Cornelius a Lapide

Proverbs I

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

First, he proposes the end and aim of these proverbs, or parables, which is to teach practical wisdom, which consists in right action, whose beginning accordingly is the fear of the Lord. Then second, at verse 8, he exhorts all to the study of wisdom, and to beware of the allurements and snares of the foolish, that is, the wicked. Third, at verse 28, he introduces Wisdom herself preaching and inviting all to herself, promising great rewards to those who come to her, threatening great punishments to those who reject her.

Vulgate Text: Proverbs 1:1-33

1. The Proverbs of Solomon, the son of David, king of Israel. 2. To know wisdom, and discipline: 3. to understand the words of prudence, and to receive the instruction of doctrine, justice, and judgment, and equity: 4. to give subtlety to the little ones, to the young man knowledge, and understanding. 5. A wise man shall hear, and shall be wiser: and he that understandeth, shall possess governance. 6. He shall understand a parable, and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their enigmas. 7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. 8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother: 9. that grace may be added to thy head, and a chain of gold to thy neck. 10. My son, if sinners shall entice thee, consent not to them. 11. If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent without cause: 12. let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole as one that goeth down into the pit. 13. We shall find all precious substance, we shall fill our houses with spoils. 14. Cast in thy lot with us, let there be one purse for us all. 15. My son, walk not thou with them, restrain thy foot from their paths. 16. For their feet run to evil, and make haste to shed blood. 17. But a net is spread in vain before the eyes of them that have wings. 18. And they themselves lie in wait for their own blood, and practice deceits against their own souls. 19. So the paths of every covetous man destroy the souls of the possessors. 20. Wisdom preacheth abroad, she uttereth her voice in the streets. 21. At the head of multitudes she crieth out, in the entrance of the gates of the city she uttereth her words, saying: 22. O children, how long will you love childishness, and fools covet those things which are hurtful to themselves, and the unwise hate knowledge? 23. Turn ye at my reproof: behold I will utter my spirit to you, and will show you my words. 24. Because I called, and you refused: I stretched forth my hand, and there was none that regarded. 25. You have despised all my counsel, and have neglected my reprehensions. 26. I also will laugh in your destruction, and will mock when that shall come to you which you feared. 27. When sudden calamity shall fall on you, and destruction, as a tempest, shall be at hand: when tribulation and distress shall come upon you. 28. Then shall they call upon me, and I will not hear: they shall rise in the morning, and shall not find me: 29. because they have hated discipline, and received not the fear of the Lord, 30. nor consented to my counsel, but despised all my reproof. 31. Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, and shall be filled with their own devices. 32. The turning away of little ones shall kill them, and the prosperity of fools shall destroy them. 33. But he that shall hear me, shall rest without terror, and shall enjoy abundance, without fear of evils.

First Part of the Chapter

Verse 1: The Proverbs of Solomon, Son of David

1. THE PROVERBS OF SOLOMON, THE SON OF DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. — This is the title, and at the same time the beginning of the book, indicating its subject matter, namely that it contains proverbs; as well as its author, namely that its author is Solomon the king, the son of David.

Whence it seems altogether that this title was prefixed to this book not by a collector of the proverbs, as Lyra and others hold, but by Solomon himself; for the following words, which are certainly Solomon's, namely "to know wisdom," etc., depend upon and are governed by this title; otherwise those words would lack a subject, as well as meaning. For who would begin a book thus: "To know knowledge," unless he prefaced or appended: "This book was written by Solomon," or something similar? Solomon therefore was the first who prefixed his own name to this book of his; for this was not done by Moses, Joshua, David, and the authors of the books of Judges, Kings, Paralipomenon, etc. Isaiah followed Solomon, who begins thus: "The vision of Isaiah," and the other Prophets likewise. He adds the name of his father, namely that he is the son of David, because by this surname he is distinguished from others who bore the name Solomon, and it confers great dignity upon the book and upon himself, namely that he is the wise son and king of a wise king, says St. Basil. For this confers upon it great credibility and authority. Therefore the Scholia ascribed to Vatablus improbably judge that not only this title, but also what follows, and the entire preface, was added not by Solomon, but by the one who collected his sayings, and prefixed to the work.

For "proverbs," the Hebrew is mishle; the Chaldaic mitle. For the Chaldeans change the Hebrew shin into tav, that is, s into t, so that for misle they say mitle; thus for shelos, that is three, they say telos; thus for shekel, that is siclus, they say tekel, etc., just as the Flemish change the German s into t, so that for wasser they say water, that is water; for vas they say vat, that is vessel; for lassen they say laten, that is to leave. In Greek they are called paroimiai, that is proverbs. Our translator renders parabolæ; the Zurich version renders sententiæ; Vatablus, apophthegmata and gnomæ. All these mean one and the same thing. Therefore these sayings are called, first, in Hebrew meshalim, and in the construct state mishle (from the root mashal, that is, he dominated, reigned, presided, had dominion and power, excelled), that is, illustrious sayings, as if dominating and excelling all others — axioms, adages, maxims — whether they are proverbs, or parables, or enigmas, or anything else; whence it has happened that in Scripture these terms — parabola, proverbium, parœmia — are often confused and taken for the same thing, namely to signify some distinguished and eminent saying or reasoning. Mishle therefore signifies sayings full of wisdom, difficulty, gravity, utility, acuteness, authority, and as it were power; for these dominate and excel all others.

Again, mashal by extension means to compare, to utter axioms, to speak in parables, to express a parable, enigma, proverb, adage, saying, or witticism. Hence mishle signifies parables, similitudes, comparisons, adages, enigmas, witticisms. Whence R. Levi says: mashal, that is, proverb or parable, is a certain thing expressed by way of similitude, so that the form of the thing we are speaking about may be exhibited to the mind, in order that one may more easily imagine, comprehend, and understand it.

Second, in Greek they are called paroimiai, as if sayings that are spoken on the road and in the public way (for oimos means a road), that is, commonplace sayings, used and worn by the people, so that they may be recited and chanted even along the road. For they are so worthy, useful, and necessary for forming morals, and for instructing and directing the life of man in every direction, that everywhere, even on roads and at crossroads, they should be read, sung, repeated, and continually turned over and worn in the heart and on the lips. Thus Hesychius, in his Lexicon, thinks that paroimia is derived from oimos, that is hodos, meaning a road, as if it were parodia. Julius Scaliger, however, in Book III of the Poetices, chapter 84, very fittingly judges that paroimia is said from para ton oimon, which signifies not only a road, but also a word, so that paroimia means the same as "beyond or alongside the first word," as if to say: From the first word and its sense arises another word and another sense. For properly a proverb is an allegorical and metaphorical expression, or one that alludes to and hints at something else. Moreover, even if you take oimos for a road, paroimia signifies the same thing, namely a saying that is spoken "beyond the road," that is, beyond the common mode of speaking (for this is what the Hebrew derech, that is, road, signifies), or one which, though commonly used, yet transcends the ordinary custom of speech, because it is figurative, recondite, eminent, and illustrious. A proverb therefore is a somewhat obscure expression, even though it does not entirely conceal its force through certain manifest elements; or it is certainly such a kind of speech that at first glance seems to offer an easy meaning, but in its interior contains something hidden and abstruse.

Now Solomon used this obscure genre of speech, lest this moral doctrine, being considered easy, be despised by the ignorant, or rashly exposed to the snares and mockery of profane men, and in order to sharpen in studious persons their zeal and investigation of these things.

Thus Olympiodorus in the Catena of the Greeks: "Profane writers," he says, "define a proverb as a popular and, as it were, commonplace expression; of such a kind as can be said and considered to be what travelers exchange among themselves. For oimos in Greek means the same as via in Latin, that is, a road. But among those who treat sacred matters, a proverb is a speech that embraces under a moderate obscurity of words some weighty thought, and for that reason brings no ordinary benefit to readers or listeners. And Christ Himself expressly confirms this: 'These things I have spoken to you in proverbs; the hour comes when I shall no longer speak to you in proverbs, but plainly.' Proverbial speech therefore does not directly and perspicuously reveal where it tends, but obliquely and somewhat obscurely, as when it is said: 'War is sweet to the inexperienced'; 'Help after the battle'; 'A drop by constant falling hollows out a stone.'" The reason for the etymology is given by Didymus in the same Catena: "Proverbial speech is called by another name paræmia," he says. "For since at the beginning roads were not yet divided into milestones (as the Romans call them), men of the ancient age set up markers at certain intervals along the roads, and took care to have inscribed upon them some problem, or apophthegm, or some illustrious saying. They did this for a twofold reason: one was so that the traveler might thereby understand how great a stretch of road he had covered; the other, so that turning such a saying over in his mind, and applying himself to its interpretation while traveling, he might become better and more learned, and at the same time beguile the tedium of the journey." And he adds: "A proverb is a speech that shows the truth in a hidden way." And he soon adds a third reason: "For since not all cared about the reason of truth, the ancient sages inscribed some weighty saying on public road-markers for the benefit and instruction in life of those who were traveling, so that even those passing by casually might investigate their meaning, and by investigating and absorbing them might become more learned and holier; for oimos in Greek means the same as via in Latin, that is, a road. There are those who define a proverb in this way: A proverb is a commonplace saying, which can be transferred from one particular notion to many things." Hippolytus gives a loftier reason in the same place: "Proverbs," he says, "are exhortatory speeches suitable for rightly directing every path of life; since for those who direct the disposition of their mind straight toward God, they show the way. For they act like road signs, which refresh and restore those wearied by the toil and length of the journey." But, as I said, the term proverb extends to signify any kind of saying, and any weighty maxim. Whence Donatus says: "A proverb is a saying suited to circumstances and times." And Diomedes: "A proverb is the use of a common saying, suited to circumstances and times."

Third, by our Latin translator the Greek terms are called parabolæ, that is similitudes, from paraballo, that is, I compare, I set alongside, as if by comparison of unlike things. Whence Donatus says: "A parable is a comparison of things unlike in kind." Thence parabola is extended to signify an example, type, figure, fable, enigma, and every illustrious saying, as I showed at Hebrews chapter 11, verse 19, on the text: "Whence he also received him (Isaac) in a parable." Thus St. Chrysostom in the Catena of the Greeks: "A parable," he says, "is every wise saying." From parabola the Italians and French by crasis formed their word parola. For the Spaniards, who have preserved many things more uncorruptedly, say palabra by metathesis, for parabla; from which come parlare and parler. Indeed the Italians even call a talkative person a parabolano, says Angelus Caninius in his Hellenisms, page 8.

From what has been said it is gathered that there are various modes and species of these proverbial maxims. St. Athanasius in the Synopsis of Holy Scripture, chapter 14, on the book of Proverbs, reduces them to four species: For first among them are proverbs, that is, easy and commonplace sayings, which, though acute, are yet so plain and clear that they are understood and used even by the common people and the unlearned.

Second, there are strophes, which sound one thing on the surface of the letter, but signify something else through it, such as the symbols of Pythagoras, Horus Apollo, and the Egyptians. St. Athanasius gives as an example Proverbs 23:1: "When thou sittest to eat with a prince, etc., set a knife to thy throat." And Proverbs 27:25: "The meadows are opened, and the green herbs have appeared, and hay is gathered from the mountains. Lambs are for thy clothing, and goats are the price of the field." Of such a kind also is Proverbs 5:15: "Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well. Let thy fountains flow abroad." And Proverbs 1:17: "In vain is a net spread before the eyes of those that have wings." For the ancient Hebrews wrapped their teachings in certain coverings, such as parables, enigmas, and strophes, both for their dignity and reverence, and to sharpen the zeal of disciples in searching them out. From the Hebrews the same custom passed to the Egyptians, who concealed their wisdom in their hieroglyphics; from the Egyptians it passed to the Greeks. Hence Pythagoras handed down his teachings through symbols. From the Greeks it finally passed to the Latins.

Third, there are parables, that is, comparative sayings, or similitudes; and Solomon uses these frequently in the Hebrew manner. Hence they are commonly called and inscribed as parables; for very many of Solomon's maxims contain either an express or implied comparison of one ethical matter with another ethical or physical matter: for which reason they contain acuteness as well as elegance and difficulty; for it is often difficult to perceive in what the comparison and similitude of one thing with another consists. To these may be added antitheses; for often one saying here is set against another by antithesis, that is, opposed to it: in which opposition both acuteness and striking beauty shine forth.

St. Athanasius gives the example of Proverbs 25:13: "As the cold of snow in the time of harvest, so is a faithful messenger to him that sent him: he refreshes his soul." Similar ones are in the same chapter at verses 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 23, 25, etc.

Fourth, there are riddles and enigmas. St. Athanasius gives the example of Proverbs 30:15: "Three things are insatiable, and the fourth that never says: Enough." Such is Proverbs 9:1: "Wisdom has built herself a house, she has hewn out seven pillars, she has slain her victims," etc.

From these and similar sayings Pythagoras drew his symbols and enigmas, which the ancients so celebrated, and especially St. Cyril, Book IX Against Julian, chapter 2: "Pythagoras," he says, "greatly valued enigmatic exposition. Moreover there was another kind of symbols such as: Do not step over the balance, that is, be not avaricious. Do not poke the fire with a sword, that is, do not provoke a shameless and angry spirit with harsh words. Do not pluck the crown, that is, do not offend the laws; for these were the crowns of cities. Do not eat the heart, that is, do not consume yourself with cares. Do not sit upon the choenix, or bushel measure, that is, do not live idly. Do not receive swallows into the house, that is, talkative men of uncontrolled tongue should not be made your companions. A burden should be placed on those carrying one, but not put down together with them, that is, cooperate with another for labor and virtue, not for vice and idleness. Do not wear images of the gods on rings, that is, do not easily disclose and divulge your opinion and speech about the gods."

Fifth, to these may be added fables, in which speaking or teaching animals are brought onto the stage or into the school, as Aesop introduces them. Such is Proverbs 6:6: "Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom; which, having no guide, nor master, nor ruler, prepares food for herself in summer, and gathers in harvest what she may eat." And Proverbs 30:15: "The leech has two daughters, saying: Bring, bring." And verse 18: "Three things are difficult for me, and the fourth I know not at all: the way of an eagle in the sky, the way of a serpent upon a rock, the way of a ship in the midst of the sea, and the way of a man in his youth." And verse 24: "Four things are the least of the earth, and they are wiser than the wise: Ants, a feeble people, who prepare food for themselves in harvest; the rabbit, a weak folk, who makes its bed in the rock; the locust has no king, and yet goes forth in ordered bands; the lizard supports itself on its hands, and dwells in the palaces of kings." And verse 29: "Three things there are which go well, and the fourth that walks happily: the lion, the strongest of beasts, who fears no encounter; the cock, girded about the loins; and the ram; nor is there a king that can resist him."

For the Hebrews call all these things mishle, that is, dominant, princely, and royal sayings, both because these sayings are among other sayings what a king is among commoners: for as a king excels commoners, so these surpass all others; and because just as a king rules his subjects and dominates them, so these sayings dominate others, which are drawn from them as conclusions from their principles: just as Aristotle, Posterior Analytics Book I, chapter 9, calls the principles of the sciences axiomata, that is dignities, because they are worthier than the rest, and they rule over and exercise dominion over all other conclusions, as offspring generated from themselves: for in a similar way these maxims dominate and command not only the particular conclusions and maxims that the common people derive from them in great number, but also the morals and life of men, like laws; and finally because kings, such as Solomon was, befit such sayings. For, as he says: "The words of a prince ought to be few, worthy, sublime, and plainly royal." For the same reason they are called in Greek paroimiai, because they are uttered para oimon, that is, beyond the road, meaning beyond the common manner of speaking, or beyond the common word, and contain something singular and outstanding, and therefore are celebrated on everyone's lips, even on roads and in public places. Therefore he who directs his morals according to them, and orders his life by them, is truly wise and good, and far surpasses other mortals. For, as Plato says in the Protagoras: "A good man and philosopher surpasses other men more than a famous king surpasses commoners."

For the same reason they are called parabolæ, because they surpass the easy, plain, and common mode of speaking, and often contain something parabolic, that is, some similitude, comparison, allusion, metaphor, allegory, or similar figure. Hence they are also called proverbs, as if words fetched from afar, namely from antiquity, or from a hidden thing, or received from heaven. For this reason Dio Chrysostom calls proverbs "grey-haired words." For just as old age brings its own authority and weight to a man, so it does to proverbs. Or more plainly they are called proverbs, as if common words of all, which are in front of everyone's doors and on everyone's lips. For they contain such great credibility and authority that they are celebrated on the lips of all, both wise and unwise, as most true, most certain, and most prudent. See Ovid, Fasti V:

"For this reason too, if proverbs touch you, It is bad to marry in May, says the common folk."

And Cicero, On Old Age: "For equals with equals, according to the old proverb, are most easily gathered together." The same, On Friendship: "We use ill-advised counsels, and do things done, which are forbidden by the old proverb." Hence therefore a proverb is some common and ancient saying celebrated by the voice of all.

Finally they are called adages, or in the ancient form adagiones, as if "suited for action" (ad agendum), says Festus. And Donatus on the Eunuch: "Both sayings," he says, "and proverbs, and adages are attributed to men of action, because they deal with action." Hence Plautus in the Amphitryon: "It is an old adage: Hunger and delay drive bile into the nose."

And Ausonius in the preface to his Monosyllables: "So that what we grasp by adage, we may conclude with a proverb." Therefore all these terms are the same not only in matter and meaning, but also in connotation and etymology: the Hebrew mishle, the Greek paroimiai and parabolai, the Latin proverbia and adagia.

Moreover, various authors define all these terms in various ways. The Greeks say: "A proverb is a speech useful for the conduct of life, containing much utility under a certain moderate obscurity;" others say: "A proverb is a speech that veils a manifest matter with obscurity." For although not all are obscure and figurative, yet most are of such a kind, and those are considered the best which, as they delight by the coloring of metaphor, so they profit by the utility of their meaning. Others define more generally: "A proverb is a celebrated saying, distinguished by some skillful novelty." Hence they are also called "witticisms" (scita), because they contain a thing worth knowing, which is commended by its antiquity, as well as by learning, charm, and elegance, and which is drawn from the sayings of the wise. But our proverbs of Solomon are moreover oracles, because they were dictated by the mouth of the Holy Spirit to him as the wisest of kings. Hence they contain an ample, hidden, sublime, indeed divine wisdom about morals and virtues, and about rightly ordering one's life according to God and happiness; and this with the salt, acuteness, and ornamentation of various parables, enigmas, figures, and tropes. For just as it requires no small skill to set a gem, say a diamond, in a ring, and to weave gold into purple: so it is not within everyone's ability to aptly and fittingly devise a proverb and insert it into speech; but this is the work of wise men, whose parent, fountain, and origin is the Holy Spirit. All these proverbs therefore are divine utterances and oracles, drawn not from the tripod of Apollo, but from the mind of the Holy Spirit, and therefore they are the axioms and apophthegms of the world, so that they should never fall from the lips of the faithful, never from the heart.

Finally, just as the strength and weight of a proverb consists in its certain credibility, truth, and authority: so its beauty and charm shine forth in the apt and skillful comparison of one thing with another similar or dissimilar thing; for comparison is made now by the synthesis and composition of similar things, now by the antithesis and opposition of dissimilar things, whether it be real, or verbal, or rather both real and verbal at once, such as these: "The virgin Diana was no virgin. The marriage of Elkanah with Hannah and Peninnah was no marriage. The happiness of the wicked is unhappy, the unhappiness of the pious is happy. The gifts of enemies are no gifts. The saint says: Bearing I bear not, having I have not, seeing I see not, hearing I hear not. The fear of the wicked is not to be feared. War is no war. The adorned is unadorned. Thankless grace. The tongueless one's loquacity. Riches are no riches. The humble man is a morosophos, that is, foolishly wise. The lover is a glukupikros, that is, sweetly bitter." For thus, as Plutarch testifies, lovers call their affection a mixture of sweet and bitter, so that they willingly waste away.

The comparison is drawn now from animals, such as that of Lucian: "More irascible than puppies, more timid than hares, more fawning than apes, more lustful than asses, more rapacious than cats, more quarrelsome than roosters." Likewise: "More long-lived than a stag, more talkative than a jackdaw, more tuneful than a nightingale, more venomous than a viper, more cunning than a fox, more prickly than a hedgehog, more slippery than an eel, more timid than a hare, slower than a snail, more playful than a dolphin, rarer than a phoenix, more voracious than a vulture, more somnolent than a dormouse, dirtier than a pig, more stupid than a donkey, more fearful than a deer, more bibulous than a swallow."

Now from persons, as: David was gentler than Moses, wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, more spirited than the Maccabees. Likewise: This is another Nebuchadnezzar, a new Goliath, this one is our Judas: this woman is the Christians' Susanna, Sarah, Rebecca. Now from inanimate things, as: The chaste man is whiter than snow, sweeter than honey, calmer than oil, purer than gold. The slothful man is more stupid than lead, slower than a log. The drunkard is more bibulous than a sponge, more tempestuous than the Adriatic, drier than pumice. The blessed man is brighter than a star, more splendid than the sun. Such are those of Tertullian, Book I Against Marcion, chapter 1: "Nothing so barbarous and dreary in Pontus as that Marcion was born there — more grim than a Scythian, more unstable than a wagon-dweller, more inhuman than a Massagete, bolder than an Amazon, darker than a cloud, colder than winter, more brittle than frost, more treacherous than the Danube, more precipitous than the Caucasus, etc. For who is a more chaste castrator of the flesh than he who abolished marriage? What Pontic mouse is a greater gnawer than he who gnawed away the Gospels?"

The charm of proverbs is enhanced by verse or rhythm, such as is often found in these proverbs of Solomon, especially in the Hebrew, where many are homoioteleuton, that is, similarly ending and cadenced.

Allegorically, the teachings and sayings of Christ are mishle, proverbs and parables, both because Christ, in the manner of His nation, that is, in the manner of the Syrians, frequently used parables and comparisons, according to the text: "Without parables He did not speak to them, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken: I will open My mouth in parables," Matthew 13:34-35; and because the sayings and teachings of Christ are plainly sublime and royal. Hence St. Chrysostom, Oration 10 among the last in volume V, says: "Christ called the Gospel the Gospel of the Kingdom, as something royal promulgated to the whole world: for the teachings of Christ surpass all the doctrines of the philosophers as much as a king surpasses the people; both because from the Gospel as from a ruling principle the other doctrines of faith and morals are derived; and because the Gospel dominates the minds of men and brings them into the captivity and obedience of faith," 2 Corinthians 10:5; and finally because the word parabola signifies that in these sayings, beneath the literal sense, many mystical and parabolic senses lie hidden, which suggest something more sublime and spiritual to the mind, and nourish and inflame the spirit of the faithful.

Verse 2: To Know Wisdom and Discipline

2. TO KNOW WISDOM AND DISCIPLINE, etc. — Understand: "were written," as if to say: These are the proverbs of Solomon, dictated or written and published by him, so that those reading them may learn and know wisdom, etc. Hence Vatablus translates: "the sayings of Solomon, son of David, king of Israel, from which one can learn wisdom and correction, to understand the words of prudence, and to receive instruction in acting prudently, and finally justice, judgment, and equity." And he explains it thus: "To learn wisdom," he says, "is to learn to know God. To know discipline, instruction, or correction, is to mortify the flesh. To receive the discipline of prudence, that is, so that the word of God may be understood. Justice is justifying faith. Judgment is the condemnation of oneself. Equity is that which is fair and right, namely when we attribute all things to God." So he says.

One may ask first, what wisdom is understood here, and how it is distinguished from discipline? First, some take wisdom to mean philosophy. For Aristotle says the habits of the intellect are five, namely wisdom, science, understanding, art, and prudence: "Wisdom," he says, "is the knowledge of the highest things; or: It is the knowledge of divine and human things." So he says in Ethics Book VI, chapter 3. Thus Olympiodorus in the Catena of the Greeks: "Wisdom," he says, "is drawn from divine works; discipline, however, is contained in certain prescribed laws and rules. Again, wisdom is the knowledge of bodies and of the origin of bodies, and of the providence observed in them. Doctrine or discipline is the moderation of the soul regarding the passible and irrational part of the same soul."

R. Levi Ben Gershom agrees: "Wisdom," he says, "is the knowledge of a thing through its proper and intrinsic causes."

Second, Hugh and Denis take wisdom to mean faith. For this believes and comprehends the highest mysteries of the Most Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, Beatitude, the Resurrection, and other mysteries.

Third, Lyra and others take wisdom to mean contemplation, and discipline to mean action. So also Salonius here: "Wisdom," he says, "is the knowledge of divine things, or faith. Discipline is the conduct of a holy and pure life." But that these are not the literal and genuine senses is clear from what has been said. Likewise it is clear from the course of the entire book; for in it you will find few, indeed scarcely any, doctrines of philosophical wisdom, of faith or contemplation, especially of the Most Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the Resurrection, etc.

Fourth then, and genuinely, take wisdom here not in the speculative sense, but in the practical sense, which is the knowledge of God and of the ultimate end and of the means leading to it, namely the desire for the divine laws and their pious affection and love. Hence Cajetan defines it thus: "Wisdom is the rule and norm of human actions rightly ordered according to the highest cause, which is God." And St. Basil, in his Homily on the Beginning of Proverbs: "To give wisdom, that is," he says, "worthy (noble), precious wisdom (since the wisdom of the Gentiles and Philosophers is cheap and worthless, as St. Chrysostom says, Homily 6 on the Epistle to the Ephesians) and true wisdom, which lies entirely in morals." Thus also Socrates and the ancient Philosophers gave the name of philosophy only to Ethics, which consists in forming morals. I have said more about this wisdom at Ecclesiasticus 1, near the beginning. For this reason Solomon in these proverbs frequently impresses upon us the attributes of God, namely His providence, power, glory, etc., which lead men to the worship of God. Hence in chapter 15, verse 3, he says: "The eyes of the Lord in every place behold the good and the evil." And His operation and power in creating the world through the Word, that is, the Son, who is the Wisdom of the Father, as in chapter 8: "When He prepared the heavens, I was present," etc. Likewise keen discernment, direction, and judgment, as when he says in chapter 15, verse 8: "The victims of the wicked are abominable to the Lord; the vows of the just are pleasing. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: he that followeth justice, is beloved by Him."

Discipline, however, is called the correction and chastisement of passions and vices. For this is what the Hebrew musar signifies, from the root yasar, that is, to correct, to chastise. The Seventy translate paideia, because it is to paides, that is children, who are driven by sense and concupiscence, not by reason, that discipline properly applies, in order to restrain and correct the wanton movements of sensuality in them. The Chaldean translates marduta, that is, instruction; the Syriac, correction; the Zurich version, chastisement; Vatablus, mortification of the flesh. Therefore discipline properly applies to the unwise: for it is their task to tame and break their desires, in order to arrive at wisdom and virtue; whereas wisdom applies to the advanced and perfect, who having subdued their passions, by wisdom, as by the torch of divine law, immediately see what is to be done or not done in any matter. The sense therefore is, as if to say: These proverbs teach both beginners and advanced, both the unwise and the wise: for they teach the former discipline, that is, the mortification of passions; but the latter wisdom and full virtue. Thus Zeno, the prince of the Stoics, in order to attract more people to his school and sect, used to say: "In the Stoa (so was the school called from which the Stoics received their name) fruits already mature take on a new flavor, and unripe ones become precocious," as if to say: In the Stoa both the unlearned learn wisdom, and the learned advance and are perfected in it.

Symbolically, Lyra and others commonly (although some think this is the literal sense) take wisdom to mean the contemplative life, and discipline to mean the active life; for these are the two parts and adequate species of virtue and the honorable life, which philosophy teaches, that is, Christian Ethics, as St. Gregory Nazianzen teaches in Oration 25. "For these, as the same says in his Oration On His Flight, are the two wings by which we fly upward to God;" and the same testifies that these shone forth in St. Basil, in Oration 20, which is in praise of the same, where he also calls those who join action to contemplation "ambidextrous." The sense therefore is, as if Solomon were saying: Behold here are the parables of wisdom, to which I exhort and invite all, because they will make their students ambidextrous, winged, and well-sighted with a double eye; for the two eyes are action and contemplation, says Nicetas in his Tetrastichs on Gregory Nazianzen. So our Salazar. In both consists perfection; for perfect is he whose contemplation directs action, and conversely whose action strengthens and perfects contemplation; for contemplation that does not produce action is idle and barren: conversely, action that is not animated, directed, and strengthened by contemplation is languid and ineffective. Thus Olympiodorus in the Catena of the Greeks: "Wisdom," he says, "is a certain breath of divine power and wisdom, or a certain pure emanation of divine glory and majesty. For nothing at all obscure or dark falls upon it. For it is the splendor of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of divine power, and the express image of divine goodness. He therefore who is imbued with true wisdom knows all these things thoroughly. But to have these things known is nothing other than to know the Son of the divine love, and that wisdom which is Christ; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. But that mystery is not revealed by flesh and blood, but by the heavenly Father."

Verse 3: To Understand the Words of Prudence

3. TO UNDERSTAND THE WORDS OF PRUDENCE (the Syriac has: of understanding, and Symmachus: to receive utterances full of understanding), AND TO RECEIVE THE INSTRUCTION OF DOCTRINE. — Aquila has: of knowledge; Symmachus: of prudence; the Syriac: to receive instruction and fear; the Arabic: know (if you shall know) wisdom and discipline, you shall understand words; receive the reasons of words, or a feast, or a celebration of words: for this is what the Arabic signifies, which in both sound and meaning corresponds to chagag, that is, he celebrated a feast day, he kept a solemnity, he held a panegyric. Whence it seems that Solomon preached these things to the people on feast days, just as now on feasts the heralds of the word of God preach, and deliver their panegyrics to the people crowding in throngs into the temple on account of the feast.

One asks here secondly, what are the words of prudence that are taught by these parables, and how are they distinguished from the instruction of doctrine? First, Denis takes prudence to mean the discernment of spirits, and the instruction of doctrine to mean docility, as if to say: These parables are useful for learning the discernment of spirits and for acquiring docility, so that you willingly listen to others and allow yourself to be taught.

Second, Lyra takes the words of prudence to mean ethical words which direct what is to be done; and by the instruction of doctrine he understands Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, etc. But this exposition is cold. For Solomon does not teach these sciences here.

Third, R. Levi Ben Gershom says: "Wisdom is the knowledge of a thing through its proper and intrinsic causes; but binah (which our translator renders 'of prudence') is the knowledge of a thing through extrinsic causes, as when we say the sun heats and the moon cools, although these lack both heat and cold."

Fourth, Hugh says: "Prudence is that which guards against snares; doctrine is that which teaches and instructs others."

Fifth, and genuinely, the words of prudence are called words that teach prudence, so that each person may know what in any circumstance and situation he ought prudently to do or not do, according to the dictate of right reason, that is, according to the norm of virtue and the law of God; for what he previously called wisdom, he here calls prudence; and what he previously called discipline, he here calls the instruction of doctrine: for in Hebrew the same word musar is used in both places. For he explains what he said, "to know wisdom," by "to understand the words of wisdom," and he explains "to know discipline" by "to receive the instruction of doctrine," as Jansen rightly observes. Hence for "of prudence," the Hebrew is binah, that is, of discernment, by which one prudently discerns (ben) between good and evil, between lawful and unlawful, between useful and harmful, between true and false, between good, better, and best. For, as St. Basil says in his Homily on the Beginning of Proverbs: "The true prudence of a wise man is the discernment of things that are to be done and not done, and like an honest money-changer, he retains what is genuine and guards against every appearance of evil." For just as a money-changer examines and separates genuine coin from counterfeit partly by sight, partly by touch, partly by weight, and partly by sound: so likewise the prudent man judges and discerns good actions from bad by the judgment of reason and of divine law.

The instruction of doctrine, moreover, is discipline, which teaches how to correct and form morals according to the law of God; hence in Hebrew it is musar sekhel, that is, the discipline of understanding, that is, of acting prudently, as Vatablus translates, by which a man chastises his passions and sets for himself rules of right living — for this is the most excellent and holiest discipline. The Seventy, instead of "to receive the instruction of doctrine," translate: "to receive strophes," that is, coverings, that is, proverbs, says Olympiodorus. St. Jerome, on Ezekiel chapter 16, translates strophes as "the subtleties of words and the solutions of enigmas," both because these teach musar sekhel, that is, the discipline of understanding and acting prudently; and because the Hebrews exercised and sharpened their disciples, and all younger students, by proposing to them strophes and enigmas, so that trained by these they might be prepared to approach Holy Scripture itself. Hence they called this the logic of the young, or rational doctrine, since, as Basil says in the Catena of the Greeks, he who uses verbal strophes, that is, turning and inversion of words, deceives those with whom he deals, and plays with them, as foxes and lions are wont to trick dogs; for they go one way and pretend to be going another. Therefore skill and a skillful logic is needed to uncover it, or to convert the strophe into an anastrophe, says Gregory in the Catena of the Greeks.

Hear Eusebius, in Book XI of the Preparation for the Gospel, chapter 3, describing the practice of the Hebrews in parables: "With this rational doctrine," he says, "from an early age, by the narration of sacred matters and most useful histories, by the exercise of songs and epodes, by the composition of enigmas, and by elegant and eloquent discourse of allegorical speculation, they educated their students. And so they had certain 'Deuterotæ' (for so they called the interpreters of their writings) of the primary disciplines, who reserved for a more illustrious explanation the things shadowed forth by enigmas, not indeed for all the common people, but for those who were judged suitable for understanding them. The wisest among them, Solomon, plainly followed this method; and from this he made the beginning of his work of Proverbs, declaring that he was led to this kind of writing for roughly this reason, when he says in express and deliberate words that every man ought to know wisdom and discipline."

Allegorically, Epiphanius in the Catena of the Greeks says: "The things that happened concerning Christ, he here calls strophes or inversions of words. For He who was without flesh becomes incarnate, and He who was invisible comes under sight, and He who was impassible suffers in the flesh, and He who was immortal dies for our sake, namely so that He might bestow immortality upon us. And all who believe in Christ ought to admit such inversions of things and reasons simply, without any curiosity or hesitation whatsoever: so that instructed by these things, they may understand that the Son of God administered true justice through this, and exercised true judgment."

JUSTICE, AND JUDGMENT, AND EQUITY. — Repeat "to understand," or rather, "to receive justice," etc.

One may ask thirdly, what these three terms signify, and in what way they differ from each other?

First, R. Solomon takes "justice" to mean almsgiving; for so it is taken in Psalm 111:9: "He has distributed, he has given to the poor; his justice," that is, his almsgiving, "endures forever and ever;" and elsewhere. By "judgment," he understands sincerity in judging, so as to judge according to the norm of truth; by "equity," a fair settlement, so as to settle and pacify those who are in disagreement and litigation equitably and kindly.

Second, Ibn Ezra takes "justice" to mean the worship of God and every good work; and "judgment," to mean that one rightly judges between true and false, and pronounces what is right in judgment.

Third, Cajetan takes "justice" in its proper sense, which gives to each his own right, and what is owed to him by right; by "judgment" he understands instruction in the divine judgments, by which men are afflicted in various ways: for these drive men to the fear and worship of God; by "equities," or rectitudes, he understands the virtues which rightly order a man in himself, so that these three things are signified which rightly order man with God, with his neighbor, and with himself. For justice orders and arranges man with his neighbor, judgment with God, equity or rectitude with himself: so that "we may live soberly, justly, and piously in this world," as the Apostle admonishes at Titus 2:12: "soberly" as regards ourselves, "justly" as regards our neighbors, "piously" as regards God; for we owe sobriety and continence to ourselves, justice to our neighbor, piety to God.

Fourth, Vatablus says: "Justice" is justifying faith. "Judgment" is the condemnation of oneself. For the soul makes this judgment for itself in the tribunal of its own mind, in which it judges and condemns its own errors and misdeeds, concerning which the Apostle says: "Their conscience bearing witness to them, and their thoughts between themselves accusing, or also defending one another," Romans 2:15: see what is said there, and Micah 6:8; and by "equity," that which is fair and right, namely when we attribute all things to God.

Fifth, Bede, Hugh, and Denis take "justice" to mean good works, "judgment" to mean discernment, and "equity," or as the Hebrew has it, rectitude, to mean right and sincere intention.

Sixth, St. Ambrose, on the text: "I have done judgment and justice," Sermon 16 on Psalm 118, says: "The end of judgment is justice; in judgment lies the custody of truth, in justice the fruit of equity." And St. Augustine on Psalm 105, on the text: "Blessed are they who keep judgment, and do justice at all times," says: "Scripture loves to put those two things together. And perhaps because of the closeness of their meaning, one can even be put for the other, either judgment for justice, or justice for judgment; yet if they are spoken properly, I do not doubt that there is some difference, so that he who rightly judges is said to keep judgment; but he who acts is said to do justice."

Seventh, plainly according to the letter and genuinely: These three terms, "justice, judgment, equity," signify the same thing in reality, namely the duty of virtue, or that which is just, fair, and right, which is the fruit and end of the instruction and doctrine that he has premised: but they are accumulated by way of amplification, so that the perfection of virtue may be signified, inasmuch as it includes and comprehends these three things within itself. The sense therefore is, as if to say: These parables will instruct you, and will deliver a doctrine that teaches what justice, judgment, and equity prescribe in all things, or what in all things is just, consonant with right judgment, and equitable, namely what in any matter ought to be done justly and with judgment, that is, with just reason and discretion, and with equity. Therefore take justice here not in the particular sense, but in the general sense, which is the sum of all virtues; for Solomon teaches these in these Proverbs. These three things therefore signify the same thing, namely the duty and prescription of any virtue, but they differ in connotation and etymology.

For it is called "justice" with respect to the matter and object, because it is just in itself. It is called "judgment" with respect to right reason and judgment, which dictates and judges that this is just, so that God and any fair judge would define it as just, and would judge and condemn those who do the contrary. It is called "equity," or as it is in Hebrew, mesharim, that is rectitudes, because they are norms and rules, namely conformed to the eternal and divine law, and therefore it is right, not depraved, not crooked and distorted. Hence the Syriac translates equity as rectitude; the Chaldean as direction; the Seventy, however, joining mesharim, that is rectitudes, with mishpat, that is judgment, assign for the three already mentioned only these two: "To understand true justice (not false, not feigned and hypocritical), and to direct or correct judgment," as St. Jerome translates in Ezekiel chapter 18, so that judgment may be in all things directed, corrected, and right.

For Solomon alludes to the death of his father David, who in the Psalms repeatedly commends these two things, namely judgment and justice, both to king and judge, and to every private person, as is clear from Psalm 9:5, 8, 9; Psalm 16:2; Psalm 17:23; Psalm 36:2; Psalm 71:2; Psalm 88:15, where he says: "Justice and judgment are the preparation," that is, the base, support, and foundation, "of Thy throne," as if to say: The judgment by which Thou dost punish the guilty, O Lord; the justice by which Thou dost acquit, protect, and vindicate the innocent — these are the foundations of Thy kingdom; for the judgment exercised by a king and judge has two parts: one, to condemn the guilty — this is signified by "judgment;" the other, to acquit and vindicate the innocent — this is signified by "justice." Now by catachresis the same is transferred to every private person; for his duty in any matter is twofold: one, to condemn and avoid vice, which is signified by "judgment;" the other, to cultivate and practice virtue, which is signified by "justice," according to the text: "Turn away from evil and do good," Psalm 36:37. For vice in every judgment, both divine and human, is guilty, but virtue is innocent, indeed is innocence itself, justice, and holiness. These therefore are the two parts of Christian justice, or duty and virtue, namely to fear and flee evil, and to love and pursue good; for if you do this, you will be dutiful both to yourself and to all others, and injurious to none. This therefore is to do judgment and justice. So our Prado on Ezekiel 18:4. Solomon adds a third, namely "equity," in Hebrew rectitudes, to signify that justice and judgment are most equitable and most right, and are therefore equity itself and moral rectitude, which is nothing other than the very prescription and duty of virtue, as I have already said: for virtue is rectitude and equity, vice is crookedness and iniquity.

To this is added the exposition of our Salazar, who takes "justice" to mean probity and honesty in general; "judgment" to mean prudence, which prescribes laws and rights to each of the particular virtues in which probity resides; and "equity" or rectitudes, to mean the individual virtues themselves, or the acts of virtue, which the upright man carries out with the judgment of prudence.

The exposition of Jansen also agrees: For every virtue, he says, is justice, judgment, and equity; these names amount to the same thing, but are accumulated after the manner of the Hebrews to indicate perfection. For "justice" is every good work, because it is just that it be done. "Judgment" is the same, because right reason and divine law decree that it should be done. "Equity" is also rectitude, because it is consonant with right reason. Those two, "justice and judgment," are frequently joined together in the Scriptures; and what they signify is here indicated when "equity" is added, or as the Hebrew has it, in the plural, rectitudes, that is, those things which are right. Moreover, of the two, one belongs to the mind deciding what is just, the other to the will conforming itself in operation with the right judgment of the mind. And so these two joined together signify that it is not enough to judge rightly, nor is it enough to do what is right; but it is necessary both that what we rightly judge, we rightly do; and that what is right, we do with judgment. St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, cited shortly before, intended nothing different.

Finally, Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks adds: "The first degree of justice," he says, "is that what belongs to each should be given to them in full, and especially that what is God's should be given to God. Hence those sayings: Honor the Lord from your just labors. Observe the law. Give to parents what is fair, and take care to impart to all the rest what the reason of equity demands. The second degree is that the soul should endeavor to preserve itself in all moderation and equanimity, so that in no part of itself does it allow itself to be bent toward iniquity, or toward any inequality whatsoever. Judgment, moreover, is that each should know how to judge himself, and direct every counsel and desire of his toward the good and the honorable."

Verse 4: To Give Subtlety to the Little Ones

4. TO GIVE SUBTLETY TO THE LITTLE ONES, TO THE YOUNG MAN KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. — The Seventy translate: to give to the innocent subtlety, and to the new youth sense and thought; the Zurich version: which teach the simple shrewdness, and the unskilled knowledge and foresight; Vatablus: which give to the pliable astuteness, and to the youth understanding and counsel. For "little ones" the Hebrew is pethaim, from the root pathah; whence the Greek patho, that is, I persuade with gentle words, I entice, I win over; thence pethi (whence the French petit) is called little, simple, easily persuaded, one whom you can easily persuade of anything, who is of compliant credulity, and is quickly ensnared and deceived by flatteries. Hence for pethaim, the Seventy translate akakous, that is, those lacking malice, innocent ones; Symmachus, nearias, that is, little ones; Aquila, thelgomenois, that is, those who easily allow themselves to be caressed and soothed; Theodotion, epatemenois, that is, the deceived; the Chaldean and the Syriac, the foolish; the Zurich version, the simple. Pethi therefore here means a little one, both in age and in sense and prudence, that is, a simple person who easily believes and embraces whatever is first offered and ingratiating, and is thus seduced and driven into fraud. For such are children and little ones wont to be, both because they are pliable and easy, and because they are inexperienced in fraud.

For "subtlety" the Hebrew is ormah, that is, astuteness, attentiveness, foresight, caution, circumspection. Hence arum means attentive, provident, astute, crafty, cautious, shrewd, clever. Again, arum means gathered, accumulated, coiled; hence the serpent in Genesis 3:1, deceiving Eve, is called arum, that is, wrapped and coiled in his deceptions as well as in his coils and curves: for these coils were signs of the serpent's inner craftiness, by which he entangled and circumvented Eve. Such also are the strophes and parables of Solomon, but for the good, because they cover, entangle, and envelop the hidden counsels by which great things will be accomplished. To this, then, ormah alludes. The Seventy translate panourgia, that is, craftiness, shrewdness; and it is a neutral word, which can be taken either in a good sense for cleverness, or in a bad sense for fraud, deceit, and malice, since panourgia is the same as kakourgia, says Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks. Hence panourgos properly means one who is versed in all things, from pan and ergon, as if one who throws himself into everything, who namely involves himself in all affairs. But because such a person is usually crafty and shrewd, hence panourgos means prudent, clever, crafty; likewise fraudulent, deceitful, a busybody, a malefactor, an impostor. The similarity of vice and virtue caused this, says St. Thomas, II-II, Question 55, article 3, reply to 4. Here it is taken in the good sense. Hence St. Basil at the beginning of Proverbs says that one kind of panourgia deserves censure, but another is praiseworthy: "For panourgia," he says, "is an action of the soul with a certain attention and skill, and praiseworthy zeal in all things to be done." He gives examples of the Hebrews, who by craftily requesting to borrow the golden vessels of the Egyptians, despoiled Egypt, Exodus 12:35; and of the midwives, who cleverly saved the infants of the Hebrews whom Pharaoh had ordered killed, Exodus 1:19; and of Rebecca, who craftily arranged for Jacob to seize the blessing and right of primogeniture from his brother Esau, Genesis 27:15.

And then distinguishing panourgia, or astuteness, the good from the bad: "The designation of 'astute,'" he says, "signifies two things: the wicked man indeed uses skill and art to the harm of others; but the praiseworthy man, quickly and cleverly tracking his own good, rightly recognizes and avoids the deceits and snares of others." St. Basil adds: "The astute man is a throne of sense," as if to say: In the astute man, as on a throne, sits astuteness, that is, prudence, reason, and cleverness, which like a queen prudently and cleverly commands all the senses, and the movements of both mind and body, so that they may turn away from evil and advance toward every good.

Therefore Solomon says that he writes these Proverbs so that through them subtlety may be given to the little ones and the simple, that is, prudence, caution, circumspection. Hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, in Oration 11, designates the Proverbs of Solomon as "pedagogical wisdom," that is, wisdom that instructs boys and the unlearned like a pedagogue; just as Clement of Alexandria entitled his books on forming morals "The Pedagogue." "For in children," says Aristotle, Ethics III, chapter 1, "reason is silent, and appetite rules all things;" therefore for them, as being incautious, caution is necessary, as for the unskilled skill is necessary, as for the desirous a prudent moderation and restraint of desires is necessary. And this not only so that they may escape the snares and allurements of the devil, the world, and the flesh, as Bede, Lyra, Hugh, and Denis have held, but also for pursuing the good of virtue, especially the lofty and sublime, as St. Basil teaches here. For he who is clever, with little labor prepares for himself great merits and increases of virtue; for example, many undertake great penances, yet make little progress in other virtues; but he who mortifies his passions, and who continually exercises himself in charity, and does all things out of love for God — this man will quickly become perfect.

The Apostle seems to have used this astuteness when he said: "Being crafty, I caught you by guile," 2 Corinthians 12:16. Solomon also commends the same, Proverbs 13:16: "The prudent man," he says, "does all things with counsel;" and chapter 14:15: "The prudent man considers his steps;" and Ecclesiasticus 1:6: "Who has known His astuteness?" The same was commanded to Christians by Christ the Lord: "Be prudent," He said, "as serpents, and simple as doves," Matthew 10:16, as if to say: The serpent is astute and prudent, first, because for its head it exposes its whole body to clubs and swords: so also you, O Christian, for the salvation of your soul expose your whole body, wealth, and reputation; second, the serpent, lest it hear the voices of enchanters and be ensnared and enchanted by them, presses one ear to the ground and blocks the other with its tail: so also you, O Christian, lest you hear the voices of flatterers, Sirens, harlots, and others who flatter you to your destruction, close and stop your ears like Ulysses; third, the serpent, says St. Basil in Hexaemeron Homily 9, heals its bleary eyes with fennel juice: so also you, O faithful one, with the remedy of true prudence and circumspection, dispel all the mists and darkness of thoughtlessness and inconsideration, from which all evil arises; fourth, the serpent by squeezing through a narrow hole strips off its old skin to put on a new one: so also you, O devout soul, by mortification renew your morals and life: "For the way to heaven is narrow, and virtue must always be renewed," says St. Augustine, Book II of On Christian Doctrine, chapter 16; fifth, because the serpent attacks an enemy stronger than itself by cunning, and kills by biting secretly: so also you, O Christian, overcome the forces of the devil by counsel and provident cleverness. This astuteness and cleverness in wars both bodily and spiritual is of the highest importance; for it decides the battle and obtains the victory. Hence Vegetius, On Military Affairs, says: "Let the leader of war be more crafty than strong." Thus Gideon with three hundred soldiers, craftily smashing pitchers and blowing trumpets, threw into confusion and routed the entire camp of Midian, Judges 7:20. We read similar stratagems throughout histories, by which a few unarmed men overthrew the vast forces of the most powerful enemies. For this reason Hannibal "knew how to add cunning to the sword," that is, to fight with skill, says Silius, Book I; and Statius, Achilleid Book I:

"Only be provident with cunning, Bend your watchful mind, and raise your fertile breast."

Such were the Athenians, especially the inhabitants of the town Astu subject to them: hence from astu, this town of theirs, the words astus, astutus, and astutia were derived, say the lexicographers. Hence that saying of Lysander: "Where you cannot achieve your aim by the lion's skin, there the fox's must be applied," as if to say: What you cannot accomplish by strength and force, achieve by counsel and cunning.

Symbolically, with little ones, cunning is fittingly contrasted and combined, because God has placed it in small things, according to the saying: "By wit he prevails, to whom nature has denied strength." Hence a small fox is more cunning than a great lion, a small dog is more sagacious than a great donkey, a small monkey is more clever than a great ox, small ferrets drive great hares from their burrows and into the hands of hunters; small birds are more cunning than large ones, small men are sharper than large ones. And what is more prudent than ants and bees, tiny creatures? "We have seen," says St. Nilus in Antonius's Melissa, "a serpent of a tiny body devour some great animal, which it does in this way: it gradually grinds the bones and sinews, and sucks out what it has ground; so also small prudence has often devoured great difficulties, and digested them by gradually gnawing;" for by seizing one, then another, it finally captures and removes the whole.

Well known is the emblem of the scarab beetle in Alciatus, which, hiding itself in the wings of the eagle, pierced its eggs and destroyed the chicks. By this symbol we are tropologically admonished that in smallness, that is, humility, the greatest prudence and wisdom consists; for this conquers wrath, offenses, quarrels, wars, and other otherwise invincible difficulties. Hence St. Anthony, as St. Athanasius testifies in his Life, in a rapture seeing the whole world full of the snares of demons and asking: "Lord, who will be able to escape these snares?" heard the reply: "The humble man and humility." Therefore true prudence and astuteness is humility, which accordingly transcends and overcomes all insuperable things. To this purpose serve the maxims of the wise: "He is not wise who considers himself wise. Know that he is most wise who denies himself to be such. He who is wise without envy and without ostentation is safely wise. The less wise a man is, the more he boasts; the wiser he is, the less he boasts." Let our Solomon be an example to you, who, although by the judgment of God he was the wisest of all mortals, yet humbly confessed of himself: "I am the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me," Proverbs 30:2.

TO THE YOUNG MAN KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING. — In the Hebrew manner he explains what he said, "to give subtlety to the little ones." For the Hebrews in their rhythms and poems, as can be seen in the Psalms, explain the first hemistich by the second. Subtlety therefore is "knowledge and understanding." Hence for "understanding" the Hebrew is mezimmah, that is, quiet thought, craftiness, astuteness, scheming, stratagem, and it is taken both in a good and bad sense. For the root zamam means to think quietly, to devise, to conceive, to scheme, to form something in the mind. Hence Theodotion translates syllogismon, that is, reasoning; Symmachus, aisthesin, that is, sense; the Seventy, ennoian, that is, thought; the Syriac, counsel; R. Solomon, thought of counsel; the Zurich version, foresight. All of these amount to the same thing. The sense therefore is, as if to say: These parables will give to the little ones subtlety, and to adolescents "knowledge," that is, as the Seventy have it, sense, and "understanding," so that they may learn to act in all things sensibly and intelligently, that is, prudently, cautiously, and circumspectly, lest they sin through imprudence, ignorance, or inexperience.

For, as a wise man says: "Four things make youth the most perilous of all ages: 1. Because it is most prone to evil. 2. Because it is the foundation of all the rest of life. 3. Because it is most difficult to correct. 4. Because it is most inconstant in good."

Hence likewise: "The fourfold wisdom of the young: 1. From childhood to immediately accustom oneself to piety. 2. To diligently consider the state of the present life. 3. To promptly obey God when He calls. 4. To constantly persevere in good undertakings."

"Four incomparable treasures of the young: 1. Virginity of the body, received at birth. 2. Innocence of the mind, given in baptism. 3. An age most opportune for virtue. 4. Modesty and bashfulness of character."

Following Solomon's example, Plato, and after him Aristotle, gave these precepts and axioms partly as dogmas, partly as maxims regarding knowledge and learning: "He said three things were necessary for children: talent, practice, and discipline. The sight receives light from the surrounding air, but the mind from the liberal arts. The roots of studies are bitter, but their fruits are sweet. When asked how the learned differ from the unlearned, he said: As the living from the dead. He said that learning in prosperity is an ornament, in adversity a refuge; that parents who had taken care that their children be educated were far more honorable than those who had merely begotten them: for the latter were authors only of living, the former also of living well and happily. When asked what he had gained from Philosophy, he said: This — that unbidden I do those things which most people do out of fear of the laws. When asked how disciples might make excellent progress, he replied: If those pursuing the more excellent do not delay for the slower." Laertius attributes all these to Aristotle in his Life, Book V.

Others explain and distinguish these matters somewhat differently. First, St. Basil, at the beginning of Proverbs, explains the version of the Seventy which has: that there may be given to the youth new sense and thought, thus, as if to say: That sense may be given to the youth, that is, knowledge of present things; and thought, that is, knowledge of future things. So also Polychronius in the Catena of the Greeks: "That sense," he says, "that is, all the powers of the body, may be transferred to the powers of the soul, and serve the mind, prudence, the law of God, and virtue." Didymus, however, in the Catena of the Greeks says: "Sense is the knowledge of histories; understanding is the knowledge of allegories."

Second, our Salazar sagaciously observes: Aristotle, he says, in Ethics Book VI, chapter 12, and in the Great Ethics, Book II, chapter 54, enumerates as parts of prudence industry and ingenuity or understanding. Industry pertains to choice and deliberation, ingenuity to execution. "The industrious man," says Aristotle, "is one endowed with the faculty of deliberating, and who can rightly judge and see something. And so the function of industry is to have a thorough understanding of the efficacy of means, and to order the means themselves and arrange them in a proper sequence, so that the choice may be prudent." Ingenuity, however, follows choice and looks to execution: "It is," says the Philosopher, "a certain power, which they call ingenuity, which is such that it can effect and attain those things that pertain to the proposed end." Aristotle adds: "Ingenuity is not prudence, but is a disposition of prudence, as if an eye innate in the soul;" for it directs prudence, like an eye toward execution, so that what prudence has prudently conceived, ingenuity may expeditiously and cleverly execute; hence without it prudence is one-eyed or blind in one eye, because execution is blind: even though conception and choice were clear-sighted.

Third, Lyra takes "understanding" in the philosophical sense as knowledge of principles, and "knowledge" as knowledge of conclusions, not so much speculative as practical, such as Ethics, which is the subject here.

Fourth, Denis says: "These two are gifts of the Holy Spirit, namely the gift or spirit of knowledge and of understanding, about which I have said much at Isaiah chapter 11, verses 1 and 2."

Note: Solomon as well as Sirach, for the sake of variety, now calls this wisdom or Ethics of his "knowledge," now "understanding," now "prudence," now "discipline," now "instruction," now "skill," now "doctrine," now "subtlety," now "craftiness," now "counsel," now "judgment," now "truth," now "equity," now "justice." All of these signify the same thing in substance, namely Ethics, or the knowledge of what is to be done; but they differ in etymology and in the proper meaning of the word, as is clear to one who examines or traces the etymology of each. Add that Ethics, or prudence, embraces many parts within itself, and many acts of deliberation or counsel, of choice, of discipline, of knowledge, of understanding, etc., which are sometimes signified properly and specifically by these names, but sometimes the whole genus of prudence is generally understood by them through synecdoche.

Verse 5: A Wise Man Shall Hear and Be Wiser

5. A WISE MAN SHALL HEAR, AND SHALL BE WISER (in Hebrew, he shall add wisdom, that is, as Rabbi Levi says, wisdom shall be accumulated) AND HE THAT UNDERSTANDETH, SHALL POSSESS GOVERNANCE. — "Hearing," namely these parables of mine, and ruminating on them, and putting them into practice, through them he will become wiser. Hence the Seventy translate: for a wise man hearing these things, will be wiser; Vatablus: whoever, being wise, hears these (parables or sayings), will advance in knowledge, as if to say: I have said that these Proverbs of mine avail to teach the little and simple prudence; now I add that they will also benefit the wise, so that they may advance in wisdom. Therefore Solomon properly speaks of these his Proverbs, as St. Basil rightly notes; but by parity or similarity he intends the same to extend to the sayings of any wise man, as Bede, Hugh, and Lyra extend it. Hence our translator renders it indefinitely, "a wise man hearing," as if to say: Whoever is wise, even an infidel and a Gentile, who shall have heard either these my teachings, or those of any other wise man, and obeyed them, will become wiser, so as to be able to govern himself and his household, and even the commonwealth, prudently.

Note the word "hearing": for it signifies that the way of attaining wisdom is to hear it eagerly and humbly. For, as Aristotle says: "Hearing is the sense of learning;" for the proud, who think they are wise, do not want to hear others or learn from them, and therefore they remain in their proud ignorance. Here Solomon signifies first that he requires a student of this Ethics of his who is attentive and eager to listen. For, as Isidore of Pelusium says, Book III, epistle 343: "The ear of a listener is the desire of the wise man. For he does not impose many labors on the teacher, since keenness suffices for the cultivation and harvest of talent." For, as the Philosopher says: "The mind resides in the very ears. To hear and to be silent is the most difficult of all things."

Second, that it is the mark of a wise man to willingly listen and learn, and to listen more and speak less, as Seneca says, epistle 77: "One must listen and learn as long as one does not know, and if we believe the proverb, as long as one lives," and in the Proverbs he asserts, "that the end of learning is the same as the end of living." And another says: "No age can seem too late for learning. Cato learned Greek letters in old age. It was a disgrace to no one to learn something from barbarians. Each person must learn as long as he does not know something. Admit all things into your ears, and learn from all. What you are going to teach others, first learn yourself. Those learn most easily who willingly listen. Learning many things daily, we grow old. Growing old, Solon learned something new each day."

Alfonso, king of Aragon, upon hearing that a certain king had said it did not befit a prince to listen and learn, exclaimed in anger: "That is the voice of an ox, not of a man;" so says Lipsius, Political Admonitions, Book II, chapter 7. The Emperor Charles IV listened to his teachers for four hours in the schools of Prague; when his courtiers bore it badly and suggested that the dinner hour had passed, he said: "For me it has by no means passed; for this is my dinner." So says Aeneas Sylvius, Book IV of the Deeds of Alfonso. This is what King David says in Psalm 50: "Thou wilt give joy and gladness to my hearing."

And St. Augustine on Psalm 49: "You who wish to be heard, first listen to yourself, and say that verse of Psalm 84: 'I will hear what the Lord speaks within me.' What kind of person am I, then, who do not hear what He speaks in me, and yet want others to hear what He speaks through me, etc. He admonishes him to listen, not to lay aside preaching, but to take up obedience." Indeed St. Augustine, already a Bishop, desired and requested to hear, be taught, and learn from anyone, and especially from St. Jerome, as is clear from epistles 12 and 15 to him, in which he says: "You will harm me, if you keep silent about my error, which you may have found in my deeds or in my words." And epistle 28: "Although you are," he says, "much older than I am, yet I myself, now already an old man, still seek counsel; but for learning what is needful, no age can seem too late for me; because although it befits the elderly more to teach than to learn, yet it befits them more to learn than to be ignorant of what they should teach."

Blessed Cyril of Alexandria also, in Book I on John, chapter 2: "The wise man," he says, "imitates hunting dogs searching here and there for the quarry. For by frequently and at length investigating and questioning what he has not understood, he finally grasps it." Finally St. James, chapter 1, verse 19: "Let every man," he says, "be swift to hear, but slow to speak." See what is said there.

An elegant fable of the fox and the crow illustrating this maxim exists, interspersed with vigorous and witty aphorisms, in Cyril, Book I of the Moral Apologues, chapter 1, whose title is: Always learn, and in your last hours study wisdom all the more. Where he says thus: "A decrepit fox, burning with the desire to know more, was seeking a teacher. To her, weighed down by the infirmity of old age, yet very nimble with the eagerness to know, when a rather crafty crow had come along, after the mutual exchange of greetings, she rather happily added: Truly it was the will of God that what I desired should quickly come to meet me. For I was seeking you, who traverse the hinges of heaven and observe many things, to instruct me who am thirsting for learning. To which he replied: O ancient mistress of craftiness, what more do you seek to know? Certainly this alone remains for you, that your sin should come to an end. To this the student turned teacher is said to have replied: Was it not written by Solomon, my brother (Proverbs chapter 1, verse 5): 'The wise man hearing shall be wiser'? And why did he say this, unless because there is no limit to wisdom?" From which he then draws another maxim: "Hence one ought always to be learning, and in the last hours to pursue the study of wisdom with greater desire. For the end of the prudent man is wisdom, and for this reason the closer we are to this end, the more eagerly, with greater impetus, we run to embrace it according to nature: for the natural motion of virtue is stronger at the end, and when eyesight grows dim with old age, the vision of reason is sharpened. It is fitting therefore that when the judgment of the mind is stronger, we should then devote more effort to learning. For while we live here, we never remain in the same state. Therefore if we do not advance, we soon decline. For we observe this happening also in changeable things: since the sun, when it proceeds no further, turns back, and immediately the day diminishes when it does not increase. Similarly when the course of life is no longer extended, it soon inclines toward old age. Therefore as long as you are on the path, always learn, and never think it enough; because if you stop, you go backward. For indeed nature has placed none of our organs behind, but only in front, so that in the acts of virtue we may not go backward, but always proceeding forward, may grow. For most of our senses are situated in front, where also the hands and feet are. Having said this, he departed."

AND HE THAT UNDERSTANDETH SHALL POSSESS GOVERNANCE. — For "governance" the Seventy translate kybernesin, which the Complutensians translate literally as gubernationem; the Romans as rationem gubernandi, the method of governing. In Hebrew it is tachbulot, which first means counsels, by which one governs oneself and others. Hence Vatablus translates: and he who excels in judgment will acquire counsels by industry; second, it properly means governance and rudders, as our translator and the Seventy render it. For the root chabal means to bind and fasten with ropes: for chebel is a rope. Hence chibbel is called the mast or tree of a ship, so named from the ropes by which it is bound all around at the top, so that it may be held and directed by them, through which the chobel, that is, the helmsman or captain, steers the ship. Hence tachbulah is transferred from the governance of a ship to any other public governance, which must be managed by counsel, industry, experience, and prudence. Tachbulah therefore does not mean ropes, nor rope-walkers, but rudders, and by extension counsels, by which rudders are directed, as St. Jerome, the Seventy, the Chaldean, and the Rabbis everywhere translate: even though the metaphor is taken from ropes, because the sail of the mast, by which the ship is steered, is managed by ropes. Because therefore tachbulot signifies two things, namely counsels and rudders, both of which, like ropes, are connected and intertwined with each other, hence there is a twofold translation and a twofold sense here.

The first is that of R. Levi and Ibn Ezra, whom Vatablus follows, as if Solomon were saying: Whoever attentively hears these parables of mine, if he is wise, that is, devoted to wisdom and wise in an incipient way, will become wiser; but he who thoroughly understands and perceives them, will acquire tachbulot, that is, counsel and clever ingenuity.

Second, and more properly, tachbulot means the rudders of a helmsman, and thence of a wise man. For just as a helmsman steers a ship by its mast and rudder, so the wise man steers the commonwealth by prudence and counsel, providing well for it in all things, and rightly directing and advancing it.

The sense therefore is, as if to say: Whoever hears and understands these proverbs of mine, or others of other wise men, will learn great prudence and many counsels and practices, by which he can wisely govern not only himself, but also his household, college, congregation, city, and commonwealth, and therefore when this prudence and wisdom of his has been recognized, he will easily be brought to the governance of a college or commonwealth, and a governor will be appointed over it to manage it. Thus we see in the state that those are promoted to magistracies and offices who excel in wisdom and the prudence of governing, and who are versed in Ethics and Politics. So St. Basil, Bede, Hugh, and others.

Hear St. Basil: "A prudent helmsman," he says, "is one who from a right and firm purpose of nature uses the things that happen, neither elated in prosperity, nor again cast down in calamities," namely because he firmly holds tachbulot, that is, the prudence and sound counsels of his mind, which are handed down in this book, like the ropes of the mast by which the public or private ship must be steered, so that by them he may protect himself and his people in this stormy sea, and direct them to the harbor of salvation.

Hence St. Basil in this place, namely Homily 12, assigns a threefold mystical sea in which the ship of human life is steered by prudence and directed to port: the first is this world, in which the play of fortune rules, raising up some and bringing down others: in this sea therefore the ship is every person, and the lot of a person, whether prosperous or adverse; the second sea is the heart, which is continually agitated and tossed by various passions, thoughts, and desires as by the tides of the sea: in this sea the ship is the mind and will themselves; the third is the course and way of life by which we journey to heaven, which demons beset like pirates, to plunder or sink the ship with its cargo, that is, the soul with its good works. Therefore he says in the plural, "he that understandeth," that is, the prudent man, who reads this book or hears it read, tachbulot, that is, governance, "shall possess;" because manifold prudence, like a rudder, is needed so that we may furrow this threefold sea unharmed, and reach port with ship and cargo intact. Hence again he does not say: He will have, or he will hold; but: "He will possess," because continual prudence is needed, so that we must never let the ropes of counsel slip from our hands, but must firmly and constantly make use of them, and possess them as if by inheritance.

Add a fourth sea, which is the variety of provinces and assemblies of men in the world, which is agitated and fluctuates like the sea by the various impulses and movements of peoples. In this sea, every commonwealth is a ship, as Plutarch teaches in the Politics, Plato in Book II of the Laws, St. Chrysostom in Homily 6 to the People, and others; therefore it needs a helmsman, that is, a clever and prudent governor, who may aptly manage and steer it like a great ship of peoples, so that among citizens peace and concord may prevail, so that neighbors may be either friends or subjects, so that schisms, seditions, conspiracies, heresies, and bad morals may be prevented or rooted out. In this ship therefore the anchor is religion, the ropes are laws, the sails are the lots and wealth of citizens, which are to be spread when the wind is favorable, that is, when fortune is favorable, and furled when it is adverse.

Therefore Solomon here teaches that the governor of a commonwealth ought to imitate a helmsman. First, just as a helmsman sits at the rudder, namely at the tiller of the ship, so that he seems to possess it: so the governor of a commonwealth should sit and possess justice, so as to protect it and administer it to each person; for this is in a commonwealth what the tiller is in a ship. For just as the tiller steers a ship straight into port, so the rectitude of justice directs a commonwealth to peace and prosperity. Hence the Emperor Sigismund said: "Just as he who, sitting in the stern, turns the rudders, turns and turns again the ship itself: so he who is placed at the helm of the commonwealth steers and directs it." And when someone preferred military tribunes to magistrates, growing angry he said: "Be quiet, Thraso; we would have no need of warfare if everyone governed their cities and empires justly and rightly." Well known is the saying: "A helmsman does well enough if he holds the tiller straight."

Second, the helmsman sitting at the tiller surveys the whole ship, and looks after and provides for all and each, both persons and things: so the governor of a commonwealth should inspect and survey everything in the state, both good things and evils and dangers, lest anything escape him, so that he may promote the good and avert the evil. Hence the supreme law of governors is "to be able to conquer sleep."

Third, the helmsman has many sailors as assistants, subordinate and subservient to him, and he selects for himself the most skilled and diligent, to whom he assigns and distributes the duties of navigation according to each one's talent. Hence the saying: "The best helmsmen are aided by the hands of rowers." The governor of a commonwealth should do the same, choosing uncorrupted, wise, and strong officials, with whom he may share the cares and duties of governing according to each one's aptitude. "The captain," says Plutarch in his Politics, "seeks the best sailors: so let the prince enlist those friends who are fit for administering the commonwealth." And this is the most important principle and method of good governance. For since the prince alone by himself cannot perform all the duties and offices of the commonwealth, it is necessary that he perform them through others; therefore he must choose men who are faithful, energetic, of great judgment and spirit. But if he neglects these and appoints relatives or less fit friends, or flatterers, to offices, they will either plunder the commonwealth, or by their pride, imprudence, and lust will ruin it.

Thus did St. Charles Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, and for that reason he governed so great a Church most excellently. Thus did Gregory XIII at Rome, who set four men of integrity, of proven prudence, virtue, and zeal, over the government of the entire Roman Church, dividing the labors and offices among them according to each one's talent, and through them accomplished such great things as we read about, and indeed behold. Would that all kings, princes, Pontiffs, and Prelates sought grave and faithful officials, who look not to their own interests, but to those of the common good! They would certainly find them; and if they employed them in governance, they would satisfy their own conscience, and God, and the commonwealth, and would govern it most excellently. This is what Moses did following the counsel of Jethro by the command of God, Exodus 18:24, and by this means he governed so many millions of Jews, so obstinate and headstrong, with such ease and success. Well known is the saying: "Do you wish to rule securely? Appoint the best judges." Such are generally those who decline the magistracy. For this reason the Emperor Alexander Severus kept away those who canvassed for magistracies, saying: "Those who are unwilling, not those who canvass, should be placed in public office." So Lampridius in his Alexander. For "he governs well who does not willingly govern."

Fourth, the helmsman pays the greatest attention to the ship's tiller and sail: for on these depends the whole direction and safety of the ship; he manages the tiller by himself, the sail through the sailors, who by nautical ropes continually shift the sail to meet every wind, and now fully spread it, now contract and fold it, now completely furl and wrap it. So the governor of a commonwealth, sitting at the helm, should by his circumspection and vigilance direct all things, and order the officials to adjust the sail to the wind, that is, to adapt their counsels, manner of governing, and the performance of their duties to the occasion and the time. For one kind of governance must be adopted in time of peace, another in time of war, one among well-disposed citizens, another among ill-disposed ones, etc. Hence a ship plowing the sea with spread sails is like a bird plowing the air with spread wings, and with the same ease that a bird does it, the ship does it too, if the sails are properly spread. Hence the poets call them "the oarage of wings." Such exactly, and so easy and happy, is the prudent governance of a commonwealth.

Fifth, the helmsman from afar foresees and anticipates coming storms, pirates, and waves, and prudently now resists and overcomes them by force, now yields and avoids them. The governor of a commonwealth should do the same. Well-worn is the saying: "The art of the helmsman is best seen in a storm;" and: "He knows not how to reign who fears hatred too much. A skilled helmsman sails even with a torn sail."

Sixth, the helmsman looks not to his own advantage, but to that of the passengers, and therefore devotes himself to steering the ship. Let a king, prince, bishop, etc. do the same, looking not to his own good, but to that of the commonwealth, and therefore vigilantly watching over its governance with his whole being, and devoting himself entirely to its welfare. For, as Damascene says in the History of Barlaam and Josaphat, chapter 36: "Just as among those sailing, when a sailor makes a mistake, he causes only a small injury to the passengers; but when the helmsman does so, he causes the ruin of the whole ship: so in a commonwealth, if some private person offends, he harms not so much the people as himself; but if the king does, he works the detriment of the entire community."

Seventh, the helmsman, though he does not follow the orders or preferences of the passengers — for well known is the saying: "Helmsman, if you yield to the passengers, you perish" — yet responds to and satisfies each according to his capacity: so the ruler should not follow the desires of those he governs, but should govern each according to his own character and inclination, and accommodate himself to each as much as he can. Our Blessed Francis Borgia wisely said: "Those who wish to preside over others should not measure all who obey by one rule; but should imitate good soldiers, who fill a war machine with gunpowder according to the capacity of the barrel." So Ribadeneira, Book IV of his Life, chapter 8.

Hence that saying of Titinius in Nonius: "The helmsman steers the ship by wisdom, not by strength." And those commonly celebrated sayings: "If you wish to rule for a long time, rule gently, by love, not by fear. Whoever rules harshly does not rule well. The master does not steer the ship by mere force, but by a gentle hand. He who wishes to be loved, let him reign with a mild hand. Whatever exceeds measure is unfit for governing. You will more easily govern a young person than an older one." Hence that admonition of St. Paul to Timothy, First Epistle, chapter 5, verse 1: "Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father; young men, as brothers; elderly women, as mothers; young women, as sisters in all chastity."

Eighth, the best helmsman is one who has first served under another skilled person, and learned from him how to steer a ship. Likewise one who promptly obeys the admiral of the whole fleet, and knows how to bend and govern himself. Precisely so it is with the governor of a commonwealth or of the Church. For, as Gregory says in the Pastoral Rule: "The art of arts is the governance of souls;" therefore it must be learned by long practice and labor. Hence those precepts of governance on everyone's lips: "He cannot govern well who has previously served badly. He does not know how to command who cannot endure the command of another. It is as bad for many to rule as for none to rule. He governs others happily who governs himself. To command oneself is the greatest command of all. He who has governed himself has governed the whole world. No one can govern unless he can be governed. No one can be governed unless he can govern. No one endures being governed by one who cannot govern himself. He who obeys modestly is worthy of someday commanding. One experienced in both prefers to be governed than to govern. You will more readily govern few and small things than many and great."

Ninth, the helmsman often in a storm, amid winds and tempests, looks up to the sky and stars, especially the polar stars, in order to learn where on earth he is, and to direct his course by them. So he who governs a commonwealth or the Church should frequently, especially in difficulties, invoke God, and seek from Him counsel and help for governing well: "For he governs best of all whose governor is God." Indeed Homer too judged that no one governs rightly except from God; hence he also calls good kings diotrephis, that is, nurtured by Jove. "Who therefore governs best? He who has the power of divinity."

Therefore Origen symbolically in the Catena at this place takes "governance" to mean God's particular guidance: "For if the wise man," he says, "has once obtained this, he will suffer nothing grievous any longer. For such a man sails straight to God, and safely puts into the harbor of His will. But he who is not so prepared will certainly suffer shipwreck, whether concerning hope, or concerning charity, or some other virtue, so that he rightly cries out: 'I have come to the depths of the sea, the storm has overwhelmed me,'" Psalm 68.

Verse 6: He Shall Understand a Parable

6. HE SHALL UNDERSTAND A PARABLE, AND THE INTERPRETATION, THE WORDS OF THE WISE, AND THEIR ENIGMAS. — He explains what he said in the preceding verse: "A wise man hearing, shall be wiser;" because, namely, by hearing these sayings and teachings of mine, "he shall understand," that is, he will know, "the parable, the words of the wise," etc. Hence for "he shall understand" the Hebrew is lehabin, that is, to understand "the parable," in Hebrew mashal, that is, any weighty and wise saying, as I said at verse 1; hence explaining "parable" he adds: "The words of the wise;" and "the interpretation," so that he may be able to skillfully and acutely interpret both my parables and words and those of other wise men, and especially "enigmas." For just as the word "parable" refers to and is explained by "the words of the wise," so the word "interpretation" refers to and is explained especially by "enigmas;" for since these are wrapped up and obscure, they require a keen power of interpretation. Hence the Seventy, instead of "interpretation," translate skoteinou logon, that is, an obscure speech: for interpretation is made of this, since clear speech does not need it. Interpretation therefore connotes and involves an obscure speech.

Hence for "interpretation" the Hebrew is melitsah, which is derived from malats, meaning in the niphal form to become sweet; because just as sweet food, like honey, tastes pleasantly to the mouth, so to the mind, sweet and delightful is melitsah, that is, the interpretation of an enigma and of an obscure matter. Others derive it from luts, that is, he laughed, he mocked; hence some translate it as jests, as if to say: The wise man will so easily interpret obscure matters that he will do it as if laughing, in play and sport, and will mock and deride those who propose the enigmas: for that melitsah, that is, interpretation, pertains to enigmas is clear from Habakkuk 2:6: "Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a speech of his enigmas?" For instead of "speech" the Hebrew has melitsah. Melitsah therefore signifies both an obscure speech, as the Seventy and our translator render it there, whence also Symmachus translates it as problema, and the interpretation of it, as our translator and Aquila translate here (whence Vatablus translates it eloquence). Hence Heraclitus was called skoteinos, that is, obscure, dark, because he affected obscurity in his sayings and writings.

Truly St. Augustine says in Psalm 105, discourse 2: "What is sought with more difficulty," he says, "is usually found with more sweetness; and do not think these things are withdrawn from you by obscurity, but rather seasoned with difficulty." From the obscurity of the thought, therefore, is born the sweetness of interpretation, when it is turned and ground by the teeth of the mind. For that tastes sweeter which is seasoned with labor as with salt; therefore under labor and difficulty lie hidden delights, just as when a nut is cracked the sweetness of the kernel is tasted. Hence St. Jerome, epistle 13 to Paulinus: "All that we read in the divine books," he says, "shines indeed and gleams even on the surface, but is sweeter in the core." And St. Gregory, Homily 6 on Ezekiel: "The very obscurity of the words of God," he says, "is of great utility, because it exercises the understanding, so that by exertion it may be enlarged, and once exercised may grasp what the idle cannot grasp. It has moreover another greater advantage, because the understanding of Holy Scripture, if it were open in all things, would become cheap. In certain more obscure places, the discovery refreshes with so much greater sweetness as the search wearies the mind with greater labor."

Moreover, the ancient wise men delighted in enigmas, both to veil their hidden wisdom by them, and to display their own acuteness, and to exercise the ingenuity of their students.

Such are those of Ausonius, pious as well as weighty, and especially acute:

What is the highest good? A mind conscious of its own rectitude. That is, what is best? A soul with a good conscience.

What is the greatest ruin of man? Another man alone. That is, man is a wolf and a demon to man.

Who is rich? He who desires nothing. Who is poor? The miser. Rich is not he who has much, but he who is content with his lot. Every miser is poor, who does not truly possess all that he has.

What is the fairest dowry for wives? A chaste life. A woman, even without a dowry, is sufficiently endowed if she is chaste.

Who is chaste? She of whom even rumor fears to lie. She is often not chaste of whom rumor speaks disgracefully.

What is the work of the prudent man? When he can, to be unwilling to harm. It is proper to the prudent man, when he can, to be unwilling nevertheless to take vengeance.

What is proper to the fool? Not to be able, and yet to wish to harm. The wicked man, even when he cannot, still wishes to injure.

And that saying of Thales. For Thales, when asked what was the most ancient of all things, replied: "God." Why so? Because He is ungenerated, He never began to be. "What is the most beautiful?" he said: "The world;" for it is the work of God, than which nothing is more beautiful. "What is the greatest? Space;" for it contains all things. "What is the swiftest? The mind;" for the thought of man ranges through all things. "What is the strongest? Necessity," or fate; for it overcomes all things, and not even the gods resist it. "What is the wisest? Time;" for it discovers all things and brings them to light.

Verse 7: The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom

7. The fear of the Lord (Arabic: of God) is the beginning of wisdom. Fools despise wisdom and instruction. Solomon proceeds in the order of instruction, which is to begin the teaching of sciences from their first principles; he therefore here assigns the principles of wisdom. For "beginning" the Hebrew is reschit, which signifies both "beginning" and "head" (for the root ros means "head") and "primacy." Whence you may translate: the primacy of wisdom is the fear of the Lord, that is, in wisdom the fear of the Lord holds the first place and primacy, which teaches and commands the other doctrines of wisdom. Thus "beginning" is taken for primacy, as in Psalm 109: "With Thee is the beginning," that is, the principality (for this is what the Hebrew nedabot signifies), "in the day of Thy strength."

Therefore some take "beginning" here properly as meaning the start. And these understand by "fear" the servile or initial fear; for the fear of God as avenger is the beginning of wisdom, that is, of justification. So St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 28, where he also adds certain things not found in the text; for he says thus: "This one wisdom I know, which consists in the fear of God. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; and the end of the matter: Hear all things, fear God. These are the words of that wisest Solomon." And St. Augustine in the Epistle of St. John, Tract 9: "Someone has begun," he says, "to believe in the day of judgment; if he has begun to believe, he has begun also to fear; but because he does not yet have confidence in the day of judgment, perfect charity is not yet in him. But should we therefore despair? In whom you see a beginning, why should you despair of the end? What beginning? Hear Scripture: The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. He has therefore begun to fear the day of judgment; by fearing he corrects himself, watches against his enemies, that is, his sins, begins to revive interiorly, and to mortify his members that are upon the earth." Likewise, following St. Augustine's custom, St. Prosper explains this passage concerning servile fear, Book 1 On the Vocation of the Gentiles, ch. 27, and St. Gregory, Book II on Ezekiel, Homily 19, St. Bernard, Homily 23 on the Canticle, the Master with the Scholastics in Book III, dist. 34.

Others take "beginning" as meaning primacy. And these understand "fear" as filial and perfect fear, which is nothing other than charity. For because charity loves God supremely, it supremely fears to offend Him. Charity therefore holds the beginning, that is, the primacy, in the kingdom of wisdom, that is, of justice, of virtue. The Septuagint, for the sake of explanation, lest anyone think this concerns speculative wisdom, add from Psalm 110:10: "A good understanding to all who practice it," as if to say: Those are truly intelligent and wise who not only conceive and understand this wisdom in their mind, but also carry it out and accomplish it in will and deed. Then they explain what fear is signified here by adding: "But piety is the beginning of understanding." For "piety," the Greek is eusebeia, that is, religion. Whence Clement, Book II of the Stromata, reads: wisdom therefore has its beginning in religion. And St. Basil, Homily I on the Hexaemeron, on "the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord": "For this reverent fear of God," he says, "is as it were the foundation for one striving toward perfection." And Tertullian: "The beginning of wisdom," he says, "is fear of God." Hence Vatablus also explains it thus, as if to say: Those who are truly wise and learned fear the Lord. Others say: The foundation and basis of true knowledge is the fear of the Lord; or: The first and chief knowledge is the fear of the Lord. This sentence therefore, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," the Septuagint explain by the two clauses they append. The first is: "A good understanding to all who practice it;" the second: "But piety is the beginning of understanding." The other matters pertaining to the explanation of this sentence I reviewed at Ecclesiasticus 1:16. Where I likewise showed that this fear is love and charity, and consequently that it is the beginning, the middle, and the summit, or perfection, of wisdom, that is, of virtue.

Moreover, Olympiodorus in the Chain of the Greeks: "Just as the fear of the Lord," he says, "is the beginning of wisdom, so piety toward God is the beginning of understanding, that is, of judgment according to the intellect. For it exercises the organs of the senses for discernment; or because it dominates the appetite of the senses and compels them to live according to the spirit."

Tropologically and anagogically, Gregory in the same Chain: "He speaks here," he says, "of the sense of the interior man, according to which we discern that true light, and hear the hidden words of God, and are fed with the food of life, and are made partakers of the fragrance of Christ, and apprehend the word of life. But the root and cause of this taste or sense is piety toward God." And Evagrius: "Just as the mind," he says, "is borne through the senses toward sensible things, so through the virtues it is borne toward the contemplation of those things which are accessible only to the intellect, such as heavenly and spiritual things; for this reason the wise Solomon wished us to take account of those senses as well. Moreover, he asserts that piety toward God is the cause or beginning of that sense which is according to the interior man, through which we see all things that come under understanding, and still attain to the word of life."

Fools despise wisdom and instruction. He aptly appends this to the preceding sentence. For it is its antithesis, as if to say: Because the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, hence the pious and God-fearing reverence wisdom and devote themselves to it; but fools, that is, the impious, because they are destitute of the fear of God, despise wisdom, whose beginning, indeed whose very essence, is the fear of God Himself. Whence for "instruction," the Syriac translates "correction"; the Septuagint and Chaldean, "discipline." For "fools," Symmachus, Aquila and Theodotion translate aphrones, that is, senseless ones; that is, as the Septuagint translate, asebeis, that is, the impious. Clement of Alexandria reads atheoi, atheists, without God. For atheism is the center of impiety and sin; for the greatest foolishness and stupidity is impiety and sin. So Olympiodorus: "Pious men," he says, "eagerly pursue discipline and wisdom; but those who are destitute of the fear of God (which is the root and cause of the interior sense), they taste nothing of discipline or wisdom, but rather shun them with zeal and remarkable aversion."

For "despise" the Hebrew is bazu, that is, they scorn, contemn, turn away from. And so read the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the Chaldean, the Syriac and generally the Greeks and Latins: for this is what the root baza signifies. But some, with different vowel points, read bazzu, that is, they plunder, from the root bazzaz, that is, he despoiled, seized, plundered, and give this meaning, as if to say: Fools, that is, the impious and atheists, not only scorn but also despoil and plunder wisdom, because they strip, disarm, and render defenseless the weapons, rights, and forces of virtue, according to that saying of Emperor Leo: "Impiety disarms laws." But the correct reading is bazu, as I have already shown.

Second Part: Exhortation to the Study of Wisdom

Verse 8: Hear, My Son, the Discipline of Thy Father

8. Hear, my son, the discipline of thy father, and forsake not the law (Vatablus: direction) of thy mother. For "discipline," the Syriac translates "law"; the Chaldean, "instruction." For "forsake not," the Syriac translates, "do not forget"; the Chaldean, "do not err"; the Septuagint, "do not reject the statutes of thy mother"; some translate, "do not uproot the law of thy mother." But the Hebrew natash does not mean to uproot (which is signified by nathas with tav), but to forsake, not to care for, to abandon, to cast away, as St. Jerome, the Septuagint, Vatablus and the Hebrews translate.

After assigning the beginning of wisdom, namely the fear of God, he now begins to set forth the doctrines and precepts of both. Among which he first establishes obedience, namely that a son should reverently hear the sound counsels of an upright father and mother, and humbly obey them; and this first, because next to piety toward God is piety toward parents. Whence also in the Decalogue, after the three precepts of the first table which concern piety toward God, immediately the first precept of the second table follows concerning piety toward parents; because parents are a living image of God, who is the father of all, "from whom" therefore "all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named," Eph. 3:15. Moreover, he aptly attributes "discipline" to the father, because a father's upbringing is more severe; "law" to the mother, because a mother's upbringing is milder and gentler; for mothers love their children more sweetly, but fathers more strongly, says Aristotle in the Economics. Hence Cicero dedicated his three books of Offices to his son. The same number of books of Counsels Emperor Leo wrote and dedicated to his son. And St. Augustine, speaking of his mother St. Monica in the Confessions: "The precepts of life," he says, "which she had planted in my mind by word, she watered with tears, she nourished with examples."

Solomon is followed by Sirach, who begins his ethical precepts thus: "Children of wisdom are the assembly of the just; and their generation, obedience and love. Hear the judgment of your father, children, and so act that you may be saved," Ecclus. 3:1. See my commentary there.

Secondly, because the first and best method for imbuing oneself with good and upright morals is if from childhood one receives the discipline of father and mother, when indeed the father and mother are faithful and of upright morals, or at least strive to instruct their children in all uprightness, as they were in Israel. Solomon alludes to David his father, who, being holy and wise, educated Solomon and his other sons in holiness and wisdom. Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, did the same. He also alludes to Rehoboam and his other sons, whom he himself educated in discipline and the fear of God. Again, under the name of father and mother, Solomon here symbolically means himself, who, since he wishes here to instruct the young and teach them the fear of God and wisdom, now assumes the role of a father instructing his son, now the role of a tutor and teacher teaching and directing a son. Whence in verse 10 and following, he often gently addresses the reader and disciple by the name of son, as kindly teachers who love their students are accustomed to do.

The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Listen attentively to me, the proverb-maker, who at one time assumes the role of a faithful parent and tutor, at another time that of a diligent teacher of virtue and wisdom; and drink in eagerly the precepts and instructions I impart, as from wisdom divinely instilled in me, as if proceeding from a mother, just as children are accustomed to drink in the counsels of a most beloved mother: so it shall come to pass that grace, like a crown, shall be added to your head. Thus Paul says to the Galatians, ch. 4:19: "My little children, whom again I bring forth in labor (like a mother in pain, because full of love for you), until Christ be formed in you." And St. Ambrose, Book I of Offices, ch. 7: "More sweetly," he says, "and more ardently at once do I love you whom I have begotten by the Gospel, than if I had received you by marriage; for grace is more vehement and sweeter for love than nature." So Vatablus, Jansenius, Baynus, Peltanus and others.

Moreover, Blessed Antiochus, Homily On Disobedience, reads this maxim thus: "An industrious son obeys his father, but a disobedient son shall be in perdition;" and adds: "Let us avoid the ruin of this disobedience. For what profit rebounds to you, if indeed you preserved the virginity of your body inviolate, yet prostituted your soul to the demon through disobedience?"

Mystically, Didymus in the Greek Chain, Bede, Hugh, Lyranus take "father" as God, who is the Father of all; by "mother," the Church, whose spouse is Christ; and its statutes and laws are the Apostolic ordinances and constitutions: for the Church, like a mother, has regenerated us, and as a nurse gives us milk to drink, and feeds and tenderly nourishes us with heavenly doctrine and divine precepts. Superiors of religious orders, pastors, confessors, preachers do the same, who are the spiritual fathers and mothers of the faithful.

Verse 9: That Grace May Be Added to Thy Head

9. That grace may be added to thy head, and a chain to thy neck. In Hebrew gargerotecha, that is, to thy throats, because the throat consists of many rings as if of links, says Rabbi Solomon. For "grace," the Syriac translates, "for they are an ornament"; the Chaldean, "the ornament of grace"; in Hebrew it is liviat chen, that is, an addition, or joining of grace, as if to say: The law of father and mother, if you hear and do it, will procure and join grace to your head, because the law instructs the understanding, that it may conceive those things which it ought both to understand and to speak, says Rabbi Levi. And Aben-Ezra: Thus, he says, the law and discipline will be fitting ornaments for your head, as if something conferring grace were joined to your head. Most excellently the Septuagint translate liviat chen as "a crown of graces," because in a crown ring is joined to ring, flower woven to flower, interlaced and entwined; for they read thus: "For you will receive a crown of favors, that is, of graces, for your head, and a golden chain about your neck"; Aquila: "because they are an addition of grace to your head, and ornaments for your neck"; Vatablus: "for they will add grace to your head, and serve as a chain for your neck," as if to say: If you receive these laws and counsels of mine and practice them in deed, they will adorn and embellish you, just as a crown customarily adorns the head and a golden chain the neck. For just as a crown is woven and composed of a sequence of flowers or circles, and a chain from a sequence of rings: so also the beauty and perfection of the crowns of obedience and the virtues is woven and composed from the varied and continuous operation and exercise of the same.

Therefore the wise man has a crown of glory; he has likewise garlands of pleasure and delight; finally he has a diadem of justice. The crown of graces is nothing other than the chain of virtues. Indeed, when someone has perfectly attained any one virtue, he cannot be entirely exempt from the rest, and thus he weaves from all of them a kind of single crown; and with this garland the crown of the inner man is clothed. So Diodorus and Chrysostom call the circle of virtues (since they are accustomed to cohere with one another) a crown of graces. Moreover, those who wish to attain salvation must also be adorned with various gifts and charisms. So the author of the Greek Chain.

Note: Adding grace to the head is the same as adding a chain to the neck; for it is a proverb, signifying that the grace of obedience adorns the obedient person just as a crown adorns the head and a chain the neck: for in the second hemistich, with different words and a different simile, the same thing is signified in the Hebrew manner as in the first. Yet symbolically Diodorus says: "By the head and neck he designates the mind, and by the golden chain the knowledge and spiritual ornament of the soul. Or else the golden chain denotes the obedience we owe to God, or that protection which is customarily sought from the sacred Scriptures." And Eusebius: "Just as the mind is expressed by the head and neck," he says, "so the knowledge of divine things is usually expressed by the crown and chain."

Moreover, a manifold grace and crown of graces is here promised to obedience and to the obedient person: The first is the grace of God and men, as if to say: If you obey these my teachings, you will first win for yourself grace, that is, great beauty and attractiveness: and on account of it you will gain the grace and favor of God, angels and men.

The second is the crown of graces, that is, of all the virtues: for obedience either commands, or persuades and counsels these; for it commands now an act of religion, now of sobriety, now of fasting, now of penance, now of modesty, now of humility, now of almsgiving, now of charity, now of the remaining virtues. Therefore whoever devotes himself to obedience weaves for himself a continuous crown from the exercise of all the virtues and twists for himself a chain. For the chain is the unfailing operation of the virtues and their continuous connection, when one is woven into another and continually intertwined. So Bede from St. Gregory: "Obedience alone," he says, "is the virtue that implants the other virtues in the mind, and guards them once implanted." So Abbot John, on his deathbed, when asked by his monks what was the short path to perfection by which he himself had reached it, replied: "I never did my own will, nor did I teach anyone anything which I myself had not first done," as Cassian reports, Book V of the Institutes, ch. 28. So Paul the Simple, a disciple of St. Anthony, by simple obedience rose to the summit of all the virtues.

Whence God also worked more and mightier miracles through him than through St. Anthony; for he was in God's delight. Therefore St. Anthony set him before all as an example, so that they might learn to deny their own will and strive for prompt obedience, if they were eager to arrive quickly at perfection. So Rufinus in the Lives of the Fathers, Book II, ch. 51, in the Life of Paul the Simple.

The third crown is the abundance and fullness (for a crown signifies completion) of graces, which God, the rewarder of obedience, pours into the obedient person: for He is accustomed to heap upon him all His gifts, graces, and influences. Moreover, He bestows upon children obedient to their parents long life, health, wealth, good reputation, and every prosperity, as he will teach further on; and it is clear from Ecclus. 3:9: "In every deed and word," he says, "honor your father, that a blessing may come upon you from him." Whence in the Lives of the Fathers, Book V, booklet 14, on obedience, no. 11, Abbot Hyperichius says: "The service of a monk is obedience; he who possesses it will be heard in what he asks, and will stand with confidence before the Crucified; for the Lord thus came to the cross, having been made obedient even unto death." Thus the crown of Solomon is explained at length by Ecclesiasticus, ch. 1, v. 11, and ch. 3, vv. 1 through 19. See my commentary there.

The fourth is the crown of triumph and of the heavenly kingdom, of which it is said: "An obedient man shall speak of victory," Prov. 21:28; and Wisdom 5: "They shall receive the kingdom of glory and the diadem of beauty from the hand of the Lord." Thus concerning Father Peter Faber, who was the first disciple and then companion of Ignatius of Loyola, Orlandinus narrates in his Life, Book II, ch. 28, that after death he appeared to a certain religious crowned with the crown of obedience, because he had been a victim of obedience both in life and in death. For he died because, having been summoned to Rome in the greatest heat of summer, he entered the city in those same conditions, knowing he was facing certain danger to his life, preferring to lose his life rather than obedience, as Christ had lost His own.

Therefore in the Lives of the Fathers, Book V, booklet 14, on obedience, no. 19, it is narrated that someone saw four orders in heaven: the first, of the sick giving thanks to God; the second, of those practicing hospitality; the third, of those living in solitude; the fourth, of the obedient: "And the order of the obedient," he says, "wore a golden chain and crown, and had greater glory than the others: because the others do their own things, according to their own will; but the obedient person, casting away all his own desires, depends on God and on the command of his spiritual father: therefore he has greater glory than the others." Whence, exhorting, he concludes: "Obedience is the salvation of all the faithful. Obedience is the mother of all virtues. Obedience is the discoverer of the kingdom of heaven. Obedience opens the heavens and raises men from the earth. Obedience is the companion of the angels. Obedience is the food of all the Saints. For from this they were weaned, and through this they came to perfection."

It is indeed fitting that the head which the obedient person submitted to obedience should be exalted and adorned with a crown and chain. Therefore Bede thinks that here there is an allusion to the crowns and chains that were given to victors contending in athletic contests, as if to say: The son who obeys father and mother in all things, like a champion victorious in combat, will be presented with a crown and chain. And our Salazar thinks there is here an extensive allusion to the contests and crowns proposed for boys entering the arena, about which Pliny, Book XXXIV, ch. 8, and Plutarch in Eumenes says: "The crown proposed for the boys in the pentathlon was taken away." Moreover, Clement of Alexandria, Book II of the Stromata: "Just as in gymnastic contests," he says, "so also in the Church there are crowns for men and boys." Indeed the obedient person undergoes a great struggle to tame his will and judgment and submit them to his Superior. "Hence it is," says St. Gregory, "that to those who fight valiantly a chain is given as a reward: so that because they bear the marks of virtues, they may always exercise greater ones, and may fear to incur the charge of weakness, since they already bear on themselves the prize of fortitude which they display. Whence it is rightly said in praise of wisdom to every hearer through Solomon: You shall receive a crown of graces for your head, and a golden chain for your neck." So he himself, Book XXXI of the Moralia, ch. 11.

Hence we read that to certain more illustrious Martyrs, who excelled in obedience, discipline, fortitude and charity, this grace was given, that they carried their severed head in their hands, or that it poured forth milk instead of blood. For what reason? Was it so that the head might testify that in life it had been most devoted to obedience and the law of God? Or so that they might offer their head to God as a victim and holocaust of martyrdom? Or so that they might carry their head, as it were alive again after death, indeed in death itself, as a trophy of victory over enemies and over death itself, as a sign of triumph?

Thus St. Dionysius the Areopagite, having been beheaded, "raised himself up," says Hilduin in his Life, "and with holy hand carried his head severed from his body, with an angelic guide directing his steps and heavenly light shining round about, bearing the head in his outstretched arms. And a multitude of the heavenly host became the companion of his lifeless body carrying its own head, from the very mount (which was thence called the Mount of Martyrs) where he had been beheaded, for nearly two miles, to the place where by God's disposition and his own choice he now rests buried, ceaselessly praising God with sweet-sounding hymns. And innumerable hosts of divine spirits were heard ascending to heaven, singing with inestimable sweetness in alternating choirs: Glory to Thee, O Lord, with frequent Alleluia added. Seeing and hearing which, countless people, and even many of the persecutors, believed in the Lord: but those who did not believe, struck with excessive terror, each fled to their own quarters." Was this not a heavenly triumph of St. Dionysius? Was not grace and glory here added to his head?

The follower of St. Dionysius, Blessed Severinus Boethius, prince of the Roman Senate and most fierce defender of it and of the orthodox faith, beheaded by the Arian King Theodoric, picked up his severed head with both hands, and when asked by whom he had been struck, replied: "By the impious"; and having come to a nearby church, and having received Holy Communion on bended knees, he expired. So his Life reports, and from it Baronius at the year 526 AD.

St. Ursicinus the physician, strengthened for martyrdom by St. Vitalis, carried his severed head in his own hands to the place of burial. Some report that three palm branches sprang from his neck, and that he was depicted by Bishop St. Ursicinus with his head in his hands and three palms rising from his neck, as he had seen. So Girolamo Rossi, Book I of the History of Ravenna, who received these accounts from the records of that same Church.

St. Domneo, a nobleman of Bergamo, having most severely reproached Emperor Maximian by letter for his cruelty toward Christians and impiety toward God, was beheaded by him. The people of Bergamo report that he carried his own head in his hands to the place near which the church of St. Andrew was built: in which church his body is preserved, as Philip Ferrari records from the Office of the Church of Bergamo in his Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, at July 16.

St. Donninus, chamberlain of the same Emperor Maximian, beheaded by him for the faith of Christ at Julia in the territory of Parma (which is now called Borgo San Donnino), carried his head in his hands across the River Stirone for a stone's throw. After a long time, when the tomb was opened, he was found holding his head in his arms and breathing forth a sweet fragrance, through a miracle of heavenly splendor. So Surius and Philip Ferrari at October 9. He likewise narrates at February 5 that St. Gemulus the Martyr at Ganna in the territory of Milan picked up his severed head and, having fitted it to his neck, came to the Bishop (whose nephew he was) and was buried by him. He narrates likewise that St. Proculus, Martyr of Bologna, and St. Regulus, Bishop and Martyr of Populonia under Totila, picked up their own heads.

St. Emygdius, appointed Bishop of Ascoli Piceno by Pope St. Marcellus under Emperor Diocletian, beheaded because he had converted many to Christ, carried his severed head in his hands three hundred paces to a nearby hill, and was there buried on the nones of August. So Philip Ferrari, from the records of the Church of Ascoli, at August 5.

Moreover, the head of St. Paul, severed by Nero, poured forth milk instead of blood, and gave three leaps upon the ground, by which it drew forth three springs that still flow to this day and are visited with great devotion by pilgrims: concerning which I said more in the introduction to the Epistle of St. Paul, ch. 6.

St. Secundina, a virgin and martyr of Anagni, under Emperor Decius, when she was fiercely beaten, poured forth milk instead of blood as a sign of her innocence and virginity, and breathed out a most sweet fragrance. Seeing this, the people asked the virgin to intercede for them before God; and as the virgin prayed, with a great clap of thunder, she surrendered her spirit to God; and the Angels, singing: "Come, spouse of Christ, receive the crown which the Lord has prepared for you for eternity," led her virginal soul in triumph to heaven. So from the records of the Church of Anagni, Philip Ferrari at January 15.

St. Aemilianus, Bishop of Trevi and Martyr under Diocletian, after overcoming burning torches, the rack, wild beasts, stones and wheels, was beheaded. From his body, they report, milk flowed instead of blood, and trees put forth flowers and fruits. So from the records of the Churches of Spoleto and Trevi, Philip Ferrari at January 29.

Finally, St. Gregory, Book III of the Dialogues, ch. 13, narrates that St. Herculanus, Bishop of Perugia, beheaded by Totila, was found on the fortieth day after his death and burial to be whole and incorrupt: "And what is to be venerated with great wonder," he says, "his head was united to his body, as if it had never been cut off; so that no traces of the severing appeared. And when they turned the body over, searching for any sign of incision that might be shown, the entire body was found so sound and inviolate, as if no cut of the sword had touched it."

Let Sts. Ursus and Victor with their companions from the Theban legion close the ranks, who carried their severed heads in their hands to the place of burial, and there, kneeling in prayer, they laid them down, as if saying in reality: "This is our rest forever and ever." Whence in that same place a church was built in their honor; so Surius, Volume VII, at September 30, who also adds: "And the deaf, blind, lame, paralyzed, and those held by any infirmity came and touched the bodies of the Saints, and received sudden healing, as did those possessed by evil spirits. And to this day, if the faith of those seeking is not shaken, they are cured by the grace of God."

Was not a remarkable grace and glory added to the heads of all these?

More simply and fittingly, others judge that this crown and chain are the reward of a noble and upright character, wisdom, virtue, and filial obedience. For it is about this that the passage treats, not about the athletic courage of competitors; for nothing shows and adorns the good character of a child more than obedience toward parents. Whence Maximus, Sermon 23, quoting Euripides: "He who honors his parents," he says, "is pleasing to God, both living and dead. For nothing is more becoming and noble for children than if, born of a good father, they themselves render worthy thanks to their parents."

Moreover, that the crown and chain were once the reward of wisdom is clear from Daniel 5:16, where Belshazzar, requesting from Daniel the interpretation of the hand writing on the wall: Mane, tekel, phares, promises him this:

"You shall be clothed in purple, and shall have a golden chain about your neck, and shall be the third prince in my kingdom." And 3 Esdras 3:5, three youths debating what is the strongest; for the first said: "Wine is strong"; the second: "The king is stronger"; the third: "Women are stronger, but above all things truth conquers"; they establish these rewards for the winner: "Whichever one's speech appears wiser than the others', Darius shall give him great gifts, and to be clothed in purple, and to drink from gold, and to sleep on gold, and a chariot with golden bridle, and a fine linen turban, and a chain about his neck; and he shall sit in the second place from Darius on account of his wisdom, and shall be called a kinsman of Darius."

Hence even now, when learned men are made Doctors in the academies, a cap is given to crown the head, and a golden chain to adorn the neck. Whence Lyranus: In ancient times, he says, the wise used a golden chain, and a pendant hanging to the breast as a symbol of wisdom, which was thought to be enclosed in the breast. So also St. Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on the Canticle: "Hear, my son, the laws of your father, etc. In order that the child," he says, "may attend to his parents with a ready and eager mind, he promises that from his studies there will come to him childlike ornaments. For a childlike ornament is a golden chain shining on the neck, and a crown woven from pleasant flowers."

Solomon therefore here signifies that noble-born young men, especially those of noble and royal birth, distinguished in discipline, obedience, and virtue, were customarily gifted with a crown and chain. The Greeks followed the same practice: for they crowned elegant boys endowed with the best character, as Plato testifies of Lysis in the Lysis. And Aelian, Book XII of Various Histories, ch. 32, narrates that Pythagoras was accustomed to be crowned with a golden crown on account of his remarkable wisdom, and that it was decreed to him by public vote. Charles Paschal confirms the same at greater length, Book V On Crowns, ch. 9, and Book VI, ch. 29. For when a crown is given to the wise and upright man, wisdom itself and uprightness are crowned. Whence in Revelation ch. 4, the 24 elders are crowned with golden crowns for their wisdom and virtue.

Hence secondly, Lyranus fittingly says: That a crown may be added, namely a pontifical, or royal, or ducal crown, to your head, as if to say: On account of the wisdom you will learn from me by obeying, you will deserve to be made a pontiff, king, duke, or prince: for the word liviat, that is, addition, crown, alludes to the name Levi, that is, added or increased; for his mother Leah so named him, because she had already borne three sons and had added to her husband, Gen. 29:34. For in the tribe of Levi was the crown of wisdom and the pontificate, as if to say: If you obey your parent and discipline, you will be called and will be Levi, that is, added to and increased with the crown due to a doctor and pontiff. So Joseph by obeying his parents merited the gift of wisdom and the gift of prophecy, on account of which he was made by Pharaoh prince of Egypt: for Pharaoh, on account of his foreseeing the seven years of barrenness and fertility, placed a crown upon his head and adorned his neck with a golden chain, Gen. 41:42. For the crown is the sign of power and sovereignty, the chain of wisdom. When therefore wisdom is joined to power, then rightly is the crown given together with the chain.

Some add that here is meant a crown of years and longevity, with which boys, among the Greeks, were crowned at three and seven years, because they had escaped the perils of death. But this was a crown of the Gentiles, not of the Hebrews; of nature, not of virtue and grace, as is clear from Philostratus in the Heroics, in the account of Protesilaus.

Finally, for "grace" the Septuagint translate stephanon chariton, that is, a crown of the Graces, or of favors, as if to say: All the graces and Charites of God will adorn you with His graces and gifts. Hence the Gentiles imagined that there were three Charites or Graces, daughters of Jupiter and Venus, namely Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne, who would add grace to grace, indeed repay it. Likewise, says Tertullian in the book On the Crown of the Soldier, they imagined Pandora (as if to say: All-gifted) to be a most gracious woman and goddess, to whom the other gods and goddesses gave gifts, namely Pallas gave wisdom, Mars courage, Diana chastity, Mercury eloquence, Venus beauty. Therefore the crown of the Charites or Graces is the confluence and assembly of all the virtues and gifts, namely of justice, prudence, fortitude, temperance, beauty, eloquence, etc.

Moreover, Aristophanes says Pandora is a symbol of the earth, because the earth provides and bestows upon us all things necessary for life. More truly one might say that Pandora is the Blessed Virgin, inasmuch as God bestowed upon her all the gifts of Angels and men, and thus the Holy Trinity vied in adorning her: for God the Father conferred upon her His fatherhood, so that she might serve His Only-Begotten as both father and mother. The Son accepted her as His mother, the Holy Spirit as His spouse, and as a spouse He honored her with all His charisms. For she herself obeyed and complied in all things with the discipline and laws of the Holy Trinity, as well as those of her own parents.

Verse 10: My Son, If Sinners Shall Entice Thee, Consent Not

10. My son, if sinners shall entice thee (Cajetan translates: shall incite; the Syriac: shall deceive by flattery; the Chaldean: shall flatter), consent not to them. The Syriac: do not obey them; the Septuagint: my son, let not impious men seduce you, nor be willing; Vatablus: my son, if sinners shall seek to deceive you, do not consent, so that you do not admit their counsels even into your mind and will, nor indeed into your ears, much less into your hands and deeds. He fittingly appends this admonition to the preceding one about heeding the discipline of father and mother, as if to say: I commanded you to hear and obey the counsels of father and mother, and to drink them in as a mother's milk, so that you might be nourished by it to every strength of virtue: therefore now I exhort you to beware of the blandishments of the impious, by which they fraudulently seek to ensnare you as with deceptive milk and lure you to every kind of impiety. He contrasts with parents not strangers, but sinners: because he presupposes that the parents are good, and fulfilling the office of parents by rightly instructing the son, says Cajetan. For "shall entice," the Hebrew is jephattu, that is, to allure, entice, deceive, seduce. Whence peti means a young child, who is easily enticed, lured, and deceived: whom therefore Solomon here forewarns to avoid such blandishments. Our translator aptly renders it as "to give suck," because it alludes to the milk of a mother's discipline, and because "to suckle" by metaphor means the same as ensnaring, alluring, and deceiving someone with blandishments and promises as with milk. Whence the Comic poet: "If you had not suckled me as a lover, and led me on with false hope." And: "You lure the inexperienced into fraud by soliciting, and by promising you suckle their minds." He says therefore: Let your pious mother nurse you, but let not the impious nurse you. Receive with physical milk the moral milk of a mother's doctrine, not the adulterated milk of robbers: for milk is digested blood, and the first nourishment of an infant. Whence "milk and the generative fluid are closely related," says Aristotle, Book III of the History of Animals, ch. 20; indeed "in some animals milk serves in place of the generative fluid, as in fishes: but all that have milk contain it in their breasts. Breasts are given to those that both conceive the animal within themselves and bring it forth into the light, etc. But those that lay eggs also lack breasts and milk, like fishes and birds. The thinnest milk is that of the camel, then that of the mare, then the she-ass: the thickest is that of the cow." Likewise Book IV, ch. 10: "The lioness has less milk; for the food which she rarely takes, since she is carnivorous, she uses up in her body." Therefore whatever milk a child drinks, such he becomes in character and morals. Hence certain Tartars nurse their infants with the milk of dogs, so that they may grow fierce, combative, and quarrelsome like dogs.

A mother's milk, therefore, is a symbol of pure, sincere, useful and beneficial doctrine: for this nourishes the soul, just as milk nourishes the flesh. Such milk is the doctrine of the divine law, which Moses once taught, and then Christ. Therefore St. Augustine in Psalm 30, discourse 1: "Christ," he says, "in order to make His wisdom into milk for us, came to us clothed in flesh." The same, on Psalm 67: "Milk," he says, "signifies grace; for it flows from the abundance of a mother's inmost being, and is poured freely into little ones with delightful mercy." And on Psalm 130: "The Lord," he says, "our Jesus Christ, who is bread, made Himself milk for us by becoming incarnate and appearing as mortal, so that death might be ended in Him, and we might not stray from the Word by believing in the flesh which the Word became. Hence let us grow, let us be nourished by this milk: before we are strong enough to receive the Word, let us not depart from the faith of our milk." And further: "Thus God wills that we be nourished by milk, not so that we remain there, but so that by growing through milk we arrive at solid food." The same, in the book On the Greatness of the Soul, ch. 33, vol. I, showing how useful the milk of Apostolic doctrine is, which the Apostle Paul declared he had given as drink to little ones, 1 Cor. 3: "To receive this nourishment," he says, "when one is nursed by a mother, is most useful; when one is already grown, it is shameful; to refuse it when it is needed, pitiable; to criticize or hate it, criminal and impious; but to handle and dispense it properly is most full of praise and charity."

This milk therefore of legal and evangelical doctrine is to be eagerly drunk by the young from their parents, both physical and spiritual. On the other hand, the milk of sinners, which is contrary to it, being infected with the poison of sin, is entirely to be avoided and fled more than a dog or a serpent. For just as poison mixed with milk is most pernicious and altogether deadly, both because with the milk it easily and quickly permeates the entire body, and because milk, being liquid and soft, absorbs the full force of the poison and itself becomes poison: so exactly, if the impious secretly mix the poison of sin with their blandishments and allurements and offer it to an inexperienced youth eager for flattery, this poison plainly penetrates the youth's entire soul, infects it and kills it: for he thinks he is drinking the milk he sees and seeks, not the poison he does not see. Therefore St. Augustine, On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew, Homily 19, at the end: "Blandishments," he says, "elicit greater plunder from widows than torments do;" for almost all virgins and widows who suffer shipwreck of chastity do so enticed by blandishments, while many have resisted torments even unto death, and still do resist.

And St. Gregory, Book IV of the Moralia, ch. 25, explaining that text of Job: "Why was I nursed at the breast?" "A weak mind," he says, "inclines toward certain consolations of false comfort. Whence it happens that sin, nourished by favors, ceaselessly grows. And the wound is neglected for healing, which seems worthy of the reward of praise. Whence it is well said through Solomon: My son, if sinners shall entice you, do not consent to them. For sinners entice, when they either introduce evils to be committed by blandishments, or extol evils already committed by favors. Is he not being suckled, of whom it is said through the Psalmist: Because the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and he who does iniquity is blessed? For sin is difficult to correct that is nourished by the tongues of the wicked."

Whence St. Bernard, Epistle 2 to Fulco: "Your uncle," he says, "seeks your soul, who has already lost his own; the words of his mouth are iniquity and deceit, etc. He flatters, but under his tongue is labor and sorrow. He weeps, but he lays snares. Scorn his blandishments, despise his promises. He promises great things, but I promise greater. He offers many things, but I offer more. Will you then abandon heavenly things for earthly, eternal for temporal?" And Epistle 78 to Suger: "Pleasing, but dangerous is praise, when the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the wicked man is blessed." And further: "These are true praisers, who are accustomed so to praise good things that they know not how to suckle in evil things. For there are feigned praisers, but true detractors, whom Scripture mentions saying: Vain are the sons of men, lying are the sons of men in their balances, so that they may deceive from vanity altogether. These are plainly to be avoided, according to the counsel of the Wise Man saying: My son, if sinners shall entice you, do not consent to them."

Moreover, in two ways, says Bede, do sinners suckle those they deceive, because they either allure them by blandishments to commit crimes, or elevate by favors those already committed as if they were praiseworthy deeds. These are the monsters, of which it is mystically said in Lamentations 4: "Even the monsters have bared their breast, they have nursed their young," as St. Jerome explains in the same passage.

Sinners therefore have both milk and oil, sweet indeed, but poisonous, but deadly. "His speeches are smoother," he says, "that is, the flatterer's, than oil, and they themselves are darts." The just man also has oil, but of mercy, of sanctification, of spiritual joy. And after some words: "Let them now seek for themselves in the little ones of Babylon sweet, but fierce mothers, from whom they may draw the milk of death, whom they may soothe with pleasant favors and nourish with eternal flames. For the nursling of the Church, having tasted from the breasts of wisdom the sweetness of a better milk, has already begun to grow in salvation, and already, satiated with it, cries out saying: Your breasts are better than wine, fragrant with the finest ointments. And this to the mother. But likewise, having tasted and proved how sweet the Lord is, as to a truly most sweet father, he says to Him: How great is the multitude of Thy sweetness, O Lord, which Thou hast hidden for those who fear Thee!"

Verse 11: If They Shall Say: Come with Us

11. If they shall say: Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood, let us hide snares for the innocent in vain. So also Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion. But the Septuagint: If they shall call you saying: Come with us, be a partaker of blood, and let us hide the just man in the earth unjustly; Vatablus: If they shall say: Come with us, we shall lay snares for blood, we shall lurk in hiding against the innocent without cause; the Chaldean: let us hide ourselves; Pagninus: let us hide ourselves against the innocent for nothing; the Syriac: let us hide for the just man destruction and ruin; R. Levi: let us conceal and hide in lurking places.

He gives a clear and obvious example of robbers, in which he shows to the eye by what arts and allurements the impious entice and deceive the simple. For young men, when they have squandered their own means in luxury, are accustomed to become thieves and robbers, so that they may continue to live freely and sumptuously in their usual manner, so says R. Levi. It is a mimesis; for he imitates and represents the voices and gestures of robbers, by which they strive to entice young men into their society, by proposing to them many allurements of plunder. The first is: "Come with us," as if to say: You will not be the first, not alone to attack the prey; we shall be your guides, you will only follow or accompany us, and therefore you will hide under our wings; for we, being strong in strength, arms, and courage, will protect you against all attacks of travelers. Thus with us you will lead a free and unrestrained life, you will do whatever you wish, you will live sumptuously, not from hard labor, but from what is seized and readily available. For we live a libertine life, free from every yoke and law, and therefore a happy one.

The second is: "Let us lie in wait for blood," that is, for life: for life consists in blood; or "for blood," that is, to shed blood, says Rabbi Solomon, as if to say: We shall not attack travelers in open combat, with declared war or duel: for this would be hard and dangerous for us, and we would not gain the plunder without the shedding of our own blood; but lurking in forests, or in caves and corners, we shall attack the unwary, unprepared, and unarmed from ambush, and thus we shall certainly dispatch them without any loss or slaughter of our own. Whence they repeat and amplify the same thing, adding: "Let us hide snares for the innocent in vain." The word "snares" is not in the Hebrew, but is understood in the verb "let us hide." For a snare is a trap which hunters set and hide for birds and wild beasts, in order to ensnare and catch them. In a similar way these robbers set snares, that is, traps and ambushes, for travelers. Thus Cicero in the speech for Caecina says: "Then they call the catching of words and the snares of letters into odium." These allurements of the robbers will be more effective if you translate all the words from the Hebrew with Vatablus in the future tense: we shall lie in wait for blood, we shall hide snares, let us devour alive, etc.

A great allurement to crime, therefore, is ambush and concealment, which as it were veil and cover up the crime, so that it seems not to exist. For what is secret from the people seems not to be: "Vices," says Synesius, "flee the light, love darkness, and in order to hide more safely, they are accustomed to go underground." Hence a robber (latro) is so called because he attacks from the side (a latere); or from hiding (a latendo), because he lies in wait secretly, says Festus. Likewise a thief (fur) received his name from furvus, that is, from the dark shadows he haunts.

The third allurement is suggested by the word "in vain" (frustra), which Vatablus, Jansenius and others generally translate as "without his fault," that is, without the innocent person's offense or desert. Whence the Septuagint translate adikos, that is, unjustly. But this meaning does not present an allurement, but rather undermines and breaks it. For the innocence and harmless life of a traveler restrains men, even barbarians, from doing harm. Therefore Emmanuel Sa responds that "in vain" is not said by the robbers, but was added by Solomon speaking parenthetically. Far more irrelevant is the exposition of others, as if to say: We shall hide snares for him, but in vain; for by God's protection and help he who is innocent and harmless will escape them.

Secondly, Cajetan aptly explains, as if to say: We shall attack the innocent person "in vain" (frustra); in Hebrew, "freely," that is, without any cause, without any dispute or provocation; and thus we shall kill him unawares, before he can defend himself, indeed before he knows that he and his life are being sought.

Thirdly, the allurement will be clearer and more forceful if you refer "in vain" to the innocent person, with which it is connected, as if to say: Do not say that these snares are laid "against the innocent," and that God is the avenger of innocence; we assure you that he is innocent "in vain," that is, that he strives for innocence in vain: for God does not care whether someone is guilty or innocent; but commits all things to fortune and nature, by which it happens that he who is stronger and more cunning, as we are, overcomes and devours the weaker and simpler. Therefore we have determined that God will not defend the innocent, nor reward his innocence, but rather permit him to fall into our hands and perish. Neither his innocence, therefore, nor God will protect him from our forces, so armed and treacherous.

Fourthly, our Salazar explains "in vain" as fraudulently, deceitfully: for thus we say "to frustrate" a man meaning to deceive and trick him, as if to say: Let us hide snares "in vain" (frustra), that is, fraudulently and deceitfully. But in Hebrew it is chinnam, that is, freely, without cause, which is far removed from deceitfully.

Moreover, less aptly Cajetan thinks these robbers do not truly intend, but only simulate killing, as being an enormous crime which the young man would immediately abhor: therefore they say they will only threaten death to the traveler, so as to despoil him more freely and extort gold from him. But the phrase "let us lie in wait for blood" clearly signifies that they are plotting the shedding of blood, that is, killing, but by ambush; for they wish to despoil him of his goods, but secretly, so that no one may discover the deed, and therefore they are resolved to kill him. For if they released him alive, the released man would betray the crime and the criminals, and would even prosecute the guilty before the judges: therefore, to prevent this, the robbers first kill and then despoil. The crime, therefore, because it is secret, they think nothing of, and call it the sport and game of gladiators, and boast that they shed blood like water.

Verse 12: Let Us Swallow Him Up Alive Like Hell

12. Let us swallow him up alive like hell, and whole (the Chaldean and Syriac: spotless; for the Hebrew tamim also means this) as those who go down into the pit. The Syriac: into the pit; Vatablus: into the abyss. In Hebrew it is jorede bor, a common expression for those utterly perishing, indeed lost. Some translate "hell" as "the grave," as if to say: Let us swallow him up as the grave swallows the body of one recently living, now dead. The Tigurina, Lyranus and others translate it as "abyss" in the same sense. But the Hebrew scheol properly signifies hell, and so here the Septuagint, the Chaldeans, the Vulgate, Vatablus, Pagninus and others consistently translate it. See Delrio, Adage 197. And there is greater force in the devouring of hell than of the grave: for "hell, opening its insatiably hollow throat," absorbs innumerable men, and yet always gapes just as wide, as if it had absorbed none.

He alludes to Korah, Dathan and Abiram, who had descended alive into hell, Num. 16. To whom likewise David, whom Solomon here follows, alludes in Psalm 123:3, saying: "Perhaps they would have swallowed us alive," as if to say: Just as hell absorbed these three alive, thus "whole they descended into the pit of hell, so likewise let us swallow this man alive and whole, so that we may fill the gullet of our wickedness with human blood."

Note: The word "let us swallow" denotes first, eagerness and voracity, as if to say: We hunger and thirst for the innocent man's blood, life, and possessions so eagerly that we wish to swallow him alive and whole, just as a wolf swallows whole live chickens. Whence St. Chrysostom, Homily 9 on 1 Corinthians, describing the greed of robbers: "Their mouths are those of wild beasts," he says, "or rather fiercer than beasts'; they devour more greedily, tear more cruelly, bite more viciously."

Secondly, it denotes the ease of committing the crime, as if to say: We shall dispatch him as easily as hell dispatches men. So Jansenius. Whence for "let us swallow" the Hebrew is niblaem, that is, we shall swallow them suddenly and most easily.

Thirdly, it denotes the concealment of the crime. For shame usually deters young men from crime. They therefore wipe this away by saying the crime will be hidden: for they will bury the innocent man's body in the grave, and dispatch his soul to hell, so that no part, mention, or memory of him, which might be evidence of the crime, will remain. Whence the Septuagint translate: let us swallow him up alive like hell, and let us remove his memory from the earth.

This is therefore the fourth allurement of sin, which the impious set before the young man to draw him into their company.

It is a catachresis: for "to swallow" is used for "utterly to destroy and kill." For the killer, in moral estimation and common usage, seems on account of the eagerness of wrath, envy, or avarice, to drink in and swallow the blood and life of the slain, just as the whale swallowed Jonah alive and whole. Whence those phrases in Scripture: "The sword shall devour flesh," "He struck them with the edge of the sword" (for the mouth of the sword is the mouth of him who kills by the sword), "He shall drink of the blood of the slain." So Olympiodorus in the Greek Chain: In the phraseology of Scripture, he says, to devour or abolish means to utterly destroy and completely cast down and overcome. And he explains it mystically thus, as if to say, the impious: Let us devour the just man, that is, let us transfer him, cast down and conquered, to our loves, so that just like us he may savor nothing else, pursue nothing else, seek nothing else, but earthly and infernal things, and this while alive, that is, knowingly and willingly. Thus we shall ruin his possessions, that is, all those he had won for Christ. So also Evagrius and Polychronius in the same place.

It is also a metonymy: for men are said to be devoured when their possessions, crops, and food, on which their life depended, are devoured. Whence parabolically, says Jansenius, are here indicated magistrates, monopolists, usurers, and the like, who by their arts and frauds plunder the state and the wretched through monopolies, usury, unjust contracts, etc., who, in order to be the stronger, strive to draw many into their company. Hence Psalm 13:4: "Who devour my people as the food of bread." And Jeremiah 2:3: "All who devour him." And Mark 12:40: "Who devour the houses of widows."

Note that the impious say: Like hell; when they could have said: Like a wolf, like a whale. For what else do criminal and hellish men think, say, and do, but crime and hell? Rightly therefore they compare themselves to hell, inasmuch as their closeness and kinship with hell is so great, and by this they tacitly predict that they will go to hell, since they are not unaware that it is owed to them for their crimes. So great is the force of conscience, even of an impious one.

Finally, St. Augustine, Book XVII of the City of God, ch. 20, Jerome, Bede, Hugh, Jansenius and others generally consider that this most of all pertains to the Jews who killed Christ, who was the most innocent of the innocent (for they thirsted for His blood and life, and swallowed them as infernal wolves and lions), and that it was said and prophetically foretold concerning them. Whence the Septuagint and the Vulgate translate in the singular, "let us swallow him up," although in the Hebrew it is plural, "them." Similar is Wisdom 2:12, which St. Augustine also cites and explains of Christ in the passage just cited.

Verse 13: We Shall Find All Precious Substance

13. We shall find all precious substance (Symmachus: riches; Septuagint: possession), we shall fill our houses with spoils. This is the fifth, and the supreme allurement of sin, as if to say: Having killed the master, we shall seize his chests and baggage; in them we shall immediately find without labor gold, silver, gems, and all manner of precious things, with which, as with spoils, we shall fill our houses. For the Hebrew male means only to fill, not to empty or overturn, as all who know Hebrew well are aware. "All," that is, of every kind, as Vatablus translates: for the distribution is for the kinds of individual things, not for individual things of kinds, as logicians call it. More forcefully the Septuagint translate: let us seize all precious possession, let us fill our houses with spoils, as if to say: Rich plunder is at hand, by which we may enrich ourselves and our people without labor; we need only receive and seize it. It is freely offered to us, it voluntarily gives itself into our hand, indeed it falls into our lap; let us open it up and accept such great riches. Each word carries weight and emphasis, as if to say: Not some, but all; not of whatever kind, but precious; not passing, but solid substance; we shall not acquire it by great labor or price, but shall find it freely offered, and it is so great that we shall not merely adorn, but utterly fill not only ourselves, but also our children, wives, and homes with it.

A similar deceptive gloss of allurement does the devil, the flesh, and the world present to the sinner, when they solicit him to pride, avarice, gluttony, or any other crime; for whatever in sin is beautiful and pleasing to the senses, they set before him; but whatever in it is ugly, dangerous and harmful, such as the danger of infamy, prison, life, hell, etc., they suppress and conceal.

Verse 14: Cast in Thy Lot with Us

14. Cast in thy lot with us, let there be one purse for us all. In Hebrew: make your lot fall among us; one purse shall be for all of us; the Tigurina: cast lots with us; Vatablus: be our partner; the Septuagint: cast your lot among us, and let there be one purse for us. So the Complutensian edition. The Roman edition adds: let us all possess a common purse. But, as the same editors note, these words seem to be an alternate translation of the already-stated sentence: "Let there be one purse for us." Thus Judas had a common purse with the Jews, Acts 1:18, says Evagrius in the Greek Chain. He also mystically adds that the impious have a compact with the demons and a common purse of iniquity, and therefore will also have a common purse of damnation in hell with them. So also Georgius in the same place: A "lot," he says, is a right choice of the will and a just action, as if to say: Abandoning that holy and pious way of life which you have followed until now, conspire with us for a free and dissolute one. But these are mystical interpretations.

In the literal sense, therefore, first, the meaning is, as if to say: Share with us the common hazard of fortune; let your lot be our lot, so that there may be one purse for us all, into which we may cast whatever we have plundered, that is: All plunder will be common between you and us, all gain shared. So Jansenius. Whence some translate thus: You will cast your lot, or throw it, among us, that is, you will be a participant in all that we acquire by plundering.

Secondly, as if to say: Mix "your lot," that is, your possessions, with ours, so that everyone's fortunes and purses may be held in common. For this is what the law of a close partnership demands, such as exists among banded robbers.

This is the sixth allurement of crime, namely the sharing of the plundered wealth held by the allied robbers. Where our Salazar rightly notes that these words seem fair but contain deceit. For these cruel and crafty robbers, striving to despoil the simple young man of his goods, persuade him to put what he has into a common fund, so that as soon as he has contributed, they themselves may snatch it away. Furthermore, from the sharing of purses they tacitly lead him to sharing in crimes: for the latter follows from the former, indeed the former is made and entered into for the sake of the latter. Therefore here is true that elegant Hebrew proverb: backis, baccos, baccaas, that is, in purses, in cups, and in flashes of anger; supply: the character and disposition of a man is known. For the Hebrew kis, which Solomon uses here, means a purse, wallet, money-bag, pouch, into which any monies are cast, to be kept and guarded. Therefore whoever has a common purse with robbers, becomes guilty and a participant of all the robberies and crimes which they commit through this common purse: just as the first Christians of old, and Religious now, putting all their possessions in common, become participants of all the good works which are accomplished through this sharing of resources and common social life. For a coin, like a man, whether pious or impious, has more value and effect in the company of many like itself than if it were alone: just as the cipher 0 alone has no value, but if you attach it to a unit, it makes ten; to a ten, a hundred; to a hundred, a thousand, and so on, according to that saying of Eccl. 4:9: "It is better for two to be together than one: for they have the advantage of their partnership," etc. See our Hieronymus Platus, Book I On the Good of the Religious State, ch. 27.

Otherwise Baynus explains, as if to say: Once the plunder is taken, we shall cast lots, and whatever falls to you by lot, we shall give you. Or if you prefer otherwise: "Let there be one purse for us all," that is, let us put everything in common, so that purses, table, expenses, and life may be shared, so that one has nothing more than another, says R. Levi. So also R. Solomon Isacides, as if to say: If you wish, you will share the spoils with us; if it please you even more, you will live with us with a common and shared purse.

Moreover, Cyril represents the foolishness of those who are emboldened to crime by their associates with an apt fable of two fish, Book II of the Moral Fables, ch. 17, titled: Against Those Who Boast in Their Multitude of Friends, by Whom They Are Also Emboldened to Evil. "A certain fish armed with seven rows of teeth, having seen another fish equipped with the weaponry of a sword-shaped mouth, said: Oh, if only the wondrous art of that nature, which with the vein of wisdom poured forth all things in such diverse forms, had added to me, already sufficiently armed with teeth inside, this outward strength as well! To which the other said: What would you do with that little sword? Immediately the first replied: What I do with my own teeth. Hearing this, the other added: Since you certainly would want to use it for pride and plunder, it is better for you to lack it than to have it. For it is better to be deprived of a good thing than to use a good thing for evil. For license granted to a wicked will is iniquity. For having such equipment fulfills iniquity all the more quickly, the more eagerly one hoped to act on it. And for this reason, sulfur to the fire, and a sword to the fool and the wicked -- what is expected from that, except anger, cruelty, violence and plunder?" Then he confirms the same with a new fable of a bear and an ox: "I shall therefore say (do not be troubled, dearest friend) what once an ox said to a bear craving horns: Friend, horns are good, but not for you. Indeed it would be far better for you, since you abuse your natural weapons, to be deprived entirely of teeth. For when your heart raged with anger, your strength would fail; and when your harsh belly craved blood, the tooth of wickedness would be lacking, and thus the deprivation of the faculty would either correct the iniquity or put it to sleep. Indeed the removal of power would often turn anger into gentleness, and necessity into virtue. Yet a most wicked heart ought to lack so armed an instrument. For the power of acting proudly stirs up the boldness of attacking, and immediately prepares every act of harming, and as far as it can, completes the effect of doing evil. O truly wretched is he to whom sinning is permitted, because he arms himself for crime! Alas, he who drags friendship or all-conquering power into pride, or plunder, or violence! Hence indeed good becomes evil, and friendship becomes enmity, light darkness, power calamity, and dire calamity becomes fortune. Having explained these things, he withdrew."

Verse 15: My Son, Do Not Walk with Them

15. My son, do not walk with them: keep thy foot from their paths. R. Levi: "Do not even once," he says, "travel with them, lest you admit their criminal examples into your mind," as if to say: So harmful and pestilent is the commerce of robbers that not only must their society and the common lot already mentioned be avoided; but one must not even walk with them or share a common path with them; and this first, because their path leads to robberies and plundering: whoever therefore sets out on a path with them proceeds with them to robberies and plundering; indeed, even though he does not know it, given the occasion he easily becomes a participant in some act of plunder or robbery, and once ensnared he will learn to steal and plunder, and will put on the habit of stealing and plundering, which he will afterward be unable to unlearn and lay aside: for the habit of stealing clings and spreads like gangrene, as Blessed Antiochus teaches, Homily 41. Solomon hints at this reason when he adds: "For their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed blood." A rare example and symbol of this from nature is the wolf, whose power and harm in seizing and injuring is so great that Pliny writes, Book XXVIII, ch. 10, that the footprints of a wolf trodden on by a horse bring numbness and harm to the horse: just as the torpedo fish makes the fisherman's hand numb. So great is the power and contagion of association.

Secondly, because to associate and walk with them is infamous and disgraceful. For one who associates with them is called a companion of thieves, an accomplice of robbers, that is, a thief and a robber himself.

Thirdly, because one who walks with robbers is in perpetual fear and danger, lest either he be killed by those very men out of avarice, anger or revenge; or certainly be captured by judges and others who pursue robbers, and be subjected to public punishment as a thief and robber, as we have seen repeatedly happen in Belgium. Hence Ben Sira derived his maxim, Alphabet 1, letter phe: "Turn your face from evil companions, do not travel with them. Keep your foot from them, lest you be caught in their net."

Verse 16: For Their Feet Run to Evil

16. For their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed blood. The Syriac: they hasten to oppression. "Evil" -- understand, first, of guilt. Whence the Septuagint translate: wickedness, as if to say: Robbers run to thefts and plunder as if to rich spoils.

Secondly, "evil" can be taken as the evil of punishment, as if to say: Robbers by plundering rush to their own ruin, they run to the accursed cross: for this awaits them. So R. Solomon Isacides: "They will rush," he says, "to be the architects of their own destruction, and they are so wrapped in ignorance of things that they do not perceive it." The first meaning is more genuine; for there follows: "And they hasten to shed blood," namely, others' blood: although Salazar explains it as their own, as if to say: They themselves give occasion for their blood to be shed by judges, whose office it is to punish thieves and robbers. Hence again Ben Sira derived his maxim, Alphabet 2, letter resh: "Depart far from evil neighbors, and do not be counted in their company. For their feet run to evil, and they hasten to shed blood."

Verse 17: The Net Is Cast in Vain

17. But the net is cast in vain before the eyes of those that have wings. The Syriac: before birds; the Chaldean: before the winged bird; the Arabic: nets are not spread tyrannically, or with tyranny, for the winged. For the birds do not notice for what purpose the nets are spread; whence they fear nothing, but eagerly fly to the bait that lies beside the nets, says R. Solomon Isacides: so the impious gaze at what they seize, when they say: We shall find all precious substance; but they do not see through the nets in which they walk, according to that saying: "He has cast his feet into the net," Job 18:8. Hence it is said that the net is cast in vain, with respect to the birds and the impious, because although they see the net being cast for them, they nevertheless do not beware of it or flee: therefore it is cast for them in vain, since from seeing it they derive no advantage, but enormous harm.

Moreover, this saying is explained variously by various authors: First, Cajetan and our Mariana, as if to say: Just as a net spread before the eyes of birds is spread in vain, for they immediately fly away: so generally the arts of harming and the snares of stealing and plundering are detected, both because the rich investigate them to protect themselves and their goods, and because God protects the pious so that they escape unharmed. God's protection, therefore, as well as the virtue and justice of the just, serve the just as wings.

Secondly, R. Levi: In vain, he says, that is, without the fault or harm of the birds, the net is spread for them, as if to say: Just as bird-catchers spread nets for harmless birds, so those robbers lay snares for the innocent.

Thirdly, our Salazar offers three ingenious explanations. The first is: In vain, he says, that is, deceitfully, the net is spread for birds: so robbers deceitfully lay snares for the innocent. But the Hebrew chinnam means freely, in vain, undeservedly, not deceitfully. And in Latin, although among certain ancient writers "frustra" can mean the same as "to frustrate" and "to deceive," nevertheless I know no classical writer who uses "frustra" alone to mean deceitfully. The second is that this sentence should be read as a question, thus: Is the net cast in vain before the eyes of the winged? As if to say: By no means. For however freely winged birds are borne through the air, sometimes they nevertheless come down to earth and are caught in the meshes. Since therefore free birds are commonly caught by the wiles of bird-catchers, those thieves and robbers should not hope they will escape, however free they seem to themselves: for at last, like birds, they will be caught and strangled. But all Latin manuscripts, as well as Greek and Hebrew, read this sentence assertively without a question mark, and this is required by the "but" (autem) that the Latin has, and the "for" (gar) that the Greek has. The third interpretation, which he prefers to the others, is that the riches which robbers seize are here compared to winged birds, as if to say: In vain do robbers hope to be enriched by riches stolen by theft, or to enjoy them for long, because ill-gotten riches are like winged birds which fly away from the unjust possessor and elude him, according to ch. 23:5: "Do not raise your eyes to riches which you cannot have," namely justly, "for they will make themselves wings like an eagle, and will fly to heaven." This meaning is indeed ingenious and subtle, and therefore seems more symbolic than literal, especially because in the literal sense men, not riches, seem here to be compared to birds.

Fourthly, Bede, Lyranus, Hugh, Dionysius, Jansenius, and others generally, referring this sentence and proverb to the preceding, explain it plainly and clearly thus, as if to say: My son, beware of the allurements of robbers; imitate the birds, which seeing the net being spread for them, immediately fly away, according to that saying of Ovid: "The bird avoids the nets that are too visible." So therefore you also, instructed by these my counsels, immediately free yourself from their nets and fly away, especially on heavenly wings, namely the fear and love of God, into heaven.

Whence St. Gregory, Book XVI of the Moralia, ch. 10, at the end: "In vain," he says, "is the net cast before the eyes of the winged. For the winged are the spirits of the good, who while they fly upward through the hope of truth, avoid the little nets of deception laid by wicked men." And Salonius: "In vain," he says, "the net, that is, the snare of the devil, is cast before holy and elect men; for they can easily overcome the snares of the devil, who have their conversation in heaven." Hear also Lyranus: "In vain," he says, "the snare of persecution or death is spread for the elect who have the wings of hope, charity, and other virtues, with which they both desire heavenly things while they live, and attain them after death. They also have the eyes of the mind, by which they foresee that the evils they suffer are passing, and the goods they merit will endure forever; and that the pride of the reprobate will end, while their torments will remain forever." Indeed spiritual men are a kind of mystical birds having the eyes of contemplation, by which they see the nets of the demons, and the wings of heavenly aids and of their own cooperation, by which they fly further away. Therefore in vain does the demon spread snares before them, for he cannot draw to himself those who resist his wickedness.

Whence St. Bernard, Sermon 52 on the Canticle, by the "winged" understands contemplatives and ecstatics. "In vain," he says, "is the net cast before the eyes of the winged. For how is luxury to be feared, where life itself is not felt?

For when the soul departs (in ecstasy), even if not from life, certainly from the sense of life, it must also follow that the temptation of life is not felt. Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and rest?" This meaning, being common, is also straightforward and probable. The only thing against it is that most birds do not flee nets, but rather are caught in nets by the bird-catcher, as we see happen everywhere.

Therefore the fifth meaning, nearly opposite to the fourth, being deeper and more involved but more conformable to the Hebrew and Greek, is that of the Hebrews, who refer this proverb not to the preceding but to the following: for the Hebrew ki, that is, "because," "but," "moreover," "for indeed," signifies here the beginning of a new sentence, a simile and parable, which is applied and explained in the following verses 18 and 19. For instead of "they also" (ipsi quoque) the Hebrew is vehem, that is, "so they" (for the conjunction vav, when it joins similar things, means the same as "so"), where it is clear that there is a rendering, or explanation, of the simile about the net and the birds proposed shortly before. Again, "so the paths," etc., is the post-parable, which clearly applies and explains the parable of the net and the winged to the robbers themselves: for Scripture and Christ in the Gospels are accustomed promptly to apply and explain in a post-parable the parables and similes they have proposed, as He applies and explains the parable of the invited guests by adding: "So everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted," Luke 14:11. And He applies the parable of the workers called to the vineyard saying: "So the last shall be first, and the first last; for many are called, but few chosen," Matt. 20:16. The same can be seen in the parable of the shepherd seeking the lost sheep, Matt. 18:14; and of the servant unwilling to forgive his fellow servant's debt, ibid. v. 35; and of the sower and the seed, Matt. 13:49 and 37.

The meaning therefore is, as if to say: My son, beware of those robbers, because they rush knowingly and willingly to their own and your destruction. For they indeed spread nets and snares for others, but God spreads those very nets for them, and turns them to their own destruction, so that like birds of prey (for it is chiefly for these, being noxious, that nets are usually spread, as also for noxious beasts such as boars, wolves, etc.) they may be caught. For just as the net is spread for birds in vain, in vain, I say, with respect to the birds, though not in vain with respect to the bird-catchers, because the birds are so foolish that although they see the nets spread out, they nevertheless do not think the nets are set for them, and therefore fly to the bait scattered near the net, and are thus entangled in the net and caught: so likewise these robbers, although they see their thefts, plunders, and murders being everywhere detected, and that there is danger of being caught and punished on their account by a judge, or by neighboring townspeople, or by travelers; nevertheless they are so foolish and stupid that they do not care, but continue to steal and plunder, whereby it happens that they knowingly and willingly rush into the nets of their own plundering, and on account of them are caught and hanged. So R. Solomon Isacides, cited at the beginning, and our Emmanuel Sa explain it.

The meaning, he says, is as if to say: "As birds fall into a net spread before them, so these men, seeing their destruction, perish." Thus we commonly say: In vain do you threaten a robber with the sword or the gallows, because he does not care about it, nor does he cease plundering on account of it; for the net here is, as it were, the gallows of birds. This is what the Septuagint mean, and therefore they translate negatively, to explain the force of the Hebrew word chinnam, which is ambiguous, signifying now the deprivation of fruit or effect, now the deprivation of fault, and therefore now meaning the same as "in vain," without fruit or effect, now the same as "without fault," undeservedly, unjustly. Our translator, following the first meaning, translates "in vain" (frustra). And there is a beautiful antithesis to what was said in verse 11: "Let us hide snares for the innocent in vain," as if to say: Those robbers think and say that the just man cultivates justice in vain and without hope of reward. But they err; indeed rather they themselves are unjust in vain, they themselves exercise unjust plundering and killing in vain: because they derive no fruit from them, except the net by which they are caught, and the noose by which they are hanged. But the Septuagint embraced both meanings. For adikos signifies both, as if to say: Just as for birds of prey the net is shown adikos, that is, in vain, because they do not care about it or guard against it; but not adikos, that is, not unjustly, not without fault, because they themselves by their thefts and robberies have deserved the snare: so likewise for these robbers, the net of plundering, that is, the punishment and the gallows, is shown adikos, that is, in vain, because they do not care about it or guard against it; but not adikos, that is, not undeservedly, not unjustly, because they themselves by their plundering have deserved it. Therefore what he says: "In vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged," is a proverb meaning that punishment is shown to the impious in vain, that prison and the gallows are threatened to thieves in vain. For Solomon explains it thus when he adds:

Verse 18: They Lie in Wait Against Their Own Blood

18. They also (Heb. and they, that is, so they themselves) lie in wait against their own blood (less felicitously the Tigurina, Aben-Ezra, and R. Levi translate "their" as "those" [of the birds] instead of "their own") (because their snares lead them to death and the shedding of blood and life, since on account of them they often incur temporal death, and always eternal death. Whence, explaining, he adds) and they plot deceits against their own souls, as if to say: The deceits which they plot against others recoil upon their own souls, since they create for themselves the danger of death both present and eternal: for "they plot" signifies not the intention of the robbers -- for they do not intend to procure the cross for themselves -- but the effect and consequence, namely the punishment which is bound to follow from their crime. And then:

19. So the paths of every greedy man snatch away the souls of their possessors. This is an epiphonema and a post-parable, or application of the parable, as if to say: Just as birds flying to the bait set in the net are ensnared and caught by it: so the paths, that is, the actions, namely the thefts and plunders which these greedy robbers commit, catch and snatch away the souls of those who possess them, since on account of them they are dragged to prison, and thence to the gallows. "Avarice therefore kills the soul, and often the body of the greedy man." Whence Aben-Ezra beautifully says: "The things that have been seized by robbery," he says, "seize the robber himself." Hence the Syriac and Chaldeans translate: so are the ways of those who work iniquity, and they seize the souls of their own masters. Thefts therefore are nets which ensnare the very thieves and present them to the judge for capture. So Vatablus: Just as, he says, birds even though they see the net spread before them, do not fly away on that account and escape the danger, their attention being fixed on the bait, and that bait is their destruction: so money is accustomed to be the author of death for him who has obtained it by theft or robbery.

Experience confirms this meaning, for we see that bird-catchers do not spread nets for birds in vain: for they catch a great many by them; for most birds, except sparrows, being simple and stupid, do not know that the net is set as a trap for them, whence they fly to it without caution. Likewise robbers fly to their plunders, by which they are caught. You will say: Birds, when they see the net being cast before them, fly away, although once it has been cast, they fly back to the prey. I reply: They fly away not because of the net, but because of the motion and noise which the bird-catcher makes in casting the net, which the birds see and hear, just as they fly away if anyone creates any other noise or movement. Furthermore, those that are nearby fly away, not those that are far off. Finally, in Hebrew it is not the present tense zara, that is, "is cast," but the past mezora, that is, "was cast" or "was spread." Moreover, he aptly compares the robbers to winged birds, in Hebrew baal kanaph, that is, masters of the wing, or powerful in wing, that is, excellently winged, and swift and vigorous in flight, such as are birds of prey, which therefore have hooked feet as well as beaks for seizing prey. For these, partly by nature, partly by continual use and practice, swoop upon their prey most swiftly and powerfully. Robbers do the same.

Therefore the author of the Greek Chain, reading with the Septuagint, "for it is not in vain that nets are spread for the winged," explains thus, as if to say: Not unjustly, he says, is the punishment of eternal fire prepared for them, but with the most just reason: inasmuch as they are masters and leaders and most wicked counselors of all kinds of evils and crimes. By the name of the net is denoted the manifold punishment of souls ordered for the destruction and burning of the winged, that is, of the just who have turned bad. But by the word "winged" are hinted men flying up to the clouds on the pride of their mind and the wings of arrogance; or else men who, if they wished, could separate themselves from the company of the impious by raising their wings. So he says.

Solomon therefore deters the young man from the society of robbers, because their snares cannot lie hidden for long, but are at last discovered, and thus ensnare and destroy them: therefore those are fools who thrust themselves into these snares. And this is what the proverb means: "In vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged," as if to say: In vain do you threaten the greedy and stupid robber with the cross if he steals, in vain do you show him the gallows: for he is so eager for and accustomed to plunder that he recklessly and stupidly throws, inserts, and hurls himself into the danger of the cross and the gallows. Similar proverbs are these: "The thrush produces the birdlime for itself;" for from the excrement of the thrush birdlime is made, by which it is caught. "Those who seek to catch are themselves caught. He prepares evil for himself who prepares it for another. No one is harmed except by himself. He finds evil for himself. Let him who drinks the wine drink the dregs. He who throws a stone on high, it will fall on his own head: and the wound of the deceitful shall divide wounds. And he who digs a pit shall fall into it: and he who sets a stone for his neighbor shall stumble on it: and he who lays a snare for another shall perish in it," Ecclus. 27:28; see my commentary there.

This maxim, according to the common exposition of many already reviewed, Cyril festively illustrates and as it were enlivens with a fable of a crow and a fox, Book I of the Moral Fables, ch. 5, whose title is: "While you are mortal, fear everywhere and always." A hungry crow, he says, was flying about, and a fox equally hungry, hiding in a cave, watching it; in order to lure the crow to come within striking distance of her beak and catch it, she lay down with legs extended as if dead; but the crow, suspecting a trick, shrewdly looking at the fox's chest, detected from its breathing and movement that there was life and fraud in the fox. Therefore "taking a pebble in his beak and throwing it upon the ear of the one lying there, he said: Know that the crow's eye has seen no less than the fox's. For if yours subtly detected my hunger, my eye too has searched out your fraud; and to say more, I have many times pecked at the eye of one thus lying. To this the fox replied: And I have many times joyfully held the neck of one descending. Then the crow adds: Why did you want to do this? Did you think I was less able to endure hunger, when sobriety rather relieves me? For gluttony weighs down, sobriety lifts up the mind; and to convict you further, furious cunning too much obscures prudence. But she said querulously: I learned this long ago, but I know more: that sometimes even good Homer nods, that is, the Philosopher. For genius does not always shine, nor is the strength of the mind always equally suited. Indeed those endowed with talent have perished very many, and often diligence has been the salvation of the less skilled. Thus the cunning serpent perishes through negligence, and the mouse by vigilance escapes the claw of the more cunning cat, and in vain is the net cast before the eyes of the winged (Prov. 1:17). But if you wish to know why I stretched out snares of fraud for you, learn that among thieves, when the opportunity arises, there is no trust. Go therefore, and as long as you are mortal, always fear, and fearing everywhere, attend with circumspection. Having said this, they parted."

Third Part: Wisdom Invites All to Herself

Verse 20: Wisdom Preacheth Abroad

20. Wisdom preaches abroad (Septuagint: in the exits), in the streets she utters (Syriac: exalts) her voice. The Septuagint has parresian agei, which the Complutensian edition translates as: she has boldness of speech; the Roman edition: she acts with freedom, that is, she sends forth a free voice.

21. At the head of the crowds (Pagninus: of the tumultuous) she cries aloud, in the gateways of the city she utters her words. For "wisdom" the Hebrew is chacmot, that is, "wisdoms" in the plural, because although wisdom comprehensively is one, yet when unfolded it is manifold; for it contains many parts, doctrines, and precepts. On account of its breadth, therefore, as well as its majesty, wisdom takes on a plural name, just as God in Hebrew is called in the plural Adonai, that is, Lords, because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords; and Elohim, that is, judges or governors, because He is the judge of judges and governor of governors. Indeed, by "wisdom" here can be understood God Himself, the most wise, as I shall say shortly. So in Job ch. 40, vv. 40 and 20, the elephant on account of its vast body is called in the plural behemot, that is, beasts, because it is like many beasts. Vatablus adds: He uses the plural, he says, because wisdom is taught by many, namely by Moses and the Prophets.

"Abroad" is contrasted with the voice of the foolish and the impious, who in corners and houses secretly spread their poisons, saying: "Come with us, let us lie in wait for blood," v. 11: for folly and impiety, having a guilty conscience, flee the light and seek concealment; but wisdom and the wise, confident and bold in truth, preach freely and publicly in the streets with open face and clear voice. "Abroad" therefore and "in the streets," that is, openly, everywhere, and before all, she preaches. For the Hebrew rechob, and the Greek and Latin platea (street), are named from breadth, and mean the same as "broad." Whence Salonius mystically: Wisdom, he says, that is Christ, preaches in the streets, that is, in the breadth of the world and of all nations. More narrowly R. Solomon: Abroad, he says, that is, in the schools.

For "preaches" the Hebrew is taronna, that is, she jubilates. The jubilation signifies at once the joy, the sweetness, and the clarity of the preaching of wisdom. Whence Vatablus translates: she resounds with her voice; R. Levi: she raises her voice; Aben-Ezra: she cries out and sounds like a herald; others: she calls with a loud and lofty voice. For the root ranan means to cry out from joy, to rejoice, to acclaim, to shout in congratulation. The Septuagint translate: she hymns, which, being a middle verb, you may translate actively, she hymns, that is, she sings, she praises, or passively, she is hymned, that is, she is sung, she is praised. For proverbs were formerly accustomed to be sung by the common people in the roads and streets. Whence the Syriac translates: wisdom is praised in the streets. So also St. Hilary and Tertullian, to be cited shortly. Better to translate actively; for wisdom herself here hymns, that is, she sweetly preaches and gives sermons as if singing. Whence the Chaldean translates: wisdom sings through the streets.

By "wisdom" can be understood first, uncreated wisdom, which is God Himself; for He, through preachers, through angels, and through all creatures, and indeed through internal inspirations, namely through illuminations placed in the intellect and impulses sent to the will, powerfully preaches to men His own fear and love. Whence in Hebrew it is chacmot, that is, wisdoms, in the plural, because all sciences and wisdoms are included in the most eminent and most simple wisdom of God. Whence R. Levi: All these things, he says, aim at this, that the divine wisdom may be manifested in created things with a certain wonderful evidence, when the incredible plan of wisdom is perceived, which He used in creating things; for this immediately strikes the eyes and minds of all.

Secondly, after the Incarnation of the Word, it can be understood as incarnate wisdom, which is Christ Himself; for Christ went about villages, hamlets, and towns, preaching the kingdom of God everywhere. For the Holy Spirit foresaw this wisdom to be incarnated in the time of Solomon, and through him Solomon himself. See my commentary at Ecclus. 1:1. So Bede. And St. Hilary, on Psalm 118, letter daleth, at the end, on the verse: I ran the way of Thy commandments, when Thou didst enlarge my heart: "The way to life," he says, "is narrow and afflicted, because it is entered through many tribulations. But wisdom is sung in the exits, in the streets she acts with freedom. Therefore wisdom, which is Christ, is sung in that way, in which He went forth to us from many exits; but in the broad places she acts with freedom, in which He promised not only to dwell, but also to walk. Therefore the Prophet freely runs the way of the Lord, after he began to have an enlarged heart. For he could not run the way of God before he himself was made a dwelling worthy of and spacious enough for God."

And Tertullian in the Scorpiace, ch. 7, explaining these words of the Martyrs fearlessly preaching Christ before peoples and judges: "Sophia," he says, "is sung in the exits with hymns: for the departure of Martyrs is also sung. Sophia in the streets exercises constancy: for she rightly slaughters her children. And on the highest walls, confident, she speaks, when someone according to Isaiah here exclaims: I am God's. And another cries out: In the name of Jacob. And another: In the name of Israel. O good mother! I myself wish to be reduced to the number of her children, that I may be slain by her. I wish to be slain, that I may become a son."

Moreover Salvian, Book IV to the Catholic Church: "Wisdom," he says, "is sung at the departure. Why did he not say it was sung in childhood, or in youth, or in a state of unimpaired affairs, or in the prosperities of favorable circumstances? Namely, because in all these things whatever is praised is uncertain. For as long as someone is subject to change, he cannot be praised with security, and therefore he says: Wisdom is sung at the departure. For one who exits from the uncertainties of dangers will deserve, having escaped all the variety of circumstances, a sure vote of approval; because then praise is stable and firm, when the merit of the one praised can no longer perish. Wisdom, he says, is sung at the departure. What, I ask, is the wisdom of a Christian? What, if not the fear and love of Christ? For the beginning, he says, of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. And elsewhere: Perfect love, he says, casts out fear. Therefore, as we see, the beginning of wisdom is in the fear of Christ, its perfection in love. And so, if the wisdom of a Christian is the fear and love of the Lord, then we are truly wise only if we love God always and above all things; and this at all times, but especially at our departure, because wisdom is sung at the departure."

Thirdly, with Lyranus, Jansenius, Salazar and others, it can plainly be understood as created wisdom, that is, prudence itself, uprightness, and virtue, so that it is a personification: for Solomon here introduces wisdom as if it were a subsistent person, indeed as if a teacher and preacher proclaiming throughout the whole world. Similar is ch. 9, v. 1.

Moreover, wisdom in the time of Solomon preached in the streets and synagogues where the crowds of the people gathered, through the Levites, Priests, Pontiffs, Scribes, and doctors of the Law: as Ezra the scribe read and preached the law of God publicly in the square, before the Water Gate, for seven days, 2 Esdras (Nehemiah), ch. 8, vv. 3 and 18. But in the time of Christ, Christ Himself and the Apostles and Apostolic men preached at crossroads, in streets, in forums, in tribunals, as Paul preached before the Governor Felix, Acts 24, and St. Malachy, Archbishop of Ireland, as St. Bernard testifies in his Life, St. Dominic, St. Francis; and the same privilege was granted to the Dominican and Franciscan Fathers by Benedict XI, Extravagantes, Inter cunctas, on privilege, and by Sixtus IV in the Compendium of Privileges.

This mode therefore of preaching in the streets and at crossroads is ancient and Apostolic, which we accordingly see in this age renewed and revived in Rome, Spain, Portugal, India, etc., by religious men with great fruit. See Francisco Suarez, Volume IV On Religion, Book IX On the Society of Jesus, ch. 1, no. 25.

At the head of the crowds she cries aloud. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion: she shall give her voice. He calls the "head of the crowds" the place where the head, that is, the chief and as it were the summit of the people and the crowds, gathers, which is therefore, as it were, the head of the crowds. The "head" is therefore the capital place, that is, the first and chief place of the people, such as the forum, the market, the crossroads, the synagogue, the palaces of princes, etc. It is a climax or gradation, as if to say: Wisdom not only in the streets, but also in the forums, markets, and assemblies of the people proclaims her doctrines with the voice and manner of a herald.

Secondly and more precisely, the "head of the crowds" is a higher place, as the head rises above the members, from which a herald or orator addresses the crowd below, as at Rome there were the rostra, among the Jews and Christians there are pulpits, chairs, platforms. Whence they proclaim from elevated places, so as to be heard by all. Hence also preachers of the word of God deliver sermons from pulpits and chairs. And St. Francis, when asked who he was, replied: "I am the herald of the great God." The Septuagint, reading chomot (walls) instead of homiot (crowds), translate: she cries aloud upon the highest walls like a herald. Hence the Chaldean translates: at the head of the citadels she heralds; the Syriac: at the entrances of the streets she preaches.

In the gateways of the city she utters her words. The Syriac: at the entrance of the gates of the citadels; the Chaldean: at the entrance of the gates through the cities, where namely all the crowd of country folk and travelers gathers, as well as citizens. For in ancient times judgments were rendered at the gates, so that strangers and newcomers might freely come to them. The judges therefore sat at the gates, as in a public, open place, accessible to all, both strangers and natives. So St. Jerome on Amos ch. 5, who also adds the reason: "So that neither the farmer," he says, "coming for a case, would be frightened by the crowds of the city and the unfamiliar sight; nor the city-dweller would have to hasten far from the city and seek the conveyance of pack animals." Whence the Complutensian Septuagint translates: sitting in the gates of the city she speaks; but the corrected Roman Septuagint adds: and at the gates of the rulers she sits; so that there is a double version of a single Hebrew sentence, which we see done also elsewhere from time to time. Mystically, St. Jerome in Amos ch. 5 takes the gates as virtues; for these are the gates of the believing soul, through which Christ enters to the believers.

Tropologically, Polychronius in the Greek Chain: "These things," he says, "indicate summarily that wisdom excels everywhere, exercises its power everywhere, and invites every kind of human being to its communion and fellowship. They signify moreover that wisdom is made most renowned in a soul free from malice; and that having found a seat in that soul which is adorned and cultivated with every kind of virtue, it works admirable and truly astonishing things, and this with great boldness and freedom. Thirdly, it is suggested that wisdom, while it lies hidden with the wise man, is cheated of its just praise; but that through the speech of the wise man having its outlet, it is magnificently commended and works great things; for by its exits and streets its splendor and nobility are denoted; by its walls its usefulness and its force and energy for every use of life; likewise by rulers are signified teachers, powerful in word and deed."

Verse 22: O Children, How Long Will You Love Childishness

22. How long, O little ones, will you love childishness, and fools covet the things that are hurtful to them, and the unwise hate knowledge? The Chaldean and Syriac: How long, O senseless ones, will you love senselessness? etc. R. Solomon, R. Levi and Aben-Ezra: How long, O simple ones, seduced by impostors, will you love childishness, that is, will you bear with a calm mind being seduced by them? In Hebrew there is an elegant and effective paronomasia; for instead of "little ones" the Hebrew is petaim, and for "childishness" peti, as if to say: How long, little ones, will you love littleness? How long, little ones, do you wish to be and remain always little? How long, infants, will you not be weaned from infancy and infantile trifles? How long, simple ones, will you not shake off your simplicity, while through the nursings, flatteries, and frauds of deceivers you allow yourselves to be deceived and led into fraud and ruin like children? For infants and children absolutely refuse to be weaned from the mother's breasts and the milk to which they are accustomed. Whence mothers smear their breasts with mustard, so that children, tasting the bitterness, may loathe the breast and learn to use more solid food, and thus grow stronger in body and spirit. In the same way, carnal and childish men refuse to be weaned from their carnal and childish life, until through tribulations God makes it burdensome and hateful to them.

Secondly, children love their nuts and toys, and prefer them to gold and silver coins, because they can eat the former and find them sweet, but cannot taste coins; for all the wisdom of children is in the mouth and in taste. So the carnal man does not savor the things of the spirit, but the things of the flesh, until, having tasted the spirit, the flesh becomes distasteful to him. There is a fixed and determined time of infancy, in which infants are permitted to handle trifles and be infantile, until they are capable of discipline, when namely they are stronger in body and mind, after which childish trifles are taken from them and they are brought to serious matters. Likewise certain things are permitted to novices in the Church and in monasteries which are forbidden to the more mature, as the Apostle teaches, Heb. 5:13.

Thirdly, children love freedom and play: "To play odd and even, to ride on a long stick," to build mud houses, to blow bubbles from water and soap through a tube, which soon vanish into thin air. Whence the impious Lysander, according to Plutarch in the Apophthegmata, says: "Men should be deceived with oaths, boys with dice." Thus the greater part of men loves frivolous and childish trifles. For what are the riches, pleasures, and honors of this world, if compared with heavenly and eternal things, but the games and trifles of children? Rightly therefore Solomon, following his father David in Psalm 4, wondering at their simplicity and stupidity, exclaims in pity: "O sons of men, how long will you be heavy of heart? Why do you love vanity and seek after lies?" Do you love beautiful houses, women, banquets? You love vanity. A woman lies that she is beautiful, when inside she is a cesspool of filth and squalor. Honor lies that it is revered and esteemed, when the honored man is despised by many and assailed with insults, while honored by few. Wine lies that it delights the palate, when it soon burdens the stomach, afflicts the head, and makes a man unfit for everything that belongs to a man. How long therefore, O children, do you love childishness, childish trifles, shadows, deceits, and lies?

Fourthly, children desire things harmful to them, for example honey, sugar, and fruits, which turn into indigestion and worms, and therefore cause them stomach aches and illnesses. Again, children eat arsenic, because it looks similar, instead of sugar, and thus by it, being a poison, they kill themselves: so they drink oil for honey, wine for milk, and thus with the one they sicken the stomach, with the other they intoxicate and ruin the head: in like manner, carnal men love childish pleasures which create harm to body and soul, both present and eternal. Hence that common saying: "The child and the ice: Ice to the child."

Fifthly, children hate schools and learning, lest they be forced to subject and bind their hand to the rod, their eyes to the book, their mind to discipline. Well known is the cleverness of the boy who, when ordered by his teacher leading the way to recite the alphabet and say A, B, C, never wanted to follow the teacher or say A, B, C. When asked why he refused so easy a task, he replied: "I do not want to say it, lest I be forced to learn." So carnal men refuse to submit to the severe discipline of virtue and the divine law, but want to live freely and at will, to whom that saying applies: "Old men are twice children." Hence also among the Gentiles, deprived of the true faith of God, wisdom was always infantile. Therefore by "childishness" Lyranus and Hugh understand pleasant goods; Jansenius, goods of fortune; Salazar, levity of morals; playful pursuits, mockeries, and jests, which are common among children. Whence for what we have: "And fools covet the things that are hurtful to them," the Hebrew reads: and mockers will desire mockery for themselves. For the foolish, like children, are ridiculous and love mockeries, that is, ridiculous and trifling things, which are harmful to them; whence they themselves mock these things in others. Therefore Vatablus translates:

How long, O stupid ones, will you love stupidity, and mockers be pleased with mockery (they rejoice in being mocked, indeed in mocking themselves), and fools hate knowledge? Pagninus: How long, O simple ones, will you love simplicity, etc.

Moreover the Septuagint translate petaim as "simple," that is, innocent, and therefore just, and peti as innocence, that is, justice: for they read thus: How long will the innocent cling to justice and not be ashamed? The phrase "not be ashamed" is not in the Hebrew, but the Septuagint thought it should be understood to complete their sense. This version, although at first glance it seems to go in a different direction, nevertheless in the end returns to the same point as our Latin, as if to say: Children, who always cling to their childish trifles, undergo confusion and disgrace; therefore let them become petaim, that is, simple, but in a different sense, namely let them become innocent and just: for thus they will never be subject to disgrace and confusion, but will lead a life free from all reproach; for innocence and justice are free from reproach and abound in praise.

The truth of this maxim Cyril demonstrates with beautiful examples in a festive fable of a leech and an ant, Book III of the Moral Fables, ch. 16: "Being weak in limbs and weighed down by corrupt humors, a bloodthirsty leech placed on the body began to congratulate itself that it had come to the fountain of veins it had long desired. When therefore the point of its mouth, through the pores of the skin, had reached the vein of the life-giving treasure, and with all its efforts was drinking copiously with delicious greed what it had thirsted for, with wonderful art separating the harmful from the useful, as nature providently guided with keen sagacity, it became full of evil things, evilly desired. But when the lethal draught began to boil up its poison spread through its whole body, and was preparing as quickly as possible to bring about a poisoned death with great pain, it began to hiccup and burst with great cries. To the voice of the sufferer a little ant dragging a grain quickly ran up, and said: What has happened to you? To which the leech replied: I drank the beloved nourishment of blood, and I have drunk poison: for the stingy giver deceived my desire, retaining the benefit for himself and giving the poison to the one sucking, to her destruction. Then the ant added: I see well that fools desire the things that are harmful to them (Prov. 1:22). And adding, she said: Did you not know that whoever sucks another's blood takes his own destruction? And while he wickedly seizes what he desired, he afterward vomits it up fatally, and loses himself, his dearest possession?"

Then he proves the same with the example of the dragon, the crocodile, and robbers: "By this plague of cupidity the cunning dragon too is deceived, who, as naturalists report, while he more greedily sucks the hostilely desired blood of the elephant, destroys himself with it, and does not drink so pleasantly as he painfully extinguishes himself. For everything that is seized is poison to the seizer. Do you not know that the greedy robber, while with wolfish teeth and crocodilian bite he devours another's property, alienates his own, dissipates his whole self, and lays waste his heart? For what he gathers, he prepares for robbers. Thus the Chaldean despoiled the Assyrian, the Persian the Chaldean, the Greek the Persian, and the Roman robber despoiled the Greek robber. I rejoice therefore that I suck no one's blood, but tend my affairs with providence, seek them with diligence, gather them with justice, and keep them with wisdom." Having said this, the leech vomited up the stolen blood together with its life.

23. Turn ye to my reproof (Pagninus and Vatablus: rebuke): behold, I will utter to you my spirit, and show you my words. For "I will utter" the Hebrew is abbia, that is, I will pour forth, I will flow, I will cause to spring forth. Aquila and Theodotion: I will pour out; the Septuagint: I will set before you the utterance of my spirit; the Tigurina: behold, I breathe forth to you my spirit; Vatablus: behold, I bring forth my mind. The meaning therefore is, say R. Levi and Aben-Ezra, as if to say: O sons of men, abandon childish trifles, enough has been given to infancy; turn yourselves to my discipline and a better course, devote yourselves to a more serious life, renounce carnal pleasures, pursue spiritual ones. Behold, I will bestow on you the fountainhead of my heart and influence, I will cause my spirit to be abundantly poured into you, so that from it perennial streams of wisdom and virtue may flow to you, in the manner in which waters spring forth from a fountain.

Therefore "I will utter to you my spirit," that is, as follows, "I will show you my words," which I have conceived in my mind, namely I will speak forth the senses, that is, the thoughts of my mind, so clearly, sincerely, copiously, and freely, just as from a fountain clear, limpid, copious, and free water flows, so that it cannot be stopped or restrained by any force or obstruction: indeed the more it is blocked, the more forcefully it bursts forth. For such must a teacher and herald of wisdom be, that his freedom of teaching truth, of convicting vices, of admonishing and exhorting, be impeded by no blandishments or threats, but rather that he struggle and burst forth more strongly against all obstacles.

Moreover, Bede takes "spirit" as anger and vengeance; for the angry breathe out wrath and exhale it through their nostrils, as if to say: Unless you be converted, I will bring forth upon you my spirit, that is, my indignation and vengeance, and "I will show," that is, I will actually exhibit and fulfill in deed the threats which I have often threatened you in words. For immediately afterward he adds discourse about vengeance. For "spirit" signifies the force, impetuosity, and heat of the mind, now pitying, now indignant, now grieving, now struggling, such as were in Elihu saying: "I am full of words, and the spirit of my belly constrains me. Behold my belly is as new wine which has no vent, which bursts new bottles. I will speak and breathe a little: I will open my lips and will answer," Job 32:18. Wisdom here puts on these emotions, and therefore preaches with great spirit. For now she pities the childishness and stupidity of men, now she is indignant, now she coaxes, now she threatens, in order to show that her words are true, salutary, and necessary for happiness. Let the preacher and herald of wisdom put on the same, so that with great spirit and efficacy he may preach, and drive the hearers in every direction on all sides, until he crushes, softens, and bends their hearts to the fear and love of God.

Verse 24: Because I Called, and You Refused

In Hebrew, who would attend: the Septuagint has, because I was calling, and you did not obey; and I was extending words, and you did not attend; the Syriac and Chaldean, because I called, and you did not believe, I lifted up my hands; the Syriac, I raised my voice, and you did not listen; the Arabic, because I called you, and you did not obey me; I babbled (I seemed to babble to you) many words, and you did not listen to them. She addresses the impenitent, who wish to persist in their infancy and folly, that is, in concupiscence and sins. For she is indignant at these, because they despise her calling, aid, and counsel, and therefore she threatens them with present and eternal miseries.

Moreover God calls, both outwardly through the words of Sacred Scripture, through teachers and preachers, through instructors and pious men, etc.; and inwardly, and chiefly, through exciting grace, namely by presenting to the intellect the dangerous state in which the sinner is placed, the damages of sin, the torments of hell prepared for the wicked, and the joys of heaven decreed for the pious. Therefore from this it is clear that God anticipates sinners with His calling and exciting grace, so that they may come to their senses and be converted; but that it is situated in the free will of sinners whether they consent or dissent to the calling and grace of God at their pleasure, as the Council of Trent teaches from St. Augustine, session VI.

Now to call is proper to the word and voice: hence it is appropriated to the Word, that is, to the Son of God, who before the Incarnation, through words sent into the minds of men, called them to repentance and salvation; for these created words flow from the uncreated Word, bear His form, and receive their power from Him, as St. Augustine teaches, tract. 1 on John. But after the Incarnation, through the mouth and human voice assumed by Him, by preaching He called all to Himself and to salvation, saying: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you," Matt. 11:28. And He called the Apostles and apostolic men, and still calls them to the apostolate, saying: "Come after Me, and I will make you fishers of men," Matt. 4:19. The world, says St. Bernard, calls and nurses, so as to infect; the devil, so as even to kill, and like a wolf to slaughter and destroy; but why do I call, if not to refresh? For I will refresh you with interior nourishment, which will satisfy your desires, quench your thirst, which will make you rest, so that there may be nothing further that you desire; for in Me are the pastures of life, in Me the most true and most pleasing refreshment of the mind.

Now the stretching out of the hand suggests many things here: for it is usually done for many reasons. First, therefore, Cajetan considers that four benefits of God's grace are indicated by these four members. In the calling, the benefit of arousing; in the stretching out of the hand, the offering of aid; in the counsel, instruction for choosing good; in the reproof, a warning for fleeing evil. For in order that we may be converted from an evil life, live well, and be saved, it is necessary, first, that we be aroused by God to the detestation of the old life and the desire for the new; second, that we be strengthened and assisted by Him for accomplishing this, through frequent stirrings and graces; third, that once converted we do not relapse into evil; fourth, that we diligently practice good works and persevere in them until the end of life. Hence the word of God in Scripture is called an arm, because He so calls and persuades, that at the same time He powerfully helps with arm and hand for carrying out what He has commanded, so that man is without excuse if he does not accept God's calling and does not seize the hand of God stretched out to help. This is what Isaiah says, 52:10: "The Lord has prepared His holy arm in the sight of all nations, and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God."

Second, Lyranus considers that God stretches out His hands to powerfully extract the sinner submerged and buried in the abyss of sins, and to lead him forth to the light of grace and justice: for so we extend a hand to one who has fallen into a deep pit, in order to draw him out of it.

Third, Rabbi Solomon and Baynus consider that wisdom stretches out her hands, so that by this sign she may summon all to herself, for this purpose, that they may surrender themselves to her discipline, indeed to her maternal bosom. For so a mother with outstretched hand summons and draws her little child to herself, to gather him to her bosom and breasts. Hence the Septuagint and the Syriac translate, I stretched out my words and my voice.

Fourth, Jansenius considers that God stretches out His hand to point out the way of salvation, which is the law of God. For so with outstretched hand and finger we show the way to a traveler who does not know it.

Fifth, Vatablus considers that God stretches out His hand to indicate silence by this sign, that is, so that all may silently hear wisdom speaking.

Sixth, Martin de Roa, book I, Singular., chapter 3: The hand, he says, is a sign by which God and wisdom summon their own to military service, according to Isaiah 49:22: "I will lift up My hand to the nations, and to the peoples I will raise My standard (military banner)." Hence also of old among the Roman standards there were some in the form of a cross, and above it an outstretched hand: for the hand is a symbol of friendship, as well as of battle and war on behalf of a friend. For God, when we were still serving in foreign camps under a hostile leader and standard, with the greatest kindness called us, and received us with even greater welcome when we came. To this can be referred that saying of Proverbs 1: "I stretched out My hand, and there was none who regarded." For He complains that, when He had summoned many to Himself as if raising a standard, no one enlisted under Him: thus Roa. To this pertains also that stretching out the hand is the gesture of one wishing to make peace and be reconciled, as if God were saying: I, forgetful of the injuries inflicted on Me by you, was the first to extend My right hand, inviting you to reconciliation with Me, and that you in turn, as a sign of a renewed covenant, should join your right hand with Mine: but you rejected Me stretching out My hand, and drew back your own.

Seventh, Bede: To stretch out the hand, he says, is to offer and bestow benefits, indeed to press and thrust them upon one who is not even thinking of them. According to this expression, Ecclesiasticus 4:36 says: "Let not your hand be stretched out to receive, but closed for giving." Hence Artaxerxes Longimanus (Long-hand), according to Plutarch in the Apothegms of Kings, used to say that for him as a prince (who is the image of God on earth), the hand for giving, namely the right hand, was very long, but the other hand for taking away, namely the left, was contracted and very short. "For it is more kingly to add than to take away." So God is long-handed for giving, but short-handed for receiving, indeed no-handed. Wherefore St. Paul celebrates this saying of Christ: "It is more blessed to give than to receive." Acts 20:35. See what was said there.

Eighth, the stretching out of the hand is a sign of one threatening: for wisdom threatens those who reject her calling with the most grievous punishments, as we shall soon hear.

Finally, the stretching out of the hand is a sign of the greatest love and desire, by which God and wisdom are eager to embrace all people with the outstretched arms of charity, to clasp and bind them to themselves. For this reason Christ extended His arms on the cross, so that with them He might most lovingly embrace the whole world; indeed, He stretched out His hands as if begging and beseeching us to come to Him. For we stretch out our hands when we pray and beseech God, as I showed at length in 1 Timothy 2:8. This is what Christ complains of in Isaiah 65:2 and Romans 10:21: "I spread out My hands all day long to an unbelieving people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts."

Note: These words pertain first and properly to the first calling, by which a sinner is called out of sin to wisdom, that is, to justice and virtue: for because the wicked, devoted to their pleasures, reject this calling, therefore she threatens them with destruction. Secondarily, however, and consequently, they can be applied to the second calling, by which one is called from a lesser justice to a greater, for example, to perfection or to the religious life. For although this calling is not a precept but a counsel, nevertheless, because it comes from God, it is in no way to be rejected, lest we seem to spurn and despise His wisdom, goodness, and majesty, which is certainly an injury to God. For His wisdom is spurned when, setting aside His counsel calling us to Himself, we follow the counsel of the world. His goodness is spurned when we prefer the perishable goods of the world to His grace, which He so liberally offers to the one called. Wherefore God usually punishes and avenges this injury to Himself severely, with punishments both present and eternal.

Memorable and proper to this place is what St. Antoninus narrates, Part III, title 24, chapter 9, section 7. When a certain man had once taken the vow of the Franciscan Order, but afterwards, having changed his mind, became a Canon, after a few months he fell into a fatal illness. When he was warned by his relatives about purifying his soul through confession, he replied that there was no need, since it had been shown to him that he was damned; therefore they should not trouble him further, because he could not confess. For the Lord appeared to me angry, he said, saying: "I called and you refused; therefore go to the punishments of hell"; and having said this, he expired. Similar is what we read in the Life of St. Bernard about his brother Gerard: for when he obstinately rejected Bernard's warnings about leaving the world, hot with the fervor of youth and new military service, Bernard, already impelled by a prophetic spirit, pointing his finger at his side, said: "The day will come, and soon it will come, when a lance driven into this side of yours will open your heart to the salutary counsels to which it is now closed." And as he said, so it happened: for a few days later, wounded in that very spot in battle, and even captured by enemies, when he remembered his brother's prediction, he began to cry out that he was a Cistercian monk. More examples are given by Fr. Platus, book III, On the Good of the Religious State, last chapter.

Finally, Abbot Lucas of St. Cornelius (extant in volume I of the Library of the Holy Fathers), in the Summaries to the Commentary of Aponius on the Song of Songs, reads this maxim thus: "I was crying out, and you did not hear; I was stretching out my words, and you did not attend. And so I too will laugh at your destruction. This terrible utterance (continues Lucas), which will melt the soul that despises God's precepts, tearfully demonstrates what it has suffered because it despised opening to Christ when He was knocking."

Verse 25: You Have Despised All My Counsel

This is a grave complaint of wisdom and of God, concerning the contempt shown to her. For to despise is more than to spurn or contemn: to despise is, as it were, to look at something thrown below oneself and at one's feet, and to reject it; conversely, to look up is to look upward and venerate, as if we see someone placed above us whom we should revere. Hence for despexistis the Hebrew has תפרעו tiphreu, that is, you have emptied, made idle and void; the Septuagint, ἀκύρους ἐποιεῖτε, that is, you have deauthorized, taken away their authority, made them null and void, so that they would have no weight, no force with you; Symmachus and Theodotion, you have dissipated; Rabbi Solomon, you have abolished; Pagninus, you have made to cease; the Tigurina, you neglect; the Chaldean, you have exchanged. For neglexistis the Hebrew has לא אביתם lo abithem, that is, you did not will; the Septuagint, you were rebels; the Complutensian, you did not attend. All these come to the same thing, as if to say: You have despised the sound counsels that I suggested to you for your own good and salvation, and instead of them you have embraced harmful counsels that drive you to ruin, so that you might occupy yourselves with frivolous things, and indulge your sleep and laziness so that you would not expend any effort in obtaining wisdom; and so that you might seem to act by reason and right, you exchanged the names of wisdom and folly, that is, of virtues and vices: so that you would call the virtues I suggested to you vices; and conversely, you would cloak and adorn the vices you loved with the name of virtues. For thus, says Gregory of Nazianzus, oration 20, worldly people "call the brave man reckless; the prudent and circumspect man, timid; the temperate man, rustic and inhuman; the just man, harsh." So they call the humble man pusillanimous and abject; the prodigal they call generous; the greedy, frugal; the wrathful, magnanimous; the glutton, jovial; the sharp-tongued, eloquent; the proud, lofty. Conversely: "Some," says St. Jerome to Demetrias, "consider pride as freedom, accept flattery as humility, embrace malice in place of prudence, and impose the name of simplicity on folly, and finally, deceived by a false and most wicked resemblance, glory in vices as if they were virtues. Do they not exchange gold coins for counterfeit ones?"

Verse 26: I Also Will Laugh at Your Destruction

In Hebrew, when your כענה pachdechem shall come, that is, your dread, horror, stupor, that is, when the terrible calamity shall come that you dreaded, were horrified at, and whose violence astounded you. For in interitu (at your destruction), the Hebrew has באידכם beedechem, that is, in your breaking or crushing; Aquila, in an inundation; the Septuagint, in your perdition; Symmachus, in your placement; the Arabic, therefore I will laugh at your ruin; the Tigurina, I will laugh for your destruction; Vatablus, at your calamity; St. Augustine in tract. 33 on John reads, I will laugh exceedingly, that is, I will laugh effusely: "Between despair and hope the mind fluctuates. One must fear lest hope slay you, and while you hope much from mercy, you fall into judgment. One must fear again lest despair slay you, and when you think that you can no longer be forgiven because you have committed grave sins, you do not do penance, and you fall upon the judge wisdom, who says: And I will laugh exceedingly at your destruction." So also reads St. Cyprian, book On the Singularity of Clerics, at the beginning. For subsannabo (I will mock), the Septuagint translates, I will rejoice; Lucifer of Cagliari, Apology for St. Athanasius and St. Cyprian, reads, I will exult against you; Blessed Antiochus, homily 38 On Disobedience, reads: "Because I called, and you did not obey, but made my counsels void, therefore I too will insult your destruction;" the Syriac, I will exult, when devastation and sudden destruction shall come upon you; in Hebrew it is אלעג elag, that is, I will mock, or I will deride you by stammering and speaking with a lisp: for laag signifies stammering and lisping, and from that, the derision that is usually done through these things. See what was said on Isaiah 28:11. Moreover, to mock (subsannare) is to inflict jeers, derisions, and insults upon someone as if they were a fool. Hence Caelius Rhodiginus, book XV of Ancient Readings, chapter 22: "Among the Craunians, he says, sannas means a fool; whence also sanna, a word frequent among the Latins, I think derived, even though Grammarians think it said from the sound of the nostrils." For a sanna is an unrestrained laugh and mockery. Hence a sannio is called one who, with unrestrained laughter and contortion of all parts of the body, fashions a certain immoderate manner of mocking others, and expresses the manners of others with a certain inept gesture in contempt, so that he seems almost a fool and ridiculous. Hence Cicero, book II of On the Orator: "For what, he says, can be as ridiculous as a buffoon! But he is laughed at by his mouth, his face, his imitation of manners, his voice, and finally by his very body." He speaks anthropopathically, that is, in human fashion: for neither laughter, which is made with an open mouth; nor jeers, which are made with a wrinkled nose; nor anger nor any passion falls upon God, who is incorporeal and immutable. For You, "O Lord most powerful and most just, says St. Augustine, book I of the Confessions, chapter 4, are stable and immutable: You love, yet are not inflamed; You are jealous, yet are secure; You repent, yet do not grieve; You are angry, yet are tranquil." Therefore this laughter and mockery signifies God's grave and just hatred, by which He turns away from and severely punishes the wicked who despise Him; not that God takes delight in the torture of the wicked, but that He takes delight in justice and in the just vengeance by which the wicked are justly punished. So St. Bernard, sermon 9 on the Psalm Qui habitat, citing these words of Solomon, I also will laugh at your destruction: "What then, he says, do we believe will please wisdom at the destruction of the foolish, if not its most just disposition and the irreproachable order of things? Surely what will then please wisdom must also please all the wise." Hence Symmachus translates, I will laugh at your placement. For God, says St. Bernard in the same place, rejoices when each thing is placed in its proper place, so that there may be a fitting order of things in the whole universe. Now the place of the pious is heaven, the place of the wicked is hell. Therefore He rejoices when each of the pious in heaven, and each of the wicked in hell, is placed in their rank and degree according to their merits or demerits: for He rejoices in the order of things. For order is the common good of the whole universe, and consequently of each of its parts.

The sense therefore is, as if to say: Just as a man, offended by someone who has offended him, is said to laugh at that person when he is placed in great misery and implores his help, when he spurns his prayers, indeed laughs at them, and reproaches him with his ingratitude and crimes, and rejoices in his misery: so I too will rejoice in your just punishment and destruction, both present and eternal, and I will abandon you in it perpetually, and I will cast your crimes in your face through your very own conscience perpetually crying out to you, through your parents, companions, and all others damned with you, and through the very demons insulting you. Solomon alludes to that saying of his father David: "He who dwells in heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall mock them," Psalm 2.

It is a sarcasm or hostile derision. For God laughs at the wicked who had laughed at His warnings: a fitting and just measure of punishment, laughter answers laughter, mockery answers mockery.

More mildly and less fully St. Gregory explains it, IX Moralia 20, in this manner: "To laugh, in God's case, is to refuse to have mercy on human affliction; therefore I too will laugh at your destruction, that is, I will not sympathize with your affliction with any pity." But still more is implied in this passage, namely that God repays sinners in kind, as is openly signified also in the following, as if He were saying: I will also render to you in death what you rendered to Me in life, namely laughter, mockery, and eternal contempt of you. For you will hear: "Amen I say to you, I do not know you," you are not of My sheep. Moreover, Bede, explaining this passage of Christ and the Apostles, says: "Such, he says, is Psalm 2: He who dwells in heaven shall laugh at them, and the Lord shall mock them. Not that the Lord mocks with His cheeks, or jeers with His nose: but that power was designated by such a word, which He gave to the Apostles, so that they might foresee that the wicked would accomplish absolutely nothing against Him by their plots beyond what He Himself would permit; rather, they should foreknow that all the wicked's endeavors would be brought to nothing, while His glory after His Passion would be spread throughout the world, and therefore they should count the pride of the wicked as nothing, even when they seemed most powerful."

Therefore God laughs at and mocks the wicked who despise Him and His calling, who occupy themselves with jests and laughter. First, when He punishes them in a hostile but just manner, severely according to their deserts, and exposes them to be mocked and derided by all. Second, when He reproaches them with their crimes, as He will reproach the mercilessness of the wicked to be condemned by Him on the day of judgment. Third, when He rejoices at their just punishment, and causes all the angels and Saints to rejoice, as St. John teaches they will rejoice at the destruction of Babylon, Revelation 18:20: "Exult over her, O heaven, and you holy Apostles and Prophets: for God has judged your judgment upon her." Fourth, when He delivers them to enemies, especially to demons, who laugh at and mock them while killing and torturing them.

Examples include: first, in the sacrilegious Antiochus, whose destruction God laughed at. "The wicked man prayed, says Scripture, to the Lord, from whom he was not to obtain mercy," 2 Maccabees 9:13. In Esau, who "being rejected, did not find a place of repentance, although he sought it with tears," Hebrews 12:17. In the Jews who killed Christ, to whom Bede applies these words, whom the Romans under Titus, devastating them, mocked, and treated and slaughtered like slaves. In the destruction of Babylon and of King Belshazzar, whom God laughing insults through Isaiah throughout chapters 13 and 14. In the destruction of Tyre, which God insults through Ezekiel throughout chapter 28. In the destruction of Pharaoh and Egypt, which God insults in Ezekiel 29, 30, and following.

Moreover, the derisions and mockeries of demons, by which they insult condemned men, can be seen in the Life of Archbishop Udo of Magdeburg, who, when he neglected the voice of God warning: "Udo, Udo, cease from play, you have played enough, Udo," was summoned to the tribunal of Christ, beheaded, and sent to hell, as Nauclerus narrates, volume III, generation 43, Fulgosius, book IX, chapter 12, and our Canisius, book V of the Marian work, chapter 20.

Verse 27: When Sudden Calamity Shall Rush Upon You

In Hebrew, when your dread shall come like a desolation (that which you feared and dreaded, namely death: for this alone do the wicked fear, who do not believe in the goods and evils of the future life) and your destruction; Pagninus, your crushing like a whirlwind; the Septuagint, when tumult shall come upon you suddenly, and overthrow like a storm (Aquila, συσσεισμῷ, that is, a shaking, an earthquake) shall be upon you, and tribulation and oppression shall come upon you, or, as the Complutensian, a siege or besieging: for this is properly what the Greek πολιορκία signifies; Aquila, ἐπίχυσις, that is, an overflowing; Theodotion, κατάσπευσις, that is, a disturbance, a headlong rush; St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics, pressure and assault. For repentina calamitas (sudden calamity), the Hebrew has כשואה keschoah, which Rabbi Levi and Rabbi Solomon translate as like a cloud, which is stirred by a sudden movement and thunders with immense noise and crash. Properly schoah is tumult, onslaught, tempest, a sudden ravaging with noise. For the root שאה schaah signifies to rush upon suddenly, to make an assault, to break in, to press in headlong, to overwhelm with great force, violence, and noise, as happens when enemies take a city by force, when a house shaken by an earthquake collapses with a great crash, when a tempest swallows ships, when hail lays waste the crops, when rivers overflow and inundate the fields.

For in a similar manner God strikes and overwhelms the wicked who despise His calling with sudden, unexpected, violent, and dreadful slaughter, as He destroyed Sodom with celestial fire, destroyed the entire world in the time of Noah with a flood, cast down Pharaoh with his whole army in the Red Sea, and slaughtered the Midianites under Gideon by mutual slaughter, Judges 7:20. With a similar plague He will strike the Antichrist with his followers, according to 2 Thessalonians 5: "When they shall say: Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman, and they shall not escape." But most especially He will so strike the wicked on the day of judgment, says Bede: for then the anger and vengeance of God will invade them, violent, dreadful, efficacious, and inescapable, like a storm, a whirlwind, a tempest, and an ultimate desolation; then "tribulation and anguish" will invade them — in Hebrew צוקה tsuka, that is, constriction and pressure — so that, placed in straits and besieged by evils on every side, they cannot escape, but pressed and oppressed by the winepress of God's wrath and of hell, they pour forth inconsolable groans, wailings, and laments (hence Aquila translates, an overflowing: for there will be a flood of evils; Theodoret, a headlong fall, because they will be cast down into hell), at which God and the Saints will laugh and mock. Wherefore, overwhelmed by evils and despairing, they will say "to the mountains: Fall upon us; and to the hills: Cover us," Revelation 6. Let the wicked therefore ponder these things beforehand, if they are wise, and obey God, so that so great an army of evils they may escape. Let them hear and tremble at Joel, chapter 2, verse 1, thundering: "Sound the trumpet in Zion, howl on my holy mountain, let all the inhabitants of the earth be troubled; for the day of the Lord is coming, for the day of darkness and gloom is near, a day of cloud and whirlwind, etc. Before His face a devouring fire, and behind Him a burning flame. Like the noise of chariots they shall leap upon the tops of mountains: like the noise of a flame of fire devouring stubble. Before His face the peoples shall be tormented, all faces shall be turned to the likeness of a pot," that is, from terror and torment they shall grow pale and black like a pot.

Moreover, Cajetan explains all these things concerning death, which alone the wicked fear, improvident about future things. He declares, he says, what the death of these people is like, which has been called their fear and their breaking. He declares it in a threefold way: first, that it comes like a desolation; then, that it comes like a whirlwind; and finally, that it comes with tribulation and anguish. Now it was necessary for wisdom to declare these conditions of the death of the wicked, to make manifest that death is not merely the privation of this life, but has attached to it far worse evils of the future life. For this reason it is described as coming like a desolation, depriving the desolate one of every external good; and similarly it is described as coming like a violent wind, driving toward foreign things, so that we may understand that the sinner when dying remains alive according to the spirit. For this reason the wretch is described as desolate, and as driven by a violent wind: for one who is desolate is alive, and one driven by a violent wind is alive. Hence finally his misery is described by the multiplication of anguish on every side: for he who is anguished on every side is alive. In such misery of sinners, then, wisdom says that she will laugh and mock, rendering them objects of derision and mockery.

Verse 28: Then They Shall Call Upon Me

In Hebrew, I will not answer; the Septuagint, the wicked shall seek me. Note the word then: for it has great emphasis and antithesis, as if to say: Now they themselves refuse to hear Me calling, therefore then, when anguish presses upon them from every side, in like manner I will not hear them calling upon Me; I will render like for like: to the deaf I will show Myself deaf. Then therefore punishment will open the eyes which now guilt and pleasure hold closed.

You will say: Is the invocation of God and the sinner's repentance too late at the hour of death? I respond: It is never too late in this life, if it is true; but rarely is that true which is late. For these wicked people invoke God and seek the remission not of guilt, but of punishment, namely, so that they may escape death. Therefore they are not heard, nor is their guilt forgiven, since they do not seek that, and are impenitent; nor is their punishment remitted, since while guilt remains, it has been certainly and inexorably decreed by God for the impenitent. But if they were to repent with serious contrition and a true purpose of amending their lives, they would indeed obtain the remission of guilt, but not immediately of the punishment, at least not the whole of it. "Early" therefore, that is, as soon as they see themselves surrounded by evils, they will rise to invoke God for deliverance from death and destruction: but they will not find Him, because God is inexorable in punishment, and will close His ears to the impenitent, because they themselves first closed theirs to God when He was calling.

Second, if you take the word then with Bede and Lyranus as referring to the day of judgment, it is clear that repentance will then be in vain, since it occurs after the death of all and each. For after this will follow that last morning of the final judgment, on which God will inexorably decree rewards for the pious, and hell and punishments for the wicked; according to what we sing in the hymn at Saturday Lauds: "And may that last morning, which we await with bowed heads, dawn upon us into light." Much more will the wicked not be heard in hell, as the rich man Dives, asking Abraham to send Lazarus to him and to his relatives, was not heard, Luke 16:25.

Verse 29: Because They Held Discipline as Hateful

In Hebrew, knowledge. In Hebrew, did not choose. For timorem (fear) the Septuagint Complutensian correctly reads φόβον, which the Scholiast interprets as θεοσέβειαν, that is, piety, or the worship of God; the Vatican however reads λόγον, that is, word, or speech. Hence St. Cyprian, book I Against the Jews, reads, but they did not accept the word of the Lord.

Verse 30: Nor Acquiesced in My Counsel

In Hebrew, they did not want my counsel; the Septuagint, nor were they willing to attend to my counsels; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, they did not receive my counsels.

And Detracted from All My Correction

In Hebrew, they spurned; the Septuagint, they mocked; Symmachus and Theodotion, they provoked; Vatablus, they execrated.

He gives the reason why the wicked calling upon God are not heard, namely because they persevered in these four things, which contain four injuries to wisdom in a gradation ascending step by step from the lesser to the greater. For the first is that they hated discipline and consequently wisdom: for wisdom establishes and commands discipline. The second is that they did not accept the fear of the Lord. This is a greater injury, because it directly affects God: for he who spurns the fear of God spurns God, who is terrible and to be feared. Hence the Roman Septuagint reads, because they did not take up the word of the Lord, that is, they did not take it to themselves, they applied it not to themselves but to others; for so the wicked are accustomed, when they hear sermons, to apply the things said and censured about vices not to themselves but to others. The third rises higher, that they refused to admit the counsel of God, who was counseling them most salutarily: for this is a greater indignity. The fourth and greatest is that they detracted from all my correction: for to detract is worse than to neglect. The Septuagint, they mocked my reproofs. In Greek ἐμυκτήριζον, that is, they mocked with upturned nose: for μυκτήρ is the nose; and the nose was of old dedicated to subtle mockery, as Pliny testifies, book XI, chapter 32; hence that saying of Horace: "You turn up your hooked nose;" and Martial: "However sharp-nosed you may be, in the end you are all nose." Hence mycterism is called a sneer, a mockery.

Verse 31: They Shall Eat the Fruit of Their Own Way

The Septuagint, they shall be filled with their own impiety; Lucifer of Cagliari, for St. Athanasius, "they shall fill their souls;" St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics, "they shall be filled with their own impiety." It is a proverb, signifying that the wicked, whether young or old, will receive a punishment and vengeance fitting and proportionate to their offenses, according to Galatians 6:8: "What a man shall have sown, that also shall he reap." And: "Eat what you have kneaded." Similar are the words of Isaiah 59:4: "They have conceived labor, and brought forth iniquity. They have broken the eggs of asps, and woven the webs of spiders: whoever eats of their eggs shall die; and what is warmed shall burst forth as a basilisk."

He alludes to that saying of David: "You shall eat the labors of your hands," Psalm 127:2. God does this first, when He causes the pleasures and honors that the wicked pursued to be turned for them into nausea, grief, and torment: as the craving for quails was turned into nausea for the Hebrews, Numbers chapter 11, verse 20; and this through surfeit and plethora, or excessive repletion. Hence that saying: "All satiety is bad, but of bread it is worst." So God punishes young people who indulged in gluttony and lust, by causing them to suffer in old age from gout, asthma, kidney stones, syphilis, etc.

Second, when He causes the endeavors and plans of the wicked to have unhappy outcomes, and to recoil upon their own destruction. Hence Vatablus explains it thus: they shall use their own counsels to the point of satiety: for God will abandon them to govern themselves by their own counsel. For those who refuse to be governed by the prudence of God, must necessarily be governed by their own imprudence, and fall into many errors, dangers, and losses.

Third, when He chastises and punishes their impiety according to their offenses; as He punished the gluttony of the Hebrews by sending upon them a plague of death, whence the place was called the graves of craving, Numbers 11:33. In a similar manner God, by just vengeance, assigns to each of men's concupiscences its own punishment and grave. The sinner therefore, through his sins, weaves for himself his own rods and scourges. And just as each person is the artisan of his own fortune, so he himself is the potter and artisan of his own misery and unhappiness, as Isaiah teaches, chapter 50, last verse.

Finally, others explain it thus: The wicked shall be filled with their impiety, that is, with their impious manner of living, that is, they shall fill themselves with their continual vices and crimes. For this is their great folly, and equally their punishment, especially because by continually increasing, it augments and aggravates their damnation more and more. This is what is said in Job 20:11: "His bones shall be filled with the vices of his youth, and they shall sleep with him in the dust." For the vices of youth accompany a person up to old age, and do not abandon him before death.

Verse 32: The Turning Away of the Simple Shall Slay Them

Some wrongly read adversio (adversity) instead of aversio (turning away); the Arabic, because they were oppressing children, they shall be killed. It is the conclusion and exclamation, briefly encompassing the cause of the ruin of the wicked. You will ask: what is this "turning away"?

First, the Chaldean, Pagninus, Vatablus, Baynus, and our Salazar consider it to be rest and prosperity: for fools are accustomed to be ruined by favorable circumstances, so that "the turning away of the simple shall slay them" is explained by what follows: "And the prosperity of fools shall destroy them." For thus the Hebrews in poetry and rhythm explain the first hemistich by the second. Hence the Syriac translates aversio as the conversion (turning) of the foolish.

Second and properly, "aversio" (turning away), or as the Tigurina has it, defection, is understood as a turning away from reason, from what is right, from wisdom, from God. Therefore he understands a fourfold turning away, which he described in verse 29, saying: "Because they held discipline as hateful, and did not accept the fear of the Lord, nor acquiesced in my counsel, and detracted from all my correction." For it looks back to that and refers to it. Therefore this "turning away" is from discipline, from the fear of the Lord, from counsel, from the correction of wisdom. For in this verse he notes the two termini of sin, one from which, and the other to which. For in every sin there is a turning away from God and God's law, and a turning toward the prosperity and advantages of temporal goods. Hence St. Thomas and the Scholastics define sin thus: "Sin is a turning away from the supreme and uncreated Good, and a turning toward a perishable and created good." "For he who turns away from God and prospers, becomes so much nearer to destruction, the more he is found estranged from the zeal of discipline," says St. Gregory explaining this passage, book I on Ezekiel, homily 12. Hence Rabbi Levi: משובה meschubah, he says, is a retreat, by which the sinner, because he is less firm in his purpose, turns now to this side, now to the opposite, as he is carried away by the agitation of his mind. Hence the wicked, though advanced in age, are called little ones (parvuli), because like little children they are driven and carried away by their desires, according to that saying of Seneca to Lucilius: "We have the authority of old men, but the vices of boys," indeed of infants.

Moreover, this "turning away" can be taken both passively, by which the wicked are turned away from God in the sense already given; and actively, by which they themselves seduce the simple and turn them from God. The active sense is taken by the Septuagint, which translates, because they were inflicting injury on the simple, they shall be killed; and Lucifer for St. Athanasius, "for because they were deceiving the simple, they shall be killed."

And the Prosperity of Fools Shall Destroy Them

For prosperitas the Hebrew has שלות schalvat, which Aquila, Symmachus, our translator, Pagninus, and Vatablus properly translate as prosperity; the Chaldean, error; the Septuagint however, ἐξέτασις, that is, inquiry, examination: hence the Arabic translates investigation, that is, a searching judgment by which they will be examined, judged, and condemned by God, Christ, and the Saints, especially those whom they afflicted, on the day of judgment. Or rather the examination is prosperity itself; for this reveals the character, virtue, and vice of a person. For, as Anselm says in the Sentences: "Tribulation tests patience alone, but prosperity examines all the virtues." Moreover, Aben-Ezra explains it regarding guilt thus, as if to say: The foolish, that is the wicked, are destroyed by their tranquility, and slain while improvident: for while they enjoy profound peace, they bind themselves with crimes. Consequently you may explain it in the same way regarding punishment, as if to say: The wicked, growing insolent in their prosperity, provoke the wrath of God and of men, by which it happens that they are destroyed and crushed, as Sodom perished, according to Ezekiel 16:49: "This was the iniquity of Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance and idleness." For because of these things she fell into such great crimes that she was consumed by celestial fire. The prosperity of the wicked therefore ends in great calamity, and is thus a prosperous adversity, and a happy unhappiness.

St. Bernard says excellently, sermon 3 on Palm Sunday, noting that it says: "The prosperity not of all, but of fools shall destroy them," because the wise know how to use prosperity moderately for their own advantage and progress. The same author, however, book II On Consideration 12, teaches that for the wise man there is a greater danger from prosperity than from adversity. "For prosperity, he says, is to the incautious with respect to discipline, what fire is to wax, what the sun's ray is to snow or ice. David was wise, Solomon was wise: but when favorable circumstances flattered them too much, one fell partly, the other entirely from wisdom. Great is the man who, falling into adversity, does not fall, or falls but little, from wisdom; and no less great is the one for whom present happiness, if it smiled, did not mock. Although I would more easily find those who retained wisdom when fortune was against them, than those who did not lose it when fortune was favorable." The same author, sermon on the Song of Songs: "The chariot of luxury rolls on four wheels of vice, namely gluttony of the belly, lust of intercourse, softness of clothing, and the dissolution of leisure and sleep. It is drawn by two horses equally, the prosperity of life and the abundance of things: and the two who preside over these are the torpor of laziness and a treacherous security: because abundance dissolves into laziness, and according to Scripture, the prosperity of fools shall destroy them: not indeed for any other reason, except because it makes them badly secure. But when they shall say: Peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them," 1 Thessalonians 5:3.

Morally, therefore, learn that prosperous things are more to be feared than adverse ones, and that a greater heart is required for moderating the former than the latter. Wisely says Salvian, book VI On the Governance of God: "We are so corrupted, he says, by the prosperity of favorable circumstances, we are so vitiated by the depravity of insolent morals, that we entirely forget both God and ourselves, etc. We use the peace given by God only for this purpose, that we may live in drunkenness, in luxury, in shameful deeds, in robbery, in every crime and wickedness: as if indeed the benefit of the peace given us were a license for shamelessness, and as if we take the respite of tranquility given by God so that we may sin more freely and securely. We are therefore unworthy of heavenly gifts."

Wherefore Isidore of Pelusium wisely warns, book III, letter 255: "Take care, he says, O excellent man, that the breeze of favorable circumstances does not change you like one of the common crowd. Rather, let philosophy, with which you were educated, keep you firm and constant among friends. For the former usually happens to the unskilled and common, but the latter to those endowed with outstanding wisdom." For as Ausonius says of Capua: "Trusting in favorable things, she did not know how to keep moderation." And Plautus in the Pseudolus:

Like a herb of the solstice I lasted but a little while: I suddenly sprang up, I suddenly perished.

And another:

Treat fortune with reverence, for it is entirely glass, And when you establish nothing more firmly, it falls. When affairs return happily, the drunken mind rises high, The best lot makes the worst heart in man.

When St. Ambrose had turned aside to the house of a certain rich man, who boasted that everything had happened to him according to his wishes throughout his whole life, he immediately departed. When asked by his companion why he was fleeing so generous a host, he said: "Lest I perish together with him who has made bad use of perpetual prosperity." Nor was this an empty omen; for he had scarcely left the house when it was swallowed up by an opening of the earth together with all its inhabitants. So Paulinus in the Life of St. Ambrose. For as the poet says: "The wrath of the divinity cannot be far away or long absent from such prosperity." And: "For the most part, to enjoy favorable circumstances beyond one's merit provides stupid men with the beginning of greater calamities. For prosperous circumstances often corrupt judgment." Wherefore he prays: "O divinity, mix into my prosperity something of evil. For there is too great a forgetfulness of human frailty in prosperity. From prosperity comes pride on one side, ambitious wantonness on the other. Adversity reins in, prosperity puffs up the spirit. Most rare is prudence in prosperous circumstances. He who is puffed up in prosperity is the same who is timid in adversity."

Verse 33: But He Who Shall Hear Me Shall Rest Without Terror

Vatablus and Pagninus, but he who obeys me shall dwell safely (in Hebrew, in hope or confidence, that is, confidently) and shall be secure from the fear of evils; the Syriac, he shall be secure from the multitude of iniquities. Note the word shall dwell: for the wicked conceive great hopes, but they do not dwell in them, because they fall away from them, and so those hopes are often turned into despair: but the just dwell in hope, as in their own home, perpetually, securely, and confidently, because they are certain of God's help and of the reward for their obedience and justice. Moreover, Jansenius, Baynus, and Salazar understand these words of the goods of the present life: for these were promised by God to the Jews of that age, as if to say: He who shall have devoted himself to my discipline and obeyed, shall abound in all goods, or shall prosper, that is, he shall experience not a changing but a constant fortune, so much so that he is free from fear, "the fear of evils being taken away," that is, of misfortunes, which usually change happiness, according to God's promise: "Jerusalem shall dwell in confidence," Jeremiah 33:16. "And you shall eat your bread to the full, and shall dwell in your land without fear. I will give peace in your borders: you shall sleep and there shall be none to terrify you," Leviticus 26:5. Hence the Chaldean in this place translates, the prosperity by which the foolish grow proud is turned to the good.

But under the temporal goods that God promised to the Jews, mystically here and elsewhere in Scripture, are understood the spiritual goods promised to Christians: for the former, being perishable and small, belonged to the Old; the latter belong to the New Testament, because they are heavenly, divine, and eternal. Therefore the just Christian, who wishes to live piously, even though he should expect crosses — "For all who wish to live piously in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," 2 Timothy 3:12 — yet amid crosses, as amid roses and delights, he shall stand fearless, indeed joyful and eager: because the abundance of heavenly fortitude, confidence, and consolation, which the Holy Spirit will suggest to him, will make him superior to all things, so that with his mind fixed on heaven and on God, he will despise all earthly goods and evils, indeed in evils he will exult and glory that he bears them for God, and will say with Paul: "We glory in tribulations, etc., because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us," Romans chapter 5, verse 3. The sum therefore of what has been said is that wisdom alone provides tranquility and joy of soul, and excludes every fear of evil: so that the wise, that is the just, may keep a perpetual sabbath in the fear of the Lord.

Anagogically, all these things will be most perfectly fulfilled in heaven. For there grief and fear will flee away, there will be an abundance of joys and of all goods. St. Thomas asks, II, Question 19, article 11, whether in heaven every fear whatsoever will be absent, and responds: first, that there will be no fear of any evil, because the Blessed will be secure in their happiness, which will remain firm for them for eternity. Second, that in heaven there will be a fear of God, not servile but filial, which is the same as charity: yet in such a way that the first and proper act of fear, which is to be afraid, to tremble, to be anxious, to be troubled, will cease, and only the secondary act will remain, which is to revere God, to admire Him, and to guard against even the least offense against Him. There will therefore be a secure fear there. So St. Gregory, XVII Moralia 15, explaining that passage of Job 26: The pillars of heaven tremble and are in dread at His nod. "The very powers of the heavenly beings, he says, who gaze upon Him without ceasing, tremble in that very contemplation: but that trembling, lest it be painful to them, belongs not to fear, but to admiration, because they admire God as existing above them and as incomprehensible to them." And St. Augustine, book XIV

Of the City of God, chapter 9, questioning whether there is fear in the Blessed: "That chaste fear, he says, remaining forever and ever; if it shall be in the future age, it will not be a fear that terrifies from an evil that can occur: but one that holds fast in a good that cannot be lost; for where the love of the good obtained is immutable, certainly, if it can be said, the fear of guarding against evil is a secure fear. For by the name of chaste fear is signified that will by which we will necessarily not wish to sin, and by the tranquility of charity, not by the anxiety of weakness lest we sin, we will guard against sin. Or if no fear of any kind whatsoever can be there, perhaps the fear that is said to remain forever and ever is called permanent, because that will remain to which fear itself leads."

Morally, learn here that the wise man, that is the just, is secure and fearless even in all adversities, both because of the confidence of a good conscience, and because of the fortitude of spirit, and because he knows that he is the care and concern of God. Hence Salvian, book I On the Governance of God: "No one, he says, is wretched by the judgment of others, but by his own; and therefore those who are truly blessed in their conscience cannot be wretched by anyone's false judgment. For none, as I believe, are more blessed than those who act according to their own conviction and desire. Are the Religious humble? They wish it so; are they poor? They delight in poverty; are they without ambition? They reject ambition; are they without honor? They reject honor; do they grieve? They desire to grieve; are they weak? They rejoice in weakness. For, says the Apostle, when I am weak, then I am powerful." And shortly after: "Labor therefore and fasting, and poverty, and humility, and weakness are not burdensome to all, but to those unwilling to endure them; for whether these things are heavy or light, the spirit of the one enduring makes them so." St. Augustine on Psalm 31: "As a bad conscience is entirely in despair, so a good conscience is entirely in hope." St. Chrysostom, homily 1 on the Epistle to the Romans: "Tranquility and joy of soul, he says, are produced not by the greatness of authority, not by the abundance of money, not by the swelling of power, not by the strength of body, nor by anything else, but by a good conscience alone; and he who certainly has a pure one, though he be in rags, though he struggle with hunger, is still more tranquil and more blessed than those who live amid delights; just as he who has a bad conscience, though he possess the goods of all, is of all the most wretched." As an example of the former he gives St. Paul, and of the latter King Ahab. St. Gregory gives the reason in Psalm 143: "There is no greater affliction, he says, than the consciousness of crimes." For when a man suffers outwardly, he flees to God. But if, bearing the tribulation of a bad conscience, "he does not find God in the secret of his heart, what shall the man do? where shall he find consolation? where shall he seek rest?" But the just man, though afflicted, finding God in the secret of his heart, rejoices and rests in Him. So St. Tiburtius the martyr said to the tyrant threatening dire things: "Every punishment, he says, is cheap to us where a pure conscience is our companion." Conversely: "The perverse tremble, and grow pale at every flash of lightning. Therefore a right conscience shatters every calumny. A quiet conscience is free from fear. To have nothing on one's conscience, to grow pale at no fault — this is a wall of bronze." Such a man therefore, secure in whatever outcome of events, and amid enemies, dangers, and terrors, leaning on God, whom he knows has care of him, says fearlessly with David: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: if battle should rise against me, in this I will hope," Psalm 26. The philosophers too saw the same, but as through a shadow. Hence Horace, book III, ode 3:

The just man, firm of purpose, Neither the passion of citizens commanding wrong, Nor the face of a threatening tyrant Shakes from his solid mind, nor the south wind, Nor the mighty hand of thundering Jove. If the shattered world should fall, The ruins would strike him undismayed.