An exhortation to the practice of virtue.
Wisdom exhorteth to kepe Gods law (geuing long life) to obserue mercie, and truth. 5. to confide in God, 7. to feare, 9. and honour him, 11. to take his correction gladly (13. for al good thinges folow wisdom) 27. to releue the needie without delay, 30. not to contend with the wicked, nor to imitate them. 33. The euil shal faile, and the godlie shal prosper.
1My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my commandments.Figliuol mio, non ti scordare della mia legge, e serba in cuor tuo li miei insegnamenti:MY sonne, forget not my law, and let thy hart keepe my precepts.Fili mi, ne obliviscaris legis meæ, / et præcepta mea cor tuum custodiat: 2For they shall add to thee length of days, and years of life, and peace.Perocché questi frutteranno a te lunghezza di giorni, e anni di vita, e pace:For they shal adde to thee length of dayes, and yeares of life, and peace.longitudinem enim dierum, et annos vitæ, et pacem, / apponent tibi. 3Let not mercy and truth leave thee, put them about thy neck, and write them in the tables of thy heart.Non si distacchino dal tuo fianco la misericordia, e la verità: fanne monile al tuo collo, e portale scritte nelle tavole del tuo cuore,Let not mercie and truth leaue thee, put them about thy throte, and write them in the tables of thy hart:Misericordia et veritas te non deserant; / circumda eas gutturi tuo, / et describe in tabulis cordis tui: 4And thou shalt find grace, and good understanding before God and men.E sarai adorno di grazia, e di modesti costumi nel cospetto di Dio, e degli uomini.and thou shalt finde grace, and good discipline before God and men.et invenies gratiam, et disciplinam bonam, / coram Deo et hominibus. 5Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not upon thy own prudence.Spera con tutto il cuor tuo nel Signore, e non appoggiarti alla tua prudenza.Haue confidence in our Lord with al thy hart, and leane not vpon thyne owne prudence.Habe fiduciam in Domino ex toto corde tuo, / et ne innitaris prudentiæ tuæ. 6In all thy ways think on him, and he will direct thy steps.In tutte le tue circostanze ripensa a lui, ed egli reggerà i tuoi passi.In al thy wayes thinke on him, and he wil direct thy steppes.In omnibus viis tuis cogita illum, / et ipse diriget gressus tuos. 7Be not wise in thy own conceit: fear God, and depart from evil:Non esser sapiente negli occhi tuoi; temi Dio, e fuggì dal male:Be not wise in thyne owne conceipte: feare God, and depart from euil:Ne sis sapiens apud temetipsum; / time Deum, et recede a malo: 8For it shall be health to thy navel, and moistening to thy bones.Perocché così goderan sanità le tue viscere, e fresche saran le tue ossa.for it shal be health to thy nauil, and watering of thy bones.sanitas quippe erit umbilico tuo, / et irrigatio ossium tuorum. 9Honour the Lord with thy substance, and give him of the first of all thy fruits;Onora il Signore colle tue facoltà, e da a lui le primizie di tutti i frutti tuoi:Honour our Lord with thy substance, and geue to him of the first of al thy fruites:Honora Dominum de tua substantia, / et de primitiis omnium frugum tuarum da ei:
10And thy barns shall be filled with abundance, and thy presses shall run over with wine.E i tuoi granaj si empieranno quanto bramar tu puoi, e le tue cantine ridonderanno di vino.and thy barnes shal be replenished with fulnes, and thy presses shal runouer with wine.et implebuntur horrea tua saturitate, / et vino torcularia tua redundabunt. 11My son, reject not the correction of the Lord: and do not faint when thou art chastised by him:Figliuol mio, non rigettare la correzione del Signore, e non attediarti quand'ei ti gastiga:My sonne, cast not away the discipline of our Lord: neither doe thou faint when thou art chastened of him:Disciplinam Domini, fili mi, ne abjicias, / nec deficias cum ab eo corriperis: 12For whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth: and as a father in the son he pleaseth himself.Perocché corregge il Signore quelli che ama: e ne' quali pone il suo alletto, come un padre nel figlio.for whom our Lord loueth he chasticeth and as a father in the sonne he pleaseth himself.quem enim diligit Dominus, corripit, / et quasi pater in filio complacet sibi. 13Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and is rich in prudence:Beato l'uomo, che ha fatto acquisto della sapienza, e il quale è ricco di prudenza:Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and floweth with prudence:Beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam, / et qui affluit prudentia. 14The purchasing thereof is better than the merchandise of silver, and her fruit than the chief and purest gold:L'acquisto di lei più vale, che l'acquisto dell'argento, e i frutti di lei più che l'oro eletto, e finissimo:better is the purchasing therof then marchandise of siluer, and her fruite then chiefe and the purest gold:Melior est acquisitio ejus negotiatione argenti, / et auri primi et purissimi fructus ejus. 15She is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired, are not to be compared to her.Ella è più pregevole di tutte le ricchezze, e le cose più stimate non posson mettersi in paragone con essa.she is more precious then al riches: and al thinges that are desired, are not able to be compared with her.Pretiosior est cunctis opibus, / et omnia quæ desiderantur huic non valent comparari. 16Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory.Ella ha nella destra mano la lunga vita, nella sinistra le ricchezze, e la gloria.Length of dayes in her right hand, & in her left hand riches and glorieLongitudo dierum in dextera ejus, / et in sinistra illius divitiæ et gloria. 17Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceable.Le vie di lei, vie belle, e in tutti i suoi sentieri è la pace.Her wayes are beautiful wayes, and al her pathes peaceable.Viæ ejus viæ pulchræ, / et omnes semitæ illius pacificæ.
18She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her: and he that shall retain her is blessed.Ella è l'albero della vita per quelli, che la abbracciano, ed è beato chi al suo seno la stringe.She is a tree of life to them that shal apprehend her: and he that shal hold her is blessed.Lignum vitæ est his qui apprehenderint eam, / et qui tenuerit eam beatus. 19The Lord by wisdom hath founded the earth, hath established the heavens by prudence.Per la sapienza il Signore fondò la terra, e i cieli ordinò per mezzo della prudenza.Our Lord by wisdom founded the earth, established the heauens by prudence.Dominus sapientia fundavit terram; / stabilivit cælos prudentia. 20By his wisdom the depths have broken out, and the clouds grow thick with dew.Per la sapienza di lui scaturirono le sorgenti, e le nubi in rugiada si addensano.By his wisdom the depthes haue broken forth, and the cloudes waxe thicke with dew.Sapientia illius eruperunt abyssi, / et nubes rore concrescunt. 21My son, let not these things depart from thy eyes: keep the law and counsel:Figliuol mio, non perder queste cose di vista giammai: osserva la legge, e i miei consigli:My sonne, let not these thinges depart from thyne eies: kepe the law & counsel:Fili mi, ne effluant hæc ab oculis tuis. / Custodi legem atque consilium, 22And there shall be life to thy soul, and grace to thy mouth.Ed ei saranno vita all'anima tua, e ornamento al tuo collo:and there shal be life to thy soule, and grace to thy iawes.et erit vita animæ tuæ, / et gratia faucibus tuis. 23Then shalt thou walk confidently in thy way, and thy foot shall not stumble:Allora tu camminerai con fidanza per la tua strada, e non troverà inciampo il tuo piede:Then shalt thou walke confidently in thy way, and thy foote shal not stumble:Tunc ambulabis fiducialiter in via tua, / et pes tuus non impinget. 24If thou sleep, thou shalt not fear: thou shalt rest, and thy sleep shall be sweet.In dormendo sarai senza paure; riposerai, e sarà il tuo sonno soave:if thou sleepe, thou shalt not feare: thou shalt rest, and thy sleepe shal be sweete.Si dormieris, non timebis; / quiesces, et suavis erit somnus tuus. 25Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor of the power of the wicked falling upon thee.Non temerai di repentino spavento, nè della possanza degli empj, che ti assalisca.Dread not at soden terrour, and the power of the impious falling vpon thee.Ne paveas repentino terrore, / et irruentes tibi potentias impiorum. 26For the Lord will be at thy side, and will keep thy foot that thou be not taken.Perocché il Signore sarà al tuo fianco, e governerà i tuoi passi, affinchè tu non sii loro preda.For our Lord wil be at thy side, and wil keepe thy foote that thou be not taken.Dominus enim erit in latere tuo, / et custodiet pedem tuum, ne capiaris.
27Do not withhold him from doing good, who is able: if thou art able, do good thyself also.Non impedire, che faccia del bene colui, che può: e se puoi tu, fa del bene.Doe not prohibite him to doe good, that is able: if thou be able, thy selfe also doe good.Noli prohibere benefacere eum qui potest: / si vales, et ipse benefac. 28Say not to thy friend: Go, and come again: and to morrow I will give to thee: when thou canst give at present.Non dire al tuo amico: Va, e ritorna, domane ti darò, quando tu puoi dar subito.Say not to thy frend: goe, and returne; and tomorow I wil geue to thee: wheras thou mayest geue forth with.Ne dicas amico tuo: Vade, et revertere: cras dabo tibi: / cum statim possis dare. 29Practise not evil against thy friend, when he hath confidence in thee.Non macchinare alcun male contro del tuo amico, mentre quegli si fida di te.Practise not euil against thy freind, when he hath affiance in thee.Ne moliaris amico tuo malum, / cum ille in te habeat fiduciam. 30Strive not against a man without cause, when he hath done thee no evil.Non litigare con verun uomo senza motivo, quando quegli non ha fatto a te nissun maleContend not against man without cause, wheras he hath done thee no euil.Ne contendas adversus hominem frustra, / cum ipse tibi nihil mali fecerit. 31Envy not the unjust man, and do not follow his ways.Non portar invidia all'uomo in giusto, e non imitare i suoi andamenti.Doe not enuie an vniust man, nor imitate his waies:Ne æmuleris hominem injustum, / nec imiteris vias ejus: 32For every mocker is an abomination to the Lord, and his communication is with the simple.Perocché gli schernitori tutti sono in abbominazione dinanzi al Signore, e la sua confabulazione è co' semplici.because euerie deluder is an abomination of our Lord, and his communication is with the simple.quia abominatio Domini est omnis illusor, / et cum simplicibus sermocinatio ejus. 33Want is from the Lord in the house of the wicked: but the habitations of the just shall be blessed.Dal Signore è mandata la miseria a casa dell'empio; ma saran benedette le abitazioni de' giusti.There is pouertie from our Lord in the house of the impious: but the habitations of the iust shal be blessed.Egestas a Domino in domo impii; / habitacula autem justorum benedicentur. 34He shall scorn the scorners, and to the meek he will give grace.Da lui gli schernitori saranno scherniti, e sarà data la grazia ai mansueti.He shal delude the deluders, and to the milde he wil geue grace.Ipse deludet illusores, / et mansuetis dabit gratiam. 35The wise shall possess glory: the promotion of fools is disgrace.I saggj avran per loro retaggio la gloria: l'esaltazione degli stolti è la loro ignominia.The wise shal possesse glorie: the exaltation of fooles ignominie.Gloriam sapientes possidebunt; / stultorum exaltatio ignominia.
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Calmet
My son. God speaks, or the master instructs his disciple, ver. 21. (Calmet)
Worthington
We must remember and love instruction, and reduce it to practice. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Peace. These prefigured more substantial blessings. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Good. Septuagint, "forecast good before the Lord and men." St. Paul seems to allude to this version, Romans 12:17., and 2 Corinthians 8:22. (Haydock)
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All. God will have nothing by halves.
Calmet
Lean not. By pride, 2 Corinthians 12:13. All must be referred to God. (Calmet)
Worthington
In him we may safely trust. (Worthington)
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Bones. Thou shalt enjoy perfect health.
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Fruits. Septuagint add, "of justice;" to intimate that no presents will be acceptable, which have been unjustly acquired.
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Calmet
Him. Correction is rather a proof of love than of anger, Psalm 3:19. (Calmet)
Worthington
God thus shews that he approves of his servants; and therefore his other promises, which seem of a temporal nature, must be understood with reference to the next life. (Worthington)
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Calmet
And as. Septuagint, "but he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth," as St. Paul quotes this passage, Hebrews 12:6. The verb is now wanting in Hebrew, or ceab; "as a father" may signify "scourgeth, in piel, (Menochius) with i prefixed. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Riches. Hebrew peninim, (Haydock) "pearls," Job 28:18. (Calmet)
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Worthington
Glory. Her hands are full, and she grants favours with profusion, (Haydock) as with both hands, promising eternal life. (Worthington)
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Life. Like that planted in paradise, Genesis 2:9.
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St. Gregory
Wisdom. Hitherto he had spoken of that virtue. Now he treats of the uncreated wisdom, (Calmet) which is God the Son. (Menochius) (Jansenius) (St. Gregory, Mor. 12:4.)
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Piscator
Out. The higher and lower waters being divided, (Calmet) or the channels formed to receive the waters. (Piscator)
Ven. Bede
It may also speak of the deluge. (Ven. Bede)
With. Hebrew, "have distilled dew." This is so copious, as to resemble rain in Palestine, Judges 6:37., and 2 Kings 17:12.
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Calmet
Mouth. There have been wise and virtuous men afflicted, ver. 11. But they have borne all with patience, and have merited a more glorious reward than what this earth could afford. (Calmet)
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Haydock
Able. Protestants, "withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of thine hand to do it." Relieve the distressed. (Haydock)
Calmet
They have a title to that wealth, since those who possess it are bound to relieve the indigent. (Calmet)
Haydock
Septuagint, "refrain not from doing good," etc. (Haydock)
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Worthington
Present. Alms in season are doubly valuable. (Worthington)
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Calmet
Cause. We may defend ourselves; but herein great discretion is necessary. (Calmet)
Seneca
Cum pari contendere anceps est: cum superiore furiosum; cum inferiore sordidum. (Seneca, Prov.)
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Calmet
Ways. Of injustice. Seek not to attain his prosperity by the same means. (Calmet)
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Want. Hebrew, "a curse."
Haydock
Shall be. Hebrew, "he blesseth." (Haydock)
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Haydock
Scorners. Literally, "he will delude the scorners." (Haydock)
Calmet
He will treat them as they would treat others, Psalm 17:27. (Calmet)
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Calmet
Disgrace. They are seen by more, and their fall is more dangerous. (Calmet)
Haydock
"A fool extols what is ignominious." (Pagnin) (Haydock)
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It auaileth litle to heare good instructions, except we〈…〉 them in memorie.
not •n books only but in the hart.
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and •ut them in execution.
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knovv also that al thy streingth is in Go•. in whom th•• m••st 〈◊〉 ••ust, not in th•• o〈…〉 〈…〉e
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〈◊〉 and〈…〉 〈…〉those that endeuour 〈◊〉 God, is a 〈◊〉 of his sauour tovvards them; and therfore his other promises vvhich seme to be temporal, are to be vnderstood of the next life.
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God revvardeth as it vvere vvith both handes promising eternal life,
and competent meanes in this life.
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M〈…〉 for the wordes of thy mouth
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Almes in season 〈◊〉 vvorth to that vvhich is differred long.
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 4
… for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;” and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;” and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;” and, “Forget not my law;”
St Vincent of Lérins † AD 445 The Commonitory of Vincent of Lérins, For the Antiquity and Universality of the Catholic Faith Against the Profane Novelties of All Heresies 1
[1.] I, Peregrinus , who am the least of all the servants of God, remembering the admonition of Scripture, “Ask thy fathers and they will tell thee, thine elders and they will declare unto thee,” and again, “Bow down thine ear to the words of the wise,” and once more, “My son, forget not these instructions, but let thy heart keep my words:”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Ephesians 24
… but it will be of no avail, if they be not done now. Let us fear then, lest ever we should have to say then, “Lord, when saw we Thee an hungered, and fed Thee not?” ( Matt. xxv. 44 .) Let us feed Him now, not one day, nor two, nor three days. “For let not mercy and truth,” saith the Wise Man, “forsake thee.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians introductory-discourse
… For it is not once that we have to please God, but constantly. The racer, if, after running even ten heats, he leave the remaining one undone, has lost all; and we, if we begin with good works, and afterward faint, have lost all, have spoiled all. Listen to that profitable admonition that saith, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee.” (
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 9
… And as there is a medicine among the physicians’ helps which receives many herbs, but one is the essential, so also in case of repentance this is the essential herb, yea, it may be everything. For hear what the Divine Scripture says, “Give alms, and all things shall be clean.” ( Luke xi. 41 .) And again, “By alms-giving and acts of faithfulness
Sulpicius Severus † AD 420 The Doubtful Letters of Sulpitius Severus 2.10
… rise not to sin, but to the favor of God, as the sacred Scripture declares, “There is a shame that causes sin, and there is a shame that brings with it the favor of God.” Cleanse, too, thy neck, that it may not carry thy locks in a golden net and necklaces hung round it, but may rather bear about it those ornaments of which the Scripture says, “Let not
Pseudo-Clement The First Epistle of the Blessed Clement, the Disciple of Peter the Apostle 2
… Now, those who are truly virgins for the sake of God give heed to Him who hath said, “Let not righteousness and faith fail thee; bind them on thy neck, and thou shalt find favour for thyself; and devise thou good things before God and before men.”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against the Pelagians 3.6
… The people was released from Egypt with a strong hand and an outstretched arm; not the hand of Moses and Aaron, but of Him who set the people free by signs and wonders, and at last smote the firstborn of Egypt, so that they who at first were persistent in keeping the people, eagerly urged them to depart. Solomon
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 The Confessions 8.1
… There is yet another kind of impious men, who “when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful.” Into this also had I fallen; but Thy right hand held me up, and bore me away, and Thou placedst me where I might recover. For Thou hast said unto man, “Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom;” and desire not to seem wise,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 4
… Then again, there are so many commandments which in some way are expressly adapted to the human will; for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;” and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;”
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 71.4
… But the Lord yearns for believers’ souls more than for their riches. We read in the Proverbs: “the ransom of a man’s soul are his own riches.” We may, indeed, take a man’s own riches to be those which do not come from some one else, or from plunder; according to the precept: “honour God with thy just labours.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.2
… “Honour the Lord from thy righteous labours, and offer to Him of the fruits of thy righteousness; that thy garners may be full of abundance of wheat, and thy vats may overflow with wine.”
John Cassian † AD 435 The Conferences of John Cassian 21.22
… For our Lord would have nothing done to His honour and glory without being tempered by judgment, for “the honour of a king loveth judgment,” and therefore Solomon, the wisest of men, urges us not to let our judgment incline to either side, saying: “Honour God with thy righteous labours and offer to Him of the fruits of thy righteousness.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 Register of the Epistles of St. Gregory the Great 9.106
… xxi. 27 ). For whatever in God’s sacrifice is offered of wickedness appeases not, but provokes, the anger of Almighty God. Hence again it is written, Honour the Lord from thy just labours (
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Patience 11
… Moreover, if we believe that some inflictions are sent on us by the Lord, to whom should we more exhibit patience than to the Lord? Nay, He teaches us to give thanks and rejoice, over and above, at being thought worthy of divine chastisement. “Whom I love,” saith He, “I chasten.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 On the Dress of Virgins 1
… Whereas thou hatest discipline, and hast cast my words behind thee.” And again we read: “He that casteth away discipline is miserable.” And from Solomon we have received the mandates of wisdom, warning us: “My son, despise not thou the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of Him: for whom the Lord loveth He correcteth.”
St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.67
In Jeremiah: “And I will give to you shepherds according to my own heart; and they shall feed the sheep, feeding them with discipline.” Also in Solomon, in the Proverbs: “My son neglect not the discipline of God, nor fail when rebuked by Him. For whom God loveth, He rebuketh.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Philippians 15
… cxix. 71 .) And again another prophet, who saith, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.” ( Lam. iii. 27 .) And again, “Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, O Lord.” ( Ps. xciv. 12 .) And another who saith, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 On Patience 11
… For in the fire gold and silver is proved, but acceptable men in the furnace of humiliation.” And in another place we read: “My son, faint not thou in the discipline of the Lord, neither be wearied when thou art chidden of Him. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 4
… for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;” and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;” and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 9
… but since He added the words, “and pray,” He showed that God helps us not to enter into temptation. It is to the free will of man that the words are addressed: “My son, remove not thyself from the chastening of the Lord.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 38.22
… because the wickedness of their heart is given over as already desperate. Those, however, for whom eternal life is prepared, must needs be scourged in this life: for that sentence is true: “My son, faint not under the chastening of the Lord, neither be weary when thou art rebuked of Him.”
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 56
… Those exhortations by which we admonish one another are both good [in themselves] and highly profitable, for they tend to unite us to the will of God. For thus saith the holy Word: “The Lord hath severely chastened me, yet hath not given me over to death.” “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
Eusebius of Caesarea † AD 339 The Church History of Eusebius 10.4.33
… For at that time also she was chastened at his nod as by a careful father; ‘for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.’
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 16.15
… though it is better to turn again when we err, than to be free from correction when we stumble. For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Letters of St. Augustin 111.5
… but think not thou that takest in hand to strive against God and His law that thou shalt escape unpunished.’” You see how these also are wise in the exercise of humility and sincerity, confessing that they are chastened because of their sins by the Lord, of whom it is written: “Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Reply to Faustus the Manichæan 22.14
… And what can be plainer than that the righteous also are not spared, but chastised with manifold afflictions, as is clearly implied in the words, "If the righteous scarcely are saved"? As it is said in the Old Testament, "Whom the Lord loveth He correcteth, and chastiseth every son whom He receiveth;"
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.25
… whereas it is in mercy that He punishes the children of grace; since “whom He loveth He correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Our Lord’s Sermon on the Mount 1.20
… And certainly the perfection of love is set before us by the imitation of God the Father Himself when it is said in what follows: “Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you;” and yet it is said of Him by the prophet, “For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; yea, He scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”
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St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter 15
… When, indeed, He by the law discovers to a man his weakness, it is in order that by faith he may flee for refuge to His mercy, and be healed. And thus concerning His wisdom we are told, that “she carries law and mercy upon her tongue,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.11
… Thus certainly the law worketh wrath, that the mercy of God may bestow grace on the sinner, frightened and turned to the fulfilment of the righteousness of the law through Jesus Christ our Lord, who is that wisdom of God of which it is written, “She carries law and mercy on her tongue,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 37
… When it is said, “Let us love one another,” it is law; when it is said, “For love is of God,” it is grace. For God’s “wisdom carries law and mercy upon her tongue.”
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.26
… But the right hand of God embraces her, because in her entire devotion she is encompassed with His eternal blessedness. Hence again, it is said through Solomon, Length of days is in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory (
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St Methodius † AD 311 The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity 9.3
… for if we are without it we shall not be able to feast with God, nor to have part, according to John, in the first resurrection. For the tree of life is wisdom first begotten of all. “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her,” says the prophet;
St Hilary of Poitiers † AD 367 Homilies on the Psalms 1
… next that the garden is watered by a stream that afterwards divides into four heads. The Prophet Solomon teaches us what this tree of Life is in his exhortation concerning Wisdom: She is a tree of life to all them that lay hold upon her, and lean upon her
St Ephrem the Syrian † AD 373 Ephraim Syrus: Nineteen Hymns on the Nativity of Christ in the Flesh 1
Risen is the Light of the kingdom, in Ephrata the city of the King. The blessing wherewith Jacob blessed, to its fulfilment came to-day! That tree likewise, [the tree] of life, brings hope to mortal men! Solomon’s hidden proverb
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 23
… but the man who acts as well as teaches, as the Gospel tells us, he is the man who is truly living, and has the bloom of beauty, and is efficient and stirring. It is to him that we must go, if we mean, according to the saying
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On Virginity 24
… The only love they tasted was that of wisdom; not that their natural instincts were different from the rest; for in all alike “the flesh lusteth against the spirit ;” but they listened to some purpose to him who said that Temperance “is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her
St Gregory of Nyssa † AD 395 On the Making of Man 19.4
… for both understand the grace of the permitted delight to be one,—that very actual Good, which in truth is “every” good;—David, when he says, “Delight thou in the Lord ,” and Solomon, when he names Wisdom herself (which is the Lord) “a tree of life
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 13.20
… Other fruits were, so to speak, their nourishment, but this their sacrament. So that the tree of life would seem to have been in the terrestrial Paradise what the wisdom of God is in the spiritual, of which it is written, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her.”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 20.26
But if any one contends that those days of the tree of life mentioned by the prophet Isaiah are the present times of the Church of Christ, and that Christ Himself is prophetically called the Tree of Life, because He is Wisdom, and of wisdom Solomon says, “It is a tree of life to all who embrace it;”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 2.35
… For of her it is rightly said, “She is a tree of life to them that lay hold of her.”
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St Irenaeus of Lyons † AD 202 Against Heresies 4.20.3
… and that Wisdom also, which is the Spirit, was present with Him, anterior to all creation, He declares by Solomon: “God by Wisdom founded the earth, and by understanding hath He established the heaven. By His knowledge the depths burst forth, and the clouds dropped down the dew.”
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 De Decretis. (Defence of the Nicene Definition.) 4
… the earth is full of Thy creation .’ Solomon also received the same from God, and said, ‘The Lord by wisdom founded the earth
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 1.6
… truth witnessing that God is the eternal Fountain of His proper Wisdom; and, if the Fountain be eternal, the Wisdom also must needs be eternal. For in It were all things made, as David says in the Psalm, ‘In Wisdom hast Thou made them all ;’ and Solomon says, ‘The Lord by Wisdom hath formed the earth, by understanding hath He established the heavens
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.19
50. Your famous assertion then, that the Son is a creature, is not true, but is your fantasy only; nay Solomon convicts you of having many times slandered him. For he has not called Him creature, but God’s Offspring and Wisdom, saying, ‘God in Wisdom established the earth,’ and ‘Wisdom built her an house
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 2.22
73. It is written, ‘The Lord in Wisdom founded the earth
St Athanasius of Alexandria † AD 373 Against the Arians. (Orationes contra Arianos IV.) 3.30
… For he says, ‘The Lord by Wisdom founded the earth, by Understanding He established the heavens.’ And as here by Understanding, so in the Psalms, ‘By the Word of the Lord were the heavens made.’ And as by the Word the heavens, so ‘He hath done whatsoever pleased Him.’ And as the Apostle writes to Thessalonians, ‘the will of God is in Christ Jesus
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 5.2
… or as it stands in the Book of Proverbs: “The Lord in wisdom hath founded the earth, in understanding hath He prepared the heavens;”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 3
… And here he shows the grievousness of this falling away, in that it is a difficult thing for that which hath fallen away to return again, inasmuch as it hath happened through wilful negligence. And he took this form of speech from the Proverbs. For, saith he, “my son [take heed] lest thou fall away” (
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.28
… and if she offend her husband, they must part. “A continual dropping on a wintry day” turns a man out of doors, and so will a contentious woman drive a man from his own house. She floods his house with her constant nagging and daily chatter, and ousts him from his own home, that is the Church. Hence the same Solomon previously commands:
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… Listen to the Proverbs. “If thou sittest, he says, thou shalt be without fear; and if thou sleepest, thy sleep shall be sweet.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on the Epistle to the Hebrews 32
… For what is of less value than two farthings, or more worthless than hair? What than a pint of meal? But nevertheless these were approved equally with the calves and the gold. For “a man is accepted according to that he hath, not according to that he hath not.” ( 2 Cor. viii. 12 .) And, it says, “according as thy hand hath, do good.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 4
… for instance, there is, “Be not overcome of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;” and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;” and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;” and, “Forget not my law;” and, “Forbear not to do good to the poor;”
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St Cyprian of Carthage † AD 258 Three Books of Testimonies Against the Jews 3.2
… for by doing this thou shalt scatter live coals upon his head.” Again, in the same place: “As water extinguishes fire, so alms-giving extinguishes sin.” In the same in Proverbs: “Say not, Go away, and return, to-morrow I will give; when you can do good immediately. For thou knowest not what may happen on the coming day.”
St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… let us not resist or delay. Let us be like Peter and John, and let us hasten; as they did to the Sepulchre and the Resurrection, so we to the Font; running together, racing against each other, striving to be first to obtain this Blessing. And say not, “Go away, and come again, and tomorrow I will be baptized,”
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 37.11
… why dost thou delay? Thou oughtest to rejoice, were He to open after ever so long a time to thy knocking; thou hast not knocked, yet doth He open, and dost thou remain outside? Put not off then. Scripture saith in a certain place, as touching works of mercy, “Say not, Go, and come again, and to-morrow I will give;
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.20
… and thou shalt be blessed; for they have not whereof to recompense thee ( Luke xiv. 12 seq. ). That they may not supply too late what should be supplied at once, let them hear what is written, Say not unto thy friend, go and come again, and to-morrow I will give, when thou mightest give immediately (
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St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
“Foolish men, while they desire injuries, become impious and hate wisdom.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 A Treatise on Grace and Free Will 4
… of evil,” and others of similar import, such as, “Be not like a horse or a mule, which have no understanding;” and, “Reject not the counsels of thy mother;” and, “Be not wise in thine own conceit;” and, “Despise not the chastening of the Lord;” and, “Forget not my law;” and, “Forbear not to do good to the poor;” and, “Devise not evil against thy friend;”
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.11
… x. 9 ). For indeed simplicity of conduct is an assurance of great security. Let them hear what is said by the mouth of the wise man, The holy spirit of discipline will flee deceit ( Wisd. i. 5 ). Let them hear what is again affirmed by the witness of Scripture, His communing is with the simple (
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Pope St Clement I † AD 99 The First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians 30
… “For God,” saith [the Scripture], “resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.”
St Ignatius of Antioch † AD 108 Epistle to the Ephesians: Shorter and Longer Versions 5
… if any one be not within the altar, he is deprived of the bread of God. For if the prayer of one or two possesses such power, how much more that of the bishop and the whole Church! He, therefore, that does not assemble with the Church, has even by this manifested his pride, and condemned himself. For it is written, “God resisteth the proud.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Colossians 9
… cxxxi. 1 ): that pride is evil, “Therefore,” he said, “pride took hold on them wholly” ( Ps. lxxiii. 6 , Sept.); and again, “The Lord resisteth the proud”; and again, “Their injustice shall come out as of fatness.” That almsgiving is good, “He hath dispersed, he hath given to the needy, his righteousness endureth for ever.” (
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Sermons on Selected Lessons of the New Testament 94.1
… Is it because all sins are by unbelief retained, by faith remitted; that therefore God imputeth this one above all the rest, by which it comes to pass that the rest are not loosed, so long as proud man believes not in an Humbled God? For so it is written; “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Proverbs 1
… For as one does not honour an ugly and misshapen fellow, if he exalts him, but only dishonours him the more, by making his shame manifest to a larger number; so also God exalts the wicked, in order that He may make their disgrace patent. For Pharaoh was exalted, but only to have the world as his accuser.
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1 and 2. My son, forget not my law, and let thy heart keep my commandments. For length of days (Septuagint, of life), and years of life, and peace shall they add to thee. — These are the words not of God, as Lyra wishes, nor of any father, as Cajetan wishes, but of Solomon himself, who instructs a disciple, and teaches him true wisdom and virtue: for Solomon, about to hand down to his disciple the precepts of wisdom and virtue, stirs him up to desire and zeal for them, by setting before him rewards, namely a long, peaceful and prosperous life. By years of life, first, understand longevity; second, health and sound constitution: for years of sickness are rather years of death than of life, says Lyra; third, our Salazar by years of life understands the complete period of human life, as if to say, You shall live 70 years of human life prescribed by God, Psalm LXXXIX: "The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years;"; fourth, Jansenius and Baynus refer length of days to the present life, but years of life to the future and eternal life, lest the same thing seem to be repeated through tautology. Whence from the Hebrew you would translate, years of lives, namely years of life both natural and supernatural, both present and eternal, both of grace and of glory. Wrongly does R. Levi explain it thus, as if to say, If you obey the law, you shall live longer than was determined for you by the stars: for longevity is not determined and given by the stars, but by God. By peace understand, first, tranquility; second, joy; third, all prosperous things: for this is what peace signifies to the Hebrews; fourth, Jansenius and Baynus understand the peace of conscience, which makes it pleasing to God, and therefore surpasses all understanding, and thus is the cause of all peace and all good. This fourth peace pertains more to Christians, the first three to Jews: for temporal goods were promised to Jews, spiritual and eternal goods to Christians.
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3. MERCY AND TRUTH SHALL NOT DEPART FROM THEE. — The Chaldean: kindness and truth shall not abandon thee; Vatablus: beneficence and faith shall not forsake thee; the Septuagint: alms and faith shall not depart from thee. St. Chrysostom, in his argument on the epistle to the Philippians, after this sentence adds also this one: "Let mercy and faith be true to thee." You will ask, what virtues are mercy and truth? First, St. Chrysostom, in the words already cited, understands by mercy almsgiving, by truth true faith in God. Whence the Arabic version translates: alms and faithfulness shall not fail from thy sight. Second, Bede: Mercy, he says, shines forth in works, truth in words. Third, Lyra: Mercy, he says, is toward the poor, truth toward all. Fourth, Hugh: Mercy, he says, is toward our neighbors, truth toward oneself. Fifth, our Salazar: Mercy, he says, regards the neighbor, truth regards God, and he notes his true worship. Others, conversely, refer חסד chesed, that is, piety, which our author translates as mercy, to God: for piety properly and primarily regards God; secondly, one's country and parents; thirdly, any poor and afflicted persons. Sixth, the author of the Catena of the Greeks understands by mercy the offices of charity and pious works; by faith, however, sound judgment concerning sacred things and true prudence in all other matters. Seventh, Dionysius: Truth, he says, is threefold, namely of life, doctrine, and justice: of life, by which we live truly, that is, rightly; of doctrine, by which we teach and speak true things; of justice, by which we render to each his right, which is truly owed to him. Others: Truth, they say, is threefold, of heart, mouth, and deed: of heart, by which we truly feel and judge concerning things to be done; of mouth, by which we speak what we truly feel; of deed, by which we truly do what is conformable to law and virtue. Eighth and most genuinely: Mercy signifies works of virtue that are not owed, which are performed freely and liberally; truth or faith, fidelity and justice, signifies works of virtue that are owed, which must be done from the obligation of justice, fidelity, and similar virtue. By these two therefore Holy Scripture comprehends every duty of virtue (for everything is either owed or not owed and liberal): which accordingly, as it were the first and universal precept of wisdom and virtue, Solomon assigns here in the first place, from which he will then draw forth the particular duties of individual virtues. Thus Jansenius, Baynus, Dionysius, and Cajetan, who says: Mercy, in Hebrew chesed, is grace by which from our free will we do good to our neighbor, not from obligation; truth is that by which, excluding all pretense, we make our deeds correspond to our words, our words to our heart, our heart to what is owed. SHALL NOT DEPART FROM THEE. — First, by hypallage or conversion, you may explain it thus, as if to say: O my son, do not abandon mercy and truth: for thus neither will they abandon thee. For just as God, so also wisdom and virtue abandon no one, unless he first abandons them, as the Council of Trent says from St. Augustine, session VI. Whence Vatablus explains "thee and shall not depart" as: be most familiar to thee. For, as the Wise Man says: "The nature of good is fleeting." Thus St. Chrysostom in the place already cited, explaining these words concerning perseverance, speaks thus: "Let alms and faith not depart from thee. He does not say: Do it once, nor a second time, nor a third time, nor ten times, nor a hundred times, but perpetually let them not depart from thee, he says. And he does not say: Do not abandon them, but: Let them not abandon thee; showing that we have need of them, not they of our help, and teaching that we ought to strive to keep them with us. Adapt, he says, them to thy neck." Most excellently St. Lawrence Justinian, in chapter II On Perseverance, gives these same praises: "Perseverance is the singular daughter of the highest king, the end of virtues and their consummation, without which neither he who fights obtains victory, nor the victor the palm. She is the nurse unto merit, the mediatrix unto reward, sister of patience, daughter of constancy, bond of charity, bulwark of holiness. Take away this, and obedience has no reward, nor benefit grace, nor fortitude praise. She alone is to whom eternity is rendered, or rather she who renders man to eternity, the Lord saying: He that shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved, etc. For in vain is good done, if it be abandoned before the end of life." And further, with several things interjected: "To have alone not persevered is to have lost the crown." Lift up your eyes to heaven, behold him striving and conquering, striving mightily to help you with exhortations, example, words, promises and gifts. There ought to be no slothful fear in such great favors. Run to the mountain of God, to contemplate his glory, to the perfection of virtues, to the summit of perseverance." Secondly, properly speaking, as if to say: Mercy and truth are not, O son, implanted in you by nature, nor connatural to you, but extrinsic and adventitious: for they are as it were angels sent down from heaven to you, that they may lead you to heaven. See therefore that you observe them, obey them, retain them by your goodness and obedience: lest, if you offend them through disobedience or some other sin, they flee from you and abandon you, leaving you naked and miserable. For thus St. Basil says in his work On Virginity: "As bees are driven away by smoke, so are angels driven away by lust and sins." It is a prosopopoeia: for mercy and truth are here introduced as it were as persons, nay as angels approaching and departing from the disciple of wisdom, and as it were as tutors of him who strives for wisdom and virtue. Thus the Gentiles feigned that the Graces were winged goddesses, or angels, who would fly down from heaven to grateful and gracious men, but would flee from the ungrateful and uncharitable, and fly back to heaven: for virtues are graces freely given by God to man. Thus almsgiving appeared in the form of a most beautiful virgin, with an olive branch crowned upon her head, to St. John the Almsgiver sleeping, as Leontius testifies in his Life, and rousing him from sleep, said: "I am the first of the daughters of the great King: if you will make me your friend, I shall be able to make you familiar to him. For no one has greater confidence with him than I: because I persuaded him to descend from heaven to earth and to take on human flesh." Wherefore St. John, giving himself entirely to almsgiving, after his death was seen by Sabinus the hermit to be led by the same virgin to the throne of the supreme King. Moreover, from this vision he became so beneficent that, when on a certain day no one had asked him for a benefit, he said sorrowfully and groaning: "Today wretched John has received no reward from anyone, nor could he offer any, even the smallest, as an expiation to Christ for his many and great sins. What is this less, unless you say it is even greater than that saying of the Emperor Titus: Today we have not reigned, because we have benefited no one." Thus Leontius. In a similar manner wisdom and chastity, as it were two beautiful virgins and sisters, appeared through a vision to St. Gregory of Nazianzus, as I said above. On the other hand, virtues flee from the infamous and the wicked. Thus Astraea, that is justice, is said by the Poets, indignant at the growth of vices, to have flown away to heaven, and there to have been transformed into the sign of the Balance. Whence Ovid, in the first book of the Metamorphoses: And the virgin, last of the heavenly ones, dripping with slaughter, left the earth. And Seneca in the Octavia: Neglected, she flees the earth and the savage ways of men, and hands polluted with bloody slaughter. We ought therefore to cultivate wisdom and virtues, to venerate them, to love them, to study them and to obey them; thus we shall make them our friend and familiar: for they themselves love and cherish those who love and cherish them, on the other hand they despise and spurn those who neglect and scorn them, and they flee and turn away. This is what Isaiah says, chapter LIX, verse 14: "Judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter." Hence the Son of God descended from heaven, that he might bring back to mercy and justice those who were exiled and fugitive. Thirdly, Jansenius understood these not as duties of man, but as rewards to be given by God to him who observes his laws, as if to say: If you keep God's precepts, the mercy and truth of God will never abandon you. For in Hebrew it is אל יעזבוך, that is, they will not abandon you, in the future (although the Hebrews often take the future for the imperative or optative. Whence our translator and others aptly render it, "let them not abandon you"). In this sense the Syriac translator rendered it: length of days and years of life shall be added to you; and peace, and kindness, and truth shall not leave you. And Aben-Ezra thus explains it, as if to say: If your heart shall keep my precepts, God will send forth truth and mercy, that you may be preserved by them, so that they may never be torn from you: for which reason bind them, etc., that is, lest you ever consign this to oblivion. And R. Levi: The words, he says, signify nothing else than that God is the parent and author of truth and piety. BIND THEM ABOUT THY NECK. — The Septuagint and Aquila, bind them upon thy neck; the Syriac and Chaldean, bind them on thy neck; St. Chrysostom, in his argument on the epistle to the Philippians, adapt them to thy neck: "Just as," he says, "the children of the rich have a golden ball about their neck, which they never remove, since they carry it as a sign of their nobility, so also we ought always to be clothed with almsgiving, that we may show ourselves to be the children of a merciful and kind father, who maketh his sun to rise upon the good and bad." And further on: "Let us bind this ornament about ourselves. Let us make ourselves a golden torque (I mean almsgiving) while we are here. For as soon as this age passeth away, there will be no further use for it." See what I said concerning the torque in chapter I, verse 9. In a similar manner Plato in the Cratylus: virtue, he says, is called ἀρετή, as if ἁιρετή, because it is to be chosen before all things as the most excellent good. Or as if ἀεὶ ῥέον, that is, that which without any impediment always flows in an equal and consistent manner according to reason. So also in the Lives of the Fathers, book VII, chapter XLIV, in the Meditations of Twelve Anchorites, the eleventh in order applied to himself daily this spur of virtue: "I imagine," he says, "that virtues are personified, which surround me on all sides and encircle me, so that after death they may testify before God that they found rest in me." Therefore the torque: first, signifies that mercy and truth ought to be most familiar and closely joined to us like a garment; second, that we are adorned by them, as a neck is adorned by a golden torque; third, that they make us noble, liberal and of gentle birth: for a torque is a symbol of nobility and gentle birth. Whence St. Gregory in the Decretals, § Prudentes, title 24 On Donations: "This law," he says, "nobility in a certain way imposes upon itself, so that it may think itself bound to give what it gives willingly, and unless it has increased in its benefits, it thinks it has accomplished nothing." Fourth, torques formerly contained amulets against poisons and bewitchment: thus mercy dispels all bewitchments and the malice of hatred and envy: for beneficence makes friends both of enemies and of friends. Fifth, a torque is a sign of sovereignty: thus beneficence and justice befit and make princes, according to that saying of Christ: "The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them, and they that have power over them are called benefactors," Luke XXII, 25. "Liberality," says Lactantius, "generosity and magnificence are the praises of kings." And St. Jerome, book I on Matthew: "He who is a slave of riches," he says, "guards riches as a slave; but he who has cast off the yoke of slavery distributes them as a master." Sixth, a torque is a sign of fortitude, warfare, struggle and victory, as I said from Bede and St. Gregory in chapter I, verse 9. It signifies therefore that one must struggle faithfully and constantly with all one's strength unto death for the duties of mercy and truth, especially against enmities and hatreds, so that one does not allow oneself to be overcome by them, but overcomes evil with good, and thus surpasses enemies with benefits and makes them friends. AND WRITE THEM UPON THE TABLETS OF THY HEART. — It is familiar to the Hebrews not to dwell upon one similitude, but to join another and another to it: thus here he compared mercy and truth, first, to companions or tutors, who now lead and now abandon the young man; second, to a torque, which encircles and adorns the throat and neck; third, here to writing inscribed upon the heart. And there is a gradation: for a torque adheres to a man more than companions, and an inscription upon the heart more than a torque: so as to signify that mercy and truth ought to be most familiar and intimate to man, and inscribed upon the inmost heart. He calls the heart itself the tablet of the heart, flat and spread out like a tablet: for formerly before the use of paper they wrote upon tablets, especially waxed ones. Whence Symmachus translated it, write it upon thy breast. Second, Dionysius: "Bind them about thy neck," that is, he says, preach them also to others, so that they too may not at all abandon mercy and truth, and as far as this goes "lift up thy voice like a trumpet," as Isaiah says, chapter LVIII, 1, and, as Hosea, VIII, 1: "Let a trumpet be in thy throat," so that thou mayest be able to say with St. Job, XXXI: "I have not given my throat to sin." Third, plainly and genuinely Jansenius: "Bind them about thy neck," that is, he says, let them be firmly and on all sides present to thee, and always be before thine eyes; just as that which is bound about the neck, and hangs from the neck, encircles a man on all sides, and is always before his eyes. Cajetan adds: "Bind them upon thy neck," that is, have them continually before thy eyes like something hanging as a pendant from both sides of the neck, so that they may always be before thy eyes. For just as, he says, the neck joins the body to the head, so human study joins the body of human actions to the head, which is the light of right reason. The virtues are commanded to be bound upon the neck, that is, upon human studies and human endeavors, so that they may not abandon man, so that they may not escape practice. Compass them therefore about thy neck, that is, embrace them most closely, gird and adorn thyself with them, so that like familiar things they may always and everywhere be present to thee, and may honor and adorn thee. He alludes to Deuteronomy, chapter VI, 8: "Thou shalt bind them as a sign on thy hand, and they shall be and shall move between thy eyes." Furthermore, a tablet is a symbol of breadth and expansion, and signifies that these virtues ought to be inscribed upon the whole breadth of the heart, so that the heart itself, as much as it is, may imbibe these virtues, and may expend them most widely upon neighbors. Whence, just as the heart is capable of embracing the whole world, so also the charity and mercy of the heart embraces the whole world. Hence some, reading πλάτος, that is, breadth, instead of πλάκες, that is, tablets, translate it, describe them upon the breadth of thy heart. Thus St. Jerome in chapter II of Habakkuk (who also explains it thus: "It is commanded to write more plainly, so that the reader may run, and his speed and desire for reading may be hindered by no obstacle"). Unless virtue or the word of virtue proceed from the heart, it is not true, but feigned and painted. Again, the ancients inscribed upon the bullae of the heart the name of their God or friend, whom they loved supremely, so that they might always have him before their eyes, always in their heart, as I showed in Jeremiah XVII, 1, at that passage: "The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, graven upon the breadth of their heart." It signifies therefore that mercy and truth ought to be so friendly to us that they be inscribed upon the bullae of the heart, according to what is said in chapter VII, verse 3: "Bind her upon thy fingers, write her upon the tablets of thy heart. Say to wisdom: Thou art my sister, and call prudence thy friend." Which last words about sister and friend are read inserted in this place in some Bibles. In a similar manner the bridegroom says to the bride, Canticles VIII: "Put me as a seal upon thy heart, as a seal upon thy arm." Where St. Gregory says: "In the heart, he says, are thoughts, in the arm are operations. Upon the heart therefore and upon the arm of the bride the beloved is placed as a seal, because in a holy soul, as much as he is loved by her, he is designated both in will and in action." Wherefore St. John the Almsgiver used to say: "Even if the whole world should flow together to Alexandria to ask for alms, neither would strength fail God, nor courage fail me to bestow it upon each and all. For by experience itself I learn daily that almsgiving does not impoverish, but enriches: the more I bestow, the more I receive to bestow, God giving." Thus St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and similar apostolic men embraced the whole world with the breadth of their heart, and desired and strove to evangelize it, and to lead all to Christ. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily last on the epistle to the Romans: "The heart of Paul is higher than heaven, broader than earth, more joyful than the ray of the sun, hotter than fire, firmer than adamant. A heart living a new life rather than this our life. I live, now not I, but Christ liveth in me, he says. Christ's heart therefore was Paul's heart, a tablet of the Holy Spirit, a vessel of grace," etc. The sense therefore is, as if thou shouldst say: Inscribe mercy and truth not upon tablets of stone, upon which the law of Moses was inscribed, but upon fleshly ones, upon which Christ inscribes his law through grace, as the Apostle teaches, II Corinthians III, namely inscribe and impress them upon thy heart through its whole tablet, that is, breadth, so that thou mayest love them with thy whole heart, think of them continually, and everywhere determine to execute them in deed. See what he said concerning almsgiving in Deuteronomy XXVI, 12, where I reviewed twenty notable fruits of it. The tablet of the heart could also be taken metonymically as a necklace or bulla, which hung from a torque encircling the neck over the heart, as if to say: Let these virtues so encircle and adorn thy mouth, face and neck, that at the same time they be inscribed upon the bulla of the heart: by which is signified that all thought and speech concerning them which is made by the mouth and head ought to have connection with the heart, nay, ought to have its origin from the heart: for unless virtue or the word of virtue proceed from the heart, it is not true, but feigned and painted. 4. AND THOU SHALT FIND GRACE AND GOOD DISCIPLINE BEFORE GOD AND MEN. — The Syrian and Chaldean versions read, and thou shalt find mercy (the Chaldean, grace), kindness and good understanding. By discipline or good understanding, understand good composition of morals, from which one is recognized to be well instructed, composed, well-mannered, prudent and intelligent. The sense therefore is, as if you were to say: If you obey my counsels, you will be gracious in the eyes both of God and the Angels and of men; moreover you will cause your discipline, both of mind and of action, namely the composition of morals both internal and external, to please God equally as men. Whence the Septuagint, reading ישכל vesekel, that is and discipline or understanding, with different pointing ישכר vaskel by crasis, for והשכל vehaskel, translate in the same sense, provide good things before God and men; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, look around at good things, which St. Paul followed, II Cor. VIII, 21, saying: "We provide for good things not only before God, but also before men." The sense therefore is, as if you were to say: If you do what I have said, you will be gracious, and provide, that is you will provide, good things, that is good discipline, composition of morals, edification before God and men, so that before them composed in morals, endowed with virtue and wisdom, prudent and intelligent you may appear, and that as such by all you may be judged, praised and celebrated. Note on look around: for it signifies that any work whatsoever by a wise and prudent man as to all its parts, circumstances, modes, reasons, intentions must be so examined and moderated and composed both inwardly and outwardly on all sides, that nothing in it be defective, incongruous, unbecoming, immoderate, which can be criticized or reproved, so that like a perfect image it may be, which in all its lineaments is so adapted on every side and exactly conformed, that nothing in it is wanting or superfluous, and therefore nothing in it can be noted or vituperated. Thus therefore in any work examine all things, and like Argus with a hundred eyes examine all around, and arrange each thing so harmoniously, that with Apelles you may be able to say: "I paint for eternity; I live, I work for eternity."
Second Part: On Confidence, Honor, and Worship of God From thesis it descends to hypothesis, namely after the general precept of mercy and justice it passes to particular precepts of virtues, which from that first general one are drawn forth as conclusions from their principle. But it begins with religion and worship of God, because this is the first virtue, the font and mother of the others, and because from God everywhere one must begin, especially in Ethics, according to that saying of the Nazianzen: "From thee the beginning, in thee it shall end." And that of St. Augustine, I Confess. XV: "Behold thou, O Lord my King and my God, let whatever useful thing I have learned serve thee, let what I speak and write and number serve thee."
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5. HAVE CONFIDENCE (Syriac and Chaldean, hope) IN THE LORD WITH THY WHOLE HEART, AND LEAN NOT UPON THY OWN PRUDENCE. — The Syriac reads, upon the wisdom of thy mind, but God's grace; the Septuagint, be confident with thy whole heart upon God, but in thy own wisdom be not exalted; the Roman version, be not exalted; the Arabic, be not lifted up; Symmachus, be not confident, as if to say: Lean upon God, and wholly depend upon Him, not upon thy prudence, says Aben-Ezra; and assign all things to God's providence, not thine, and refer all to Him, says R. Levi, Vatablus and Pagninus: Trust, he says, in the Lord with thy whole heart, and lean not upon thy own understanding; others say, lean not upon thy prudence as upon a staff and support (for this is what the Hebrew ישען iissaen properly signifies), just as the aging father of Scipio leaned upon his son as upon a staff; whence the son was called Scipio, as if to say: Let God be thy staff, not thy own ingenuity, not thy own counsel, but thy hope in God; for if thou lean upon God as upon a staff, thou shalt stand firm in every action: all other things are a reed staff, as Isaiah says in chapter XXXVI, 6, and Ezekiel in chapter XXIX. This is a general teaching, instructing that in any matter, action, tribulation, expectation, danger, fear, etc., so that the outcome or issue may be happy, all hope must be placed in God, and that with thy whole heart, and thou must not lean upon thy own prudence, that is to say, so that thou thinkest that alone sufficient for thee, or placest the principal parts and moments of the thing to be accomplished in it: these must be placed in God. Therefore thou art forbidden here to trust in thyself and thy own ingenuity and counsel so as to distrust or have less faith in God. Otherwise it is the part of a prudent man to trust in God in such a way that he nevertheless applies his mind to counsel and his hand to work: for God commands this, and nature and grace as well. For prudence is the eye and ruler of the soul and of all its movements and actions. Whence the prudent man is said to be one who sees far or at a distance, and prudence is as it were seeing far or foresight, says St. Thomas from Isidore and Boethius, II II, Question XLVII, article 1, and Question XLIX, article 6. To this pertains that saying of St. Gregory of Nazianzus in his Distich: "With God granting, malice can do nothing; with Him refusing, labour can do nothing." And that of St. Basil in his Monastic Constitutions, chapter XVI: "To the perfect summit of virtue both of these things must be joined together, both human effort and heavenly aid, faith's works brought in and prepared." And chapter XVII: "The mind ought to assign to the Lord the causes why those things happen thus, and not to think that there is anything whatsoever which it can attain by the faculty of its own powers, etc. Moreover, humility is the safest treasure of all virtues." Yet especially does this teaching have place in obtaining wisdom and virtue. For since this is a gift of God, and in the faithful and saints a supernatural gift, it certainly transcends the powers and prudence of man. Whence it must be hoped for and sought from God, yet in such a way that thou cooperate and work together with God. Wherefore Salonius and Bede think these things are said by Solomon to raise up the pusillanimity and distrust of the disciple, as if to say: Do not think that these precepts of my wisdom and virtue, which I am about to give, exceed thy powers, nor distrust that thou canst attain wisdom and virtue, as being difficult and heavenly: only hope in God, and from Him with thy whole heart earnestly beseech it, He Himself will grant it to thee; wherefore lean not upon thy prudence, as if by it thou oughtest to prepare it by thy powers and counsels: God is its giver, He Himself will freely give it to those who ask and work together with Him. Impious therefore and proud was the voice of the Philosopher concerning God: Let him give strength, let him give wealth, I myself will prepare an equal mind. For God is He who illuminates the mind, elevates the will, inspires strength, and just as the wind breathing upon a ship happily drives it into the port of salvation, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, homily 34 on the Epistle to the Hebrews. And St. Basil, in his homily On the Holy Spirit: "Give me," he says, "an empty ship, a helmsman, sailors, ropes, anchors, all arranged, and nowhere the spirit of the wind; does not all manner of apparatus cease, if the operation of the spirit be lacking?" "Although there be a broad supply of discourse, a profound mind, eloquence and understanding, if the Holy Spirit who supplies the force be not present, all things are idle." The same, oration 7 On Virtue and Vice: "Blessed, he says, is he who hath deprived himself of all hope in the things of this world (for, as the same author says, epistle 19 to Gregory of Nazianzus: "The hopes of mortals are the dreams of the waking"), and hath fixed and placed all his hope in God alone. For as he is accursed who placeth his hope in man, so is he worthy of all praise who dependeth wholly upon God. For hope which is placed in God suffereth not itself to be established in another, nor doth it wish aid to be brought to itself, etc., but it is necessary truly to rest in the aid of God." The same, oration 20: "As it is fitting that we render worship to no other than to God alone, so also in no other thing ought we to place our hope, than in God the Lord of all things." The same, homily 8 on the Hexaemeron, giveth as an example of hope the halcyon, or halcedine bird, to which in the midst of winter, while it sitteth upon its eggs near the shore of the sea, God calmeth the sea and the winds: "All the winds, he says, are silenced and lulled to sleep, the waves rest, the swollen seas are calmed for seven whole days, whilst the halcyon sitteth upon its eggs. All sailors know this, and they call those the halcyon days. What therefore would not be obtainable from God even beyond all hope for thy sake, whom He himself created in His own image, when by the grace of so small a bird the vast, terrible and fierce sea is commanded to be calm and resteth in the midst of winter?" This is what Jeremiah saith, chapter XVII, 7: "Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence," etc. See the things said there. Finally, that thou shouldst not lean upon thine own prudence, St. Dorotheus, sermon 5, attributeth to Religious, and teacheth that they ought to suffer themselves to be ruled by God through their Superiors in all things and through all things. 6. IN ALL THY WAYS THINK ON HIM, AND HE SHALL DIRECT THY STEPS. — For "think" in Hebrew it is דעהו daehu, that is, know or acknowledge him. So also the Syriac and Chaldaic. Vatablus, in all thy affairs acknowledge him, namely his presence, power, majesty, providence, goodness, justice, vengeance, etc. It is a metalepsis: for from thinking is understood reverence, obedience, hope and love; for these are produced by attentive thinking and meditation upon God, or the divine. Think therefore, that is, by thinking hope, revere, worship and love him as creator, governor, lord, judge everywhere present, and beholding all thy acts. Think, I say, upon God everywhere and always, either in act or in virtue, so that by the force of this thinking thou mayest be kept from evil, and be driven to all good, especially to the fear, hope and love of God; for the discourse hath been concerning hope. Therefore think, that is, first, frequently (for cogito is a frequentative verb from cogo, as Festus saith) set before thy mind, hope and invoke God: for if thou shalt do this, He Himself shall direct thy steps. Secondly, "think," that is, fear and revere God everywhere present, lest thou commit anything that may offend the eyes of such majesty; but rather do all things that delight them. Whence Boethius: "A great necessity of probity is imposed upon us, since we do all things in the eyes of God who seeth all things." For to think is said to be from cogo: "For by cogendo the mind to remember what is laid up in it, thinking is said," as Isidore saith, book I of Sentences, chapter XV; and cogo is said as it were coago, that is, I do one thing. For thinking of the divine presence compelleth us to His fear and worship: for thinking is of things present, memory of things absent. Thus St. Isidore, On the Difference of Mind and Memory, chapter I: "Memory, he says, recalleth things past, mind foreseeth things future, thinking embraceth things present." Thirdly, "think," that is, intend in all thy acts God, so that thou mayest refer all to Him as it were to a mark and end, and in all things strive to please Him. Thus Lyra and Cajetan hold that right intention in all things is here commanded; for this directeth our steps to a right end. Fourthly, "think" of Him, that is, of His operation and grace, so that thou mayest refer all good things to Him as it were to the giver of all, and arrogate nothing to thyself. Thus Hugo. Whence St. Jerome, dialogue 3 Against Pelagius, proveth from this the necessity of grace. Whence the Arabic version rendereth it, acknowledge wisdom, that it may direct thy ways. Fifth, "think," that is, represent to yourself God, and God's will, life and law, as it were as the norm of your actions, to which you ought to conform all things exactly as to a rule; and thus God, as it were as norm and rule, will most rightly direct all your steps and acts. Thus David thought of God everywhere, saying in Psalm XV: "I set the Lord always in my sight: for he is at my right hand, that I be not moved." The same precept Tobias, when dying, gave to his son, chapter IV: "In all the days of thy life," he says, "keep God in thy mind, and beware lest thou ever consent to sin, and neglect the commandments of the Lord our God." Thus Elias and Elisæus: "The Lord liveth," they say, "in whose sight I stand," III Kings XVII, 1, and IV Kings III, 14; and St. Job, chapter XXXI: "Doth not God consider my ways, and number all my steps?" For assiduous thought of the divine presence most greatly establishes the mind in God. This was once, and even now is, the chief office and exercise of the Ascetics and Religious, that they should always and everywhere think of God, and converse and speak with him as it were present. Whence Abba Allois in the Lives of the Fathers, book V, booklet XI, number 5: "Unless," he says, "a man shall have said in his heart: I alone and God are in this world, he shall have no rest." And again: "If a man wishes, in one day even until evening he arrives at the measure of divinity." In the same place Abba Bessarion: "A monk," he says, "ought to be wholly an eye, like the Cherubim and Seraphim," who continually behold, love and glorify God. And Abba Daniel: "For who takes God from us? no one. Full and perfect goods to bestow on all things." Thus St. Augustine, book XI of the Confessions II: "When," he says, "am I sufficient to declare with the tongue of my pen all thy exhortations, and all thy terrors, and consolations and governances, by which thou hast led me," etc.? Thus St. Antony in St. Athanasius: "The only," he says, "reason for conquering the enemy is spiritual joy, and the continual remembrance of the Lord by the soul always thinking of him, which drives away the games of demons as smoke." And: "The security of the soul is the judgment of present majesty." Hence theologians teach that for acting well it is not sufficient for the just man to have the habit of grace and virtues infused or acquired, but moreover he needs the actual motion, influx, aid and direction of God, especially in difficult and heroic acts, and for overcoming grave temptations. Indeed they hold that the just man in every meritorious act needs the actual motion of the Holy Spirit, because in the Council of Palestine, which St. Augustine often cites Against Pelagius, it was defined that "grace is given for individual acts;" and the Apostle says: "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who worketh in us both to will and to accomplish," II Corinthians III. Thus Dionysius. And again in the cell God is." And Abba Theonas, number 12: "Because our mind is hindered and recalled from the contemplation of God, therefore we are led captive in carnal passions." And Abba John: "As, when it rains, trees produce branches, so, when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of the Saints, they grow green as it were and are renewed, and put forth leaves in the fear of God." Whence Abba Silvanus working did not attend to the work, because his mind was absorbed in the contemplation of God. In the same place, number 31, Abba Serapion: "As," he says, "the soldiers of the Emperor, when they stand before him, ought not to look to the right or to the left: so also a monk, when he stands in the sight of God, and is intent every hour in the fear of him, there is nothing that the adversary's evils can terrify him with." In the same place, number 35, Abba Hyperichius: "Let thy thought," he says, "always be in the kingdom of heaven, and quickly thou shalt receive it as an inheritance." And: "Let the life of a monk be made according to the imitation of Angels, burning and consuming sins." And another, number 42: "As no one can harm him who stands at the side of the Emperor, so Satan cannot harm us, if our soul cleaves to God;" for it is written, Zacharias I: "Draw near to me, and I will draw near to you." I have said more on this matter Genesis XVII, 1 and seq. AND HE HIMSELF SHALL DIRECT THY STEPS. — To notes first the likeness and reciprocity, as if you were to say: Think of God, and he in turn will likewise think of thee, so that he may direct thy steps to all prosperity, holiness and happiness, according to that which Christ said to St. Catherine of Siena: "Daughter, always think of me, and I will think of thee." Thou, that thou mayest obey me and serve me: I, that I may direct thee, protect thee, and advance thee in all grace and glory. Secondly, he notes the reward and recompense as it were from a promise and covenant. For God here and elsewhere makes as it were a covenant with us, by which he promises and as it were binds himself to directing all our actions, so that they may obtain a happy and holy effect, if we think of him, proposing to ourselves to please him and obey him in all things, following our father in faith Abraham, to whom God said: "Walk before me, and be perfect," Gen. XVII, 1. The same thing Tobias admonished his son, cap. IV, vers. 20: "At all times, he says, bless God; and ask of him that he may direct thy ways, and that all thy counsels may remain in him." Thus the Saints in all things pray and obtain that they may be directed by God, so that they may have God as the charioteer presiding over their soul, and guiding all his movements and acts. Thus David, to whom this son of Solomon alludes here, Psalm. CXVIII: "Direct my steps according to thy word." And the same thing he repeats frequently in the same psalm. And Psalm. XXII: "The Lord, he says, ruleth me," as a shepherd a sheep, whence in Hebrew it is, God feedeth me; or, God is my shepherd; "I shall want nothing: for in a place of pasture there he hath placed me." Which words Philo cites, book I De Agric.: "It is impossible, he says, that any good should be lacking, where God presides, being accustomed to bestow full and perfect goods on all things."
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7. BE NOT WISE IN THINE OWN EYES. — In Hebrew, in thine eyes, namely in them and in thy vain opinion thou mayest seem to thyself to be wise before others. For this is self-love, proud presumption and excessive self-esteem. The Arabic, be not wise in thy soul; the Septuagint, be not prudent in thyself; whom the Apostle followed, Rom. XII, 16: "Be not, he says, wise in your own conceits." Where I have reviewed four expositions. Thus Jansenius; Lyranus and Baynus expound it, as if he said: "Do not persuade thyself with vain elation that thou art wise or prudent;"; Hugo: "Do not invent new opinions, and prefer them to those of others;"; Cajetan: do not thou thyself make judgment concerning thy wisdom; Vatable, do not reckon thyself wise. There is added R. Solomon Isacides: "Be not, he says, wise in thyself, so that thou neglect the words of those by whom thou hast been reproved;"; Aben-Ezra: "So that thou mayest boast: My wisdom as a guide shall take the straight path;"; R. Levi: "So that thou mayest give thyself to idleness, and abandon the study of wisdom, which seems to thee sufficient for thy wisdom." Moreover Bede: "This seems to be the same commandment as that which was set before: Lean not upon thy own prudence; but it differs greatly. For he leans upon his own prudence, who prefers to the decrees of the fathers those things which seem to him to be done or said. But he is wise in himself who, in those things which he was able to know rightly from the teaching of the fathers, exalts himself before others as if more learned." Cajetan however: "This, he says, pertains to judgment, that however to confidence." This is the source of all errors and heresies, namely that their authors seem to themselves to be wise before others, and therefore are unwilling to yield to and believe the opinion of the Church and the Doctors; concerning whom Isaiah, cap. V, vers. 21: "Woe, he says, to you that are wise in your own eyes, and prudent in your own conceits!" Truly Climacus, degree 3: "In those, he says, who trust in themselves, the demon often becomes a prophet." Wherefore true wisdom, says St. James, cap. III, vers. 17, is modest and humble; it knows not itself, because it does not look at, nor reflect upon itself, according to that of Paul, I Corinth. III, 18: "If any man among you seem to be wise, let him become a fool, that he may be wise." Nay, even Plutarch: "The more thou hast advanced in philosophy, the less thou wilt swell with pride." FEAR GOD, AND DEPART FROM EVIL. — These words pertain first to this: have confidence in the Lord, which preceded vers. 5. For to hope must be joined fear, says Bede, so that, as much as hope elevates the soul, so much fear depresses it, and thus the soul stands in the right equilibrium of virtue like a mill, in which the upper millstone rests upon the lower and is supported by it; for the upper stone represents hope, the lower fear. Secondly, these words pertain to that which immediately preceded: "Be not wise in thine own eyes," because nothing so restrains and depresses pride and arrogant presumption of wisdom as the fear of God, which humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Whence the Apostle, Rom. XI, 20: "Be not high-minded, but fear." And Eccli. XXV, 14: "The fear of God hath surpassed all things." See the sayings there. 8. FOR IT SHALL BE HEALTH TO THY NAVEL (The Syrian, to thy flesh), AND MARROW TO THY BONES. — "Marrow," that is, the pith, says R. Solomon, according to that Job XXI, 24: "His bones are filled with marrow." The Septuagint, and it shall be health to thy body, and healing to thy bones. For marrow the Syrian and Symmachus render, πιότης, that is, fatness, namely marrow; Theodotion, καταβριχή, that is, a pouring over; Aquila, ποτιζμός, that is, irrigation or drinking; and this properly signifies the Hebrew שקוי; the Septuagint, ἐπιμέλεια, that is, care, or the care and exercise of the body, for example by which athletes exercised their body for strength and wrestling. Whence from ἐπιμέλεια is born ἐμμέλεια, that is, comeliness. Whence aptly, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 20, the mother of St. Basil was called Emmelia, because she was so composed in her manners, that she herself seemed to be comeliness, and she instilled it into her son St. Basil with her milk. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Your whole body will be healthy. For the health of the body depends greatly on the health both of the more tender parts lacking bone, namely the vital parts, such as the heart, liver, spleen, the viscera which are near the navel, and the navel itself; and also of the harder parts, namely the bones, which are as it were the bases and columns of our house and microcosm. But the health of the bones is irrigated, fostered, nourished and strengthened by the fatness of the marrow; hence when this fails, the bones dry up, from which follows the wasting and corruption of man. For this reason Galen calls bones the foundations of the body, and counts in man more than three hundred of them: and he asserts that the proper nourishment of bones is the marrow; hence all animals have hollow bones for containing marrow, except the lion which has solid bones, so that they have little or no marrow. Among the bones he asserts that the spine of the back stands out; but the spinal marrow, equally with the principle of the nerves, is the brain: for from the spinal marrow arise thirty pairs of nerves, and from thence the forces in the lower parts. The navel moreover connects the upper members with the lower. Again, the fetus in the womb of the mother draws and sucks nourishment through the navel, and is nourished by it. Whence these pronouncements are made by Galen concerning the navel: "The navel is precisely in the middle of man. The navel of the fetus is continuous with the navel of the mother. At the navel the fetus is bound, and through it is nourished. At the navel there is a union of four vessels; for two veins and two primary arteries are joined at the navel. Through the navel the fetus in the womb voids urine." For these reasons the navel is a symbol of the whole body, and represents that whose bases and columns are bones. Literally therefore and grammatically it is signified that the whole body and the whole man will be healthy, vigorous and robust; but through this symbolically it is represented that the whole soul and all its parts will be healthy, vigorous and strong. For it is a proverb, in which the fear of the Lord is compared to the health of the navel and the marrow of the bones. The meaning therefore is, as if he should say: Just as if the navel be healthy, and the marrow of the bones be healthy, the whole body will be healthy and strong with all its members: so likewise, if in you there be a healthy and entire fear of God, it will effect that your whole soul be healthy and strong, and all its parts, both noble and ignoble, both weak and strong, and especially your appetite, which is as it were the navel of the soul, and your reason, mind and spirit, which are as it were the bones of the soul sustaining it, will be healed, fostered, strengthened, perfected. For just as through the navel the fetus is joined to the mother, and from her sucks nourishment: so likewise the soul through the fear of God is joined to God, and from Him sucks and draws all grace, health and strength. Thus Rabbi Levi and Jansenius. Whence that concerning Behemoth, Job XL, 11: "His strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly." And by the irrigation of bones through the fatness of the marrow is signified in Job the good health of man, Job XXI: "His bowels," he says, "are full of fat, and his bones are irrigated with marrow." On the contrary, by the dryness of bones bad health is designated in the same, Job XXX: "My skin," he says, "is blackened upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat." And the Psalmist, Psalm CI: "My bones are dried up like a potsherd." For the marrow of the bones is a fomentation and firmament. Metaphorically therefore by this meaning it is signified that he who shall have done the aforesaid things will be of good constitution, especially according to the soul and mind, and all the forces of his soul will be firm and healthy, and that those things which by God's grace will be healed and strengthened, and irrigated with the fat and fatness of heavenly charisms will be refreshed, according to that, Psalm LXII: "Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness." Some explain it not badly thus: Through the fear of God there is health to the navel, because through it the depraved desires and lust are restrained, which flourish in the navel and about it; and it is an irrigation of the bones, because through it all the members of the body, and all the forces of the soul are rendered apt and agile for the works of virtue. A similar trope, as regards the irrigation of the bones, is in Ecclesiasticus XXVI: "The grace of a diligent woman shall delight her husband, and shall fatten his bones." And Proverbs XV: "A good name fattens the bones." Thus Jansenius and Hugo. For the navel, or the loins, as they are the origin of seed, so they are a symbol of concupiscence, says Pierius, hieroglyphics 34, chapter XXXIV. Whence that, Ezekiel XVI, 4: "Your navel was not cut." See the things said there. Wherefore you may appropriately understand by the navel the concupiscible power of the soul, by the bones the irascible, in which is strength, which the bones represent; the fear of God heals, invigorates and directs both. Secondly, specifically the navel can be understood as the stomach: for this is adjacent to or lies beneath the navel; and through the stomach, conscience. For with a healthy stomach good digestion of food takes place, by which the whole body is properly nourished and strengthened. Similarly, if through fear of God the conscience be healthy, it itself, ruminating the word of God, which is the food of the soul, will digest it, so that in it it nourishes all its powers and faculties. Again, just as with sharp and biting pills, phlegmatic, bilious and other harmful humours are purged from the stomach and bowels, and the body remains healthy when these are expelled: so likewise through fear of hell and God's vengeance, which is sharp and biting, all harmful desires are driven out from the conscience, and when these are cast out the soul remains healthy and whole. Wherefore each one ought to pray with the Psalmist: "Pierce my flesh with thy fear; for I am afraid of thy judgments." This is what Theodoret says, book I On the Cure of Greek Affections: "The fear of God is the best medicine, which is made from evils, as happens in theriac;" for theriac is made from poison, namely from viper. For, as Isaiah says, chapter XXVI, verse 18, according to the Septuagint: By thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and have been in labour, and have brought forth the spirit of salvation. Thirdly, the navel signifies the middle, because the navel is in the middle of man. Whence the navel is called from umbo, which is the middle part of a shield; the navel is indeed the ligament of the intestines, which occupies almost the middle plane of the belly; made for this purpose, that through it the fetus in the mother's womb might be nourished. Hence Reate is called the navel, that is the middle, of Italy. And Cicero, in the sixth Oration against Verres: "And he says that Libera, whom they call the same Proserpina, was carried off from the grove of Enna, which place, because it is situated in the middle of the island, is called the navel of Sicily." And Livy, book V, calls Aetolia the navel of Greece. The navel therefore signifies the moderation to be observed in all actions, and the middle, in which virtue consists, from which if you decline to extremes, you will fall into vice. The sense therefore is, as if to say: If you fear God and turn away from evil, namely from vice, there will be health to your navel, that is, your action and virtue will be healthy and complete in all respects, which, fleeing the extremes of vices, consists in the navel, that is in the middle. Fourthly, the navel, on account of the adjacent loins, belly and genitals, represents "the faculty of spiritually generating, says Hugh, through the preaching of the word, in which doctors excel; which he says will be healthy, because their doctrine and burning zeal will be healthy." Whence of the bride it is said in the Song of Songs VII: "Thy navel is like a round bowl never wanting cups," that is, others, whose stomach and belly are cold, have need of wine drinking to bring them warmth; not so you, in whose heart charity and zeal burn and rage so greatly." Moreover, he aptly joins and compares the navel with bones, because just as the rest of the body is bound together by bones and sinews, so the belly is bound together by the navel as by a knot and chain. Whence the rupture of it is lethal. Hence also in Hebrew it is called שורך schorar, that is a knotted bond. Mystically, first, Lyra: The health of the navel, he says, is a good disposition of the soul, namely moderation in prosperity; the marrow of the bones is strength and constancy in adversity. Second, Bede: "Infirmity," he says, "shadowed forth in works by the navel, is made strong unto the state of perfection through the fear of God. Through the same the bones are irrigated, that is, the powers and strength of the soul are refreshed and strengthened," to overcome all labors, temptations and difficulties without weariness: for in those who are weary and broken by excessive labor, the marrow of the bones is wont to be diminished and gradually consumed. Hence St. Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 20, compares St. Basil to Achilles, whom the Poets feign to have been educated by Chiron the centaur, and nourished by him with the marrow of lions and deer. For St. Basil was educated far better and more holily by the fear of God as by a pedagogue, and from it he drew and sucked both the holy boldness of lions and the pious fear of deer. Thus Nicetas in the same place, and from him our Salazar. Third, the author of the Greek Catena: The bones of the soul, he says, are the more robust and firm powers of it, which each, in order that they may properly discharge their own function, require singular care and diligence. To memory pertains that: "I remembered God, and was delighted." To the mind and contemplative part of the soul that: "I considered thy works, O Lord, and was struck with wonder." To the appetitive portion of the same that: "Before thee, O Lord, is all my desire." To the reasoning faculty finally that: "I considered the days of old," and what follows. Moreover, through the body, it is permitted to understand the whole aggregate of all the faculties of the soul: "All my bones," says the Prophet, "shall say: O Lord, O Lord, who is like unto thee?" Care therefore and zeal for virtues will preserve thy whole and sound conversation of life; and the grace and kindness of God will impart health to thy body. Anagogically, our bodies in the present life are infirm and ulcerous; for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit in turn fighteth against the flesh; but when that which was sown in corruption shall once have risen from the dust of the earth, it shall be restored to complete health. But perfect healing shall come to human bones then at last, when bone shall be joined to bone, and joint to joint, and joint to joint. Then indeed, according to the prediction of the Prophet, our bones shall flourish as the grass of the field. Otherwise: Then, he says, thy body shall obtain the action of perfect justice, with that virtue flourishing indeed and bright, and its color and beauty shining forth admirably. And thy thoughts, which like bones constrain the soul within, shall receive complete healing from God. Thus he.
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9. HONOR THE LORD FROM THY SUBSTANCE, AND FROM THE FIRST FRUITS OF ALL THY INCREASE (Syriac, fruits) GIVE UNTO HIM. — Thus the Roman and Hebrew texts. But Bede, Lyra and others read, give to the poor; the Septuagint, honor the Lord from thy just labors (Chaldean, from thy mammon; Syriac, from thy possession; Vatablus, from thy riches; Pagninus, from thy wealth), and give him the first fruits from thy fruits of justice; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, from thy increase; Hebrew, from thy produce; St. Augustine, sermon 1 On Tithes: "Take a portion for him from thy labors." First, Bede, Lyra, Hugo, Dionysius understand these things of almsgiving, as if to say: Give alms, not so much that thou mayest relieve the poor, as that thou mayest honor God through it, namely by doing it with pure intention of pleasing God alone and honoring him; therefore do it with a cheerful, generous and liberal spirit, and from the first and best fruits, as God commands, Num. XVIII, 29. "Give unto him," that is, give to the poor for the love and honor of God; for the honor of divine majesty requires that better and greater things be given to him, not from plunder, but from goods obtained by just labor, and this with a joyful and liberal spirit. Finally, it is to the honor of God that the rich, whom he himself has constituted as his vicars, provide for the poor: for it is God's to provide for all in their necessities; but he has transferred a part of his providence to the rich, and therefore gave them riches, so that they in turn might relieve the poor through them. Wherefore when the rich do this, they consult the honor of divine providence, and cause the poor to acknowledge and glorify it. This is what the Apostle says: "The administration of this office (of almsgiving) not only supplies that which is wanting to the saints, but also aboundeth through many thanksgivings in the Lord, by the proof of this ministry glorifying God, etc. Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift," II Cor. IX, 12. Thus St. Augustine explains this passage in this way (if indeed he is the author), book On the Christian Life, cap. XII: "It is better," he says, "that thou do not give alms, than that from covering a few thou strip many. That almsgiving God approves, which is ministered from just labors, as it is written: Honor God from thy just labors, and take a portion for him from the fruits of thy justice. For that almsgiving he abhors and rejects, which is given from the tears of others." Second, others understand these things of oblations, victims, tithes and first fruits to be offered to God according to the law; for when the Jews offered these to God, by this very act they protested that they had received these from God, and therefore render them back to him as received. Whence they gave first fruits as the first and best fruits, tithes as the completion of the produce: so that they might testify that both the first and middle and last, and indeed all things, they had received from God. The first fruits, says Vatablus, signify the beginning from God, but the tithes the perfection: for God gives increase and perfects. By this protestation therefore they honored and glorified God. Thus St. Jerome in cap. XXV of Ezekiel, Cyril, book II on John, cap. XCII, St. Gregory, book VII of the Register, epistle 41: "Whatever," he says, "is offered in God's sacrifice from wickedness, does not appease the wrath of almighty God, but provokes it. Hence it is written: Honor the Lord from thy just labors." So also Cajetan, Baynus, Jansenius, R. Solomon, R. Levi and others. This sense is more proper and genuine in this place, both because through vows, sacrifices, tithes and first fruits God is properly honored: for their oblation is an act of religion, whose act elicited is to render to God due honor and worship; but almsgiving is an act elicited from mercy, which is commanded only by charity or religion; and because all these things properly pertain to God, and teach the acts by which we ought to worship him, namely by hoping, revering, honoring him through oblations prescribed by law. Allegorically, St. Cyril, book III on John, chapter XXIX: Christians, he says, in the new law offer to God the fruits of justice, not with corruptible and external matter, as the Jews did, but as true worshippers adore God in spirit and in truth, as Christ ordained, John IV, 22. Thus also the author of the Greek Catena, who adds: Allegorically indeed, he offers first fruits to God who humbly and with submissive spirit attributes to Him, as to the primary author, the entire cause and praise of rightly done deeds, and ascribes to himself nothing whatever as his own from all things; or he who from any kind of diligent action offers to Him something as firstborn. For example, in the morning when he rises from sleep, in place of first fruits he offers to Him prayer and thanksgiving; from words moreover as something primitive he offers to Him psalmody; and the same he is careful to observe in all other works and actions, from which a just oblation can be made. Then if he strives to keep all care and thought from the first rising until late night pure from all vice and uncontaminated, and assigns every movement of his will to God. In short, we command here that all fruits of good works be faithfully offered to God. By barns and wine presses he signifies the forces of sensible appetite; by grain truly the precepts of morals and the decrees of divine wisdom, and also the hidden senses of Holy Scripture; by storerooms finally the faculties of the soul, which stubbornly resist reason: all these indeed ought to be filled with those things which each one has gathered from his mystical harvest or spiritual vintage. Thus he. 10. AND THY BARNS SHALL BE FILLED WITH PLENTY (Aquila, storehouses), AND THY WINE PRESSES SHALL OVERFLOW WITH WINE. — The Syriac, the village shall flow forth, that is to say, If you honor God by giving alms to the poor, or rather by giving oblations, tithes and first fruits prescribed by law to God, God in turn will give you an abundant harvest of grain and a vintage of grapes, from which you may press many vessels of wine in such abundance that wine overflows and abounds. For by plenty is understood abundance of grain and fruits, which the heir with his families may satisfy abundantly. It is a metalepsis or metonymy; for the effect is put for the cause, namely plenty for grain. Whence the Septuagint translates, that thy storerooms be filled with plenty of grain, and thy wine presses overflow with wine, or abound; Vatable and Pagninus, thy wine presses shall burst with wine. For this properly signifies the Hebrew יפרצו iprotsu, that is to say, So great will be the abundance of wine that the wine presses themselves will burst, says Aben-Ezra. St. Jerome, in chapter XLV of Ezekiel, reads, thy barns shall be filled with grain; St. Augustine, sermon 1 On Tithes, the threshing floors shall be replenished with grain. And he adds: "And there shall be in them neither sickness nor accident," that is to say, Your fruits will be as abundant, so also healthy and whole, without defect or that misfortune. St. Isidore reads, thy barns were filled with abundance, which word is derived from udders fertile with milk. For just as an udder the more milk flows from it, the more new milk it admits and receives: so riches the more they are expended in alms and oblations of God, the more they will flow in. Whence Clement of Alexandria, book III of the Pedagogue, chapter I: "Liberality, he says, is a good end of kindness, and communicating drink to the thirsty is increased and replenished again; just as to udders, which are sucked or milked, milk is accustomed to come more abundantly." The first reason is, because God promised this very thing in this place and in others, as it were a fitting reward and recompense of piety. Whence Ecclesiasticus XXXV, 11: "Sanctify, he says, thy tithes. Give to the Most High according to what He has given thee, etc., because the Lord is one who repays, and will give back to thee sevenfold." See the things said there. The second, because those who expend riches in pious works use them rightly; wherefore they merit to be dispensers and masters of them. For this reason God entrusts and commits them to such persons, just as prudent men do: for it is fitting for the pious, who desire to expend their own most excellently and most usefully to place them. Whence the Hebrews say with an elegant, but true paronomasia: asar ascar, that is to say, the tithe enriches; namely if you give tithes to God, He Himself will enrich you. But to the avaricious, who hoard riches; or to the prodigal, who squander them uselessly or waste them in luxury, both God and men deny riches, indeed they withdraw them. Whence St. Augustine, homily 1 On Tithes: "This, he says, is God's just custom, that if you do not give Him the tenth, you shall be reduced to the tenth, namely with nine parts of your riches taken away." Thus Cain, who gave cattle to God avariciously, God in turn turned against him: "The earth shall not give thee her fruit," Genesis IV. Third, because this is demanded by the nature of fruits and riches, namely that they be expended for that purpose to which they were created by God, namely for the honor of God and the sustenance of the needy; for this is their end, and as it were their blessedness. Whence χρήματα, that is money, is said in Greek from χρῆσθαι, that is from using, because namely it is fitting that one use them well and expend them holily. Wherefore fruits, if they could speak, would cry out; or, if they had wings, they would surely fly to pious men, who use them piously and expend them for the honor of God. Fourth, because this is fitting to God, namely to God's wisdom, justice and holiness, that He pour out His gifts wisely, justly and holily upon those who are about to use them wisely, justly and holily and for God's glory and the sustenance of the poor. Whence He Himself in Malachi III, 10: "Bring, He says, all the tithe into my storehouse, and let there be food in my house, and prove me in this: if I shall not open to you the flood-gates of heaven, and pour out a blessing upon you even to abundance." Concerning which matter I have said more things there. Mystically, a pious man worshipping God through holy works, and referring all his gifts of mind and body, which he has received from God, to His honor, and expending them for His praise and glory, fills the storehouses of his mind with wisdom, grace and virtue. Thus R. Levi. Wherefore in him is fulfilled spiritually what was accomplished corporally among the Jews under Hezekiah, whose voice is this in II Paralipomenon XXXI, 10: "From the time that the firstfruits began to be offered in the house of the Lord, we have eaten and been satisfied, and there remained very much, because the Lord hath blessed His people." Hear St. Cyril, book XVI on Leviticus: The just man eating fills his soul not with bodily food (for this has often been lacking to the just and is lacking), but with heavenly food, which is the word of God and His wisdom, by which the just are always nourished.
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11. DESPISE NOT THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, MY SON, NEITHER BE WEARY (Aquila, reject not; Chaldee, curse not; Theodotion, reprove not, neither loathe; Chaldee, be not nauseated; Syriac, be not wearied) WHEN THOU ART CORRECTED BY HIM. — The Septuagint, my son, despise not the discipline of the Lord, neither faint (in Greek ἐκλύου, that is, be not dissolved, be not weakened, faint not in spirit) when corrected by him; St. Jerome in chapter XX of Ezekiel reads: "My son, be not sad at discipline, neither faint when thou art reproved by him;" St. Cyprian, in the book On the Dress of Virgins: "My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when corrected by him;" Pagninus: "The correction of the Lord, my son, reject not, and be not wearied by his reproof;" the Zurich Bible, the chastisement of the Lord, my son, turn not away from, neither loathe; Vatablus, bear not hardly the reproof of him. Wherefore Rabbi Solomon Isacides says: If God wishes thee to be grieved by the afflictions by which thou art corrected, regard them first as a singular gift of God and be grateful; for just as a father, who strives to do good to his only beloved son, after he has struck him with the scourge, soon soothes him with caresses, so the good things will appear more pleasant to thee after thou hast been beaten. 12. FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVETH, HE CHASTENETH (The Septuagint, reproves), AND AS A FATHER IN THE SON HE TAKETH PLEASURE. — The Hebrew, and as a father will the son; or, and as a father the son (by chastening) delights; the Chaldee, and as a father who chastens (the Syriac, instructs) his son; Vatablus, whom indeed the Lord loves, he rebukes (Pagninus, reproves), and as a father the son (chastens whom) he loves dearly; the Septuagint moreover, reading with different points, render it, whom the Lord loves, he reproves; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. By discipline therefore understand the correction of God, both that which is made through the word of God or his vicars, namely rulers, preachers, confessors, teachers, etc.; and that which is made through scourges and tribulations sent or permitted by God, whether for the punishment of sins committed, or for the prevention of sins to be committed, namely when God afflicts the innocent and undeserving for the increase of patience and virtue, as he afflicted St. Job. For this error is condemned by the Pontiff: "All the tribulations of the just are punishments of sins." Christ explains this passage concerning verbal chastisement, Apocalypse chapter III, verse 19, saying: "Such as I love, I rebuke and chastise." St. Paul explains it concerning real chastisement through blows and scourges, to the Hebrews chapter XII, verse 5, where from the Septuagint he thus speaks: "My son, neglect not the discipline of the Lord, neither faint when thou art reproved by him; for whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth." For the Septuagint, and from them St. Paul, read with different points in the Hebrew כאב kieb, that is, he afflicts, scourges, torments, causes pain; for which Our text and others read כאב keab, that is, as a father. Although Our Ribera in Hebrew chapter XII, 5, judges that the Septuagint read with nearly the same points as Our text, namely כאוב kaub; for this first signifies "as a father;" secondly, "scourges," reading כאב with patach under aleph (and perhaps in the time of the Septuagint the kamets character did not differ from patach), so that cal be put for piel or hiphil, namely kaab for kieb or hikib. Again Baynus supplies to chastise; whence reading with the same points thus renders it, whom the Lord loves, he will chastise, as a father the son (chastens) to whom he wishes well. St. Paul treats this passage at length, Hebrews chapter XII, 5 and following, and I there; wherefore I add nothing more here, that I may proceed to further matters, of which many remain. The sum is, by discipline is signified here both the correction of morals and severe education. For God does not educate his sons gently as a mother, lest he make them soft and slothful, according to that saying: "Soft indulgence of fathers makes idle sons:" but be harsh as a father: and this first, so that they may put off childish levity, and become mature and men. Second, so that they may cut away the vices of childhood and those innate to nature. When therefore thou art corrected, "be not discouraged," that is, do not become faint-hearted, do not on that account cast thyself away, as servants are wont to do; but rather glory, and reckon thyself excellent; for then, as Nazianzenus beautifully says concerning the plague of hail: "Thou hast received the necklace of the freeborn." Whence he subjoins the reason for correction, saying: "And as a father in the son he is well pleased," that is to say, Because God on account of his singular love for his sons is well pleased in them, therefore he cannot tolerate in them anything that displeases him: hence he chastises them, that he may remove it. Wherefore just as a physician burning and cutting is not angry at the sick man, but at the sickness: so God chastising is not angry at his sons who are vicious, but at the vices themselves, and thus fights against the vices for the sake of his sons. St. Augustine in Psalm XXI: "Understand, he says, O man, that God is a physician, that tribulation is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation." Whence the Apostle says that this discipline of God is one of consolation, not of desolation, Hebrews cap. XII, vers. 5. Third, that they may become hard and strong both in body and in mind, as it were sharpened to endure any labors and struggles. Whence Seneca, lib. De Providentia: "God, he says, educates the good as severe fathers do more harshly, and wishes to gather strength in them through pains and losses." And the Gloss: "So much the less, it says, ought we to murmur against the scourge by which we are chastised, as we hold more certainly in it a pledge of paternal love." This is what he says in Ecclesiasticus cap. VI, vers. 21: "How exceedingly harsh is wisdom to the unlearned; the trial of it shall be as a stone of virtue in them." See the sayings there. And Isidore of Pelusium: "A patient man, he says, is a testing of labors, and as it were a stone of δοκιμίας," that is of testing. Just as therefore the goodness of gold is tested by the Lydian stone, so the goodness of patience and of the patient is tested by labor and pain. For, as Nazianzenus says in carm. De Virtut. et vitiis: "Patience is the digestion of troubles." Just as therefore a good stomach digests foods however hard, so strong patience digests adversities however grave. On the other hand, just as a weak stomach cannot digest salted meat, so weak and feeble patience cannot digest harsh words and blows. Whence St. Chrysostom, hom. 2 ad Popul.: "What, he says, I said concerning pleasure, that it is situated not in the arrangement of foods, but in the disposition of those eating, the same I say concerning insult or trouble, that it is constructed or destroyed not by the opinion of those insulting, but by the disposition of those suffering." This is what the Wise Man says: "The pain of insult is not felt in itself, but in the sense of the one feeling it." Fourth, finally God exercises the Saints with crosses, that they may merit eternal glory, to which he destines and prepares them. Thus St. Augustine in Psalm XCIII: "A man has two sons, he says: one he chastises, the other he leaves alone: one acts badly, and is not corrected by his father; the other, as soon as he stirs, is scourged. Whence is one left alone, and the other beaten? except because an inheritance is kept for this one, while the other who is left alone is disinherited; he sees that he has no hope, and leaves him, that he may do what he wishes." I have said more on this matter in Jacob. I, 2; Apoc. III, 19; Eccli. II, 1 et seq. When therefore, O athlete of Christ, thou art afflicted, vexed, troubled, think that these things are sent to thee as discipline not by man, but by God, and therefore with that love with which God as a father sends them to thee, receive them likewise as a son of so great a father, and with the arms of thy will extended embrace them, saying: This cross, this hardship is destined for me by thee, O Father, from eternity; I embrace it with my whole heart, because thus it has pleased thee. And with St. Andrew: "O beloved cross, long desired, prepared for my longing soul! Rejoicing I come to thee. May he receive me through thee, who for me hung upon thee, and through thee redeemed me." Note: Here ends Solomon's precepts concerning the worship of God, which in number are five. The first is concerning hope, which he assigned cap. III, vers. 5: "Have confidence in the Lord with all thy heart;" the second concerning reverence, vers. 6: "In all thy ways think on him;" the third concerning fear, vers. 7: "Fear God, and depart from evil;" the fourth concerning religion, vers. 9: "Honour the Lord with thy substance;" the fifth concerning patience, vers. 11: "Reject not the discipline of the Lord." Morally, learn here how great a good is the discipline and chastisement of God. "Discipline," says St. Augustine, tract. On the Good of Discipline, vol. IX, "is the teacher of religion, the teacher of true piety, which does not rebuke in order to harm, nor does it chastise in order to injure. Finally, it corrects the morals of men when angry, guards them when inflamed, thus Solomon saying: My son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, neither be weary when thou art reproved by him. For whom the Lord loveth, he rebuketh; and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. There is truly nothing which discipline does not either amend or make safe. If anyone wise shall lay hold of it, he loses neither the grace of friendships nor incurs the danger of damnation." The same, On the Visitation of the Sick, citing this place: "Do you wish to know that bodily infirmity brings forth the health of the soul? Hear the Lord answering the Apostle: Virtue is made perfect in infirmity; as if to say: Embrace the infirmity which you suffer: for thus you will make progress from virtue to virtue, if virtue is demonstrated in infirmity. But virtue is the health of the soul, infirmity of the body; since through the virtue of the soul it brings forth health, it is a gift of God: for health of the soul is from nowhere else except from God. Therefore do not despise the scourge of God, but being scourged say: Thanks be to God. Love him who reproves, love him who corrects, love him who rebukes. Not in fury, not in anger, but in mercy open to him who knocks, be devoted to him who calls, give thanks to him who has mercy, return to yourself, think for a moment, think of God, weigh it if you can, for his mercies are over all his works. He himself is God, he himself is judge, and he does not wish you to be damned, nor does he wish you to be judged ill, he wishes to have mercy on you, he scourges you mercifully, which you have offended in him stubbornly." Hence St. Augustine, lib. I On the Sermon of the Lord on the Mount (and it is found 23, Quest. IV, cap. LI That vengeance), teaches that Superiors ought to imitate God, so that as fathers they chastise their own from love, not from hatred or vengeance. Again God, says St. Cyprian, lib. On the Dress of Virgins, reproves in order to amend through discipline, and consequently teaches each one, even priests, to love, not to hate discipline, and those who admonish them of their errors and reprove them. "Discipline," he says, "is the guardian of hope, the bond of faith, the guide of the way of salvation, the kindling and nourishment of good character, the teacher of virtue, makes one remain always in Christ, and to live continually in God, to arrive at the heavenly promises and divine rewards. It is wholesome both to follow this and deadly to turn away from it and neglect it. My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved by him," etc. He adds the reason: "Considering that the temples of God are our members, purged from all filth of ancient contagion by the sanctification of the vital washing; nor is it permitted that they be violated or defiled, since he who violates is himself violated. We are the worshippers and priests of those temples; let us serve him, whose we have now begun to be."
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13. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO HAS FOUND WISDOM, AND WHO ABOUNDS IN PRUDENCE. — The Syriac version: who has found prudence; the Chaldean: who brings forth or eructates understanding; the Septuagint: and the mortal man (St. Augustine against Adimantus, chapter XIX, reads immortal) who saw (the Scholiast: who held) prudence; the Zurich Bible: O happy man who has found wisdom (that is, the knowledge of God, which is made through discipline and tribulation, says Vatablus), and who draws, or digs out prudence; Pagninus: blessed is the man who has found wisdom, and the man who has brought it into light. In Hebrew it is יפיק iaphic, which Aben-Ezra expounds, as if to say: Blessed is the man who, after he has been imbued with wisdom, brings it forth to the people. And R. Solomon: Iaphic, he says, that is, he sharpens, as if to say: Blessed is he who has imbued others with wisdom, who namely brings forth that which is shut up in his heart and hidden in his mouth, and communicates it to others. Bede, Aben-Ezra, Dionysius, Salazar and others connect these words with the preceding: "Reject not, my son, the discipline of the Lord," so that he may give a reason, saying: "Blessed is the man who has found wisdom," as if to say: Embrace the discipline and chastisement of God, nay, esteem yourself blessed, because through it you will arrive at true wisdom and virtue, in which true blessedness consists, according to that passage in Job V, 17: "Blessed is the man whom God correcteth; therefore reject not thou the chastisement of the Lord: for he woundeth, and his hands shall heal." Therefore the sufferings of God are teachings, nay, blessednesses; namely, passions and crosses sent by God are disciplines and doctrines, nay, beatitudes, and, as St. Pacianus, Bishop of Barcelona, says in his Exhortation to Penance: "Tribulation is the discovery of divine things, and the inventory of the knowledge of God." For in the cross God is found, according to that of the Psalmist: "I am with him in tribulation." But this is a general statement, and is not to be narrowed to crosses alone: for Solomon returns in his usual manner to the praises of wisdom. The full sense therefore is, as if to say: Blessed is he who, whether through prayer, or through study, or through tribulation, or in whatever other way, has found and acquired wisdom; more blessed is he who grows in it gradually in such a way that at length wisdom abounds and overflows in him, so that he also eructates and pours it forth to others. Whence St. Bernard, On the Conversion of Clerics: "If you have wisdom in your heart," he says, "you will abound in prudence with your mouth; but take care to abound, not to flow out," namely be a shell, not a channel: for a shell first fills itself with water before it sends forth anything; but a channel sends forth all the water it receives, and retains nothing in itself. First therefore fill yourself with wisdom, then pour it forth to others; for foolish are those who, as soon as they know something, wish to be teachers, and pour forth all wisdom, and retain nothing of it in themselves, as the same author says in sermon 18 on the Canticles: "Wherefore if you are wise," he says, "you will show yourself a shell, and not a channel, etc. But we have many channels in the Church today, but very few shells." To this pertains that saying of St. Chrysostom, oration 4 Against the Jews: "Just as," he says, "in money, he who has gained two gold coins is inclined to gather and accumulate ten and twenty: so it comes to pass in virtue, that he who has done a good work or performed a duty, receives a stimulus and exhortation to accumulate good deeds in every way." For as St. Dominic Loricatus used to say, when asked how he had arrived at such great austerity of life: "Just as sleep begets sleep, so vigils beget vigils, labor begets labor, penance attracts and invites penance," so that if you have done one, you are eager to do a second, third, fourth, etc., and thus you grow in it, so that at length nothing appears hard or difficult to you, as can be seen in those ancient Ascetics and Anchorites. In a similar way the Hebrews say: "Sin draws sin, and precept draws precept," as if to say: Just as one sin attracts another, so the observance of one precept attracts the observance of another, so that if you fulfill one, you desire to fulfill another as well. 14. BETTER IS THE ACQUISITION OF HER THAN THE TRAFFIC OF SILVER, AND HER FRUIT THAN THE FIRST AND PUREST GOLD. — Jansenius and others read: and than the purest gold her fruit; the Complutensian editors: and than the first gold her fruit; the Syriac: than purged or most approved gold the fruits of her are more precious. Thus therefore Our version is to be connected and expounded, so that "better than the traffic" is repeated in the latter member, in this manner: Better is the acquisition of wisdom than the traffic of silver, and her fruit is better than the traffic of the first and purest gold. That this is the meaning is evident from the Hebrew, which reads thus: Because better is his merchandise than the merchandise of silver, and his gain is better than gold. Thus Pagninus, the Chaldean. And the Septuagint say, it is better to trade in her than in treasures of gold and silver; the Zurich Bible, because her wares are more valuable than the wares of silver, and her gain than pure gold, I suppose, that is to say, the study of wisdom far surpasses the study of riches, says Vatable. Now because in trading there are two things, namely the merchandise which is bought, and the price by which it is bought, hence a twofold sense can be given here: The first, that is to say, wisdom is merchandise more precious than gold and silver, and therefore to be preferred before all gold. The second, that is to say, it is better to trade in wisdom as it were by price and to buy salvation and every good, than to trade in gold and to buy any merchandise whatsoever, even the most precious; therefore the gain and fruit which wisdom produces and brings forth is better and more excellent than any gold and the gain of gold. From which he leaves it to be inferred that blessed is he who finds and acquires wisdom; for this preceded, and he proves it here, namely that the wise man is blessed, because the price of wisdom is inestimable. Therefore it signifies two things: First, that spiritual trading is the best, by which we trade in wisdom and virtue; and we trade in it by prayer, study, contempt of earthly things, exercise and patience in adversities: wherefore this trading is far better, that is to say more worthy and equally useful than the trading by which gold and silver are obtained, because wisdom far surpasses these, and is far more worthy and fruitful; by which he tacitly suggests that in comparison with wisdom all other things are of little or no account. Second, that it is far better for us through wisdom to trade for and obtain the grace and glory of God, than merchants through gold and silver trade for and buy bodily merchandise even the most excellent; wherefore we ought to apply ourselves to this one trading in wisdom before all trading in gold and silver, both that we may obtain it, and that through it we may acquire eternal happiness. Therefore it itself is more precious than every price and precious thing, says Eustathius in the Greek Catena. Therefore just as merchants labor assiduously to accumulate gold, so let the wise man labor night and day to increase and accumulate wisdom and virtue, namely good works and merits, by which he may lay up for himself immense treasures of glory in heaven. Rabbi Solomon adds that the trading in wisdom is better than that of gold and merchandise: because in the latter, he who sells them loses them and surrenders them to the buyer; but in wisdom, he who communicates it to others retains it for himself, indeed increases it; just as he who lights another's candle from his own candle does not lose his light, but increases and multiplies it. To this applies the Arabic proverb cited by me elsewhere: "Acquire gold for yourself with measure, and knowledge without measure," that is to say, pursue riches as much as life requires, but pursue wisdom and virtue without limit. 15. IT IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN ALL RICHES; AND ALL THINGS THAT ARE DESIRED ARE NOT TO BE COMPARED TO IT. — Pagninus and Vatable, it is more precious than gems, and all things which you can desire cannot be equaled or compared to it. For riches the Hebrew is פנינים peninim, which Cajetan, Pagninus, the Zurich Bible and others translate as pearls. Our author in chapter XX, verse 15, translates it as gems; the Syriac, as precious stones, and there is nothing that compares to it; some, as diamonds. Whence the Septuagint, whom St. Augustine follows in Against Adamantius, chapter XIX, adding some things paraphrastically thus translate: "Will any evil resist it? it is well known to all who approach it; but every precious thing is not worthy of it." It signifies that wisdom is so precious that in dignity and price it surpasses all the most precious things, such as gems, diamonds, pearls, which formerly, when their rarity was great and the journey to the Indies was not yet opened, were of the highest price. "Pearls hold the first place and the summit of the price of all things," says Pliny, book IX, chapter XXXV. Alluding to this, Christ, says St. Chrysostom in the Catena, says in Matthew XIII, 45: "The kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man seeking good pearls; who when he had found one precious pearl, went and sold all that he had, and bought it." See thirteen analogies between the pearl and wisdom or virtue, especially heroic and Apostolic virtue, which I have reviewed in Apocalypse XXI, 21: wherefore I shall add nothing more here. Here therefore that saying of Tertullian in the Scorpiaco, cap. IV, is true: "If glass is worth as much as true pearl?" that is, if glassy and painted riches and honors so allure the souls of worldly men that they spend all labors, pains and life for them: how much ought heavenly riches and glory, which wisdom and virtue produce, to stir up the faithful, so that they willingly undertake all labors, and with strong and cheerful spirit endure reproaches, torments and any martyrdoms whatsoever! Secondly, it signifies that wisdom surpasses all that is desirable, and therefore alone fills and satisfies the desire of our heart; because namely wisdom itself was created divine, but uncreated wisdom is God Himself, who alone fills the immense capacity and thirst of our soul; so that "there is fullness of pleasure, when avarice is not stimulated," as Ambrosiaster says in I Cor. I, 12. For God is an immense good, which so fills, satisfies and inebriates the soul, that it can desire or receive nothing further. Whence Nazianzenus in his poem On Beatitude: Blessed is he who buys Christ with all his fortunes. Blessed is he who gave his whole heart to God. Thirdly, it teaches that wisdom and virtue are more precious than all gems and diamonds, which resist iron, hammers and fire, indeed become harder; in like manner solid virtue surpasses all adversities. Whence the Septuagint translates, no evil shall resist him; indeed "virtue grows when agitated by adversities;" it is therefore stronger than diamond. Hear St. Chrysostom, hom. 4 in Genesis: "The grace of God makes us more solid than diamonds, and, if we wish, altogether unconquerable. Thus as he who strikes a diamond harms it not, but tires himself and diminishes his own strength: in this manner our affairs stand with the adversary of our salvation, if we arm ourselves with the weapons which the grace of the Holy Spirit provides for us." Pliny adds, lib. XXXVII, cap. IV, and from him St. Jerome in Amos cap. VII: "Diamond, he says, renders poisons ineffectual, drives away madness, and expels vain fears from the mind, and for this reason some called it Anachites." Wisdom and virtue do this much more. Thirdly, St. Isidore (with whom St. Augustine agrees, XXII De Civit. Dei, cap. IV), lib. XVI Origin. cap. XIII: "Diamond, he says, is so at variance with the lodestone that when placed near it, it does not allow iron to be drawn away by the magnet, or if the magnet has seized it, it snatches and carries it away." Thus the virtue of Martyrs not only despised and mocked the threats, torments and terrors of tyrants, but also desired them and drew them to themselves. Hear St. Ambrose, lib. VII, epist. 53, in which he relates that St. Paul appeared to him and revealed the bodies, as well as the Martyrdom of SS. Gervasius and Protasius: "Astasius, he says, ordered blessed Gervasius (because he had mocked the dumb idols) to be beaten with lead so long as he breathed his last. When he was removed, he ordered Protasius to stand before him. And he said to him: Wretch, either strive to live, and do not die a violent death like your brother Gervasius. To which blessed Protasius answering said: Who is the wretch, I, who do not fear you, or you, who are shown to fear me? Astasius said: I, a wretched man, how do I fear you? Blessed Protasius said: In this you are shown to fear me and to be harmed, if I do not sacrifice to your gods (for the priests of idols had persuaded Astasius that he would not have victory in battle unless he forced Gervasius and Protasius to sacrifice to the angry gods). For if you did not fear to be harmed by me, you would not compel me to the sacrifice of idols. But I, not fearing you, despise your threats, and counting all your idols as dung, adore God alone, who reigns in the heavens, etc. Come then and do what you have begun (in torturing me), so that the kindness of our Savior may meet me with my brother Gervasius today. Then Astasius ordered him to be beheaded." I have said more about the diamond and the virtue of Christ and the Martyrs, which it represents, in Amos VII, 7. The philosophers saw the same thing in shadow. Whence the dogma of the Stoics was, "nothing is to be sought except virtue, nothing to be fled except vice." Antisthenes in Laertius, lib. VI, cap. I, asserts, "virtue is sufficient for him for happiness, and he needs nothing except Socratic strength; virtue is armor which cannot be taken away. For sword and shield are knocked out; but the wise man and one endowed with virtue is never unarmed, and therefore cannot be conquered." Phocion: "Virtue alone, he says, is powerful, all other things are trifles."
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16. LENGTH OF DAYS IN HIS RIGHT HAND, AND IN HIS LEFT HAND RICHES AND GLORY. — The Septuagint: for length of age and years of life in his right hand, etc. The Arabic: because in his right hand is length of age, and in his left hand riches, honor and nobility; the Zurich Bible: at his right hand is life and long duration, etc., which Vatablus explains thus, that is to say, In the power of wisdom is long life, riches and glory. It is a prosopopoeia. For wisdom is here described in poetic and comic fashion as a heavenly virgin, indeed a queen, displaying the rewards of her right and left hand to her students and followers. Now the right hand in Scripture is more worthy and more powerful than the left, just as the right hand in man is more powerful and stronger than the left, and the right parts of an animal are more powerful than the left parts. Whence the motion of animals begins from the right, and therefore porters place burdens on the left: "For since the right hand is able to move, and the left hand is apt to be moved; for that reason burdens ought to be imposed not on the part that moves, but on the part that is moved," says Aristotle, in the book On the Motion of Animals. Hence also athletes and soldiers fight with the right hand, and therefore the right hand is a symbol of defense and protection, although among the pagans some may doubt whether the right or left hand was more powerful. For there was a different custom and practice in this matter among different ages and peoples. For Cyrus among Xenophon, in book VIII of the Paideia, used to place his guests whom he wished to receive in a more honorable place on the left, and called that part more worthy as being nearer to the heart. Bellarmine proves the same thing, book I On the Roman Pontiff, cap. XXVII, from Eusebius, book I On the Life of Constantine, and therefore asserts that St. Paul is painted in ancient images at the right hand of St. Peter, not as if he were more worthy than him, but as his attendant and satellite, that is, so that he might defend him with his sword: for he who is at the right hand of someone is as it were at his side and his shield-bearer. Thus Nebrissensis in the Quinquagena cap. XXXIX. See more in Bellarmine, Baronius, Lipsius, etc. But among the Jews the right hand was more powerful and more honorable than the left. For in Scripture good things and good people are placed on the right, evil things and evil people on the left, as is evident in the elect and the reprobate, Matt. XXV, 33. Solomon delights in the use and comparison of the right hand with the left, as appears cap. IV, vers. 27: "The Lord knoweth the ways that are on the right; but those that are on the left are perverse." And cap. XXVII, 16: "He shall call the oil of his right hand." And Eccli. X, 2: "The heart of the wise man is in his right hand, and the heart of a fool in his left hand." And Cant. II, 6: "His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me." Therefore he places length of days in the right hand of wisdom, because in man nothing is better than life and the preservation and continuation of life. For life is the basis and foundation of riches, glory, and all other honors. Hence although eternity in inanimate things, such as the heavens and elements, is merely essential eternity; in animate things, however, such as in Angels and men, it is perpetual life and everlastingness. Whence Isidore of Pelusium, book III, epistle 149: "αἰδιότης, that is to say, or αἰωνιότης, that is, eternity, is as it were everlastingness, or eternal-lastingness, that is, the continuation of eternal life, and from this properly dear to God alone, as he who alone, being without beginning, has lived from eternity and will live into eternity," he asserts to be fitting. Furthermore, Antonius Nebrissensis in the Quinquagena cap. XVI, citing this place of Solomon: Although, he says, by length of days is understood the pleasant possession of unending life, it nevertheless refers to that which, when one reached the hundredth year of life, he began to count on the right hand, having numbered the higher numbers on the left: as concerning Nestor, who among Ovid said: Scarcely two hundred years, now the third age is being lived. Juvenal says: Happy indeed he who through so many ages has put off death, and now his right hand counts his years. And St. Jerome, book I Against Jovinian: "The number one hundred, he says, is transferred from the left to the right." Nebrissensis explains the method of counting of the ancients by the fingers of the right and left hand in that same place. To this pertains what Pliny writes, book XXXIV, chapter VII: "Janus the twin, dedicated by King Numa, who is worshipped as the symbol of peace and war, with fingers thus figured, so that the mark of CCCLXV days, through the signification of the year, time and age, he indicated himself to be a god." For Janus is the sun, whose annual course is completed by so many days. It is added that in the right hand there is religious significance. Whence Pliny, book XI, chapter XLV: "There is, he says, religious significance also in other parts; just as the right hand is sought with kisses turned away, it is extended in pledge." For through the right hand given, faith is given and sanctioned: wherefore it extended denotes salvation. Hence when Marius was raging against the Romans, whom he wished to save, with his right hand raised and extended he indicated this, as witness Plutarch and Appian in his Life. The right is also said to be what is most dear, as in Genesis XXXV, 18, Benjamin is called the son of the right hand, because he was in delight to his father Jacob. Finally, that male fetuses are generated in the right parts, females in the left, Pliny teaches, book VII, chapter IV, Hippocrates, Aphorisms V, chapter XLVII, and Galen, book XIV On the Use of Parts. According to the literal sense therefore wisdom shows in the right hand and promises to her disciples longevity: because God had promised to the Jews (to whom, as being his fellow-citizens in a popular sense, Solomon writes these things first and most nearly) through Moses, Leviticus XXVI and elsewhere, a long and happy life in this age, if they kept his precepts, that is, of wisdom, and then riches and glory, namely abundance of wine, oil, grain, victory over enemies, etc. Moreover through these temporal goods are symbolically signified eternal ones. For life is the basis and foundation of riches, glory, and all other honors. The same goods promised to the Jews, wisdom promises similar spiritual ones to Christians, equally as to Jews: who fulfilled the law not in a Jewish and carnal sense, but in a spiritual and Christian sense of the spirit of charity, such as were Moses and the Prophets, and other Saints of the Old Testament. Wherefore wisdom here promises to Christians a long life, that is, eternal, in which our blessedness consists; similarly spiritual glory and riches, which are virtues, grace and the gifts of heavenly glory. Wisdom therefore confers these gifts promised by her more to Christians than to Jews. For she confers on Christians eternal life, says Jansenius, which here begins in the spirit, and is perfected in the future life. She confers also true riches and true glory, because she fills the soul with many charisms of grace, and makes them sons of God, and creates them kings and priests, and in the future life provides abundance of all good and eternal glory. To this pertains that saying of Cato: "Honor and glory is the master of arts." For honor nourishes the arts. Symbolically, many understand by length of days eternal beatitude, and by riches and glory the abundance and happiness of temporal goods; as if to say, Wisdom confers goods both spiritual and eternal, and also corporeal and temporal; but spiritual goods in the right hand, that is, by itself and primarily, temporal goods however in the left hand, that is, concomitantly and accessorily. For these are rightly represented by the right hand, because they are advantageous and happy for all; but these by the left hand, because they are left-handed and unhappy for many, as they were even for Solomon himself. Whence Rabbi Levi and Lyra understand by right hand and left hand the primary and secondary intention; as if to say, Wisdom and God promise and confer to their worshippers primarily spiritual and eternal goods; secondarily however, as it were in the manner of an addition, He adds riches and glory, according to that saying of Christ: "Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you," Matt. vi, 33. For eternal things are faithful and certain (for the right hand is the symbol of faithfulness, says Rhodiginus, lib. IV Antiq. cap. III. Whence in covenants, by which one binds his faith to another, he mingles his right hand with that other's right hand); temporal things however are faithless, unstable and deceitful, because they often abandon man. Thus also St. Gregory in Psal. v Penitent.: "It is established," he says, "that by the multitude of days eternal life is understood: by the fewness however of the course of this age it is designated; for it is written: Length of days in his right hand. For what is designated by the right hand, except perpetual life? Because therefore the rest of the Saints is closed by no limit, rightly in the right hand of God the length of days is said to be." The same, III part. Pastor. cap. xxvii, citing that passage from Cant. II, His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me: "God's left hand," he says, "namely the prosperity of present life, he has placed as it were under the head, which he presses with the intention of supreme love: but God's right hand embraces it, because under his eternal beatitude it is held with all devotion. Hence again through Solomon it is said: Length of days in his right hand, and in his left hand riches and glory. How therefore riches and glory ought to be held, he taught, which he mentioned as placed in the left hand." Thus also St. Ambrose in Psal. CXVIII, octon. 14, to that passage: My soul is in thy hands always, citing this place: "Both hands," he says, "are endowed with good gifts. In this however they have a variety of their office, in that they comprehend both present and future times, so that the left hand is the rewarder of present things, the right hand of future things." But far more excellently St. Augustine in Psal. CXX: "The Bride," he says, "speaks of the Bridegroom, the Church of Christ in the embrace of piety and chastity. What does she say? His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me. But why, since the right hand was above, the left hand below; and thus the bridegroom embraced the bride, placing the left hand for consolation, imposing the right hand for protection? His left hand, he says, under my head. God gives it to her, therefore it is his left hand, because God gives all these temporal things." And shortly after: "Therefore if it is the left hand, let it be the left hand, but let it be under the head. Let your head be above it, that is, let your faith be above it where Christ dwells. Do not prefer temporal things to your faith, and the left hand will not be above your head; but subject all temporal things to your faith, and prefer your faith to all temporal things, and the left hand will be under your head, and rightly his right hand will embrace you. Hear this same thing explained in Proverbs, what is that left hand itself, what is the right hand, when it spoke of wisdom: Length, he says, of days and the years of your life in his right hand, and in his left hand riches and glory. That length of days is eternity. For Scripture properly calls long that which is eternal. For whatever has an end is short. In another place: By length, he says, of days I will fill him. And soon after: But long life is placed for that eternity. Long life is in his right hand. But truly riches and glory, that is, the sufficiency of this life, those things which are esteemed as good by men, that is the left hand. I know not who comes, and wishes to strike your right hand, that is, to take away your faith from you. You have received a blow on the right hand, offer the left hand, that is, so that he may take away that which is temporal, and not those things which you have eternal. Hear the Apostle Paul doing this. Men were persecuting him because he was a Christian; the right hand is struck for him, he opposed the left hand: I am a Roman citizen, he says. They despised the right hand, and he terrified them from the left hand, because they could not fear his right hand: for they had not yet believed in Christ." Finally, the Alchemists, from the fact that riches are here said to be on the left hand of wisdom, conclude that wisdom discovered alchemy, that is, the art of making gold or silver from brass or another metal by the power of the philosopher's stone, and thus that Solomon was the author of this art. But these things are frivolous and trifles. See Pinedan, lib. IV On the Affairs of Solomon, cap. xxi, n. 1 et seq. Better does Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks: "By the right hand of wisdom, he says, the virtue and energy of perfect men is signified; by the left hand, the abundance of good things of this life. By the right hand, knowledge of divine things from which the life of immortality arises; by the left hand, knowledge of human things, from which glory and abundance of riches are born." Otherwise R. Solomon Isacides, that is to say, Those who walk rightly in wisdom and duly perform their labors, these will obtain length of life, and together with it riches and glory. But those who walk by the left path, although they undertake labors, will not yet attain to the same name and dignity, nevertheless they will bring back from the same riches and glory. Furthermore, the causes why wisdom and virtue prolong life are five. The first, because wisdom wisely provides for both advantages and disadvantages to health and life; it avoids disadvantages and brings about advantages. The second, because wisdom moderates anger and sadness and other passions of the soul, which are accustomed to consume strength, spirits and life, and makes a man peaceful, joyful, cheerful, and therefore long-lived: for "a joyful mind makes a flourishing age, a sad spirit dries up the bones." The third, because wisdom teaches prudence and temperance in food and drink, which is the mother of health and longevity. Hence we read in the Lives of the Fathers that St. Paul, St. Anthony, St. Macarius, St. Romuald, etc. lived, indeed surpassed, one hundred years. Thus even now in monasteries we see nuns, as being free from cares, sober, content, cheerful, living ninety or one hundred years. The fourth, because virtue is nothing other than honesty and rectitude of life, which deserves and effects length of life: for it is just that he who lives life rightly should obtain a long and long-lived lot. The fifth, because it is the law of God: "Honor thy father and thy mother, etc., that thou mayest live a long time," Deut. v, 16; for it is a fitting reward that life be preserved for him who knows and honors the author of life: but God and wisdom is the author and father of our life. Wherefore if we honor it and obey it, it itself will preserve and prolong the life which it gave. Furthermore, the Septuagint here subjoins another sentence, which is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldean, nor in the Latin, namely this: "From his mouth proceeds justice, and he carries law and mercy on his tongue." On which words Olympiodorus in the Catena of the Greeks: "Before, he says, the years of life, the Wise man likewise made mention of the right and left hand of wisdom; here, however, he makes mention of the same tongue and mouth, and thus describes the image of the whole body, and the whole structure and symmetry of it, and by a certain prosopopoeia sets it before our eyes." The sense therefore is, that is to say, Wisdom brings forth from the mouth, teaches and commands those things which are just and holy, namely those which are conformable to the eternal law of God and to mercy and piety. Thus St. Augustine, lib. Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, cap. XI: "He (God), he says, commanded us to bear injuries with equanimity and to forgive, etc. And this is because it is said of the wisdom of God that it carries law and mercy on its tongue. Nor would we knowingly forgive debts owed to our debtors, unless by the law itself we discerned those debts." Secondly, the same St. Augustine, lib. On Grace and Free Will, cap. XVIII, tom. VII: "When it is said, he says, Let us love one another, it is law; when it is said, Because love is from God, it is grace. For the wisdom of God carries law and mercy on its tongue. Whence it is written in Ps. LXXXIII: For he will give a blessing, who gave the law, that is to say, Wisdom brings forth and establishes the law from the mouth, but from the same mouth promises mercy, that is grace, by which you may fulfill the law, according to that of St. Leo: "He justly presses the precept, who prevents it with help." Thirdly, our Salazar expounds it, that is to say, Wisdom mitigates the harshness of the precept with the sweetness of the reward. For from the same mouth by which it bears the precept, it also brings mercy, that is, a liberal and munificent reward, which sweetens the gravity of the precept. Finally, St. Gregory of Nyssa notes that wisdom is introduced here by prosopopoeia as it were a royal bride, who commends herself to the marriage bed by every ornament; for he says: "In her left hand are riches and glory. Then also concerning her mouth he speaks of its fragrance, breathing forth the good odor of justice, saying: Out of her mouth proceedeth justice. And in her lips, in place of natural redness, he says the law flourishes and mercy. And that the beauty of this bride may be found perfect in every respect, her gait also is praised. For he says: She walketh in the ways of justice. Nor is the magnitude lacking from the praises of her beauty, since her increase has run forth like some plant well sprouting. But that you may understand to what plant her height is likened: She herself, he says, is the tree of life, which is indeed nourishment to those who lay hold of her, but to those who lean upon her, a firm and stable column, and one which cannot be shaken. By both, however, I understand the Lord: for he himself is life and support and firmament. Thus the context of the discourse runs. She is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her. But with her other praises, power also is comprehended, so that through all goods the praise of the beauty of wisdom may be fulfilled. For God, he says: Wisdom hath founded the earth." And a little below: "After this, then, he begins as it were a paranymph to lead the young man to such a cohabitation, to the divine bridal chamber, now bidding him to gaze upon it. For he says: Forsake her not, and she shall keep thee; love her, and she shall preserve thee; compass her about, and she shall exalt thee on high; honor her, that she may embrace thee, that she may give to thy head a crown of grace: and a crown of delights shall protect thee. When he had adorned her with these nuptial crowns as it were a bride, he commands never to be separated from her, saying: When thou walkest, lead her, and she shall be with thee; when thou sleepest, let her keep thee, that when thou awakest she may talk with thee." Composed, so that all may be rapt in admiration of her (since on the contrary the practices of vices are foul, infamous, hateful, execrable), and at the same time to bring peace, that is serenity and joy of conscience: for this consists in the victory of passions, which virtue brings forth. Likewise to bring peace with God, and indeed with men, insofar as it is within the power of virtue. For this gives to each his due, nay, and exhibits charity, which is the mother of peace. Finally, to bring peace, that is all prosperity and all good. But just as peace must often be procured among the dissident by strife or war: so also virtue, because it is at odds with concupiscence, must by constant struggle and war with it procure for itself victory and peace; which being done, he says with the Psalmist, Psalm IV: "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and rest." In God indeed and in Christ, who is our peace, it sleeps and rests secure and joyful. Whence Bede, who received all these things concerning Wisdom incarnate, namely concerning Christ: "The ways, he says, that is the actions of Christ and the doctrines which are contained in the Gospels, are beautiful, because they are divine, and far exceed the manner of a mere man, and all his commandments lead to eternal peace: all things which he did in the flesh pertain to reconciling mortals to God, to making peace between mankind and the Angels, to demonstrating to his servants examples of peace and love to be kept toward one another." The author of the Catena of the Greeks adds that the ways of Christ are peaceful, "because he himself forbade us to strike back when struck, or to resist injury sought, or to recriminate when unjustly accused, or to hold in derision in turn those who held us in derision." To this saying of Solomon pertains that of St. Laurence Justinian: "Those things are to be avoided which are hindered by many obstacles, because the works of the Holy Spirit are easy and equable, but those of the devil are rough and full of thorns." Thus it is in his Life, cap. IX.
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17. HER WAYS ARE BEAUTIFUL WAYS, AND ALL HER PATHS ARE PEACEFUL. — That is to say, the ways by which wisdom proceeds and leads, which it sets before us to be trodden and followed, are elegant, and bring peace and prosperity to all things, according to that passage in the Song of Songs VII, 1: "How beautiful are thy steps in shoes, O daughter of the prince!" For beautiful in Hebrew is נעם noam, that is, beauty, comeliness, grace, elegance, as if to say, the ways of wisdom and virtue are ways of beauty, comeliness and grace... For virtue is true beauty, that is, true comeliness, true grace of the soul and of actions, and of the whole man. Whence St. Augustine, standing at the crossroads of virtue and vice, when on the one hand the enticements of lust were drawing him to themselves, on the other hand the beauty of chastity, overcome by that beauty, he cast off all lusts: "For there was opening itself, he says, on that side toward which I had turned my face, and whither I trembled to pass, the chaste dignity of continence, serene and not dissolutely cheerful, honestly alluring me to come and not to doubt, and extending to me to receive and embrace her pious hands, full of multitudes of good examples. There were so many boys and girls, there was much youth, and every age, and grave widows, and aged virgins: and in all of them continence herself, not barren, but a fruitful mother of children of joy from her husband thee, O Lord. And she mocked me with a mocking exhortation, as if saying: Canst thou not do what these men and these women do? Or do these men and women truly do it in themselves, and not in the Lord their God? The Lord their God gave me to them. Why dost thou stand, and not stand? Cast thyself upon him, fear not; he will not withdraw himself that thou shouldest fall. Cast thyself upon him, he will receive thee safely, and will save thee." Thus St. Augustine, book VIII of the Confessions, chapter XI. Moreover, the Hebrew texts word for word have thus: and all his ways are ways of beauty, and all his paths are peace, that is, full of peace, so that they themselves can be called peace; the Septuagint, his ways are good ways, and all his paths are in peace; the Syriac and Chaldean, his ways are ways of sweetness, and all his journeys are peaceful; Vatablus, his ways are pleasant ways; Pagninus, delightful; Aben-Ezra, which fill one walking in them with pleasure, and all his paths are peaceful; the Arabic version, from his mouth proceeds justice, and upon his tongue he carries law and mercy, his ways are ways of goodness, and his course is in peace. For way, the Septuagint renders ἄξος, which first signifies the axes of chariots; second, tablets on which laws with their penalties and rewards are described; third, tablets on which the names of soldiers are inscribed; fourth, ways and paths. All of which can rightly be adapted to wisdom. But in this place ἄξος clearly signifies nothing but ways and paths from the Hebrew נתיבות netibot, which all without exception render as ways or paths. The sense therefore is, that the ways of wisdom or virtue, that is, the modes and methods of acting, are beautiful and elegant, and therefore becoming
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18. THE TREE OF LIFE IS TO THOSE WHO LAY HOLD UPON IT: AND HE THAT SHALL HOLD IT, SHALL BE BLESSED. — The Septuagint: the tree of life is to all who embrace it; St. Augustine in Psalm XXXII, to all who possess it; St. Jerome in Isaiah LXV, to all who come to it; the same in Ezekiel XLVII, to all who believe in it. It could also be properly translated, to all who strengthen it, that is, to all who embrace it firmly and robustly and guard it, propagate and defend it. The Arabic: it itself is the tree of life, guarding all who are protected by it, and who lean upon it, as those who lean upon the Lord. It is a catachresis, that is to say, Wisdom brings to its students an immortal and most sweet life, as the fruit of the tree of life did in paradise, indeed far more than that. Whence our Pineda in Ecclesiastes cap. II, vers. 5, num. 9, thus expounds it, that is to say, Adam was not blessed because he was able to eat of the tree of life, whose fruit cost nothing of the labor of his hands: but blessed is the man who by labor and effort of his hands has so laid hold upon holiness and the honest labor of virtue, that holiness appears to take root in his hands and labors, from which it may sprout forth like a tree of life, whose fruit is blessedness. By an elegant metaphor he compares wisdom to the tree of life, that is to say, He who holds wisdom, that is, virtue, so firmly, that in his hands it appears to have taken root, and can no more easily be torn from them than an ancient tree from the earth in which it has struck the deepest roots: it becomes indeed in his hands the tree of life, that is, a tree which bears vital fruit, similar to that which grew in paradise, and thus he shall eat the fruit of his hands. For as paradise tropologically signified a holy soul, flourishing perpetually in joy and in the flower and fruit of virtues: so the tree of life represented wisdom, or virtue in general; and the four rivers, which flowed forth from the midst of paradise beside it, represented the four cardinal virtues, namely the Ganges prudence, the Nile temperance, the Tigris fortitude, the Euphrates justice. Thus St. Ambrose, lib. De Paradiso, cap. I, St. Augustine, XIII De Civit. XXI, Origen in Genesis II, Philo, lib. De Allegoriis. See the passages Genesis II, 8 and 9. Wisdom therefore is called the tree of life, or as you might translate from the Hebrew, of lives: First, because it procures, preserves, and prolongs both the natural life of the soul and the supernatural life of grace. Second, because as the tree of life restored the vigor of life, namely the radical moisture and natural heat failing through the defect of old age, and restored it to its former integrity: so likewise wisdom or virtue restores the powers of the soul and of grace, worn away and growing old through the vice of concupiscence, to their former vigor, indeed strengthens and increases them. Thus Cajetan according to that passage of Isaiah LXV, 22: "According to the days of the tree shall be the days of my people, and the works of their hands shall grow old." For it looks back to what he said in verse 16: "Length of days in his right hand." Whence St. Jerome citing this passage of Isaiah LXV: "The just, he says, shall flourish like the palm tree daily, triumphing over adversaries, and bearing the ensign of victory." Third, as the fruit of the tree of life was most sweet and was as it were nectar and ambrosia to innocent and holy man, already beginning his felicity: so likewise is wisdom and virtue, according to that passage Psalm XXXV: "They shall be inebriated with the plenty of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures." Thus Jansenius. Fourth, as the tree of life preserved man from death, and caused man to be transferred alive from this life to the heavenly and blessed life: so also wisdom transfers man from the life of grace to the life of glory, says Lyra. Fifth and chiefly, the tree of life in paradise represented the vision of God, in which the Saints enjoy in heaven, and are thereby made immortal and blessed throughout all eternity: for they attain this by the merit of wisdom and virtue; thus St. Jerome in Ezekiel XLVII, St. Augustine in Psalm XXXII, and others. And that this is so is evident from Revelation II, 7: "To him that overcometh, I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God." And cap. XXII, vers. 1: "And he shewed me a river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and on both sides of the river was the tree of life." See what I have noted in both places. Solomon therefore signifies that the use and eating of the tree of life, lost through the sin of Adam, is restored through wisdom, and consequently immortality is restored, which this tree brought. Thus St. Jerome in Isaiah LXV. To this pertains that common saying, says Aben-Ezra: "From wisdom, a man, who is a certain small world, life is brought." Allegorically St. Jerome in Isaiah chapter LXV understands by "the tree of life" Christ, who in the midst of paradise, that is the Church, as a life-giving tree, bestowing life upon all who believe in Him, is set up. Thus also St. Gregory, book XII of the Morals IV, St. Augustine, book I Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets chapter XV, and Bede, whom hear: Just as the tree of life gave life to Adam, "so through the wisdom of God, that is Christ," he says, "the Church is given life: and now through His Sacraments and blood she receives a pledge of life, and in the future is made blessed by His present sight." The tree of life therefore among other things represented the Eucharist, which preserves the life of grace, and by whose power we rise again to immortal life, as Christ teaches, John VI, 55. Thus also Dionysius: "Christ," he says, "is called the tree of life, because with manifold nourishment He refreshes and sustains the faithful, until they are elevated from the life of grace to the life of glory, namely by the bread of tears, by the vigor of good works, by the gifts of grace, by the consolation of virtues, and by hope of future things, indeed by Himself, and by the Sacrament of His body and blood." Furthermore Polychronius in the Catena of the Greeks understands by "the tree of life" the cross, on which Christ as a fruit hung upon a tree, that He might nourish and feed us with His redemption, blood and grace, and restore us to immortality. "By the tree of life," he says, "he denotes the cross: for whoever sincerely and firmly adheres to Christ, from that tree flows for him incorruptible life. But those who join themselves to its base, for them a foundation is laid, most strong, upon which they may stand immovably. For they are compared almost in the same way as those who have fixed their foot on solid ground. Wisdom is a tree of life to all who eagerly pursue it; but to the pious it is a firm bulwark, who securely lean upon it. For it also rests in God, and upon her beloved, languishing with love, sweetly reclines." AND HE THAT SHALL HOLD HER, IS BLESSED,—namely, he who shall steadfastly hold her, weighing even her least admonitions with anxious care, says R. Levi, and observing her, and whosoever shall persevere firmly in her even unto the end of life, he is truly blessed, because immediately after death he shall be endowed with eternal beatitude. In Hebrew it is תמכיה tomchea, that is, those sustaining her; for תמך tamach means to sustain from above, lest anything fall or perish: for virtue, because it is situated in what is high and difficult, must be sustained upward by assiduous labour and effort, lest from frailty and concupiscence it fall downward to sensible and carnal pleasures and flow away. Whence the Chaldean renders it, those who traffic or are occupied in her; St. Augustine, those possessing her; St. Jerome, those who recline upon her, not as upon a soft and delicate bed, but as upon a strong column and unbreakable support (for this is what the Hebrew תמך tamach signifies: and such was the tree of life); and elsewhere, those believing in her; Pagninus, those who support her, so that in turn they are supported and sustained by her; the Septuagint, those who lean upon her as upon the Lord securely, that is to say, Wisdom is to those who lean upon and rest upon her ἀσφαλής, that is, safe, trustworthy, secure, just as if they themselves leaned upon and rested upon the Lord himself, as they truly do lean upon and rest upon him. For Wisdom brings God, nay, Wisdom is the inseparable companion, associate and daughter of God: for in Hebrew מאשר meusschar signifies both the secure and the blessed; for the root אשר isscher in the piel form signifies both to walk straight, to make one's steps firm, that is, to walk securely, and to bless and make blessed. Whence St. Hilary in Psalm I, omitting the word secure, thus reads clearly, the tree of life is to all who embrace her, and who lean upon her as upon the Lord. St. Jerome, however, in Isaiah LXV, reads, and those who lean upon her, as upon the Lord firmness: supply, shall be, or shall accrue to them. And St. Augustine in Psalm XXXII, from this place teaches that God is to us a secure possession: "Let the soul say, he says, altogether secure, let it say: Thou art my God, who says to our soul: I am thy salvation. Let it say securely, let it say: He will not do injury, when it shall have said this; nay, he will do so, if it does not say this. Thou didst wish to have trees, by which thou mightest be blessed. Hear Scripture saying of wisdom: It is a tree of life to all that hold her; behold Scripture has said that our possession is wisdom; but lest thou think that wisdom itself, because Scripture has called it thy possession, is something inferior to thee, it follows and adds: and they that lean upon her as upon a sure house. Behold thy Lord is to thee as a staff; a secure man leans, because he will not give way. Say therefore securely: It is thy possession; to those possessing her Scripture has said: It hath filled confidence, it hath removed doubt. Say securely, love securely, hope securely. Let those words also be thine in the psalm: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Therefore whence shall we be blessed? By possessing God." Moreover the Author of the Greek Catena thus reads, the tree of life is to all who cleave to him, and who firmly lean upon him as upon the Lord himself; which Didymus explaining says: "If the wisdom of God, he says, is the tree of life, Adam was not unjustly commanded to abstain from it. For wisdom shall not enter into a malevolent soul. But since the tree of life arises from the fruits of justice, finding nothing to which to compare him who pants after that tree of life, transferring the prayer into itself, it says: Thus is he constituted who trusts in me, as if he cast his hope upon the Lord himself." Finally, Sirach, imitating Solomon in his usual manner, in chapter XV, verse 3, says: "She shall feed him, he says, (wisdom feeds her disciple) with the bread of wisdom and understanding (as with the tree of life), and shall give him the water of wholesome wisdom to drink; and he shall be made strong in her, and shall not be moved: and she shall hold him fast, and he shall not be confounded." Which words I have expounded there.
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19. THE LORD BY WISDOM HATH FOUNDED (Syriac, laid the foundations of) THE EARTH, BY PRUDENCE HE HATH ESTABLISHED (Syriac, ordered) THE HEAVENS. — For the earth in the middle of the world, without any support, hangs suspended, and stands firm and immovable, leaning on nothing except God and God's wisdom, which has thus founded it, and keeps it founded, as I have said on Genesis I, 1. Similarly, the heavens, and their mass, number, orders, motions, light, stars, etc., in this empty and previously vacant space, He has so established that they subsist perpetually in the same manner; He Himself therefore, as it were Atlas, sustains and strengthens them. The Septuagint for "established" render ἡτοίμασεν, that is, "suddenly prepared, or produced without labour," says the Author of the Greek Catena. For the Hebrew כונן conen, that is to prepare, is the same as to create, to make, to strengthen, to establish. This is what the Psalmist says: "For He hath established (in Hebrew con, or conen) the world, which shall not be moved," Psalm XCII, 1. For He founded the earth as the centre of the world, the base and support, and this Job marvels at in chapter XXXVIII, verse 4: "Where wast thou, he says, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who hath laid the measures thereof? or who hath stretched the line upon it? upon what are its bases grounded?" He says this to show how great is the sublimity of wisdom, namely that which God has used and uses in the greatest works, such as in the creation and governance of the whole universe. By wisdom understand both the essential, which is common to the whole Holy Trinity, and the notional or personal, which is the Word or Son of God. Whence Didymus in the Greek Catena: "And these things also, he says, are fittingly applied to the Son of God the Father, so that He who is that true and eternal knowledge and wisdom, through whom all things were made. He founded the earth. Indeed, the soul of each faithful person can also be called earth, inasmuch as it is born to bring forth a hundredfold fruit. For this is that which becomes wise from the richness of divine wisdom, God the Father founding and establishing it in her." What therefore R. Solomon and the modern Rabbis understand by wisdom the law of Moses, and assert that all things were created through it, is insipid and fabulous. 20. BY HIS WISDOM THE DEPTHS ARE BROKEN UP, AND THE CLOUDS GROW THICK WITH DEW. — Hebrew, flow, or drip dew, that is rain; or from dew they drip, supply rain: for clouds grow thick and are condensed, while they are resolved into dew and rain, and this is done by the wisdom of God, so that namely by rain plants, seeds and animals are nourished. The Hebrew thus have it word for word, his knowledge (the Septuagint, in sense) the depths are split or broken (Vatablus, gape open), The depths and clouds drip with dew. Thus also the Syriac. By abyss, first, can be understood the abyss, that is that immense chasm of waters created at the beginning of the world, from which other things were afterwards formed, Genesis I, 2. Second, the abysses are fountains and rivers, which under the earth and from the earth by God's wisdom burst forth in various places, say Vatablus, Lyra, Jansenius and others. Third, properly the abysses and the cataracts of heaven were broken open in the flood, when they poured down upon the earth water, which covered the whole earth in the time of Noah, Genesis VII, 11. Thus Bede and Cajetan. The second exposition seems most genuine: for he compares the abysses, that is fountains, with the clouds and dew as it were stable and perennial things; but fountains and rivers are said to be split or divided and cut through, both because by cutting through they divide the dry earth as it were, and because they burst forth in diverse and as it were cut-through places. You will ask, how are these connected with the preceding? For what does physical wisdom, which created the earth and the heavens, have to do with ethics, which is the subject of this chapter and the whole book? I answer: There are various reasons why Solomon joins this to that: First, because he in this chapter, as also in chapter VIII, and Sirach following him in Ecclesiasticus chapter XXIV, and chapters XLII and XLIII, praises wisdom generically or in general, inasmuch as it embraces both created and uncreated, both physical and ethical. Secondly, that in God both are one thing; indeed one is so connected with the other that one in turn requires the other, and is as it were the origin of the other. For since God has most wise providence and physical omnipotence, by which He created the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them; hence He likewise has most wise providence and ethical omnipotence, by which He governs rational creatures, which are in heaven and earth, as it were His parts and members, namely Angels and men, ethically, and teaches them to live rightly and holily, proposing to those doing this great rewards, and to those not doing it punishments. Conversely, God and God's wisdom and holiness, by which He governs rationals, and which He communicates and inspires to men and Angels, demands omnipotence to create the earth, in which men dwell as it were in a place of struggle and combat, and the heavens as it were the place of Angels, and as it were the reward of the right struggle of holy men, so that namely He may bestow heaven upon them and make them blessed. Thirdly, because God in the creation of the universe showed not only physical wisdom, but also ethical. For God, as the Psalmist says, "is holy in all His works." Namely among other things God in the creation of heaven, earth, etc., showed His goodness, by which He deigned to communicate Himself and His goods to creatures, especially to man and angel, for whom and for whose use He created all things. Wherefore St. Jerome in Ezechiel I: "Each thing," he says, "shines forth the knowledge of God," and consequently the reverence, worship and love of God. For the world, and its creation, conservation and governance is a work of divinity and proper to God: wherefore in it the divinity shines forth clearly and consequently God's majesty, wisdom, holiness, etc.; for divinity includes all these things in itself. Wherefore "He established the heavens with prudence," because it was great prudence of God to create such, so many and so great heavens and to set them before men and Angels to behold, so that from their appearance they might know, worship and love God's majesty, wisdom and holiness, in which in truth their wisdom, virtue and holiness consists. Fourthly and properly, these pertain to length of days, riches, peace, firmness, glory, etc., which a little before He said wisdom brings to those who study it. And it is an argument from the greater to the lesser, as if to say: Do not wonder that I said wisdom provides all these things; for it has provided and provides much greater things, while it created and still creates, that is conserves, the heavens, earth and all things that are in them; if indeed it can do these, which are far greater, surely it will also be able to do those which are lesser. Our Salazar adds that these things are said to teach that wisdom is not inert and idle, but operative and busy, and therefore men ought to labor assiduously in the exercise of wisdom and virtues, just as God and God's wisdom labor assiduously, while it conserves, moves, governs the heavens and earth, and all things that are in them. Mystically Dionysius: The heavens, he says, represent the Church triumphant, the earth the militant, clouds the Prophets and Apostles, their dew the doctrine and grace, by which they watered and made fruitful the minds of men, so that they might teach them wisdom and virtue. Thus also Bede in a similar way. Hence just as the earth depends on heaven, so the Church militant depends on the triumphant, inasmuch as from it it receives clouds and dew, that is apostolic men, doctrine and grace. Again the author of the Catena of the Greeks: Clouds, he says, signify the inexhaustible profundity of God's judgments.
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21. MY SON, LET NOT THESE THINGS DEPART FROM THY EYES: KEEP THE LAW AND COUNSEL. — Understand eyes not so much of the body as of the mind, that is to say: Beware lest these precepts and admonitions of mine slip away from thy mind and memory through the occurrence of other things and images; but omitting all others, and as it were forgetful of them, attend to these alone, let these alone continually be present to thy mind and memory, that thou mayest fulfill them in deed, and thus live wisely and holily, that thou mayest attain eternal happiness. He alludes to schoolboys, who on account of the more fluid brain and the mobility of their age, just as they easily learn something, so easily let it slip away when other images occur and forget it, whereas old men who have a drier brain retain constantly what they have once learned; wherefore teachers continually admonish boys to preserve in mind what they hear. Fittingly St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 19: "What," says he, "we see happen in tranquil waters, that when a small stone cast makes a center, one circle is raised upon another, and continually agitated on the surface always dissolves at the extremity: this plainly happens to me here also; for one thing comes to mind, another supervenes, another withdraws itself; and I labor in the choice, while that which I first seized gives place to that which afterwards flows into my soul, and flows away." The Seventy translate, my son, let not παραῤῥυῇς, that is, thou efflue or diffluest; to which alluding St. Paul, Hebrews chapter II, 1: "Therefore," says he, "we ought more abundantly to observe those things which we have heard, lest perhaps παραῤῥυῶμεν, that is, we pereffluate, or supereffluate." Where I have expounded this passage at length: wherefore I shall not repeat those things here. Keep the law and counsel. — In Hebrew, keep my essence and my thought. Law is called essence, or subsistence, both because it is eternal and always subsists; and because it makes its observers eternal, immortal and blessed; and finally because the good of law and virtue is solid and stable, all other things being perishable and evanescent, unless they serve law and virtue. See what is said chapter II, verse 7. Whence the Seventy translate, keep my counsel and judgment; the Zurich Bible, observe essence and foresight, that is, as Vatablus says, sound doctrine and prudence. To this pertains that saying of Isocrates in Maximus, sermon 17 On Education: "The words which it was permitted to hear from the wise ought to be guarded more carefully than deposits of money." 22. AND IT SHALL BE LIFE TO THY SOUL, AND GRACE TO THY MOUTH. — Life, namely of grace and glory. Whence from the Hebrew thou mayest translate life in the plural; for חיים chaiim in this signification is only plural in Hebrew, and therefore signifies both life and lives; namely wisdom is the tree of life, or vital tree, as I said verse 18. The Seventy: that thy soul may live, and grace be about thy neck; the Syriac: let charity or piety be to thy neck; Pagninus: and they shall be (my precepts) life to thy soul, and grace to thy throat, that is to say: If thou observe these precepts of mine, thou shalt obtain the life of grace in this age, and of glory in the future, according to that of Baruch IV, 1: "This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that is for ever; all they that keep it shall come to life; but they that have forsaken it shall go into death." Moreover these precepts of mine shall be grace to thy mouth, that is, they shall procure for thee the grace of God and men, and shall adorn thee, as a golden torque is wont to adorn the mouth and neck, according to that chapter I, verse 9: "That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck;" which the Seventy here repeat. See what is said there. Secondly, Bede, that is to say: These precepts shall give thee taste and savor of divine things (for taste is in the mouth) that thou mayest say with the Psalmist: "How sweet are thy words to my palate!" and: "Taste and see that the Lord is sweet." Thirdly, Basil in the Catena of the Greeks, and Dionysius, that is to say: The virtue of temperance shall be given to thy taste for eating moderately; for wisdom, or prudence, teaches and confers this. Fourthly, Lyra, Cajetan and Hugh, that is to say: Grace shall be given thee for speaking, teaching, preaching, persuading, so that namely from thy mouth, that is, from the deepest sense of thy breast, thou mayest utter burning and efficacious words, by which thou mayest pour forth into others the wisdom and virtue with which thou art full. Our Salazar thinks Solomon alludes to the sapphire, in which the Hebrews relate that the law of Moses given by God was inscribed, as testified by Lyra and Abulensis, Exodus chapter XXIV, 12; and Suidas in the word Moses, St. Epiphanius, book On the Twelve Gems, and Anastasius of Nicaea, Question XXXVIII on Holy Scripture. For sapphire was wont to hang from the neck of boys, both for ornament and to ward off the evil eye, says Pliny, book XXXVII, chapter IX, that is to say: The law once inscribed on sapphire shall adorn thy neck more and procure for thee the grace of God and men, and shall ward off all fascination of the flesh and the world, than that gemmed sapphire of thine, with which thou art accustomed to encircle thy neck according to custom. Add that sapphire, on account of its splendor, is a symbol of the presence and majesty of God. See what I have noted concerning sapphire, Exodus chapter XXXIV, verse 10, and Apocalypse XXI, 19, where among other things I said that once the Pontiffs as presiders over wisdom wore sapphire from the neck, on which truth was inscribed.
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23. THEN SHALT THOU WALK CONFIDENTLY IN THE WAY, AND THY FOOT SHALL NOT STUMBLE. — Pagninus, shall not strike; the Septuagint, that thou mayest walk confident in peace all thy ways, and thy foot shall not stumble, according to that in chapter IV, verse 19: "The way of the just is without offence;" the Chaldee, then shalt thou walk in hope (the Syriac, with hope) in thy ways, and thy foot shall not offend, as if to say, The way of wisdom and virtue is plain, lacking scandals and stumbling-blocks: wherefore if thou proceed by it, thou shalt go securely without anxious fear, because thou shalt nowhere stumble, offend, or fall, nor incur any fault or punishment: if any tribulation befall, thou shalt prudently avoid it or bravely overcome and surmount it. "For the offence of a reasoning nature is either an unclean thought, or a false and lying opinion," says Basil. Again, "thou shalt walk," that is, thou shalt make progress in the way of God and virtue, and in making progress thou shalt trust in the Lord, and having also a good conscience thou shalt be a man of good hope, says Dionysius. For the Philosopher also asserts that those who are well disposed in divine things are of better hope. "And thy foot shall not stumble," that is, thy affection or operation, by which thou tendest to thy end, shall not falter by departing from the way of virtues and the mean of reason. For prudence shall direct thee, so that with the Psalmist, Psalm XXV, thou mayest say: "My foot hath stood in the direct way;" and with Job chapter XXIII: "My foot hath followed his steps." He alludes to that in Leviticus XXVI, 3: "If you walk in my precepts, etc., you shall dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your borders; you shall sleep, and there shall be none to make you afraid." Finally, Bede explains it beautifully and piously: "We walk confidently," he says, "in our way, trusting in the grace of God, we receive progress in our good conversation. If therefore we humbly submit to his commands, and taste the sweetness of heavenly love more pleasantly in the throat of the mind, we shall always obtain the increase of good operation; but also in temptations, lest we fail, we shall be defended by his help." 24. IF THOU SLEEPEST, THOU SHALT NOT FEAR: AND THY REST SHALL BE SWEET. — As if to say, As I have promised thee security in walking and motion, so likewise I promise thee security in rest and sleep; therefore both in motion and in rest, both in waking and in sleep, both by day and by night, thou shalt always and everywhere live secure, fearless, joyful and cheerful. Whence the Septuagint, if thou sittest, thou shalt be without fear; but if thou sleepest, thou shalt sleep sweetly; Vatablus, when thou restest, thou shalt not fear; when thou liest down, thy sleep shall be pleasant, both because sleep is sweet after labour, and because virtue produces joyful sleep. For as sadness occurring to the waking disordered mind by day, by a natural as it were resonance of imagination and mind recurs in dreams, and makes sleep sad and troublesome: so conversely the joy which the exercise of virtue practiced by day produces in an ordered mind, by natural sympathy will recur to the imagination by night, and will make sleep sweet and pleasant. He alludes to Deuteronomy chapter XXVIII, verse 66: "The Lord shall give thee a fearful heart, etc., and thy life shall be as it were hanging before thee. Thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt not trust thy life;" and to Psalm XC: "Thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night, of the arrow flying in the day, of the business walking about in the dark, of the assault and the demon of the noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side," etc. Anagogically, "thou shalt sleep sweetly," that is, thou shalt die sweetly; "thy rest shall be sweet," that is, thy death shall be sweet, as the Poet says: Fool, what is sleep but the image of cold death? Nay, the brother of death, says Homer; and so death begun and halved. Whence the Hebrew ערבה areba, that is, it shall be sweet, some translate, thy sleep shall be pledged, as if to say, Thy sleep shall be sweet as a pledge of thy sweet future death, on account of the hope of blessed resurrection, by which from death as from sleep thou shalt awake to eternal life. Whence from the Hebrew araba and ערבון erabon is derived the Greek ἀῤῥαβών, and the Latin arrha or arrhabo, that is, a pledge which is wont to be given to a creditor until the debt is paid. Hence what the sleep is like, such is death wont to be: if that be serene, quiet, joyful, death likewise shall happen serene, quiet, joyful on account of confidence in virtue and a good conscience; if that be turbid, restless, sad, death also shall come turbid, restless and sad on account of crimes and fear of an evil conscience. Finally, the author of the Catena of the Greeks explains it thus: It was established by law among the Jews that whether they remained at home, or rose from bed in the morning, or did anything else, they should always turn over divine words in their mind. If therefore we shall be thus occupied concerning the meditation of divine things, we shall be free from hostile fear and shall obtain peace and tranquility of mind from wicked thoughts, and finally we shall not waver with uncertain opinion. If, I say, we shall be well fortified with wisdom, neither shall we be shaken with fear while sitting at home, nor shall we be disturbed by phantasms while sleeping at night, nor shall we be terrified by the snares of evil thoughts which are brought in by the external enemy, nor shall wicked and criminal men (who, in order to break our strength and despoil us of the goods of nature, are sometimes wont to rush in from here and there not without violence) easily cast us down. For the Lord will thus defend us and will strengthen our steps in such a manner that we persist unmoved everywhere. Or receive these things in this way: Whether you spend your life on earth, you will live free from fear; whether you are called hence by death, you will depart from life with joy; nor will you fear enemies who do not come into view, whether they have brought your works to examination, or whether they be holy angels. The Philosophers see the same thing through a shadow, who teach that the just man dreams of honest and tranquil things, the wicked man of dishonest and turbulent things, and thus from sleep it is permitted to gather progress in virtue. Thus Aristotle, in book I of the Ethics: "The dreams, he says, of the studious are better;" and Plutarch: "How one might perceive his own progress in virtue," among other signs gives a dream, if namely one dreams not of base things but of honest things. "For indeed, as he says, horses yoked together and trained to run straight do not abandon the way even when the driver sleeps: thus brutish affections tamed do not easily kick back even in sleep." But in carnal and impious men, "sleep is a sea of thoughts, a surge of filthiness, a third son of the belly," says Nicetas in oration 3 of Nazianzen.
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25. BE NOT AFRAID OF SUDDEN TERROR, AND OF THE VIOLENT POWERS OF THE WICKED RUSHING UPON THEE. — First, many connect this with the preceding verses, as if it were part of the reward of one zealous for virtue, as if to say: Thou shalt walk confidently and rest, be not afraid, that is, so that thou art not afraid, or thou shalt not be afraid; for thus thou shalt translate from the Hebrew. Whence the Septuagint: thou shalt not fear terror coming upon thee, nor the assault of the wicked rushing in; the Chaldee: thou shalt not fear from sudden terror, and sudden ruin, and from desolation, or calamity of the wicked, when it shall come; the Syriac: thou shalt not fear from sudden fear, and from the assault of sinners. Second, these words can be taken as a precept or admonition; whence the Scholiast translates: if thou art struck with fear, fear not, as if to say: If some danger, if some terror shall seize thee unexpectedly, do not yield, do not fear, because thou hast God at thy side. Yet it is better to take these words not as a precept, but as a reward. For security from all terror is promised here to one zealous for wisdom and virtue, both from demons and from men, even those who rush in suddenly and unexpectedly with great force and power, and therefore men, lacking help and counsel, are wont to be struck down and dismayed, indeed overwhelmed and oppressed, according to that of the Psalmist, Psalm XXVI: "If armies in camp should stand against me, my heart shall not fear." For potentias, in Hebrew it is schoa, that is, desolation and calamity of the wicked, which can be taken in two ways. First, actively, as if to say: The calamity which the wicked inflict upon others near thee shall not comprehend thee, if thou apply thyself to wisdom and to God. Thus Our [translation]. Second, passively, as if to say: If thou live by virtue, the public calamity which overwhelms other wicked men shall not involve thee, because God shall protect thee from it and exempt thee from it. Thus the Chaldee. So at the end of the world there shall be dreadful eclipses of the sun and moon, falling of stars, earthquakes, roaring of the sea, and fearful changes of all things, so that men shall wither away for fear and expectation of those things which shall come upon the whole world. But the Saints shall not then fear, but shall rejoice: "And when these things begin to come to pass, saith Christ, Luke XXI, 28, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is at hand." "Lift up your heads, that is, gladden your hearts, saith St. Gregory, hom. 1 in Evang., because while the world, whose friends ye are not, is ending, the redemption which ye have sought draws near." 26. FOR THE LORD SHALL BE IN THY SIDE, — just as satellites and attendants are at the side of a prince, that they may protect him against all assaults, and therefore laterani and latrones are said to be so called, as Isidore and Varro testify, according to that of David, Psalm XV: "I set the Lord always in my sight: for he is at my right hand, that I be not moved." For side in Hebrew it is kesel, which properly signifies folly, inconstancy, mutability. Whence kesilim are everywhere called inconstant and changeable ones, that is, fools. Hence kesil is called Orion, a star so named from inconstancy, because at the time when it rises (which happens about November), it stirs up tempests in sea and land, according to that of Virgil: Orion stormy with the flood. Others think kesil to be stars, which are called Hyades from τοῦ ὕειν, that is, from raining, because they bring rains. These are also called Suculae, not from swine, but from the Hebrew kesil by metathesis inverted, as some learned men think. Hence also Casleu is called the month of November from the inclemency and inconstancy of the sky. Therefore thus properly thou shalt translate from the Hebrew: because God shall be in thy inconstancy, mutability and mobility, namely sustaining thee, confirming and upholding thee, lest thou waver, slip and fall. Whence explaining this he adds: "He shall keep thy foot that thou be not taken." Hence also R. Solomon thus translates and explains, as if to say: "The Lord shall be ready for thee in those things in which thou didst seem to be foolish." Secondly, kesel by antiphrasis signifies the contrary of what I have already said, namely firmness, immobility of mind, confidence, constancy, by which one is steadfast in oneself, as is evident from Leviticus chapter III, 4 and seq., Job XV, 27, Psalm LXXVII, 7: "That they may set their hope in God;" in Hebrew כסל kislam. Thus כסל kesel by metathesis is as it were the same as שכל sechel, that is, intelligence, prudence, constancy. According to this meaning, translate: The Lord shall be to thee in constancy, confidence and immobility, namely so that He may sustain thee in the slippery, uncertain and dangerous place, lest thou fall, and may make thee steadfast and immobile. Whence the Septuagint translates: The Lord shall be over thy ways, as it were their president, director and guardian; or in all thy ways, as it were walking with thee, leading and protecting thee, so that neither beasts, nor robbers, nor anyone else or anything else may be able to harm thee; Pagninus and Baynus: because the Lord shall be thy confidence; R. Levi: in those things which thou shalt have hoped for, God shall breathe upon thee, that is to say, God shall be present to thee and shall protect thee in those things in which thou hast trusted and relied upon Him, and which thou shalt have hoped for from Him, and He shall take care lest thou be involved in any calamities. Thirdly, kesel signifies the flanks, loins, vertebra, spondyle. Whence translate: God shall be in thy loins or flanks, or to thy loins, flanks and spondyle, that is to thy side, as Our translation renders it. Marinus gives the reason in the Hebrew Lexicon, that to these is attributed foolishness and inconstancy, just as to the kidneys is attributed doctrine. In this meaning the Zurich Bible translates: The Lord, it says, shall be present to thy side, namely so that He may guard and strengthen thy loins and flanks, that is the more tender and vital parts, and therefore more liable to piercing, wounding and death, and consequently thy whole body and thy very life, lest it be harmed by any weapon, injury or evil. The Chaldean: The Lord shall be in thy help; the Syriac: with thee. AND SHALL KEEP THY FOOT THAT THOU BE NOT TAKEN, — Syriac: that thou be not taken in hunting, as beasts are taken in a snare; Septuagint: shall make firm (the Scholiast: shall keep) thy foot, that thou be not moved; Complutensian: that thou be not shaken or tossed about, that is to say, In snares, in a slippery way, in rocks and stumbling-blocks God shall keep thee and thy feet, that thou be not taken, that thou waver not, that thou strike not and fall, according to that Psalm LXV: "Who hath set my soul to live, and hath not suffered my feet to be moved." Symbolically St. Gregory in the 31st book of the Morals, chapter XVII, understands by foot progress in the interior of virtue, by side circumspection and caution against snares; for one without the other is not sufficient. "Well therefore it is said," he says, "The Lord shall be at thy side, and shall keep thy foot, that thou be not taken; because the soldier of God, protected by the shield of divine grace, and considering what may proceed from the side by looking about him, ceases not to advance his step before his face in making progress." Again, "that thou be not taken," understand either by temporal evil or by temptation; for temptation allures the intellect by the showing of a delightful good, and binds the affection by the love of what is forbidden: but the protection of the Lord frees these two feet of the soul from the snare, if He finds it obedient to His commandments. He illustrates the understanding of the just, who strive to fulfill their own will. For it is written: "A good understanding to all that do it," Psalm CX, 10. Morally, learn from this that the fruit of wisdom and virtue is security and immunity from fear, which is indeed very troublesome to man and afflicts and torments him. Whence Seneca: "Alas," he says, "how miserable it is to grow old through fear!" Hence the more virtue grows, the more security also grows. Wherefore some become so perfect that when something terrible or fearful occurs, they do not even feel the first movements of sudden fear, which is a sign of great virtue, faith and hope in God. Thus the Psalmist, Psalm XXVI, 1: "The Lord," he says, "is my illumination and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid?" Thus in the Lives of the Fathers we read of Abbot Theodore, that when someone asked him: "If there should be a noise or great sound suddenly, art thou afraid?" he answered: "If heaven should cleave to the earth, Theodore does not fear." Though the broken world should fall upon him, the ruins would strike him unafraid; for he had asked of the Lord that He would take fear from him, and he had obtained it. And we read of St. Pachomius that serpents and scorpions meeting him on the way he trod unharmed, and even crossing rivers he swam securely carried by a crocodile, because perfect hope and charity cast out fear, 1 John IV, 18. And of Abbot Macarius, that when by chance he lay in the sepulcher of Pagans, and had placed the corpse of the dead in place of a pillow under his head, demons, to terrify him, began to utter voices from the corpse and around the corpse and to speak. Then Macarius, fearing nothing, but striking the corpse with his head, said confidently to the devil: "Rise, go where thou canst." On the other hand, some are so imperfect and fearful that when they are alone, especially at night, they fear all hisses, noises and shadows, who are indeed miserable: let them therefore overcome fear by boldness, confidence and prayer, and let them recite Psalm XC: "He that dwelleth in the aid of the Most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven," etc., which for this reason the Church commands to be recited by all the Ecclesiastical in Compline under the night.
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27. DO NOT FORBID HIM WHO IS ABLE TO DO GOOD: IF YOU ARE ABLE, DO GOOD YOURSELF. — After the commendation of wisdom, he returns to its particular precepts. Therefore, just as in verse 5 he assigned the first precept of wisdom concerning the worship of God, so here he assigns the second concerning beneficence toward one's neighbor. The Hebrew text word for word has, do not forbid good from masters or lords of theirs, when there is strength in your hand to do it, that is, when you are able to do it. Which various interpreters explain variously. Our interpreter understands by masters or lords the rich and powerful, to whom the faculty of doing good is available: then he thought that do not forbid should be repeated in the latter half, as if to say, Do not forbid the rich to do good to the needy, but you also, when you are able to do the same, do not forbid yourself and your hand from good work. Solomon is supported by Ben-Sira, saying: "Be good, and do not forbid your hand from good." "A good man," says Cicero, "is one who benefits those whom he can, and harms no one." Others, however, understand by lords the needy and the poor; for to them beneficence and alms are owed not from justice but from charity. Whence St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Bernard and others assert that the superfluous goods of the rich belong to the poor. "Why therefore are you indignant when the poor ask something from you? They seek what is paternal, not what is yours," says St. Chrysostom in the Melissa of Antonius, chapter VII. Hence also St. John the Almsgiver called the poor his masters. Thus Vatablus, do not withhold from him who has need of it. Thus R. Levi and Aben-Ezra: The master of the benefit, he says, is both the poor man and the benefactor himself; for the latter is master of his own money, of which the miser is a slave. For, as Seneca says: "Money, if you know how to use it (by doing good), is a servant; if you do not know, it is a master." Whence the Septuagint: "Do not refrain from doing good to the needy, whenever your hand has the ability to help." Again, Cajetan thinks that restitution is commanded here, as if to say, Return the good which you justly or unjustly possess to its masters and lords. But others generally think that beneficence is treated of here. Whence the Chaldean, do not cease to do good while your hand has strength to do it; the Syriac, do not restrain yourself from doing good while your hand is able to provide it. Somewhat differently R. Solomon, as if to say, If you see a friend intent on bestowing benefit on the needy, do not forbid him, nor divert him elsewhere, when it shall be in your power to do so, that is, when it is in your power to forbid him and remove him from doing good. In sum, our interpreter translates most excellently; for the Wise Man wishes that no one be forbidden from beneficence, but that each one should do good if he is able. P. Syrus gives the reason in the Sentences: "He who gives a benefit to the worthy receives it," he says; and: "When you give a benefit to the worthy, you obligate all." For "he who receives a benefit sells his freedom." On the other hand, as Antonius says in the Melissa, chapter XXVII and XXIII On Beneficence, from Photius: "Those who give much to the unworthy commit three absurdities: for they themselves suffer loss of what they give, and they strengthen the wicked by supplying them material for vices, and they are insulting to the good." Wherefore grace, that is, gratia, is given to בעלו bealau, that is, to the master or husband of it, when it is given to the worthy; for to him it ought to be given, and therefore it is bound to him as if by marriage. Whence Homer said Pasithea, the first of the Graces, was joined in marriage, because namely she regards the worthy and is bound and obligated to them as a wife. More excellently St. Chrysostom in the Melissa of Antonius, chapter XXIX: "He does not do good," he says, "who does good, but rather the benefit itself receives him rather than he gives it. For he receives more than he bestows; because he gives a loan to God, not to men; he increases riches, not diminishes them; but he diminishes if he takes nothing away, if he gives nothing away." Furthermore, just as the first degree of beneficence is not to hinder those who do good; the second is to exhort and help them to do good: "for he abounds in many virtues who loves others," says the Wise Man; the third is to do good by oneself: so on the other hand, the first degree of maleficence is to be unwilling to do good; the second is to dissuade and hinder those who do good; the third is to help and incite those who do evil; the fourth is to do evil by oneself. 28. DO NOT SAY TO YOUR FRIEND: GO AND RETURN: TOMORROW I WILL GIVE TO YOU, WHEN YOU ARE ABLE TO GIVE NOW. — The Chaldean [paraphrase reads], if you have [it] with you; the Septuagint adds, for you do not know what the following day will bring forth; or, as St. Cyprian reads it, book III to Quirinus: "For you do not know what may happen on the following day." This is the first reason why a benefit ought to be given immediately, lest, if it be deferred to the following day, some impediment preventing the gift should intervene. Thus Nazianzenus, oration 16, whose words I shall cite presently. The second [reason is], because he who gives quickly quickly relieves the necessity of his neighbor; he who gives slowly allows him to remain fixed in it and to endure in torment. The third [reason is], because he who gives quickly gives along with the gift a prompt and generous spirit, which is more valuable than the benefit itself. On the other hand, "he who did [it] slowly was unwilling for a long time," says Seneca. The fourth [reason]: "He gives twice who gives quickly," says St. Jerome and others, both because he quickly comes to the aid of need and the wish of the petitioner; and because speed often doubles the benefit; and because he who gives quickly is able to give a second time: for one act of beneficence invites and provokes another. Seneca expresses it excellently: "All kindness," he says, "hastens, and it is proper to the one acting to do [it] quickly; if dragging [it] from day to day has been of benefit, he did not do it from his heart. And so he has lost two very great things, both gratitude and time." The fifth [reason is], if you delay, you compel the petitioner to return often, and thus to make a loss of time, of business and of profit, which is often worth more to him than your benefit: wherefore not rarely does he regret having asked for the benefit; for rarely does it stand him in good stead, which he has purchased with so many prayers, journeys, labors and losses. Truly [said] the wise man: "Goodness becomes twofold if speed is added to it." Ausonius: Grace which is slow is ungrateful: Those which grace hastens to do, grace is more grateful. And Democritus in Antonius in the Melissa, chapter XXIX On Benefits: "If you are about to do a benefit, do it immediately; for slowness makes a gift defective. Rather give something small than promise something great. For this is free from danger, and he who has received in deed does not need words." More excellently the same Antonius in the Melissa, chapter XXVII, from St. Gregory Nazianzenus: "Show gratitude to God," he says, "in that he has made you one of those who are able to bestow benefits, not one of those who have need to receive; and in that you ought not to look upon the hands of others, but others upon yours. Be rich, not only in wealth, but also in piety; not only in gold, but moreover in the possession of virtue; surpass others by showing yourself more upright and more benevolent. Be a god to the afflicted, imitating God's mercy; for nothing more divine falls upon man than beneficence. Let not even night intercept your mercy; do not say: Come again another time, and I will give tomorrow, lest something perhaps happen between your intention and the benefit, by which it may be hindered." Job did the same thing, saying in chapter XXXI: "If I have denied to the poor what they desired, and have made the eyes of the widow wait." God himself exhibits the form and mirror of this precept, when he does not send away empty those dearest to him who ask something of him, but keeps them full of the good things which they ask for, and joyful and exulting in his presence. Thus Anna, the mother of Samuel, came to the temple sterile to pray, and went away the future mother of so great a son, I Kings I. Thus Sara was immediately freed from the reproach of the slayer of husbands by prayer through God's aid, Tobias III. Thus Judith, armed more by prayer than by the sword, under God's guidance killed Holofernes, routed the army of the Assyrians, and freed Israel, Judith XIII.
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29. DO NOT PLOT EVIL AGAINST YOUR FRIEND, WHEN HE HAS CONFIDENCE IN YOU. — In Hebrew, do not plow, or fabricate upon your companion evil, and (that is, when) he himself sitting in confidence with you; the Chaldean [paraphrase reads], do not think evil against your neighbor, when he himself dwells with you in peace; the Syriac [version reads], who sits with you in quiet; the Septuagint, do not fabricate evils against your friend dwelling near and trusting in you. Thus the Complutensian [edition] and the author of the Catena of the Greeks, although the Roman [edition] reads for friend, on the contrary, enemy; the Zurich [edition reads], do not scheme evil against your neighbor, when he dwells securely with you; Vatable [reads], when he himself fears nothing of this sort from you. For moliaris in Hebrew is תחרוש tachares, which signifies both to plow and to fabricate: for just as he who plows prepares the earth for seed; so he who plots evil seeks and prepares ways and arts of deceiving and supplanting his neighbor. Thus R. Solomon. The same [person] fabricates a thing in the appearance good and friendly, but inwardly hostile and harmful, just as the Greeks fabricated the horse of Pallas, who is the patroness of mercy; but they deceitfully placed soldiers in it, who, when the horse was brought into the city by the Trojans, went out at night and betrayed the city to the Greeks. The meaning is clear; for after having praised beneficence, he condemns maleficence, especially toward friends. For this contains a twofold malice: the first, violation of friendship, in that he harms a friend; the second, perfidy, in that he deceitfully and treacherously supplants him under the appearance of friendship. Wherefore such false friends are worse than public enemies; from these, namely, as known to you, you guard yourself: from those, because you do not know them, nay, because they simulate themselves to be friends, you cannot guard yourself. They therefore are the pests of every assembly, society and human intercourse, which is bound together and compacted by faith and love. Whence Seneca: "Hidden hatreds are worse than open ones; the enemy is more serious who lies hidden in the breast." Of which more in chapter XI.
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30. DO NOT CONTEND (in Hebrew, do not litigate) AGAINST A MAN USELESSLY, WHEN HE HIMSELF HAS DONE YOU NO HARM. — The Septuagint renders the latter part differently; for they have, do not exercise enmities against a man without cause, lest he work (in Hebrew, repay) evil to you; Vatablus, lest he repay you evil; the Zurich Bible, do not rashly undertake a lawsuit with anyone, if he has done you no wrong; the Syriac, do not litigate with a man without cause. For every lawsuit is harmful, but especially one directed against an innocent person; for the judge is the protector and avenger of the innocent, or certainly God is. Hence Seneca in the Proverbs: "To contend with an equal is uncertain; with a superior, mad; with an inferior, base."
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31. DO NOT EMULATE AN UNJUST MAN (in Hebrew, איש חמס ish chamas, that is, as Vatablus says, a man of injustice, or rapine; the Zurich Bible, violent; the Chaldean, a robber; the Syriac, wicked), NOR IMITATE (in Hebrew, choose) HIS WAYS. — The Syriac, nor let all his ways please you. For emulate, in Hebrew it is תקנא tekanne, which, when constructed with lamed, signifies to be zealous, to burn with zeal, to desire something vehemently; but when constructed with beth, as it is here, signifies to be angry and to envy. The sense therefore is, as if to say, Do not be angry that you see the unjust oppressing others by force and fraud, and enriching and exalting themselves, nor be indignant at and envy their prosperity, so that you wish to acquire it for yourself by imitating their ways, namely their actions and robberies. It alludes to Psalm XXXVI, 1: "Be not emulous of the evildoers; neither envy them that work iniquity." Where for emulate, in Hebrew it is תתחר titchar, that is, do not be angry, do not be incensed; for envy it is the same verb as here, namely tekanne. Hence secondly, some expound do not emulate as do not imitate. Thus the Zurich Bible. Whence also the Septuagint renders, do not acquire the reproach of wicked men, by imitating namely their frauds, robberies and crimes, so that you enrich and make yourself wealthy like them. For this is, and was formerly, a common temptation of the pious, that they see the impious prosper, themselves meanwhile oppressed and harassed by adversities. For this matter Jeremiah complains and as it were expostulates with God, chapter XII, verse 1 and following; Job, chapter XXI, verse 7; Habakkuk, chapter I, verse 13, and David, Psalm LXXII throughout. But men solid in faith and virtue are not troubled by this matter, because they hope for heavenly things and make light of earthly things. Hence St. Chrysostom, homily 8 on II Timothy: "Do not emulate," he says, "an unjust man: if no wicked man were afflicted with punishment, no one would think that God has care of human affairs: if all were punished, no one would hope for the future resurrection, as if all things were rendered to them here as a reward; for this reason he punishes some here, most he does not punish." But further on he suggests another cause: "There are many good men who have something evil mixed in, which they put away here (namely by paying the penalty), and evil men likewise, who have something of good works, the recompense of which they receive here, so that they may be punished eternally there. If we have considered all these things with ourselves, nothing will be able to harm or disturb us, nothing will provoke us to emulation or zeal." St. Augustine gives a third cause, epistle 70: "These goods," he says, "lest they be thought evil, are given also to the good: and again, lest they be thought supreme, are given also to the wicked. Likewise these things are taken away from the good, so that they may be tested; and from the wicked, so that they may be tormented."
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32. BECAUSE EVERY MOCKER IS AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD, AND HIS CONVERSATION IS WITH THE SIMPLE. — For mocker, Our translation appears to have read נלוץ nalots, with tsade; now they read נלוז naloz, with zain, that is, perverse, twisted; R. Solomon, who is carried through devious and transverse ways; R. Levi, who deviates from the straight way and enters upon a crooked path, that is, the wicked man. The wicked man is therefore called a mocker, both because he deceives himself and others by the specious appearance of pleasure, by which he brings upon himself sin and thence damnation; but rather because the very wicked, like the impious and atheists, not only despise admonishers and admonitions, but also deride all things human and divine (which is the highest degree of impiety), and these are properly called in Scripture לצים letsim, that is, mockers or scoffers, as is evident from Psalm I, 1, where the first degree of sinners is established: "Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly;" the second: "And hath not stood in the way of sinners;" the third and highest: "And hath not sat in the seat of the pestilent (in Hebrew letsim, that is, of mockers)." Hear Blessed Antioch, in the homily On Obedience and Disobedience: "Who is a mocker? A mocker is he who by perversely understanding and teaching corrupts the words of God. A mocker is he who by insulting contemns his simple and poor neighbours. A mocker is he who despises the great promises of God as if they were small and scorns the punishment of eternal damnation as if it were tolerable." Wherefore Solomon here opposes to the mocker the simple, in Hebrew ישרים iescharim, that is, the upright, the good, the just. Whence the Septuagint translates, for every unjust man is unclean before the Lord; but in the just he does not take counsel, or, nor does he take a seat in the chair of the just (a judicial seat for avenging), as if to say, God judges and condemns every unjust man as unclean and impure; but with the just he does not act in council, as in a tribunal and long bench, but in a friendly and familiar manner. And, as the Hebrew has it, with the upright, סודו sodo, that is, secret, conversation, familiar discourse of God is; the Chaldean, because every iniquity is abhorred by God, and his conversation is with the upright. This antithesis is clear, as if to say, God removes iniquity and the wicked from himself, but brings near to himself the equitable and the just. The Syriac, because the unjust man is polluted before God, and his conversation is with the just; Pagninus, because every perverse man is an abomination to the Lord, and his secret is with the upright. In Hebrew, therefore, sodo properly signifies secret, mystery, as if Aben-Ezra says: God reveals his secrets and counsels to the good, for example, by what calamity he has determined to vex the impious. Moreover, the reason why the unjust, who prosper, are not to be envied or imitated, but the just and pious, who are vexed and troubled: because namely the unjust are abominable to God, the just on the other hand are beloved, indeed friends and confidants, inasmuch as God reveals to them his secrets, judgments and counsels, both those which he has revealed in Scripture, especially concerning the heavenly rewards which God has prepared for the just who are vexed here, and those which he suggests to them through internal inspirations, consolations, illuminations, by which he so strengthens and cheers them that they generously trample upon all the prosperity of the world and fear none of its adversities, according to that in Psalm XXIV, 14: "The Lord is the firmament of all that fear him, and his covenant to manifest itself to them;" for which St. Jerome translates, the secret of the Lord is with all that fear him, and he will show them his covenant. In Hebrew it is the same word as here, namely סוד sod, which properly signifies secret; but the Septuagint by aphaeresis took sod for יסוד iesod, that is, firmament or foundation. Wherefore from them in like manner translate here, and with the upright or simple is his firmament, as if to say, God makes firm the upright and makes them the firmament of the rest. That this opinion is true is evident from the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah and the other Prophets and Apostles, to whom God revealed His secrets, according to that saying of Christ, John XV, 15: "Now I will not call you servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doth. But I have called you friends; because all things whatsoever I have heard of my Father, I have made known to you." The same is evident from the Life of St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, St. Pachomius, and other Anchorites, to whom God revealed many hidden and future things. Whence Abbot Anuphius in Palladius in the Lausiac History, cap. LVIII, says: "No desire of any thing descended into my heart, except of God alone. God hath hidden nothing from me of earthly things, which He hath not signified and shown to my eyes. I have not taken sleep by day, nor rested by night seeking God: one angel always stood by me showing me the powers of the world; I received every petition from God forthwith. I have often seen myriads standing before God, I have seen choirs of the just, I have seen a multitude of Martyrs, I have seen the institution of the life of monks." And cap. XLIII, Abbot John, who foretold victory to the Emperor Theodosius: "It is necessary," he says, "that the mind of those who seek God should be at leisure from all other things. Be still and know, says he, that I am God, Psalm XLV. Whoever therefore hath obtained the knowledge of God in part (for no one can receive it wholly), obtains also the knowledge of all other things, and sees the mysteries of God revealing them, and foresees future things, and contemplates revelations, such as the Saints, and works miracles, and obtains from God every petition." And cap. XX, Abbot Macarius says to himself: "Thou hast Angels, Archangels, all the heavenly Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, God the maker of these. Dwell there, lest thou descend under the heavens, lest thou fall into worldly thoughts." The same is evident from the Life of St. Mechtildis, St. Lydwina, St. Mary of Oignies, St. Catherine of Siena, with whom Christ conversed so familiarly that He taught her to read, to sing psalms and to recite the Hours, etc. It is memorable that in the Life of Blessed Hermann Joseph of the Order of Premonstratensians we read that he, from boyish childhood with simplicity and candor, was accustomed to visit in the church the image of the Blessed Virgin with the Child Jesus, and to converse familiarly with her, to offer her food and fruits, and when he once offered her an apple, the Blessed Virgin received it with outstretched hand. This familiarity of Hermann with the Blessed Virgin and Jesus grew with his age, so much so that she herself visited him on individual days thereafter, conversed with him as with a brother, procured money for his food and clothing, drove away sicknesses, dispelled temptations and all adversities; nay, she even took him as a spouse and imposed upon him the name of her spouse, namely Joseph. For when one night he kept vigil in prayer as was his custom, he saw in the midst of the choir a virgin of indescribable beauty, distinguished by a royal appearance; and two angels stood by her on the right and left, of most beautiful appearance as youths, of whom one said: "To whom shall we betroth this virgin?" The other answered: "To whom indeed but to this brother present here?" Then the other said: "Let him come therefore." Called, he approached indeed with shame. But after he had come to the queen, the other angel spoke to him: "It is necessary that this most illustrious maiden be betrothed to thee." He, humble and modest, proclaimed himself unworthy of so great a spouse. And when by resisting he delayed, the angel seized his right hand and joined it to the hand of the Blessed Virgin, and betrothed her to him with these words: "I give this virgin to thee as a spouse, as she was once betrothed to Joseph, so that thou mayest receive the name of the spouse together with the spouse, and henceforth be called Joseph." Hence perpetual familiarity with the Blessed Virgin as with a spouse: by whom he was at last called into the heavenly chamber in the year of the Lord 1236. His Life contains this and much more in Surius, on the 7th of April, which a grave and familiar man wrote. I cite the last edition of Surius of Cologne, which was greatly enlarged by Mosander. To this pertains what Philip Ferrarius writes from the Office of the Church of Placentia approved at Rome, on the 4th of February in the Catalogue of Saints of Italy: St. Gelasius, he says, a boy of Placentia, when he found St. Opifius his little brother praying in a chamber, beheld with his own eyes a multitude of Angels conversing with him, and heard a voice: "Suffer the little children to come unto me; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Both lived under the year of the Lord 420. Whence Bede in this place: "The discourse of the Lord, he says, with the simple is, because heavenly wisdom illuminates with its secrets those whom he considers to have nothing of earthly pride and duplicity. Hence indeed he says: Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones," Matt. XI. Bede drew this from St. Gregory, III part. Pastor., admon. 12, where he thus says: "God is said to discourse with the simple, because he illuminates the minds of those concerning heavenly mysteries with the ray of his visitation, whom no shadow of duplicity obscures." Therefore "the simple" here are called the upright, as the Hebrew has it, and the just, because these are simple in acting and speaking, whereas the wicked and sinners are often double and false, saying one thing with their mouth, thinking another in their heart, doing another in their works. Lyranus and Dionysius bring forward another sense, so that to is referred to the deceiver, as if to say: The deceiver is accustomed to discourse with the simple, so that he may deceive him: not with the astute, who knows his tricks. For, as Nazianzenus says, "simplicity is little cautious. For he does not at all suspect dishonesty, whose mind is free and pure from dishonesty." And St. Ambrose, lib. III Offic. X, speaking of the Gabaonites, who deceived Joshua: "Joshua, he says, quickly believed, so holy was faith in those times, that it was not believed that anyone could be deceived. Who would reprove this in the Saints, who judge others by their own affection? and because truth is dear to them, they think no one lies; they are ignorant what it is to deceive; they willingly believe what they themselves are, nor can they suspect what they are not." But the former exposition is the common and genuine one, so that to respects God, not the deceiver. 33. POVERTY FROM THE LORD IN THE HOUSE OF THE WICKED: BUT THE DWELLINGS OF THE JUST SHALL BE BLESSED,—that is, shall be affected with goods. First, with temporal goods: for these, as God promised to the Jews, Levit. XXVI, Deuter. XXVIII and elsewhere, so also in fact he bestowed; but to the wicked, as he threatened poverty, so also in fact he inflicted it. Thus Lyranus, Cajetan, Jansenius and others. Thus even now harlots, however much wealth they may wring and gather from their lovers, are always nevertheless poor. Thus also mechanics and merchants, who strive to enrich themselves through frauds and injustices, are impoverished. The same is seen in thieves, robbers, and men of similar ilk. Secondly, with spiritual goods, namely the gifts of grace and virtues in this life, and the gifts of glory in the future. Thus Beda and Hugh. This is always true: for although the pious are now often pressed by temporal poverty, they nevertheless abound in spiritual riches. Conversely, although the wicked abound in temporal things, they nevertheless live in the utmost poverty of spiritual goods. He adds the cause, saying: "From the Lord," as if to say: Therefore the pious are rich, the wicked poor, because God blesses the pious, as his friends and sons, that is, does them good (for God's word is efficacious, and therefore the same as doing); but the wicked, as his enemies, he curses and does them harm, and deprives them of goods, punishes and chastises them. Whence the Hebrews have, the curse of God in the houses of the wicked; but the house of the just he will bless; the Septuagint, the execration of God in the houses of the wicked; but the hut of the just shall be blessed. This is the second reason by which he proves what he said in verse 31: "Be not emulous of the unjust man, neither imitate his ways." For the first reason was verse 32: "Because every scoffer is an abomination to the Lord (in Hebrew, the perverse man), and with the righteous (in Hebrew, with the upright) is his conversation." The second reason is connected with the first here, namely that God will reward the pious with abundance and punish the impious with want. Moreover the Author of the Greek Catena, translated by our Peltanus, has it thus: in the houses of the impious dwells the curse of the Lord, but the houses of the just are filled with blessing. Which Olympiodorus explains thus in that place: "The things of the impious, he says, although they appear splendid and magnificent to men, are nevertheless vile and accursed before God. On the contrary, the things of the just, although they appear abject and meager, are nevertheless abundantly enriched by divine blessing. But in a more sublime sense, by house are designated the faculties of the soul, but by houses or stables are designated the irascible and concupiscible powers of the same; for in those brutish disturbances and passions of the mind, devoid of reason, rage and hold wide dominion." And Basil in the same place: "The house of the impious, which is preferred to a hut or cottage, as if it were the dwelling of men, and is held to be more excellent, receives a curse: but the stable of the just, which is placed after the house, as if it were a receptacle for beasts, and is esteemed as vile, is filled with blessing; mystically however, the houses or stables of the just can be understood as their external actions, but the house as the contemplative virtue of the soul. Or the houses or stables are the rude, who are brought to the just as if to workshops of good disciplines; but the house is the disciples already perfect and learned. And if the houses of the just are blessed, much more will their house be enriched with divine blessing. And these things indeed hold thus among those who are devoted to piety and religion: but among the impious the contrary obtains." And another anonymous author in the same place: "The unclean spirits have diverse houses; for one house of theirs is the proud, another house of theirs is all the envious, another likewise all those enslaved to foul pleasures, another again all the ambitious, and finally another all the hypocrites; and in all these houses eternal punishment rages. But the houses of the just are the mansions of the Saints, which are abundantly filled with God's blessing." Thus the Fathers in the Catena of the Greeks. 34. HE SHALL DERIDE THE SCORNERS (in Hebrew, he shall mock the mockers), AND SHALL GIVE GRACE TO THE MEEK. — This is the third reason, as if to say: Do not imitate the ways of the scorners, that is, of the impious, who mock the pious and vex them with fraud and injustice as if in sport, because God will in turn mock them, according to what he said in chapter I, verse 26: "I also will laugh at your destruction and will mock;" and therefore he will make them objects of ridicule to men and demons. For this is the just law of retaliation, that God should mock the mockers. You have mocked another, you shall be mocked by another. You have defrauded your neighbor, you shall be defrauded by your neighbor. You have robbed temporal things, vain and perishable, you shall be deprived of heavenly things, true and solid, and often also of temporal things. "For justice, says Cassiodorus, in book V of his letters, requires the arrows of fraud to return upon the deceitful head of the archer." Wherefore St. Augustine fittingly says in Psalm 122: "Bear with the insulter, and you will laugh afterwards at the mourner." In like manner noble animals do not tolerate mockers. Pliny, and from him Pierius, in Hieroglyphics, book I, chapter X, teaches that a lion seized with fever, even if it rages to madness, is freed by the feeding of an ape: for the lion bears such indignation toward the ape that it desires to destroy no animal more eagerly. The cause is the petulance of the ridiculous animal, which harasses the lion in the most unworthy ways. For as soon as it has obtained an opportunity, whether from some tree or from a safe and hidden place, to leap upon the lion, it considers it a great matter to attach itself to its tail and fasten itself with its buttocks, and thus to mock its king in whatever ways it can: which the lion bearing impatiently, becomes exceedingly fierce toward such an animal. Moreover the Septuagint translates: The Lord resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And rightly so, because the scorners are the proud, and the meek are the humble. The Septuagint is followed and cited by St. Peter, epistle I, chapter V, verse 5, and St. James, chapter IV, 6, where I have explained this passage at length, wherefore I shall not add more here, nor repeat what has been done. Finally the Syriac translates: he shall cast down and destroy the scorners (the Chaldean, shall drive them away), and shall be merciful to the wise. R. Levi explains it thus, as if to say: "God brings it about that those who hold others up to ridicule and receive them with jeers, are themselves derided by others when they fall into destruction; but to the humble, who honor and respect others and humble themselves, he will secure grace and good will among mortals." 35. THE WISE SHALL POSSESS GLORY: THE EXALTATION OF FOOLS (thus read with the Romans, Greeks and Hebrews; not exultation as some read), IGNOMINY. — This is the fourth reason why the ways of the pious, not of the impious, ought to be imitated, as if to say: The wise and pious acquire glory present and eternal, both before God and the Angels, and before men; but of fools, that is of the impious, their brief exaltation and glory shall be turned into ignominy present and eternal in hell. Our author appears to have read in the Hebrew מרום marom, that is exaltation, loftiness: now they read מרים merim, that is exalting, as if to say: Each of the fools exalts ignominy, that is, the impious, however much he strives for high things, nevertheless exposes himself to the highest and greatest ignominy. For the higher he ascends, the more deeply he falls, according to that saying of Claudian: They are lifted on high, that they may fall with heavier ruin. Whence the Septuagint translates: The wise shall inherit glory, but the impious shall exalt ignominy; St. Jerome, in his Apology against Rufinus, reads: The impious exalt contumely; the Chaldean: The fools shall receive tribulation; the Syriac: They shall inherit sorrow; Pagninus: But the fool exalts what is ignominious; the Zurich Bible: The wise glory, but the fools ignominy, while they are exalted, they acquire by inheritance; Vatable: The wise shall justly obtain glory by hereditary right, and each one of the fools bears ignominy, that is, he says, the fools are affected with ignominy; Aben-Ezra: Curse, that is poverty in the house of the impious from God, etc. He himself shall address the mockers through an interpreter (that is, shall mock them), to the meek (that is to those who, because they have been received with jeers and mocked and appear abject), he shall give grace. The wise shall inherit glory, the fools exalt and extol mockery, or the fools exalt and honor with honor a man of ignominy; R. Levi: Reproach the fools receive and exalt. For possidebunt the Hebrew is ינחלו iinchalu, that is they shall inherit, or shall possess as if by hereditary right, as if to say: From the studies and labors of pious youth there devolves upon wise men and those advanced in age, as the fruit and inheritance of the former age, honor and glory: for just as vice is the inseparable companion and follower of reproach and disgrace, so in turn virtue is the constant and faithful companion of honor and dignity. On the other hand, the exaltation of the impious, that is their separate possession, inheritance, the portion peculiarly attributed to them, is ignominy. For exaltation is opposed to possession; for in Hebrew רום in the hiphil, that is to exalt, is the same as to exalt or raise up and to separate for oneself and set apart something peculiar which may fall into one's possession. Thus God says of David, Psalm LXXXVIII, 20: "I have exalted the chosen one from my people;"; the Chaldean: "I have set apart the young man from the people." For David was as it were the peculiar treasure and precious thing of God. Whence concerning him it is said in Ecclesiasticus, chapter XLVII, verse 2: "As fat separated from the flesh, so was David from the sons of Israel." Exaltation therefore is the same as glory, as if to say: Glory is the proper dowry and praise of the pious. If you say: Yet the impious are sometimes exalted and attain glory; he answers: This glory is not so much glory as ignominy, both because glory does not befit the impious, nor does it adorn him, but rather disgraces him: for the impious in glory is the same as an ape in purple; and also because this glory is soon to be turned into ignominy. And thus the antithesis of the latter hemistich with the former is clear. The truth of this saying is evident in Joseph, Haman, Mordecai, Saul, David, etc. Secondly, R. Levi: The fools, he says, shall exalt ignominy, that is their ignominy shall be high and great, by which on account of their folly they shall be marked, so that on account of it they may be removed and driven away from that seat in which they were known and distinguished to all. Thirdly, the impious exalt, that is they lift up, and as it were raise up a huge burden, so that they may place it upon their own head, glory soon to be turned into ignominy, which shall weigh down and depress their exalted necks even to the earth, indeed even to the abyss and hell. Therefore the wise shall possess glory, as those whose Father is God, whose brothers are the Angels, whose occupation is most noble, namely to be wise and to serve God: whom God as a most loving Father loves, the Blessed Virgin as most beautiful children loves, the holy Church as most precious gems, by which she proceeds illustrious and splendid, holds dear. Let it be granted therefore that the pious in this life are often inglorious and unhonored among worldly men, while the impious are glorious and honored; nevertheless among wise men, who know how to estimate things according to their true worth, the pious are glorious, the impious inglorious, especially because the pious refuse and flee honors. For, as Aristotle says, "it is a great dignity not to use honors but to make oneself worthy of them." And St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on I Corinthians: "Another, he says, is he who needs nothing, but despises all things, and has greatness from himself." Wherefore God will bestow upon such a one eternal glory, indeed will exalt him in it and make him higher than others. The author of the Greek Catena gives the reason: "God, he says, insofar as He is Justice itself by essence, resists the unjust; insofar as He is the first truth, He resists liars and the false; insofar as He is supremely meek and humble, He resists the proud, but receives and embraces the humble; insofar as He is wisdom, He abhors the foolish, honors and glorifies the wise. Wherefore St. Gregory, book I, epistle 5, speaking of himself living the monastic life before his Pontificate: "Desiring nothing, he says, in this world, fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand on a certain summit of things, so that in me I believed that passage of Isaiah LVIII was almost fulfilled: I will exalt thee above the height of the earth. For he is exalted above the height of the earth who tramples underfoot by contempt of mind even those things which appear high and glorious in the present age." And St. Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer: "He who has renounced the world is greater than its honors and kingdom; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms." Thus Moses was more glorious than Pharaoh, whose glory was submerged in the Red Sea; Elias than King Ahab, Eliseus than Joram, John the Baptist than Herod, St. Athanasius than Constantine, St. Ambrose than Theodosius, St. Basil than Julian.
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
3:1
… The generic sense of "teaching" also appears in the didactic books: the t. is given by God to his faithful one (Job 22, 22; Ps. 78, 1 Heb.), by the sages (Prov. 3, 1; 4, 2; 6, 23; 7, 2; 13, 14), by the mother (ibid. 1, 8; 6, 20; 31, 26); Yahweh (or his representative) will give it in the messianic kingdom (Is. 2, 3 = Mic. 4, 2; Jer. 31, …
3:9
… Deut. 18:4; Neh. 10:36[37]; Ez. 44:30). No offering is so attested and recommended as this one of the first fruits (I Sam. 2:29; II Chron. 31:5: Hezekiah restores it to honor; Neh. 10:36: it is resumed after the exile; Ez. 44:30; Mal. 3:8; Tob. 1:6; Prov. 3:9; Ezel. 7:34 [31]; 35:10; I Mach. 3:49). Later rabbis, basing themselves on Deut. 8:8, determined the offering of the first fruits in the seven common fruits of Palestine: wheat, barley, …
3:13
The declarative exclamation beginning with "blessed" (Heb. 'ashre, "blessings of...") occurs in the Old Testament (Deut. 33:29; 1 Sam. 10:8; Job 5:17; Prov. 3:13, 18, and 6 other times; Eccles. 10:17; Is. 30:18; 32:20; 56:2; Dan. 12:12), especially in the Psalms (Ps. 1:1, and 25 other times). …
… Holy Scripture (Prov. 3, 13-14; 4, 5-9; Sap. 6, 9; Eccl. 6, 18-37) exalts the prudent man and identifies p. with wisdom, since it is proper to the wise man to order his whole life in relation to the ultimate …
3:18
The whole teaching of the Old and New Testaments echoes it (Apoc. 2:7; Prov. 3:18; 11:30; etc.; Wis. 2:23 ff.; Io. 8:44; Rom. 5:12, 14; I Cor. 15:21 ff., etc.). …
… 2:18; 7:27); there are heaped up those who forget God, sinners (ibid. 9:18; 21:16), despisers of the Law (Eccl. 41:11). It appears ever more as the "wages" of sin (cf. Rom. 2:7; 5:12, 21; 6:23), in opposition to the "life" reserved for the good (Prov. 3:18; 8:35; 9:6; 12:2; 16:21); to the f. that is below is opposed "the way of life" that leads on high (Prov. 15:24). Even after the exile, the twofold conception coexists, partly interpenetrating, …
3:19
… Actus meos viderunt oculi tui» (cf. also Pss. 7, 43, 103, 146 etc.; and furthermore: Prov. 3:19; Wis. 9:2; 14:2; Jer. 11:20; 23:24; 32:19). From the New Testament it suffices to recall Rom. 11:33: «O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei». …
3:32
… 2:10; 5:2); this is the perfect one. Simplicity keeps the intention (v.) upright and seeks God in everything; purity illumines even the deepest affections, and succeeds in finding God in everything (Matt. 5:8); because God converses with the simple (Prov. 3:32).
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.