Documents on several heads.
He that is suretie for an other, must haue care to discharge that he promiseth. 6. The slouthful must lerne diligence of the emmotte. 12. The description of an Apostata. 16. Aboue other six bad thinges, God detesteth the sower of discord. 20. Al are exhorted to kepe Gods law, 24. namely to flee fornication, and al occasions therof.
1My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast engaged fast thy hand to a stranger,Figliuol mio, se tu sei entrato mallevadore pel tuo amico, tu hai impegnata la tua mano con uno stranieroMY sonne, if thou shalt be suretie for thy freind, and hast made fast thy hand to a stranger,Fili mi, si spoponderis pro amico tuo, / defixisti apud extraneum manum tuam: 2Thou art ensnared with the words of thy mouth, and caught with thy own words.Ti se' legato mediante le parole della tua bocca, e il tuo parlare è stato il tuo laccio.thou art entrapped with the wordes of thy mouth, & caught with thyne owne wordes.illaqueatus es verbis oris tui, / et captus propriis sermonibus. 3Do, therefore, my son, what I say, and deliver thyself: because thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Run about, make haste, stir up thy friend:Fa pertanto, figliuol mio, quello, ch'io dico: e libera te stesso, perocché tu se' caduto nelle mani del prossimo tuo: corri in questa, e in quella parte, affrettati, sveglia il tuo amico,Doe therefore my sonne that which I say, and deliuer thyselfe, because thou art fallen into the hand of thy neighbour. Runne diuers wayes, make hast, rayse thy freind:Fac ergo quod dico, fili mi, et temetipsum libera, / quia incidisti in manum proximi tui. / Discurre, festina, suscita amicum tuum. 4Give not sleep to thy eyes, neither let thy eyelids slumber.Non lasciar prendere dal sonno i tuoi occhi, e non assonnino le tue pupille:Geue not sleepe to thine eies, neither let thine eieliddes slumber.Ne dederis somnum oculis tuis, / nec dormitent palpebræ tuæ. 5Deliver thyself as a doe from the hand, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.Scappa come un daino dal laccio, e come un uccello dalla mano dell'uccellatore.Deliuer thyselfe as a litle doa from the hand, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler.Eruere quasi damula de manu, / et quasi avis de manu aucupis. 6Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom:Va, o pigro dalla formica, e il fare di lei considera, e impara ad esser saggio:Goe to the emmote ô sluggard, and consider her wayes, and lerne wisdom.Vade ad formicam, o piger, / et considera vias ejus, et disce sapientiam. 7Which, although she hath no guide, nor master, nor captain,Ella senza aver condottiero, né precettore, né principe,Who wheras she hath no guide, nor master, nor captaine,Quæ cum non habeat ducem, / nec præceptorem, nec principem, 8Provideth her meat for herself in the summer, and gathereth her food in the harvest.Prepara nell'estate il suo sostentamento, e al tempo della messe raccoglie il suo mangiare.prepareth meate for herselfe in the summer, and gethereth in the haruest for to eareparat in æstate cibum sibi, / et congregat in messe quod comedat.
9How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? when wilt thou arise out of thy sleep?Fino a quando, o pigro, dormirai tu? quando ti sveglierai dal tuo sonno?How long wilt thou sleepe ô sluggard? when wilt thou rise out of thy sleepe?Usquequo, piger, dormies ? / quando consurges e somno tuo ? 10Thou wilt sleep a little, thou wilt slumber a little, thou wilt fold thy hands a little to sleep:Un pochetto dormirai, un pochetto assonnerai, un pochetto stropiccerai una mano coll'altra per riposarti;Thou shalt sleepe a litle, a litle shalt thou slumber, a litle shalt thou ioyne thy handes to sleepe:Paululum dormies, paululum dormitabis, / paululum conseres manus ut dormias; 11And want shall come upon thee, as a traveller, and poverty as a man armed. But if thou be diligent, thy harvest shall come as a fountain, and want shall flee far from thee.E l'indigenza verrà a te come un ladrone, e la povertà come un uomo armato. Ma se tu sarai diligente, le tue ricolte saranno come una sorgente (perenne), e anderà lungi da te la miseria.and penurie shal come to thee, as a wayfaring man, and pouertie as a man armed. But if thou be not sluggish, thy haruest shal come as a fountaine, and penurie shal flee farre from thee.et veniet tibi quasi viator egestas, / et pauperies quasi vir armatus. / Si vero impiger fueris, veniet ut fons messis tua, / et egestas longe fugiet a te. 12A man that is an apostate, an unprofitable man, walketh with a perverse mouth,L'uomo apostata, creatura non buona a nulla, ha per uso una bocca perversa,A man that is an Apostata, a man vnprofitable, goeth with peruerse mouth,Homo apostata, vir inutilis, graditur ore perverso; 13He winketh with the eyes, presseth with the foot, speaketh with the finger.Ammicca cogli occhi; preme col piede, parla colle dita,winketh with the eies, treadeth with the foote, speaketh with the finger,annuit oculis, terit pede, digito loquitur, 14With a wicked heart he deviseth evil, and at all times he soweth discord.Nel cattivo suo cuore macchina iniquità, e in ogni tempo semina discordie:with wicked hart he deuiseth euil, and at al time he soweth brawles.pravo corde machinatur malum, / et omni tempore jurgia seminat. 15To such a one his destruction shall presently come, and he shall suddenly be destroyed, and shall no longer have any remedy.Verrà sopra di lui repentinamente la sua perdizione, e subitamente sarà percosso, né vi sarà più per lui medicina.To him his destruction shal come forthwith, and he shal sodenlie be destroyed, neither shal he haue remedie any more.Huic extemplo veniet perditio sua, / et subito conteretur, nec habebit ultra medicinam.
16Six things there are, which the Lord hateth, and the seventh his soul detesteth:Sei sono le cose, che il Signore ha in odio, e la settima è all'anima di lui in esecrazione:Six thinges there are, which our Lord hateth, and the seuenth his soule detesteth:Sex sunt quæ odit Dominus, / et septimum detestatur anima ejus: 17Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood,Gli occhi altieri, la lingua bugiarda, le mani che spargono il sangue innocente,Loftie eies, a lying tongue, handes that shede innocent bloud,oculos sublimes, linguam mendacem, / manus effundentes innoxium sanguinem, 18A heart that deviseth wicked plots, feet that are swift to run into mischief,Il cuore che macchina perversi disegni, i piedi veloci a correre al male,a hart that deuiseth most wicked deuises, feete swift to runne into euil,cor machinans cogitationes pessimas, / pedes veloces ad currendum in malum, 19A deceitful witness that uttereth lies, and him that soweth discord among brethren.Il testimone falso che spaccia menzogne, e colui che tra' fratelli semina discordie.a deceitful witnesse that vttereth lies, and him that among brether soweth discordes.proferentem mendacia testem fallacem, / et eum qui seminat inter fratres discordias. 20My son, keep the commandments of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.Figliuol mio, fa conserva de' precetti del padre tuo, e non metter da parte la legge della tua madre:My sonne keepe the preceptes of thy father, and leaue not the lawe of thy mother.Conserva, fili mi, præcepta patris tui, / et ne dimittas legem matris tuæ. 21Bind them in thy heart continually, and put them about thy neck.Imprimili per sempre nel tuo cuore, e fanne collana al tuo collo.Bynde them in thy hart continualy, and put them about thy throte.Liga ea in corde tuo jugiter, / et circumda gutturi tuo. 22When thou walkest, let them go with thee: when thou sleepest, let them keep thee, and when thou awakest, talk with them.Teco vengano per viaggio, nel dormire ti custodiscano, e con essi confabula quando ti svegli:When thou shalt walke, let them goe with thee: when thou shalt sleepe, let them kepe thee, and awaking talke with them.Cum ambulaveris, gradiantur tecum; / cum dormieris, custodiant te: / et evigilans loquere cum eis. 23Because the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and reproofs of instruction are the way of life:Imperocché il comandamento è una lampana, e la legge è luce, è la correzione della disciplina è strada di vita.Because the commandment is a lampe, and the lawe a light, and the way of life the increpation of discipline:Quia mandatum lucerna est, et lex lux, / et via vitæ increpatio disciplinæ:
24That they may keep thee from the evil woman, and from the flattering tongue of the stranger.Elle ti salveranno dalla donna malvaggia, e dalla lingua adulatrice di donna straniera.that they may kepe thee from the euil woman, and from the faire spoken tongue of the stranger.ut custodiant te a muliere mala, / et a blanda lingua extraneæ. 25Let not thy heart covet her beauty, be not caught with her winks:Il tuo cuore non desideri la sua bellezza, e non lasciarti prendere da' suoi sguardi:Let not thy hart couet her beautie, be not caught with her beckes:Non concupiscat pulchritudinem ejus cor tuum, / nec capiaris nutibus illius: 26For the price of a harlot is scarce one loaf: but the woman catcheth the precious soul of a man.Perocché una tal donna vale a mala pena il prezzo di un pane; e questa donna fa preda dell'anima preziosa d'un uomo.for the price of an harlot is scarse worth one loafe: but a woman catcheth the precious soule of man.pretium enim scorti vix est unius panis, / mulier autem viri pretiosam animam capit. 27Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn?Può egli un uomo nascondersi in seno il fuoco, senza che si abbrucino le sue vesti?Can a man hide fyre in his bosome, that his garmentes burne not?Numquid potest homo abscondere ignem in sinu suo, / ut vestimenta illius non ardeant ? 28Or can he walk upon hot coals, and his feet not be burnt?Ovver camminare sopra gli accesi carboni, senza scottarsi i suoi piedi.Or walke vpon hote coales, that his soales be not burnt?aut ambulare super prunas, / ut non comburantur plantæ ejus ? 29So he that goeth in to his neighbour’s wife, shall not be clean when he shall touch her.Così chi s'appressa alla donna altrui, non sarà mondo quando l'avrà toccata.so he that goeth in vnto his neighbours wife, shal not be cleane when he shal touche her.sic qui ingreditur ad mulierem proximi sui, / non erit mundus cum tetigerit eam. 30The fault is not so great when a man hath stolen: for he stealeth to fill his hungry soul:Non è gran peccato, che uno rubi, mentre ruba per empire l'affamato suo ventre:It is no greate fault, when a man shal haue stollen: for he stealeth to fil his hungrie soule:Non grandis est culpa cum quis furatus fuerit: / furatur enim ut esurientem impleat animam; 31And if he be taken, he shall restore sevenfold, and shall give up all the substance of his house.E scoperto ch'ei sia renderà anche il settuplo, e darà tutto quel, che ha in sua casa.also being taken he shal restore seuenfold, and shal geue vp al the substance of his house.deprehensus quoque reddet septuplum, / et omnem substantiam domus suæ tradet. 32But he that is an adulterer, for the folly of his heart shall destroy his own soul:Ma l'adultero per la sua insensataggine manderà in rovina l'anima sua:But he that is an aduouterer, for penurie of harr shal destroy his owne soule:Qui autem adulter est, / propter cordis inopiam perdet animam suam;
33He gathereth to himself shame and dishonour, and his reproach shall not be blotted out:Egli si va accumulando obbrobri, e ignominie, e la sua infamia non sarà mai scancellata:shame and ignominie he gethereth to himsefe, & his reproch shal not be blotted out.turpitudinem et ignominiam congregat sibi, / et opprobrium illius non delebitur: 34Because the jealousy and rage of the husband will not spare in the day of revenge,Perocché la gelosia, e il furor del marito noi risparmierà nel giorno della vendetta,Because the zele and furie of the husband wil not spare in the day of reuenge,quia zelus et furor viri / non parcet in die vindictæ, 35Nor will he yield to any man’s prayers, nor will he accept for satisfaction ever so many gifts.Né si placherà alle preghiere di chicchessia, né accetterà in compenso i doni anche in gran numero.neither wil he yeld to any mans prayers, neither wil he take for redemption verie many giftes.nec acquiescet cujusquam precibus, / nec suscipiet pro redemptione dona plurima.
6:1
Xenophon
Hand. Agreements were made by shaking hands, Isaias 62:8. (Xenophon, Anab. iii.)
Calmet
Stranger. Septuagint, "enemy." He will presently be such, or thy friend's creditor will soon lay hold on thee. By standing surety for another, we expose ourselves to be ruined by his negligence. (Calmet)
The Persians had a horror chiefly of lying and debts. (Herodotus 1:138.)
Menochius
All sureties are not condemned, but only such as are inconsiderate. (Menochius)
Worthington
A diligent compliance with engagements is commended. (Worthington)
6:3
Calmet
Make. Hebrew, "humble thyself, and made sure thy friend," (Protestant) entreating (Haydock) and forcing him to pay his debts. The Fathers apply this to pastors, who have undertaken to direct others. Their soul is at stake. (St. Gregory) (Calmet)
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Pliny
Harvest. The economy and diligence of this little republic is admirable. (Pliny, [Natural History?] 30:11.)
Calmet
Some copies of the Septuagint add with St. Ambrose, (Hex. V. []1., etc.; Calmet) "or go to the bee, and behold what a worker it is, and how beautiful is its work; whose labours kings and private people use for health. But it is desirable and glorious to all; and though it be weak in strength, by the love of wisdom it has got forward" (Haydock) in esteem. (Calmet)
Tournemine
Nature has given the form of a monarchy in bees, and of a democracy in the regulations of the ant. (Tournemine)
6:11
Menochius
A traveller. Septuagint add, "wicked," and Hebrew gives the idea of a robber. (Menochius)
Calmet
But, etc. This is not in Hebrew, Complutensian, or St. Jerome. (Calmet)
6:12
Calmet
Apostate. Hebrew, "of Belial,["] without restraint of religion and law. (Calmet)
Menochius
Deuteronomy 13:13. (Menochius)
Worthington
Every one who sins through malice and particularly heretics, employ all their members to pervert others. (Worthington)
Calmet
Mouth. No reliance can be had on his promises. (Calmet)
6:13
Calmet
Finger. These signs imply haughtiness, etc., Psalm 34:19., and Isaias 58:9. The posture indicates the interior sentiments, (St. Ambrose, off. 1:18.) insomuch, that St. Ambrose would not receive among the clergy one whose gestures were too light. The Persians still speak by signs. (Calmet)
6:16
Menochius
Detesteth. This expression does not always mean that the last is worse than the former. (Menochius)
Worthington
All the six sins are damnable, but the seventh is here most so, being against charity and unity, and the devil's sin. (Worthington)
Calmet
Lying seems to be reprobated by three different terms. (Calmet)
6:23
Instruction. Given for our improvement, (Haydock) with charity. See Deuteronomy 6:6., and Psalm 18:9.
6:24
Stranger. This is often inculcated, because nothing is more dangerous in youth, nor more contrary to the study of wisdom.
6:26
Calmet
Woman. Who is married, exposes her lover to the danger of death. She chooses the most accomplished men, while the harlot receives the first comer. (Calmet)
6:27
Menochius
Burn. No one can deal with an adulteress without guilt. (Menochius)
Worthington
All probable occasions of sin must be shunned. (Worthington)
6:29
Clean. Or be left unpunished. No crime disturbs the order of society so much, nor is pardoned with more difficulty.
6:30
Challoner
The fault is not so great, etc. The sin of theft is not so great, as to be compared with adultery: especially when a person pressed with hunger (which is the case here spoken of) steals to satisfy nature. Moreover the damage done by theft may much more easily be repaired, than the wrong done by adultery. But this does not hinder but that theft also is a mortal sin, forbidden by one of the ten commandments. (Challoner)
Haydock
Hebrew, "they will not despise a thief, when he hath stolen to fill his soul, when he is hunger." (Mont.[Montanus?]) (Haydock)
6:31
Calmet
Seven-fold. Or as much as may be required. The law never subjected the thief to restore above five-fold. If he had not enough, his person might be sold. (Calmet)
6:32
Haydock
Folly. Literally, "want," inopiam. Hebrew, "is faint-hearted, corrupting his own soul, he will do that." (Haydock)
6:35
St. Jerome in Amos vi
Gifts. "A husband would rather hear that his wife had been slain, than that she had been defiled." (St. Jerome in Amos vi.)
6:30
The fault is not so great, etc.... The sin of theft is not so great, as to be compared with adultery: especially when a person pressed with hunger (which is the case here spoken of) steals to satisfy nature. Moreover the damage done by theft may much more easily be repaired, than the wrong done by adultery. But this does not hinder, but that theft also is a mortal sin, forbidden by one of the ten commandments.
6:1
The vvisman doth not absolutly disvvade from al maner of suretishippe, but from rashly, or vnaduisedly ansvvering for others. And especially exhorteth to vse al diligence in performing, or causing others to performe that vvhich is promised or couenanted.
6:12
Euerie one that sinneth vvittingly and of malice refusing to obey God, imployeth his mouth, eyes, feete, handes and al partes vvith a vvicked hart and intention to peruerte others: most proper to heretikes, apostates from the faith.
6:19
The forme• six are al damnable, but this seuenth is most detestable, because it is opposite to the chief vertue charitie, it breaketh vnitie, & is the proper sinne of the diuel.
6:27
Al occasions of sinne, especially probable are to be shunned.
6:30
Theift is also mortal sinne, against the seuenth cōmandment, but not so great as adulterie.
6:1
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.4
… vi. 6 ): but the other is terribly admonished, when it is said, My son, if thou be surety for thy friend, thou hast stricken thy hand with a stranger, and art snared with the words of thy mouth, and art taken with thine own speeches (
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.14
… The look of a harlot is the snare of him who loves her. Our own eyes are nets to us, wherefore it is written: “Be not taken with thine eyes.” So, then, we spread nets for ourselves in which we are entangled and hampered. We bind chains on ourselves, as we read: “For every one is bound with the chains of his own sins.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 15.4
13. The licentiousness of the tongue is a great snare, and needs a strong bridle. Therefore also some one saith. “His own lips are a powerful snare to a man, and he is snared by the words of his own mouth.”
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.4
… Thus in the passage above cited this exhortation is also presently added, Do therefore what I say, my son, and deliver thyself, seeing thou hast fallen into the hands of thy neighbour: run up and down, hasten, arouse thy friend; give not sleep to thine eyes, nor let thine eyelids slumber (
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.4
… vi. 3 ). For whosoever is put over others for an example of life is admonished not only to keep watch himself, but also to arouse his friend. For it is not enough for him to keep watch in living well, if he do not also sever him when he is set over from the torpor of sin. For it is well said, Give not sleep to thine eyes, nor let thine eyelids slumber (
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 42.2
… Learn then, brother, that it is not he who begins well who is perfect. It is he who ends well who is approved in God’s sight. Give then no sleep to your eyes or slumber to your eyelids that you may be delivered “as a roe from the net and a bird from the snare.”
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… A long-suffering man is strong in his wisdom; the man of little mind is very unwise. He who oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker. The tongue of the wise knoweth good things, but the mouth of fools speaketh evil. A quarrelsome man preferreth strife, and every one that lifteth up his heart is unclean before God.
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St Basil the Great † AD 379 The Letters 8.12
… just so the mind, imprisoned in flesh, and full of the thoughts that arise thence, requires faith and right conversation which make “its feet like hinds’ feet, and set it on its high places.” The same advice is given us by Solomon the wise, who in one passage offers us the example of the diligent worker the ant,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 9.13
… for when a man passes his youth in idleness, then he is instructed by the irrational animals, being reproved by the divine Scripture saying, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, see and emulate her ways, and become wiser than she
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Exposition of the Christian Faith 4.4
46. When they say, “The Son can do nothing of Himself,” they indeed except nothing, so that one blasphemer has even said: “He cannot make even a gnat,”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 12.5
… For example; the ant is industrious, and per forms a laborious task. By giving heed then, thou wilt receive the strongest admonition from this animal not to indulge in sloth, nor to shun labour and toil. Therefore also the Scripture has sent the sluggard to the ant, saying, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, emulate his ways, and be wiser than he.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 7
… Since so long as thou sinnest the Scripture sends thee not to a woman only, but even to things irrational, and those of the viler sort; yea, it is not ashamed to send thee who art honored with reason, as a disciple to the ant.
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 17
… This God also did unto the Jews, when He said, “Go ye forth unto the Isles of Chittim, and send unto Kedar, and know if nations will change their gods; which yet are no gods.” And to the brutes likewise He sends us oftentimes, saying on this wise, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and emulate her ways:” and “go forth to the bee.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 21
… For had He spoken of those righteous men, these would have been able to say, “We are not yet become like them.” But now by passing them over in silence, and bringing forward the fowls of the air, He hath cut off from them every excuse, imitating in this place also the old law. Yea, for the old covenant likewise sends to the bee, and to the ant,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 67.3
… He fleeth when he hath suffered loss from the place where before the eyes of men with the display of riches he used to vaunt himself; now in the eyes of men to vaunt himself he is not able: to himself within he returneth not, because he hath nothing. He hath not imitated the ant, he hath not gathered to himself grains, while it was summer.
Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.4
… To the one, who is at leisure for his own concerns, it is said, Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom (
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 17
… This God also did unto the Jews, when He said, “Go ye forth unto the Isles of Chittim, and send unto Kedar, and know if nations will change their gods; which yet are no gods.” And to the brutes likewise He sends us oftentimes, saying on this wise, “Go to the ant, thou sluggard, and emulate her ways:” and “go forth to the bee.”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 125.11
Graft unfruitful stocks with buds and slips that you may shortly be rewarded for your toil by plucking sweet apples from them. Construct also hives for bees, for to these the proverbs of Solomon send you,
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 49.1.12
… do they, because they see not what they have got, on that account lose it? Fear not: boys put in a money-box, and are secure: dost thou place it in the hand of Christ, and fear? Be prudent, and provide for thyself against the future in Heaven. Be therefore prudent, copy the ant, as saith the Scripture:
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
… The night cometh when no man can work after our departure hence. The one is the voice of David, the other of the True Light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. And consider how Solomon reproves you who are too idle or lethargic, saying, How long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard,
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Pope St Gregory I the Great † AD 604 The Book of Pastoral Rule 3.23
… xiii. 28 ). Of a member of him also it is said through Solomon, An apostate person, an unprofitable man, walketh with a perverse mouth, he winketh with his eyes, he beateth with his foot, he speaketh with his finger, with froward heart he deviseth mischief continually, he soweth strifes (
6:17
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… the man of little mind is very unwise. He who oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker. The tongue of the wise knoweth good things, but the mouth of fools speaketh evil. A quarrelsome man preferreth strife, and every one that lifteth up his heart is unclean before God. Though hand join with hand unjustly, they shall not be unpunished.
6:18
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. Devise not evil against thy friend. Be not angry with a man without a cause. The impious exalt contumely. Remove from thee the evil mouth, keep far from thee the wicked lips, the eyes of him that speaketh evil, the tongue of the unjust, the hands which shed the blood of the just,
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St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 51.6
6. Oh! the madness and folly of those who have forsaken the teaching of the book of Proverbs, “My son, keep thy father’s commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother,”
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St Gregory of Nazianzus † AD 389 Select Orations of Saint Gregory Nazianzen 40
VI. Light was also the firstborn commandment given to the firstborn man (for the commandment of the Law is a lamp and a light;
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.14
… You see, then, that our mind is the cause of our guilt. And so the flesh is innocent, but is often the minister of sin. Let not, then, desire of beauty overcome you. Many nets and many snares are spread by the devil. The look of a harlot is the snare of him who loves her. Our own eyes are nets to us, wherefore it is written: “Be not taken with thine eyes.”
Pseudo-Clement The Second Epistle of the Same Clement 13
… So whosoever goeth in to another man’s wife is not pure from evil, and whosoever comes near to her shall not escape.” And again it says: “Thou shalt not long after the beauty a woman, lest she take thee captive with her eyelids;”
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St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.28
… Now that he may not cry out that both Solomon and others under the law, prophets and holy men, have been dishonoured by us, let us show what this very man with his many wives and concubines thought of marriage. For no one can know better than he who suffered through them, what a wife or woman is. Well then, he says in the Proverbs:
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 City of God 2.5
… such a character as the most profligate man would be ashamed to have for his mother, and meaning to enthral the minds of the Romans, demanded for her service their best citizen, not to ripen him still more in virtue by her helpful counsel, but to entangle him by her deceit, like her of whom it is written, “The adulteress will hunt for the precious soul.”
Pseudo-Clement The Second Epistle of the Same Clement 9
… This man, who was a Nazarite, and consecrated to God, and who was gifted with strength and might, a woman brought to ruin with her wretched body, and with her vile passion. Art thou, perchance, such a man as he? Know thyself, and know the measure of thy strength. “The married woman catcheth precious souls.”
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St Hippolytus † AD 235 On Proverbs 1
… And Paul for this reason kept “under his body, and brought it into subjection.” And, figuratively speaking, he keeps a fire in his breast who permits an impure thought to dwell in his heart. And he walks upon coals who, by sinning in act, destroys his own soul.
Aphrahat † AD 346 Aphrahat: Select Demonstrations 6.7
… and if I leave His service and serve thee, my betrothed will be wroth with me, and will write me a letter of divorce, and will send me away from His house; and while thou seekest to be honoured by me, and I to be honoured by thee, take heed lest hurt come upon me and thee. Take not fire into thy bosom,
St Cyril of Jerusalem † AD 386 The Catechetical Lectures of S. Cyril 2.1
… For suppose that a man is holding fire in his hand; as long as he holds fast the live coal he is sure to be burned, but should he put away the coal, he would have cast away the flame also with it. If however any one thinks that he is not being burned when sinning, to him the Scripture saith, Shall a man wrap up fire in his bosom, and not burn his clothes
St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.14
… For we wish for the most part to flee, but if we do not wholly cast it out of our mind, we rather take it up than forsake it. Let us then spring over it, lest it be said to us: “Walk ye in the flame of your fire, which ye have kindled for yourselves.” For as he who “takes fire into his bosom burns his clothes,”
St Jerome † AD 420 The Letters of St. Jerome 22.14
… Both alike profess to have but one object, to find spiritual consolation from those not of their kin; but their real aim is to indulge in sexual intercourse. It is on such that Solomon in the book of proverbs heaps his scorn. “Can a man take fire in his bosom,” he says, “and his clothes not be burned? Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?”
St Jerome † AD 420 Against Jovinianus 1.7
… At the same time we must notice the Apostle’s prudence. He did not say, it is good not to have a wife: but, it is good not to touch a woman: as though there were danger even in the touch: as though he who touched her, would not escape from her who “hunteth for the precious life,” who causeth the young man’s understanding to fly away.
St Augustine of Hippo † AD 430 Expositions on the Book of Psalms 58.12
… Evil lust is like a burning and a fire. Doth fire consume a garment, and doth not the lust of adultery consume the soul? Of meditated adultery when the Scripture was speaking it saith, “Shall one bind fire in his bosom, and his garments shall he not burn up?”
Pseudo-Clement The Second Epistle of the Same Clement 13
… For they did not keep in mind that which is said: “Look thou not on the beauty which is another’s;” and, “The beauty of woman has destroyed many;” and “With a married woman do not sit;” and that, again, in which it says: “Is there any one that puts fire in his bosom, and does not burn his clothes;”
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St Ambrose of Milan † AD 397 Concerning Repentance 1.14
… Let us then spring over it, lest it be said to us: “Walk ye in the flame of your fire, which ye have kindled for yourselves.” For as he who “takes fire into his bosom burns his clothes,” so he who walks upon fiery coals must of necessity burn his feet, as it is written: “Can one walk upon coals of fire and not burn his feet?”
Pseudo-Clement The Second Epistle of the Same Clement 13
… “Is there any one that puts fire in his bosom, and does not burn his clothes;” or, “Does a man walk on fire, and his feet are not scorched? So whosoever goeth in to another man’s wife is not pure from evil, and whosoever comes near to her shall not escape.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies on the Statues to the People of Antioch 10.11
… For not every sin brings the same penalty; but those which are easiest to be amended, bring upon us the greatest punishment: which indeed Solomon intimated, when he said, “It is not wonderful if any one be taken stealing; for he stealeth that he may satisfy his soul that is hungry; but the adulterer, by the lack of understanding, destroyeth his own soul.”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 72
And from the equality of the offenses themselves, “It is not marvellous if one be taken stealing;”
St Jerome † AD 420 Jerome's Apology for Himself Against the Books of Rufinus 3.43
… A quarrelsome man preferreth strife, and every one that lifteth up his heart is unclean before God. Though hand join with hand unjustly, they shall not be unpunished. He that loveth life must be sparing to his mouth. Insolence goeth before bruising, and evil thoughts before a fall.
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Tertullian † AD 220 On Modesty 18
… “But the adulterer,” he says, “through indigence of senses acquireth perdition to his own soul; sustaineth dolors and disgraces. His ignominy, moreover, shall not be wiped away for the age. For indignation, full of jealousy, will not spare the man in the day of judgment.”
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St John Chrysostom † AD 407 The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom 4
… For so far from punishing, he was not minded even to make an example of her. Seest thou a man under self-restraint, and freed from the most tyrannical of passions. For ye know how great a thing jealousy is: and therefore He said, to whom these things are clearly known, “For full of jealousy is the rage of a husband;”
St John Chrysostom † AD 407 Homilies on Titus 4
… For if he had not greatly reverenced and esteemed him from his former conduct, he would have thrust his sword through his body, and dispatched him at once. “For jealousy is the rage of a man; therefore he will not regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though thou givest many gifts.” (
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1 AND 2. MY SON, IF THOU BE SURETY FOR THY FRIEND, THOU HAST ENGAGED THY HAND TO A STRANGER, THOU ART ENSNARED WITH THE WORDS OF THY MOUTH, AND CAUGHT WITH THINE OWN WORDS. — He taught the young man to beware of a harlot, lest he squander his wealth with her; now he teaches the same young man to beware of rash suretyship (for it is rare and prudent, honest, and a work of beneficence and charity), which in like manner often exhausts wealth. For there are improvident youths who immediately become surety for any friend whatsoever, and therefore when he fails they are compelled to pay the debt, whereby it comes to pass that they often cast themselves and their family into great straits, and reduce themselves to extreme poverty, nay even to prison. He treated the same argument of suretyship more fully in Ecclesiasticus, cap. XXIX, 19 and following, and I there; wherefore here I shall be brief with Solomon. The sense is, as if to say: If thou bindest thy faith and thyself for the crime or debt of another, namely that thou wilt take care that the guilty party purge the crime, or satisfy for him, and thus pay the appointed penalty, or as a debtor pay the debt; thou hast engaged, that is, by stipulation and engagement thou hast bound thyself in thy hand to the creditor's hand. Whence the Chaldean translator renders it clearly, thou hast promised to pay the stranger with thy hand; the Syrian, thou hast stretched out thy hand to the stranger; the Septuagint, thou shalt give thy hand to thine enemy; the Scholiast, thou hast fixed thy hand in a chain. Hence our Martin of Roa, lib. I Singularities, cap. IV, thus expounds it: Thou hast engaged thy hand to a stranger, that is, thou hast given the stranger right and power, that he may seize thee by the hand and as it were call thee as his debtor before the judge, and recover what thou hast promised. Moreover, thou art ensnared with the words of thy mouth, because with thy mouth thou hast promised that thou wilt pay the debt, or expiate the crime of the friend for whom thou hast become surety; and thou art caught with the words of thy mouth, that is, by thy promise thou hast bound thyself, and as it were delivered thyself captive to the creditor or judge, that he may be able to seize thee and cast thee into prison, if, the debtor failing, thou dost not pay his debt. Whence the Septuagint renders it, For a snare is a strong thing to a man, and he is caught with the words of his mouth. The Philosophers likewise counselled the same. That saying of Thales is famous: Promise, and harm is at hand. Whence Ausonius adds in the said saying of Thales: Through a thousand examples can I run, to prove Sureties and pledges guilty of repentance. And that of Chilon: Suretyship is not without loss. Whence Pliny, lib. VII, cap. XXXII: Mortals, he says, gave to Chilon the fellowship of oracles, consecrating three of his precepts at Delphi with golden letters, which are these: Let each one know himself; and desire nothing in excess; and let misery be the companion of borrowed money and litigation. Chersias, in Plutarch's Banquet of Plato, relates a fable of Homer concerning Ate, which, because she was present at Jupiter's suretyship concerning the birth of Hercules, was cast down by him to the earth. Symbolically, some adapt this to Christ, who underwent suretyship for our debts and sins, and exhibited himself as surety and pledge to God the Father as creditor, when in fact he paid our debts and expiated our crimes, when he permitted his hands to be fixed to the cross. Mystically, refer this to pastors, bishops, princes and kings, who bind themselves to God and promise that they will take care for the salvation of their subjects: wherefore if their subjects perish through their negligence, God will require their blood from their hand. Whence the Septuagint renders it, My son, if thou be surety for thy friend; Aquila, for thy companion; Symmachus and Theodotion, for thy neighbour, namely that thou wilt make him safe and present him saved to God. Thus Bede and St. Bernard: God, he says, is a friend in suretyship, but a stranger in exacting the account. Hear St. Gregory, III part of the Pastoral, admonition 5: To be surety for a friend is to take another's soul in peril of one's own conduct. Whence also the hand is engaged to a stranger, because the mind is bound to the care of solicitude, which was lacking before. But with the words of his mouth he is ensnared, and caught with his own words, because while he is compelled to speak good things to those committed to him, it is first necessary for him to keep what he has said. Let him therefore be ensnared with the words of his mouth, when by reason's demand he is constrained, lest his life be relaxed to anything other than what he admonishes. Whence before the strict judge he is compelled to pay in deed as much as it is known he has commanded to others by voice. For on the day of judgment Christ the judge will say to the Bishop, Pastor, Superior that word of Jeremiah XIII, 20: Where is the flock that was given to thee, thy beautiful flock? What wilt thou say, when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and hast instructed them to thy own head, by giving evil examples of life, contrary to those which thou didst teach by mouth. Shall not sorrows take hold on thee, as a woman in travail? Whence St. Thomas in cap. XIII to the Hebrews, lect. 3, upon "thou hast bound thy hand, and thou art ensnared by the words of thy mouth," thus explains it, as if to say: O pastor, thou hast bound thyself to God, that for thy flock thou shouldest expend thy hand and thy mouth, so that whatsoever thou canst speak with thy mouth, and whatsoever thou canst work with thy hand for the salvation of thy flock, this by thy pledge thou art bound to perform, namely to feed thy flock by the example of all virtue, and by the perpetual eloquence of doctrine. Again, others accommodate these things especially to religious vows, as if to say: If thou hast vowed to God chastity, poverty, obedience, for a friend, that is for thy soul to be saved, by thy vows thou art bound before God. Therefore run, hasten, give not sleep to thine eyes, direct all thy cares, that thou mayest render to God the vows which thy lips have uttered. Thou runnest, if with the inward eyes of thy mind thou dost survey the dangers of violating thy vows. Thou runnest, if thou seekest out the means of fulfilling them. Thou runnest, if thou runnest in diverse directions, and callest to thy aid all the gifts which thou hast. Thou runnest, if thou goest from virtue to virtue, from chastity to chastity, from poverty to poverty, from obedience to obedience. But this sense is accommodated; for here there is no question of a vow, Finally, Basil in the Catena of the Greeks takes the friend mystically as the body, the pledge as the purpose of amendment. A strong snare, saith he, is the delay of penance and continence; for he who defereth too much is miserably caught at last by his own wicked works as by his own snares. And presently: Beware, saith he, lest thou be slothful or dissolute; beware lest thou lose heart, or shun the troubles of fortitude. The body which thou hast pledged to God, subdue it, and continually stir it up to the observance of the precepts which He hath set forth. Be not broken in spirit: the friend for whom thou hast pledged thyself, sharpen and stir up continually. Accustom thy flesh to labours, saith he, and exercise it in troublesome things; for now he calleth the exercise and incitement of the body by this term. And further down: But the Wise One willeth him who applieth himself to virtues by purpose to be strong in prosperity of spirit, and to raise himself mightily above the snares of adversaries, lifted up on high by the wings of virtues, namely.
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3 AND 4. DO THEREFORE WHAT I SAY, MY SON, AND DELIVER THYSELF, BECAUSE THOU ART COME INTO THE HAND OF THY NEIGHBOUR. RUN ABOUT, MAKE HASTE, ROUSE UP THY FRIEND: GIVE NOT SLEEP TO THY EYES, NOR LET THY EYELIDS SLUMBER. — Deliver thyself from the obligation of the pledge by which thou hast made thyself a debtor for thy friend's debt, and guilty for his crime to the creditor or judge, so that he now has a right over thee and thy possessions, liberty and life, and can deprive thee of thy goods, consign thee to prison, indeed deliver thee to death. Because thou hast come into the hand of thy neighbour: namely of the creditor or judge, before whom thou hast become surety. Thus Vatablus, as if to say: Although the friend and neighbour be the creditor, into whose hand thou hast come, nevertheless thou must free thyself from the obligation: how much more ought thou to hasten, if thou hadst come into the hands of a stranger; then of thy friend for whom thou hast become surety: for thou dependest on his hand, so that if he flee, or being sluggish and careless be unwilling to labour that he may satisfy the creditor for the debt, but cast it upon thee, thou must pay it; for a little before he called the friend for whom one has become surety a neighbour, but the creditor he called a stranger. For as the friend was negligent before the pledge, so after it he will become more negligent in paying the debt, trusting in thy help and thy wealth. Whence the Septuagint translate, because thou hast come into the hands of the wicked on account of thy friend; the Syriac, because on account of thy friend thou hast fallen into the hands of thy enemy. What therefore is to be done? The remedy is suggested, saying: Run about, make haste, rouse up thy friend, namely him for whom thou hast become surety, so that he may satisfy the creditor, and thus free thee from thy pledge. Whence St. Ambrose, in the book On Tobias, chapter XXIII, reads: Urge thy fellow whom thou hast pledged; the Syriac, rouse up therefore thy friend on whose account thou hast become surety; Symmachus and Theodotion, Urge thy fellow; then other friends, that they may take care that the debt be paid to the judge, or remitted by him, or that thou be freed from thy pledge. Whence in Hebrew it is robera (by exhortation) or rouse up; others, multiply thy friends in the plural: for this is what רעין reecha with iod signifies, although iod here some take as paragogic and superfluous. Our translator, the Septuagint, Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, who translate in the singular, rouse up thy friend; Pagninus, go, make thyself tread, and strengthen (Zurich, lift up) thy friend; Clarius, go, prostrate thyself, etc. Vatablus, go, humble thyself before him to whom thou hast promised, and offer thyself as it were to be trodden upon by him, so that he may free thee from the obligation of thy pledge; thus also R. Levi and Aben-Ezra. Others, go, tread thyself, that is as it were spur thyself with spurs, strengthen thyself with friends; the Septuagint, be not remiss, but urge thy friend whom thou hast pledged. For urge in Greek is παρόξυνε, that is sharpen and urge; Symmachus and Theodotion, παρίγυσον, that is urge, impel. In sum, all these versions signify that the surety must labour with all study and care to free himself from the obligation of his pledge; whence he adds: Give not sleep to thy eyes; Symmachus and Theodotion, give not slumber to thy eyes, nor let thy eyelids sleep, as if to say: Be not drowsy and slow, but watchful and keen, that thou mayest shake off this burden. Much more watchful and keen ought sponsors, or sureties, to be in Baptism and Confirmation, that they may instruct, admonish and direct the baptized and confirmed, for whom they have become surety, in the way of virtue and Christian perfection. But especially such ought Pastors to be, who have undertaken the care of souls, concerning whom St. Gregory, in the third part of the Pastoral Admonition, book 5, says: Whosoever, he says, is set forth to others as an example of living, is admonished not only that he himself watch, but also that he rouse up his friend. For it is not enough for him to watch by living well, if he does not also free from the torpor of sin him over whom he presides. But it is well said: Give not sleep to thy eyes, nor let thy eyelids slumber. For to give sleep to the eyes is, with intention ceasing, to neglect entirely the care of subjects. But the eyelids slumber, when our thoughts, which perceive in subjects what is to be reproved, dissimulate it, weighed down by sluggishness. For to sleep fully is neither to know nor to correct the acts of those committed to one's care. But not to sleep, but to slumber, is to know indeed what ought to be reproved, but nevertheless on account of weariness of mind not to correct it with fitting rebukes.
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5. ESCAPE AS A DOE FROM THE HAND, AND AS A BIRD FROM THE HAND OF THE FOWLER. — that thou mayest be saved as a doe from snares, and as a bird from the hand of the fowler; the Syriac, that thou mayest be freed like a doe from nets, and like a bird from a snare. Does are gazelles, roes are wild gazelles, which, because they are timid, guard themselves against hunters and snares, and because they are swift, flee most swiftly away, concerning which Martial, book XIII: The boar is feared for his tooth, horns defend the stag, Harmless does—what are we but prey? The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as a timid and suspicious doe most swiftly escapes and snatches herself from the hand of the hunter attempting to capture her, and as a bird by flight frees herself from the snares of the fowler: so also do thou strive that immediately thou free thyself from the hand and right of the creditor, lest he capture thee and thine and bring thee into his right
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6, 7 AND 8. GO TO THE ANT, O SLUGGARD, AND CONSIDER HER WAYS, AND LEARN WISDOM: WHICH, ALTHOUGH SHE HATH NO GUIDE, NOR MASTER, NOR PRINCE, PREPARETH HER MEAT IN THE SUMMER, AND GATHERETH HER FOOD IN THE HARVEST. — From the warning against rash suretyship, lest through it family and household property suffer, he fittingly passes to the flight from idleness and the pursuit of labor and diligence, so that through these each one may provide for himself and his family food, clothing and necessary things. He brings forward a most apt stimulus, namely the ant, which is so provident, industrious and laborious, that it seems to have been created by God for this very purpose, to present to men an example of providence, labor and diligence. Whence Horace, book I, Satires 1: For the tiny ant is an example of great labor, / It drags in its mouth whatever it can, and adds it to the heap. Moreover, the providence, cleverness and diligence of ants is manifold, and has many parts and acts to be imitated by us. First indeed the ant, by gathering grain, provides itself food in summer, that it may live on it in winter. Thus St. Basil, homily 9 on the Hexaemeron: Will you not, says he, O man, apply the same diligence? Will you not at this present time lay up crops for yourself after the example of the ant? The ant carefully stores up food for the winter season in summer, and does not, because the hardships of winter are not yet at hand, spend the time in idleness; but with a certain unceasing and intent study of gathering seeds it labors until it has stored up sufficient food in its cells. Nor does it do this carelessly, but with a certain wise providence, so that it may preserve and keep its food for as long a time as possible. For it cuts the fruits in half with its tiny claws, and stores the gnawed pieces, lest they should again sprout forth from the earth and become useless to it for nourishment. When it has felt them moistened by rain, it brings them out and dries them. Nor does it do this at all times, but when it has foreseen that the air is held in fair weather in its station, and the sky is clear. For you will never see rain flowing down from the clouds during the time that grain is exposed by ants. Secondly, the ant carries grain into its burrows, as it were into cells and storehouses, and there stores and preserves it. Whence the ant is called as it were bearing, or boring crumbs, that is perforating, says Isidore and Aldrovandus, book V On Insects, in Ant. The same we must do, namely by the labor of youth must be prepared the food of old age, and by the sweat of time the rewards of eternity. Thus Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 6: Seeing, says he, the ant treasuring up food for itself in summer, imitate it, and treasure up for yourself the fruits of good works for the ages to come. Thirdly, the ant cuts the grains and gnaws out the eyes of the seed, eating them, says Rabbi Levi, lest they germinate and rot. Whence in Hebrew it is called nemala, that is cutting, circumcising, from mol, that is it circumcises. Thus we too ought to circumcise good works from vanity, lest they burst forth into vainglory and be corrupted. Fourthly, the ant selects the better grains: thus you too, O Christian, exercise acts of better virtues, such as charity and humility. Hence Cicero, On the Nature of the Gods book III: In the ant, says he, we maintain not only sense, but also mind, reason and memory. The Pythagoreans also attributed mind and reason to the ant. Fifthly, the ant perceives fair weather, and then exposes the grains to the air; and rain, and then stores the grains in its burrows. Thus the faithful in public peace should expose his doctrine and acts of virtue, but in temptation and persecution should hide them. Hear Blessed Peter Damian, book II, epistle 18 to the Cardinal: "Who, I ask, says he, instituted the ant for this kind of threshing, that it should distinguish the grains of the harvest, and rejecting the ignoble should choose the grain of a more excellent kind? It carefully explores the heap of grain, and indeed barley, as if disdaining it as fodder for beasts, it rejects: but when it finds a grain of wheat it gladly embraces it. This creature also perceives by certain signs the time of coming fair weather, and when it sees its storerooms growing wet with aerial moisture, it carries out with its own shoulders the fruits stored for its food, and preventing domestic loss it dries them with the rays of the sun; and as if that were not enough, it cuts the grains with its own mouth, lest namely through the harshness of winter rain they should swell again, and burst forth into herbs with hope of food denied." Sixth, Pliny, book XXX, chapter XI: "Ants, he says, like bees share their labors; but bees make useful foods, these store them, and if anyone compares the burdens to their bodies, he must confess that their strength is much greater in proportion: they carry them by biting; larger things they move backwards with their hind legs, leaning on their shoulders. They have a system of government, memory, and care. They store seeds that have been gnawed, lest they sprout again into crops from the earth; they divide the larger ones at the entrance, and they bring out and dry those made wet by rain." Seventh, what the ant cannot accomplish by strength, it accomplishes by counsel and perseverance. Whence by laboring constantly it excavates paths, rocks and cliffs: it always travels the same path, which is royal and secure. Thus you also, O Philothea, walk in the royal way of the fathers: do not enter the new and doubtful and dangerous paths of innovators; and persuade yourself with certainty that there is nothing so difficult which you will not overcome by continued labor through the grace of God. Hear Aristotle, book IX of the History of Animals, chapter XXXVIII: The most diligent genus of insects before all other animals is that of ants and bees, etc. They always walk the same path, and they store food, and they make storerooms; nor do they labor by day only, but also by night in the full moon. Much more excellently St. Ambrose, book VI of the Hexameron, chapter IV: "There is, he says, in the nature of four-footed animals, what the prophetic discourse exhorts us to imitate, by which example we may beware of sloth, and not be turned back from the study of virtue by the smallness or weakness of the body, nor be recalled from the magnitude of any purpose. For the ant is small, yet it dares greater things than its strength, and is not compelled to service for work, but by spontaneous intention of foresight it provides for itself the future subsistence of food. Whose industry you should imitate, Scripture admonishes you, saying: Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and be wiser than she. For she has no cultivation, nor has she one who compels her, nor does she exist under a master, yet how does she prepare food, which she gathers from your labors as a harvest for herself: and when you often lack, she does not lack." And further down: "Black swarms carry prey through the fields; the paths teem with the company of travelers, and what cannot be grasped by a narrow mouth, large grains of wheat are thrust by shoulders. The lord of the harvest beholds this, and blushes to deny rewards to such sparing and dutiful industry." Eighth, Pliny, book XXXVII, chapter X, and book XI, chapter XXXI, says that large ants in India dig gold from sand. And he adds: The Indians steal this which has been dug by them in the winter season during the summer heat, with the ants hidden in tunnels on account of the vapor, which nevertheless, aroused by the scent, rush forth, and frequently tear them, although fleeing before the swift camels. Such is the swiftness and ferocity along with love of gold. Solinus adds another almost miraculous thing, while he attributes lion's feet to these ants: "Ants, he says, there in the form of a very large dog dig up golden sands with feet, which they have like a lion's, which they guard lest anyone carry them off, and pursuing those who seize them to death. Aelian, book III, chapter IV, calls these same ants guardians of gold. Thus by the labor and study of lovers of learning, as it were of rational ants, the gold of wisdom and charity is dug up, which each person accumulates for himself as much as he labors in digging. Hence on the Isthmus a ant was sacrificed to the Sun: because just as the sun illuminates all the daily works of the earth by its visitation, so with equal diligence the ant discovers all things, which anyone has hidden most carefully. Ants therefore by laboring amass immense riches; whence the proverb: Ἀγαθῶν μυρμηκιά, that is, myrmecia of good things, for the greatest treasures; for μύρμηξ is ant. Ninth, although Cardanus in book IX of his *On Subtlety* writes that ants lack eyes and use their horns instead to feel out their way, nevertheless Albert the Great and from him Ulysses Aldrovandus in book V of his *On Insects* assert the contrary; for they could not accomplish such great journeys and works without eyes. Ants therefore have twin eyes, which govern their body and direct their path. If any ant is deprived of eyes, the ant possessing eyes embraces it most forcefully and does not release it except when it has been brought home: for there is great mutual love, peace, harmony, and assistance among them. Whence Pliny in book XI, chapter XXX: And since, he says, they convey things from different places, one ignorant of another, certain days are appointed for mutual recognition at markets. What then is their running together at that time? how diligent is the conversation and inquiry of some with those they meet? We see the flints worn down by their journeys. They alone bury their dead among themselves, apart from man. Let our eye be reason and consideration, so that we never do anything without reason and counsel; thus we shall never repent of our deeds. Indeed, with St. Job let us be an eye to the blind, a foot to the lame, and let us guide and help those lacking counsel. Tenth, ants, although they live in a flock, nevertheless do not have a king, leader, or commander. Again, although they lack a leader, they nevertheless obey one another mutually with goodwill and comply with each other. They build a home or city together, which they cover with various dwellings made of plant particles. Whence Aristotle in book I of his *History of Animals*, chapter I: Man, he says, the bee, the wasp, the ant, the crane are of a civil kind; some of which live under a leader, as cranes and bees: others are subject to no authority, as ants. Yet ants have their own leaders, not true rulers. Thus Aelian in book II, chapter XXV: The older ants, he says, appoint scouts, which preside over them and lead them to better pastures; not rulers to whose authority they are subject. Let those who live their life in the same republic, city, monastery, or house imitate these civil and social duties of common life. Hear Bede here: If so tiny an animal, he says, lacking a ruler and devoid of reason, provides for itself by nature as its guide for the future, how much more should you, created in the image of God, called to see His glory, aided by the teaching of doctors and having the Creator Himself as your guide, gather in the present the fruits of good works, by which you may live eternally in the future. For this life is compared in it to harvest and summer, because now is the time amid the heat of temptations for gathering the merits of future rewards. But the day of judgment is likened to the rigors of winter, because then assuredly no faculty remains for laboring for life, but each is forced to bring forth from the storehouse of his past action, which he has stored up. Eleventh, ants so hate foul things, such as oregano, sulphur, burnt horn, that if their smoke or ashes are scattered over their homes, they emigrate from them to another place. Thus the faithful should avoid not only foul things, but also a foul reputation, namely infamy and an evil name. Twelfth, all ants are constricted around the belly and as if dyed, and in old age like birds having assumed wings they fly. For, as Cardanus says in the place cited, and Thirteenth, nightingales eagerly seek and eat ants and their eggs, because from these the sick recover and become sonorous. Thus virgins should seek prudence and the work of ants, by which they are cured from the disease of acedia, and become sonorous for praising both God and labor and industry. Whence in heaven they will sing a new song, Apocalypse XIV. Fourteenth, the myrmicoleon, or ant-lion, seizes the food of ants and eats it in winter, because in summer being improvident it did not provide itself with food. Thus the idle and hypocrites lie in wait for the riches of the laboring and industrious, and plunder them by force or fraud. Whence St. Chrysostom on Psalm XLVIII: Wisdom, he says, shows that even to ants a lazy and idle man is worse, and one languishing in idleness, when it sends him there to learn to be laborious and industrious: Go, it says, to the ant, O sluggard, and imitate its ways. Again, the myrmicoleon is a demon, who strives to devour virtues and those endowed with virtue: if you fear him, he will rage like a lion; if you despise him, he will be more timid and weaker than an ant. Thus St. Gregory explaining that passage of Job IV, 11: The tiger perished because it had no prey; where the Septuagint and from it St. Gregory read myrmicoleon instead of tiger, that is, the ant-lion. Thus concerning Modestus, prefect of the Emperor Valens, attempting to draw St. Basil to Arianism, Cyrus Theodore sings: Modestus, you yield to Basil the Great. You are surely an ant, though you roar like a lion. Fifthly, it is proper to ants that in their greater age they grow in strength. The author of De Natura rerum, lib. I De Temp. cap. IX, and from him Aldrovandus, asserts that the ant alone among animals is strengthened by old age and grows. Thus the wise and the saints go from strength to strength, and so in old age they are especially wise. Sixthly, ants by manifold art make burdens easier to carry, because they divide them and distribute them into many parts, or several carry the same burden together, or they bend it and arrange it aptly, and now carry it with their feet, now with their mouth, or push it. Thus the wise make all things, though difficult, easy by counsel and diligence, especially when they employ others skilled in the matter as companions in the work. Seventhly, ants rest in winter and enjoy food collected in summer. Thus each Christian in the tranquility of things, which summer signifies, should gather the word of God, so that in adversity and tribulations, which are noted by the name of winter, he may have wherewith to live spiritually, says St. Augustine, lib. Contra Adiman. cap. XXIV. Eighthly, ants beware of wine, because if they taste it, they are suddenly intoxicated: thus the wise beware of wine, in which is luxury, which robs man of his mind and makes him senseless. Ninthly, ants are harbingers of death; thus they foretold the same to Cimon, as Plutarch testifies in his Life, and to Nero: for when he dreamed that he was filled with a multitude of winged ants, stirred up in himself a multitude, he shortly after took his own life, as Suetonius testifies in Nero. Aldrovandus gives the reason: Ants, he says, are asserted to be an indication of death, because they are daughters of the earth and dwell in subterranean caverns, into which the bodies of the dead are constantly brought. Thus the wise man always foresees impending death, and daily says to himself: Believe every day to have dawned as your last. Hence Plato: Philosophy (Ethics), he says, is nothing other than meditation on death. Hence also to the Egyptians the ant was a hieroglyph of three illustrious gifts. For by it first they denoted the most diligent investigation of things which serve for the use of life; secondly, provident diligence; thirdly, unwearied perseverance in labor. Pythagoras affirmed that all labor, however heavy, if we dedicate ourselves to it gradually from the beginning of life, as the ant does, becomes sweet and easy to bear: whence he inculcated to his followers nothing other than that they should flee idleness, as the cause of all evils, and embrace unwearied labor as the parent of all virtue and good. Twenty-first, ants follow straight paths: for they seek the shortest ways; but nevertheless they bend their path by intricate movement. Thus the wise man takes the straight path of virtue and the straight way to perfection, which is the cross, and wishes to suffer much for Christ; but nevertheless he avoids hatreds and persecutions by turning aside. After this verse about ants, a similar one about bees is added in the Septuagint in the Roman edition, and it is this: Or go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is; and what an honorable work she makes (the Scholiast, ἐμπορεύεται, that is, she traffics, as St. Ambrose reads it, lib. V Hexaemer. cap. XXI); whose labors kings and common people, that is, private persons, bring to health. And she is desirable to all and illustrious: even though she is weak in strength, honoring wisdom she is exalted. St. Jerome, in cap. III Ezech., reads: Go to the bee, learn how she is a worker, and makes her work chaste; whose labors kings and the unlearned use for health. St. Ambrose in the place already cited reads, whose labors kings and the middling sort bring to health. Our Peltanus in the Greek Catena clearly translates, or go to the bee and learn what sort she is, and what an admirable work she accomplishes. Whose labors indeed both kings and each private person draw forth for health. And although she is weak and feeble in strength, yet among all she is renowned and highly esteemed: as being brought forth to commend and cultivate wisdom in the light. St. Jerome, epist. to Rusticus the monk, and it is found De consecrat. dist. 5, can. 32: Never cease, he says, to do some work, so that the devil may always find you occupied, etc.; or weave a small basket of rushes, or plait a hamper of twigs, let the ground be hoed, let the small plots be divided by equal boundaries, etc. Learn to make the hives of bees, to which Solomon's Proverbs send you, and the order of monasteries and royal discipline in small bodies. Plur Moreover St. Ephrem, in a sermon to the Brethren on ascetic matters, combines the ant with the bee, and from this makes this proverb: After the ant the bee, that is, after labor rest, after bitterness sweetness, after tribulation consolation, after struggles crown and glory. The bitterness of labor, he says, is followed by the sweetness of rest, and the harshness of life by joy. And he adds, just as Solomon bids us imitate the ant and the bee, so Christ bids us imitate the serpent and the dove, saying: Be ye wise as serpents, and simple as doves. For the serpent, he says, is analogous to the ant, the dove to the bee. Whence he subjoins: "Unless we are hated as serpents, we shall not be made lovable as doves. Unless we are vile and abject like ants, we shall not be industrious as bees."
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9, 10 AND 11. HOW LONG, O SLUGGARD, WILT THOU SLEEP? WHEN WILT THOU RISE OUT OF THY SLEEP? A LITTLE SLEEP, A LITTLE SLUMBER, A LITTLE FOLDING OF THE HANDS TO SLEEP: AND WANT SHALL COME UPON THEE AS A TRAVELLER, AND POVERTY AS AN ARMED MAN. — whom he had shortly before stirred up by the example of the ant and the bee. By sleep he understands idleness and sluggishness, and also sleep properly so called: for the idle and sluggish are wont to be drowsy, and to sleep night and day, as if to say, How long dost thou indulge in idleness, leisure and sleep, O sluggard? How long dost thou snore, and sleep the sleep of Endymion, so that thou seemest not so much to live as to labor under lethargy and to die? When wilt thou shake off this torpor, which is a living death, from thy mind? Awake at last; enough has been given to sleep and death: be vigilant, act, be diligent, live, undertake labor with alacrity. 10. A LITTLE SLEEP, A LITTLE SLUMBER, A LITTLE FOLDING OF THE HANDS TO SLEEP. — In Hebrew, a little of sleeps, a little of slumbers, a little of joining of hands to sleep. The Hebrew תנומות tenumot signifies drowsings, that is, inclinations toward sleep, when a man is about to sleep and begins to nod and to fall asleep, as if to say, Thou wilt say to me, O sluggard: Allow me, I beseech thee, O taskmaster and exactor of works, to sleep a little; or, if thou wilt not have this, at least to doze: for I am drowsy. To which he responds that not only from deep and prolonged sleep, but also from this frequent drowsing to which he has become accustomed, poverty will follow. And want shall come, he says, upon thee as a traveller, etc. The Septuagint: thou sleepest a little indeed, but thou sittest a little, and thou drinkest a little, and thou embracest thy breast with thy hands. For the idle now lie down to sleep, now sit to be idle, and in either case apply their idle hands to their idle breast. Whence the Syriac renders it, thou shalt put thy hands upon thy breast. BUT IF THOU BE DILIGENT, THY HARVEST SHALL COME AS A FOUNTAIN, AND WANT SHALL FLEE FAR FROM THEE. — The Septuagint adds, as an evil runner. It is an antithesis of the diligent to the sluggard, as if to say, The sluggard begets poverty for himself by his sluggishness, but the diligent and industrious man prepares for himself an abundant harvest of goods through labor and diligence, which overflows just as a fountain overflows with waters. Morally, learn here how much idleness and inertia, both bodily and spiritual, are to be fled: for both cause poverty, bodily idleness bodily poverty, spiritual idleness spiritual poverty. Wherefore Ausonius, epigram 110, says: A healthy sluggard, he says, is far worse than a drunkard, he drinks double, and devours double portions. And another: Indigence is always the companion of the sluggish. Sluggish virtue never raised itself to the stars. Isocrates in the Areopagiticus: The ancients of Athens, he says, led the poorer sort to agriculture and business, saying that the cause of poverty is sluggishness, and that want drives most men to robbery and slaughter. Wherefore, when the source of evils is removed, the other crimes also, which bubble forth from it as from a spring, are taken away. Hence Cato: Always watch more, and be not given to sleep; for prolonged rest furnishes nourishment to vices. Moreover, Solomon teaches that poverty is born from sluggishness, cap. X, vers. 4 and 5, cap. XXIV, vers. 30 et seq., and Ecclesiasticus, cap. IV, vers. 5, and cap. X, vers. 18. And the Poet: He who fears the thorn shall not pluck the rose. Idleness is the burial of a living man. Before death, inertia buries itself in a sepulcher. Inertia destroys wealth and destroys dignity. Life, as it were salt for a pig, is also given to the idle. The diligent man prepares by sweat what the strong man prepares by blood. The diligent man finds, so that afterward, if he wishes, he may become idle. Industry is the best thing for man, as idleness is the worst. Fortune has fallen, industry lifts it up. Nature surpasses art, and industry surpasses both. Industry surpasses violence. Manifold diligence accomplishes all things by attempting. And another: What does not assiduous labor and skillful industry overcome? All things yield to it, however hard. Finally, the fruit of good labors is glorious, Wisdom cap. III, vers. 15. Morally, Dionysius the Carthusian: From these things we are taught, he says, to avoid all sluggishness and drowsiness in the service of God, and to undertake good works manfully. And certainly it is very much to be weighed and feared by the sluggish, what the Most High says in the Apocalypse cap. III, vers. 16: I would thou wert cold or hot. But because thou art lukewarm, I will begin to vomit thee out of my mouth. Finally, St. Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, cap. 11: He who loves God with his whole mind, he says, for God's sake puts aside idleness. The kingdom of God shall not be given to the idle, but to those diligent in the service of God. The kingdom of God shall not be given to the wandering, but to those who labor worthily in the service of God. Consider that saying of St. Francis: Little labor, immense glory. Little pleasure, eternal punishment. Mystically, St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena: Sleep of the soul, he says, is the wickedness of depraved thoughts and ignorance of the same. Drowsiness is inclination toward them with a certain imperfect consent. From this follows poverty and defect of holy thoughts, desires, illuminations, grace, virtue and all good.
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12, 13 AND 14. A MAN THAT IS AN APOSTATE, A NAUGHTY PERSON, WALKETH WITH A FROWARD MOUTH, WINKETH WITH HIS EYES, SPEAKETH WITH HIS FEET, POINTETH WITH HIS FINGERS, AND WITH A WICKED HEART DEVISETH MISCHIEF, AND AT ALL TIMES HE SOWETH DISCORD. — Fittingly and in proper order he passes from idleness and sloth to impiety and crimes, which are born from idleness: for the idle are indeed talkative, rapacious, schemers of evils, whisperers, etc. For idleness has taught much wickedness. The idle man therefore either is or becomes an apostate. For apostate in Hebrew is בליעל belial, which some derive from בלי beli and עלה ala, as if to say, He does not ascend, but descends; just as Lucifer, proudly wishing to ascend into heaven, miserably descended into Tartarus. Better does R. David derive it from beli, that is, without, and יעל iaal, that is, usefulness, as if to say, Useless. To this the text alludes; for it says: A man that is an apostate, a naughty person. Thirdly and most rightly, derive it from beli and על ol, that is, without a yoke: thus one should translate Wherefore the vice of apostasy here is not one, but manifold; for apostasy is called impiety, and an apostate is a man notably impious, whose seven vices are here enumerated and in verse 16. He paints the apostate therefore with these vices as it were with colors: First, that he is a naughty person, that is, harmful. It is a meiosis: for little is said and more is signified. Thus in Psalm XIII it is said: All have declined, they are become unprofitable together. And in Job XV, 16: An abominable and unprofitable man, who drinketh iniquity like water. Whence in Hebrew it is איש און is aven, that is, a man of iniquity, vanity, covetousness, falsehood, idolatry, nothingness, labor, affliction; the Septuagint, a wicked man; the Zurich Bible, a man of various character. Moreover St. Thomas, II II, Question XII, article 1, explaining this concerning an apostate properly so called: An apostate, he says, is called a naughty person, because he can do nothing good that pleases God, in that he lacks faith, without which it is impossible to please God, Hebrews XI. Thus a sinner and reprobate is a naughty person, because he is born in vain in the world, he accumulates riches, honors, children in vain; he studies, trades, labors in vain. For what are the reprobate but bellows and fuel of hell? with distorted lips, that is, he says, he opens his mouth to others. Thirdly, that he winketh with his eye; the Septuagint, he signifies with his eye; Aquila and Theodotion, he plucks with his eye. Fourthly, that he speaketh with his feet; the Septuagint, he signifies with his foot; Symmachus, he treads with his foot; Pagninus, he speaks with his feet; Vatablus, he shakes his feet indecorously, either by striking the ground or by pressing the foot of his companion. Whence R. Solomon, he treads with his feet. Fifthly, that he pointeth with his fingers; the Septuagint, he teaches with the beckoning of his fingers; Symmachus, pointing with his fingers; the Chaldean, indicating; the Syriac, he winks with his fingers. You will ask, what and what kind of gestures do these denote? First, Vatablus refers these to the immodest and unruly gestures and gesticulations of the impious man, by which he affects gravity and authority, as if to say, A vain, proud, impious man composes his eyes to what he says, and uses a certain gesticulation of his hands and feet, as false prophets are wont to do, namely he composes himself entirely, feigns his countenance, claps his foot, as if having authority, etc., so that he may more easily deceive. Thus St. Jerome, in his letter to Rusticus, censuring Grunnius, that is Rufinus, for his pride: When the table was set, he says, he had displayed a heap of books, with raised eyebrow, contracted nostrils, and wrinkled brow, he snapped his fingers with two fingers, by this sign through the utmost ostentation calling his disciples to listen. And St. Bernard, in his treatise On the Degrees of Humility: The first, he says, degree of pride is curiosity. But you will detect this by such signs: if you see a monk, about whom you previously had good confidence, wherever he stands, walks, sits, beginning to let his eyes wander, his head erect, his ears held suspended, from the movements of the outer man you recognize the inner man changed. For a froward man winketh with his eye, speaketh with his feet, pointeth with his fingers, and from the insolent motion of the body the recent disease of the soul is detected, which, while it grows sluggish from self-regard, makes its carelessness curious about others. The sixth mark and vice of the apostate, that is, of a wicked man and belial, that is, diabolical, is: With a wicked heart he deviseth mischief; in Hebrew, he fabricates evil; St. Ephrem, in his treatise Against the Shameless, reads, as our text does, he deviseth mischief: For just as, he says, from their lairs a multitude of poisonous beasts comes forth, so from the heart of such men a multitude of most evil thoughts proceeds. For a heart depraved by malice, what can it think, will, and utter except evil, wicked and perverse things? just as a bitter spring is able to pour forth nothing but bitter water. Whence the Hebrews have it more plainly, perversity in his heart fabricates evil; Vatablus, he contrives evil at all times; the Septuagint, a froward heart architecteth evils. The seventh is: And at all times he soweth discord; in Hebrew, he scatters contentions; the Chaldean, he casts discord; the Syriac, he troubles between two. The Septuagint
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15. UNTO HIM SHALL DESTRUCTION COME SPEEDILY, AND HE SHALL BE SUDDENLY BROKEN IN PIECES, AND SHALL HAVE NO REMEDY. — and incurable, shall be broken like a potter's vessel, which cannot be repaired, but shatters into the smallest pieces, and is ground into dust. How true this is experience teaches: for thus we often see wicked men, contrivers of evils, and disturbers of public peace, overwhelmed by sudden, unexpected and unavoidable adversities, which not rarely bring them present and eternal death: for the punishment is just and fitting, that those who have severed and torn asunder the peace and friendship of others (the injury to which is often irreparable) should themselves also have their health and salvation irreparable
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16, 17, 18 AND 19. THERE ARE SIX THINGS WHICH THE LORD HATETH, AND THE SEVENTH HIS SOUL DETESTETH: HAUGHTY EYES, A LYING TONGUE, HANDS THAT SHED INNOCENT BLOOD, A HEART THAT DEVISETH WICKED PLOTS, FEET SWIFT TO RUN INTO MISCHIEF, A DECEITFUL WITNESS THAT UTTERETH LIES, AND HIM THAT SOWETH DISCORD AMONG BRETHREN. — Since a little before he described belial, that is the apostate, and his character and crimes, into which through idleness and sloth men are wont to fall, and therefore he brings upon himself grave calamities and ruin: now he subjoins a catalogue of the gravest crimes, which are supremely hateful to God, into which sloth is wont to lead apostates or belial, that is wicked men. Moreover these crimes are similar and almost the same as those enumerated before in the apostate vers. 12. For it is plain that all these pertain to the apostate, both because he immediately subjoins these to him, and from the Septuagint which clearly connects these with him and attributes them to him, while pr It is asked, how sowing discord among brethren is placed in this place as the seventh and gravest sin, and of it is said: And the seventh his soul detesteth, that is to say, Seven things are now to be enumerated which God abhominates; or, that is to say, When to the six former the seventh is added, all will render it utterly execrable. Thus R. Salo destroys fraternal love and charity, and as it were kills and destroys it among brethren. But it is graver to take away and as it were kill charity than to take natural life by homicide: for charity is far superior to life. Hear St. Gregory, III part. Pastor. admon. 24: "All," he says, "who are separated by discord, wither from the verdure of love. Who although they bring forth the fruit of good works in their actions, are assuredly nothing, because they do not arise from the unity of charity. Hence let those who sow quarrels consider how manifoldly they sin, who while they perpetrate one wickedness, root out all virtues at once from human hearts. In one evil innumerable Secondly, because from whispering there often follow slayings, not one, but many. How many battles between kings and princes who were friends, with the slaughter of many thousands, the overthrow of kingdoms and republics, have whisperers stirred up and still stir up. Wherefore St. Clement, epist. 1 to James the brother of the Lord: "St. Peter," he says, "used to say there were three kinds of homicides, and asserted their punishment to be equal. For just as murderers who kill brethren, so also detractors and those who hate them he manifested to be murderers. And St. Augustine, as is found XI, Quæst. III, cap. Nemo: "Let no one," he says, "of the learned or prudent think that there is less danger in the words of a lying tongue than in hands shedding blood. For which reason throughout Scripture the tongue of whisperers and detractors is compared to a sword, a razor Thirdly, because from whispering arise very many sins, namely hatreds, calumnies, quarrels, brawls, slayings, robberies, fires, devastations of cities and kingdoms, and a thousand other crimes. Whence Eccles. cap. XXVIII, 15: "A whisperer," he says, "and a double-tongued man is accursed: for he hath troubled many that were at peace. A third tongue hath moved many," and dis Fourthly, because whispering of itself overthrows a city, a republic, a college, a monastery, an order. For it takes away the union of citizens, Religious, members of a household, etc., and tears and rends the city and order. For it makes schism, that is a division of the republic. We read of schisms in the Church, and have seen how many and how great calamities they have brought forth; and from this we have learned that there is no greater plague to the Church than schism, because it alone tears the whole Church asunder, and so far as in it lies, overthrows it. For it causes one part to rise up against another, and to clash with it, and thus by mutual hatreds and swords they destroy one another. See St. Cyprian, lib. I, epist. 6 to Magnus, censuring the schism of Novatian, and epist. 8 to the People. See what I said in the epistle of St. Jude vers. 19. Finally St. Thomas, II II, Quæst. LXXIV, art. 2, in corp.: "Whispering," he says, "is a greater sin than detraction, even than contumely, because a friend (whom the whisperer takes away) is better than honor, and to be loved than to be honored, as in lib. VIII Ethic. cap. VIII, Ph Now first among the seven crimes hateful to God above others, he enumerates haughty eyes; Vatablus, proud; the Syriac, arrogant; by which some understand first impudence and lust. For, as Ecclesiastes says, XXVI, 12: The fornication of a woman is in the haughtiness of her eyes. Whence R. Le As the second vice he assigns a lying tongue, that is, a deceitful one, as Pagninus translates it; the Septuagint translates it, an unjust tongue; St. Jerome, in his second Apology against Rufinus, reads, the tongue of the wicked. For there is a threefold lie, namely an idle one, a jocose one, and a pernicious one; the third alone is a mortal sin and hateful to God, the other two are venial. He speaks therefore here of pernicious lying, as R. Levi says, which is greatly hated by God and men, both because it directly opposes God's truth and faithfulness; and because it is injurious to one's neighbour, and inflicts grave damage upon him unjustly; and because it overturns all human commerce, contracts and societies, and therefore is destructive to the whole commonwealth. For who would enter into a contract, do business, or deal with one who lies and deceives; who does not perform what he says; who promises and does not do? For the tongue was given to man both for praising God and for social life, so that each one might make known to others what he conceives in his heart, and thus enter into contracts, covenants, marriages, etc. But if he does not do this, but fraudulently says one thing with his mouth while keeping another in his heart, he abuses his tongue to the harm of his neighbour, and, so far as in him lies, overturns all civil intercourse. Thus lying in Scripture is often taken for fraud, deceit, injustice, as in Hosea IV, 2: Cursing, and lying, and theft, and adultery have overflowed, and blood hath touched blood. And cap. VII, vers. 1: The iniquity of Ephraim is revealed, and the wickedness of Samaria, who have wrought lies; and the thief entereth in, robbing, and the robber without. And Apoc. XXII, 15: Without are dogs, and sorcerers, and the unchaste, and murderers, and servers of idols, and every one that loveth and maketh a lie. And cap. XXI, vers. 27: There shall not enter into it (the heavenly Jerusalem) any thing defiled, or that worketh abomination and a lie. As the third he assigns hands shedding innocent blood; in Hebrew יקי naki, that is, of the innocent; the Septuagint, just blood. For murder is the supreme crime of the second table, which concerns one's neighbour; for it takes away from man his life, by which he far surpasses fame, wife, riches and his other goods. Whence in Scripture the shedding of blood by antonomasia and catachresis signifies any enormous crime. See what is said at Genesis IX, 6. As the fourth he assigns a heart devising wicked thoughts; in Hebrew, a heart fabricating thoughts of iniquity, both of any kind, and especially of that which is injury to one's neighbour, namely whereby one contrives to rob one's neighbour of fortune, fame, dignity, life, etc.; for all these seven vices concern harm to one's neighbour. Jansenius notes aptly that a heart devising evil is placed in the middle position, that is, fourth among the seven vices, because the heart is the source and spring of the others. The same is noted by Polychronius in the Greek Catena, who also adds that the demon observes the external motions of the body, so that from these he may search out and discover the internal affections of the heart. Moreover, it is rightly said, a heart fabricating, because just as a craftsman fabricates a house, joining one brick to another, one beam to another, one wall to another, and building upon them, now straight, now obliquely, now angularly, now transversely, etc., so likewise a heart that contrives evil for another, weaves one fraud to another, one scheme to another, and entangles them, now directly, now indirectly, etc., so that it may construct and perfect its fabric of evil. As the fifth he assigns feet swift to run into evil; the Septuagint, feet hastening to do evil. This swiftness denotes an insatiable greed for crime and a determined zeal. For to shed blood from sudden anger, or by chance, is not so grave; but to shed it with determined purpose, and as it were with a thirst for blood, with such alacrity, is grave and abominable to God; for the wicked have itching feet to run and hands to inflict wounds. He alludes to that in Psalm XIII: Their feet are swift to shed blood. Sixth he assigns the one who brings forth lies, a false witness; in Hebrew, he breathes out, he conflates, he inflates the lies of a false witness. He inflates: for just as bubbles are inflated by the breath of children, so also lies are inflated by the breath of the impious, who are more than children; and just as bubbles, so also lies are empty and vain. Again, just as a trumpeter with great effort and breath inflates the trumpet of war, so the impious inflate the trumpet of falsehood: for they bring great force upon themselves, so that against conscience, truth and reputation they may bring forth a lying and false testimony. Whence Seneca: Those who bring forth lies, he says, are accustomed to be strangled, and to hesitate at each word. Thus we see false witnesses, when they bring forth false testimony before a judge, grow pale, stumble, tremble, so that they can scarcely speak, and by great confusion of mouth, face, and the whole body reveal the internal crime of their heart and the falsehood of their mouth. He conflates, because just as a glass-maker with great breath of mouth conflates glass, so a false witness with the same conflates calumny and falsehood, which is fragile as glass, and like glass when truth shines forth is broken and burst. He breathes out, because just as a burning furnace breathes out sparks, which often set fire to crops, indeed to houses: so the liar breathes out false testimonies, which like fire set ablaze and destroy men, families, cities and kingdoms. This properly signifies the Hebrew יפיח iaphiach. Whence פיח piach is called a spark, which is easily stirred up by breath, and breathed out from the furnace; and אוד pecham is called a coal, which is kindled by breath and ignites. Whence the Septuagint translates, ἐκκαίει ψευδῆ μάρτυς ἄδικος, which the Complutensians translate, the unjust witness burns the liar, because namely the unjust witness, strengthening the lying plaintiff by his false testimony, stirs up and kindles him to pursue an unjust cause and suit, by which he may burn and destroy the innocent. The author of the Greek Catena takes τὸ ψευδῆ passively, namely for one who is attacked and burdened by lies, not for the liar who attacks and burdens. For the liar burns, that is afflicts, torments and destroys, the one whom he attacks with calumnies. Better you would take τὸ ψευδῆ not as masculine, but as neuter signifying lies, not the liar. Whence the Romans and others translate, the unjust witness kindles falsehoods, as if to say, The false witness stirs up lies, and constructs false testimonies, by which the innocent are set ablaze and destroyed. For false testimony is as it were a fire kindled by the bellows of the tongue of the false witness, by which he blows upon and burns the innocent, so that they may be condemned by the judge, and lose their wealth, and often also their reputation and life. Indeed the false and lying witness is as it were a furnace, which continually exhales sparks and scintillae of lies, frauds, calumnies, etc. Seventh he assigns the one who sows discord among brothers; the Septuagint κρίσεις, that is, judgments he sends in the midst of brothers. For in Hebrew מדנים medanim derived from דון dun, that is, to judge, to litigate, to contend, signifies judgments, contentions, suits, quarrels. Whence the Scholiast translates κρίσεις, ἀντιδικίας, that is, suits, wranglings, discords. The same Septuagint in verse 14 deriving medanim from מדינה medina, that is, region, province, or colony subject to the laws and judgments of some kingdom or commonwealth, translate, he who brings dissensions to cities, or disturbances, so that they place בין ben, that is, between, or the gap and dissension between brothers. How great this evil is I have said in verses 14 and 16. Thus also Amos I, 9 threatens destruction to the Tyrians, because they were not mindful of the covenant of brothers, namely that they stirred up the Edomites descended from Esau, and therefore brothers of Jacob and the Jews, to wage war against the Jews, as Vatablus expounds. And verse 11, he threatens the same to the Edomites for the same reason. See the remarks there. Most excellently St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in Catechesis 13: Fraternal, he says, hatred will give place to Antichrist. The devil prepares schisms of peoples, so that the enemy may be received all the more easily. For just as fraternal charity prepares a house for the whole Holy Trinity, according to that saying in John XIV: We will come to him, and will make our abode with him, so to the devil and Antichrist nothing prepares a more suitable place than hatred, suits, schisms, and especially those who sow the same.
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20 AND 21. KEEP, MY SON, THE PRECEPTS OF THY FATHER, AND FORSAKE NOT THE LAW OF THY MOTHER. BIND THEM IN THY HEART CONTINUALLY, AND PUT THEM ABOUT THY NECK. — He returns in his customary manner to inculcate the keeping of discipline and divine law, which he himself as a father inculcated to his sons, and which each good father and mother ought to inculcate to their sons. However much the instruction of parents avails in sons is evident today in Japan, where Christian parents so form their little ones that they desire martyrdom; wherefore children, joyful and eager, offer themselves willingly to be slaughtered by executioners, and surpass men in virtue. It is pathetic what Victor of Utica relates, in book II of his work On the Vandal Persecution, concerning a mother inciting and dragging her little son, so that he might join the Confessors condemned to exile as a companion in passion and martyrdom; for thus she compelled him, indeed she forced him: "Run, my lord, do you see all the saints, how they go and hasten joyfully to crowns? How we with
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23. BECAUSE THE COMMANDMENT IS A LAMP, AND THE LAW IS LIGHT, AND THE WAY OF LIFE IS THE REPROOF OF DISCIPLINE. — because the lamp is the commandment of the law, and the light of the way of life, and correction and discipline; Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, reproofs of discipline; the Syriac, reproof and instruction. He gives the reason why the law and discipline are to be embraced so eagerly, and why he commends and inculcates it thus, namely Solomon alludes to, indeed cites, that passage of his father David, Psalm 118, verse 105: Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths. Where St. Augustine holds this to be a repetition: for in the latter member the same thing is said and repeated which was said in the former, so that lamp is the same as light; and paths the same as feet. For the same word, that is the commandment of God, is said to be a lamp to the feet, and a light to the paths; for lamp is called so from light, because it diffuses and spreads its light through light. Therefore, for the sake of elegance, rhythm and various synonymy, the commandment, or law, is called a lamp and light. A lamp, because, as St. Ambrose says on Psalm 118, verse 105: It shines before us in this night of the world, lest, as those walking in darkness, we stumble with uncertain steps, and are unable to find the true way. Light, because to those walking by day it shows forth the way of virtue. Thus St. Hilary on the same Psalm 118, verse 105: He knows, he says, that unless illuminated in the word of God he cannot bear these darknesses of the body, and this night of the world. He knows that stones of stumbling are everywhere present, snares of ropes, pits of holes. For just as one going out at night carries a lamp before him, and looks to where he places his foot, and is careful at each step with light going before: so each one of us, keeping the word of God in himself, holds it forth as a lamp in all the processes of his works. For all heavenly doctrine is a guide to us for the journey of life, which must be carried forth like a lamp in this night of the world, whenever we do, think, or speak something. And further down: "Therefore for every step of our soul let us use God's word as a lamp, but a lamp always burning, always prepared for its office through our prudence. But the word which is a lamp to the feet, that same is also light to the paths. For those entering slowly and domestically need a lamp, but those entering a foreign and public way need light more necessarily, lest a robber lie in wait, lest the error of ambiguous ways occur. For by increments one proceeds from the lesser to the greater, so that to him to whom the word Mystically St. Ambrose on Psalm 118: The law, he says, is a lamp to the imperfect, the same is light and sun to the perfect, because to the imperfect it shows more rudimentary things, to the perfect more sublime things. To me it is a lamp, says St. Ambrose, to the Angels it is light. To Peter it was light, when an Angel stood by him in prison, and light shone forth to him. To Paul it was light, when, as he went to persecute the Christian people, a light from heaven shone round about him, and he heard saying to him: Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And soon after: Thy oil is humility, by which the hardness of our neck is softened. Thy oil is thy mercy, by which bodies even dashed against the rocks of sins are warmed. And at the end: He says, a lamp to the feet is enough for walking, but not enough to the paths for illuminating; yet the same word is both a lamp to the feet, and light to the paths, because the same only-begotten Son of God is both an advocate to those who offend, and a rewarder to the strong; a remitter of sins, a giver of rewards. Therefore to him to whom the word of God has been a lamp, to him whithersoever he goes, the paths shine, just as they shone to the holy David, and therefore as one walking in light he says: I have sworn and determined to keep the judgments of thy justice. Secondly, St. Basil and Theodoret on the same verse 105 of Psalm 118: The old law, he says, was a lamp, because it illuminated one nation. Whence also John the Baptist, who was the end of the law, was called a burning and shining lamp. But the Gospel is light, because it illuminates the whole world; hence Christ was the sun of justice, and the Apostles the light of the world. Thirdly, St. Augustine on the same psalm: The uncreated word, he says, is light, indeed the light itself; the created word is a lamp.
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24 AND 25. THAT THEY MAY KEEP THEE FROM THE EVIL WOMAN, AND FROM THE FLATTERING TONGUE OF THE STRANGER. LET NOT THY HEART COVET HER BEAUTY, NOR LET HER CATCH THEE WITH HER WINKS. — Note on covet; from this it is clear against the Pharisees and certain Rabbis, that by the old law not only the external work of fornication was forbidden, but also its internal coveting. NOR LET HER CATCH THEE WITH HER WINKS. — In Hebrew, and let her not catch thee with her pupils; the Septuagint, neither be thou caught by thine eyes, nor be carried away by her eyelids; Pagninus, and let her not catch thee with her splendours; the Chaldean, let her not seduce thee with her eyelids. The Hebrew word עפעפים aphappaim, that is, eyelids, is doubled from the root עוף oph, that is, it flew, vibrated, moved and cast most swiftly, just as the sun vibrates its rays most swiftly, and just as clouds vibrate lightning. For in a similar manner do eyelids fly, and eyes in the eyelids, like beautiful little birds on expanded wings, which by their beauty and appearance snatch those beholding them to themselves. Just as therefore the lynx, a little bird, which from the turning of the neck is called vertilla and torquilla, concerning which Aristotle, lib. II De Histor. animal. cap. XII, is said to snatch those beholding it into love of itself, and as it were to drive them mad, as testified by Pierius, Hierogl. lib. XXV, cap. LI. Again, just as the sun vibrates its rays, and by them snatches men to itself: so a woman vibrates the rays of her eyes, by which as many glances, so many arrows of love she shoots at those beholding her. Finally, the winks and blinking of her eyelids are so many lightnings, by which she dazzles the eyes of those beholding, and as it were stupefies them, so that they cannot be torn away from their gaze, nor turn themselves elsewhere, as St. Ambrose teaches, lib. I De Abel, cap. IV. By these therefore a woman captured the wisest Solomon, the holiest David, the strongest Samson; but let no one persuade himself that he can withstand and elude them. I heard in Belgium a wise and holy matron warning confessors, even Religious and holy men, to beware of the sight and conversations of women penitents. Because, said she, so alluring are their eyes, that if they fix them upon any man, they completely ensnare and entangle him in love of themselves. She added: I am certain there is no man so grave and constant, that if... Therefore the eyes of women contain a certain fascination, by which they fascinate and as it were ensnare those beholding in a net. Whence St. Ambrose, lib. I De Paenitent. cap. XIV, reading according to the Septuagint: "Neither be thou caught by thine eyes: They themselves, says he, are nets to us, and therefore it is written: Neither be thou caught by thine eyes. We ourselves therefore spread nets for ourselves, by which we are enveloped and entangled; we ourselves bind bonds for ourselves, as we read, because each one is bound with the bonds of his own sins." And below: "Many nets are spread by the devil, many nets there are; the eye of a harlot is a snare to the lover." Hence the Syrian translates, be not the prey of the hunting of her eyes, and let her make thee captive with her eyelids. Solomon is supported by Ben-Sira in the alphabet, second letter, he: "Hide, says he, thine eyes from a gracious woman, lest thou be caught in her net," that is, by her form and winks and blinkings; for this is the net of women, by which they capture the most powerful and wisest. And letter vau: "Woe to him who goes after his eyes, which he knows to be devoted to fornication," that is, addicted to whoredom!
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26. FOR THE PRICE OF A HARLOT IS SCARCE ONE LOAF OF BREAD: BUT THE WOMAN TAKETH A PRECIOUS SOUL OF A MAN. — To this place also the Vulgate version might be drawn, as if to say, The price which a harlot has at home is scarcely one loaf of bread. Thus also Cajetan and Vatablus: A harlot, says he, squanders everything down to a morsel of bread, and meanwhile takes, snatches and destroys the soul besides. Thus also R. Levi and R. Solomon translate, on account of harlotry to the price of bread, that is, to poverty and want of things, according to that common saying: He who feeds harlots squanders his wealth. Thus also Aben-Ezra, on account of a harlot to the price of bread, that is, says he, "on account of harlots so much is spent, that he is forced to beg a loaf of bread from others." Again Cajetan and Baynus by harlot understand a harlot; by the woman of a man, an adulteress, who, says Cajetan, takes away the soul, that is, the life, from a man, because adulterers are usually punished with death. Or, as Baynus says, takes away the soul, that is, the mind and wisdom from a man. But better by harlot and the woman of a man you understand the same harlot, whether she be unmarried or married, and therefore an adulteress. Mystically, all these things which are said of a harlot, changing the name, apply to heresy and to any concupiscence. For this is the vilest thing, and meanwhile it addicts precious souls to eternal punishments. This is the fire by which riches, fame, health, life, happiness, eternity are consumed. I gave the same warning in cap. V.
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27, 28 AND 29. CAN A MAN HIDE FIRE IN HIS BOSOM, SO THAT HIS GARMENTS SHALL NOT BURN? OR CAN HE WALK UPON HOT COALS, SO THAT HIS FEET SHALL NOT BE BURNED? SO HE THAT GOETH IN TO HIS NEIGHBOUR'S WIFE, SHALL NOT BE CLEAN WHEN HE SHALL HAVE TOUCHED HER. — First, St. Ambrose understands by fire in the bosom the thought of burning lust in the bosom of the mind, which like fire burns, and by burning blackens the whole soul and body. For thus he writes in Psalm I: Who can bind fire in his bosom, and his garments shall not be burned? For indeed he who once has nourished in the bosom of his mind the flame of burning wickedness, will quickly burn the garments of his body. And the fire leaping into straw adheres and remains, until it consumes all that it has seized: thus even the smallest spark of sin, if it be kindled by some fuel of vices, excites a great conflagration. Do not therefore stand in sin. The same, book I On Penance, chapter XIII: "It is good," he says, "to marry rather than to burn; for it is a flame that burns internally. Wherefore let us not bind this fire in the bosom of the mind and the recess of the breast, lest we burn the coverings of our interior, and the devouring flame of lust consume this forensic garment of our soul and carnal veil; but let us pass through the fire. And if anyone falls into the conflagration of love, let him leap across, and not bind adulterous desire with the bonds of thoughts, let him not bind himself with any knots by the constant nexus of meditation, let him not often gaze upon the form of a harlot woman, nor let a young girl lift her eyes to the face of a young man. Second, St. Augustine, sermon 250 On the Seasons, understands by fire in the bosom a lustful gaze, the form of a beautiful woman burning in the eyes of the beholder, and inflaming them with love of herself. For the discourse had proceeded from these eyes: Let not thy heart covet her beauty, nor be caught by her winks. With these same eyes therefore St. Augustine connects this: For how," he says, "if someone should seize coals of fire, if he should quickly throw them down, they will do no harm; but if he should wish to hold them longer, he will not be able to cast them down without a wound: so also he who has fixed his eyes to lust, and receiving the evil of lust in his heart, has permitted delays in his thoughts, will he not be able to shake it off without the death or wound of his soul? And therefore with the Prophet let us cry out continually: Third, the Chaldean, Hugo, Cajetan, Dionysius, Jansenius, Baynus and others in various places understand these things Fourth, the Fathers in various places understand these things not of adultery itself, but of familiarity, conversations, simple touch, and intercourse with women and the wives of neighbours. For to go in to the wife of one's neighbour here does not signify to have relations with her, but to converse with her, to associate with her. Whence the Syriac translates thus: he who goes in to the wife of his neighbour, and is near to her. Thus the Archangel Gabriel is said to have gone in to the Blessed Virgin, when he brought her the message of the incarnation of Christ, Luke I. For Solomon here, after he has warned that ears should be closed to speeches and songs, and eyes to the alluring form of women, now generally warns that all familiarity with them should be avoided, and especially that we should not approach them, and touch their hands or garments; because, just as fire in the bosom burns garments, so the touch and intercourse of a woman burns, and inflames with love of herself the body of the one touching, and through the body as through a garment passes to the very soul, and inflames it, blackens it, stains it with the foul conflagration of lust and the infernal fire of desire. And just as he who walks with bare feet and treads upon burning coals burns his soles: so he who associates with a woman, even if only in passing as if merely walking, will be breathed upon by the fire of lust, and will burn his feet, hands, eyes, ears and all his senses; nay, with this fire spreading he will burn his imagination, memory, and the very mind and will itself, so that he can think of, remember, love, desire nothing but the fire of love now, by which inflamed he is gradually wholly consumed and burns. Therefore familiarity with women, and light or glances or contacts, or conversations and laughter, stain the reputation of the one associating with infamy, and the soul moreover even unknowingly and not adverting, with vain and alluring lusts, and incite to fornication or adultery. St. Francis Xavier warned confessors to beware of women: for they are approached with less fruit, greater danger either to reputation, or to continence, or to both: for from smoke comes flame. Hence St. Jerome, epistle to Eustochium On the Custody of Virginity, with these words of Solomon Morally, learn from this how much conversation with a woman is to be avoided: for her voice, her eyes, her countenance, and the whole body of a woman is as it were a fire, silently and unknowingly setting alight the one who looks upon her, speaks with her, and converses with her with the hellish flames of lust. For gradually this fire creeps from the eyes and senses to the imagination, thence it creeps to the heart, mind and will, nor does it cease until it inflames the whole man. This is what Job says in chapter XXXI, 12: It is a fire (lust) devouring unto destruction, and rooting up all things that are generated. Upon which words St. Gregory commenting says: What is lust, he says, but fire, and what are the virtues sprung from flesh and mind but flowers? and what again are base thoughts but chaff? Who moreover does not know that if fire is negligently extinguished in chaff, from a small spark all the chaff is kindled? Whoever therefore does not wish to burn up the increase of virtues, ought so to extinguish the fire of lust that through a thin spark it can never burn.
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30 AND 31. IT IS NOT A GREAT FAULT WHEN A MAN HATH STOLEN: FOR HE STEALETH TO FILL HIS HUNGRY SOUL: YET IF HE BE CAUGHT, HE SHALL RESTORE SEVENFOLD, AND SHALL GIVE UP ALL THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS HOUSE. — He compares and prefers adultery before theft in guilt and crime. You will say: Theft of a notable thing is a mortal sin, and, as someone has said, theft is the devil's bread: how therefore is it said here to be not a great fault? St. Chrysostom answers, in homily 10 to the People, that the meaning of Solomon is, as if to say "Theft is indeed a serious matter, but not so serious as adultery. For he, although he has a cold reason
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32 AND 33. BUT HE THAT IS AN ADULTERER, FOR THE POVERTY OF HIS HEART SHALL LOSE HIS SOUL: HE GATHERETH TO HIMSELF SHAME AND DISHONOUR, AND HIS REPROACH SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT. — You will ask, what is the "poverty of heart" of the adulterer by which he loses his soul? I answer first, some understand by poverty of mind the concupiscence of lust; for this is destitute of mind and reason, and is driven by irrational and brutish pleasure alone, and drives the adulterer into crime and ruin: for as the belly has no ears, so concupiscence has no mind; indeed it does not heed the mind, but only what lust suggests. Proper to the adulterer and a remarkable poverty and folly of mind is this, that when he could draw the same, indeed greater pleasure from an unmarried woman, for example from the most beautiful harlots whom he might choose for himself, where there is less guilt, less infamy, less danger, indeed complete impunity among men, he, blinded by love, prefers a married woman, where there is far greater guilt and infamy, and certain danger, so that he may be caught either by the husband, or by kinsmen, or by the judge and punished with death. And this Solomon signifies when he adds: For the jealousy and rage of the husband will not spare in the day of revenge. What then is your madness and insanity, O adulterer, that without necessity, without cause, from mere lust you cast yourself into these perils? You live in perpetual fear, anxiety, suspicion, lest the matter be revealed, lest the husband learn of it, lest you be brought before the judge. These fears and anguishes dilute all your pleasure in adultery, indeed they suffocate and extinguish it. 33. HE GATHERETH TO HIMSELF SHAME AND DISHONOUR, AND HIS REPROACH SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT. — The words are clear. For it is clear that the adulterer is infamous among all nations, and is held as a reproach and plague of the commonwealth. Whence some nations mutilate adulterers in the ears, others in the nostrils, others in the genitals, others expose them to public mockery, and finally punish them with death. Although indeed the guilt of adultery may be forgiven to the adulterer through penance by God, yet there remains among men the memory and infamy of the perpetrated crime, and as long as the memory lasts, so too does the infamy: nay, if he begets any children from adultery, they themselves will stand even after death as monuments to his shame, says St. Chrysostom, homily On the Concupiscence of the Flesh. Therefore Tertullian wrongly, in book I On Modesty, chapter XVIII, attempts to prove from this place, from the fact that it is said here: "His reproach shall not be blotted out," that the guilt of adultery is indelible and irremissible. For guilt is one thing, reproach another, as I have already said. Add that not rarely through remarkable penance is the guilt blotted out and the infamy as well, as happened to David. But hear also Tertullian: "For also in the Proverbs Solomon speaks specially of the adulterer as inexpiable: The adulterer, he says, through indulgence of the senses acquires the destruction of his soul, sustains pains and dishonours. But his shame shall not be abolished forever. For the indignation full of zeal of the husband will not spare in the day of judgment." But that adultery is inexpiable, that is irremissible, is already an explored error. Namely Tertullian, having fallen into heresy through excessive love of chastity, wrote the book On Modesty against the Psychics, that is the carnal Catholics, in favour of the heresy of Montanus, concerning not receiving penitents, at least adulterers and fornicators, especially since adultery and fornication hold the summit of crimes, as he himself professes at the beginning of the book. Whence also in chapter V he compares adultery to idolatry and homicide, and as it were equates them. But, as I said, he, being an excessive lover of chastity, was also an excessive hater of adultery, and exaggerates and aggravates it too much. For shame in Hebrew is נגע nega, that is a plague. The Septuagint: he sustains pains and shames; the Chaldee: plague and shame shall come upon him; Symmachus: he shall find a plague and contumely; the Syriac: let him cause calamity to come upon him, and let shame not depart from him. By plague therefore first, with Our text and the Syriac, understand the publication of the crime, infamy and shame. Second, with the Septuagint understand pains, both of the body which lust produces, likewise beatings, scourgings, and other punishments inflicted upon him by the judge, and also the torments and anguishes of mind and con-
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34 AND 35. BECAUSE THE JEALOUSY AND FURY OF THE MAN WILL NOT SPARE IN THE DAY OF VENGEANCE. NOR WILL HE ACQUIESCE TO ANYONE'S PRAYERS, NOR WILL HE ACCEPT MANY GIFTS FOR REDEMPTION. — because the injury to the marriage bed is the greatest, and cannot be compensated by any gifts, and therefore the husband who is wronged becomes implacable and inexorable. He speaks of what usually happens. For some husbands are so base that they forgive the adulterer for money; others are so modest and pious that they remit the injury to him. From this he leaves it to be gathered: if the husband avenges adultery so severely, how will God avenge it, He who sanctified and instituted matrimony? For which reason it could not be expiated by any sacrifices of the old law; hence no expiation for it was prescribed in Leviticus. In Hebrew it is, he will not accept the face of any כופר copher, that is of propitiation, or expiation or satisfaction, and he will not be willing, when you multiply the gift; the Septuagint, no redemption will change the enmity, nor will it be dissolved by many gifts; Aquila, by the offering of gifts; Theodotion, he will not accept the person of any satisfaction; Vatable, of any intercessor; Pagninus, he will not accept the person of any price, etc. For, as St. Jerome says in chapter VI of Amos: "A husband more readily hears of his wife being killed than of her being defiled." Similar and reciprocal is the jealousy of wives toward husbands who violate the faith given to them through adultery. For they roar implacably and rage like lionesses robbed of their cubs, and often kill their husbands. Thus Cicero writes, book II of the Offices, that Alexander of Pherae was killed by his wife of Thebes on account of suspicion of concubinage. And Justin, book XXVI, relates that Demetrius, son of Antony the king, was killed by order of Arsinoe his wife, because he had a habit of illicit relations with Berenice his mother-in-law. Another Demetrius, surnamed Nicator, was killed by Cleopatra his wife, on account of jealousy over Rhodogune, sister of Phraates the king, as Appian relates in the Syrian history. Clytemnestra, hearing that her husband Agamemnon was in love with Chryseis, both polluted herself with adultery with Aegisthus, and punished her husband with death. But as an example of many, let what Apollonius Rhodius writes in book I of the Argonautica suffice: the women of Lemnos, inflamed with jealousy because their husbands loved certain captive women, killed all their husbands and moreover the entire male sex. Finally Seneca in the Medea sings thus: No force of flame and swollen wind / Is so great, nor any feared twisted dart, / As when a wife bereft of marriage torch / Burns and hates. Mystically, adultery is heresy, and any mortal sin; for through this the soul, espoused to God, spurning Him, is adulterated with the flesh, the world and the demon; hence the sinner gathers sorrows and shame upon himself, and his reproach will not be blotted out, because the jealousy and fury of the man, namely of God, will not spare in the day of vengeance, that is in the day of death and judgment. Thus Bede: "The Lord, he says, who now spares the reprobate, will not spare in the day of death, nor will he acquiesce to the prayers of those crying out to him late, nor will he accept gifts, of which there is neither time nor opportunity there; for he is jealous if anyone presumes to corrupt his bride, that is the Church, or any faithful soul."
Machine translation from the Latin, not reviewed.
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I Reg. 2, 26, "of iniquity": Iob. 34, 36); I Sam. 25, 25; 30, 22; II Sam. 16, 7; 20, 1; I Reg. 21, 13; Prov. 6, 12; 16, 27; 19, 28 (Eccli. 11, 32). Alone, used elliptically (for 'īl b.), b. is equivalent to "wicked" (II Sam. 23, 6; Iob. 34, 18) or "destroyer" (Nah. 2, 1), taking on …
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… 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, 33; Is. 42, 4; 51, 4). In this second semantic stage, the t. …
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… 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, 33; Is. 42, …
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Finally, mention should be made of the texts that recommend perfect conjugal fidelity (Prov. 5:15-20; 6:24-35; 23:26-28; Eccl. 9:1-13; Mal. 2:14 ff., etc.) or describe the ideal wife (Prov. 31:10-31; Eccl. 26:1-24) in opposition to the perverse one (Eccl. 25:17-36). For the preference …
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.