Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
After wisdom's sharp address, the wise Solomon himself resumes his discourse and teaches by what method wisdom may be acquired, namely by its invocation, study, and hearing; and at verse 10, what the fruit of acquiring it is, namely the grace of God and protection from all evil, especially from the wicked man and from the adulteress, who plots against wisdom, that is, against chastity, holiness, and happiness. He therefore teaches that with wisdom all the gifts of God come, all evils are averted, and without it one goes astray everywhere.
This chapter is easy and clear. Ecclesiasticus treated the same argument, chapter 1, verse 11 and following, chapter 39, verse 1 and following, chapter 51, verse 25 and following: therefore I will be brief here. Let the reader see what I have annotated at the cited places.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 2:1-22
1. My son, if you receive my words, and hide my commandments within you, 2. so that your ear may hear wisdom: incline your heart to know prudence. 3. For if you invoke wisdom and incline your heart to prudence; 4. if you seek her as money, and dig for her as for treasures: 5. then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God: 6. because the Lord gives wisdom: and from His mouth come prudence and knowledge. 7. He will guard the salvation of the upright, and protect those who walk simply. 8. Preserving the paths of justice, and guarding the ways of the saints. 9. Then you will understand justice, and judgment, and equity, and every good path. 10. If wisdom enters your heart, and knowledge pleases your soul: 11. counsel will guard you, and prudence will preserve you, 12. that you may be delivered from the evil way, and from the man who speaks perverse things: 13. who abandon the right path, and walk in ways of darkness: 14. who rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things: 15. whose ways are perverse, and their steps infamous. 16. That you may be delivered from the strange woman, and from the foreign woman, who softens her words; 17. and abandons the guide of her youth, 18. and has forgotten the covenant of her God: for her house is inclined to death, and her paths to the underworld. 19. All who go in to her shall not return, nor shall they reach the paths of life. 20. That you may walk in the good way: and keep the paths of the just. 21. For those who are upright shall dwell in the land, and the simple shall remain in it. 22. But the wicked shall perish from the land, and those who act unjustly shall be taken away from it.
First Part of the Chapter
Verse 1: My Son, If You Receive My Words
1 and 2. MY SON, IF YOU RECEIVE MY WORDS, AND HIDE MY COMMANDMENTS WITHIN YOU (Syriac, in your heart), SO THAT YOUR EAR MAY HEAR WISDOM, INCLINE YOUR HEART TO KNOW PRUDENCE. — The Arabic has, if your ear has heard wisdom, you have given your heart to understanding. The word "my son" signifies that these are not the words of wisdom, as Baynus holds, but of the wise man himself, namely Solomon, as if to say: You will be my son, if you hearken to my words, says Rabbi Levi. For Solomon here throughout instructs a disciple, and him he calls a son. This is clear from the following verse, where he says: "For if you invoke wisdom," etc. For if wisdom were speaking, it would certainly say: "If you invoke me."
Our translation has a difficulty; for how do these cohere: "If you receive my words," etc., with the word "incline your heart"? For he who receives the words of wisdom has surely already inclined his heart to it. The Septuagint saw this, and therefore clearly translate: Son, if receiving the word of my commandment you hide it within you, your ear will obey wisdom (less correctly some codices have, let it obey your care; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translate, to attend to wisdom), and you will apply your heart to understanding. They add moreover: You will also apply it in admonition to your son, which is not in the Hebrew: whence it seems to have crept in from elsewhere; and it can have a fitting sense, as if to say: If you, my son, hear me as a father teaching and admonishing, I promise you that your son too will hear and obey you teaching and correcting: but if you spurn my admonitions, your son too will spurn yours. For this is the just law of retaliation sanctioned by the just judge God, that what one gives to his father, this he receives from his son. Or, as the author of the Greek Catena explains, as if to say: If you have been a keen and diligent hearer of wisdom, you will soon make such progress in it that you will be able to impart the doctrine you have absorbed to another as well, as if to your son and disciple. Our Latin version could have the same meaning, if for "incline" you read "you will incline," as Baynus, Pagninus, and others read.
Secondly. Vatablus holds that the meaning of these two verses is suspended, and after verses 3 and 4, which are inserted parenthetically, is finally completed at verse 5. Hence he translates thus: My son, if you receive my words, and store my precepts within you, so that you may lend your ears to wisdom, and incline your heart to instruction, etc., then you will understand the fear of the Lord. So too St. Hilary reads and connects these in Psalm 127, at the beginning: "For if, he says, you invoke wisdom and give your voice to understanding, and seek her as silver, and search for her as treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord."
Thirdly, our translator renders it more obscurely, but more profoundly and authentically, as "incline." For Solomon here teaches the way and method of acquiring wisdom, which is to incline one's heart to wisdom, and to open the whole bosom of the heart to it with great attention, humility, and eagerness. This will be clear from what follows. The genuine sense, therefore, is, as if to say: If you receive (in Hebrew, if you will receive), that is, if you will to receive my words, and if you hide my commandments (in Hebrew, if you will hide), that is, if you will to hide them within you in the bosom of your mind, if, I say, you desire and resolve to do this, incline your heart to know prudence, so that your ear may hear wisdom: for where the heart inclines, there it directs also the ear; for the phrase "so that your ear may hear wisdom" refers to what follows: "Incline your heart." Hence Baynus translates from the Hebrew thus: that you may lend an attentive ear to wisdom, you will incline your heart to understanding. For, as I have often noted, here prudence, knowledge, and understanding are the same thing; for by these and many other names, for the sake of copiousness and amplification, is called practical or ethical wisdom, which conforms morals to uprightness. The reason is that Hebrew words often signify not a real act, but a mental or verbal one, so that "if you receive" is the same as "if you will to receive," not "if you have already actually received." So God says to Jeremiah, chapter 1, verse 10: "I have set you this day over the nations, to root up, to destroy, and to scatter," that is, to prophesy and proclaim that the nations are to be rooted up, destroyed, and scattered. For it was not by a real act, but by a mental or rather verbal and prophetic act that Jeremiah rooted up, destroyed, and scattered the nations. See what I said there. Again, Hebrew words often signify an act that is begun and mentally intended, not completed and perfected in deed: so here, "if you receive," that is, if you have resolved and begun to receive.
It is therefore signified, says Jansenius, that it is necessary for the student of wisdom to incline his heart, drawn away from the love of earthly things (to which it is always inclined and tends by its corrupt nature), and to devote it entirely to knowing prudence, seriously and sincerely desiring this, so that he does not disdain to receive wisdom from others through his ears, but attentively lends his ears to perceive the sayings of the wise. For unless the heart's inclination and desire for wisdom has preceded, wisdom heard bodily through the ear from the mouth of the wise is heard in vain. You will therefore incline your heart to prudence, so that your ear may hear wisdom; or you will incline your heart to prudence for this purpose, that your ear may hear wisdom fruitfully and attentively. For a serious desire is required to acquire wisdom, as he teaches in what follows. For the word "hide" signifies that wisdom is a precious thing and a treasure greatly to be desired, and to be diligently stored up not in a chest of silver, but of the mind, according to Psalm 118: "In my heart I have hidden your words," lest the birds of heaven, that is, the powers of the air, seize and devour them, according to the parable of the seed which Christ proposes, Matthew 13:4 and 19.
Hence for "so that your ear may hear," the Hebrew is lehacseib, that is, that it may attend, that it may hearken, that it may intently listen; for the verb kascab signifies a great attention of the mind, which occurs with a gesture, namely with the pricking up of the ears; hence in Scripture it is everywhere attributed to the ears. In the Hebrew words, therefore, "that you may hear" and "incline," there is a certain energy, says Baynus, which the Latin language does not fully convey, by which great zeal and diligence in hearing is commended, and humility of heart, while one inclines the ear. If you hear, he says, so that you make your ear attentive to wisdom. This is what Christ so often repeats: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." It is very difficult for young people to delight in serious matters, to have an ear attentive to the precepts of wisdom, to have a heart inclined to understanding, namely of those things which wisdom teaches. Or rather, to incline the heart to understanding is to apply the mind to things which are perceived by the mind and understanding, as if to say: Remove your heart and desire from things which you see, which you hear, and which are taken in by the other senses, and keep it attentive to heavenly things, which are comprehended by thought and understanding: so difficult is this that it in a way surpasses human powers; and therefore one must have recourse to prayers, according to what follows.
Therefore, that you may attain wisdom, give it your ears and heart, incline your whole heart to it, listen to it with your whole ear. For the heart is the center of the soul and the weight of our internal clock, according to that saying of St. Augustine: "My weight is my love; wherever I am carried, it is by that I am carried." For love is the act and affection of the heart, which causes the will to pursue the beloved thing with all its affection, the intellect to continually contemplate its beauty, and the memory to always remember it. To this point are those well-known sayings:
If you are eager to learn, you will learn very much. To be willing to be taught is the highest learning. Where the mind is absent, instruction avails nothing. What is learned is never learned enough, never too much. Love is the best teacher of students.
Finally, the heart is the wise mind and will: hence the heart is the symbol and, according to Galen, the seat of wisdom, according to the saying:
The heart knows, the lung speaks, the gall moves anger, The spleen causes laughter, the liver compels love.
See what I said at length about the heart at Ezekiel chapter 36, verse 26.
Verse 3: For If You Invoke Wisdom
3. FOR IF YOU INVOKE WISDOM AND INCLINE YOUR HEART TO PRUDENCE. — The Syriac has, if you raise your voice to understanding. Some Greek codices add, and you seek understanding with a loud voice. But the rest delete this: hence in the Vatican it is written in the margin, and in another it is marked with an asterisk: they seem therefore to have crept into the text from another version. He gives the reason why he said: "Incline your heart to know prudence." The word "invoke" can be explained in three ways. First, St. Hilary in Psalm 127: "For first, he says, wisdom must be invoked, that is, every duty of reading must be assigned to the understanding," as if to say: To invoke wisdom is to seek it by reading; for to the reader the reading itself responds with a silent voice, and impresses upon the eyes and mind the wisdom which the book contains.
Secondly, Baynus says: "If you invoke," that is, if you choose. For thus Israel is called mecora, that is, "called," meaning "chosen of God," Isaiah 48:12 and 15; and St. Paul glories in this title, that he is "called," that is, "chosen, an Apostle," Romans chapter 1, verse 1.
Thirdly, simply and plainly: "If you invoke;" in Hebrew, if you call, or cry out, namely sighing for wisdom, and urgently demanding it from God with ardent prayers, so that you open the whole bosom of your heart to request and receive it. The Chaldean has, if you call upon the mother of the intelligent. It signifies that wisdom must be acquired with great desire and prayers, as well as with labor and study.
So Sirach, following Solomon, explains, saying in chapter 39, verse 1: "The wise man will seek out the wisdom of all the ancients, etc., he will give his heart to watching at dawn before the Lord who made him, and will pray in the sight of the Most High." See what I said there.
To this pertains the exposition of Aben-Ezra, as if to say: If you have so cried out to summon wisdom, just as one is accustomed to call a friend whose absence causes anguish. Furthermore, Salonius says: "He inclines his heart to know prudence who humbles himself and cleanses his soul from sins, that he may be worthy to perceive the mysteries of the Divinity."
Therefore you invoke wisdom when you call to yourself through prayer the knowledge of the beauty and value of true virtue, and urgently ask it from God. Then you incline your heart to prudence when, placed in prayer, you not only address God, but also reverently listen to His voice, that He Himself may teach you prudence and instruct you about the nature and price of virtue. If you thus request the knowledge of virtue, it will be given to you so profoundly and effectively that it will arouse in your heart a great desire for virtue and urge you to follow it. To this pertains that saying of Seneca in the Proverbs: "Consider yourself an orator if you have persuaded yourself of what is right." And that saying of the Wise Man: "Prudence protects the prudent person not by cunning, but by counsel."
Verse 4: If You Seek Her as Money
4. IF YOU SEEK HER AS MONEY (in Hebrew, as silver; the Syriac, as a treasure), AND DIG FOR HER AS FOR TREASURES. — In Hebrew tachpesenna, that is, you shall have searched; the Septuagint has, search for her. For "treasures," Symmachus and Theodotion translate apokrypha, that is, hidden, concealed, stored away; such are treasures: for thesauros in Greek is said as if themenos eis aurion, that is, laid up for tomorrow, that is, stored away for a long time. And in Hebrew matmon (whence the Chaldean, Syriac, Greek, and Latin mammon or mammona) is derived from taman, that is, to store away: for riches and treasures are closely stored away.
He therefore compares wisdom to a treasure: First, because just as a treasure is secret and hidden, so also is wisdom.
Secondly, just as a treasure is sought with great avidity by the greedy, so also is wisdom by those devoted to it.
Hence St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena says: "Just as the greedy seek silver, so you should seek wisdom." Accordingly Christ alluded to this in the parable of the treasure, saying: "The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field: which a man having found, hides, and for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field," Matthew 13:44.
Thirdly, just as a treasure is sought with great and unconquerable labor, and is found and possessed with great pleasure, so also wisdom: for the fruit corresponds to the labor; and what one diligently seeks, one at last finds, namely:
The heavenly ones lend all things to mortals through sweat. All things serve and obey diligence; Great diligence conquers nature.
Clement of Alexandria, Book IV of the Stromata, asserts from Hesiod that sweat is placed before virtue:
The road is long, he says, and steep toward virtue itself: For it is arduous at first, but when one has reached the summit, It becomes easy.
And from Simonides: "Virtue is said to dwell on rocks difficult of access, and now to hold a swift and pure place, which cannot be seen by the eyelids of all mortals, but only by him to whom sweat has come, who has healed his anger, and has advanced to the highest greatness of soul."
Hence the mystical interpreters of philosophy, says Pierius in the Hieroglyphics of the heart and arrow, say that Pluto's heart was wounded by Hercules' arrow, and by this is signified that there is nothing so hidden in nature that the study of philosophy has not penetrated. So St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 20, says that St. Basil by his study had penetrated all the hidden depths of philosophy.
Accordingly, mystically, St. Gregory, Book V of the Morals, chapter 5, by wisdom and discipline understands mortification, explaining that passage of Job chapter 3, "As those who dig for treasure": "For all, he says, who seek a treasure by digging, when they have begun to dig deeper, burn more intensely for the labor; because the closer they estimate they are to the hidden treasure, the more earnestly they labor in digging. Those therefore who fully desire their own mortification seek as those who dig for treasure; because the closer they come to the end, the more ardently they apply themselves to the work." And further on, explaining the same thing differently: "Because we cannot perfectly die to the world unless within the invisible depths of our mind we are hidden from visible things; rightly are those who desire their mortification compared to those who dig for treasure. For through invisible wisdom we die to the world, of which it is said through Solomon: If you seek her as money, and dig for her as for treasures. For wisdom does not lie on the surface of things, because it lies hidden in invisible things. And then, touching our mortification, we apprehend wisdom, if leaving visible things we are hidden in invisible things, if seeking this by digging in the heart, the mind casts away from itself by the hand of holy discretion everything earthly that it thinks, and recognizes the treasure of virtue that was hidden. For it easily finds the sought treasure within itself, if it repels from itself the mass of earthly thought that had oppressed it."
Bede presses the word "dig out"; for many dig, but do not dig out. "He who digs out treasures, he says, casts out the rubble of the earth, makes a deep pit, and diligently persists in the labor until he reaches the treasures he seeks. And he who desires to find the treasures of wisdom, whatever earthly thing he finds within himself, let him purge it, let him cut off carnal enticements, let him make a pit of humility, and let him not rest from acting until he recognizes that he has found the vein of truth."
Again, the word "dig out" signifies that the entire treasure of wisdom, as far as possible, must be exhausted. For just as those who have found a treasure, not content to have dug out part of it, continue with assiduous labor to dig until they exhaust the whole: so likewise the one eager for wisdom and virtue, not content to have acquired part of it, proceeds tirelessly until he possesses it all and its perfection and summit. Here that saying is true: "He who strives is helped. The deed helps the effort; the Thunderer helps the one who strives."
Verse 5: Then You Will Understand the Fear of the Lord
5. THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND THE FEAR OF THE LORD, AND FIND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD (Chaldean, from the face of God). — You will ask what this "fear of the Lord" is, and what it has to do with wisdom, which is here promised by the Wise Man to the student of wisdom? First, Cajetan takes "fear" metonymically for the object of fear, namely for maintaining respect toward God, as if to say: Then you will understand by fearing the supreme God what things are truly to be feared in His presence. For you will discern things to be feared from things not to be feared relative to the source of being (for this is what the Hebrew Jehovah signifies), and you will not fear what worldly people fear: namely, you will fear sin, judgment, and hell, which God threatens against the sinner, and therefore are truly terrible and greatly to be feared; but you will not fear poverty, obscurity, and mockery, which worldly people threaten and fear as terrible things, when they are trifling, transitory, and of little moment.
"And you will find the knowledge of God;" in Hebrew Elohim, as if to say: And you will find knowing according to Elohim, that is, the judge of all, so that you may know that He is to be supremely feared, and that sins must be avoided which He Himself will judge and punish with eternal fire.
But others generally take "fear of the Lord" here in its proper sense, as His awe, worship, religion, and love. Now since there is a twofold fear, namely servile and filial, you may explain this passage in two ways: First, of servile fear, as if to say: If you have sought wisdom and inclined your heart to its precepts, then you will understand the fear of the Lord, that is, then you will begin to fear God, as the supreme judge and avenger of foolishness and sin, and so you will arrive at wisdom and virtue: for the beginning of this is the fear of the Lord, as he said in chapter 1, verse 7. He alludes to the search for treasures: for the experienced are accustomed to search for these by signs and indicators, which once found lead directly to finding the treasure. Such signs were formerly coals and ashes: for those who hid a treasure used to scatter these on the ground, so that by these indicators they might know the place where the treasure was to be sought, lest they forget it and thus lose it. Now coals and ashes are remnants of fire, and consequently a symbol of the fire of hell, which is the object of servile fear.
Secondly, you may explain it more fully of filial fear, as if to say: If you seek wisdom and its precepts with your whole heart, you will certainly attain the fear of the Lord, which is the very essence of wisdom and the knowledge of God, which Wisdom 10:10 calls "the knowledge of the saints," according to Job 28:28: "The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding." For this fear is God's love and charity: for by love it binds and embraces God as the supreme good, by fear it takes care not to lose or offend so great a good. Just as the ancients imagined gold mines and treasures to be guarded by griffins and dragons: so the guardian of wisdom, virtue, and charity is chaste and filial fear. So St. Hilary in Psalm 127, citing this passage: "For us, he says, all fear of the Lord consists in love, and perfect love completes its movement. The proper duty of our love for Him is to obey His admonitions, to comply with His decrees, to trust in His promises."
So also Bede, Hugh, and Jansenius, who wisely notes: This is not, he says, to be understood as if the fear of God were not already present, or some measure of divine wisdom. For from the fear and wisdom of God it proceeds that one prays for wisdom and seeks it with ardent desire. But he says that then the fear of God is to be understood, and the knowledge of God found: because then it will be strengthened in the person, perfected, and will begin to please and become sweet, and what was still lacking will be given, according to the Gospel: "To everyone who has, more will be given." And Dionysius says: "Then you will understand the fear of the Lord," that is, he says, you will truly and experientially know and find filial fear of God. For the more intently you strive to be illuminated from above and to be perfected by the gift of wisdom, the more you will dread offending the sight of the supreme God the Father, and will conduct yourself reverently in His presence: and infused wisdom itself will teach you this chaste and holy fear, showing you how infinitely and incomparably the most high God is to be sincerely feared, honored, and loved; and so it will instill in you a reverential modesty, that everywhere you may blush at conducting yourself dishonestly, negligently, or shamefully in the presence of the divine countenance. To which also Seneca, admonishing, says: Do not behave differently in private than in public.
"And you will find the knowledge of God," that is, you will obtain wisdom and its progress and perfection from the Lord. Of which the Psalmist says, Psalm 33: "Come to Him, and be enlightened, and your faces shall not be confounded." Of this knowledge the Lord says in Hosea chapter 6: "I desire the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." The Apostle also, Philippians 3:8: "I count, he says, all things to be loss, because of the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord." These are the words of Dionysius.
Similarly St. Ambrose explains this passage in Psalm 118, octonary 5, on the verse: "Establish your word for your servant;" and he also assigns the reason: "For truly, he says, true wisdom begins from the fear of God, nor is there spiritual wisdom without the fear of God; so fear ought not to be without wisdom. A certain foundation of the word is holy fear. For just as a statue is placed on a base, and then has greater grace when the statue has been set on its base and has received firmness for standing: so the word of God is better established in holy fear, more firmly rooted in the breast of one who fears the Lord, lest the word slip from the heart of a man: lest the birds come and carry it away from the careless and indifferent soul." And shortly after: "Fear therefore is the place of the word, just as in peace is His place. Fear is a certain station of the word; the word of fear is discipline. For fear full of discipline does not waver toward falling." And further: "Fear is formed by wisdom, instructed by understanding, directed by counsel, strengthened by fortitude, governed by knowledge, adorned by piety."
Verse 6: Because the Lord Gives Wisdom
6. BECAUSE THE LORD GIVES WISDOM, AND FROM HIS MOUTH COME PRUDENCE AND KNOWLEDGE. — The Syriac, Septuagint, and Chaldean have, and from His face come knowledge and understanding. The word "because" gives the reason for what he said in verse 3: "For if you invoke wisdom, etc., you will find," as if to say: Not by hearing and study alone, but also by prayer and invocation must wisdom be acquired, because it is a gift of God: for the Lord gives this wisdom and the knowledge of the saints. For you will learn human wisdom from Aristotle, Plato, etc., but this divine wisdom only from God, according to Sirach chapter 39, verse 8: "For if the great Lord wills, He will fill him with the spirit of understanding." And James 1:5: "But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly." Hence Thalassius, Hecatontade 2: "What light is, he says, to those who see and to things seen, that God is to those who understand and to things understood. God alone is good and wise by nature: but the mind also becomes such by participation, provided it is studious."
What follows, "And from His mouth comes prudence," signifies first, that this wisdom comes from God's revelation, made to the Prophets and Apostles in Sacred Scripture, which teachers and preachers expound and proclaim to the people; secondly, that this revelation and preaching is not sufficient for perceiving this wisdom: but additionally an internal illumination of God is needed, by which God persuades the mind of those things which it hears and reads externally, according to that saying of Christ, John 6:43: "They shall all be taught by God. Everyone who has heard from the Father and has learned, comes to Me." "When therefore, says St. Augustine, Book I to Simplicianus, Question 2, the Gospel is preached, some believe, some do not believe; but those who believe the preacher sounding outwardly, hear and learn inwardly from the Father: but those who do not believe, hear outwardly, but inwardly neither hear nor learn."
Note that wisdom is so much a gift of God that it is nevertheless also the work of man: for man must acquire it for himself partly by study, partly by prayer. In a similar way virtue, for example chastity, is a gift of God, and at the same time the work of man freely embracing it and fighting for it against vices, as I explained at length in 1 Corinthians 7:7. Thus the works of grace are works both of grace as the principal cause, and of free will as cooperating.
Moreover wisdom, knowledge, and prudence are the same thing, as I have often noted; although Lyranus and Baynus distinguish them in this way: that wisdom is the knowledge of heavenly things, knowledge is of things necessary in this life, and prudence or understanding pertains to morals and integrity of conduct among men.
Symbolically, Bede says: The Word, which is Wisdom, proceeded from the mouth of the Father, when He was conceived in His mind, spoken and begotten from eternity. Again, from His mouth flows knowledge and wisdom, because the mouth of man, unless it has been sanctified and consecrated by Him, cannot speak wisdom.
Verse 7: He Will Guard the Salvation of the Upright
7. HE WILL GUARD THE SALVATION OF THE UPRIGHT, AND PROTECT THOSE WHO WALK SIMPLY. — In Hebrew, He will hide salvation for the upright, a shield (that is, a buckler) for those who walk in perfection; the Septuagint has, He treasures up salvation for those who act rightly (St. Augustine, Book I Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, chapter 17, reads, for those who love Him), and will protect their steps; the Tigurine version, He stores up for the just their essence (that is, says Vatablus, He preserves for the just true doctrine), and protects those who walk innocently; the Chaldean, He will hide safety for the just, and will help those who walk without blemish; the Syriac, He preserves hope for the upright, and will help those who walk without blemish.
Note: For "will guard," the Hebrew is iitspon, that is, He will hide, store, preserve as a treasure. For a treasure includes two things: first, that the thing is precious; secondly, that it is secret and hidden.
For "salvation," the Hebrew is tusciia, which Pagninus, the Tigurine version, and others translate as ousia, that is, essence, existence, substance, from the root ies, meaning "is." For the Hebrew word ies has passed into all languages. Hence Rabbi Levi: He will reserve for the upright that which is; the Chaldean has, safety; our translator and the Septuagint translate, salvation, as if tuscia by allusion and change of one letter refers to iesca, that is, salvation, and toscia, that is, He will save; Rabbi Moses translates, the law; others, form, precept, and whatever is stable and solid; others, fortune, success; others more correctly translate, wisdom: because wisdom is the noblest and most solid thing and essence, as Isaiah chapter 33, verse 6, explains this passage, where the Septuagint translates thus: in treasures is our salvation; which they explain by adding: "Wisdom and knowledge and piety toward God, these are the treasures of wisdom." All these versions come to the same thing: for tusciia properly signifies essence; thence wisdom, because this is as it were the soul and life of man's essence; thence law, because wisdom consists in the observance of the law, or, as Rabbi David says: The law, he says, is called tusciia, that is, essence, because while all other things are transitory and vain, the law alone endures forever; thence salvation, because wisdom bestows this, and so of the rest. Hence Aben-Ezra: "Wisdom, he says, is given the name of essence, because it exists and endures for all eternity. This moreover is reserved by God for the just, that by its aid they may keep the path of justice, that is, the divine precepts."
Therefore first, Lyranus explains thus, as if to say: God will give to the upright and just, as a reward for justice, salvation, that is, health of mind and body. Secondly, Jansenius, as if to say: God stores up in Himself wisdom and salvation as a great treasure, and will distribute it not to all, nor always, but only to the upright and just at the time decreed by Himself. Thirdly, Cajetan and Salazar refer this verse to what he said in verse 4: "If you dig for her as for treasures, namely wisdom, you will certainly find her; as if he here gives the reason for that saying, because God guards, stores, hides, treasures up (all amount to the same thing) salvation, namely true wisdom, which is justice itself and the salvation of the soul. For if God hides wisdom like a treasure, it rightly follows that it must be dug up in the manner of a treasure. He is said to hide or treasure up for the upright, or for those who act rightly, in Hebrew lesarim, that is, for the diligent; Augustine, for those who love Him: because this rich treasure, which God thus willed to be hidden, is not unearthed except by the diligent and those who apply careful attention." So say these authors.
All these expositions are true and coincide: for to the studious of wisdom he promised as a reward that wisdom would be given to them by God: now he explains how great that reward is and how many fruits, goods, and benefits it brings, saying that God through wisdom guards the salvation of the upright, by causing them to walk wisely amid the temptations, dangers, and shipwrecks of the world, by which the foolish and wicked fall and perish, so that they may contract no stain of serious sin, but arrive safely and happily at the port of eternal salvation. This is a fitting reward: while those who observe God and God's law are in turn preserved and watched over by God.
Hence some explain thus: God will guard tusciia, that is, the essence, meaning the solidity and constant perseverance of the just in goodness, which is a great treasure; for it rightly leads to heavenly glory: for perseverance is the supreme gift of God. For, as St. Bernard (or whoever the author is) says, in the Sermon on the Virtue of Obedience:
"Perseverance is the singular daughter of the supreme king," and whoever marries her receives heaven as her dowry. And he adds: "It is the end of virtues and their consummation, and the repository of all good."
Behold, this is what is said here: "He stores up essence for the just." Therefore the great gift of perseverance is in the hand of God alone, which the just person cannot merit condignly, but can only beg and obtain from Him with humble prayers. For this reason, this prayer is most salutary: Lord, give me perseverance; give me continually the grace which You foresee will be congruent for me; direct me through those ways, duties, states, and actions which hold no occasion of sin, by which You foresee that I will certainly and infallibly persevere, and arrive at eternal happiness.
Anagogically, therefore, Pagninus in the Thesaurus of the Hebrew Language, under the word tusciia, that is, essence: God, he says, reserves and treasures up His essence for the just, namely so that He may offer it to them to be clearly seen in heaven; this therefore He stores for them as a treasure: hence Christ compares the same to a treasure, "which a man having found, for joy thereof goes and sells all that he has, and buys that field," Matthew 13:44. So also from Pagninus, Jansenius and Salazar.
Allegorically, some Rabbis refer this to the incarnation of Christ: for Christ is the Wisdom proceeding from the mouth of the Father, who assumed our mouth and everything of ours, that He might teach us true wisdom and the way to salvation hidden from the Jews. For in the Midrash, that is, in the exposition of the Lamentations of Jeremiah, it says: "The Holy God will be sitting and expounding to the just the meaning of the law by the hands of the Messiah, as it is said in Proverbs 2: He reveals or hides the law for the upright, a shield for those walking simply, or perfectly. Rabbi Abraham Aben-Ezra said: He hides the law for the upright, because He conceals from them the word of wisdom until the time comes, and He expounds it by His mouth before the teachers." So Galatinus, Book III, chapter 19 of the Secrets of the Faith.
AND HE WILL PROTECT THOSE WHO WALK SIMPLY. — In Hebrew, He is a shield for those walking in simplicity, that is, in innocence and perfection, as if to say: Like a shield He will defend the innocent and perfect. These words are to be connected with what follows in this manner: "He will protect those who walk simply."
8. PRESERVING THE PATHS OF JUSTICE, AND GUARDING THE WAYS OF THE SAINTS. — "Preserving," that is, causing to be preserved: for the Hebrew is lintsor, that is, for preserving, so that the just may preserve, with God preserving them, the paths of justice. Or it is a hypallage, as if to say: God preserves in the just the paths of justice, that is, God preserves the just in the paths of justice, so that they do not turn aside to the right or to the left. The meaning is, as if to say: God protects the just through His wisdom and grace, continually guarding their minds, so that amid so many precipices of error and falling they may firmly hold the paths of justice and walk upon them continually; and so He guards the way of the saints, directs it, and leads it to the goal, namely to heavenly happiness. Hence the Septuagint clearly translates: He protects their step so that they may keep the ways of justification, and He guards the way of those who revere Him; the Syriac, He will guard the ways of His holy ones. So God promised Abraham the reward of justice and obedience, saying: "Fear not, Abraham, I am your protector (in Hebrew, I am your shield), and your reward is exceedingly great," Genesis chapter 15, verse 1; see what I said there. This is what the Psalmist prays: "Perfect my steps in your paths, that my footsteps may not be moved," Psalm 16:5. He alludes to, indeed he cites, that saying of Hannah the mother of Samuel, 1 Kings 2:9: "He will guard the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness," for which Solomon here, at verse 13, has: "They walk through ways of darkness."
Verse 9: Then You Will Understand Justice and Judgment
9. THEN YOU WILL UNDERSTAND JUSTICE, AND JUDGMENT, AND EQUITY, AND EVERY GOOD PATH. — "Then" refers to what precedes, as if to say: When you have done those things which I said about invoking and searching for wisdom: or, when God has given wisdom, "then you will understand justice, judgment, and equity," that is, every good path: for in these three things wisdom consists. Whether and how these three are distinguished I discussed in chapter 1, verse 3. Excellently says Thalassius, Hecatontade 4: "He who loves Jesus, he says, will be freed from wickedness, and by following Him will see true knowledge. The mind free from disturbances sees more subtly. To the mind supremely purified, all things that exist are narrow, and it always desires to be beyond all things that are made. Do you wish to be freed at once from all affections? Accustom yourself to charity, continence, and prayers. The mind making its abode with God by praying frees the soul's affective powers from passions."
Note that the way of wisdom and virtue is called a "path," first, because it is narrow, while the other road on which carriages travel is wide and broad. So St. Augustine on Psalm 121. Secondly, because it is a shortcut and brief route to perfection and happiness: for paths are shorter ways. Thirdly, because it is direct, like a path. Fourthly, because paths are for travelers through mountains and rocks, which carriages go around: for similarly the way of virtue is steep and lofty. So Lyranus.
For "path," the Hebrew is magal, that is, a circular track through which a carriage, namely the roundness of carriage wheels, travels: for agol means round and circular; hence Aquila translates, kamptous, that is, curves; Symmachus, epikulismous, that is, revolutions, circles, curves; the Septuagint translates, axonas, that is, axles, tracks, paths. Hence they have thus in the Greek Catena: "Then you will understand justice and judgment, and successfully complete all the tracks of uprightness." The tracks and axles of wheels, says the author of the Catena, are aptly transferred to the soul: for just as axles, on which wheels are mounted, keep those wheels in a certain evenness perpetually: so justice strengthens the soul and its powers, especially the lower ones (for these are symbolized by the wheels in this passage), and continually keeps them in their duty. The wheels can also be understood as the precepts of God, which lead to God and direct the mind to the knowledge of Him. So says the author. The tracks, therefore, signify first, the evenness of wisdom and virtue; secondly, the facility which practice itself prepares: for although virtue is difficult at first for the beginner, because of contrary desires, with practice overcoming them it becomes easy. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 30: "You have set my feet in a spacious place," asking how the path of virtue can be both spacious and narrow at the same time, touching the point precisely, answers: "Certainly the way is narrow; it is narrow for one who labors, but wide for one who loves." Thirdly, the tracks signify that the path of virtue is open, public, well-traveled, and royal: for such is the track of carriages. Fourthly, that it is perfect: for a circular figure, such as that of tracks, is complete and most perfect.
The curves and turns, as Aquila and Symmachus translate, signify first, that the path of virtue is steep and precipitous, which therefore one must sometimes swerve and turn around, sometimes generously overcome and transcend.
Secondly, that wisdom and virtue are flexible, because in all things they allow themselves to be bent, turned, and turned again by the bridle of reason, law, and the divine will. So St. James teaches that the tongue must be governed by this bridle, chapter 3, verse 3, about which I said much in that place.
Thirdly, Bede holds that man is moved by a triple motion, namely through justice he satisfies God, through equity his neighbor, through judgment himself. In a similar way among the Angels, as St. Dionysius teaches, chapter 4 of the Divine Names (and in a similar way among holy souls), there are three motions, namely reflexive, straight, and circular. The reflexive is when the angel or soul reflects back from creatures, and rebounds to the Creator, recognizing, loving, and praising Him in all things. The straight is when it tends directly toward neighbors, and renders to them what it owes from the rectitude of justice or charity. "The soul moves in a straight line, says Dionysius, going out to things that are around it." The circular is when the soul recollects itself, and returns into itself, seeking the quiet of its conscience and union with God. For then, says St. Dionysius, "around the Author of their identity, the beautiful and good, they ceaselessly dance." Aptly therefore does Solomon say: "Then you will understand justice, and judgment, and equity," namely serving God, caring for yourself, providing for your neighbor, namely every good path, all good turns, and all good circuits; thus you will spiritually express all the different kinds of motion. So Salazar.
Second Part: The Fruit of Wisdom
Verse 10: If Wisdom Enters Your Heart
10 and 11. IF WISDOM ENTERS YOUR HEART (the Septuagint, if it comes into your mind), AND KNOWLEDGE PLEASES YOUR SOUL (knowledge is the same as wisdom), COUNSEL WILL GUARD YOU, AND PRUDENCE WILL PRESERVE YOU. — The Septuagint has, holy thought will preserve you. For "pleases," the Hebrew is inam, which the Septuagint translates, it will seem beautiful; Aquila, euprepisei, that is, it will be seemly and lovely; Pagninus, if it is sweet; others, if it is pleasant, agreeable, delightful; others literally, if knowledge makes your soul beautiful, so that you seem beautiful to yourself from the beauty of knowledge which you admire and wonder at; Vatablus, if wisdom has invaded your heart, and knowledge has delighted your mind, foresight will guard you, and the instruction of understanding will preserve you. He repeats, amplifies, and impresses the same thing with different words, to commend to his disciple the honor and glory of wisdom, and to kindle in him love for her as if for the most beautiful and chaste bride. The meaning is, as if to say: If you admit wisdom into the inner chambers of your soul, and perceive and embrace its beauty, the counsel which it will suggest to you, and by which it will wisely and gracefully govern all your affairs, will guard you (in Hebrew, over you, as if to say: It will keep watch over you on every side, as a sentinel keeps watch over a camp), and the prudence which it will teach you will preserve you from all evil, lest anywhere you fall through imprudence: namely, that you may be delivered first from the evil way and from the man who speaks perverse things; secondly, that you may be delivered from the strange woman; thirdly, that you may walk in the good way, as follows: for it is not enough to turn from evil unless you also do good. To this pertains what St. Chrysostom, Homily 63 to the People, teaches, that the sweetness of virtue is so great that all other things that are sweet in the world, compared to it, seem bitter and gall-like, indeed that it seasons, sweetens, and makes pleasant all labors, sorrows, and crosses with its sweetness.
So wisdom, virtue, and charity made the fires sweet to St. Lawrence, the lions to St. Ignatius, the arrows to St. Sebastian, the racks to St. Vincent, the coals to St. Tiburtius. So St. Lucy, a wise virgin, proceeded to the pyre as if invited to a banquet, joyful and exultant. So too St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, and the other virgins and martyrs. Hence the Church sings of St. Stephen: "The stones of the torrent were sweet to him; all just souls follow him."
Therefore wisdom and virtue is the beautiful Naomi (for from inam and naam, meaning she was beautiful, she was called Naomi) of whom it is said, Ruth 1:20: "This is that Naomi," fair and beautiful, who seizes the eyes of all into admiration and wonder at her appearance. For, as St. Augustine says, in the letter to Consentius: "What else is justice and virtue for us, but the beauty of the interior man?" And Philo, in the book On the Life of Moses, from Plato in the Symposium: "Virtue, he says, is not only beautiful, but is the very idea of beauty itself," namely the exemplar and mirror of the beauty that exists in creatures. The reason is that wisdom and virtue are the highest participation of God: and God in Himself is beautiful, and indeed is uncreated, essential, and immense beauty itself, which whoever sees cannot help but love supremely, as is evident in the Blessed, who are wholly seized and absorbed into it. God therefore has communicated and imparted His beauty to wisdom and virtue above all other things, and in them has displayed His likeness and splendor: especially in the incarnate Word, namely in Christ, who was the mirror of all virtue, of whom accordingly it is said in Psalm 44: "Beautiful in form above the sons of men;" indeed even in His passion, purpled with His blood, He walked forth beautiful, so that the Angels admiring His appearance exclaimed: "Who is this that comes from Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah? He who is beautiful in His robe, walking in the greatness of His strength," Isaiah 63:1.
Hence St. Augustine on Psalm 44, shortly after the beginning: Christ, he says, is beautiful in heaven, beautiful on earth, beautiful in miracles, beautiful in scourges, beautiful on the wood, beautiful in the tomb. And he adds the reason: "The highest and true beauty is justice. If He is just everywhere, He is beautiful everywhere." Hence also the Martyrs grow beautiful in their fortitude, and seek through wounds a beautiful death: therefore they walk in heaven clothed in purple, crowned with palms and laurels, Revelation 7. This is so true that it seized even the Gentiles in admiration at this beauty of wisdom and virtue. Hence the Lyric poet in his hymn in praise of virtue exclaims: "O virtue, arduous and laborious for men, most beautiful discovery of life. For the sake of your beauty, O virgin, even to die is considered a desirable lot in Greece, and to endure vehement and unwearying labors. By your grace, therefore, Hercules born of Jupiter, and the sons of Leda, declared by their deeds what they could do." It is a saying of the ancients: "Only the wise man is beautiful, every villain is ugly." And:
Virtue, knowing not sordid defeat, Shines with unblemished honors, says Horace, Book III of the Odes.
Verse 12: That You May Be Delivered from the Evil Way
12. THAT YOU MAY BE DELIVERED FROM THE EVIL WAY (from the Hebrew you may translate, of evil, that is, which leads to evil; the Syriac, wisdom will free you from the evil way), AND FROM THE MAN WHO SPEAKS PERVERSE THINGS.
13. WHO ABANDON THE RIGHT PATH, AND WALK THROUGH WAYS OF DARKNESS. — In Hebrew, who abandon the paths of uprightness, to walk through ways of gloom.
14. WHO REJOICE WHEN THEY HAVE DONE EVIL, AND EXULT IN THE WORST THINGS. — The Chaldean, they exult in the perversion of wickedness.
The Septuagint express these things pathetically and mix in an exclamation; for they read thus: that it may deliver (wisdom and holy thought) you from the evil way, and from the man who speaks nothing piston, that is, faithful, or nothing trustworthy that ought to be believed, but all things deceitful, fallacious, destructive, and poisonous. O you who have abandoned the right ways, departing into the ways of darkness, who rejoice in evils and are glad in wicked destruction. These depend on the preceding verse: "Counsel will guard you, etc., that you may be delivered from the evil way," as if to say: There are two ways, that is, manners and modes of living: one evil, the other good; wisdom will guard you from the evil one, and lead you to the good, so that you may flee every sin that leads to hell worse than a dog or a snake, and pursue with all your heart every virtue that leads to heaven. For "who speaks perverse things," others more forcefully translate, who speaks perverting things; Cajetan, who speaks wiles, that is, tricks, twists, and turns of words, by which the crafty person leads others into error, fraud, and evil. For the Hebrew tahapuchot signifies perversities, by which one turns another away from truth and virtue, and converts him to fraud and vice, and thus drives him to ruin, overturns and subverts him: and it alludes to puch, that is, cosmetic, because such people apply false coloring to others, and by a painted simulation of wisdom and virtue lead them astray into error and vices.
Solomon therefore says that wisdom teaches that the wicked and perverse are especially to be avoided, who not only do evil things, but also teach or persuade others to the same, and do so cunningly through frauds and enticements: for wisdom detects and reveals these. Moreover, because such people are very numerous, hence changing the number from singular to plural by enallage, describing them he says first: "Who abandon the right path;" for such is the path of wisdom and virtue. Secondly: "They walk through ways of darkness and gloom," as if to say: They live in blindness and errors, at least practical ones, and in dishonest works, which seek darkness, and are most similar to darkness, and lead to eternal darkness. Accordingly Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration to the 150 Bishops, aptly compares such people to cuttlefish: "For they, he says, spit out words, like cuttlefish their ink, against themselves, to escape those who hunt them, and to hide from those who track them." Thirdly, that moreover they rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things.
It is a climax, or gradation. For the discourse grows by degrees, declaring the increasing wickedness of the impious. For their wickedness grows to such an extent that they laugh, rejoice, and exult in their sins; but this laughter is canine and sardonic, which produces pain and death: for while laughing outwardly, they are tortured by the internal consciousness of their evils, says St. Augustine, Sermon 24 On the Seasons, and they die laughing, about which Eusebius of Emesa, Homily on Saints Epiphorus and Alexander, says: "They exult in the worst things, and rejoice in their own destruction, like those who having perhaps taken the deadly juices of herbs, are said to perish with laughter."
For "exult," the Hebrew is gilu, that is, they sing, they leap, they dance: for gol denotes dancing, exultation, and external movement, by which one reveals and displays the internal joy of the heart through external gestures, as when one leaps, makes circles, and rolls oneself around in revolutions and rotations. Hence it does not differ much from the Greek agalliao. So St. John the Baptist, having heard the greeting of the Blessed Virgin, exulted, that is, leaped for joy and bounded in his mother's womb, Luke 1:41.
Such people therefore are like those whom we see in Apulia bitten by tarantulas, who continually leap and dance, and die leaping and dancing. St. Ambrose, Book I, Letter 6, compares them to cicadas, which die singing, that is, making noise: "Those who, he says, under the heat of burning desires, soothe themselves with a song harmful to themselves, and immediately perish." So the Turks in honor of their Muhammad are accustomed to whirl and rotate themselves in a circle (which is properly what the Hebrew gol denotes), until they fall and collapse as their breath and mind give out, and they call it the dance of the Angels, to whom you may aptly apply the saying: "The wicked walk round about," Psalm 11:9. These therefore, as they "drink iniquity like water," as Holy Job testifies, chapter 15, so in turn they proceed laughing and exulting like calves to the slaughter, like drunkards to the gallows, like madmen (says St. Gregory citing this passage, Homily 4 on Ezekiel) to exile, of whom Isaiah says, chapter 3, verse 9: "They have proclaimed their sin like Sodom. Woe to their souls, for evil things have been rendered to them!" says St. Bernard, Sermon 16 on the Song of Songs.
15. WHOSE WAYS ARE PERVERSE, AND THEIR STEPS INFAMOUS. — The Septuagint has, whose paths are crooked (Symmachus has skambai, that is, curved, walking obliquely like crabs; Theodotion, sphalerai, that is, tortuous, twisted like those who squint, who have distorted and twisted eyes: also crafty, cunning, wily, sinuous like serpents), and their courses winding; Aquila, and they boast in their twists, and scoff in their windings or circles; the Tigurine version, who deprave their ways, and are shameless in their tracks; Vatablus, whose paths are oblique, and who are perverse in their paths; or, whose ways of life stray from the right and perversities are in their ways. So also Pagninus and others, and retreating or going backwards in their paths, like crabs. The Septuagint adds, to make you far from the right way and estranged from right judgment.
Therefore the steps and actions of the wicked are oblique and sinuous like crabs and serpents. For crabs, according to Aristotle and Pliny, either walk backwards or obliquely to the side, especially since this is a symbol of depravity, just as straightness is of virtue and goodness in a pure life. "Crabs, says Cassiodorus, advance sideways, and when caught, do not return by a direct course." Accordingly St. Ambrose, Book VI of the Hexaemeron, chapter 6, reads and explains thus: "Their course is winding, like the slippery and winding one who is their author," namely the devil, the ancient serpent.
Hence St. Ephrem, speaking of dances and shameful dancing, says: "The dance was not taught by Peter, nor by John, but by the ancient serpent with his coils." Alluding to this also, Gregory Nazianzen in his poem On Virginity thus depicts the impious:
Like crabs walking along an oblique path, Or like long serpents dragging their sinuous limbs, You will live weighed down by the burden of the flesh.
For thus the impious, like crabs, do not walk where the eyes look, that is, not where reason and the law of God direct, but backwards, as if turned away from the law and God, and they prefer left things to right, false things to true, transitory things to eternal; for, as St. Ambrose says in the book On Abraham: "The goods of this world are unstable, and roll like wheels with the world itself." Again, like serpents they wind and coil themselves in a thousand circles of vices, as they slip from one crime immediately into another and another, until they have completed the whole circle of crimes, and having completed it, return again from the beginning in a circle; therefore they are deservedly infamous before God, the Angels, and men.
Verse 16: That You May Be Delivered from the Strange Woman
16. THAT YOU MAY BE DELIVERED FROM THE STRANGE WOMAN, AND FROM THE FOREIGN WOMAN WHO SOFTENS HER WORDS. — Vatablus, who flatters with her words, or entices with blandishments; Symmachus, whose words are slippery; the Chaldean, whose words are smooth; Baynus, who polishes her words; "whose song it is more tolerable to hear than the hissing of a basilisk," says St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics. For a woman like a Siren enchants and charms away the mind even of the wise, as was evident in our very own Solomon, Samson, and David. Read the life of St. Martinian in Surius, February 13, and you will find marvelous examples of this.
He calls the adulteress "strange" and "foreign," because as another man's wife she courts other lovers; although others understand by the "foreign woman" a foreigner, that is, not a Jewess, but a Gentile. But simply, the Hebrews call a foreign woman a prostitute. This verse depends on verse 11; for it must be connected with it thus: "The counsel of wisdom will preserve you, that you may be delivered from the woman," etc. Hence the Septuagint paraphrastically translates this passage: My son, lest evil counsel (of the woman) seize you, who has abandoned the instruction of her youth, etc.
He warned that the company and conversation of the wicked must be avoided; now he warns that the enticing and shameless woman must be avoided; for nothing is so contrary to wisdom as an enticing woman. So Bede. The theological reason for this is that the Holy Spirit, the author of wisdom, being a most pure spirit, abandons and flees from lustful people, as those immersed in their flesh and belly.
The ethical reason is that among the desires, lust is the most vehement: and desire is diametrically opposed to reason, and therefore to wisdom. Hence lust is so called from the fact that it pleases (libeat), says Cassian, Conference 12, chapter 2. Accordingly St. Wulfstan Bishop of Worcester, tempted to lust by a noble woman, making the sign of the cross, said: "Flee, companion of lasciviousness, daughter of death, vessel of Satan," and struck her a slap with the greatest force, and thus like another Joseph he suppressed the woman's enticements. So Surius, Volume I, in his Life. So also St. Agnes to the prefect's son: "Depart from me, she said, food of death, tinder of sin."
For lust rushes into the forbidden, heedless of harm.
A charming and beautiful woman softens even a man of stone. Lust enfeebles the strength of body and the powers of the mind.
The first physical reason is that lust by its vehemence seizes all the senses, the mind, and the whole soul to itself, so that the lustful can sense, taste, or think of nothing else besides it, much less think of heavenly and divine things, which wisdom suggests. The second is that in the act of lust, together with the seed, very many and very noble spirits are discharged, which the mind needs for thinking and reflecting. Again, seed is the noblest blood: when the seed is exhausted, therefore, the blood is also exhausted, in which the strength of life and mind consists. Hence we see that the lustful are deprived of bodily strength and mental vigor, so that they cannot grasp the things of wisdom and prudence, indeed they sometimes fall into delirium, madness, epilepsy, and apoplexy. So Galen, Book XIV, chapter 10, says that excessive intercourse induces spasm. Therefore some say (though it is not correctly attributed to Plato, being a Greek): Venus, they say, is so called from ve, that is, without, and nous, that is, mind, as if to say: Without mind, because she snatches reason and mind from man. Just as vecors means the same as ve, that is, without, and cor, heart. But this is an ingenious allusion, not a genuine etymology: for Venus is a Latin word, not Greek; Venus, says Giraldus, Syntagma 13, from Cicero, Book 2 of On the Nature of the Gods, is so called because she comes to all things, or because through her all things come about. Varro, however, Book IV of On the Latin Language: "Venus is so called, he says, not because she wishes to conquer, but because she wishes to bind, and be bound herself. Viere means to bind, from which we have in the Asinaria of Ennius: They went to bind the evil Venerian garland." And shortly after: "The poets say that a fiery seed fell from heaven into the sea, and Venus was born from the foam by the union of fire and moisture, signifying the power of Venus which they attributed to her, from which power the word 'life' is derived for those born from it," according to Lucilius: "Force is life; you see that it compels us to do all things." Venus therefore is named either from veniendo (coming), from viendo (binding), or from vis (force). St. Isidore follows this last, Book VIII of Origins, near the end: "They call her Venus, he says, because without force a woman does not cease to be a virgin." Among the Greeks, Venus was called Aphrodite from aphros, that is, foam, because she is said to have been born from the foam of the sea, according to Hesiod in the Theogony, or, as Aristotle says, because semen is foamy. Some think the name comes from to aphronein, that is, to be insane. Hence Euripides: "For foolish Venus is closest to mortals." Hence Venus is depicted bearing a burning torch on her breast with the Graces and Peitho, that is, Persuasion, because she implants fiery love in the beholder and persuades him of whatever she wishes. Euripides indeed in the Hecuba holds that Venus was called Aphrodite as if aphrosynen, that is, imprudence and foolishness; for Venus induces this: hence he calls her the goddess of foolishness.
Moreover, the wisdom by which you may be delivered from the strange woman consists not in the strength of wrestling, but in the prudence of fleeing her sight and company. So St. Cyprian, On the Singularity of Clerics: "See, he says, that now in this battle it is prudence, not faith, that has been given to us as the conqueror, which has freed us by the remedy of timidity: and contemplate what weapons must now be taken up, if you wish to have the help of the law. Be timid, that you may be fearless, and although fear in battle may seem like weakness, yet according to the word of the Apostle, power is made perfect in weakness. Separate yourselves, I entreat, separate yourselves from the pestilential contagion." He treats of the enticement of women in Sirach 25:29 and 42:6. See what I said there.
Symbolically, by this adulteress, both here and in chapter 7, verse 19, chapter 9, verse 13, and elsewhere, heresy or false doctrine is signified: for this adulterates and corrupts the true faith and wisdom of God. Indeed, Vatablus, with Rabbi Solomon and the Hebrews, holds that heresy is literally signified here.
Hear Bede: "By the strange woman can be understood the depravity of heretics, alien from the members of Christ and the Church, which is accustomed to deceive the hearts of the innocent by the softness of eloquence and the blandishments of the tongue. Hence the Psalmist, Psalm 45: They have softened their words more than oil, and yet they are javelins."
Furthermore, Rabbi Levi and others understand by this woman any desire that is repugnant to reason and wisdom in man. For this desire, like an adulteress, is wandering, wanton, unfaithful, unstable, burning with lusts, the mother of all sins and evils. Hence Thalassius, Hecatontade 2: "Just as desire and anger, he says, multiply sins, so continence and humility empty them out. For the soul to be purified is for it to be freed from its affections. This freedom begets the charity of God in us. Spiritual sunsets are the soul troubled by disturbances; for the sun of justice sets upon them." And Hecatontade 3: "The mind over which the affections rule thinks what is not fitting. What kind of thoughts they are, words and deeds reveal. The leader of evil thought is affection; the author of affection is sense: that we misuse this, the cause is the mind. Great indeed is the mind that is free from affections and separated from the things that exist, and dwells in God." And Hecatontade 4: "Just as it is absurd for a good master to be subject to a wicked servant, so it is absurd for the rational mind to be the slave of a corruptible body. You too, command Eve, and beware of the serpent, lest being deceived she offer you also fruit from the tree. A true monk is one whose mind has so renounced the senses that it does not even wish to see the thought of pleasure. The mind that commands its affections is beyond danger and fear. The expectation of future goods joins the mind to the goods expected, and by dwelling upon them it forgets present things."
Indeed, Archytas of Tarentum, according to Cicero in the book On Old Age, used to say that "there is no plague in the world more fatal than desire and pleasure." For from this arise betrayals of the fatherland, from this the overthrow of republics, from this secret pacts with enemies: in short, there is no crime, no infamy, to the undertaking of which the lust for pleasure does not impel. And Socrates, according to Laertius, Book 2, warned young people "to flee pleasures as Sirens," if they wished to behold virtue as their fatherland like Ulysses, who sailed past the Sirens with his ears stopped with wax, so that he might see the smoke rising from Ithaca. And Seneca: "The wise man, he says, desires this one thing: to desire nothing." Famous is the saying of the Egyptian monk in Nicephorus, Book 11, chapter 43, who when asked "why he so often denied himself pleasures," answered: "I deny them so that I may cut off the cause and occasion of anger. For I know that anger always wages war over pleasures, disturbs my mind, and puts knowledge itself to flight." And that saying of Mark the Hermit, in the treatise On the Spiritual Law: "The heart that loves pleasure is a prison and chain for the soul at the time of departure (death); but the same heart, zealous for labor, is an open door."
17 and 18. AND SHE ABANDONS THE GUIDE OF HER YOUTH, AND HAS FORGOTTEN THE COVENANT (Syriac, testament or promise) OF HER GOD. — For "guide," the Hebrew is alluph, which Theodotion, Pagninus, and others with our translator properly translate, hegoumenon, that is, guide, ruler, namely, as the Syriac has, guardian; the Tigurine version, the husband of her puberty, that is, of her youth or adolescence, as the Hebrew has: for then she began to be of age and suitable for marriage; the Chaldean, who has abandoned guidance; the Septuagint however, looking to the root alaph, that is, "he learned," translate, didaskalian, that is, teaching, and Symmachus mathesin, that is, instruction; others, habituation or guidance (for this is what aloph properly signifies), by which the girl, previously accustomed to the discipline of her father or husband, allowed herself to be governed by it. And so all these versions come to the same thing.
The meaning is, as if to say: Wisdom will cause you to be delivered just as from the wicked man, so also from the adulteress, who has abandoned her husband, to whom in adolescence, when she began to reach puberty, she betrothed herself, and accepted him as the guide and governor of her youth. In this sense it is clear that the discourse concerns an adulteress. So Bede, Baynus, Jansenius, and others. However, it could also mean a fornicatress: for she abandons the guide of her youth, that is, her father or guardian, who is the keeper of her adolescence and virginity. For in adolescence, virgins, when they reach puberty, suffer the greatest temptations, as well as plots against their chastity: hence then they most need the guardianship of parents and tutors. But that it rather concerns an adulteress is clear from what he adds: "And she has forgotten the covenant of her God," as if to say: She has forgotten the sacrament and pledge of marriage instituted by God, she has violated the pacts and laws of marriage sanctioned by God, Genesis 2:24. Aben-Ezra adds something subtle: God, he says, placed His most sacred name between husband and wife: if you remove it, nothing will remain except fire and conflagration. For in Hebrew isch is man, isscha is wife: remove from them ia, which is the name of God, and nothing remains but es vaes, that is, fire and fire.
Therefore wife as well as husband should abhor adultery. They will abhor it if they fully perceive its baseness and how many and how great evils it contains within itself. For first, the adulterous spouse betrays the marital fidelity, which is the highest, pledged to the other spouse. Secondly, it violates marriage, which nature and God Himself, the author of nature, willed to be one with one, Genesis 2:24. Thirdly, it violates the Sacrament: for now in the new law, marriage has been made through Christ a great Sacrament, and therefore must be kept holy, Ephesians 5:32. Fourthly, it does injury to offspring, both those already born from the marriage, inasmuch as it unjustly introduces adulterous siblings and heirs to them; and those to be born from the adultery, inasmuch as it makes them illegitimate, adulterous, and incapable of inheritance. Fifthly, it does injury to the state, which it harms by its scandal and injustice. Therefore this injury redounds against God. Hence the Septuagint translates, she has forgotten the divine covenant. For this reason God is usually a severe avenger and punisher of adultery, as is clear from both sacred and profane histories.
Moreover, the word "puberty" indicates three reasons why a girl needs a guide and guardian. The first is that puberty is an age midway between infancy and adulthood: in infancy there is a lack of reason and judgment, and therefore security from sin: in adulthood there is maturity of both: in puberty and adolescence both are just beginning. Therefore if the girl is then properly directed and instructed, she will turn out wise and holy; but if she is left to herself and to suitors lying in wait, she will become shameless and a prostitute: therefore she then needs a guide and guardian, whether a parent, tutor, or spouse. The second reason is that this puberty is in the female sex, which is soft, weak, and slippery, and through inexperience and imprudence is incautious and pliable, and therefore is easily seduced by men, unless she is guarded by a guide. The third is that puberty, with the maturity for procreation, brings the stimuli of the flesh and the incitements of lust, which girls, previously inexperienced in them, do not know how to resist. Hence, lest they follow these, they need a guide, admonisher, and guardian. Accordingly Sirach chapter 42, verse 9: "A daughter, he says, is a hidden concern to her father, and worry about her takes away sleep, lest in her youth she become an adulteress." See what I said there. Therefore he increases the girl's crime, injury, and foolishness, in that having abandoned the guide of her youth, whom she had found so faithful, prudent, cautious, and loving, she follows an adulterer, faithless, imprudent, incautious, hostile. Hence tropologically: The soul, betrothed to God in baptism or justification, enticed by desires, when it consents to them, abandons God the spouse and guide of its youth, by whose love and fear it had been nurtured, when through heresy, or indeed any other sin, forgetting the covenant made with God, it breaks the faith given to God in baptism, and conceives a new opinion, love, and offspring of illicit pleasure. Hence God, complaining of this injury and contempt to Himself, and calling back the wandering soul, says in Jeremiah 3:4: "You have played the harlot with many lovers: yet return to Me," etc. "At least from this time cry to Me: You are my Father, You are the guide of my virginity," as I explained in that place.
18. HER HOUSE IS INCLINED TO DEATH, AND HER PATHS TO THE UNDERWORLD. — The Septuagint has, she has placed (Symmachus, ended, that is, terminated) her house near death, and her tracks with the earth-born near hell; Aquila, her turnings; Symmachus, her circles, about which I spoke at verse 14; the Chaldean, for in the pit of death is her house, and to the giants are the paths of her ways; the Syriac, she has forgotten the threshold of her house, and the routes of her paths. St. Ambrose looked to this, Book I On Cain, chapter 5, saying: "The ways of the underworld are her house, leading down to the retreat of death," as if to say: The house of the adulteress or prostitute is like a certain inclined valley, leading and tending toward the nearby abyss of death and hell.
For "is inclined," the Hebrew is schacha, that is, is bowed down; and there is a beautiful wordplay between schachecha, that is, she has forgotten, and schacha, that is, she is bowed down, as if to say: Forgetfulness, that is, her sin and adultery, has inclined her who was formerly upright, bent her down, and depressed her even to death, indeed even to hell. For "the underworld," the Hebrew is rephaim, that is, giants: thus the demons and the damned in hell are called, both because of their giant-like pride, and because they are plunged into the abyss of hell, just as the giants were plunged into the abyss of the flood, Genesis chapter 6, verses 2 and 7. He rightly compares the houses and brothels of prostitutes to the houses of giants, because both were sunken and like underground pits. Hence that passage of Virgil, Book 3 of the Aeneid:
How great and of what sort was Polyphemus in his hollow cave.
And earlier, he says that the giant Enceladus dwells under Etna and shakes it:
Fame says that the body of Enceladus, half-burned by lightning, Is pressed down by this mass, and above it great Etna, Placed upon him, breathes out flame from its broken furnaces; And whenever he wearily turns his side, all Sicily Trembles with a rumble, and the sky is woven over with smoke.
Less convincingly, Rabbi Solomon Isacides interprets rephaim as nirpim, that is, the weakened and feeble, who indeed stray from the right path and waver, and at last miserably fall into hell. And Aben-Ezra says: Rephaim signifies the dead as if nirpim, that is, weakened; because their strength has been sapped by women, according to the saying: "A man will be stripped bare and weakened."
Solomon therefore here alludes to brothels, which were located in caves, underground places, and arched vaults; hence the word "to fornicate" (from fornix, arch). As if to say: The house, namely the brothel of the fornicatress, sunken and underground, inclines and tends toward graves and the underworld, so that by its very location it testifies that she and her lovers are heading toward death and hell. Again, these baser prostitutes used to live outside the cities in tombs and monuments; hence Jeremiah 2:23, the Septuagint says of the prostitute: "See your ways in the tombs of the multitude." Hence also that saying of Martial, Book 1:
Tombs too conceal their filthy harlots.
Hence also Venus was surnamed Libitina, because she presided over the biers and tombs of the dead, in whose temple therefore were sold and rented the things pertaining to burial, according to Plutarch in the Problems. "Libentina is so called from libendo (desiring)," says Varro: so Giraldus in the Syntagma. Finally, St. Chrysostom, Homily on Psalm 50: "What is a beautiful woman? She is a whitewashed sepulcher."
The sense therefore is, as if to say: The dwellings of harlots are in dark, deep, filthy, fetid vaulted chambers and tombs, so that by this very fact they represent death and hell, toward which they themselves with their suitors head straight and proceed. For on account of lusts many have incurred present death, and indeed most nations punish adultery with death, as I showed at Genesis 38:24. Again, how many murders occur because of mistresses and adulteresses? Moreover, all incur the guilt of eternal death and hell, and indeed serious authors judge that by far the greater part of mankind is damned because of lusts. Hell therefore is the house and rack of the lustful. This is what Job says about adultery and lust, chapter 31, verse 12: "It is a fire that devours even to destruction, and roots out all increase." Where St. Gregory says: "What is lust but fire? And what are the virtues that spring from flesh and mind but flowers? What again are base thoughts but straw? Who does not know that if fire in straw is negligently extinguished, from a small spark all the straw is set ablaze? He therefore who does not wish to burn up the growth of virtues must so extinguish the fire of lust that it can never blaze up from the slightest spark." Because therefore lust is fire, it is punished by the fire of hell, and leads to it.
Accordingly, St. Chrysostom, Homily 21, from various places in St. Matthew, depicts the enticing woman with these colors and epithets: "What else is a woman, he says, but an enemy of friendship, and an inescapable punishment, a necessary evil, a natural temptation, a desirable calamity, a domestic danger, a delightful harm, an evil of nature painted over with the beauty of good?"
Finally, one could suspect an allusion here to Ge-ben-Hinnom (whence the word "gehenna" is derived), that is, to the valley of the son of Hinnom, in which parents burned their living children to the idol Moloch. For it is likely that in the same valley there were brothels and dens of prostitutes: for the Gentiles worshipped their gods, that is, demons, not only with sacrifices but also with revels and lusts, especially Baal-Peor, or Priapus, whom Cajetan considers to be the same as Moloch. This is clear from Hosea chapter 4, verse 14, and 3 Kings chapter 15, verses 12 and 13. Just as, therefore, in this valley of Hinnom the houses of prostitutes were inclined and sunken, and were indeed in the very gehenna of Moloch: so likewise they were inclined toward the gehenna of Lucifer: for from the former to the latter the path was direct, and after death the passage was certain.
Hence St. Augustine calls lust the rival of eternal fire.
19. ALL WHO GO IN TO HER SHALL NOT RETURN, NOR SHALL THEY REACH THE PATHS OF LIFE. — The Septuagint explains these paths in two ways; for they read: All who go to her shall not return, nor shall they reach the right paths; for they are not reached in the years of life; the Chaldean, all who enter shall not return in peace, nor shall they seize (the Syriac, nor shall they remember) the paths of life. Vatablus, all who enter to her do not return, nor attain the ways of life. The phrase "to her" Bede refers to death, as if to say: Beware of the strange woman, because she will lead you to death; and if once you have fallen into it, you will never return to life. Others more forcefully refer it to the woman, as if to say: Beware of the strange woman, do not go in to her, that is, do not have dealings with her, because if you have gone in to her, you will incur death, and will fall into the abyss of lust and hell, from which you cannot return or emerge, just as from death and hell there is no return to life. This is true, both because by himself and by the forces of nature no one can rise from mortal sin, such as adultery and fornication, to the life of grace; and because he who has once been entangled in the loves of adulteresses and prostitutes is so enmeshed with them that he can extricate himself only with the greatest difficulty, even if he has the ordinary measures of grace which God is accustomed to bestow on sinners for rising.
Not to return, therefore, means to rarely and with difficulty abandon the burning and insane lusts of enticing women, which blind the hearts of fornicators and bind them to women as if with birdlime, so that they come to their senses only by a great and rare grace. So mystically, from true and fully formed heresy, few return to the orthodox faith.
The causes are many: The first is the weakness of fallen nature contracted from the sin of Adam: for this weakness is enormous in the concupiscible appetite. For in it there is a great inclination toward sensible and carnal things, and if you indulge and serve it, you make it your mistress and yourself its slave, so that you delight in continually wallowing in it. Just as a magnet draws iron to itself, so one's own desire (Agnes) draws the carnal person to itself, as St. Basil teaches in On Virginity. The second is that desire is insatiable, and hence comes the insatiability of sins, says Cajetan. The third is that prostitutes know a thousand arts of flattering and binding their lovers to themselves, so as to drain their resources. The fourth is that the devil refreshes in the fallen person the images of past pleasure, and continually drives him to pursue it again: for through sin he acquires a right and dominion over sinners: hence he so torments them that they seem to be possessed and controlled by a demon. Accordingly St. Chrysostom calls lust "a voluntary demon"; and in Homily 23 to the People he says: It is as difficult to restore a lustful person to chastity as to restore the dead to life. The fifth is that lust makes a person demented, and renders him animal and brutish.
This can be seen in prostitutes who from time to time are pricked by preachers and God's promptings and repent, but as soon as they see their lover, they relapse into their former loves, and as if they lacked brain and mind, they rush into wicked embraces. This is what Hosea says, chapter 4, verse 11: "Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart." And chapter 5, verse 4: "They will not direct their thoughts to return to their God: because the spirit of fornication is in their midst." See what I said in both places. Accordingly Clement of Alexandria, Book 2 of the Pedagogue, last chapter, says: "The sophist of Abdera called sexual intercourse a minor epilepsy, considering it an incurable disease." So also Alexander the Great compared the use of sex to the falling sickness, and from this clearly perceived himself to be a man, not one of the gods. Clement adds: "The pleasure of the flesh is punished in three ways:" because it deprives the carnal person of a threefold life through a threefold death, namely of the life of grace through sin, of natural life through early death, and of the life of glory through the eternal death of hell. And this is what the Septuagint meant by translating, they will not be reached in the years of life. Therefore the wise man, when solicited by some Thais demanding a great price for sex, should say with Demosthenes: "I do not buy repentance at so high a price." I do not purchase the gain of so brief and foul a pleasure at the cost of three lives and eternity. The Chaldean translates, they will not return in peace, that is, to peace and prosperity: because they will be entangled in a thousand anguishes of conscience, diseases, troubles, cares, anxieties, etc., so that they live restless, sad, wretched, poor, and miserable. A famous example is in St. Augustine, who narrates at length in Book 8 of the Confessions, chapters 7 and following, how painfully and by what violent movement of grace he extricated himself from the loves of his concubine. And in Solomon, who clung to his women in old age even until death, wherefore on this account his eternal salvation is rendered very doubtful.
Verse 20: That You May Walk in the Good Way
20. THAT YOU MAY WALK IN THE GOOD WAY (Hebrew and Chaldean, in the way of the good), AND KEEP THE PATHS OF THE JUST. — This sentence depends on verse 11: "Prudence will preserve you, that you may be delivered from the evil way," etc., and "that you may walk in the good way." For he assigns two fruits and duties of wisdom and prudence, namely to turn from evil and to do good: for it is not enough for justice and salvation to refrain from evil, but one must also persist in good works. The word "paths" (calles) signifies that the life of the just is narrow, steep, and lofty. For "a path (callis) is a narrow and well-worn passage for cattle through mountains, named from the callus of cattle, as if hardened by the calluses of cattle," says St. Isidore, Book 15 of the Origins, last chapter.
Moreover, the Septuagint translates thus: for if they had walked the good paths (Cassian, right), they would certainly have found the paths of justice smooth; for the path of virtue becomes smooth by walking on it, and by practice and use. So also reads St. Jerome, or rather St. Paulinus, in his letter to Celantia: "The excessive habit of vices, he says, has made the way of virtues rough and unpleasant for us; but if it is transferred to the other side, the path of justice will be found smooth, as Scripture says." So also reads Cassian, Conference 24, chapter 24, where he teaches that the law of God and of virtue is smooth in itself, but is made heavy by our desire and vice: "It is clear, he says, that we are those who roughen the straight and smooth paths of the Lord with the harsh and rough rocks of our desires, etc., while blinded by the enticements of present pleasures, we crawl through the dark paths impeded by the thorns of vices, with our legs torn and that wedding garment in tatters, not only to be pierced by the sharpest prickles of brambles, but also to be struck down by the bites of poisonous serpents or scorpions lurking there."
So also St. Augustine, in the book On Nature and Grace, chapter 69, where he teaches that for those who love it, the law of wisdom and charity is light, but for those who fear it, it is heavy. "Indeed all things, he says, become easy for charity, for whom the burden of Christ is light: or that one thing is the very burden which is light." And further on: "According to this also it was said: If they had walked good paths, they would certainly have found the paths of justice smooth." He then objects: "How then is it said, Psalm 16: 'For the sake of the words of Your lips I have kept hard ways,' unless because both are true? They are hard for fear, smooth for love: therefore charity begun is justice begun: charity advanced is justice advanced: charity great is justice great: charity perfect is justice perfect." Again, the way of justice is light because it is free and unencumbered by the love of temporal things, by whose desire and burden the impious are weighed down. Thirdly, it is light because it is lifted up and carried on the wings of God's grace. Hence Christ, Matthew chapter 11, verse 28: "Come to Me, He says, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart: and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light."
21 and 22. FOR THOSE WHO ARE UPRIGHT SHALL DWELL IN THE LAND, AND THE SIMPLE SHALL REMAIN IN IT. BUT THE WICKED SHALL PERISH FROM THE LAND: AND THOSE WHO ACT UNJUSTLY SHALL BE TAKEN AWAY FROM IT. — For "shall dwell," Symmachus translates, shall inherit; the Arabic, and the way of the wicked shall perish from the land, and those who transgress the law shall be cast out from it. For "simple," the Hebrew is temimim, that is, perfect; the Septuagint, saints; Pagninus, immaculate; Vatablus, upright. For "shall perish," the Hebrew is iicaretu, that is, they shall be cut off. For "shall be taken away," the Hebrew is iissechu, that is, they shall be swept away, scraped out; the Chaldean, plunderers shall be uprooted from it; Vatablus, they shall be utterly torn up; the Syriac, they shall be torn out by the roots.
By "land" understand earthly wealth and happiness, namely a long, peaceful, prosperous, and abundant life in the land: for this was promised by God to the Jews in that age, if they cultivated piety, Deuteronomy 11.
Anagogically and especially under the present land is understood the land of the living, promised and prepared by God for the saints and elect in heaven: for, as I recently said, these promises of earthly happiness are to be taken literally insofar as they were made to the Jews; but under these, spiritual realities are foreshadowed, insofar as they are directed to Christians. So St. Augustine, Book 4 of the City of God, chapter 33: "This, he says, is the mystery of the Old Testament, where the new was hidden, that therein the promises and earthly gifts are for those who understand, etc., and what eternity was signified by those temporal things, and in which gifts of God true happiness consisted." For temporal goods, as the same author says on Psalm 105, "confer true happiness on no one, because they do not extinguish insatiable desire. For whoever drinks of this water, He says, will thirst again," John chapter 4. Hence Bede and Hugh understand by the land the Church both militant and blessed and triumphant. Furthermore, the new author of the Greek Catena understands by the land the ether, in which as in a land the meek and holy dwell after death, so that from there on the day of judgment they may be transferred to heaven to see God: "In that place, he says, the meek live as in tents, later to be assumed into heaven itself, that they may appear before the face of God." This author therefore seems to hold that the souls of the just after death rest in the ether and do not see God before the day of judgment, when they would be transferred to heaven. But this is an error akin to the error of the Chiliasts, who held that the saints would reign with Christ in this world for a thousand years, and then be transferred to heaven, about which I spoke at Apocalypse 20:4. Worse is Aben-Ezra, who says: The pious will obtain the inheritance of the land in the future age. For this is the faith and hope of the Judaizers, who under their Messiah expect nothing but earthly goods, ignorant of heavenly things.
Note the word "shall inherit" from Symmachus: for it signifies that the land, both present and future in the heavens, is owed solely to the just and saints by a quasi-hereditary right, as children of God, whose is the earth and its fullness. Hence the saying: "For the faithful, the whole world is a treasure of riches." Therefore the wicked, while they occupy the land not by their own right, although not unjustly, certainly occupy it inequitably: for they invade the inheritance of God and of the children of God, whose enemies and foes they are: accordingly, as unjust possessors, they will not only be taken from it but will be cut off root and branch, and uprooted, so that no descendant, fame, or memory of them may survive. This God used to do commonly among the Jews; but among Christians He permits the wicked to enjoy the land for a time, but at the end of life scrapes them entirely from it and hurls them down to hell. Again, the words "shall be scraped away" and "cut off" signify that the wicked are taken and torn from the land unwillingly and with great pain and torment, as being attached to it with their whole heart and having no hope of heavenly things; whereas for the saints, on the contrary, the land is an exile and heaven their homeland, and therefore they desire to migrate from earth to heaven. He alludes to Job chapter 18, verse 17: "Let the memory of him perish from the earth, etc. He shall drive him from light into darkness, and transfer him out of the world. He shall have no seed nor offspring among his people, nor any remnants in his regions."
What I said about the unjust or inequitable possession of the land by the wicked, understand ethically and morally, not juridically and civilly. For juridically the wicked possess their goods equally and justly. Therefore rightly in the Council of Constance, Session 8, among other errors of John Wycliffe, this one is condemned, number 45: "No one is a civil lord while he is in mortal sin." For God grants this right and dominion to the wicked, even though they themselves do not merit it. Hence ethically that saying is true: "Riches and wealth are the patrimony of virtue," because virtue merits the same and often actually acquires it, so as to rightly administer and distribute it. The a priori reason is that the foundation of dominion and jurisdiction is not divine grace, which is removed by mortal sin, but the law of nature and of nations, and the consent of people looking to the political good of the republic, which often attributes dominion, indeed even sovereignty, to wicked men, even to infidels. For if the wicked were incapable of it, great confusion and disturbance of the republic would follow through wars and seditions. See among others Gregory of Valencia, chapter 2, verse 2, treatise On Justice, Disputation 5, Question 4, point 2.