteness, and it will be sent; I scarcely think mine worthy of reading." Aloysius blushed, and having given thanks in the customary manner, immediately returned to his home, ordered horses to be saddled, and together with his children in the very middle of the day, having tasted no food beforehand, and in great silence turned his course away. When they were outside the city, Aloysius stopped for a moment, and turning to his children: "Away, away," he said, "O my sons, we must depart; for I do not wish to live longer in that kingdom, in which the king knows that I excel him in talent and learning." Namely, a prudent man held in memory that oracle of divine wisdom: "Do not appear wise before the king." I have said more on this matter in Ecclesiastes VII, 5. Thirdly, as if to say: Do not suddenly aspire to great magistracies and high seats, but at the beginning undertake small ones, and from these ascend gradually to greater ones; for thus at length you will attain to the highest. The reason is, first, that all envy lies open to those who immediately aspire to the highest things and strive to leap with a heteroclite jump from the ground to the throne; second, that this is the order of all nature, art and discipline, that progress from small things to greater ones be made gradually. For thus a boy grows little by little and becomes an adolescent, a young man, a man, and finally an old man. Thus all crops and fruits grow gradually; thus in the military a recruit becomes a soldier, then a decurion, next a standard-bearer, then a centurion, then a chiliarch, etc. Thus in the Church, no one suddenly becomes a presbyter or deacon, but through six minor Orders as if through steps he ascends gradually to it: for thus in each he proves his virtue, and prepares and disposes himself for a greater grade. Whence St. Cyprian, book II to Antonianum, praises St. Cornelius, because he ascended gradually through each order of offices to the Pontificate: "This man, he says, did not suddenly attain to the Episcopate, but promoted through all ecclesiastical offices, and having often merited the Lord in divine administrations, he ascended to the sublime pinnacle of the priesthood through all the grades of religion." Mystically, if before a king, how much more before God, who is King of kings, and supremely hates the proud, we ought to humble ourselves, and remember our condition and fragility, nor claim for ourselves an eminent place of sanctity or wisdom before Him, nor aspire to some prominent grade of honor in His Church! lest we be forced either here or hereafter before God, angels and just men to be put to shame, either because we do not attain the desired honor in the Church, or having attained it we are found to be inferior to the office undertaken, so that it must be yielded to those more worthy. This is what St. Peter admonishes, epistle I, cap. V, 6, saying: "Be you therefore subject to the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in the time of visitation." The antistrophe of this maxim of Solomon is that of Christ, who is the true Solomon, Luke XIV, 8: "When thou art invited to a wedding, sit not down in the first place, lest perhaps one more honourable than thou be invited by him, and he that invited thee and him come and say to thee, Give this man place, and then thou begin with shame to take the lowest place. But when thou art invited, go, sit down in the lowest place, that when he who invited thee cometh, he may say to thee, Friend, go up higher, and thou shalt have glory before them that sit at table with thee." And in the Place of Great Men Stand Not. Besides the proper sense already given, add also these, first, as if to say: Do not aspire to high seats, great dignities, first prefectures; but content with your own modest or mediocre grade, live quietly and modestly, until God or the prince calls you to higher things. For private and humble life is blessed, because it lacks the thousand cares, distractions, perils with which the courtly life of magnates and princes abounds. Ovid, having experienced this late, lib. III of the Tristia, eleg. 4, thus sings, or rather laments: And below: "Believe me, he who has been well hidden has lived well; and each should remain within the bounds of his own fortune. Live without envy, and pass your gentle years without glory; bind to yourself friends who are your equals." Secondly, as if to say: Do not contend with great men over a place, so that if they occupy some place, you wish to stand in the same one and claim it is owed to you: for these contentions are born from ambition and create danger of dueling, indeed not rarely of war with public and great loss to many. Indeed in Belgium we have often seen cities occupied by the enemy and powerful armies routed or dissolved, because captains contended among themselves over place and neither wished to yield to the other. Wherefore the ancient Romans considered this not generosity but stupidity, and punished it with death. Wisely and heroically Damonides, when he had received the last place in the chorus from the chorus master, said: "Well done, chorus master, you have found how this place in itself dishonorable may become honorific." And Agesilaus as a boy, although already designated king, placed by the prefect in a place of little honor in a solemn game: "It is well, he said, for I will show that it is not the place that confers dignity on men, but men that confer dignity on the place." Thus Plutarch in the Laconian. Dionysius the king, when he had been offended by Aristippus the philosopher, invited the man to dinner, and ordered him to recline in the lowest place at the banquet. This Aristippus, not at all offended: "This place, O king, you wish to illustrate and make honorific;" signifying that the place does not make the man viler, but from the dignity of the man honor is added to the place. Thus Laertius, lib. II, cap. VIII. There exists on this matter an illustrious apologue of the firmament and Saturn in Cyril, book II of the Moral Apology, chapter XXIV, which has the title: Against the Pompous on Account of the Greatness of Graces: "The sphere of the fixed stars, he says, gloried in the magnitude of its body, and in the swiftness of its motion, and in the greatness of its universal power, and also in the multitude of stars, whose pomp Saturn understanding, is said to have spoken thus to it: If gloriation is false, confusion is true. But tell me, I pray thee, O firmament, whence comes to thee the reality of such great mass, the swiftness of such motion, such brightness and multitude of stars? And it answered: By intelligence indeed am I moved, by the sun am I illuminated, the author of all things created me, and in me fixed the very stars themselves. Then Saturn added: Thou hast nothing therefore that is thine own, but thou hast taken all from elsewhere. To which it said: I confess it. Then the other subjoined: Why therefore, as if thou hadst not received, dost thou glory in the perfections communicated to thee, and dost thou raise thyself up as a usurper of another's glory? Dost thou not observe that where the rapine of pomposity contaminates the wise, there is no true glory, whose is all goodness; but to lose the true by the false, and through vain glory to fall into confusion is most foolish. Then by various parables and clever maxims he corroborates the same: Thus also by saying this is thine, he makes the whole of thee his own, and painted without with fallacious glory, within thee gnaws grace made empty. Wherefore the more noble thou art, and the more excellent in the good things communicated to thee, so much the more hidden dost thou remain collected within the solid bosom of humility. Thou art rich, fear the thief, with lynx-like eye hide thy treasure, conceal the spirit of graces under the tunic of a twofold veil. Thou art gold, lie hidden under the earth. Thou art the most precious ruby, hide thyself in the stone of beryl. What more? Flee the glory of scattered light, and then with the splendor of intrinsic glory shalt thou shine like a night-light. Which things being said, the exhorter was silent. Thus far Cyril. Finally our Solomon, or rather through him the Holy Spirit speaking, in Ecclesiastes IV, 6: "Better, he says, is a handful with rest, than both hands full with labor and affliction of mind."
25:8
From the Hebrew it can also be translated thus: when your friend has dishonored you, for a friend injured by you will in turn injure you, and returning reproach for reproach, will lay bare your secrets and shameful things. There is here a threefold punctuation: first, Rabbi Levi, Rabbi Solomon, Aben-Ezra and the modern Hebrew Bible refer "that which your eyes have seen" to the preceding verse about the king and magnates; second, the Septuagint separates those words from the others, and by supplying the word "say," constitutes a separate sentence: whence they translate, "that which your eyes have seen, say it, lest you rashly rush into a lawsuit or fight, lest you repent of it in the end"; third, our author, Pagninus, Vatablus and others most excellently connect them with the following verses. Therefore first, the Hebrews, omitting those words and rejecting them to the preceding verse, thus deliver this sentence. Rabbi Solomon: do not engage in a lawsuit against a friend, so that you may not be ashamed, because you are contending with a friend by law, when you ought to contend with him by grace; the Chaldean: do not go forth to quarreling quickly, so that you may not contend afterward when you have exasperated your friend, or when your friend has exasperated you; the Syrian: do not go forth to judgment swiftly, lest, when you have judged, your friend reproach you; Baynus: do not go forth to a lawsuit, but hasten to put an end to it, lest your friend shame you, by getting ahead of you and inviting you to restore friendship; Aben-Ezra: do not go out to litigate unless you have first weighed the cause and determined it to be just in your own judgment, lest you be ill-spoken of among your friends and be called a pursuer of lawsuits. The second punctuation of the Septuagint is ambiguous, and can be referred both to the preceding and to the present verse. To the preceding, as if to say: Do not display yourself and your wisdom before the king; but if you are asked by him about anything, tell candidly and simply that which your eyes have seen, that is, that which you have seen or heard: for thus you will avoid the arrogance of the proud, and will obtain the name of one who is modest and truthful with him. This sense is very apt. If you refer it to the present verse, understand by quarreling a cause and civil lawsuit, as if to say: You who give testimony before a judge in a lawsuit, set forth only that which you have beheld with your own eyes, and again from those things which you have seen, lest you say anything quickly and hastily in some cause when asked, lest late repentance for your words seize you, namely then when you cannot or will not free the accused; lest you be forced to retract what you have said, and thus be held to be a liar; as many do, in which respect they are like crocodiles, hunting dogs, and similar beasts, which, once they have fixed their teeth in prey, scarcely ever pull them out. Thus Salazar. To this pertains that saying: "A word sent forth knows not how to return." The third punctuation of our author exhibits the most convenient, most apt and most connected sense. For it admonishes, says Jansenius, that no one should make public by quarreling and contention the crime of another, even if he has beheld it with his own eyes, much less if he has merely heard it by vain rumor; but according to the precept of Christ, if a brother has sinned, he should be admonished in secret, and that not by contention, but in a spirit of gentleness, contrary to the custom of some, who, as soon as they see anything in their neighbor that is to be reproved, immediately bring it forth with quarreling and anger, and make it public. Therefore three things are to be noted which are said here: Do not bring forth, and in quarreling, and quickly; for neither should crimes, especially secret ones, be brought forth and made public, nor should they be reproved with quarreling, nor quickly or precipitately, but at a fitting time and place. Although that phrase "in quarreling" could be understood otherwise, namely not for "with quarreling" or "by quarreling," but for "while quarreling," so as to signify that if it should happen that you have some lawsuit or contention with someone, care must be taken lest, through impatience of mind and a desire to vindicate yourself, you blurt out even those things which you have seen against another, lest, when you have besmirched your neighbor with some infamy, you cannot afterward correct it and restore his lost reputation, and thus make yourself liable before God for a great sin and expose yourself to great danger before the injured party. Wisely Plutarch in his Moral Essays says: "Just as a ship seized by waves cannot be stopped by an anchor, so neither can a word sent forth on high"; and again: "As it is not easy to recapture a bird released from the hand, so neither a word once uttered from the mouth."
25:9
For "insult" in Hebrew is חסדך iechassedecha, which properly signifies, may he not be pious and beneficent toward you; but here and elsewhere by antiphrase it signifies the contrary. Whence the Zurich Bible translates it, lest perhaps hearing he withdraw from you his beneficence; Vatablus and Pagninus, lest he afflict you with reproaches; the Chaldean, lest he reproach you. The cause here can be understood in a fivefold respect, and thus a fivefold sense arises. First indeed Cajetan, thus translating from the Hebrew, your cause is the cause of your companion, and the secret of another do not reveal, lest he reproach you, and your infamy shall not rest, thus explains it: A monition full of charity, that you reckon the litigious cause of your friend as your own, and similar to this is the commandment, that you do not reveal the secret of another, but hold it as your own secret. And the reason is added: Lest your own reputation suffer irreparable damage, when you are afflicted with contumely by hearing secrets revealed, and the cause of your friend not esteemed by you. For the irreparability of reputation is signified by saying: "Your infamy shall not rest;" for those are infamous, and guilty of injured friendship, who betray the secrets of a friend, or do not aid him in litigation and adversity. Thus Cajetan. Secondly, R. Solomon, as if to say: You indeed can justly pursue your cause with your friend by right, if he himself wishes to litigate with you, and compels you to litigate; beware however lest in the litigation you reveal his secret, so that you bring to light the reproach of his ancestors, who have already departed from life, which others were ignorant of. For thus you will be heard as a betrayer of friendship and of the secret, and your friend injured by you, and others will not cease to reproach you with this crime of betrayal. Thirdly, Vatablus, as if to say: Your cause and litigation which you have with another, conduct it not before a judge, but before a friend, so that he may amicably and secretly as an arbiter settle or compose the litigation: for if you bring your cause into judgment, you expose yourself to the conversation, judgments and jests of all, and you will undergo the dangers of defamations, expenses and other damages, which lawsuits are wont to bring. Fourthly, Hugo, Arboreus and Jansenius: It is signified, they say, that no one ought to trust himself too much in conducting his own affairs and causes, but if he have any business, especially singular and difficult, he should conduct it with another; not however with just anyone, but with some friend, of whose good faith there is no doubt, who both wishes to counsel well and to keep the secret. For one must beware lest he reveal his secret to a stranger, whose integrity has not been sufficiently tested, lest perhaps what he heard as a secret, he object publicly, and without ceasing reproach. To this S. Thomas accedes, II II, Question CLXXXIX, article 10, to 2, where he teaches that a temporal cause is to be conducted with a temporal friend, a spiritual one (such as entrance into Religion) with a spiritual friend. Fifthly and genuinely, this maxim pertains to litigation and quarrel, of which the preceding verse, as if to say: If you have any cause, litigation, quarrel and complaint against a friend, conduct it with him amicably and secretly, setting forth to him those words or deeds of his, which seem to you an injury, and afflict and torment you, so that he himself may either give account of them, or by asking pardon or by other satisfaction repair the injury, and restore friendship: wherefore these secrets, these secret dissensions between you and your friend, secret reproaches, secret injuries, do not reveal to a stranger (whose faith is uncertain and doubtful), as the imprudent and impatient are wont to do, who injured by a friend, immediately querulous, traduce him before any who come by and any outsiders, and relate and amplify to them the injuries inflicted on them by him. For a stranger will easily laugh at you and insult you, and will not cease to divulge the same, nay even to reproach you to your face. This is what Christ ordained, Matthew XVIII, 15, saying: "If thy brother shall offend against thee, go, and rebuke him between thee and him alone; if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother." Thus Bede. That this is the sense is evident from the Hebrew which has: Litigate your cause (the Chaldean, judge) with your friend, and do not reveal the secret to another; lest perhaps he reproach you, and your infamy shall not return; the Chaldean: lest perhaps he reproach thee when he hears it, and pervert thy reputation; the Syrian, and many condemn thee, that is, revile and condemn thee. And from the Septuagint, which in the Roman and Complutensian editions are intricate and obscure; but clearly by the Author of the Greek Catena are rendered thus: "If ever thy friend has brought reproach upon thee, dissemble, and withdraw; nor on that account shun him, lest he attack thee with insults, and thus such a quarrel and enmity arise, which does not easily depart, but for a long time and greatly like death harasses thee," that is to say, If a dispute has befallen thee with a friend, and thou seest him inflamed with anger bringing forth words full of indignation, which he may pour out upon thee; thou prudently depart and withdraw, while his anger cools, which being done, calmly and reasonably discuss thy cause with him: for if thou resist one who is furious, thou too shalt begin to be furious, and thou shalt kindle his fury more, whence it will come to pass that on both sides many reproaches are cast, which infame both before those who hear, and infamy once contracted cannot afterwards be erased. To this pertains the symbol of Pythagoras: "Put not food into a rotten vessel, that is, commit not a secret to the wicked and talkative." Note: For the quarrel and enmity, etc., which like death harasses thee, the Roman and Complutensian editions render, thy quarrel and enmity shall not depart, but shall be to thee equal to death, both because it will last until death: for a friend injured by a friend through reproach, revelation of a secret and a treacherous blow, is irreconcilable, as Ecclesiasticus says in chapter XXII, 27; and because enmity destroys friendship, which is as it were the life of friends; for the lover lives in the beloved, and the friend in the friend: for the soul is more where it loves than where it animates. "As is related of Orestes and Pylades, if it is not feigned, who would wish for one another, or to die together, because death was worse to them than not to live together," says St. Augustine, book IV of the Confessions, chapter V. Friendship therefore is the life of friends, enmity truly the death of the same. Then finally because perpetual enmities and quarrels, especially of those who were formerly friends, are most troublesome, so that a man would rather die than live in perpetual lawsuits and quarrels; and at the same time most dangerous, and not rarely end in mutual slaughter. Wherefore Moses, nay God, thus ordains to the Jews, Leviticus chapter XIX, 17: "Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart, but thou shalt openly rebuke him, that thou mayest not bear sin because of him. Thou shalt not seek revenge, nor be mindful of the injury of thy fellow citizens." Grace and Friendship Liberate, Which Keep Thou for Thyself; That Thou Mayest Not Become Reproachable. For liberate in Greek is ἐλευθεροῖ, that is, they give liberty, they free from servitude, they make free, noble, liberal, generous. This verse is not in the Hebrew: whence also it is annexed to the preceding verse under the same number; but it is transcribed from the Septuagint, where it thus has: Grace and friendship produce liberty, which, that thou mayest not be subject to reproaches, keep thou for thyself, and guard thy ways εὐσυναλλάκτως, that is, in a conciliatory manner, peacefully, benevolently, composedly; for εὐσυνάλλακτος is called liberal, peaceful, easy, composed, kind, benevolent, one who by his benevolence and composure of manners binds all to himself and reconciles them. Solomon had said that one ought not to litigate with a friend, but either to dissemble his injury, or to treat it with him secretly and amicably, so that friendship may not be dissolved, but may coalesce more strongly and be restored; now he adds the reason, that grace and friendship are a most noble virtue and endowment, which makes a man free, liberal and generous, so that the wise man would rather preserve it, and suffer some injury from a friend, than break friendship, and pursue or avenge the injury by litigation. For this is the mark of a liberal and generous mind, which produces another liberty, by which a man is freed from fear, dangers, quarrels and a thousand other evils, which are wont to follow from enmity. Whence Jansenius thus explains: It is signified, he says, that grace and friendship, that is, the favor and benevolence of God and men, make a man free and noble, so that he does not fear evil to himself in servile fear, but through the grace and friendship of God and men is secure, and lives with a free mind, and is often freed from many evils through them: therefore care must rightly be taken that these be guarded and strengthened, lest he who was formerly well fortified by the grace and friendship of others, having lost them, become reproachable. Thus also to each one all his ways and actions must be guarded, so that he may be easily dealt with, nor be harsh and stubborn, but always show himself easy and peaceful, so that, even if some controversy should arise, he may easily admit reconciliation, lest friendship once broken may not afterwards be easily repaired. Whence the Septuagint adds: Keep thy ways εὐσυναλλάκτως, that is, composedly and in a reconcilable manner, as if to say: So compose thy manners that thou mayest conciliate the favour of all, and daily acquire for thyself friends equal to thee, who may love thee, protect thee, and advance thee. In this matter we ought to imitate vines. For vines, as Plutarch says in the book On Avoiding Flatterers, "with spreading tendrils embracing the nearest shrubs with their little claws, become more flourishing: thus to attach to oneself more persons through friendship is most happy." Hence Epaminondas, as Aelian testifies in the Miscellaneous Histories, was wont to say: "One ought not to depart from the forum during the day before adding some new friend and old ones"; and they say that Scipio Africanus did this. When Socrates asked Croesus what great thing he had obtained from his kingdom, and he answered: "That I might avenge myself on my enemies and benefit my friends": "Much better," said he, "would you have done if you had made even those your friends." Thus Maximus in sermon 6. So when Pompey thought that enemies were to be subdued by the sword and friends to be cultivated by favour, Julius Caesar better thought that both were to be bound by benefits. For it is greater and better to make a friend out of an enemy than to destroy him and take vengeance. Further, τὸ εὐσυναλλάκτως, that is, in a reconcilable manner, St. Bernard excellently explains in sermon 2 on the Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul: "I judge," he says, "that thou who art in a congregation livest well if thou livest orderly, sociably and humbly. Orderly toward thyself, sociably toward thy neighbour, humbly toward God. Orderly, that thou in all thy conversation be careful to observe thy ways, both in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of thy neighbour, guarding thyself from sin and him from scandal: sociably, that thou strive to be loved and to love, showing thyself mild and affable, bearing not only patiently but also willingly the infirmities of thy brethren, both of manners and of body. Humbly, that when thou hast done all these things, thou strive to blow out the spirit of vanity, which is wont to arise from such things, and however much thou mayest sense it, deny it all consent whatsoever."
25:11
A word spoken in due season. Our author seems to have read a word spoken in its wheels, that is, a word adorned with certain fitting modes and rhetorical colors, by which as if by wheels it is conveyed into the ears of the hearers. Hence mystically Beda: "The words," he says, "of the preacher aptly fitted to the understanding of the hearers are evil, because they are born from the tree of life, that is, from the wisdom of God: golden, because they pour charity into the mind; they are also compared to couches, because they provide rest to the souls of the hearers: silvery, because they shine with the splendor of truth. Therefore he adds golden apples to the ornament of silvery couches, whoever superadds to divine utterances full of spiritual senses and mysteries, by which the soul is sweetly nourished and inflamed, fitting and simple doctrines at an opportune time, through the observance of which peace is here afforded to the soul, and eternal rest is attained." Others less fittingly interpret by "golden apples" the golden feet of couches, which Clement of Alexandria in the Paedagogus calls χρυσοτεύκτους, that is, resting upon gold, namely supported by golden feet, as if to say: Just as the feet of couches turned from gold, and rounded, so that they appear to be golden apples, both adorn and support the couches of dining rooms: so also a word spoken in due season. Less fittingly, I say, both because golden apples are said to be in couches, not couches resting upon golden apples; and because an opportune time is said rather to adorn a wise word, than to be adorned by it. Secondly, according to the Hebrew text, very fittingly a word opportunely spoken is compared to golden apples placed in bemaskioth, that is, in sculptures, chasings, or lattices of silver, which are namely enclosed in silver cases, but latticed, so that through the openings of the lattices the golden apple which is within may be seen: for the root שכה sacha signifies to see and to behold things hidden, painted, figured and skillfully wrought. Whence Symmachus translates, in transparent cases. Perhaps our author calls these cases couches by Hebraism, because just as a man rests in a couch, so golden apples rest in their case. Now if gold was to be adorned with another precious metal, certainly none was more fitting than silver: "Thus," says Jansenius, "a word wisely and opportunely spoken is compared to golden apples in the chasings of silver, as if placed in couches and repositories. For what greater variety, what greater splendor and delight could be exhibited to the eyes, than the sight of a golden apple placed in the lattices of silver?" Indeed in Esther, chapter 1, verse 6, we read of golden and silver couches, which here we assert to be golden apples in silver chasings. The sense therefore, says Jansenius: Just as golden apples affixed to silver couches, or hanging from them, greatly adorn the couches, refresh and delight, both on account of the variety and on account of the elegance of the art: so a word spoken in due season greatly affects the hearers, and wonderfully adorns the one uttering it: for a prudent word if not spoken in its own time, is indeed like a golden apple, and of much value in itself; but if it be joined to its own time, in which it may be fittingly and opportunely spoken, it is like a golden apple inserted into silver couches, greatly refreshing and affecting men: for in ancient times the richest and most powerful kings had golden and silver couches, and adorned them with wonderful variety, as is found in Esther, chapter 1. The Hebrews have משכיות miskabot, that is, couches. Now they read משכיות maskiot, that is, chasings or lattices. Whence the Septuagint translates, a golden apple in a setting of sardius; Symmachus and Theodotion, in conspicuous places of silver; the Syriac, a golden apple in the work of molten silver; Pagninus, in pictures of silver; the Chaldean, in images of silver; Cajetan, in cuttings; others, in chasings; R. Abraham, in hidden places, or in treasures of silver; Vatablus, in chased vessels of silver; Arias, in transparent cases of silver. Therefore there is here a threefold reading and version of the three primary languages, and consequently a threefold sense. For the Latin, Hebrew and Greek differ from one another, and therefore each deserves its own explanation. First therefore the Latin Vulgate interpreter seems to understand golden apples wrought by a goldsmith, which are suspended from silver couches, that is, hanging from the silvery and chased covering of the couches. For thus in Esther, chapter 1, verse 6, King Ahasuerus for the sake of magnificence in his royal banquet prepared golden and silver couches, so that the guests might recline in them, in which for the sake of elegance golden apples could be carved or affixed, so that they might feast the eyes of the guests, and at the same time sharpen the appetite and desire for food. Thirdly, according to the Septuagint, a word opportunely spoken is compared to a golden apple in a necklace of sardius, or, as others read, in a sardius pearl, in which Our Lord reads in a pearl, or with a sardius pearl, that is a pearl adorned with sardius. For sardius is a gem of red or blood-colored hue. Thus therefore a word opportune is as it were a golden apple, which a golden sardius necklace, or a golden sardius pearl, adorns like apples, namely it depends from the necklace or pearl and adorns it. For sardius is a ruby, called by the Hebrews odem or adam, as it were Adam, because Adam's body was formed from red earth, Gen. II. Sardius here is as it were a bed, a golden apple is as it were a word timely spoken. This maxim teaches gnomically that in every matter of the greatest importance is time, and its opportuneness. For all things have their time, says Solomon Eccles. III, 1, and all things under heaven consist in their moments. Hence Pittacus called the knowledge of time τὴν ἀρίστην μάθησιν, that is the best discipline. Cato in Plutarch said that three things especially displeased him: first, that he had passed a day without doing something good; second, that he had sailed the sea, when he could have traveled by land; third, that he had entrusted a secret to a woman. But time is of the greatest importance especially in words and discourse: for any word whatever, if spoken wisely, if it be spoken inopportunely, appears inept and foolish, and thus instead of bringing praise and honor to the speaker, it brings contempt and mockery. Conversely, a word however mediocre, indeed even vulgar and common, if spoken opportunely, brings great praise and admiration to the speaker. Indeed arguments, comparisons and maxims in rhetoric and philosophy are not so efficacious in themselves as from the opportuneness of the time in which they are spoken. Whence Solomon Eccles. X, 10: But after industry shall follow wisdom, that is, after study, that is, if you apply industry and study to time, by speaking namely what they feel, at the time when they feel it and when it is at hand: thus indeed you will speak things most aptly and most wisely. And Ecclus. XX, 6: There is one that is silent and is not wanting in sense of speech, and there is one that is silent knowing the apt time. Hence Homer attributed to Nestor μέλιτος γλυκίων ὀπὶ, that is a voice sweeter than honey. Hence Pericles had the cognomen Olympius, because he would strike his hearers as it were with thunder and lightning, and subject them to himself. Demosthenes, as Quintilian testifies, lib. X cap. 1, had such a talent, that you would marvel at him more every day. Tropologically, the Author of the Greek Catena: "A word opportune," he says, "is a golden apple, placed in vessels of silver, that is, in the bodies of the Saints, which are silver. Moreover their word is Christ the Lord, who said: I am the way, the truth, and the life. This excellent word much better and more august than all words had for a time, than gold and silver is to every precious stone." Moreover in Hebrew for maskiot, that is carvings, St. Thomas reads, in confessions, or, as others, in comparisons; thus indeed Scotus cites this passage in him, lib. IV Sent. dist. 17, at the end: Golden apples in confessions of silver, who speaks a word in his time. Thus indeed, he says, confessions and sins uttered from the mouth of the penitent, and absolutions uttered from the mouth of the priest, are words spoken in their time, and they as it were golden apples adorn confessions, that is the beds of penance, which the sinner spreads for himself, while confessing himself before the priest he prostrates himself in the bed of penance; silvery, because this is done in sincerity and splendor of grace, since confession, if rightly done, brings grace to the sinner, by which he shines as it were like silver, more splendidly than silver, through whose most subtle pores the splendor of gold could be seen if one looked carefully; but if one looked from a distance, one would seem to see nothing but silver. To this pertains that Cant. cap. 1, 11: "We will make thee borders of gold, vermiculated with silver." Therefore, first, just as the elegant beauty of a golden apple skillfully enclosed in silver lattices, which notably delights and captivates the eyes of those beholding it, is wonderful: so likewise the beauty of a weighty sentence opportunely spoken is wonderful. Second, just as great is the value of gold wrapped in silver, so great is the value of a sentence prudently uttered. Third, just as in a golden apple enclosed in silver lattices there is great and fitting variety of gold, silver, lattices, figures, sculptures, etc., which wonderfully refreshes those beholding it: so likewise in the sayings of the wise there is great variety of wisdom, eloquence, figures, tropes, similitudes in copious abundance, and variegated plenty, which nourishes and refreshes those hearing. Fourth, just as a golden apple lying hidden within is veiled and adorned outwardly by silver lattices, so that to one looking it first appears as the aspect of latticed silver, then to one seeing through completely appears the form of the golden apple lying hidden within: so likewise the discourse of the wise has outwardly a becoming phrase, and as it were a covering of eloquence, which is compared to sonorous silver: but inwardly it has a hidden sense of wisdom, which corresponds to gold. This is to be seen especially in parables, such as these of Solomon, which outwardly exhibit an elegant appearance of parable in composed and reticulated words, but inwardly show to one examining them thoroughly an arcane, namely parabolic and symbolic sense. Wherefore R. Moses in the book More hannebuchim, that is the Guide of the Perplexed and Leader of the Doubting, cap. I, in Galatinus, lib. I On the Mysteries of Faith, cap. vi, translates it, as a golden apple in a silver net, so a word spoken to its two faces, that is to say, Just as a golden apple enclosed in a silver net has as it were two faces, one external of the silver net, the other internal and hidden of the golden apple: so also a parable has a twofold sense, one external and open, which is the literal; the other internal and hidden, which is the mystical, namely allegorical, or anagogical, or cabalistic. See therefore with what artifice, and how exquisite an art a parable ought to be elaborated, with how much splendor of words, how grave a sentence ought to be adorned and concealed. Thus R. Levi, R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Lyra, and our Pineda, lib. III On the Affairs of Solomon, cap. xvi. There is added the Zurich version, golden apples in vessels of silver wrought, is a word timely uttered; Vatablus, golden apples in wrought silver. And he adds: "Properly the Hebrew word signifies cases, in which precious stones are enclosed, yet so that they may be seen, in French, claires voies. These cases moreover were made of silver, where there were openings, through which those golden apples might be seen by Solomon himself." An opportune word is like a golden apple in a silver case. It is likely that in the time of Solomon, who abounded in gold and silver beyond all kings, these cases were in use in the ornament both of the royal palace, and of the temple, and of private persons; and perhaps they wore them like ornaments from the neck, as nobles now wear golden and silver bullae over the breast, which on account of their roundness are called by some golden and silver apples. Others understand by these cases abacuses or cupboards and repositories, in which Solomon's golden furnishings were stored, which were closed by silver latticed doors, through the openings of which the golden furnishings could be seen. Cajetan translates it, golden apples in settings of silver, a word ordered upon wheels of gold, and thus explains it, that is to say, Just as if some craftsman should form a small tree, or shrub of silver with various intersections as it were in branches cut, producing golden apples, will exhibit not only a precious, but an artistic and beautiful spectacle to the eyes of those beholding: so likewise he who orders words upon his wheels, gains the favor of those hearing; for the discourse is both precious, and beautiful, and wonderful, ordered upon his wheels, that is upon topical places, upon rhetorical colors, upon elegant and fitting phrases and modes of speaking. For these are the wheels of discourse, by which discourse is conveyed to persuade and instruct the hearer. Thus Cajetan. Third, the Septuagint translates in Greek, as golden apples in a setting of sardius, or, as the Author of the Greek Catena reads it, that a golden apple is to a setting of sardius, so is a fitting word to its speaker. Some expound this by hypallage, that is to say, that as a setting of sardius is to a golden apple, so is a fitting word to its speaker. For sardius is a precious stone which is accustomed to be joined to golden rings like a gem, or to golden collars and chains like a boss, and to hang upon the breast. For sardius agrees with the golden color: for it is red like gold; whence in a similar phrase it is added among the Septuagint: As sardius is set in golden work, so is a wise word to one who obeys gold. In a similar manner Ecclesiasticus says in chapter xxxii, verse 7: "A carbuncle stone in the ornament of gold, and (thus) the comparison of musicians in a feast of wine. As in the working of gold the sign is an emerald, so is the number of musicians in pleasant and moderate wine." Mystically the Author of the Greek Catena: As, he says, a golden apple agrees with sardius, so the knowledge of God agrees with a chaste and pure soul. For by gold is designated knowledge, by sardius honest action. I doubt whether in the Septuagint for σαρδίου one should not read ἀργυρίου, that is silver. For thus the Hebrew, Chaldean, Latin, and even the Syriac, which is accustomed to follow the Septuagint, have it. Then the sense would be fitting, that is to say, as a golden apple set in a silver ring like a clasp, or hung on a silver chain like a boss, adorns and beautifies it in the same way: so likewise fitness adorns a word, if namely it be uttered in a suitable and opportune place and time. Hence the Syriac translates, as a golden apple in the work of cast silver. Which again you may expound thus, that is to say, as a golden apple placed in a silver bowl or dish, appears more beautiful and splendid: so likewise a wise word uttered at an opportune time acquires a certain new beauty, and appears more beautiful than itself. To this also the vulgate reading could be recalled: for a silver bowl or dish, the Hebrew metaphor can be called a bed, because in it, as in a bed, a golden apple is placed and rests with beauty. This sense is very plain and obvious: for golden apples, both those made by craft and those natural and living, are accustomed to be set forth in silver dishes, and to be exhibited to guests. A Word Spoken in Its Season. In Hebrew, beophnau, that is, spoken in its wheels. But what have wheels to do with words, and with silver beds? It is answered that allusion is made to the wheeled beds of the ancients, such as we still see in the houses of nobles and princes, which by wheels placed beneath them can easily be moved and rolled from one hall to another, from one dining room to another: for a square bed has the appearance of a chariot, to which wheels can and are accustomed to be placed beneath: this bed was formerly covered with silver plates, or was accustomed to be covered and adorned with a covering of chased silver, and still is among princes; but above, four small columns stood at the four angles of it, with round capitals of gold in the form of apples, which are therefore here called golden apples, which for this reason appeared to rest upon and as if to be carried by the bed and silver wheels. Again, golden apples from the sky, or from the ceiling of the silver bed, were accustomed to be hung. The sense therefore is, that is to say, as golden apples resting upon and as if carried by a bed and silver wheels, exhibit to those beholding them great value equally with beauty: so likewise a word in its wheels, that is, in its circumstances, spoken circumspectly, aptly and opportunely, exhibits great ornament and fruit to those hearing it: as is especially evident in the word of God, which speaks inwardly to the soul, so as to lead it from sin to justice, or from lesser justice and holiness to greater. For if these things are said fittingly and at an opportune time, they convert and sanctify the soul. For this is efficacious and congruous grace, which is namely given at a fitting time, and with a fitting disposition of the hearer to receive it and to obey it. Furthermore, words spoken opportunely are rightly said to be spoken in their wheels. First, because like wheels they are round and aptly composed, so that there is nothing rough in them, nothing hard, nothing fractious. Thus Cicero, in the book On Famous Orators: "The apt, he says, and as it were round connection of words;" and in On the Orator: "But Thucydides is rather fractious, and not, so to speak, round." And Juvenal: Either twist a curtailed discourse with rounded enthymeme. And Horace: The Muse gave to the Greeks with rounded mouth to speak. Secondly, because like wheels they run together smoothly and turn in the soul of the hearer. Thirdly, because like wheels they nowhere go astray, but in their orbits they turn plainly, securely and swiftly. Fourthly, because like wheels they carry smoothly and gently, both the words and the sense of the words to the ears and mind of the hearers. Fifthly, because just as a wheel is fitted and made equal to its orbit, so also the word must be fitted and made equal to the time and occasion. A word therefore spoken in its wheels is a word well-fitted, composed and adapted to the time. Hence the Hebrews by אופן ophan, that is wheel, metaphorically signify circumstance, manner, occasion, congruence. It is a metaphor from chariot-driving; for what the charioteer is in the chariot, this the mind is in speech: for the mind is the charioteer of the tongue and speech. Opportunity therefore, or opportune time, namely if the word be spoken in a fitting manner, place, time, etc., is as it were a wheel which carries the word as a golden apple, and inserts it into the mind of the hearer; for if the same word be spoken at another and inopportune time, it will not be grasped by the hearer, but rather will be refuted and rejected, as experience makes plain. Hence those who strive to persuade another of something, seek out convenient occasions and soft times for speaking. Wherefore for "a word spoken in its wheels," that is in its time, others translate, "spoken in its revolution"; Banus, "in its circumference"; Pagninus, "in its modes"; others, "in its circumstances"; the Chaldean and Vatablus, "a word spoken opportunely"; Symmachus and the Vulgate, "in its time"; R. Solomon, "a discourse pronounced upon a base," that is, rightly founded and fixed; but Aben-Ezra and R. Moses translate, "spoken in its faces," or "in both its faces"; for they hold that א in אפנע aphnau is not radical, but servile and added, as it is in אשמורה asmura, that is custody, from the root שמר scamar, that is, he kept. Consequently they hold that aphnau is radically the same as פנין panau, that is its faces, or to both its faces, so that it is a dual. Now a word spoken to its faces R. Moses expounds as spoken according to the literal and mystical sense, that is spoken circumspectly, in that namely before it is uttered, it looks at and considers all the circumstances and conditions of place, time and persons, so that it may only exert and bring itself forth at an opportune time, as our translator rendered it. From what has been said it is clear that golden apples are not natural, true and living ones, such as citrons, oranges and quinces, but artificial ones, namely formed by a goldsmith from gold, are taken here by interpreters everywhere. Our Salazar however more fittingly and elegantly takes true golden apples, namely quinces, which by their odor, equally as roses and other flowers, refresh guests, and resist drunkenness, and for that reason they were wont to be scattered on the couches and tables of guests, as Athenaeus teaches, book III: "Many quinces," he says, "they sent to the couch of the king, and many myrtle leaves, and elegant circles of roses and violets," so that the sense is, as if to say, Just as golden apples, that is quinces or melons, sent upon silver couches, that is dining couches, or banqueting ones, to arrange the guests, ward off drunkenness: so also a word spoken in its time, or with its wheels, namely some obscure problem opportunely thrown out during the banquet, wonderfully comes to the aid of the guests' drunkenness, or rather prevents it; for lest minds with dull heads heavy with wine become unfit for discussing it, no one does not drink temperately. [The text continues with discussion of dependent clauses regarding emerald vessels; others, a diadem, or golden crown; others, as our translator, a shining pearl; others, a golden prayer-shawl, a placating one, that is a necklace pleasing to all, and alluring and pleasing all. Again, for "the wise" from the Hebrew it can be translated with Cajetan, "wise" in the nominative, so that the wise one who reproves is here compared to a golden apple and a shining pearl. Moreover, the ancient interpreters vary here: for the Septuagint translates differently, the Chaldean differently, our translator differently. Therefore this threefold version here demands likewise a threefold sense.] First, the Septuagint and from them the Syriac version translate that a precious sardius was bound or inserted as an earring, thus a wise word sent forth into an obedient ear is an ear. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks, where correction and the correcting word, or wise speech, is compared to a sardius; but the corrected one and the instructed one who obeys the word is compared to a golden earring, as if to say: Just as a sardius is aptly joined with a golden earring and adorns it: so likewise a wise monitor and admonition is aptly joined with an obedient ear and wonderfully adorns it. To this sense Bede accommodates the Latin Vulgate: "Rightly," he says, "the humble hearer is compared to a golden earring, who, while he willingly lends his ear to the one rebuking and reproving, already prepares himself to receive the brightness of heavenly wisdom, already approaches the vision of supernal light." Then moreover he adds concerning the teacher: "Rightly the learned doctor is likened to a shining pearl, because while he shows the correction of morals, while he shows supernal knowledge to those desiring and piously seeking it, he attaches, as it were, to golden adornment a greater and more graceful splendor of a burning gem." To this pertains the version of Cajetan: A golden earring and a necklace of pure gold, the wise one rebuking upon the obedient ear, as if to say: Correction and discipline adorns both the one rebuking and the one rebuked, both the teacher and the docile disciple: for he who receives it with his ear is in the place of a golden earring; but he who brings it forth with his mouth is in the place of a necklace and golden torque. Second, the Chaldean translates, a golden earring and vessels of emerald, wise correction in the obedient ear. By vessels of emerald some understand precious cups made of emerald, which the rich and noble used in banquets, and with which they would drink to one another with wishes of health, as if to say: Just as a mighty emperor, or master and president of the banquet, offers to the guests a precious cup, for example adorned with emeralds, and in it excellent wine, but sharp and bitter (whence the Italian proverb: May bitter wine be dear to you; so also for the vicious; for those with spleen sharp and bitter things are beneficial, sweet things harmful, for bitter indeed strengthens and binds the stomach, which sweet wine loosens and dissolves); but the guest receives this cup as a symbol of affection and as health-giving, with a similar wish of health eagerly and drinks it: so likewise the wise teacher offers to the disciple bitter discipline and correction, so that he may cut away his vices, like a cup and bitter wine, but precious and health-giving, which therefore the disciple ought to receive and drink lovingly and eagerly. Yet any vessels of emerald can be understood here; for emerald both in price and in green color shining forth stands out among gems, and wonderfully delights the eyes of all. See what is said in the Apocalypse xxi, 19, where I said that the green emerald is the sign of virginity, and is an amulet against poisons: so also correction guards the virginity of the soul, and is an amulet against all vices. Third, Our translator most excellently from the Hebrew translates, a golden earring and a shining pearl, who rebukes the wise one and the obedient ear; and the Zurich version, a golden torque and a golden necklace, is the rebuke of the wise one to the gold-obeying ear. Thus he compared discipline to a golden torque, cap. 1, 9. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Correction severe, but mature and friendly, which the wise one applies opportunely to the listener, and therefore to the obedient one, is not base and infamous, but a noble, precious and most beautiful thing like a golden earring and a shining pearl, which therefore is a great ornament to both the one rebuking and the one rebuked, equally as to salvation. Whence Pagninus translates clearly, as a golden earring and an ornament of pure gold is, who rebukes the wise one to whom there is an obedient ear. Our translator for ornament of pure gold better translates, a shining pearl, because a golden earring properly was a circle like a gold ring inserted, from which hung a splendid pearl like a necklace, as St. Jerome teaches in Ezekiel xvi, and from him our Pineda in Job cap. xlii, vers. 11, num. 12. Furthermore, a severe monitor, or severe admonition or correction, is rightly compared to a golden earring and a shining pearl. First, because, just as a golden earring is precious, and does not disgrace, but adorns and beautifies the ear; whence an earring was formerly a sign of nobility, as Rhodiginus teaches from Plato and Apuleius, lib. III, cap. xxv: so likewise correction is precious, and does not disgrace, but adorns and ennobles the hearer and the obedient one; for great is his praise, that he obeys the one rebuking. For this is a sign of great humility and obedience, equally as of prudence. Secondly, just as an earring pierces and perforates the ear with pain, and then adheres firmly to the ear, and by constantly tugging stimulates it, and adorns it like a necklace: so likewise sharp correction strikes and perforates the ear and mind, indeed the innermost depths of the hearer's mind, and then adheres firmly to it; for the corrected person, pricked by this stimulus, comes to his senses and retains the correction steadfastly, nor does he allow it to escape him. Therefore, just as an earring is affixed to those who have dull and obtuse ears and hearing, so that by its prick it may excite and sharpen their dulled faculty of hearing: so to those who are of their own brain and stiff-necked, sharp correction is applied, which bends the neck and makes them obedient to the law. Truly Plutarch in his Moral.: "Remedies," he says, "immediately bite, or offend, afterwards they confer health and pleasure. Thus wholesome admonitions are at first somewhat bitter, afterwards most pleasant when corrected." Thirdly, formerly in an earring, just as in a ring, they would engrave the name of their God, or of something supremely loved: so likewise this correction is received by the wise man as a thing supremely useful, health-giving and beloved, indeed divine and proceeding from God. This is what God says through Hosea, chapter ii, 13: "And I will visit upon her the days of the Baals, in which she burned incense, and adorned herself with her earring and her jewels." For God engraved in the earring seemed to man to be always standing at his ear, and speaking to him in his ear, and perpetually admonishing him of his worship. Hence Jacob, burying the idols of his household, at the same time buried the earrings with them, Genesis xxxv, 4. Hence also Gideon made an ephod from earrings, which the Hebrews afterwards worshipped as an idol, Judges viii, 24. And Aaron melted down a golden calf from earrings, Exodus xxxii, 2 and 4. Rabbi Abraham adds that the Hebrews were accustomed to engrave on earrings that which they wished always to have in memory and mind. Therefore correction is compared to an earring, because he who corrects gives it to the corrected, so that he may be perpetually mindful of it, and according to it correct his morals, and compose his life, and in like manner he who receives correction benevolently accepts it, and obeys it. Fourthly, golden earrings are accustomed to have a shining pearl attached to them, which wonderfully adorns the ear as much as the earring, and both are indeed precious, but of slight weight: for if someone wished to attach some very heavy mass of gold to the ears, it would not at all adorn the ears, but rather burden them, and tear them apart shamefully. Let correction be similar, not of slight value, but yet of slight weight, that is to say, let it be prudent and wise, but nevertheless gentle and mild, lest by the weight of grave anger or sadness it press down, depress or oppress the mind of the corrected. See the twelve qualities of pearls recounted, Apocalypse xxi, 21, which it is easy to adapt to correction and to the one who corrects. Most excellently Plutarch in his Moral.: "Just as a physician," he says, "when he has cut the flesh, does not immediately abandon the cut, but waters and soothes it: so he who has rebuked more sharply, ought by the remaining habit of life to soften that trouble." In the same place: "A remedy not applied in the proper way causes pain without benefit: so rebuke not applied as it ought to be. And the same thing a friend does with trouble, that a flatterer does with pleasure. For each harms." In the same place: "Just as the wound of Telephus was healed by the same spear that had inflicted the wound: so the wound of rebuke will be healed by the same one who made it." Another: "Just as cold both causes and removes chilblains: likewise fire heals burns: so the speech of a friend who rebukes heals by the same means the pain which it causes." Fifthly, an earring is a symbol of discipline and obedience, because, just as an earring is inserted into the ear, so also the word of discipline is inserted into the ear and mind. Hence of Christ it is said, Psalm xxxix, 7: "Sacrifice and oblation thou wouldst not; but ears thou hast fitted to me," in Hebrew, thou hast pierced for me, namely with the awl of servitude, by which thou hast hung the earring of obedience upon my ears, and inserted it in my mind. Whence "then said I: Behold I come: In the head of the book it is written of me, that I should do thy will, O my God, I have desired it, and thy law in the midst of my heart." Which words the Apostle cites, Hebrews x, 5. See the things said there. Hence also that of Christ obedient to the Father even unto the death of the cross: "The Lord God hath opened my ear; and I do not resist: I have not gone backwards. My body I gave to the strikers, and my cheeks to them that plucked them: my face I have not turned away from them that rebuked me, and spit upon me," Isaiah l, 5. Finally, the earring was a symbol of reconciliation and peace; whence the friends of Job, who in disputing with him had often rebuked him harshly, repenting brought to him each a golden earring as a sign of reconciliation, Job cap. xlii, 11. Whence also Plautus in the Epidicus: "Do you not remember," he says, "that I brought you a golden earring on your birthday?" Where the Scholiast: "Those who had injured their friends in some way during the year," he says, "were accustomed to placate them on their birthday by the gift of earrings, so that, forgetting the injuries, they might be restored to favor with them. Correction therefore, which as it were a golden earring is given by the one correcting and received by the one corrected, signifies that it is given in a friendly and peaceful manner by the one correcting, and received by the one corrected, so that if any injury or enmity had previously existed between them, this might now be obliterated through correction, and the former friendship restored; for through correction as it were the ear, indeed the mouth and mind of the one correcting, is joined, united and bound to the ear and mind of him who is corrected. Similar to this maxim are those of the wise men in Maximum, serm. 31: Hermes: "Reproof, if acknowledged, O Emperor, leads the reproved to a desire which he did not previously know." Isocrates: "Just as honey bites the ulcerated; but to those constituted according to nature it is sweet: So also is the discourse of Philosophers." Aristonymus: "He who takes away from discourse the freedom of reproving, does the same as if he should take the bitterness from wormwood." Phocion: "Neither the sun from the world, nor freedom of speech from the assembly of men should be removed." Anonymous: "As if you take hellebore in smaller quantity, it offends more, because it adheres to the viscera and infects the body; but if you take it in greater quantity, it will help; for it will break forth more freely: so a friend should not be rebuked, except with that vehemence which will free his soul from vice. For milder expostulation saddens the friend without any fruit." Plutarch in the Moralia: "Physicians sprinkle some sugar on bitter medicines, so as to entice the sick to take them: so parents ought to mitigate the harshness of reproof with gentleness." Again: "So let correction be similar."
25:13
In Hebrew, it makes the soul of the lord return; the Septuagint says: as the eruption of snow at harvest time extinguishes the heat, and is pleasing to those laboring in the heat, so a faithful messenger to those who sent him, indeed recreates and refreshes the minds of those who made use of him. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena, the Syriac version: as when snow descends at harvest time it cools the heat, so the messenger, etc., brings back the soul yesterday; the Chaldean: refreshes the mind of his lord; Aben-Ezra: brings back: "As if," he says, "the mind of the lord had been joined to the departing messenger, and finally upon his return had been restored to the lord's body, because he proved himself a faithful messenger." R. Levi: As the cold, he says, proceeding from snow is most pleasant in the time of summer, and preserves vital heat lest it vanish on account of the excessive heat of the air, which at that season is immoderate, and drives it back to the innermost recesses of the body: so a faithful messenger delights him by whom he was sent, and restores the mind to his lord, and gives him life, when he has duly completed his desired task, and has duly carried out the business of his mission. Thus he. You will ask, what is the cold of snow on the day of harvest? Since in summer and harvest there is no snow, but extreme heat, unless God works a miracle, such as the Blessed Virgin worked at Rome under Pope Liberius, when she designated and outlined for him the place of the basilica of St. Mary Major on the Esquiline to be built, by snow sent from heaven on the 5th of August, when there are extreme heats in the City. It is answered first, that snow is gathered by the rich in winter, so that in summer they place it in cups and goblets, and thus drink cold wine, indeed some mix snow with wine so that they may drink it more cold, although physicians disapprove of this as harmful to health and natural heat. See Francis Valesius, On Sacred Philosophy, chapter 61. But these are the delicacies of a few rich men, which do not pertain to the harvest and poor reapers. Second, the wind, especially the North wind, drawing cold from the snows that fill the mountains and Alps even in summer, carries it to the valleys below and to the fields of the reapers, and wonderfully cools them, as we experience at Rome, which is surrounded by mountains. Whence he significantly says, "the cold of snow," that is, cold drawn from snow by the wind, not snow itself. Third, snow itself sometimes, when abundant, rolls down from snowy mountains into the fields subject to them, and there refreshes those reaping and extinguishes the heat. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as cold blown by a snowy wind, or by the snow itself, upon reapers burning and sweating with heat mitigates the heat, and wonderfully recreates and refreshes them, while it cools the fires of the sun, wipes away the sweat of labors, and tempers their burning breaths: so likewise a faithful messenger refreshes the soul of him who sent him, burning with solicitude and cares, from this heat of cares, cools and consoles him. For just as such cold, greatly desired and awaited, recreates and restores both the minds and bodies of those burning and laboring: so also such a messenger, after the business has been faithfully completed, returning with his good news refreshes the laboring and panting soul of the sender with desire, and renders it tranquil and peaceful; or, as the Hebrew has it, will restore his soul, as if it had collapsed and become languid from impatience at delay. This teaching therefore admonishes messengers of their duty, that they consider with what desire those who sent them remain suspended, so long as they complete the assigned office, and how much refreshment and consolation a faithfully executed mission brings to them. Thus Jansenius, Baynus and others. Note: The soul is called by most physicists the very respiration itself, or the spirit which is drawn in by breathing; and Diogenes, as those who wrote of his doctrines relate, thought that the essence of the soul was in that air. But however the physicist may feel about the essence of the soul, because life is preserved by respiration, he calls respiration itself the soul, and the ease or tranquility of this very thing the rest of the soul. Thus to make the soul rest is for physicists to make respiration easy; but this is done by extinguishing fiery heat, and by tempering the man. Aptly is solicitude compared to heat, and the faithful messenger to the cold of snow: first, because just as heat burns and torments the body, so solicitude burns and torments the soul; but the faithful messenger, like snow and snowy breeze, soothes and calms this burning and torment, both because the soul, which was previously anxious and solicitous, finds rest in his faithfulness; and also because it experiences in reality through him that his affairs, full of cares, are faithfully and successfully transacted and dispatched. Again, just as cold is greatly desired in heat, so also is the faithful messenger in difficult and perplexing matters. Second, because just as wind is swift, and swiftly carries the cold of snows to the reapers: so also the faithful messenger swiftly accomplishes the perplexing matters of his master, and relieves and pacifies him from solicitude, so that he may rest peacefully in his faithfulness. Third, just as sweating reapers greatly need refreshment: for to extinguish their heat, neither rain nor a gentle breeze suffices, but the snowy North wind is required, which penetrates and pervades the innermost parts with snowy rigour. Whence the Hebrew צנה tsinna signifies acute cold, which like a spear or dart penetrates the innermost parts. So likewise, to relieve the anxious cares of the master, any servant or messenger does not suffice, but an experienced and faithful messenger is required, into whose faithfulness and bosom he may resign and lay down all the heat of his cares. Aben-Ezra translates tsinna as shield, because the reaper arms himself with snow like a shield against heat: so also the master arms himself with the faithfulness of the messenger like a shield against the cares and anxieties of business. Fourth, just as the cold of snow in harvest refreshes men oppressed by heat, and reapers panting from reaping, all the more so the more rarely, newly and unexpectedly it comes: so likewise the faithful messenger is rare, and by his diligence he often anticipates and exceeds the expectation of his master who sent him, and thereby all the more gladdens and exhilarates him. Such a messenger was Moses, sent by God to free the Hebrews from Egypt; for he faithfully accomplished this, and thus wonderfully refreshed both God and the Hebrews. Likewise Joshua, who sent by God and Moses to lead the Hebrews into the Promised Land, faithfully completed the same by fighting. Such also was Caleb, who sent by Moses with Joshua to spy out the holy Land, when the other spies said it was impregnable, showed by God's aid that it was easy to conquer, and therefore these two alone entered it, Num. xiii, 31. Such in our age was Thomas More, who as a legate of Henry VIII, often sent into France, Flanders, and finally Cambrai, with wonderful dexterity made, and established peace between the greatest monarchs of the Christian world, to the great joy and good of Henry and all orders. Whence by him created Chancellor of England, he was in his favour, until resisting his lust, he was punished with death and died a glorious martyrdom. Mystically, such a messenger to God the Father was Christ, who sent by him for the redemption and salvation of men, faithfully accomplishing the same, greatly exhilarated God, Angels and men. Such also was Gabriel the Archangel announcing, nay bringing to the Blessed Virgin the incarnation of Christ. Such also were the Apostles sent by Christ for the conversion of the Gentiles. Whence Bede: "The faithful messenger," he says, "is a Catholic teacher; but he who sends him is the Lord. Moreover the day of harvest in heat is the time of preaching amid the fervours of persecutors, of which it was said: The harvest indeed is great, but the labourers are few. The cold of snow in harvest is some rest of preachers from persecution resisting. Rightly therefore it is said: As the cold of snow in the day of harvest, etc., because just as it is desirable for preachers of the word, when from the rage of infidels they perhaps receive some refreshment, and the faculty of teaching is not denied: so it is evident that those whom the Lord sent to preach are pleasing to him, when they faithfully complete the legation received from him even amid adversities of those resisting."
25:14
In Hebrew, vapors, and wind, and not rain, a man boasting himself in a gift of falsehood; in Chaldean, of the day of clouds and wind, in which there is no rain, is like a man who glories in a gift of falsehood; Vatablus, one who makes magnificent promises, but in performing deceives; the Septuagint, as winds, and clouds, and most clear rains, so he who glories in a deceitful gift; Symmachus, in an unjust gift. These three things, namely clouds, wind and rains not following, can be compared in three ways; whence a threefold comparison results, and consequently a threefold sense. First, plainly, that is to say, Just as if clouds arise, and a rain-bearing wind, such as the South wind, blows through, they portend and as it were promise rain, and yet afterwards no rain follows: so is the boastful man who promises much, and yet does not fulfill it. Thus the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus and others commonly. Second, thus: Just as if clouds thicken, it is a sign of rain, but if a strong wind arises (such as the North wind), it scatters and disperses the clouds, so that no rain follows: so, etc. Third, thus, so that "not following" may refer both to clouds and wind, as well as to rains, that is to say as Cajetan says: Just as sometimes clouds are seen about to arise, wind about to arise, and rain about to arise, and yet none of these arises or follows: so is he who promises much and performs little. This the Septuagint seem to have wished when they translate, as winds, clouds and most clear rains, or, as the Vatican manuscript reads, most clear, so that it refers to all three; most clear, that is transparent and subtle, because thin and scanty, that is to say, Just as most clear winds behave, that is which clear the air, and put to flight the clouds; and just as most clear clouds, that is thin, transparent and subtle, which are dispersed by a light breeze and wind; and just as most clear rains, that is rare, subtle and scanty, so that they do not bring the just quantity of water which is required to irrigate the earth: so does he behave who makes magnificent promises to all. For he cannot provide these to all; wherefore he must deceive faith, and provide to few, or to none, what he promised. According to the first comparison, which seems plainer and more obvious, the sense is, that is to say, Just as empty and barren clouds and wind, with the hope of rain which they gave, deceive men when rain does not follow, especially when it is eagerly desired for the refreshment of heat and the fertility of the earth, and thus men are afterwards affected with greater sadness and annoyance: so also he who promises much, which he afterwards does not perform, by his expectation frustrates men, inflicts upon them a twofold annoyance, both because he has made them wait, and because he does not satisfy the expectation given. Aptly, the boastful man in his words and promises is compared to clouds and wind, because clouds are high things, and wind appears to be a thing most empty and of nothing and unstable, so that his pride and windy emptiness and inconstancy may be signified. Again, just as days in which dark clouds cover the sun, and dreadful winds with a roar sound forth on the earth, which promise rain, and yet do not perform it, are dark, sad, melancholic and very troublesome: so likewise he who boasts greatly and promises much, and yet exhibits little in actual fact, is burdensome to all, troublesome, disliked and hated. Such are the arrogant, the ostentatious and the boastful. The reason is, that pride and boasting make them magniloquent, so that they promise great things beyond their strength, which they afterwards neither will nor can perform. Hence all things which have much of ostentation have little of reality and truth; and those which have much of pomp give little of utility and fruit: for here the whole is consumed in pomp; just as trees and vines which display a luxuriance of leaves give little of grapes and wine, because all their sap goes into leaves. Precisely in the same way the matter stands here. According to the second comparison a new reason is given why one does not perform his promises, namely lightness of mind and inconstancy: this the North wind represents, that is to say, Just as the North wind scatters clouds heavy with vapor so that they may bear rain, and makes them wandering and barren: so likewise lightness of mind causes that one does not fulfill what he has promised, but he repents of the promise made, and annuls and cancels it; for such a one is like a wind and a mobile breeze, which immediately passes by, and changes place and condition. This is to be seen in Religious who by lightness of mind desert the Order which they have undertaken, and become apostates. Wherefore Superiors who are wise carefully examine the disposition of novices, and if they see them to be light, changeable and inconstant, they do not admit them to Religion. To this pertains that saying of Ovid: Changeable son of Aeson, more uncertain than the spring breeze, Why do your words lack the weight of your promise? According to the third condemnation, three symbols—namely cloud, wind, and rain that does not rain, that is, barren and sterile—denote three causes why someone does not fulfill promises: for first, empty and vain clouds are rainless, because they lack matter, namely moist vapor which might be resolved into rain. These therefore denote fraudulent ostentation and arrogance, which is the cause and brings it about that the arrogant and fraudulent man displays and promises more than he has in mind and is able or willing to perform, so that he might deceive and delude others. Second, mobile winds, and therefore rainless, denote mobility of mind, which causes him to change his purpose and retract his promise. Third, thin and barren rains represent imprudence and loquacity, by which it comes about that someone, not considering nor measuring his scanty strength and resources, promises greater things, and then is forced to give lesser things on account of poverty. This is what Threverius says in the Apophthegms: "When the sky reddens in the morning, it presages a storm: thus the very least is to be expected from him who arrogantly promises very many things." To this pertains that saying of Mercury Trismegistus to Tatius in Stobaeus, discourse 11 On Truth: "For indeed, he says, among men, three causes exist on account of which they violate their promises and lie. For either from the very beginning someone says something through fraud; or he later repents of what he said; or he has become too weak to accomplish it. Of these the first is of a depraved will, the second of a weak judgment, the third of a feeble faculty. God avoids all these: by zeal for goodness He avoids fraud, by constancy the retraction of that of which He Himself could repent, finally by efficacy in acting He avoids impediment to the end." Symbolically Cassian, Conferences XV, chapter vii, adapts this saying to those who boast of the power of working miracles, such as casting out demons, when a Christian ought to glory only in humility, which is the virtue of Christ: "Wherefore, he says, our ancestors never called good monks, and those free from the disease of vainglory, those who profess themselves exorcists before men, and among the crowds of admirers display with most boastful ostentation this grace which they have found, but in vain; for without doubt that will happen to them which is said in Proverbs: As winds and clouds and rainless rains are most manifest, so he who glories in a false gift. Thus if anyone does any of these things before us, he ought to be praiseworthy among us not on account of admiration of signs, but on account of the adornment of morals." Tropologically, learn here how great is the vanity and foolishness of ostentation and false promise. For this makes men arrogant, vain, mendacious, infamous, so that no one thereafter believes them, hateful, despised; this makes those whom it has deceived from friends into enemies. The chameleon, says Pliny, book XI, chapter forty, has a very large lung, and nothing else inside: some men have nothing besides ostentation and windy boasting. Elegantly Plutarch in the Morals: "As full eggs sink, he says, empty ones float, so he who is endowed with true virtues or learning displays himself less than he who is otherwise. Animals which have long legs ought to have a long neck: thus those who strive to live with great noise must necessarily draw from a distance whence the expense might be supplied. As the sun the higher it is, the smaller shadows it makes; the nearer to earth, the larger, namely in the morning and evening: thus virtue the greater and more exalted it is, the less it wishes to be seen, the less it displays itself; on the contrary those who are less strong in the thing itself, display themselves more through ostentation." The same in the Apophthegms: "When Leosthenes, he says, had driven the city of Athens to war, raised by magnificent hopes to the name of liberty and dominion; Phocion said his words were like cypress trees, which though they are lofty and beautiful, bear no fruit." Nothing could be said more fittingly of a speech splendidly and magnificently promising, but unfruitful, just as the cypress tree with its lofty and well-composed conical top seems to promise something excellent from afar, yet there is scarcely any tree more sterile. Wherefore wisely the same Phocion said: "Great things are not to be promised, but great things are to be done." Thus Stobaeus, discourse 1 On Prudence. Many do the contrary who promise golden mountains and the riches of Croesus, when they do not even perform a mite. There remains the golden saying of Pythagoras: "Do glorious deeds, promising nothing magnificent meanwhile." And that of Sextus the Philosopher, saying 187: "Do great things, not promising great things." For the wise are silent and humble who say little but do much: but the foolish are talkative and proud, who do little and boast much; these therefore are like cicadas, which are always chirping and accomplish nothing; those like bees, which are silent and make honey and wax. And that saying of Stobaeus, book On Morals: "Before you promise deliberate, and when you have promised, do it: for afterwards not to do it is to deceive. See therefore that no one has just cause to hate you on account of your deed."
25:15
The Syriac version: he shall break bones; the Hebrew: in length of nostrils the ruler shall be persuaded, and a soft tongue shall break a bone; Pagninus: in long-suffering the prince shall be bent, and a soft word shall break a bone; Vatablus: in long-suffering the prince is persuaded; the Septuagint: in long-suffering prosperity of the prince, but a soft tongue breaks bones; Aquila: but a simple tongue; otherwise, a tender tongue. First, Rabbi Solomon takes this maxim from the appeasing of God's wrath by prayers, as if to say: When God patiently defers His wrath, and does not immediately demand punishments from the wicked, care must be taken diligently that you soften Him by prayers and repentance. "And a soft tongue," that is, devoted to prayers, and stirring up mercy; "shall break hardness," that is, will mitigate the severe sentence of the judge. This sense is more mystical and symbolic than literal, whence Bede, following it in his manner, says: "Although by sinning you have offended the Lord, you can nevertheless merit His clemency, if you patiently bear the adversities which are inflicted for sins." Second, Aben-Ezra translates: on account of patience the prince is seduced. For the Hebrew יפתה iephutte signifies is persuaded, is softened, is enticed, is seduced, and, as the Chaldean has it, is cajoled, as if to say: Because he patiently bears those by whom he has been inflamed to wrath, and does not take vengeance upon them, then their enemies will seduce this one, and have power over him, and prevail. Therefore their soft and flattering tongue will break his bones; thus he. But Our author and others generally translate better: "The prince is softened by patience," not seduced. Third, Jansenius, Baynus, Cajetan, translating it as "is softened," explain this of the patience of the prince himself, not of the subjects. For by patience here is not signified the tolerance of evils, but length toward wrath, as the Hebrew has it. Whence the Septuagint translates μακροθυμία, that is, long-suffering, so that this maxim may signify the prince's wrath being softened by his own long-suffering, that is, if the prince is not immediately prone to vengeance, but slow to it. For while he prolongs his wrath and does not immediately punish, frequently by this very delay the fury is calmed. Whence when the Emperor Theodosius, being too hasty for vengeance, raged severely against the city of Thessalonica, he received from Ambrose a law suited to this sentence, namely that the prince's sentence should not be carried out except after some days, as is seen in the Tripartite History, book VII, chapter xxx; and in Theodoret, book V, chapter xviii. Solomon therefore admonishes in the first part of this sentence especially princes, lest they suddenly rush to vengeance, but defer and temper their wrath by long-suffering; in the latter part, however, the subjects, that by soft and flattering words they may break the hard fury of princes. Or if you wish to refer both to the prince, his soft tongue breaks the hardness or bones, that is, the hardness and stiff neck of the subjects: for the prince, not threatening harshly but sweetly flattering, effects that subjects submit their hard necks to his rigid laws, tributes, taxes, and similar burdens. Again Rabbi Levi thus expounds: If the prince be patient and moderate his wrath, from this it will come to pass that only just punishments are inflicted by him. And the argument for this is that if he indulge too much in wrath, this heat will disturb all his affairs, and there will be no one able to turn him from his sentence, lest he perform those things to which he is driven by the impulse of wrath. The version of the Septuagint seems to pertain to this: in long-suffering prosperity for kings, as if to say: For kings all happiness, all security, all good, is situated in patient long-suffering: for this makes subjects and enemies friendly, just as on the other hand wrath and vengeance make all enemies; by this again it preserves for the king and prince a sincere reason and a peaceful mind, by which nothing is better for preserving the right state of the soul, and for the good government of the commonwealth. For, says the Author of the Greek Catena, since kings are compelled daily to hear many complaints and controversies, and to know many cases; unless they be endowed with a mild and patient spirit, and so disposed that they are not immediately carried away to wrath, they will not be able to bring the greatest harm both to themselves and to the very things and affairs to be discerned and judged. Moreover, as it befits a king to be patient, so also it is necessary that he be sagacious and skilled in judging, by which indeed he may remove flatterers from the midst, and deliberate and judge placidly and patiently. Fourth, others better understand these words concerning the patience and soft tongue of subjects: for if a subject receives the anger of a prince with long-suffering patience and forbearance, and then softens it with mild and pleasant words, he will certainly break it, though it be bony and hard and rigid like bone. Which thing is indeed wonderful, namely that something soft breaks something hard like bone, to wit, "a soft and humble speech is like lightning, which penetrates and levels all things bony and hard," as St. Aegidius used to say. Whence Rabbi Levi: By long-suffering, he says, and by tolerance of anger a prince is softened when he has burned with anger against subjects; if anyone namely hearing his words does not become inflamed, but patiently endures them: for from this it comes to pass that he wards off from himself the calamity which the prince was plotting suddenly. Again it signifies that a prince, when anger boils up against someone, is softened by tolerance, when namely he will not immediately be asked to give pardon and life to him against whom he is angry, but for some space of time he is permitted to indulge his anger: for thus it will come to pass that with time the anger subsides, and then if he is asked with soft words, he grants pardon. For soft words break the bones of anger, that is its hardness and harshness, by soothing them. These things Rabbi Levi. Thus Abigail with flattering speech flattered and broke the anger of David, I Kings xxv. Truly Plutarch: "The remedy for sick souls, he says, is speech: as tempered water inflammations, so gentle speech is wont to calm anger." And Menander: "There is no remedy for anger, except the fitting speech of a friend." I saw in Rome a religious and wise man, who was to a great Church Prelate from confessions, and likewise from counsels. When this man suggested sound counsels to the Prelate from which the Prelate's mind shrank back or his cupidity resisted, and therefore he would become inflamed with many bitter and sharp verbal quarrels arising from anger, he endured them with silent and constant patience, and finally overcame the Prelate's mind with them, so that with his choler cooling, his mind calmed, he would condemn it, and considering the reasons proposed by the confessor quietly, would approve and follow them. Let the confessors and counselors of princes imitate this man, and they will truly learn that "a prince is softened by patience." The Chaldean translator renders it, in patience the spirit of the prince is delighted, as if the patience of the one responding makes an angry prince no less placid than a nursing infant; so that just as an infant falls asleep having drunk milk, so a prince, having heard a soft response, subsides from fury. Note that a prince, who is most willful, and like a torrent in whatever direction he has inclined, is most vehement, and therefore he who can be restrained and bridled by God alone, according to that: "As the divisions of waters (or, as the Septuagint has it, as the rush of water), so the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord," Prov. xxi, 1. The Septuagint translate it breaks bones, a beautiful antithesis to a tongue without bone, and the very hardest bones: for by the softest words the hardest things are broken. Truly St. Chrysostom, sermon On Gentleness, vol. V: "Whoever, he says, wishes to overcome the furious, let him strongly bear their injuries." To this pertains the maxim of the Arabs Cent. 1, num 68: "He does not bear anger, to whom exalted steps are given; nor does he attain the summit, whose nature is irascibility," that is irascible, as if to say: Just as princes do not bear the indignation of others, so those who are irascible by nature do not reach the principate: for they offend many. Symbolically, a prince, or, as others translate it, a governor, is a lofty and generous soul, who knows how to soften by reasons the movements of anger which either an injury inflicted, or a choleric temperament, or the devil suggests to him, and to persuade himself that by overcoming anger with patience and gentleness, he learns to rule over it: whence he enervates and breaks the hardness of his anger, that is its strength and vehemence, with soft words founded in solid reason, when for example he says to himself inwardly with the Psalmist: "Why art thou sad (why art thou angry: for sadness is the companion and attendant of anger)! O my soul, and why dost thou trouble me?" Why art thou indignant, O my soul, over so slight a matter? Why dost thou rob thyself of peace of mind over a mote, obscure thy reason, harm thy charity? Consider how much patience Christ endured the most atrocious injuries inflicted upon him in life and in death. For as Sidonius Apollinaris says forcefully lib. IX, epist. 4: "However many cups of anxieties affliction may offer us in life; we endure them as small, if we remember what he drank at the gallows, who invites us to heaven." By this consideration of Christ suffering and of patience, St. Elzearius Count of Ariano softened and calmed all movements of anger, so much so that to any even atrocious injuries of servants he appeared unmoved, ἄχολος and ἀπαθής. Hence the Hebrews have it, in the length of nostrils shall the prince be made gentle. For Pliny and the natural philosophers relate that animals and men who have long and wide nostrils are long-suffering and slow to anger, because through wide nostrils they easily emit and breathe out the fumes of anger and bilious spirits. Hence the elephant, which is the king of animals, because it has a huge proboscis and nostrils, and flexible at will, whereas other animals have short and rigid ones, is slow and tardy to anger, so that the Philosopher says of it: "Anger equal to his proboscis, namely endowed with the same length." Let such be the nose and long-suffering of the prince, and of a lofty and generous spirit. Wherefore Sotion, in his disputation On Anger: "To the wise and learned," he says, "Heraclitus was moved to tears instead of anger, Democritus to laughter; for just as ships are excellent not those which sail in clear sky, but those which resist the storm and are preserved: so men who resist anger are great and strong." And Democritus himself: "To resist anger," he says, "is difficult, but to overcome it is the part of men endowed with the best reason." For, as Aristotle says in Maximus, sermon 19: "Anger is a disturbance, similar to the motion of beasts, which perpetually presses, and endowed with a hard and violent force, the cause of murders, the companion of calamities, the procurer of infamy and inconveniences, the consumer of wealth." Hence again some translate prince as governor, because just as the helmsman of a ship can furrow, break and compose the motions of tempests, so the governor of the soul can do the same with the motions of angers. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 34 on Genesis: "Gentleness," he says, "places our soul in perpetual tranquility, and as it were in a harbor, and is for us the occasion of all recreation and peace. For what is more blessed than to be freed from internal war? For although we enjoy much external peace, if within us a tempest of angers is born, tumult and sedition, external peace will profit us nothing." Thus St. Chrysostom, homily 2 on Mark, says honey was forbidden in sacrifices, Leviticus II, 11: "Because," he says, "honey is an indication of pleasure and sweetness; for pleasure always mortifies, pleasure always displeases God." Whence it is established that among the honeys of bees, when they die, corpses and filth are found, just as all pleasure ends in filth and putrefaction. Thus from the records of the Churches of Capua and Canusium, Philip Ferraris in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy, on the 9th of February. Namely, just as "the tranquil God tranquilizes all things," as St. Bernard says, so a man, master of anger and passions, easily calms and composes them in others. Such was St. Sabinus, Bishop of Canusium in Apulia, under the Emperor Justinian, of whom we read these things in his Life: "He from infancy devoted himself entirely to God. For despising the allurements of the flesh, constant in divine meditations, he seemed to care for nothing except how to please God: he was a cultivator of piety, a lover of justice, especially liberal toward the poor and strangers. A pious father of orphans and widows, nor did anyone ever approach him so sad that he did not depart joyful; no one angry or proud who did not withdraw meek and humble." Wherefore he shone forth illustrious with the gift of prophecy and miracles, which St. Gregory recounts, book II of the Dialogues, chapter xv, and book III, chapter v.
25:16
In Hebrew, eat thy sufficiency; in Syriac, thy portion; in the Septuagint, when honey is found, eat as much as is sufficient, lest perchance thou shouldest be overfilled and be compelled to vomit. Thus the Author of the Greek Catena. Honey, because it is warm and sweet, if eaten soberly, nourishes the body, invigorates it, gladdens it, and makes men long-lived, as physicians relate; but if taken too much and immoderately, it burdens the body, causes nausea both of itself and of all foods, stirs up bile (for sweet things turn into bile), loosens the stomach, and provokes vomiting, as Pliny teaches in book XXII, chapter xxiv, and Galen in book III On Diet. Honey is a symbol of anything pleasant, sweet and delightful. Therefore this maxim signifies generally that everything which delights, whether body or soul, ought to be taken moderately so that it may benefit; for if taken immoderately, it harms and as it were turns honey into gall: for there nature has joined the sweet with the bitter. Pierius, in Hieroglyphics 26, chapter viii, mentions honey among the Macrones as sleepless, which Xenophon records, because those who ate it more abundantly were compelled both to vomit and to evacuate, nor could they even stand at all. Moreover, this maxim can be applied in particular to various things which delight. First, to bodily pleasures, by which moderately taken the body is restored; but taken immoderately it is burdened, weakened, overwhelmed. Whence pleasure is honey, but mixed with gall, for instance Corsican honey, which bees gather from hemlock, and is therefore poisonous, of which Ovid says: Which I think gathered from afar from the flower of hemlock, / A bee sent under infamous Corsican honey. Those who are such easily calm and compose the angers and quarrels and tumults of both their own and others. That thou mayest come to this, it is necessary that thou turn thy mind away from all the allurements of the world and fix it in God alone. Hither pertains the honey of the Heptacometae, of which our Causinus, in book IX of Parables, chapter viii: The Heptacometae, he says, or Septempagani, gather honey from the highest branches of trees, which drives men to madness. When they had given bowls of this to the Pompeian soldiers, three of their cohorts, alienated from their senses, fell, as Strabo testifies, in book XI, page 377, number 30. In a similar way pleasure ensnares by the allurement of honey those whom it afterwards tears with iron. Impious poisons lie hidden beneath sweet honey. Therefore one must answer to pleasure stimulating with its enticements what the ass said to his master in Phaedrus, when ordered to be given the remnants of barley which the little pig suddenly slaughtered could not consume: I would gladly desire thy food altogether, / Except that he who was nourished by it was also slaughtered. Thus Phaedrus, book V, chapter lxxxv. Pleasure plainly seems similar to that little spring of Gelo which Aristotle mentions in his Marvels: "It has," he says, "waters wonderfully clear and of the same color as pure springs. But when any animal has tasted of them, it dies immediately." Wherefore Sixtus the Philosopher, Sentence 237, and physicians give this remedy and precept of health: "Eat short of satiety; flee drunkenness as madness." Second, apply this honey, with the Author of the Greek Catena, R. Levi and Jansenius, to the perception of wisdom (as Solomon himself applies it, verse 27), which brings no small pleasure to the soul, whence the Wise Man invited to it above under the similitude of honey, saying: "Eat, my son, honey, because it is good: so also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul." And soon after, exhorting in like manner to the mode to be observed in knowledge: "As he that eateth," he says, "much honey, it is not good for him: so he that is a searcher of majesty, shall be oppressed by glory," so that it can be seen that by this sentence he wished to require in particular that a measure be observed in perceiving wisdom. For pleasant and sweet to men is the reading and meditation of divine words, especially to those who, despising the goods of this world, pant after the other life, so that the Prophet said: "How sweet are thy words to my palate! more than honey to my mouth." Hither pertains the proverb of the Arabs: "Taste, and thou shalt be fed," that is, taste honey or a like food, and it itself will call thee to appetite for it, which the French say: In eating the appetite comes. It is an exhortation to those whom the magnitude of labor deters from the study of wisdom and virtue. And yet those who presume more from the sweetness of the Scriptures than they are able to digest, wishing to be wise more than is fitting, and unwilling to be wise unto sobriety; frequently even lose what they had understood well, falling away from right faith, and involving themselves in various evils of mind and body, as much experience teaches. For Martial rightly sang: Whoever is not wise more than is just, he is wise. And Cicero, in book II of Tusculan Disputations, says that Neoptolemus in Ennius says, "it is necessary for him to philosophize, but for few; for it is not pleasing at all." Now Bede elegantly suggests that honey particularly designates the sweetness of heavenly wisdom, because this is ministered to men through the office of spiritual fathers, as it were by the labor of most prudent bees. To this pertains that common saying: "All satiety is evil, but satiety from studies is worst of all." Thus St. Gregory, book XX of the Morals, chapter x: "Thou hast found honey, he says, eat what is sufficient for thee, lest perhaps being satiated thou vomit it. For whoever desires to eat more of the sweetness of spiritual understanding than he can hold, even what he had eaten he vomits: because, while he seeks to understand the highest things beyond his strength, he even loses what he had understood well. Hence again he says: As he that eateth much honey, so it is not good for him: so he that is a searcher of majesty shall be overwhelmed by glory. For the glory of the invisible Creator, which when moderately inquired into does not lift one beyond his strength, when searched out oppresses. And so heretics, who the more they desire to be filled with the sublimity of understanding, the more they become empty." Thirdly, Rabbi Levi, Rabbi Solomon, Cajetan, and indeed Bede connect this saying with the following one, as if its comparison is completed there; whence there is repeated in the same place being satiated, so that by honey thou understandest friendship and a friend, as if to say: Use friendship and a friend, but moderately as honey: for if thou converse immoderately with a friend, he himself being satiated will loathe it, and will turn away from and reject thy excessive familiarity, according to that saying of the Comic poet: "Excessive familiarity breeds contempt." And finally thy honey will turn into gall, that is thy friendship will turn not merely into weariness, but even into hatred, so that he will hate thee as much as he had loved thee before. To this pertains the proverb of the Arabs: "When thy friend is honey, do not eat him entirely." For many abuse the gentleness and facility of friends. Wherefore the Arabs say to and advise such: "He who asks his friend beyond his strength, deserves refusal," that is rejection. Hence again the same advise a friend: "Be not a dog to thy friends." Fourthly, St. Bernard, sermon 47, among the shorter ones, understands by honey human praise: "Rightly, he says, we are not forbidden by every, but by immoderate enjoyment of this honey. For there is a way in which we can usefully receive human praise, namely with regard to fraternal charity alone, and for the salvation of those who on this account more easily assent to us. This moderation being observed, moderate eating of this honey will not harm. If anything more than this, it is from evil, it will turn to destruction. For whoever found it eats immoderately, and whoever, desiring and too much inflating his own heart with the favor of human praise, becomes swollen and fattened: from which the holy Prophet begs to be guarded by the Lord, not indeed of honey, but by a name sufficiently near to it expressing the same favor we mentioned, where he says: But let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head, Psalm cxl. Finally, by what disgust and reason this honey is vomited, he explained by saying: "Dost thou wish to know when the immoderate eater of honey's delights vomits it, he who taking it up to satiety has exceeded the measure of moderation? Then surely the praises by which he was satiated are such that he seeks no other fruit, but is content with human favor itself; then, I say, he vomits much with anxiety, what he ate with pernicious delight, when hearing any other praised, he wastes away with envy. For a mind devoted to vanity, and swollen with arrogance, accounts the praise of another as her own disparagement." Fifthly, by honey understand riches, as if to say: Gather wealth that is sufficient to support thy family, as much as thou canst justly and honestly without injury: for what thou hast gathered beyond this, thou wilt finally be forced to vomit with shame and loss, according to that saying of Plutarch in the Morals: "Gather gold against right, amass silver, build porticoes, fill thy house with servants, name the city: wine to the asking, to the fevered, and to the bilious thou shalt give abundance of honey, whence he shall not be strengthened, but shall be most greatly harmed." Sixthly, by honey understand the delight of prayer, meditation and spiritual consolations; for these are to be used moderately, not indulged in: for whoever indulges in them too much, harms his head and health, becomes hard and stubborn of brain, becomes idle, and seeking leisure, flees the labors of the active life, etc., as those experienced in spiritual matters teach, and daily experience shows. Prayer therefore should be directed to action, especially that which either duty, or obedience, or charity demands, and thus prayer will not be diminished, but will grow and increase, both because it will pour itself out into holy action and toward neighbors, and because action nourishes and sharpens prayer. Again, mortification is superior to prayer; wherefore the prayer of him who does not mortify his own anger, impatience, self-will, etc., is vain and inefficacious; so that prayer may be fruitful and efficacious, let it take mortification as its companion. Whence St. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, when a certain man was praised for being a man of much prayer, corrected this very thing, saying: "Rather, a man of much mortification." Finally, adapt this maxim to any occupation, office, or business that is pleasant and delightful; for a measure must be applied to this, lest excess harm and injure. Solomon therefore teaches that if you use it moderately, your delight will be lasting; but if immoderately, it will not last, but will turn into disgust: so that sweetness may be perpetual for you, use it moderately. The reason a priori is: First, that honey, and all delights and delightful things of this life are limited, meager and scanty; wherefore when a man indulges in them too much, he exhausts their sweetness, which being exhausted, there remain only the dregs of disgust and bitterness. Wherefore the mind of man, which is capable of infinite good and divine delight, having exhausted the sweetness of one thing seeks another and another, which might fill and satisfy this infinite capacity of his, and wandering through all things finds none except in God infinite and immense. Second, that just as a stomach filled with honey is burdened and corrupted by it, especially because honey not only has sweetness but also its own acidity; again honey is airy and flatulent, wherefore it creates in the stomach winds and griping pains which lacerate and torment it, so that it strives to vomit it forth: so likewise every delightful thing, if it fills a sense or faculty, burdens and weighs it down both by its delight and by its acidity and defect which it has attached; wherefore it creates heaviness, disgust, pain, vomiting. For just as food tastes and delights only because it satisfies appetite and hunger; which being satisfied if more is taken, it is a burden and causes nausea. Whence St. Leo says: "Subtract, he says, from pleasure what will become a burden." So likewise any other delight delights only so long as its hunger and the natural desire of the soul is satisfied: which being satisfied what is added is tedium and torment. And this is the reason why satiety produces nausea, disgust and vomiting. Third, that the senses and faculties of the soul are of limited power, whence they can extend and strain themselves only up to a certain limit of sensation and delight; which if exceeded by intemperance, they are overcome, overwhelmed, weakened and corrupted. Whence that saying of Aristotle, On the Soul: "A vehement sensible thing corrupts the sense." The contrary is the case in heaven, where the desire of the vision and fruition of God sharpens satiety, and satiety sharpens desire. For the blessed are always satisfied with God, and therefore always desire to see God, because God alone is infinite good, filling and satisfying the soul, and therefore supremely always desirable. Again God extends the capacity of the soul, so that it can receive so great a good, nor is it ever burdened by it, wearied, but perpetually pants and aspires to it with all the marrow of the soul. Fourth, that just as the sweetness of honey dissolves and loosens the stomach, and therefore produces nausea both of itself and of other foods, and vomiting, unless taken moderately: so likewise any other sweetness and pleasantness dissolves the senses and faculties of the soul, if used intemperately, and creates tedium both of itself and of all other good actions and occupations. For this is the property of immoderate sweetness and delight. For sweetness is nauseating, and produces nausea, just as sourness produces horror and stupor, unless taken moderately. But what is austere, which properly opposes the sweet, contracts and strengthens the stomach, and by its austerity inhibits intemperance, nor can it be taken except moderately. Our Salazar gives a fifth reason: Just as, he says, in honeycombs along with honey there are also putrefactions of a very austere taste, so also in pleasures there are many bitter and acrid pains which corrupt their sweetness. Again, just as often the bees themselves immersed in the most tenacious honey perish, so also more often men devoted to pleasures, and gorged with them, bring upon themselves the most wretched destruction. Add that sweet is heavy, having more of earth and earthiness; and therefore salt water floats above sweet wine, not austere, as Aristotle teaches in Problem. sect. xxiii, Quæst. xxvi. Hence honey at the bottom of a vessel is best, because the sweetest descends there, being as it were most earthy. Conversely oil, because it is airy, is best at the top of a vessel; wine truly, because it is intermediate between air and earth, is best in the middle of a vessel. Again, sweet things are more concocted, and therefore have more juice and nourishment; austere things truly are less concocted, and therefore have less nourishment and more excrement, and therefore we are filled and satisfied more quickly by sweet things than by austere, as Aristotle teaches Problem. sect. xxii, Quæst. II and III. Hence it comes about that sweet things fill and saturate more quickly, and shortly after turn into disgust; for what is taken after satiety causes disgust and nausea. Galen adds that sweet wines harm the liver and spleen: for they obstruct the liver and make the spleen thick; moreover they generate stone in the kidneys. Again, he says, excessive satiety impedes the vital operations and generates stone of the kidneys.
25:17
In Hebrew, precious (that is, rare; for rare things are precious and dear) make thy foot from the house of thy neighbor; the Septuagint, introduce thy foot to thy friend; the Chaldee, forbid; Symmachus, restrain; Vatablus, recall thy foot. This maxim is derived and clear from the preceding one, indeed, as some judge, it is its antapodosis, and the application and explanation of the parable of honey, as I said there. It does not forbid all entrance into the house of a neighbor or friend; for friendship demands familiar conversation and mutual visiting: but it commands that it not be too frequent and constant, otherwise it will create disgust and hatred in thy friend. "True friendship," says Isocrates in the account of Maximus, serm. 6, "requires three things especially: first, virtue, as something honorable; second, familiarity, as something pleasant; third, use, as something necessary: for where thou art judged, thou must be received, and rejoice in meeting, and, if thou art in need, make use of it." Therefore, if by neighbor thou here understand friend, thus expound it, as if to say, Go not too frequently to thy friend's house, but temper excessive visiting with rarity, as far as the laws and rights of friendship allow; thus it will come about that thou wilt become the more precious and dear to thy friend, the rarer thou art. For "that ought to be rare which thou wishest to be long dear," says Seneca, lib. I De Benefic. To this pertains that of Martial: Make thyself the intimate of no one: Thou wilt rejoice less, and grieve less. There is an example in the Life of Cato: For when Munatius complained that Cato, whom he desired to visit in Cyprus, had repulsed him with little civility, although Cato had nothing to do but was within conversing with Canidius, Cato thus excused himself, saying that "he feared lest, according to the opinion of Theophrastus, friendship might sometimes give occasion to hatred." But if thou here understand by neighbor any one whatsoever, even not a friend, thus expound it, as if to say, "Withdraw thy foot from the house of thy neighbor," so that thou enter it not except when necessity or utility, whether thine own, or his, or public, or of some third party, demands it; and even then take care that thou enter not too frequently to him, lest thou create in him satiety, which brings forth disgust and hatred, especially while, as is wont to happen, thou frequently ask something of him. For these constant requests are burdensome and troublesome to friends; hence when they see petitioners approaching, they contract their minds and countenances, and withdraw themselves, and pretend they are not at home, and sometimes when they are too importunate and begging, they call them harpies, and flee from them as from harpies. It is added that frequent entrance into the house of a neighbor may move in him suspicion that thou wishest to explore the secrets of his family, or to steal something from it, or to lay snares for the chastity of his wife or daughters, etc., all which things make thee hateful and odious to him. Therefore, as the frequent coming of a friend to a friend is disgusting, so the rare is precious. Which St. Jerome elegantly impresses upon clerics in epist. 2 to Nepotian, near the end: "A cleric," he says, "is easily despised, who, often invited to dinner, does not refuse; let us never ask, rarely accept when invited. For I know not how even he himself, who begs that thou shouldst give, when thou hast received, judges thee more vile; and in a wonderful way if thou hast despised him asking, he afterwards venerates thee more." The same St. Jerome, epist. 85 to Evagrius: "Everything," he says, "that is rare is more desired. Pennyroyal among the Indians is more precious than pepper. Deacons in small number are honorable, Presbyters in a multitude are contemptible." Finally Martial, lib. IV, epigram. 29, otherwise 22: Rare things please: thus greater grace to the first fruits; Thus the winter rose has deserved its price. Mystically the Author of the Chain of the Greeks, by neighbor or friend understands God, and thus expounds it, as if to say, Touch not the more secret mysteries of divinity, lest perchance through the weakness of thy mind thou fall away from spiritual knowledge.
25:18
For javelin in Hebrew is mephits, which the Chaldean and others everywhere translate as hammer; the Septuagint, club, from the root פוץ puts, that is, he broke, crushed, scattered. For sharp the Septuagint translates as azidato, which the Complutensians translate as pointed; others properly, ending in a point; St. Ambrose, III Offic. cap. xvi, iron-tipped; St. Jerome against Rufinus, pernicious. The sense is, as if to say, A false witness, who speaks false testimony against his neighbor in judgment, or even outside of judgment, thus harms and wounds his neighbor, just as if it were a javelin or missile, piercing and breaking the neighbor, or a sword piercing him or cutting him up, or an arrow penetrating him, and subsequently wounding and killing him lethally. For it always takes away reputation, often wealth and goods, sometimes even life itself, and is the cause for the neighbor that he be condemned by the judge, or be killed by another private person. Moreover, it wounds and injures the mind of the neighbor with a wound of great pain. Note: By these three things, namely javelin, sword and arrow, as if by weapons once most commonly used, it signifies first, any kind of weapon whatsoever, as if to say, The tongue of a false witness is more harmful than any weapons and missiles, because it often gravely wounds and harms the innocent, and is not rarely the cause of their death, and death of any kind, so that namely this one is killed by javelin, that one by sword, a third by arrows, a fourth by a noose, etc., and is destroyed. Second, these three most sharp things denote the sharpness of the tongue of a false witness, which namely like a javelin, sword and arrow is most sharp, and wounds, penetrates, torments and cuts not only the innermost parts of the body, but also of the soul, according to that Psalm. LIV, 22: "His words were smoother than oil; and they themselves are javelins." And Psalm. LVI, 5: "The sons of men, their teeth are weapons and arrows, and their tongue is a sharp sword." And elsewhere: "They have sharpened their tongue like serpents." Third, some set down only two similitudes, namely sword and arrow; for he translates, dispersing sword, and sharp arrow, he who speaks false testimony against his neighbor, as if to say, The tongue of a false witness harms and wounds from a distance like an arrow, when it imputes a false crime to the absent defendant; the same harms and wounds from close by like a sword, when before the defendant before the judge it impudently upholds and confirms its false testimony. Fourth, Lyra, Dionysius, Jansenius and others everywhere set down three similitudes, the first of javelin or hammer or club, the second of sword, the third of arrow; and they note that with a hammer or club the head of a man is accustomed to be bruised and broken, with a sword truly the throat is struck, an arrow finally pierces the heart, so that it may be signified that he who speaks false testimony against his neighbor does just as if he were bruising a man's head with a hammer or club, slaying him with a sword, or finally piercing his heart with an arrow. Now these three comprehend different and almost all modes by which man harms man, as Cajetan notes; for a hammer harms and kills by striking, a sword by cutting, a sharp arrow by penetrating. Whence is signified every kind of harm which is received from false testimony; for it harms both the person, and the reputation, and the things. Mystically, Heretics are javelins, swords and sharp arrows, because they falsely cite testimonies of Holy Scripture, and by understanding them wrongly they corrupt them, so that by these they pervert the minds of their hearers, and draw them into heresy, by which it comes to pass that they destroy and kill not one soul only, but thousands and thousands, indeed whole cities and provinces.
25:19
The Hebrew texts have, a broken tooth, and a foot out of joint is the confidence of the transgressor in the day of distress; the Chaldean, a bad tooth, and a slipping foot; Pagninus, a broken tooth, and a foot not standing in its track; Cajetan, and a foot displaced; but the Septuagint, the way of the wicked and the foot of the unjust shall perish in an evil day. For "weary" in Hebrew is מועדת muadet, that is, tottering, wavering, stumbling: for the root מעד maad, just as with transposed letters, so also in meaning contrary to the word עמד amad. For amad means to stand, to be firm; but maad denotes a wavering of standing, a stumbling, a change and inconstancy, and signifies to totter, to slip, to decline into ruin. Our translator, for מבטח mibtach, that is, hope, confidence, seems to have read it with different vowel points as מבטח mebatteach, that is, hoping, trusting, but he makes the same sense; or rather he took the abstract for the concrete according to the usual phrase of Scripture, namely hope for one who hopes, as if to say: He who places his confidence in an unfaithful man is like one who has a rotten tooth and a weary foot, and trusts in it and leans upon it confidently, indeed in a rotten tooth for chewing and eating, and in a weary foot for standing and walking. It is a metonymy: for a tooth is put for one who has teeth, hope for one who has a weary foot. Or conversely, one who hopes is put for hope or confidence, namely the concrete for the abstract; for hope in an unfaithful man is as it were a rotten tooth and a weary foot. First, Bede and Vatable understand by the transgressor or unfaithful man a human being: for every man is a transgressor and a sinner, both because he sinned in Adam originally, and because he often sins actually by himself; as if Solomon were teaching here that hope is not to be placed in man, but in God, according to that of Jeremiah xvii, 5: "Cursed is the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm." "For this one," says Bede, "is rightly compared to a rotten tooth and a weary foot; because he who does not know that one unique good of man, that is, to cleave to God, and to place his hope in God, he can neither receive the food of life, nor can he reach the dwelling of desired salvation. And such a one loses his garment in the day of cold, because although in the serenity of present life he appears clothed in the habit of religion, yet when the strictness of just judgment shall come upon him, he shall be found naked in every way of the ornament of justice, and not worthy of the company of those of whom it is written: Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame." Second, others understand by the transgressor the impious, the wicked, and, as the Syrian translator rendered it, the unjust, as if to say: He who trusts in the impious and wicked is like one who chews food and breaks it with a rotten tooth, and like one who leans upon a weary foot: for just as a rotten tooth and a weary foot deceive him and give way under the burden, so also the impious deceives the hope of one trusting in him. But the Chaldean understands by the transgressor a robber: A bad tooth, he says, and a weary foot (the Syrian, a dislocated foot), so shall be the hope of the plunderer in the day of distress, as if to say: Robbers hope for great riches from plunder; but this hope deceives them, when they see themselves killed on account of plunder, or hanged by the judge. Third, properly and genuinely our translator understands by the transgressor the unfaithful man, that is, the faithless and perfidious one, who deceives hope. Therefore both he who trusts in the unfaithful, and the very confidence itself placed in the unfaithful, is compared here to a rotten tooth and a weary foot. But more elegantly the very confidence which is had in the unfaithful, that is, in an unfaithful man, is compared to a rotten and broken tooth and a weary foot, than he who hopes in it, since it is to be signified that such confidence, and he himself in whom one has trusted, in the time of necessity shall fail a man, just as such a tooth and foot fail a man in a necessary matter, namely in eating and walking. Yet it is also well, according to our version, that he who hopes in the unfaithful is compared to a rotten tooth and a weary foot, because such a one through his confidence cannot help himself and his necessity in the day of distress, just as a rotten tooth and a weary foot cannot do their office when it is necessary. Thus Jansenius and others. Therefore the first and proper reason for this analogy and comparison, by which false hope, which is placed in an unfaithful person, is compared to a rotten tooth and a weary foot, is that both are unfaithful. For just as a rotten tooth deceives and abandons the one chewing, and a weary foot deceives and abandons the one walking, so likewise an unfaithful person deceives and abandons the one trusting in him in the day of distress; indeed, just as decay corrupts the tooth itself, which is so strong that it is not harmed by iron or fire. Whence Aristotle, lib. V Hist. animal. cap. vii: "The bone of teeth," he says, "is so firm that it alone among bones rejects the edge of iron;" so likewise the unfaithfulness of a friend or servant corrupts all the faith and confidence of the master, so that he thereafter believes or trusts no one, and thus lives in perpetual distrust, fear and anxiety. Second, that a rotten tooth creates damage for the one eating, and a weary foot for the one walking; the same damage is created by an unfaithful person for the one trusting in him. For often through this treachery he incurs great losses of wealth, reputation and life. Third, that a rotten tooth, by humors and catarrhs flowing from the head into its fibers, creates great pains, just as much as a dislocated foot for the one walking. Similar pains does a treacherous person create for his master. Hear Pliny, lib. VII, cap. xvi: "Nor are teeth necessary for food and nourishment alone, since the front teeth hold the regulation of voice and speech, receiving in a certain harmony the blow of the tongue, and by their arrangement and size either changing or weakening or dulling words, and with their decay taking away all speech." Hear also Aristotle, lib. III De Part. animal. cap. 1: "Man," he says, "obtains well-made teeth for common use, namely the front teeth sharp for cutting; the molars broad for grinding; those which are called canine teeth distinguish both of these, being placed in nature between them: for the middle partakes of both extremes. And the canine teeth themselves are partly sharp, partly broad: which is the same also in other animals, which do not all have sharp teeth, but especially for the sake of speech man has obtained such and so many teeth in number. For the front teeth contribute greatly to the expression of letters. Some animals, as has been said, obtain teeth for the sake of preparing food alone; but those to which teeth are both an aid and a strength, these either have them protruding, as the pig; or sharp and combing together in rows, whence we have said they have serrated teeth." Just as therefore decay disarms the tooth, and thereby man and animal, and exposes him naked and defenseless to enemies: so likewise the unfaithful person disarms the master trusting in him, and delivers and betrays him to enemies for destruction. Finally Galen, lib. De Partibus, teaches that teeth decay from idleness and starvation. For those who always chew with one jaw, the molars of the other jaw of these, being idle, waste away and decay more quickly. So the treachery of a friend often arises from idleness and sloth; for these give birth to want and hunger, which compels him to treachery, so that through it he may acquire the necessities of life; for want makes thieves, so also it makes traitors. Fourth, just as a rotten tooth excites a stench in the mouth and stomach, and produces a putrid breath which it breathes upon those standing near: so likewise a treacherous person brings infamy upon his master, and exposes him to the ridicule and mockery of all. Pliny adds, lib. XI, cap. xxxvi: "In the teeth of men," he says, "there is a certain poison; for they also dull the brightness of a mirror from the opposite side when exposed, and kill the unfledged young of doves." Much more virulent are rotten teeth, and far more so an unfaithful friend. Fifth, just as a rotten tooth rubs its decay and corruption upon neighboring teeth and corrupts and damages them: so also a treacherous person infects and corrupts the other servants or companions of his master with his treachery. Wherefore Hippocrates, lib. De Affectionibus, thus establishes: "If a tooth is corroded and moves, it should be removed by extraction." Similarly concerning an unfaithful friend Plutarch says in Moral.: "To remove a friend is to extract a tooth." The sixth reason our Salazar gives. It is known, he says, that rotten teeth and dislocated feet have this especially proper to them, that they express in themselves the differences of seasons: for they are strong in clear and bright weather; but when the weather begins to turn, and the sky begins to be covered with clouds, then indeed they are accustomed to ache, as if to say: Just as such a foot or tooth aches in cloudy weather, and one becomes unfit for walking, the other for grinding food: so also an unfaithful companion fails when fortune shifts, and in adverse times abandons his friend. Again and more precisely, a rotten tooth and a weary foot is attributed not to an unfaithful servant, but to a master who trusts and hopes in him, as Our interpreter renders it, that is to say: He who has placed his hope in a faithless servant or friend is like unto a rotten tooth and a weary or languid foot; for just as such a tooth and foot are well in clear weather, but in cloudy weather pain greatly and grow weak: so also he, when favorable fortune smiles upon him, enjoys his friend pleasantly, rejoices, and is strong; but when the same fortune turns away, and the clear sky turns to cloud, with his friend fleeing he grieves greatly and is troubled. Seventh, healthy teeth and therefore faithful ones confer three great goods upon man and animals: first indeed they masticate food and digest it so that it may be more fully and smoothly digested in the stomach: for the first digestion of food takes place in the mouth by the teeth; second, they produce voice and speech, and make it articulate and eloquent in man; third, they are weapons by which an animal defends itself against its enemies; whence the weapons of brute beasts are none other than teeth, claws or hooves, and horns. These three things rotten teeth, and therefore unfaithful ones, take away from man; for they are useless for mastication, for speech, for biting. The same three things an unfaithful friend or servant takes away from the master who trusts in him, namely riches and feasts, fame and glory, and moreover health and life. Hear Pliny, book VII, chapter xvi: "Nor are teeth necessary for food and nourishment alone, since the front teeth hold the regulation of voice and speech, receiving in a certain harmony the blow of the tongue, and by their arrangement and size either mutilating or weakening or dulling words, and with their decay taking away all speech." Hear also Aristotle, book III On the Parts of Animals, chapter 1: "Man," he says, "obtains teeth well-made for common use, namely the front teeth sharp for cutting; the molars broad for grinding; those which are called canine teeth distinguish these two, being placed in nature between them: for the middle partakes of the nature of each extreme. And the canine teeth themselves are partly sharp, partly broad: which is the same in other animals also, which do not all have sharp teeth, but especially for the sake of speech man has obtained such and so many teeth. For the expression of letters the front teeth contribute greatly. Some animals, as has been said, obtain teeth for the sake of preparing food alone; but those to which teeth are both aid and strength, these either have them protruding, as the pig; or sharp and combed together in rows, whence we have said they have serrated teeth."
25:20
For "amittit" in Hebrew is מעדה maade, which is of contrary signification: for it properly means to add, to adorn, to clothe; but here it means the contrary, namely to take away a garment, to remove, to lose, as Our translator renders it, and Pagninus, Vatablus and others commonly; wherefore Cajetan less aptly translated here "ornament," namely silk: "Preparing silk," he says, "in the day of cold," as if to say, Just as silk, because it is thin, does not ward off cold: so neither does an unfaithful friend avert the impending calamity from his friend. This is the third similitude, as if to say, Just as he who takes food trusting in a rotten tooth, sooner feels pain and damage; and just as he who walks with a lame foot, fails on the way; and just as he who loses his cloak in the day of cold, shivers: so likewise he who trusts in an unfaithful man feels no benefit, but much damage and inconvenience, such are all inconstant and fickle and changeable men: for as their mind is, so also their faith is not solid, but light, unstable and unfaithful. Some think that here two causes of unfaithfulness are noted, namely why someone breaks faith given to another, to wit adverse fortune, and this is signified by the day of distress; and enmity and discord, and this is signified by the day of cold, in which namely the mind grows stiff with the cold of hatred, as if to say, He who trusts in a doubtful friend in fortune adverse to him, acts rashly, and will feel damage, because that fortune is wont to put friends to flight and make them deserters: so also he who trusts in a friend with whom he fosters enmity and discord; for these will make him unfaithful, so that he withdraws the garment of his aid from him, and leaves him as it were naked in the day of cold, that is of affliction. The Hebrews and the Chaldean place before these words soph pasuc, that is a point, as if they belonged to the following verse, with which they accordingly connect them. Whence Vatablus thus translates, "to sing a song to a sad heart, is the same as to take away garments in time of cold, or to pour vinegar upon nitre"; so also Pagninus. But Our translator far more aptly connected them to this verse. For an unfaithful friend in adversity is like a cloak lost in the day of cold. For what does this cloak have in common with a sad heart? Vinegar upon Nitre, He Who Singeth Songs to an Evil Heart. In Hebrew, vinegar upon nitre, and singing in songs upon the heart of evil, or to evil; the Syriac, as one who pours vinegar upon strings, namely loosens them, and dulls their sound and harmony on the harp. R. Solomon: Nitre, he says, is a kind of soft earth like clay, from which potters make vessels; if vinegar should fall upon it, it dissolves, and can be of no use; Cajetan, as vinegar upon soap; the Chaldean goes another way: As, he says, one who pours vinegar upon nitre, so pain proves hearts; the Septuagint, as vinegar draws away what is useless, so an affliction befalling the body saddens the heart. Book VIII, chapter xvi: "The teeth," he says, "are unconquered by fires, and untamed by flames, are hollowed out by the decay of phlegm." Note first: Concerning nitre thus writes Galen, book IX of Simple Medicines: "Nitre is said to be in the middle between the powers of aphronitrum and salt; moreover when burned it approaches rather to aphronitrum, as being made thinner by burning. It therefore dries and digests, and if taken within the body, dries and thins thick and sluggish humours, much more powerfully than salt." And Dioscorides, book V, chapter lxxxix: "Nitre," he says, "has the power and burning quality of salt; it settles griping pains, if ground with cumin and drunk in hydromel; it is applied to fevers returning in cycles before the suspected access; it is mixed into plasters which draw out and disperse, thin and cleanse leprosy. When infused in hot water or wine it heals purulent swellings, ears and their sounds, cleanses filth when instilled with vinegar." Upon which passage of Dioscorides thus writes Matthiolus: "Nitre and nitre foam, which were in great use among the ancients in medicines, it is indeed long since they ceased to be brought to us; wherefore they err in my opinion (for others think otherwise, namely that modern nitre is the same as ancient, but is not applied to medicines as formerly, but serves for powder for war engines), who think that nitre salt, which is called that, which is used for the powders of war engines, and for the strongest waters, by which goldsmiths separate gold from silver, is the true and legitimate nitre, which Theophrastus, Dioscorides, Galen, Pliny and other ancients mention, if indeed Pliny manifestly demonstrates this to be false, in book XXXI, chapter x, where he describes ancient nitre at length." Moreover, "in medicines nitre heats, thins, bites, thickens, dries and ulcerates," says Pliny, lib. XXXI, cap. x. George Agricola, in De Re metallica, lib. XII, collects the methods of making nitre thus. Nitre, he says, is usually made either from nitreous water, or from dilute solution, or from lye. Water also of the Nile, when diverted into nitre-works and dried by the same heat of the sun, is turned into nitre. But the dilute solution from which nitre is made is produced from fresh waters filtered through nitre-bearing earth. Bede, whose words Lyra and Dionysius transcribed: "Nitre," he says, "does not differ much from the species of sal ammoniac; for just as salt on the seashore is made by the heat of the sun, hardening into rock the sea waters which the greater force of winds or the heat of the sea itself has cast upon the further parts of the shore: so in Nitria, where in summer the rains pour abundantly upon the earth, there is such heat of the star that it cooks the very rain waters through the breadth of the sands into rock, most similar indeed to the appearance of salt or ice, but having nothing of cold rigour except the taste of salt, which nevertheless according to the nature of salt is accustomed to harden in heat and to flow and liquefy in cloudy air. The natives, taking this, preserve it, and where need has arisen they use it for lomentum." Lomentum is bean flour, which antiquity used for scrubbing bodies, also a kind of smigma, concerning which Pliny, lib. XXXIII. Bede therefore and Lyra think nitre was named from Nitria, a province of Egypt, where it abounds. I would rather say that Nitria was named from nitre; but nitre is a Hebrew name, which, equally as sack, horn and certain similar names, passed from the Hebrews to the Greeks, Latins, Egyptians, Italians, Gauls and the idioms and languages of almost all nations. For nitre in Hebrew is called נתר nether, from the root נתר nathar, that is, he removed, transferred, because it removes and wipes away stains: just as the Greeks derive nitron from νίζειν or νίπτειν, that is, to wash, to wipe away, to cleanse. Whence that saying: Wash not an ass's head with nitre, that is, do not expend a precious thing on a vile matter. Or rather from נתר nathar, that is, he leaped, sprang forth, leaped about, because nitre leaps and springs about, just as salt in fire. Therefore Pagninus and Cajetan err, who following R. David think nitre is alum, by which wool is whitened, or soap by which garments are cleaned. Note secondly: Certain proverbs admit diverse and contrary senses; for when circumstances, end and manner are varied, the truth of the sentence is varied. Such are those in cap. xxvi, 4: "Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou become like him. Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he imagine himself to be wise." And those of the Comic poets: "By bearing an old injury, thou invitest a new one; by bearing an old injury, thou avoidest a new one." For in certain ways and circumstances it comes to pass that the prior injury now invites a new one, then avoids and prevents it. And those of P. Syrus: "If thou bear the vices of a friend, thou makest them thine; if thou bear not the vices of a friend, thou makest them thine." In like manner this maxim admits contrary explanations which I shall presently review. Note thirdly: An evil heart or evil can be taken in three ways. First, for a sad and sorrowful heart; for just as good is taken for pleasant, so evil is taken for sad, as: "Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof (that is, affliction, sadness)," Matt. vi, 34. Similar passages are Ecclus. xiv, 10 and cap. xxii, 27; Psalm. cxxxii, 1, and elsewhere. Whence Symmachus translates, as vinegar upon nitre, he that singeth songs to a sad heart; the Septuagint, passion in the body saddens the heart. Secondly, an evil heart is an angry heart, indignant, choleric. Thirdly, an evil heart is a depraved heart, malignant, vicious, wicked. The whole difficulty is what vinegar does upon nitre. For just as there is scarcely any use of nitre in medicines, so there is scarcely any mixture of vinegar with nitre. Some think vinegar sharpens nitre and imparts acrimony to it; for vinegar communicates its sourness to all foods and drinks. Whence Isidore, lib. XX Origin. cap. III: "Vinegar is called," he says, "either because it is sharp, or because it is water mixed; for wine mixed with water is reduced to this taste. Whence also acidum as if aquidum, because grapes are washed with water in the wine-presses after the wine is pressed out. It is a vile drink and suited to servants." Galen adds, lib. I De Simplic. medicam., and elsewhere, who asserts that vinegar ferments earth, and also exasperates it: "Vinegar," he says, "mixed with attenuating substances increases their power." Others on the contrary hold that vinegar dissolves and tempers the force of niter; for vinegar cools greatly, as Galen says, lib. III De Simplic. medic. The same, lib. I and II Composit. medic.: "Vinegar, he says, cuts, disperses and restrains, penetrates, dries and cleanses like salt, nor does it have the power of binding like salt." And Pliny, lib. XXIII, cap. 1: "In vinegar, he says, the greatest force is in cooling, yet no less in dispersing, so that when poured on earth it foams." Hence those who discharge war engines, igniting nitered powder, lest they be melted and burst by that force of fire, soon cool them with vinegar. Again Pliny, lib. XIV, cap. xx: "In the wickedness of vinegar, he says, there resides a virtue for great uses, without which a milder life cannot be led." Both opinions are true in their own time, place and manner. For vinegar in itself has an acidity by which it sharpens all things with which it is mixed. Yet it likewise breaks the force of niter, dissolves it, liquefies it, and conversely its force and acrimony are broken and tempered by niter. Hear Aristotle, lib. IV Meteorol. cap. III: "Now niter and salts are soluble in moisture; not in every moisture, however, but in cold." But vinegar is cold and moist; it therefore dissolves and tempers niter, which is hot and dry. And Galen, lib. III De Medicam. compos., teaches that niter is best dissolved in sharp wine and vinegar. Therefore vinegar tempers the force of niter, and conversely niter softens the acidity of vinegar. Wherefore physicians both break the force of niter with vinegar and mitigate the acidity of vinegar with niter. Hence also vinegar poured into nitered or cannon powder retards and slows its speed. Moreover, although one dulls the acrimony of the other, it increases the power of purging; since each has its own power of purging, if they are mixed, one communicates its force to the other, and thus sharpens its own. Wherefore goldsmiths, to cleanse the spots and filth of gold and silver, employ niter mixed with vinegar. Finally, the ancients of old made great use of this mixture in medicines. Whence Dioscorides, lib. V, cap. lxxxix: "Niter, he says, heals purulent ears and their sounds, cleanses filth when poured in with vinegar." The same teaches Pliny, lib. XXXI, cap. x, and Galen, lib. III De Compos. medicam. And Pliny adds that it cures vitiligo, that is, spots scattered over the whole body, likewise serpent bites and other ulcers, moreover weariness of limbs: "It restrains, he says, and itching of those suffused with bile (of the jaundiced, in whom bile flows from its bladder to the outer members)," especially when given with vinegar. Now: First, if by a bad heart you understand a sad one, many with Jansen thus expound it, as if to say: Just as vinegar sharpens niter and makes it more acrid and harsh, so music and a musical song exasperate a wicked heart, that is, one that is too sad, according to that: "Music in mourning is an unseasonable narrative," Eccles. xxii, 6. Whence St. Paul admonishes "to rejoice with those who rejoice, and to weep with those who weep," Rom. xii. It seems to favor this that niter, both by its dark color and by its bitter and salty taste, equally as vinegar by its acidity, is a symbol of sadness, and, as Galen says, lib. III De Simplic. caus.: "Black bile (that is, melancholy which produces sadness) is biting and strong like vinegar and ash." Cajetan adds that he has learned from experience that if vinegar is added to soap, clothes are not cleaned but rather stained, as if to say: Just as he acts perversely who washes clothes with niter, that is, as he himself says, with soap and vinegar, when they should be washed with water; so he acts perversely who sings songs of joy to an afflicted heart; for he does not in that way remove the affliction but increases it, and would mitigate it if he also mourned with the mourner. Thus also Aben-Ezra. Others on the contrary thus expound it better, as if to say: Just as vinegar breaks and softens the force of niter, and niter the force of vinegar, so likewise sweet speech and song gradually break and soften the malice, that is, the sadness of the heart; as if to say: These four things are similarly dissimilar and dissimilarly similar. For they are similar because, just as vinegar mixed with niter or salt or alum, according to the opinion of physicians, avails for the cure of purulent ears and cleanses their filth and removes their ringing, so indeed celebrated songs, which are namely songs, that is, have rhythmic speech consisting of certain sweet and most select words, avail for curing and softening the sicknesses of a sad heart; as David, playing the harp, drove them away from Saul, I Reg. cap. xvi, 23. They are dissimilar in that the cure of ears and of the mind is not the same; for vinegar mixed with niter must be poured into the ears, both of which sharply bite the affected part and pierce it with pain; on the contrary, to a sick heart the sweetest sentiments and songs must be sung, in which there is nothing of acrimony, nothing of bitterness. To this is added the exposition of R. Levi: Just as, he says, from nitre and vinegar poured into garments a twofold benefit is obtained, both that the stain is utterly abolished, and also that garments are imbued with the odor of vinegar, by which mildew and mustiness are removed: so when someone sings many and various songs with a mind weighed down by sorrow, he achieves this, that he utterly tears out sorrow from his mind by pleasant songs, and at the same time fills it with pleasure. Again, vinegar in nitre denotes the manner in which sadness, which Cassian in book X calls the rust of the heart, ought to be lightened and softened through songs, namely by singing to him who is oppressed by sadness first a song of sorrow and condolence, then when he begins to be roused and lifted up, by singing to him a song of joy. For vinegar signifies sorrow, but nitre signifies joy and pleasure. Hear St. Gregory, book III of the Morals, chapter X: "The order of consolation is," he says, "that when we wish to suspend someone afflicted from sorrow, we should strive first to agree with his grief by mourning; for one who does not agree with sorrow cannot console the sorrowful, because by the very fact that he differs from the affliction of the mourner, he is less received by him from whom he is separated by a difference of mental state; but the mind must first be softened, so that it may agree with the afflicted, agreeing it may adhere, adhering it may draw. For iron is not joined to iron unless both are liquefied by the burning of fire," etc. The same thing is signified by the word songs. For just as a song consists of long and short feet, exactly composed and modulated according to number and measure, so that not one syllable remains over or is lacking: so consolation which is offered to the sad ought to be composed so fittingly from exhilaration and condolence and all things that ought to be said, and as it were by a rule, that nothing is either excessive or diminished, but the whole is like a skillfully fitted and modulated song, or musical harmony. Secondly, if by a very evil heart you understand one greatly exacerbated, angry and indignant, you should expound it in a similar manner, changing the name of sadness to the name of anger. For these two passions are akin and mixed; for anger commonly has sadness joined to it: for someone is sad and grieves over the evil at which he is angry; conversely sadness has anger as a companion: for someone is angry at the evil over which he is sad. Some therefore expound it thus, as if to say: Just as vinegar sharpened the force of nitre so that it boils up, so biting songs, namely jeers and insults, sharpen the malice of the heart, that is anger and indignation. For this, says Hugh, effervesces and boils up in becoming angry, crackles in murmuring. Whence to pour with vinegar is to censure sharply and bite, according to that of Persius: This Stoic here his ear with biting vinegar washed. And that of Horace, book I of the Satires: But the Greek after he was drenched with Italian vinegar. For Italian vinegar, equally as wine, before those of other regions is excellent, sharp and biting. Whence the proverb: Etruscan vinegar; for from sharp and noble wine is made sharp and noble vinegar. To this pertains the saying of R. Simeon in Pirke Avoth, that is in the Apophthegms of the Fathers, chapter IV: "Do not," he says, "strive in vain to soften him with gentle words, in whom the spirit of anger still ferments; nor labor in vain to mitigate the sorrow of your friend when a corpse still lies extended before his eyes, nor make mention to one devoted to anger of the fulfillment of a vow, nor finally seek to see him or console him in the fervor of his calamity." Hence the friends of Job, coming to console him, wept "and sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him: for they saw that his sorrow was very great," Job chapter II, 13. Others and better on the contrary expound it thus, as if to say: Just as vinegar mixed with and tempered by nitre cures those with jaundice, whose bile is poured into the limbs, as I said a little before from Pliny: so likewise mild, gentle, sweet and joyful songs and sayings soften and cure the anger of the heart. Whence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in his poem On Anger, teaches that anger is dissolved through jests, laughter and jokes, just as ice is dissolved by heat, wax by warmth, the force of wine by water: "Attack the hot-tempered one," he says, "with jests: For against anger nothing is stronger than a joke." An example is in St. Francis, who in a grave anger and dissension of the magistrates of Siena with their Bishop, sent his brothers, who sang to both parties with sweet modulation a song or canticle, which he himself called the Song of the Sun, and added: "Praised be the Lord for those things which He forgives me out of love;" by which melody of the song, and much more by the charity and sanctity of the man, the dissidents were moved to compunction, and laying aside anger rushed into mutual embraces. Thus the Annals of the Order of St. Francis have it, and the Mirror of His Life, chapter XCVII. Thirdly, if by a very wicked and criminal heart you understand one that is exceedingly malignant and depraved, St. Gregory, book I on Ezekiel, homily 9, expounds it thus: "Vinegar, if poured upon nitre, causes the nitre to effervesce immediately and bubble up: so also a perverse mind, when it is corrected by reproof, or when good things are persuaded to it through the sweetness of preaching. For from correction it becomes worse and then is kindled into the iniquity of murmuring, when it ought to have been restrained from iniquity." Following St. Gregory in his customary manner, Bede transcribed his words here. The minds of the worst and obstinate men, therefore, are not to be soothed by songs, that is, by gentle admonition, because by that they are exasperated, become more insane, and kick against the goad; but they are to be wounded and bruised by terrible roaring, threats and blows, and as it were struck down and broken by thunder and lightning. There is added R. Solomon: The song of a wicked heart, he says, is the law by which a dissolute disciple is instructed by his teacher, which he will not keep, but will become worse and more depraved from it. Others expound it differently thus: Just as nitre instilled with vinegar heals purulent ears and their ringing, as I have already said from Dioscorides, Galen and Pliny, and cleanses their filth: so also sharp exhortations, admonitions, reproofs, which Socrates in Plato's Charmides calls incantations and songs of the soul, although at first they are troublesome and bite sharply like nitre mixed with vinegar, afterwards nevertheless they wipe away vices and cleanse the filth of the soul, unless someone is altogether obstinate and incurable in them, and especially they heal the perturbations of the soul, as it were the ringing of the ears, which prevent hearing the truth. But this biting lasts until the part grows old and is covered with skin. Thus Francis Valesius, in his book On Sacred Philosophy, chapter LX. To this the Chaldean version tends: as one who pours vinegar into nitre, so pain proves the heart, as a silver vessel, that is to say, Just as nitre infused with vinegar cleanses the rust of golden and silver vessels, and restores them to their former brightness and splendor: so likewise the pain which sharp reproof, chastisement, labor and affliction inflict, proves, that is, by proving cleanses and purges the heart, which is covered with the rust of vices from idleness, luxury and wantonness. For proves in Chaldean is מצרף metsareph, that is, smelts and by smelting purges, just as a goldsmith smelts in a furnace, and by smelting purges gold and silver from dross. Whence for silver vessel you would better translate from the Chaldean, as silver in a vessel, namely a smelting vessel, is refined and purged in fire: so that this new comparison is distinct from the comparison of vinegar in nitre. Moreover, just as the sharpness of vinegar is blunted and tempered by nitre, so that it may wash away filth: so the sharpness of reproof is to be softened and seasoned by the gentleness and kindness of the one reproving, so that it may cleanse away the vices of the soul. Whence the Samaritan healed the wounds of him going down to Jericho, pouring in oil and wine, namely the oil of gentleness and the wine of sharpness, Luke chapter X, 34. To this the Septuagint version tends: as vinegar draws out what is useless, so an affliction befalling the body saddens the heart. That is to say, Just as vinegar drawn from nitrous earth sucks out and draws nitre, and thus makes the earth sterile and salty fertile and suitable for sowing and reaping, as Columella and others teach in their works On Agriculture: so likewise affliction and punishment inflicted on the body of the sinner saddens and compels his heart, so that from it he draws out inveterate vices, and restores it to health and virtue. But the author of the Catena of the Greeks reads from the Septuagint thus: As vinegar harms the teeth, and smoke the eyes: so disease, which befalls the body, saddens the heart. Which meaning is clear and manifest in itself.
As the Moth to the Garment, So is Sorrow to the Heart This verse is lacking in the Hebrew; it has been transcribed from the Septuagint. The Chaldean paraphrase: as the moth (or woodworm) in wood, so does stupidity vex the heart of man; Origen, in chapter XIII of Matthew, as the worm in wood, so does the pain of a man wound his heart; St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian, as the worm in wood, so does an evil wife destroy her husband. For this is the cause of all sorrow, so that sorrow itself may rightly be called this, Ecclesiasticus XXV, 17. Mystically, an evil wife is an evil conscience, concerning which more will follow shortly. St. Augustine, book XXI of The City of God, chapter IX: "As the moth to the garment and the worm to the wood, so does grief torment the heart of a man." Whence from this maxim he demonstrates what is said concerning the damned, Isaiah LXVI: "Their worm shall not die," it being aptly understood that by the worm is meant the pain which gnaws at and torments the mind of the damned like a worm. Furthermore, sorrow is aptly compared to the moth and the worm, first, because just as the moth gnaws at the garment and the worm at the wood, gradually and imperceptibly (so that the gnawing is not felt) and finally consumes it entirely: so likewise sorrow gnaws at and torments both the bodily heart and the whole body, and also the spiritual heart, namely the mind of man, so gradually and imperceptibly that it finally consumes and destroys it: for the life of man is situated in the heart. Whence that saying in chapter XVII, 22: "A sorrowful spirit drieth up the bones." Second, because just as the moth is generated in the very garment and from the garment itself, and the worm in the wood and from the wood itself, consuming it: and perpetual night, and profound darkness, and tempest, and whirlwind; a fever not apparent, burning more powerfully than all fire, and a struggle having no rest." Add to this: The moth consumes itself along with the garment, as does the woodworm: so likewise sorrow feeds upon itself and devours itself. Whence Seneca, in the book On Consolation to Marcia, chapter I: "Just as," he says, "all vices lie in wait, unless they are crushed while they are rising: so too these sorrows and miseries, and raging within themselves, finally feed themselves with their own bitterness, and there arises a perverse pleasure of an unhappy mind, pain." Cassian provides a third analogy, book IX On the Spirit of Sorrow, chapter III: "For a garment," he says, "touched by the eating of moths, will be able to have no further use of any value or honor; and likewise wood gnawed by worms will merit to be assigned not to the ornament or moderate building, but to burning by fire. So too a soul, which is devoured by the most voracious bites of sorrow, will be useless either for that Pontifical vestment, which is the ointment of the Holy Spirit descending from heaven, first upon the beard of Aaron, then upon the hem of his garment, according to that: As the ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard of Aaron, that ran down to the skirt of his garment, Psalm CXXXII; nor will it be able to pertain to the structure and ornament of that spiritual temple, whose wise architect Paul laid the foundations, saying: You are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you, I Corinthians III. What manner of wood belongs to it, the Bride describes in the Song of Songs: Our beams are of cedar, the rafters of our houses are of cypress, Song of Songs I. And for this reason such kinds of wood are chosen for the temple of God, which are both of good fragrance and incorruptible, and which can neither be subject to the corruption of age nor to the eating of worms." Add to this: Just as a man clothed in a garment gnawed by moths does not dare to go forth in public, and just as a beam gnawed by worms does not sustain the weight of the building, but collapses beneath it and brings the whole house to ruin: so a sorrowful man is unfit to move about in public and to conduct public affairs; he is likewise too weak to manage domestic matters: wherefore he succumbs to the cares of household management; and loses his whole family with him. Whence Ovid, an exile and sorrowful, in book I of the Epistles from Pontus, thus laments: Fourth, moths are born in soft material, namely wool, just as woodworms are in tender wood; so sorrow is born in a soft heart, a weak, feeble, faint-hearted one. Hear St. Basil, homily On Giving Thanks: "Just as many worms are accustomed to be born in softer woods, so too anguish itself of a dejected mind insinuates itself into those men who are of a softer and not steadfast disposition." Whence Pliny, book XVI, chapter XLI: Woodworms, he says, are prevented from being born in some woods by bitterness, as in cypress, wild olive, and cedar; in others by hardness, as in boxwood: so likewise sorrow is kept away by the strength of heart, magnanimity, severity. But those who have a weak, faint, depressed, earthly, carnal heart, so that they cling to earthly riches and delights, when they are deprived of those so beloved, immediately become sorrowful and grieve. From these therefore sorrow arises, just as moths arise from earthly dust, dampness and decay. The same dust, says Pliny, lib. XI, cap. XXXV: "In wools (for linen does not feel moths), and in garments moths are created, especially if a spider be included with them; for it thirsts, and absorbing all moisture, it increases dryness." The same, lib. XXVII, cap. VII: "Wormwood, he says, inserted into garments keeps off moths" by its bitterness; the same moths he drives away by garlic cooked in mulled wine by its acidity, as the same teaches lib. XX, cap. VI. And lib. XV, cap. VIII, he asserts "that the wardrobe against shipworms and harmful animals should be sprinkled with amurca." Thus likewise a severe, lofty, sublime life keeps off sadness: for this arises from idleness, sloth, dejection of spirit and concupiscence. Whence St. Gregory, lib. V in I Reg. cap. XIV, assigns a remedy for sadness, the thought and desire of heavenly goods: "Thus, he says, the vice of acedia, that is, weariness of heart, is driven away, if heavenly goods are always thought upon. The mind, indeed, can in no way be wearied, which sees such pleasant goods joyfully. For the narrow evil of sadness is devoured by the field of spiritual joy; but yet that spiritual joy itself does not pour itself into the mind, which does not know how to transcend the straits of temporal life by contemplation. And sadness is well overcome, if the rewards of temporal labors are seen; because from whence the chosen mind considers itself to be afflicted temporally, thence it hopes to rejoice eternally in the heavenly fatherland." It is therefore childish, foolish and stupid to be saddened by the losses of temporal things, when we know that through these we gain heavenly and eternal goods. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it, as the shipworm to wood, so foolishness irritates the heart of man. Truly St. Bernard, De Interiori domo: "An evil conscience is the constant worm of delights and pleasures," because it constantly gnaws at those devoted to gluttony and pleasures, and takes away and eats up all sense of delights from them. Finally Cassian, lib. IX De Spiritu tristitiae, cap. XIII, administers this remedy for sadness: "We shall therefore be able to drive out this most pernicious passion from us, if we keep our mind constantly occupied by spiritual meditation, raised up by hope of the future and contemplation of promised blessedness, etc. Remaining joyful and unmoved in the sight of eternal and future things, neither cast down by present misfortunes nor elated by prosperity, contemplating both as fleeting and soon to pass away, or, as others read, despising them." Moreover sadness is manifold and arises from many causes, and in every place this saying of Solomon has its place. For sadness arises from many cares, anxieties, fears, worries, with which busy men abound, especially Prelates and Princes, who are therefore so bored through, as cloth and wood are perforated by shipworms. Indeed Charles V, when wearied of ruling transferred all of it to his son Philip at Brussels, confessed before the whole Senate of the Orders, weeping, that during the whole time of his rule he had not had even a quarter of an hour free from cares, troubles and sorrows, in which he could sincerely rest and relax and cheer his spirit. But this corrosion of sadness is seen most of all in sinners, to whom an evil conscience gives birth to a worm, that is, remorse of conscience, which gnaws at them perpetually, so that they grieve greatly, are tormented and tortured. Whence St. Augustine, lib. XXI De Civit. cap. IX, explains this passage concerning that worm, which is especially in the damned. And St. Jerome in Isaiae cap. LXVI: "The worm, he says, that does not die, is understood by many as the conscience of sinners, which torments those placed in punishments, because they have lacked by their vice and sin the good of the elect, according to that which is said: I was troubled in misery, while a thorn is fixed. And in Proverbs: The worm of the bones is an understanding heart; and again under the obelus: As the moth to garment and the worm to wood, so sorrow torments the heart of a man." As therefore the shipworm, as Plutarch testifies in Sympos., arises from putrefaction, so sadness is born from the putrefaction of conscience through sin. Albert the Great, book XIX, chapter XVIII On the Soul, reports that Avicenna wrote that he had a friend who, whenever he wished, would generate scorpions from rotted wood: thus the sinner, while willing to indulge his corrupt inclination, creates scorpions and worms of sadness, which gnaw at the soul. Pliny, book XXVIII, chapter III: "Those struck by a scorpion at some time, he says, are never afterwards struck by hornets, wasps or bees. Let him wonder less at this who knows that a garment is not touched by moths if it has been in a funeral:" thus the moth of acedia and sadness does not touch him who has constant remembrance of the funeral and of present and eternal death, where "their worm dieth not, and their fire is not extinguished," Isaiah LXVI. For this remembrance surpasses all labors, pains, and anguishes which can produce sadness, and spurs man on to undertake difficult things with alacrity and fortitude. Wherefore St. Isidore wisely says, book III On the Highest Good: "Always, he says, the conscience of God's servant ought to be humble and sad, so that through humility he may not become proud, and through useful sorrow his heart may not be carried away to wantonness." Again, some through sadness understand envy, which is saddened by another's happiness, virtue and good, and therefore is nothing other than envious sadness, or sadness flowing from envy. For envy gnaws at and torments the mind of the envious, just as a moth gnaws at a garment, and a shipworm at wood. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 45 to the People: "Such, he says, is the malice of this vice, that it first offends the one who gave it birth, and just as a worm born from wood first consumes it, so also envy first corrupts the soul that gave it birth." And further: "Before being attacked by external enemies, he is so besieged by this vice that he is almost consumed, and as if eaten away by hidden teeth, thus secretly, so to speak, he remains consumed." Wherefore St. Basil, homily On Envy, says: Philosophers compare envy to rust which consumes bronze, and to corrosion which consumes iron. In a similar manner envy eats away at the envious, according to that chapter XIV, verse 30: "Rottenness of the bones is envy." See the things said there. Following Solomon's custom, Ecclesiasticus, chapter XXV, verse 17: "Every plague, he says, is sadness of heart." And chapter XXX, verse 24: "Put sadness far from thee; for sadness hath killed many, and there is no profit in it." See the things said there. Philosophers agree with both. Menander in the Maxims: "Since by nature, he says, many evils cling to all men, sadness is the greatest evil. There is none, if one considers rightly, greater than sadness as a sickness by its own nature among human affairs." Apollodorus in the Paralogisms: "He is not to be called happy who has very many riches, but he who is saddened." The same in Galatians: "Sadness seems to me to be near to madness;" indeed it has made and makes many mad and insane. Phocion: "It is much better, he says, to lie on the ground and have a good and peaceful mind, than to be disturbed on a golden bed." Thus Stobaeus, discourse I On Prudence. But Diogenes Laertius, book VI: "Oppose to fortune, he says, confidence of mind, obey nature, apply reason to the passions; by these three things the tranquility of men is prepared and preserved." Aristippus used to say: "Neither should care be taken for past things, nor for future things. For only the present is placed in our hand, not the past, nor the future: for that has gone away, and this is uncertain whether it will happen." Thus Aelian, book XIV of Miscellaneous History, Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LXXII, and Maximus, discourse 28, cite Plutarch saying: "A tunic should be put on the chest, but to sadness the mind and reason should be opposed;" and Theopompus: "If anyone possessing very great riches passes through life with sadness, he would certainly be the most miserable of all who are and who will be men;" and Epictetus: "Foolish men are freed from time, wise men from reason and sorrow. He is wise who is not saddened by absences, but rejoices in present things. Those who on account of calamities are not at all saddened in mind, and in fact most resist, these are to be regarded as the most excellent of both states and private persons;" and Euripides: "To no one does life remain free from pain."
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By water and bread the Hebrew phrase understands any drink and food whatsoever. This was done by Elisaeus, who thus commanded the king of Israel concerning the Syrians his enemies: "Set bread and water before them that they may eat and drink, and go to their master," IV Kings cap. VI, 22. He seems to allude to physicians, who to those suffering from frenzy or apoplexy from cold, stiffening and torpid, apply warm fomentations to the head to dissolve this cold, and then place a pot or censer of coals. In like manner enemies, who are cold and stiff with hatred, are to be warmed by a heap of benefits as by a censer of coals, so that the cold of hatred may be changed into the heat of love. Whence St. Augustine, serm. 163 De Tempore: "Thou shalt heap coals of fire upon his head." "For when, he says, he shall begin to do penance, the rational sense, that is his head, begins to be kindled with the fire of charity; and he who before, as it were cold and frenzied, was accustomed to retain anger against thee, being inflamed by the spiritual heat from thy goodness, begins to love thee with his whole heart." And the Lord shall render unto thee, namely shall repay thee the fruit of thy beneficence, says Aben-Ezra; and shall compensate benefit with benefit, says R. Levi. Golden therefore is the dogma of St. Paulinus, epist. 6 to Severus: "Remember, he says, a grain of mustard seed (from which seed we are), if it be ground, is kindled more, and then at length is stirred up to its power. Wherefore we ought as it were to answer to our nature in this, that being bruised by adverse words we may be inflamed unto faith, and those very ones who endeavor to break us as the least of men, namely as a grain of mustard seed (which is the least of seeds), we may burn." This is the holy and efficacious vengeance upon an enemy, when thou killest hostility in him by the fire of love, and makest him a friend to thee. Three goods therefore thou shalt obtain from it, victory over thy enemy, gain of thy neighbor, reward from thy Lord. Thus also Saul, after he knew his fault from the benefit of David, and saying: "Thou art more just than I: for thou hast rewarded me with good, but I have returned thee evil;" added: "But the Lord shall render unto thee this recompense, because thou hast dealt well with me this day," I Kings XXIV. Plato learned the same thing from Solomon and the Hebrews, and Plutarch, who in lib. De Utilit. ex hostibus capienda: "Caesar, he says, when he ordered the statues of Pompey that had been thrown down to be set up again, Cicero said: By restoring the statues of Pompey thou hast fixed thine own; for the praise of an enemy brings greater praise to the one praising than to the one praised, etc. And truly what other exercise brings greater utility to our minds or a better affection than that which removes envy and malicious emulation from them?" Nay, Cicero himself protected Gabinius, by whom he had been expelled from the City, and Vatinius, always hostile to him, by two public trials: "Because it is somewhat more honorable to overcome injury by benefits than to balance mutual hatred by persistence," says Valerius Maximus, lib. IV, cap. II. Where he recounts many examples of this among the Romans. Symbolically the Rabbis, says R. Solomon, have expounded it of evil concupiscence and the tinder: If evil thought shall hunger, and solicit thee to its cupidity by crimes to be satisfied, withdraw thyself to the seat of the gymnasium, and there endeavor to satisfy its hunger with the breads of sacred law, and supply waters, namely of divine law. For they are as it were coals, which thou takest up and drinkest from such a station, so that thou mayest heap them upon his head. But the author of the Greek Catena thus expounds it, as if to say: If thou feedest and givest drink to thy enemy, thou burnest him, namely the devil, who is the author of all enmity to the enemy, because thou shalt torture him, and afflict him with the greatest pain. For our charity and holiness torture the devil, who burns with hatred, envy and malice. But this is neither literal, nor sufficiently coherent. The Apostle cites these two maxims, Rom. XII, 20, where I have explained them at length; wherefore I shall not repeat them here.
25:23
In Hebrew, the language of concealment, that is, one who conceals himself and detracts in secret and hidden manner, and like a serpent biting. For "dissipates" in Hebrew it is תחולל techolel, which is properly derived from חיל chol, and signifies, it will afflict with pain, will torment, will bring forth; but if it derives from חלל chalal, it signifies it will wound, will kill, will destroy, will put to flight, will dissipate, will annihilate. Whence there is a twofold version here, and one directly contrary to the other. For many translate, the north wind brings forth rains; but others, contrary to our version, the north wind dissipates or destroys rains. The Chaldean, following the former, translates, the wind of the north conceives rain, thus the face of the angry and the hidden tongue conceives angers, calumnies, vengeances, which like rain and hail it may pour forth upon him against whom it is offended. The Septuagint: the wind of the north stirs up clouds; but the face impudent, that is, shameless (in the Vatican manuscripts it is read, imprudent, through the error of printers, as it seems), harsh, shameless, bold, audacious, irritates the tongue; the north wind brings forth rain. Thus also R. Solomon, and R. Levi. Cajetan translates more clearly, the north wind brings forth rain, and the face of the angry the hidden tongue. Others, with the Vulgate, for "brings forth" translate contrarily, "forbids" or "dissipates." Whence Vatablus: the north wind drives away rains, but the severe countenance the slanderous tongue. For if you show by a severe countenance that it displeases you, it will be silent, both from shame and modesty, and from remorse of an evil conscience, and because it desires to please you, and not to bring sadness to you and itself. Pagninus: "Just as the north wind drives away rains, so also does an angry face the tongue secretly detracting." Both these versions capture a true and fitting sense. For the north wind in northern regions is sharp and drives away clouds and rains; but in southern regions, such as Judaea, it gathers clouds and brings forth rains. Just as conversely the south wind in northern regions generates rains; but in southern regions, as in Africa, it brings dryness and clear skies. Thus R. Levi: The north wind, he says, in Jerusalem brings forth the humors rising from the sea, since the sea of Judaea is to the west. Hear Aristotle, lib. II Meteor. cap. IV: "The north winds," he says, "are evaporative, inasmuch as they come from damp and cold places, and on that account are cold; but among us they are authors of pleasant and mild weather, in that they cast down and dry up clouds. Contrarily in southern places, indeed in those opposite, in which they drive clouds, they are watery." And again in Problemat. sect. XXVI: "The north wind," he says, "brings rain to the Hellespont and Cyrene." Again, natural philosophers teach, indeed we ourselves often experience in fact at Rome and other places of Europe, that the north wind in summer sometimes gathers clouds, and from them produces storms, hail, thunder and lightning. Therefore thus you should translate and thus explain it, as if to say: Just as the north wind sometimes gathers clouds in the heat, and brings forth storms and rains; so the slanderous tongue brings forth clouds of sadness and showers of tears. Moreover, just as the north wind sometimes stirs up hail, lightning and thunder; so the tongue of the detractor stirs up angers and vengeance, both of him whose reputation is detracted from, and of upright men, and of God himself, whose wrath it inflames, as R. Solomon says; thus also Cajetan. But the Septuagint, which translates, the north wind stirs up clouds; but the shameless or harsh face irritates the tongue, thus you should explain it, as if to say: A man of hardened brow provokes the tongues of men against himself. Again, as if to say: If a Superior, Prince, or Prelate shows a harsh, morose or impudent face to a subject, or to anyone else, he irritates and provokes him, so that he gathers within himself the vapors of angers and curses, which, when occasion is given, he may hurl and discharge against the same man in troops among his companions, just as the north wind gathers clouds which burst forth into hail, lightning and thunder. Wherefore Superiors who are excessively severe and morose are by their cruelty and harshness the cause of many sins, for which they will render an account to God. For they agitate subjects so that they boldly break forth into insults and curses, and violation of obedience and vows. But the author of the Catena of the Greeks interprets the Septuagint mystically thus: A hard and untamed wind is the devil; for he, clothed in an impudent mouth and a face devoid of all shame, stirs up various temptations for the faithful of Christ, and allures their souls to malice and vices, but also provokes their tongue to blasphemy. Secondly, far better our version, Pagninus, Vatablus, Aben-Ezra and others translate contrarily, the north wind dissipates rains, and a sad face the slanderous tongue. The north wind scatters the rains, and a sad face scatters the slanderer's tongue. For the north wind by its harshness commonly scatters clouds: thus also a sad face scatters accusations; because, as Bede says: "If you hear the slanderer with a cheerful countenance, you give him fuel for slandering; but if you hear these things with a sad countenance, as a certain man of God says, he learns not willingly to speak what he learned not willingly to hear." For accusations are like dark clouds, which obscure and darken the reputation of one's neighbor, which the south wind of talkativeness brings in, according to that saying of Antony in the Melissa: "As the Caecias wind brings clouds, so the life of the pious brings upon itself the reproaches of the wicked." But the north wind, severe and rigid, of a sad and stern face, puts to flight and scatters these. Note first: Fittingly is a sad face, or, as it is in Hebrew, an angry face, compared to the north wind. First, because just as the north wind is harsh, savage, dry and dreadful: so also is a sad and angry face; conversely, just as the south wind is pleasant, agreeable and moist, so also is a pleasant, joyful and cheerful face. Second, just as the north wind puts to flight the little clouds, and clears the air and earth: so also does a sad and indignant face put to flight slanders and accusations, private and secret, and clears, beautifies and cheers all things. For accusations are uttered by the tongue of concealment, as the Hebrew has it, that is, secretly, covertly and in hiding, which therefore is rightly compared to a cloud full of shadow. For its upper part, as our Salazar says, which is turned toward the sun, is bright and splendid, and receives the rays and by reflection reverberates them back to the sun itself in a certain way; but its lower part, which looks toward the earth, is dark and obscure, pouring forth the brightness of the sun itself: in no other way does the slanderous tongue present a bright and pleasant face to those present, willingly uses their praises, and in all things desires to be approved by them; but it blackens and obscures the splendor and reputation of the absent, and devotes itself entirely to their reproaches and insults. Third, just as the north wind sometimes stirs up hail, lightning and thunder in the heat: so also does an angry face often burst forth into quarrels, rebukes and threats, by which it provokes, drives and puts to flight the slanderer, and sometimes even strikes, wounds and kills him. Whence Aben-Ezra fittingly and appropriately translates the Hebrew תחולל techolel, that is, scatters, as torments, as if to say: Just as the north wind torments, as it were, and brings pain and weakness to the rain, by scattering and pressing it so that it is prevented from flowing down to the earth, but is entirely dispersed and vanishes: so also does an angry face torment the slanderer, and renders his cursing tongue weak and feeble, so that he is unable to speak evil, nor dares to. Note: For sad, in Hebrew it is נזעמים nizamim, that is, disturbed, angry, inflamed, indignant; for these things scatter slanders more than that which merely shows sadness. And indeed if the slanderer be a Superior or a man of great authority, it suffices for him to show a sad face; but if he be an equal, lesser or inferior, he should say to him openly with a grave, stern, or angry countenance: If you bring good things of your neighbor, I hear willingly; if you wish to utter evil things, I do not hear. This is what St. Jerome says in his letter to Rusticus: "As an arrow, he says, if shot against hard matter, sometimes returns to the one who shot it, and that is fulfilled: They have made my bow crooked. And: He that casts a stone upward casts it on his own head: so the slanderer, when he sees the sad face of the hearer, or rather not even of the hearer, but of one who stops his ears, immediately falls silent, his face grows pale, his lips stick, his saliva dries up." But, because the life of the Saints is a living interpretation of Scripture, and it is better taught and learned by deed than by word; receive their examples which you may imitate. St. John the Almsgiver, if anyone slandered another in his presence, would assume another persona; but if that one persisted in slandering, he would command his chamberlain to open his door to him no longer, so that through him he might instruct others. Thus Leontius in his Life. St. Pachomius, hearing someone slandering: "Turning away from him as from the face of a serpent, he would depart hastily, frequently insinuating that verse of the Psalm: Him that slandered his neighbor in secret I persecuted, Psalm C. No one, he said, brings forth anything evil from his mouth, nor does he speak with venom at all against the holy fathers. Concerning which matter he showed by many Scriptures of God the indignation of the offended. But he especially brought forward the example of Mary, who, as soon as she poured forth complaints of detraction against Moses, could not avoid the divine judgment." For, as is related in Num. XII, she was struck with leprosy from heaven. Thus Dionysius in the Life of Pachomius, cap. XXVII. Macarius the Abbot in the Lives of the Fathers, hearing detraction, immediately fell into sleep. In the same work, book III, number 133, Abbot Poemen, being asked "how can a man avoid speaking evil of his neighbor," answered: "My neighbor and I are two images; when therefore I have examined mine own, and reproved myself, I find the image of my brother in me venerable; but when I have praised mine own, then I regard the image of my brother as depraved. Therefore I detract not of another, if I always reprove myself." Abbot Hyperichius said: "It is better to eat flesh and drink wine, than to eat the flesh of brothers in reviling. For as the hissing serpent cast Eve out of paradise, so he who detracts from his brother loses not only his own soul, but also that of the hearer." Abbot John was wont to say: "We have laid down a small burden, that is, to reprove ourselves, and chosen to bear a heavy one, that is, to justify ourselves and condemn others; namely, he who inspects himself is the praiser of his neighbor; self-reproof alone is man's justice," said Abbot Poemenius. Take also the apophthegms of the Philosophers from Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LIII. Of Plutarch: "As a hen, when she was sick, answered a young man asking her as one of the benevolent how she was: She answered rightly, if you would depart; so to such a man who raises discourse upon dissension, and asks, and digs up some secrets, it should be said: Yet I desire nothing in my brother, if neither I hear those who calumniate, nor he." Of Socrates: "Admit not the talkative and calumniator; for he does not do this from benevolence, but in order that he may uncover to you the secrets of others, and likewise what you have said, he will expose to others." Of Moschion: "To be slandered by many is neither true nor harmful; but to be reproved by one good man is both true and useful." Of Demonax: "When a certain sophist blamed him and said: Why do you curse me? he answered: Because you do not despise one who curses."
25:24
The Syrian, in a house of divisions. This verse is repeated in this place; for we have heard it in chapter XXI, 9, where I explained it. For "in a corner" in Hebrew is על פנה al pinna, that is, upon an angle or cone; whence the Latin pinnaculum, that is, the summit of a house, as if to say: It is better to sit upon the pinnacle of the roof, where you are exposed to the utmost danger of falling, and most grievously to the annoyance of rains and winds, than to dwell with a quarrelsome woman.
25:25
The conjunction here, as also frequently in this book, connects similar things, and has the same force as thus, similarly, as if to say: Just as cold water is wonderfully pleasing to a thirsty soul, so also a good messenger from a distant land is wonderfully pleasing to one who awaits him or desires to hear from him. For messenger, in Hebrew it is שמועה schmua, that is, hearing, message, announcement. But the matter comes to the same thing: for a good messenger is one who brings joyful tidings to those who hear. For the thirsty one, in Hebrew it is עיף iaeph, that is, weary, that is, one parched from weariness, exhausted and thirsty. It is a metalepsis. The Hebrews therefore have it word for word: cold waters upon a weary soul, and good hearing from a distant land; the Chaldean: as cold waters to a weary soul, so a good message from a remote land; the Septuagint: as cold water to a thirsty soul is very pleasant, so also a good messenger, who comes from a distant land, wonderfully refreshes that same soul. Thus the Author of the Catena of the Greeks. R. Levi: Just as, he says, a mind succumbing to labour perceives a singular benefit and fruit from refreshing waters, by which the vital heat is recalled to the innermost parts of the body, which had been dispersed by motion, so one draws singular utility from a pleasant and good message, which has been brought to him from distant regions concerning his kinsmen or friends; for that indeed seems to recall the mind, just as from cold waters a mind overcome by labour is restored to life. The purpose of this saying is to teach, says Aben-Ezra, that each one should narrate happy and auspicious things, and refrain from narrating sad and inauspicious things; again, to admonish messengers, kinsmen and friends, that they should quickly write or announce joyful tidings to their own, whom they know eagerly and anxiously await them. The sense therefore is, says Jansenius, as if to say: Just as cold water refreshes, delights and restores a man panting greatly from weariness and thirst for water, and almost fainting, and repairs his strength, so a good messenger returning from a distant land wonderfully delights him who has long awaited him, and who from expectation is now wearied, and from love almost fainting, and as if by a drink offered satisfies his desire with pleasure, restoring his collapsed mental strength. This is not attributed to every good messenger here, but especially to him who comes from a distant land, because as such he has been awaited both longer and with greater anxiety: thus when he returns he is heard and received with greater joy and eagerness. This maxim is similar to that in verse 13: "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to him that sent him, for he refresheth his soul." Thus Jacob, hearing the message that Joseph his son lived and ruled in Egypt, his spirit revived, Genesis XLV, 27. Our Salazar repeats this from a distant land, and joins it to both the cold water and the good messenger. Although the maxim in itself does not require this repetition, yet if it be added, it will make the maxim more apt and more forceful, as if to say: Just as some traveller in a waterless place, parched with thirst and failing from weariness, and unable to proceed further to a spring, is refreshed by cold water brought from a long distance, recovers his strength and spirit, so also a man separated by place, thirsting from desire for a wished-for thing, wearied by long expectation and falling from hope into excessive despair, when someone announces with certainty that something good has been brought from afar, receives refreshment, strength and spirit. Mystically this saying was truer and more salutary in spiritual messengers, namely the Prophets, who announced the coming of the Messiah, and by this most joyful message they wonderfully refreshed the pious Jews eagerly awaiting him, such as Isaiah. Whence in chapter XL, 9, he says: "Get thee up upon a high mountain, thou that bringest good tidings to Sion; lift up thy voice with strength, thou that bringest good tidings to Jerusalem; say to the cities of Juda: Behold your God; behold the Lord God shall come with strength," etc. Such also was the Archangel Gabriel announcing to the Blessed Virgin the conception of the Word, who wonderfully refreshed her and all the faithful of all ages, saying: "Behold thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and shalt bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus; he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Most High," Luke I, 31. Such was the Angel announcing to the shepherds the nativity of Christ: "Behold, he says, I bring you good tidings of great joy, that shall be to all the people; for there is born to you this day a Saviour, who is Christ the Lord, in the city of David," Luke II, 10. But above all such was Christ himself, who, sent by the Father from heaven, brought the Gospel, that is the joyful message of grace and salvation, and offered it to the whole world, when the Word was made flesh, and dwelt in us. The Angels also, says Bede, daily descending from a far land, that is from the heavenly homeland, either strengthen the just in temptation with hope of heavenly things, or after the struggles of temptations are finished lead them to the palm of eternal reward. And Hugh: "A good message, he says, is a good preacher announcing good tidings from a far land, that is from the heavenly homeland." Anagogically the Author of the Greek Catena: A messenger, he says, of the resurrection of the flesh and the certainty of divine promises brought from heaven, cannot fail to be most welcome to a just man, and delightful to a well-disposed soul. Indeed no message can come more joyfully to the just than one which announces to him heavenly glory, and renders him secure concerning it. Whence St. Francis, having received from heaven a message, nay an oracle, concerning his predestination and salvation, exulted in spirit, and for seven continuous days, as if beside himself, could neither eat nor drink, but only sing and jubilate to God. St. Nicholas of Tolentino six months before his death heard every night the sweetest concert of Angels inviting him to heaven; whence he repeatedly repeated that saying of the Apostle: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ," Philip. I. But when the time of dissolution drew near, in his final breath he began to utter the voices of one rejoicing and longing: when the Brethren who were present asked the cause of this unusual joy, he, astonished and scarcely master of himself on account of the magnitude of the matter: "My Lord Jesus Christ, he said, leaning upon his holy Mother and Augustine our Father, says to me: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of thy Lord." In these words he expired. St. Bernard writes similar things concerning the death of his brother Gerard, sermon 26 in the Canticles. Similar things concerning the joyful message of blessed death and happiness given to Anthony a monk of his monastery, Merulo and many others recount St. Gregory, IV Dialogues, chapter XLVII and following and preceding.
25:26
In Hebrew, a fountain trampled by the foot and a vein cut off, a just man tottering, or falling, before the face of the wicked; in Chaldean, as he who stops up a fountain and corrupts a vein, so a just man falling before the wicked; in the Septuagint, as if someone obstructs a fountain and destroys the outlet of water, so it is unseemly for a just man to have fallen before the wicked. This maxim can be understood in two ways, namely concerning a twofold fall of the just man, that is concerning a fall into calamity, and concerning a fall into sin. First therefore, concerning a fall into calamity, thus Baynus and Jansenius expound it. By fountain and vein he signifies the same thing: for the discourse is not concerning a vein of the human body, but rather concerning a vein of waters, as also above when it is said in chapter X: "The mouth of the just is a vein of life." A fountain by its nature is most clear, most pleasant and most useful; it loses its clarity, grace and usefulness when it is trampled and disturbed by a foot, so that dust and mud are stirred up, or when otherwise it is corrupted by the injection or admixture of some filth, or by the obstruction of the vein, so that either it does not yield water, or not abundantly, nor clearly. To this is compared a just man falling before the wicked, falling, I say, into prison, death or some other calamity, which the wicked man inflicted upon him by pursuing him and casting him into calamity. Baynus gives an apt example in St. John the Baptist, who, cast by Herod into prison and finally beheaded, was as it were a fountain trampled by the foot of Herodias and the dancing girl, disturbed and corrupted, so that he could no longer water the people with the waters of saving doctrine and good examples. Herodias therefore trampled upon, corrupted and oppressed this public fountain of doctrine pouring forth innumerable benefits upon the people, and stopped up, closed and cut off that golden mouth which was a vein of life and vital utterances, because from it he more freely rebuked her concerning adultery. Secondly and better you may understand this maxim concerning a fall into sin, that is to say, when a just man falls into sin in the sight of the wicked, it is as a disturbed fountain and as a corrupted vein, both because he proffers a corrupted and depraved example to others; and because the wicked man divulges and exaggerates his fall, and thus creates infamy for the fallen man and scandal for the people, each of which is often irreparable. Again and rather you may understand this fall of the just man before the wicked, whereby the just man is driven by the wicked either by threats and punishments, or by blandishments, promises and gifts into sin; for this is indicated by the Hebrew mot, that is to totter, to incline, to decline, to slip, to fall, to rush, namely with the wicked man driving. Whence Vatablus for "falling" translates "yielding to the wicked." This however happens in various ways, namely: First, when a just man slips into adultery, fornication or some other crime for the favor of the wicked, or on account of fear or threats of the wicked. For a just man is as it were a mirror of virtue: wherefore his morals, words and deeds truly show forth and condemn the baseness and corrupt morals of the wicked, who in order to remove this disgrace of theirs, strive with all effort to draw the just man into their snare and crimes. Secondly, when a just man, especially a Priest, Religious, Doctor, etc., on account of threats or promises of the wicked, abandons the truth of religion and becomes a heretic, so that he who before was a herald of faith, now becomes a herald of error, such as in the past age were Luther, Calvin, Brentius, etc., and formerly were Origen, Tertullian, and Hosius Bishop of Corduba, president of the Council of Nicaea, who in his old age, driven by the threats of the Arians, subscribed to the condemnation of St. Athanasius. For such a one is as it were a disturbed fountain, nay infected with lethal poison, so that he who before poured forth the waters of saving doctrine, now pours forth deadly waters, and corrupts and destroys more than an orthodox man existing would convert and save. Hence Bede, the Gloss and Aben-Ezra, connecting this maxim with the following, thus explain it, that is to say, "It often happens that those who shone forth endowed with greater knowledge, at last, wishing to be wise beyond what is granted to human frailty, fall into the pit of foolishness. Whence he adds: As he who eats much honey, it is not good for him, so he who is a searcher of majesty, shall be oppressed by glory," so that not grasping the mystery of one deity in the Holy Trinity, for example, he may fall into the heresy of Arius, Macedonius, Sabellius. Thirdly, this just man can be understood as a judge and magistrate, who, corrupted by threats or gifts of the wicked, brings forth unjust sentences and perverts the laws. For he, whereas before he was a fountain unmuddy and clear of truth and justice, now vitiated by the mud of avarice or timidity, becomes a muddy and slimy fountain of falsehood and injustice. Wherefore he harms the commonwealth and the public good no less, nay far more, who perverts a just judge and makes him unjust, than he who vitiates, obstructs or cuts off the public fountains of the commonwealth. Bede understands by the impious man the devil, who impels the just man to sin out of hatred both of God, and of the just man, and of other men. For the just man is as it were a pure fountain, through which God emanates true faith, examples of virtues, and His gifts and graces to others; wherefore the devil strives in every way to obstruct or corrupt him, that he may hinder such great goods, and bring in three contrary evils, namely injury and offense to God, the ruin of the just man and scandal to others. For the good life of the just man is as it were a fountain flowing with constant praises of him through the honest and holy works of the same man, which, when the devil intercepts, he at the same time intercepts his praises and fame. For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 24 to the People: "The good fame of a man flows from his good life, as from a fountain."
25:27
In Hebrew, חקר כבודם כבוד cheker kebodam kabod, that is, the searching of their glory, glory, or the searching of their gravity, gravity. Which various men translate and explain variously. First, the Septuagint: to eat much honey is not good; but it is proper to hold in esteem glorious words, namely not by searching them curiously and proudly, but by admiring and venerating them modestly in chaste silence, as St. Dionysius teaches, On the Celestial Hierarchy, and On Divine Names. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena thus translates and thus explains: "As to eat much honey is not good, so it is proper to taste sublime doctrine soberly, and to hold it in great esteem." By these things he insinuates that inquiry into the reasons of divine judgments ought to be more sparing, and that dogmas handed down concerning such matters ought not to be proposed to all promiscuously and as it were prostituted, but only to the worthy, and the same ought to be held in great honor and reverence: thus he. Second, Aben-Ezra translates: he who is intent on investigating the glory of the just shall obtain glory, that is to say, just as the excessive use of honey harms, yet moderate use profits greatly: so he who moderately searches into the wisdom of the just shall reap glory; for in the wisdom of the just their glory and splendor consists; and this honey signifies, according to that passage, chapter XXIV, 13: "Eat, my son, honey, because it is good, etc.: so also is the doctrine of wisdom to thy soul." Third, Pagninus translates: just as to eat much honey is not good, so the investigation of various sciences is not glory, namely true glory, but curious and vain. Fourth, Cajetan thus translates: just as to eat much honey is not good, so on the other hand to seek honor of them is honor, and thus explains: Glory, he says, of them is glory common to the whole community, college, city, commonwealth, that is to say, to seek singular and particular glory, like much honey, is indeed sweet and pleasant, but useless and harmful; but truly to search out and pursue the glory of the community or commonwealth is most useful and honorable. Fifth, others translate: just as to eat much honey is not good, so to search into glories is not glory: namely to seek one's own praises and glories is vanity, not truth; pride, not glory. Sixth, most excellently and most profoundly Our author translates: "As he that eateth much honey, it is not good for him: so he that is a searcher of majesty, shall be oppressed by glory," both because he subtly understood that for the apt conformity and comparison of this sentence, after the Hebrew manner, the negation not ought to be repeated, in this manner: Just as to eat much honey is not good, so the searching of their glory (that is, of divine things, which alone are pure and true) is not glory. Whence the Chaldean translates: to eat much honey is not good, nor to search into glorious words; and Vatablus: just as to eat much honey is not good, so he who searches too much into their glory (supply, of heavenly and divine things, whence glory is wont to be sought) is not glory, is not praiseworthy; and Symmachus: to investigate moreover honor for oneself and glory, repeat, is not good, or much more is not good; Theodotion: to him also investigating through those things which are glorified, glory, repeat, is not good. חקר כבוד מכבוד cheker kabod miccabod, that is, the searching of glory from glory, to be understood as oppressed; and for חקר cheker, that is, searching, others read with different pointing not choker, that is, searcher. To this pertains what some translate: to search into grave matters, that is, grave and difficult things to understand, or glorious things, gravity is, or it is grave, that is, such things depress and oppress the man, as Our author translates. The sense therefore is, that is to say, just as to take honey, a thing in itself most excellent, is good; but if moderation is not observed in taking it, it brings harm, namely torment, rupture and death (for honey very quickly turns into red bile; wherefore those who have used honey more greedily are often dangerously inflamed): so although it be in itself good and pleasant to taste the divine majesty itself, and the knowledge of any most excellent thing, whether in the Scriptures or elsewhere, yet to search into it beyond the measure fitting to nature or intellect, oppresses and burdens it with its own brightness, hurling it into foolishness, madness and errors, not otherwise than the brightness of the sun, when directly beheld by a man, blinds him, which otherwise refreshes and illuminates. Thus Jansenius. The analogy therefore of honey and the investigation of majesty consists in this, that just as honey is heavy, and if taken in excess, weighs down and overwhelms a man: so the majesty of divine glory is immense and the weight of glory is enormous, which dulls, weighs down, blinds and oppresses the weak eyes of the mind. Whence St. Gregory, lib. XIV Moral. cap. XII, or, according to another division, cap. XIV: "The sweetness," he says, "of honey, if taken more than is necessary, whence the mouth is delighted, thence the life of the eater is destroyed. Sweet also is the investigation of the majesty of God; but he who desires to investigate it more than the knowledge of humanity permits, is himself oppressed by his glory, because just as immoderately taken honey, it breaks the sense of the investigator, since it is not comprehended." From St. Gregory Bede transcribed these things. Secondly, just as honey, being airy, is flatulent, and therefore if taken too much, distends the belly, inflates it, and finally bursts it, so that it cracks: so also knowledge inflates, charity builds up, says the Apostle. "To eat much honey is not good; for knowledge inflates rather than builds up a sense that is poorly founded," says Faustus of Riez in his epistle Against Nestorius. Just as therefore excessive honey turns into swollen flatulence and wind, so also excessive speculation about divine things, born from pride, turns into arrogance and haughtiness. Thirdly, honey eaten excessively turns into bile, which sharply bites, presses, torments, and finally kills and oppresses the intestines: so also excessive speculation about divinity turns into errors and heresies, which not only oppress the one speculating, but also many others, and not rarely the whole Church, and kill and destroy many. Again, the honey of excessive speculation turns into bile, that is anger, indignation and envy, because it makes those speculating wrathful, indignant and envious, while they see themselves surpassed by others, and in turn provokes and irritates the envy of others against them. Fourthly, excessive honey turns into disgust, nausea and vomiting: so excessive study, and excessive investigation and contemplation of divine things, fatigues the brain, and from this produces disgust of them, so that a man, nauseated by them, spurning them gives himself to idleness, flesh and belly, and becomes gluttonous and carnal, or becoming stupefied becomes fanciful, delirious and mad. Whence that saying: "All satiety is evil, but of studies the worst." And that verse 16: "Thou hast found honey, eat what is sufficient for thee, lest perhaps being satiated thou vomit it." See the things said there. Fifthly, honey represents the immense sweetness of divine majesty, which can be taken only by the strongest stomachs, that is the minds of the Blessed. Sixthly, honey is heavier than oil, wine, vinegar and other liquids, which therefore float upon honey. Whence Galen, lib. I De Aliment. natur.: "Honey," he says, "by its weight sinks below other foods, and is sent down to the bottom of the stomach;" so likewise the majesty and glory of God is a burden and weight heavier than all things, indeed it fixes, weighs down and stabilizes all things like an anchor. Whence in Hebrew it is an enigma כבוד כובד cabod cobed, that is glory is gravity, which namely makes all things grave in itself. You may easily adapt all these things to the honor and glory, which men vainly seek after. For the Hebrew, pointed as the Vulgate pointed it, have word for word: The investigation of glory by glory, namely shall be oppressed. Finally, St. Bernard, treating this saying of Solomon discreetly and wisely, serm. 62 in Cant., teaches that humble men devoted to contemplation ought not to fear it, nor on account of it to abstain from contemplating the majesty of God. He brings forth three causes: The first is, that it is said against the proud and haughty: "Nor fear," he says, "that which Scripture threatens to investigators of majesty; only bring a pure and simple eye, you will not be oppressed by glory, but will be admitted, unless you seek not God's glory, but your own: otherwise each one is oppressed by his own, not by God's glory, while inclined to this, he is not allowed to lift his neck to that, namely heavy with desire. This cast out, let us safely investigate in the rock, in which are hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. If you still doubt, hear the rock itself: Whoever works," it says, "in me, shall not sin (Eccli. XXIV, 31). Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly, and I will rest (Psalm. LIV, 7)? There the meek and simple finds rest, where the deceitful is oppressed, or the haughty and desirous of empty glory." Second, because such a soul is a searcher not so much of divine majesty as of divine will: "It is not oppressed," he says, "because it is not a searcher of majesty, but of will: for as regards majesty, it indeed sometimes dares to direct itself even toward it, but as if in admiration, not as if in scrutiny; but even if it should happen at times to be rapt into it by excess, this is the finger of God graciously lifting up man, not the rashness of man insolently penetrating the high things of God. For when the Apostle recalls that he was rapt, in order to excuse his daring, what other mortal would presume to entangle himself in this dreadful scrutiny of divine majesty by his own efforts, and as an importunate contemplator break into things to be feared in the mysteries? Those who scrutinize majesty, therefore, I think are called intruders, not those who are rapt into it, but those who break in. They themselves, therefore, are oppressed by glory. Therefore the scrutiny of majesty is fearful, but that of will is both safe and pious. Why should I not with all diligence press on in scrutinizing the mysteries of the glory of will, which I know must be obeyed by me in all things?" Third, he adds that such a one is not so much oppressed as impressed and conformed to the glory of God. "This glory," he says, "will not oppress me, even though I direct myself toward it with all my strength; rather I shall be impressed by it. For we, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord. We are transformed when we are conformed. But far be it that conformity to God should be presumed by man in the glory of majesty, and not rather in the modesty of will. This is my glory, if ever I hear it said of me: I have found a man after my own heart; the heart of the spouse, the heart of his father. What is this? Be ye merciful, he says, as your Father also is merciful (Luke VI, 36). This form, which he desires to see, when the Church says: Show me thy face, the form of piety and gentleness." Ben Sira, following Solomon, cap. III, 22: "Seek not," he says, "things that are too high for thee, and search not into things above thy ability." See the sayings there. There exists on this matter an elegant emblem in Alciatus inscribed: "What is above us, nothing to us." An emblem, I say, of the most voracious eagle devouring the liver of Prometheus, signifying those curious about heavenly majesty and searchers into divine things, who are sharply punished by God. These are its verses: Again, the owl delights in darkness and cannot bear the light of the sun; but the eagle gladly and with profit directs its eyes toward the brightness of the sun. While thou art an owl, vile, and hast not yet come to spiritual life, nor mastered thyself and thy passions, behold the darkness of thy sins, that thou mayest weep for them. But if thou shouldst become an eagle, and be advanced to great virtue and contemplation, thou shalt contemplate divinity, that thou mayest be inflamed with love.
25:28
The word 'to' is not in the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint. The Hebrew texts therefore read thus: a city broken down (the Chaldean, destroyed) without a wall, a man to whom there is no restraint of spirit; Cajetan says, a man to whom there is no resistance of spirit; others say, prevalence or dominion of spirit; others say, enclosure or confinement of spirit. For the Hebrew word מעצר matsar signifies dominion and empire, by which someone prevails over any matter, for example over spirit, so that he is able to retain, restrain, coerce, constrain and confine it at his pleasure. You may ask, what is this spirit? First, Vatable takes it as anger; for anger is a vehement spirit impelling a man to harsh words, threats, gestures and blows, as if to say: Just as a city stripped of walls, whose wall is namely broken down, is not safe from enemies, but lies open to their incursions; so also he who is inclined to anger and is unable to restrain it, lies open to the incursions of many evils which anger suggests. Second, some of the Rabbis understand by spirit pride: for the proud carry high spirits and swell with arrogance and the spirit of haughtiness. These therefore, indulging in this spirit of theirs, lie open to the incursions of enemies and all evils, into which pride is accustomed to precipitate man, and therefore they themselves are similar to a city stripped of walls and exposed to enemies: for humility is the wall of virtues and all goods to man, and to those who possess it, it is unconquerable, protecting man most strongly against all the insults of the devil and the world. Third, others adequately understand by spirit in general any affection of the mind, avidity, incitement and impulse, especially when joined with vehemence, impetuosity, itching and ardor, which the Greeks call ὁρμήν, the Latins call spirit or heat of mind, which is generic and extends widely: for it comprehends various species under itself: for one spirit is, that is, the avidity, impulse and impetuosity of gluttony, another of lust, another of anger, another of envy, another of curiosity, another of avarice, another of pride, etc. Whoever therefore cannot restrain, suppress, confine, inhibit, bridle, govern these, but indulges them, indeed allows himself to be ruled and carried away by them, this man is similar to a city whose walls are broken down, so that anyone may freely enter and exit it, and therefore lies open and exposed to the betrayal, plunder and devastation of enemies. For he who gives free rein to his concupiscences and grants them excessive liberty, and does not restrain them with the bridle of reason and the fear of God, allows many evil things to be committed by them, which create ruin for himself, and such a man is exposed to his enemies, namely demons and all the impious, who by this means can easily subjugate him to themselves and draw him to their will. Just as on the contrary he who restrains his affections with the rampart of the fear of God and the restraint of right reason, is like a city well fortified, so that actions do not freely proceed from it, nor do the incursions of enemies easily have access to it. Thus Rabbi Levi: A man, he says, who cannot command himself at his pleasure, is similar to a conquered city and stripped of walls, from which access is not prohibited to robbers by careful guard: whoever therefore does not moderate the reins of his will is exposed to many calamities, because he comes under the power of his desires and his will; but he who commands his desires performs the office of a wall: for he prevents the cruel plunderer from entering the mind on account of base desires. Wherefore the whole study of each person ought to be, that he learn to rule over his appetites, even good and spiritual ones, that he learn to moderate, govern, stop and bend them according to the prescription of right reason and discretion. For this is the prudent, wise, pure, patient, perfect, unperturbed man, master of himself, an angel in flesh, indeed a kind of earthly god. Wherefore in this matter the ancient Ascetics and Anchorites spent all their effort and life, so that through this purity of heart, in which perfection consists, they might attain it, and keep their heart untouched by all disturbances, and offer it to God as a holocaust, as the Abbot Moses teaches in Cassian, Collation I, chapters VI and VII. Our author, adding to in speaking (thus also Aben-Ezra) restricted this saying, and the general spirit to the spirit and itching of speaking: because in man burning with desire and passions this is most vehement, and most difficult to restrain; and because here it corresponds to all affections, and tacitly comprehends them in itself: for all affections chiefly display themselves through speech and tongue. Wherefore he who cannot restrain his tongue, it is a sign that he cannot restrain his affections: and conversely he who cannot restrain his affections, it is impossible that he restrain his tongue, without laying bare and betraying them through angry, covetous, proud words, etc. He therefore casts himself upon a thousand assaults of evils, which an incontinent tongue brings forth, and is like a city stripped of walls, and open to any enemy whatsoever for entrance and plunder. Hence Philo, On Sacrifices of Cain and Abel: "As, he says, the safest fortification of cities, strong men standing as walls: so also in the city of any one of us, which consists of soul and body, the thoughts friendly to prudence are the strongest bulwark." Hence also the Author of the Greek Catena of the Seventy thus clearly translates, a man who undertakes anything without discrimination is like a city destroyed, and deprived of walls and fortifications. Whence St. Gregory in the Pastoral, part III, admonition 15: "The soul, he says, lays itself bare to all the wounds of the lurking enemy, which no fortification of guard encloses. Whence it is written: As a city that is open, etc.: because indeed it has no wall of silence, the city of the mind lies open to the enemy's darts, and when it casts itself forth through words outside itself, it shows itself open to its adversary, whom he overcomes so much the more easily, as she herself who is conquered fights against herself through much speaking." In similar phrase, says Jansenius, it is said in chapter XXIX, verse 11: "A fool uttereth all his mind." And certainly he who is so intemperate of tongue or mind, that without the bridle of reason he speaks anything everywhere, is well and singularly compared to a city broken down, open and lacking walls, because in him no secret lies hidden, but all things with excessive freedom flow forth from the city of the heart, often with great detriment to the man: and because such injury from those who wish to harm him lies easily open and he is exposed, so that he is caught and entangled by his own words. The proverb therefore admonishes each one to reckon himself as it were a certain city against which many lie in wait, and therefore all the motions of the mind and affections, and especially the tongue, must be restrained by certain bridles and as it were walls, both that those things which ought not may not proceed from man, and that those may not enter who ought not to be admitted, and whom it is not fitting for us to rule. Truly Henry Harpius, book I on the Canticles, part II, chapter XXXV, recounting the harms of an incontinent tongue: "Much speaking, he says, is an argument of foolishness, a minister of falsehood, a guide of buffoonery and levity, a drinker of detraction, an extinguisher of compunction, a maker of acedia, a dissipator of devotion, an obscurer of prayer, a cooler of heat and fervor, an extinguisher of peace, and an overthrower of all rectitude." You will ask, what is the wall or enclosure of the spirit and tongue, guarding it, and keeping back the enemies? First, St. Chrysostom, homily to those to be baptized, answers that it is the lips and teeth: "Let the tongue, he says, be armed against thy sins, not prepared against thy brother's wound, and therefore God wished it to be surrounded as it were with a double wall: for by the covering of teeth and the guard of lips it is contained, that words be not brought forth by thoughtless garrulity. Restrain therefore thy tongue, and, if it does not suffer silence, let it be quieted by the bite of teeth, and as it were be delivered to the teeth as to an executioner." This is the physical wall of the tongue, namely the restraint of lips and teeth: now receive the ethical wall of the same. Second, others think this wall to be the restraint of reason, counsel, law and the fear of God. Whence the Seventy translate, as a city having walls cast down and not walled, so a man who does not do anything with counsel. Cassian cites this saying according to the Seventy, Conferences II, chapter IV, and by counsel understands discretion and prudence, by which the whole fabric of virtues is built. Third, others think this wall to be the continence of the tongue, moderation in speaking and silence. Thus St. Gregory, in the words already cited. And Isidore of Pelusium, book I, letter 207 to Cassian, citing and explaining this saying of Solomon, says: "Not to restrain the tongue is to leave an open gate to the enemy." Wittily Blessed Peter Damian, letter 39 to Desideratus, says that violators of silence are like the crocodile yawning, into which then the enemy hydrus (Pliny attributes these snares to the ichneumon) enters the jaws, and eats away the belly. Likewise the oyster opening itself to the sun incautiously, to which first the crab lies in wait, and puts in a stone so that it may not close, then it devours its entrails; then he concludes: "He (the Religious) indeed lives, while he is shut up under the discipline of silence: but he perishes, when he opens himself to speaking too immoderately."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
25:1
He abolished the idolatrous cults, erected even in the Temple itself, sought with some good success to win back to nationalism and Yahwism the remnants of the Samaritans, and attended to the collection of the spiritual and literary heritage of Israel by means of a special commission (Prov. 25:1). Meanwhile he strove to improve the finances of the State (II Kings 20:13), made some military preparations (armaments and fortifications), renewed the installations for the
… inculcate a truth or a principle of moral and practical order: it is the parable more properly so called (Ezek. 17, 2; 24, 3), the similitude and the example, the saying of popular use (more precisely proverb: I Kings 5, 12; Job 13, 12; Prov. 1, 1.6; 10, 1; 25, 1; 26, 7.9), the witty and sarcastic mot (Ezek. 12, 22 f.; 18, 2 f.; Mic. 2, 4; Hab. 2, 6), the words of mockery
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.