Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches first that wisdom prolongs life and wins the grace of God and of men; second, at verse 5, that one must hope in God, worship Him, and patiently bear His chastisement; third, at verse 13, he praises wisdom for its value, beauty, longevity, riches, power, efficacy, peace, and security; fourth, at verse 27, he teaches that the pious should be emulated in beneficence, not the wicked in depravity, because destruction follows the wicked, but blessing follows the pious.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 3:1-35
1. My son, do not forget my law, and let your heart keep my precepts, 2. for they will add to you length of days, and years of life, and peace. 3. Let mercy and truth not forsake you; bind them about your neck, and write them on the tablets of your heart: 4. and you will find grace and good understanding before God and men. 5. Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own prudence. 6. In all your ways think on Him, and He Himself will direct your steps. 7. Be not wise in your own eyes: fear God, and depart from evil: 8. for it will be health to your navel, and refreshment to your bones. 9. Honor the Lord from your substance, and give Him of the first-fruits of all your produce: 10. and your barns will be filled with abundance, and your wine-presses will overflow with wine. 11. My son, do not reject the discipline of the Lord, nor faint when you are corrected by Him: 12. for whom the Lord loves, He corrects: and as a father, He takes delight in his son. 13. Blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and who abounds in prudence: 14. the gaining of it is better than the trading of silver, and its fruit than the purest gold: 15. it is more precious than all riches: and all the things that are desired cannot be compared with it. 16. Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory. 17. Her ways are beautiful ways, and all her paths are peaceful. 18. She is a tree of life to those who lay hold of her: and whoever holds her fast is blessed. 19. The Lord by wisdom founded the earth; He established the heavens by prudence. 20. By His wisdom the depths burst forth, and the clouds grow thick with dew. 21. My son, let not these things flow from your eyes: keep the law and counsel; 22. and it shall be life to your soul, and grace to your jaws. 23. Then you shall walk confidently on your way, and your foot shall not stumble. 24. If you sleep, you shall not fear; you shall rest, and your sleep shall be sweet. 25. Do not fear sudden terror, nor the powers of the wicked rushing upon you. 26. For the Lord shall be at your side, and shall keep your foot that you be not captured. 27. Do not forbid him from doing good who can: if you are able, do good yourself. 28. Do not say to your friend: Go and come back: I will give to you tomorrow, when you can give immediately. 29. Do not devise evil against your friend, when he has confidence in you. 30. Do not contend against a man without cause, when he has done you no evil. 31. Do not envy the unjust man, nor imitate his ways: 32. for every mocker is an abomination to the Lord, and with the simple is His communication. 33. Want from the Lord is in the house of the wicked: but the habitations of the just shall be blessed. 34. He Himself shall delude the mockers, and to the meek He shall give grace. 35. The wise shall possess glory: the exaltation of fools is ignominy.
First Part of the Chapter
MANY things from this chapter were again borrowed by Ecclesiasticus, chapters 1, 2, and 15, which I explained in those places. Therefore I shall be brief here.
Verse 1: My Son, Do Not Forget My Law
1 and 2. MY SON, DO NOT FORGET MY LAW, AND LET YOUR HEART KEEP MY PRECEPTS. FOR THEY WILL ADD TO YOU LENGTH OF DAYS (the Septuagint has, "of age"), AND YEARS OF LIFE, AND PEACE. — These are the words not of God, as Lyranus holds, nor of any father, as Cajetan holds, but of Solomon himself, who is instructing his disciple and teaching him true wisdom and virtue: for Solomon, about to hand down precepts of wisdom and virtue to his disciple, stirs him up to desire and zeal for them by setting before him rewards, namely a long, peaceful, and prosperous life.
By "years of life," understand first, longevity; second, health and good constitution: for years of sickness are rather years of death than of life, says Lyranus; third, our Salazar takes "years of life" to mean the full span of human life, as if to say: You will live the 70 years of human life prescribed by God, Psalm 89: "The days of our years in them are seventy years"; fourth, Jansenius and Baynus refer "length of days" to the present life, but "years of life" to the future and eternal life, lest the same thing appear to be repeated through tautology. Hence from the Hebrew you may translate, "years of lives," that is, years of life both natural and supernatural, both present and eternal, both of grace and of glory. R. Levi wrongly explains it thus, as if to say: If you obey the law, you will live longer than the stars had determined for you: for longevity is not decreed by the stars, but by God, and is granted by Him. By "peace" understand first, tranquillity; second, joy; third, all prosperity: for this is what peace means to the Hebrews; fourth, Jansenius and Baynus take it as peace of conscience, which makes the soul a friend of God, and therefore surpasses all understanding, and thus is the cause of all peace and of every good. This fourth sense of peace pertains more to Christians, the first three to the Jews: for temporal goods were promised to the Jews, spiritual and eternal goods to Christians.
Verse 3: Let Mercy and Truth Not Forsake You
3. LET MERCY AND TRUTH NOT FORSAKE YOU. — The Chaldean has, "let kindness and truth not dismiss you"; Vatablus, "let beneficence and fidelity not abandon you"; the Septuagint, "let alms and faith not forsake you." St. Chrysostom, in his argument on the Epistle to the Philippians, after this sentence adds also this: "Let mercy and faith be true for you."
You may ask: what virtues are mercy and truth? First, St. Chrysostom, in the words just cited, takes mercy to mean almsgiving, and truth to mean true faith in God. Hence the Arabic translates: "alms and fidelities shall not depart from your sight."
Second, Bede says: Mercy shines forth in works, truth in words.
Third, Lyranus says: Mercy is toward the poor, truth toward all.
Fourth, Hugh says: Mercy is toward neighbors, truth toward oneself.
Fifth, our Salazar says: Mercy regards one's neighbor, truth regards God, and denotes His true worship. Others conversely refer חסד chesed, that is, piety (which our translator renders as mercy) to God: for piety properly and primarily regards God; second, one's country and parents; third, any poor and afflicted persons.
Sixth, the author of the Greek Catena takes mercy to mean the offices of charity and pious works; and by faith, a sound judgment about sacred matters, and true prudence in all other things.
Seventh, Dionysius says: Truth is threefold, namely of life, of doctrine, and of justice: of life, by which we truly, that is rightly, live; of doctrine, by which we teach and speak what is true; of justice, by which we render to each what is truly owed to him. Others say: Truth is threefold — of the heart, of the mouth, and of works: of the heart, by which we truly perceive and judge about matters of conduct; of the mouth, by which we speak what we truly perceive; of works, by which we truly perform what is conformable to the law and to virtue.
Eighth, and most genuinely: Mercy signifies works of virtue that are unowed, which are rendered freely and liberally; truth or fidelity and justice signifies works of virtue that are owed, which must be performed from the obligation of justice, fidelity, or a similar virtue. With these two, therefore, Sacred Scripture encompasses every duty of virtue (for every duty is either owed or unowed and freely given): and therefore, as the first and universal precept of wisdom and virtue, Solomon assigns it here in the first place, intending from it to derive the particular duties of individual virtues. Thus Jansenius, Baynus, Dionysius, and Cajetan, who says: Mercy, in Hebrew chesed, is the grace by which from our free will we do good to our neighbor, not from obligation; truth is that by which, excluding all pretense, we make our deeds match our words, our words match our heart, and our heart match our obligations.
LET THEM NOT FORSAKE YOU. — First, by hypallage or inversion you may explain it thus, as if to say: You, O son, do not forsake mercy and truth: for thus neither will they forsake you. For just as God, so also wisdom and virtue forsake no one unless first forsaken by him, as the Council of Trent says, following St. Augustine, Session 6. Hence Vatablus explains "let them not forsake you" as meaning "let them be most familiar to you." For, as the Wise Man says: "The nature of the good is fugitive." Thus St. Chrysostom, in the passage just cited, explaining these words about perseverance, says thus: "Let alms and faith not forsake you. He does not say: Do it once, nor a second time, nor a third, nor ten times, nor a hundred times, but perpetually let them not forsake you, he says. And he does not say: Do not forsake them, but: Let them not forsake you; showing that we need their help, not they ours, and teaching that we must take pains to keep them with us. Bind them, he says, about your neck."
Admirably St. Lawrence Justinian, chapter 2 of On Perseverance, gives these same praises: "Perseverance is the singular daughter of the Most High King, the end of virtues and their consummation, without which neither does the fighter gain victory, nor the victor obtain the palm. She is the nurse of merit, the mediatrix of reward, the sister of patience, the daughter of constancy, the bond of charity, the bulwark of holiness. Take her away, and obedience has no reward, nor kindness gratitude, nor fortitude praise. She alone is the one to whom eternity is given, or rather who gives man back to eternity, as the Lord says: 'He who perseveres to the end shall be saved,' etc. For in vain is a good deed done if it is abandoned before the end of life." And below, after several intervening passages:
"Merely not to have persevered is to have lost the crown."
Lift up your eyes to heaven, behold that He Himself has struggled and conquered, that He helps those who fight bravely with exhortations, example, words, promises, and gifts. There should be no cowardice of timidity amid such great favors. Run to the mountain of God, to contemplate His glory, to the perfection of virtues, to the summit of perseverance."
Second, properly speaking, as if to say: Mercy and truth, O son, are not implanted in you by nature, nor are they connate, but extrinsic and adventitious: for they are like angels sent down from heaven to you, to lead you up to heaven. See therefore that you observe them, obey them, retain them by your goodness and obedience: lest, if you offend them by disobedience or some other sin, they flee from you and forsake you, and leave you naked and wretched. For thus St. Basil, in his work On Virginity, says: "As bees are driven away by smoke, so angels are driven away by lust and sins." It is a personification: for mercy and truth are here introduced as persons, indeed as angels approaching and departing from the disciple of wisdom, and serving as his tutors as he studies wisdom and virtue. Thus the pagans imagined the Graces to be winged goddesses, or angels, who would fly from heaven to men who were gracious and grateful, but would flee the ungracious and ungrateful, and fly back to heaven: for virtues are graces freely sent by God into man.
Thus almsgiving, in the form of a most beautiful virgin, crowned with an olive-branch wreath on her head, appeared to St. John the Almsgiver while he slept, as Leontius attests in his Life, and rousing him from sleep, said: "I am the first of the daughters of the great King: if you make me your friend, I will be able to make you familiar with Him. For no one has greater confidence with Him than I: because it was I who persuaded Him to descend from heaven to earth and to take on human flesh." Therefore St. John, devoting himself entirely to almsgiving, was seen after death by the hermit Sabinus, being led by that same virgin to the throne of the Most High King. Moreover, from this vision he became so beneficent that, when on a certain day no one had asked him for a kindness, he said mournfully and with sighs: "Today wretched John has received no recompense from anyone, nor has he been able to offer even the smallest atonement to Christ for his many and great offenses. What is this less than — or rather should I say even greater than — that saying of the Emperor Titus: 'Today we have not reigned, because we have bestowed a kindness on no one.'" So says Leontius.
In a similar manner, wisdom and chastity, like two beautiful virgin sisters, appeared in a vision to St. Gregory Nazianzen, as I mentioned above.
Conversely, virtues flee from the infamous and wicked. Thus Astræa, that is, Justice, is said by the poets to have flown away to heaven, indignant at the growth of vices, and there to have been transformed into the sign of Libra. Hence Ovid, Metamorphoses I:
"And the virgin Astræa, last of the celestials, left the lands dripping with slaughter."
And Seneca in the Octavia:
"Neglected, she fled the lands and the fierce customs of men, and hands polluted with bloody slaughter."
Therefore we must cultivate, venerate, love, and devote ourselves to wisdom and the virtues, and obey them; thus we will make wisdom our friend and companion: for she loves back those who love and cultivate her, but conversely she spurns, flees, and turns away from those who neglect and despise her. This is what Isaiah says, 59:14: "Judgment is turned back, and justice stands far off: because truth has fallen in the street, and equity could not enter."
Hence the Son of God descended from heaven to bring back mercy and justice, which were exiled and fugitive.
Third, Jansenius took these not as duties of man, but as rewards to be given by God to one who keeps His laws, as if to say: If you keep God's precepts, God's mercy and truth will never forsake you. For in Hebrew it is אל יעזבוך al iaazbucha, that is, "they will not forsake you," in the future tense (although the Hebrews often take the future for the imperative or optative. Hence our translator and others aptly render it, "let them not forsake you"). In this sense the Syriac translates: "for length of days and years of life will be added to you; and peace, and kindness, and truth will not leave you." And Aben-Ezra explains it thus, as if to say: If your heart keeps my precepts, God will send forth truth and mercy, so that you may be preserved by them, in such a way that they will never be torn from you: for which reason bind them, etc., that is, never consign this to oblivion. And R. Levi says: The words insinuate nothing else than that God is the parent and author of truth and piety.
BIND THEM ABOUT YOUR NECK. — The Septuagint and Aquila have, "tie them upon your neck"; the Syriac and Chaldean, "bind them on your neck"; St. Chrysostom, in his argument on the Epistle to the Philippians, says, "fit them about your neck": "Just as," he says, "the children of the rich wear a golden pendant about their neck, and never lay it aside, since they wear it as the badge of their nobility, so too we must always be clothed with almsgiving, to show that we are children of a merciful and kind Father, who makes His sun rise upon the good and the evil." And below: "Let us adorn ourselves with this ornament. Let us make a golden necklace (I mean almsgiving) as long as we are here. For as soon as this age has passed, there will no longer be any use for it." See what I said about the necklace in chapter 1, verse 9.
In a similar way, Plato in the Cratylus says: arete, that is, virtue, is so called, as if hairete, because it is to be chosen above all things as the most excellent good. Or as if aei rheon, that is, because it always flows with a certain equable and consistent reason without any impediment.
Thus in the Lives of the Fathers, Book VII, chapter 44, in the Meditations of the 12 Anchorites, the eleventh in order applied this daily spur of virtue to himself: "I imagine," he said, "that virtues are personified beings who surround and encompass me on every side, so that after death they may testify before God that they found rest in me."
Therefore the necklace: first, signifies that mercy and truth should be most familiar to us and most closely joined to us, like a garment; second, that we are adorned by them, as the neck is adorned with a golden necklace; third, that they make us freeborn, generous, and noble: for a necklace is a symbol of free birth and nobility. Hence St. Gregory, in the Decretals, section Prudentes, title 24, On Donations: "Nobility," he says, "imposes this law upon itself, as it were, that it considers itself to owe what it freely gives, and unless it has grown in its benefactions, it thinks it has accomplished nothing."
Fourth, necklaces in ancient times contained amulets against poisons and enchantment: thus mercy dissipates all enchantments and the malice of hatred and envy: for beneficence befriends enemies as well as friends.
Fifth, a necklace is a sign of sovereignty: thus beneficence and justice befit and make princes, according to Christ's words: "The kings of the nations lord it over them, and those who have power over them are called benefactors," Luke 22:25. "Generosity," says Lactantius, "liberality, and magnificence are royal praises." And St. Jerome, Book I on Matthew: "He who is a slave to riches," he says, "guards riches as a slave; but he who has cast off the yoke of slavery distributes them as a master."
Sixth, a necklace is a sign of fortitude, military service, combat, and victory, as I said from Bede and St. Gregory in chapter 1, verse 9. It therefore signifies that one must fight faithfully and strenuously for the duties of mercy and truth until death, especially against enmities and hatreds, so that one does not allow himself to be overcome by them, but overcomes evil with good, and thus conquers enemies with kindnesses and makes them friends.
AND WRITE THEM ON THE TABLETS OF YOUR HEART. — It is customary among the Hebrews not to dwell on a single simile, but to add one after another: thus here he has compared mercy and truth, first, to companions or tutors, who now lead the youth and now forsake him; second, to a necklace, which encircles and adorns the throat and neck; third, here to an inscription written on the heart. And there is a gradation: for a necklace adheres to a person more than companions do, and an inscription on the heart more than a necklace: to signify that mercy and truth should be most familiar and intimate to a person, and engraved on the inmost heart. He calls the tablet of the heart the heart itself, which is flat and spread out like a tablet: for in ancient times, before the use of paper, they wrote on tablets, especially waxed ones. Hence Symmachus translates: "write it upon your breast."
Second, Dionysius says: "Bind them about your neck," that is, he says, preach them to others also, so that they too may by no means abandon mercy and truth, and in this regard "lift up your voice like a trumpet," as Isaiah says (58:1), and as Hosea (8:1): "Let there be a trumpet in your throat," so that you may say with St. Job (31): "I have not given my throat over to sin."
Third, plainly and genuinely, Jansenius says: "Bind them about your neck," that is, he says, let them be firmly and everywhere present with you, and always before your eyes; like something that is wrapped around the neck and hangs from it, which encircles a person on every side and is always before his eyes.
Cajetan adds: "Bind them upon your neck," that is, always have them before your eyes, like something hanging from both sides of the neck that is always kept before the eyes. For just as, he says, the neck joins the body to the head, so human endeavor joins the body of human actions to its head, which is the light of right reason. Virtues are commanded to be bound to the neck, that is, to human endeavors and human efforts, so that they do not forsake man, so that they do not escape exercise. Therefore bind them about your neck, that is, embrace them most closely, gird and adorn yourself with them, so that like familiar companions they are always and everywhere present to you, and honor and adorn you. This alludes to Deuteronomy 6:8: "You shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be and shall move between your eyes."
Moreover, a tablet is a symbol of breadth and expansion, and signifies that these virtues should be inscribed on the whole breadth of the heart, so that the heart in its entirety, however great it is, may absorb these virtues and expend them most broadly upon neighbors. Hence, just as the heart is capable of containing the whole world, so also the charity and mercy of the heart should embrace the whole world. Hence for plakes, that is, "tablets," some reading platos, that is, "breadth," translate: "write them upon the breadth of your heart." Thus St. Jerome on Habakkuk chapter 2 (who also explains it thus: "He is commanded to write more plainly, so that the reader may run, and no obstacle may hold back his speed and eagerness to read").
If virtue or a discourse on virtue does not proceed from the heart, it is not true but feigned and counterfeit. Again, the ancients inscribed on the pendant of the heart the name of their God or friend, whom they loved supremely, so that they might always have him before their eyes, always in their heart, as I showed at Jeremiah 17:1, on the passage: "The sin of Judah is written with an iron pen, engraved on the breadth of their heart." It therefore signifies that mercy and truth should be so dear to us as friends that they are inscribed on the pendant of the heart, according to what he says in chapter 7, verse 3: "Bind it on your fingers, write it on the tablets of your heart. Say to wisdom: You are my sister, and call prudence your friend." These last words about sister and friend are likewise found inserted in this passage in some Bibles.
In a similar way, the Bridegroom says to the Bride, in the Song of Songs 8: "Place Me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm." Where St. Gregory says: "In the heart," he says, "are thoughts, in the arm are works. Therefore the Beloved is placed as a seal upon the heart and upon the arm of the Bride, because in the holy soul, how much He is loved by it is shown both by will and by action."
Wherefore St. John the Almsgiver used to say: "Even if the whole world were to flock to Alexandria seeking alms, neither would God's power be lacking, nor my willingness to give it to each and all. For from daily experience I learn that almsgiving does not impoverish but enriches: for the more I give, the more I receive from God to give." Thus St. Paul, St. Francis Xavier, and similar apostolic men embraced the whole world with the breadth of their heart, and desired and strove to evangelize it and to lead it entirely to Christ.
Hear St. Chrysostom, in his last homily on the Epistle to the Romans: "The heart of Paul was higher than heaven, wider than earth, brighter than a sunbeam, hotter than fire, firmer than diamond. A heart living a new life rather than this life of ours. 'I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me,' he says. Therefore Christ's heart was Paul's heart, the tablet of the Holy Spirit, the cauldron of grace," etc. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Inscribe mercy and truth on tablets not of stone, on which the law of Moses was inscribed, but of flesh, on which Christ inscribes His law through grace, as the Apostle teaches (2 Corinthians 3), namely inscribe and impress them on your heart throughout its entire tablet, that is, its breadth, so that you may love them with your whole heart, think about them constantly, and everywhere resolve to carry them out in deed. See what I said about almsgiving at Deuteronomy 26:12, where I enumerated twenty notable fruits of it.
"Tablet of the heart" could also be taken metonymically as a pendant or locket, which hung from the necklace encircling the neck and rested over the heart, as if to say: Let these virtues so encircle and adorn your mouth, face, and neck that at the same time they are inscribed on the pendant of the heart: by which is signified that every thought and word about them that is formed by mouth and head should have a connection with the heart, indeed its origin from the heart: for unless virtue or a discourse on virtue proceeds from the heart, it is not true, but feigned and counterfeit.
4. AND YOU WILL FIND GRACE AND GOOD UNDERSTANDING BEFORE GOD AND MEN. — The Syriac and Chaldean have, "and you will find mercy (the Chaldean has, grace), kindness, and good understanding." By "good understanding" or "good discipline," understand a good composure of morals, from which a person is recognized as well-instructed, composed, well-mannered, prudent, and intelligent. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: If you obey my counsels, you will be gracious in the eyes of God and of the Angels as well as of men; moreover you will cause your discipline, both of mind and of action, that is, your composure of morals both internal and external, to please God as well as men. Hence the Septuagint, for ישכל vesekel, that is, "and discipline" or "understanding," reading with different vowel points ישכר vaskel, by crasis for והשכל vehaskel, translate in the same sense: "provide things good before God and men"; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have, "look carefully to good things," which St. Paul followed when he said (2 Corinthians 8:21): "We provide things good not only before God, but also before men." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: If you do the things I have said, you will be gracious, and will provide, that is, you will foresee, good things, that is, good discipline, composure of morals, edification before God and men, so that before them you may appear composed in morals, endowed with virtue and wisdom, prudent and intelligent, and be judged such by all. you may be esteemed, praised, and celebrated by all. Note the word "look carefully": for it signifies that every work by a wise and prudent person should, with respect to all its parts, circumstances, modes, reasons, and intentions, be so thoroughly examined, moderated, and arranged both internally and externally on every side, that nothing in it is defective, incongruous, unseemly, or excessive, nothing that could be criticized or reproved, so that it may be like a perfect image, which in all its features is so well-proportioned on every side and exactly shaped that nothing is lacking or superfluous in it, and therefore nothing in it can be found fault with or criticized. Thus therefore in every work examine everything, and like Argus survey it with a hundred eyes, and arrange each thing so harmoniously that you may say with Apelles: "I paint for eternity; I live, I work for eternity."
Second Part: On Trust, Honor, and Worship of God
From the thesis he descends to the hypothesis, namely after the general precept of mercy and justice he passes to particular precepts of the virtues, which from that first general precept are drawn out like conclusions from their principle. He begins, however, with religion and the worship of God, because this is the first virtue, the source and mother of all others, and because one must everywhere begin with God, especially in Ethics, according to Nazianzen's saying: "From You is the beginning, to You shall it end." And that of St. Augustine, Confessions I, 15: "Behold, You, O Lord, my King and my God, may whatever useful thing I have learned serve You, may what I speak, and write, and count serve You."
Verse 5: Have Confidence in the Lord with All Your Heart
5. HAVE CONFIDENCE (the Syriac and Chaldean have, "hope") IN THE LORD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND LEAN NOT ON YOUR OWN PRUDENCE. — The Syriac has, "on the wisdom of your soul, but on God's grace"; the Septuagint, "be confident with your whole heart in God, and do not be exalted in your own wisdom"; the Roman edition, "do not be exalted"; the Arabic, "do not be lifted up"; Symmachus, "do not be self-confident," as if to say: Lean on God, and devote yourself entirely to Him, not to your own prudence, says Aben-Ezra; and attribute and acknowledge everything as due to God's providence, not your own, says R. Levi. Vatablus and Pagninus say: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your understanding; others say: do not lean and rest on your prudence as on a staff (for this is properly what the Hebrew ישען iissaen signifies), just as the father of Scipio, growing old, leaned on his son as on a staff; hence the son was called Scipio, as if to say: Let your staff be not your own talent, not your own counsel, but hope in God; for if you lean on God as on a staff, you will stand firm in every action: for all else is a reed-staff, as Isaiah says (36:6) and Ezekiel (29).
It is a general maxim teaching that in any matter, action, tribulation, expectation, danger, fear, etc., in order that there may be a happy outcome or result, all hope must be placed in God, and this with the whole heart, and one must not lean on one's own prudence — that is, so as to think that it alone suffices for you, or to place the principal parts and importance of accomplishing the task in it: for these must be placed in God. Therefore you are forbidden here to trust yourself and your own talent and counsel so much that you distrust or have less trust in God. Otherwise it is prudent to trust God in such a way that you nevertheless also apply your mind to counsel and your hand to the work: for God and nature and grace command this.
For prudence is the eye and guide of the soul and of all its movements and actions. Hence "prudent" (prudens) is said as if "seeing far ahead" (porro vel procul videns), and "prudence" (prudentia) as if "far-seeing" or "providence" (providentia), says St. Thomas, following Isidore and Boethius, II-II, Question 47, article 1, and Question 49, article 6. Here applies that saying of St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Distichs: "When God gives, envy can do nothing; when He refuses, labor can do nothing." And that of St. Basil in the Monastic Constitutions, chapter 16: "For the perfect summit of virtue, both of these must be joined together: human effort, and heavenly help obtained and secured through the work of faith." And chapter 17: "The mind should attribute to the Lord the causes why those things happen thus, and should not at all suppose that there is anything which it can attain by the capacity of its own powers, etc. Moreover, humility is the safest treasury of all virtues." Most especially, however, this maxim has its place in obtaining wisdom and virtue. For since this is a gift of God, and in the faithful and saints a supernatural one, it certainly transcends the powers and prudence of man. Hence it must be hoped for and sought from God, yet in such a way that you cooperate and collaborate with God as He works. Wherefore Salonius and Bede think that Solomon says these things to raise up the timidity and diffidence of his disciple, as if to say: Do not think that these precepts of wisdom and virtue which I am about to give exceed your powers, nor despair that you can attain wisdom and virtue, arduous and heavenly as they are: only hope in God, and beg it from Him with your whole heart, and He Himself will bestow it on you; therefore do not lean on your own prudence, as if by it and your own powers and counsels you must acquire it: God is its bestower, He Himself will freely grant it to those who ask and collaborate with Him. Therefore impious and proud was that philosopher's saying about God:
"Let Him give me strength, let Him give me wealth; a calm mind I will prepare for myself."
For it is God who illuminates the mind, elevates the will, inspires strength, and just as the wind blowing on a ship propels it happily to the harbor of salvation, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches in Homily 34 on the Epistle to the Hebrews. And St. Basil, in his homily On the Holy Spirit: "Give me," he says, "an empty ship, a helmsman, sailors, ropes, anchors, everything arranged, and no wind anywhere; does not every apparatus, whatever it is, become idle if the operation of the spirit is lacking?"
"Thus even if there is an ample supply of eloquence, a profound mind, and skill of speech, and understanding, if the Holy Spirit who furnishes the power is not present, all is idle." The same, Oration 7 On Virtue and Vice: "Blessed," he says, "is he who has deprived himself of all hope in the things of this world (for as he also says, Letter 19 to Gregory Nazianzen: 'The hopes of mortals are the dreams of those awake'), and has fixed and placed all his hope in God alone. For just as he is accursed who places his hope in man, so he is worthy of all praise who depends entirely on God. For hope that is placed in God does not allow itself to be established in anything else, nor does it wish help to be brought to it from elsewhere, etc., but one must truly rest in God's help." The same, Oration 20: "Just as it is right that we render worship to none other than God alone, so also we should place our hope in nothing other than God, the Lord of all things." The same, Homily 8 on the Hexaemeron, gives as an example of hope the halcyon bird, for which God calms the sea and winds while it sits on its eggs beside the seashore in the middle of winter: "All winds become silent," he says, "and are lulled to sleep, the waves are stilled, the swelling seas are calmed for seven full days while the halcyon sits on her eggs. All sailors know this, and call those days the halcyon days. What then could not be obtained from God, even beyond the hope of all, for your sake, whom He Himself created in His own image, when for the sake of so small a bird the sea so vast, so terrible and fierce, is commanded to be calm and be still in the middle of winter?" This is what Jeremiah says (17:7): "Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and the Lord shall be his confidence," etc. See what I said there. Finally, the saying "lean not on your own prudence" St. Dorotheus, Sermon 5, attributes to Religious, and teaches that they should allow themselves to be governed by God through their Superiors in all things and through all things.
6. IN ALL YOUR WAYS THINK ON HIM, AND HE HIMSELF WILL DIRECT YOUR STEPS. — For "think," the Hebrew is דעהו daehu, that is, "know" or "acknowledge Him." So also the Syriac and Chaldean. Vatablus has, "in all your affairs acknowledge Him," that is, His presence, power, majesty, providence, goodness, justice, vengeance, etc. It is a metalepsis: for from the thought are understood reverence, obedience, hope, and love; for these are begotten by attentive thought and meditation on God, on His divine power. Think therefore, that is, by thinking hope in, revere, worship, and love Him as Creator, Governor, Lord, Judge everywhere present and beholding all your acts. Think, I say, on God everywhere and always, either actually or virtually, so that by the force of this thought you are kept from evil and impelled toward every good, especially toward the fear of God, hope, and love; for the discourse on hope has preceded. Therefore think, that is, first, frequently (for "cogito" is a frequentative verb from "cogo," says Festus) set before your mind, hope in, and invoke God: for if you do this, He Himself will direct your steps.
Second, "think," that is, fear and revere God who is everywhere present, lest you commit anything that offends the eyes of such great majesty; but rather do all things that delight them. Hence Boethius: "A great necessity of uprightness is imposed on us, since we do all things in the eyes of God who sees everything." For "to think" (cogitare) is said from "cogo" (I compel): "For compelling the mind to recall what is stored in it is called thought (cogitatio)," says Isidore, Book I of the Sentences, chapter 15; moreover, "cogo" is said as if "coago," that is, "I act as one." For the thought of the divine presence compels us to fear and worship Him: for thought is of a thing present, memory of a thing absent. Thus St. Isidore, On the Difference of Mind and Memory, chapter 1: "Memory," he says, "recalls past things, the mind foresees future things, thought embraces present things."
Third, "think," that is, direct God in all your acts, so that you may refer all to Him as to your aim and end, and in all things strive to please Him. Thus Lyranus and Cajetan think that here a right intention in all things is commanded; for this directs our steps toward the right end.
Fourth, "think" on Him, that is, on His working and grace, so that you may refer all good things received to Him as the giver of all, and claim nothing for yourself. Thus Hugh. Hence St. Jerome, Dialogue 3 Against the Pelagians, from this proves the necessity of grace. Hence the Arabic translates: "acknowledge wisdom, so that it may direct your ways."
Fifth, "think," that is, represent to yourself God, and the will of God, His life and law, as the norm of your actions, to which you must conform all things exactly; and thus God, as the norm and rule, will most rightly direct all your steps and acts. Thus David thought on God everywhere, saying in Psalm 15: "I set the Lord always in my sight; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved." The same precept the dying Tobias gave to his son, chapter 4: "All the days of your life," he said, "have God in your mind, and take care that you never consent to sin and neglect the precepts of the Lord our God." Thus Elijah and Elisha: "As the Lord lives," they say, "in whose sight I stand" (3 Kings 17:1, and 4 Kings 3:14); and St. Job, chapter 31: "Does not God consider my ways, and number all my steps?" For constant meditation on the divine presence most powerfully establishes the mind in God.
This was formerly, and still is, the chief duty and exercise of ascetics and Religious, to think on God always and everywhere, and to converse with Him as if He were present. Hence Abba Allois in the Lives of the Fathers, Book V, booklet 11, number 5: "Unless," he says, "a man has said in his heart: 'I and God alone are in this world,' he will not have rest." And again: "If a man wills it, in a single day until evening he attains the measure of divinity." In the same place, Abba Bessarion says: "A monk should be entirely an eye, like the Cherubim and Seraphim," who ceaselessly behold, love, and glorify God. And Abba Daniel: "For who takes God from us? No one. to bestow full and perfect good things on all creatures." Thus St. Augustine, Confessions, Book 11, chapter 2: "When," he says, "shall the pen's tongue suffice to declare all Your exhortations, and all Your terrors, and consolations, and guidances by which You have led me," etc.?
Thus St. Anthony, according to St. Athanasius: "The only method," he says, "of conquering the enemy is spiritual joy, and the constant remembrance of the soul always thinking on the Lord, which drives away the tricks of demons like smoke." And: "The security of the soul is the judgment of the present majesty." Hence theologians teach that for acting well, the just person does not have sufficient infused or acquired habits of grace and virtues, but additionally needs the actual motion, influx, help, and direction of God, especially in difficult and heroic acts, and for overcoming grave temptations. Indeed they hold that the just person in every meritorious act needs the actual motion of the Holy Spirit, because in the Council of Palestine, which St. Augustine often cites Against Pelagius, it was defined that "grace is given for individual acts"; and the Apostle says: "Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God, who works in us both to will and to accomplish" (2 Corinthians 3). Thus Dionysius. and again, in the cell, God is present." And Abba Theonas, number 12: "Because our mind is hindered and called back from the contemplation of God, for that reason we are led captive in carnal passions." And Abba John: "Just as, when it rains, trees put forth branches, so when the Holy Spirit descends into the hearts of the Saints, they grow green as it were and are renewed, and put forth leaves in the fear of God." Hence Abba Silvanus while working did not attend to the work, because his mind was absorbed in the contemplation of God. In the same place, number 31, Abba Serapion: "Just as," he says, "the soldiers of the Emperor, when they stand before him, must not look to the right or left: so also the monk, when he stands in the sight of God and is attentive every hour in fear of Him, there is nothing by which the enemy's evils can terrify him." In the same place, number 35, Abba Hyperichius: "Let your thought," he says, "always be in the kingdom of heaven, and you will quickly receive it as your inheritance." And: "Let the life of a monk be fashioned after the imitation of the Angels, burning and consuming sins." And another, number 42: "Just as no one can harm one who is at the side of the Emperor, so Satan cannot harm us if our soul clings to God"; for it is written, Zechariah 1: "Draw near to Me, and I will draw near to you." I said more on this subject at Genesis 17:1 and following.
AND HE HIMSELF WILL DIRECT YOUR STEPS. — The word "and" denotes first a likeness and reciprocity, as if to say: Think on God, and He in turn will likewise think on you, to direct your steps toward all prosperity, holiness, and happiness, according to what Christ said to St. Catherine of Siena: "Daughter, always think on Me, and I will think on you." You, that you may obey and serve Me; I, that I may direct you, protect you, and advance you in every grace and glory.
Second, it denotes a reward and recompense as if from a promise and pact. For here and elsewhere God makes a kind of pact with us, by which He promises and as it were obliges Himself to direct all our actions so that they may achieve a happy and holy result, if we think on Him, resolving to please and obey Him in all things, following the father of our faith Abraham, to whom God said: "Walk before Me, and be perfect" (Genesis 17:1). Tobias likewise admonished his son, chapter 4, verse 20: "At all times," he said, "bless God; and ask Him to direct your ways, and that all your counsels may remain in Him." Thus the Saints in all things ask and obtain that they may be directed by God, that they may have God as the charioteer presiding over their soul, driving all its movements and acts. Thus David, to whom his son Solomon alludes here, Psalm 118: "Direct my steps according to Your word." And he frequently repeats the same in that psalm. And Psalm 22: "The Lord," he says, "rules me" — as a shepherd rules his sheep, hence in Hebrew it is, "God pastures me," or, "God is my shepherd" — "nothing shall be lacking to me: for He has placed me in the place of pasture." Citing these words, Philo, in Book I of On Agriculture, says: "It is impossible," he says, "that any benefit should be lacking where God presides, accustomed as He is to bestow full and perfect good things on all creatures."
Verse 7: Be Not Wise in Your Own Eyes
7. BE NOT WISE IN YOUR OWN EYES. — In Hebrew, "in your own eyes," namely that in them and in your vain opinion you seem to yourself to be wiser than others. For this is self-love, proud presumption, and excessive self-esteem. The Arabic has, "be not understanding in your own soul"; the Septuagint, "be not prudent in your own eyes"; which the Apostle followed, Romans 12:16: "Be not wise," he says, "in your own eyes." Where I reviewed four expositions. Thus Jansenius; Lyranus and Baynus explain it as if to say: "Do not be persuaded by vain exaltation that you are wise or prudent"; Hugh: "Do not invent new opinions and prefer them to others'"; Cajetan: do not pass judgment on your own wisdom; Vatablus: do not consider yourself wise. R. Solomon son of Isaac adds: "Be not wise in your own estimation," he says, "so as to neglect the words of those by whom you have been reproved"; Aben-Ezra: "So as to boast: 'With my wisdom as guide I will take the right path'"; R. Levi: "So as to give yourself over to sloth and omit the study of wisdom because you seem to yourself to be wise enough." Moreover Bede says: "This seems to be the same commandment as the one that preceded: 'Lean not on your own prudence'; but there is a great difference. For he leans on his own prudence who prefers what seems to him to be done or said over the decrees of the Fathers. But he is wise in his own eyes who, in those things which he could rightly know from the teaching of the Fathers, exalts himself above the rest as though he were more learned." Cajetan however says: "This pertains to judgment, while the former pertains to trust."
This is the source of all errors and heresies, namely that their authors seem to themselves wiser than others, and therefore refuse to yield and believe the teaching of the Church and of the Doctors; about whom Isaiah says (5:21): "Woe to you who are wise in your own eyes, and prudent before yourselves!"
Truly Climacus, Step 3: "In those," he says, "who trust themselves, the devil often becomes a prophet."
Therefore true wisdom, says St. James (3:17), is modest and humble; it does not know itself, because it does not look at or reflect upon itself, according to Paul's saying (1 Corinthians 3:18): "If anyone among you seems to be wise, let him become a fool that he may be wise." Indeed even Plutarch says: "The more you progress in philosophy, the less you will swell with pride."
FEAR GOD, AND DEPART FROM EVIL. — These words pertain first to the saying "have confidence in the Lord" which preceded in verse 5. For fear must be joined to hope, says Bede, so that as much as hope elevates the soul, so much fear may depress it, and thus the soul may stand in the right balance of virtue, like a millstone in which the upper stone rests upon and is supported by the lower; for the upper stone represents hope, the lower fear. Second, these words pertain to what immediately preceded: "Be not wise in your own eyes," because nothing so restrains and suppresses pride and arrogant presumption of wisdom as the fear of God, which humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Hence the Apostle (Romans 11:20): "Be not high-minded, but fear." And Ecclesiasticus 25:14: "The fear of God has set itself above all things." See what I said there.
8. FOR IT WILL BE HEALTH TO YOUR NAVEL (the Syriac has, "to your flesh"), AND REFRESHMENT TO YOUR BONES. — "Refreshment," that is, marrow, says R. Solomon, according to Job 21:24: "His bones are moistened with marrow." The Septuagint has, "and it will be health to your body, and healing to your bones." For "refreshment," the Syriac and Symmachus translate piotes, that is, fatness, namely marrow; Theodotion, katabrikhe, that is, a drenching; Aquila, potizmos, that is, irrigation or drink; and this is what the Hebrew שקוי siccui properly signifies; the Septuagint has epimeleia, that is, care, or bodily care and exercise, for example, by which athletes exercised the body for strength and wrestling. Hence from epimeleia comes emmeleia, that is, gracefulness. Hence aptly, says St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 20, the mother of St. Basil was called Emmelia, because she was so composed in her manners that she seemed to be gracefulness itself, and she instilled this in her son St. Basil along with her milk.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Your whole body will be healthy. For the health of the body depends especially on the health both of the softer parts lacking bones, namely the vital organs — the heart, liver, spleen, and viscera — which are near the navel, and of the navel itself; and of the harder parts, namely the bones, which are as it were the foundations and pillars of our house and microcosm. The health of the bones is irrigated, nourished, fed, and strengthened by the fatness of the marrow; hence when that is lacking, the bones dry up, from which follows the wasting and corruption of the person. Therefore Galen calls the bones the foundations of the body, and counts more than three hundred of them in man: he asserts that the proper nourishment of the bones is the marrow; hence all animals have hollow bones for storing marrow, except the lion which has solid bones, so that they have little or no marrow. Among the bones he asserts that the spine is preeminent; and that the brain is the origin of the spinal marrow as well as of the nerves: for from the spinal marrow arise thirty pairs of nerves, and from these come the powers in the lower parts. The navel connects the upper members with the lower. Again, the fetus in the mother's womb draws and sucks nourishment through the navel and is nourished by it. Hence these are Galen's pronouncements about the navel: "The navel is precisely in the middle of the human body. The navel of the fetus is continuous with the navel of the mother. By the navel the fetus is bound and through it nourished. At the navel is the conjunction of four vessels; for at the navel two veins and two primary arteries are joined. Through the navel the fetus in the womb passes urine." For these reasons the navel is a symbol of the whole body, and represents it, of which the bones are the foundations and pillars. Therefore, literally and grammatically, it signifies that the whole body and the whole person will be healthy, vigorous, and strong; but through this, symbolically it represents that the whole soul and all its parts will be healthy, vigorous, and strong. For it is a proverb in which the fear of the Lord is compared to the health of the navel and the marrow of the bones.
The meaning therefore is, as if he should say: Just as if the navel is healthy and the marrow of the bones is healthy, the whole body will be healthy and strong with all its members: so likewise, if in you there is a healthy and sound fear of God, it will cause your whole soul to be healthy and strong, and all its parts, both noble and ignoble, both weak and strong, and especially your appetite, which is as it were the navel of the soul, and your reason, mind, and spirit, which are as it were the bones of the soul sustaining it — it will heal, nurture, strengthen, and perfect them. For just as through the navel the fetus is joined to the mother and draws nourishment from her: so likewise the soul through the fear of God is joined to God and draws and absorbs from Him all grace, health, and strength. Thus R. Levi and Jansenius. Hence that passage about Behemoth, Job 40:11: "His strength is in his loins, and his power is in the navel of his belly." And by the irrigation of the bones through the fatness of the marrow is signified in Job a person's good health, Job 21: "His bowels," he says, "are full of fat, and his bones are moistened with marrow." Conversely, by the dryness of the bones is designated poor health, in the same author, Job 30: "My skin," he says, "is blackened upon me, and my bones are dried up with heat." And the Psalmist, Psalm 101: "My bones are dried up like fuel." For the marrow of the bones is their nourishment and support. Therefore metaphorically, by this saying it is signified that he who does the aforesaid will be of good constitution, especially according to soul and mind, and all the powers of his soul will be firm and healthy, and they will be healed and strengthened by God's grace, and refreshed by being irrigated with the fatness and richness of heavenly graces, according to Psalm 62: "Let my soul be filled as with fat and richness."
Some explain it not badly thus: Through the fear of God there is health for the navel, because through it evil desires and lust are restrained, which thrive in and around the navel; and there is irrigation of the bones, because through it all the members of the body and all the powers of the soul are rendered apt and agile for works of virtue. A similar figure, as far as the irrigation of the bones is concerned, is Ecclesiasticus 26: "The grace of a diligent wife will delight her husband, and will fatten his bones." And Proverbs 15: "A good reputation fattens the bones." Thus Jansenius and Hugh. For the navel, or the loins, just as they are the origin of seed, so they are a symbol of concupiscence, says Pierius, Hieroglyphics 34, chapter 34. Hence that passage in Ezekiel 16:4: "Your navel was not cut." See what I said there. Therefore fittingly by the navel you may understand the concupiscible power of the soul, and by the bones the irascible, in which is fortitude, which the bones represent; for the fear of God heals, invigorates, and directs both.
Second, specifically, by the navel the stomach can be understood: for it is adjacent to or lies beneath the navel; and by the stomach, the conscience. For when the stomach is healthy, good digestion of food takes place, by which the whole body is properly nourished and strengthened. So likewise, if through the fear of God the conscience is healthy, it will digest by rumination the word of God, which is the food of the soul, so that in it all its powers and faculties may be nourished. Again, just as by pills, that is, by sharp and biting tablets, the phlegmatic, bilious, and other harmful humors are purged from the stomach and viscera, and once these are expelled the body remains healthy: so likewise, through the fear of hell and God's vengeance, which is sharp and biting, all harmful desires are expelled from the conscience, and once these are cast out the soul remains healthy and whole. Therefore everyone should pray with the Psalmist: "Pierce my flesh with Your fear; for I have feared Your judgments." This is what Theodoret says, Book I of On the Cure of Greek Affections: "The fear of God is the best medicine, which is compounded from evils, as happens in antidotes"; for antidotes are compounded from poison, namely from the viper. For as Isaiah says (26:18), according to the Septuagint: "Through Your fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and we have been in labor, and we have brought forth the spirit of salvation."
Third, the navel signifies the middle, because the navel is the middle of the human body. Hence the navel is named from umbo, which is the central boss of a shield; for the navel is the ligament of the intestines, which occupies roughly the middle of the flat surface of the belly; it was made for the purpose that through it the fetus in the mother's womb might be nourished. Hence Reate is called the navel, that is, the center, of Italy. And Cicero, in Action 6 Against Verres: "And he said that Libera, whom they also call Proserpina, was snatched from the grove of Enna, which place, because it is situated in the middle of the island, is called the navel of Sicily." And Livy, Book 5, calls Aetolia the navel of Greece. The navel therefore signifies the moderation to be observed in all actions, and the mean in which virtue consists; and if you deviate from it toward the extremes, you will fall into vice.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: If you fear God and depart from evil, that is, from vice, there will be health for your navel, that is, your action and virtue will be healthy and perfect in every respect, which, fleeing the extremes of vices, consists in the navel, that is, in the mean.
Fourth, the navel, because of the neighboring loins, belly, and genitals, represents "the faculty of generating spiritually," says Hugh, "through the preaching of the word, which doctors possess; and he says that this will be healthy, because their doctrine and ardent zeal will be healthy." Hence of the bride it is said in the Song of Songs 7: "Your navel is like a rounded bowl that never lacks drink," that is, others, whose stomach and belly grow cold, need a drink of wine to bring warmth; but not so you, in whose heart charity and zeal so greatly burn and blaze."
Moreover, he fittingly composes and compares the navel with the bones, because just as the rest of the body is held together by bones and sinews, so the belly is bound by the navel as by a knot and chain. Hence its rupture is fatal. Hence in Hebrew it is called שורך schorar, that is, a linked knot.
Mystically, first, Lyranus says: The health of the navel is a good disposition of the soul, namely moderation in prosperity; the marrow of the bones is strength and constancy in adversity. Second, Bede: "The weakness of works, symbolized by the navel," he says, "recovers through the fear of God to the state of perfection. Through the same, the bones are irrigated, that is, the powers and strength of the soul are refreshed and strengthened," to overcome all labors, temptations, and difficulties without weariness: for in those who are exhausted and broken by excessive toil, the marrow of the bones tends to diminish and gradually be consumed. Hence St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 20, compares St. Basil to Achilles, whom the poets imagine to have been raised by the centaur Chiron and nourished on the marrow of lions and stags. For far better and more holily was St. Basil raised by the fear of God as his tutor, and from it he drew and imbibed both the holy boldness of lions and the pious timidity of stags. Thus Nicetas in the same place, and from him our Salazar. Third, the author of the Greek Catena says: The bones of the soul are its stronger and firmer powers, each of which, in order to perform its function properly, needs particular care and diligence. To memory pertains that saying: "I remembered God, and was delighted." To the mind and contemplative part of the soul, that: "I considered Your works, O Lord, and was astonished." To the desiring portion of the same, that: "Before You, O Lord, is all my desire." To the reasoning faculty, finally, that: "I considered the days of old," and what follows. Moreover, by the body we may understand the entire aggregate of all the soul's faculties: "All my bones (says the Prophet) shall say: Lord, Lord, who is like You?" Therefore care for and devotion to the virtues will preserve your entire and healthy way of life; and the grace and kindness of God will bestow health on your body. Anagogically, our bodies in this present life are weak and diseased; for the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit in turn fights against the flesh; but when that which was sown in corruption has once risen from the dust of the earth, it will immediately be restored to perfect health. The perfect healing of human bones will at last come to pass when bone shall come together to bone, and joint to joint, and frame to frame. For then, according to the Prophet's prediction, our bones shall flourish like the grass of the field. Otherwise: Then, he says, your body will obtain the activity of perfect justice, blooming indeed already then, and splendidly shining with the joyful color and beauty of virtues. And for your thoughts, which like bones bind the soul within, full healing will come from God. So says he.
Verse 9: Honor the Lord from Your Substance
9. HONOR (the Chaldean has, "glorify") THE LORD FROM YOUR SUBSTANCE, AND GIVE HIM OF THE FIRST-FRUITS OF ALL YOUR PRODUCE (the Syriac has, "fruits"). — So the Roman and Hebrew editions. But Bede, Lyranus, and others read, "give to the poor"; the Septuagint has, "honor the Lord from your just labors" (the Chaldean, "from your wealth"; the Syriac, "from your possession"; Vatablus, "from your riches"; Pagninus, "from your wealth"), "and give Him first-fruits from your fruits of justice"; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, "from your produce"; the Hebrew, "from your increase"; St. Augustine, Sermon 1 On Tithes: "Offer Him a portion from your labors."
First, Bede, Lyranus, Hugh, and Dionysius take this as referring to almsgiving, as if to say: Give alms, not so much to help the poor as to honor God through them, namely by doing so with the pure intention of pleasing God alone and honoring Him; and therefore do it with a cheerful, generous, and liberal spirit, and from the first and best fruits, as God commands (Numbers 18:29). "Give Him," that is, give to the poor for the love and honor of God; for the honor of the divine majesty requires that better and greater things be given to Him, not from plunder, but from goods obtained by honest labor, and with a joyful and generous spirit. Finally, it is to God's honor that the rich, whom He Himself has appointed as His vicars, should provide for the poor: for it belongs to God to provide all with necessities; but He has transferred part of His providence to the rich, and therefore gave them riches so that they in turn might through them assist the poor. Therefore when the rich do this, they serve the honor of divine providence, and cause the poor to acknowledge and glorify it. This is what the Apostle says: "The ministry of this service (almsgiving) not only supplies what is lacking to the saints, but also abounds through many thanksgivings to the Lord, glorifying God through the proof of this ministry, etc. Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift" (2 Corinthians 9:12). Thus this passage is explained by St. Augustine (if indeed he is the author), in the book On the Christian Life, chapter 12: "It is better," he says, "for you not to give alms than to strip many by the means with which you clothe a few. God approves that almsgiving which is administered from just labors, as it is written: 'Honor God from your just labors, and offer Him a portion from the fruits of your justice.' For He abhors and rejects that almsgiving which is rendered from the tears of others."
Second, others take this as referring to the offerings, sacrifices, tithes, and first-fruits to be offered to God according to the law; for when the Jews offered these to God, by this very act they declared that they had received these things from God, and therefore acknowledged them as received from Him. Hence they gave first-fruits as the first and best produce, and tithes as the complement of the harvest: to testify that they had received everything from God — first, middle, and last, and therefore all things. First-fruits, says Vatablus, signify the beginning from God, tithes the completion: for God gives the increase and brings to perfection. By this declaration, therefore, they honored and glorified God. Thus St. Jerome on Ezekiel 25, Cyril, Book 2 on John, chapter 92, St. Gregory, Book 7 of the Register, Letter 41: "Whatever," he says, "is offered in God's sacrifice from wickedness does not appease the wrath of Almighty God, but provokes it. Hence it is written: 'Honor the Lord from your just labors.'" Thus also Cajetan, Baynus, Jansenius, R. Solomon, R. Levi, and others.
This meaning is more proper and genuine in this passage, both because through vows, sacrifices, tithes, and first-fruits, God is properly honored: for the offering of these is an act of religion, whose elicited act is to render to God the honor and worship owed to Him; while almsgiving is an act elicited by mercy, which is only subsequently commanded by charity or religion; and because all these things properly pertain to God and teach the acts by which we ought to worship Him, namely by hoping in Him, reverencing Him, and honoring Him through the offerings prescribed by law.
Allegorically, St. Cyril, Book 3 on John, chapter 29, says: Christians in the new law offer to God the fruits of justice, not with corruptible and exterior material, like the Jews, but as true worshipers they worship God in spirit and in truth, as Christ ordained (John 4:22). So also the author of the Greek Catena, who also adds: Allegorically, he offers first-fruits to God who attributes to Him, as the primary author, with a humble and submissive spirit, the cause and praise of all his good deeds, and ascribes nothing whatsoever to himself from all of them; or who from any kind of diligent activity offers something to Him as a firstborn. For example, in the morning when he rises from sleep, in place of first-fruits he brings Him prayer and thanksgiving; from his words he offers Him psalmody as a first offering; and he takes care to observe the same in all other works and actions from which a just offering can be made. Then if he strives to keep every care and thought from early morning until late night pure and uncontaminated from every vice, and assigns every impulse of his will to God. In sum, we are here commanded to offer faithfully to God all the fruits of good works. By the barns and wine-presses he indicates the powers of the sensible appetite; by the grain, the precepts of morals and the decrees of divine wisdom, as well as the hidden meanings of Sacred Scripture; by the cellars, finally, the faculties of the soul which obstinately resist reason: for all of these must be filled with those things which each person has gathered from his mystical harvest or spiritual vintage. So says he.
10. AND YOUR BARNS (Aquila has, "storehouses") WILL BE FILLED WITH ABUNDANCE, AND YOUR WINE-PRESSES WILL OVERFLOW WITH WINE. — The Syriac has, "they shall gush with wine," as if to say: If you honor God by giving alms to the poor, or rather by giving the offerings, tithes, and first-fruits prescribed by law to God, God in turn will give you an abundant harvest of grain and a vintage of grapes, from which you may press many casks of wine in such abundance that the wine overflows and runs over. For by "abundance" is understood plenty of grain and produce, which may amply satisfy the heir and his household. It is a metalepsis or metonymy; for the effect is put for the cause, namely satiety for grain. Hence the Septuagint translates: "so that your storerooms may be filled with an abundance of grain, and your wine-presses may overflow, or run over with wine"; Vatablus and Pagninus, "your wine-presses will burst with wine." For this is what the Hebrew יפרצו iprotsu properly signifies, as if to say: So great will be the abundance of wine that the wine-presses themselves will burst, says Aben-Ezra. St. Jerome, on Ezekiel 45, reads, "your barns will be filled with grain"; St. Augustine, Sermon 1 On Tithes, reads, "your threshing floors will be filled with grain." And he adds: "And there will be in them neither diseases nor losses," as if to say: Your crops will be as plentiful as they are healthy and whole, without blemish or misfortune. St. Isidore reads, "your barns were filled with plenty," a word derived from udders rich with milk. For just as the more milk flows from an udder, the more new milk it admits and receives: so the more riches are spent on almsgiving and offerings to God, the more they will abound. Hence Clement of Alexandria, Book 3 of the Pedagogue, chapter 1: "Generosity," he says, "is the good end of benevolence, and sharing drink with the thirsty is again increased and replenished; just as the more the breasts are suckled or milked, the more copiously the milk tends to flow."
The first reason is that God Himself promised this very thing in this passage and others, as the fitting reward and recompense of piety. Hence Ecclesiasticus 35:11: "Sanctify your tithes," he says. "Give to the Most High according to what He has given, etc., for the Lord is one who repays, and will give you back sevenfold." See what I said there.
The second reason is that those who spend their wealth on pious works use it rightly; therefore they deserve to be its stewards and masters. For this reason God entrusts it to them, as do prudent men: for it is characteristic of the pious to wish to spend their goods most excellently and invest them most usefully. Hence the Hebrews say with an elegant but true wordplay: asar ascar, that is, "the tithe enriches"; namely, if you give tithes to God, He Himself will enrich you. But from the greedy, who hoard their wealth, or the wasteful, who pour it out uselessly or squander it, both God and men deny wealth, indeed take it away. Hence St. Augustine, Homily 1 On Tithes: "This," he says, "is God's just custom, that if you do not give Him a tenth, you will be reduced to a tenth — that is, nine parts of your wealth will be taken away." Thus Cain, who stingily gave his cattle to God, God in turn throws in his face: "The land will not give you its fruits" (Genesis 4).
The third reason is that the nature of produce and wealth demands this, namely that they be expended for the purpose for which God created them — namely for the honor of God and the nourishment of the needy; for this is their end and, as it were, their beatitude. Hence chremata, that is, money, in Greek is derived apo tou chresthai, that is, from "using," because one ought to use them well and spend them holily. Therefore if crops could speak, they would cry out; or if they had wings, they would surely fly to pious men who use them piously and spend them for God's honor.
The fourth reason is that this befits God — namely God's wisdom, justice, and holiness — that He pour out His gifts wisely, justly, and holily upon those who will use them wisely, justly, and holily for God's glory and the nourishment of the poor. Hence He Himself says in Malachi 3:10: "Bring all the tithe into My storehouse, and let there be food in My house, and put Me to the test in this: whether I will not open the floodgates of heaven and pour out upon you blessing in abundance." On which subject I said more in that place.
Mystically, a pious man who worships God with holy works, and who refers all his gifts of mind and body, which he received from God, to His honor, and expends them for His praise and glory, fills the barns of his mind with wisdom, grace, and virtue. Thus R. Levi. Therefore in him is fulfilled spiritually what was fulfilled bodily for the Jews under Hezekiah, whose words these are (2 Chronicles 31:10): "Since the first-fruits began to be offered in the house of the Lord, we have eaten and been satisfied, and very much has remained, because the Lord has blessed His people." Hear St. Cyril, Book 16 on Leviticus: The just man eating fills his soul not with bodily food (for this the just have often lacked and still lack), but with heavenly food, which is the word of God and His wisdom, on which the just always feed.
Verse 11: The Discipline of the Lord, My Son, Do Not Reject
11. THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, MY SON, DO NOT REJECT, NOR FAINT (Aquila, "do not reprove"; the Chaldean, "do not abhor"; Theodotion, "do not censure nor disdain"; the Chaldean, "do not be nauseated"; the Syriac, "do not be wearied") WHEN YOU ARE CORRECTED BY HIM. — The Septuagint has, "my son, do not despise the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied" (in Greek eklyou, that is, do not be dissolved, do not be weakened, do not lose heart) "when corrected by Him"; St. Jerome on Ezekiel 20 reads: "My son, do not be saddened at discipline, nor faint when you are reproved by Him"; St. Cyprian, book On the Dress of Virgins: "My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor fail when corrected by Him"; Pagninus: "The correction of the Lord, my son, do not reject, and do not be wearied by His rebuke"; the Zurich Bible, "the chastisement of the Lord, my son, do not turn away from, nor disdain"; Vatablus, "do not take it ill at His rebuke." Wherefore R. Solomon son of Isaac says: If God wishes you to be troubled by afflictions by which He corrects you, regard these above all as a singular gift of God and be grateful; for just as a father who is eager to do good to his dearly beloved son, after he has struck him with a rod, soon soothes him with caresses, so the good things will seem more pleasant to you after you have been chastened.
12. FOR WHOM THE LORD LOVES, HE CORRECTS (the Septuagint has, "reproves"), AND AS A FATHER HE TAKES DELIGHT IN HIS SON. — The Hebrew has, "and as a father he desires for his son"; or, "and as a father he delights in (chastising) his son"; the Chaldean, "and as a father who corrects (the Syriac, instructs) his son"; Vatablus, "for whom the Lord loves, He rebukes (Pagninus, reproves), and as a father He corrects the son whom He loves dearly"; the Septuagint, however, reading with different vowel points, translates: "for whom the Lord loves, He reproves; and He scourges every son whom He receives."
By "discipline" therefore understand God's correction, both that which is done through the words of God or of His vicars — namely rulers, preachers, confessors, teachers, etc. — and that which is done through the scourges and tribulations sent or permitted by God, whether for the punishment of sins committed, or for the prevention of sins to be committed, when namely God afflicts the innocent and undeserving person for the increase of patience and virtue, as He afflicted St. Job. For the following error has been condemned by the Pontiff: "All tribulations of the just are punishments for sins." Christ explains this passage about verbal chastisement in Apocalypse 3:19, saying: "Those whom I love, I reprove and chastise." St. Paul explains it about real chastisement through blows and scourges in Hebrews 12:5, where from the Septuagint he says thus: "My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied when you are reproved by Him; for whom the Lord loves, He chastises; and He scourges every son whom He receives." For the Septuagint, and from them St. Paul, read with different vowel points in the Hebrew כאב kieb, that is, "He afflicts, scourges, torments, causes pain"; for which our translator and others read כאב keab, that is, "as a father." Although our Ribera, on Hebrews 12:5, thinks the Septuagint read with nearly the same points as our translator, namely כאוב kaub; for this first means "as a father"; second, "He scourges," reading כאב with a patach under the aleph (and perhaps in the time of the Septuagint the kametz did not differ in character from the patach), so that the qal is taken for the piel or hiphil, namely kaab for kieb or hikib. Again, Baynus supplies the word "chastises"; hence reading with the same points he translates thus: "for whom the Lord loves, He will chastise, as a father (chastises) a son to whom He wishes well." St. Paul treats this passage extensively in Hebrews 12:5 and following, and I did likewise there; therefore I will not add more here, in order to proceed to further matters, of which many remain.
The sum is that by "discipline" is signified here both the chastisement of morals and strict upbringing. For God does not raise His children gently like a mother, lest He make them soft and sluggish, according to the saying:
"The indulgent gentleness of fathers makes their sons lazy" but strictly like a father: and this, first, so that they may put aside childish frivolity and become mature men. Second, so that they may cut away the vices innate to childhood and nature. When you are corrected, therefore, "do not faint," that is, do not become faint-hearted, do not cast yourself down on that account, as servants are wont to do; but rather glory in it and consider yourself distinguished; for then, as Nazianzen beautifully says about the plague of hail: "You have received the necklace of the freeborn." Hence he adds the reason for the correction, saying: "And as a father He takes delight in His son," as if to say: Because God, out of His singular love for His children, takes delight in them, therefore He cannot tolerate anything in them that displeases Him: hence He chastises them to remove it. Therefore, just as a physician who burns and cuts is not angry with the sick person, but with the sickness: so God when chastising is not angry with His wayward children, but with the vices themselves, and indeed fights for His children against their vices. St. Augustine on Psalm 21: "Understand," he says, "O man, that God is a physician, that tribulation is a medicine for salvation, not a punishment for damnation." Hence the Apostle says that this discipline of God is one of consolation, not of desolation (Hebrews 12:5).
Third, so that they may become hard and strong both in body and soul, as if sharpened for undergoing any labors and struggles. Hence Seneca, in the book On Providence: "God," he says, "raises the good more strictly, like stern fathers, and wants them to gather strength from pains and losses." And the Gloss: "The less," it says, "we should murmur about the scourge by which we are chastised, the more certainly we hold in it a pledge of fatherly love." This is what Ecclesiasticus 6:21 says: "How exceedingly harsh is wisdom to unlearned men; it will be like a testing stone of virtue in them." See what I said there. And Isidore of Pelusium says: "A patient man is a testing of labors, and like a stone of dokimias" — that is, of proving. Just as gold is tested by the touchstone, so the goodness of patience and of the patient person is tested by labor and pain. For as Nazianzen says in his poem On Virtues and Vices: "Patience is the digestion of troubles." Just as a good stomach digests foods however hard, so a strong patience digests adversities however heavy. Conversely, just as a weak stomach cannot digest salted meat, so weak and feeble patience cannot digest bitter words and blows. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 to the People: "What I said about pleasure," he says, "that it resides not in the preparation of food but in the disposition of the eater, the same I say about insult or trouble: it is built up or destroyed not by the verdict of those who insult, but by the disposition of those who endure." This is what the Wise Man says: "The pain of an insult is felt not in itself, but in the perception of the one who feels it."
Fourth, finally, God exercises the Saints with crosses so that they may merit eternal glory, for which He destines and prepares them. Thus St. Augustine on Psalm 93: "A man has two sons," he says: "one he chastises, the other he lets alone: one does wrong and is not corrected by the father; the other, as soon as he stirs, is scourged. Why is one let alone and the other beaten? Unless because for the latter an inheritance is being reserved, while the one let alone has been disinherited; the father sees that he has no hope, and lets him do what he wants."
I said more on this subject at James 1:2; Apocalypse 3:19; Ecclesiasticus 2:1 and following.
Therefore when you, O athlete of Christ, are afflicted, vexed, and troubled, consider that these things are sent to you not by man but by God as a discipline, and therefore with the same love with which God as a Father sends them to you, receive them as a son of so great a Father, and with the arms of your will stretched out, embrace them saying: This cross, this affliction was destined for me by You, O Father, from eternity; I embrace it with my whole heart, because thus it was pleasing before You. And with St. Andrew: "O beloved cross, long desired, prepared for my longing soul! Joyfully I come to you. May He receive me through you, who hung on you for me, and through you redeemed me."
Note: Here Solomon finishes his precepts about the worship of God, which are five in number. The first is about hope, which he assigned in chapter 3, verse 5: "Have confidence in the Lord with all your heart"; the second about reverence, verse 6: "In all your ways think on Him"; the third about fear, verse 7: "Fear God, and depart from evil"; the fourth about religion, verse 9: "Honor the Lord from your substance"; the fifth about patience, verse 11: "Do not reject the discipline of the Lord."
Morally, learn here how great a good is the discipline and chastisement of God. "Discipline," says St. Augustine, in the treatise On the Good of Discipline, volume 9, "is the teacher of religion, the teacher of true piety, which does not reprove in order to harm, nor chastise in order to injure. Finally, when angry it corrects the morals of men, when inflamed it guards them, as Solomon says: 'My son, do not faint from the discipline of the Lord, nor be wearied when you are reproved by Him. For whom the Lord loves, He reproves; and He scourges every son whom He receives.' There is truly nothing that discipline does not either amend or save. If any wise person lays hold of it, he neither loses the grace of friendships nor incurs the danger of damnation." The same, On Visiting the Sick, citing this passage: "Do you wish to know that bodily infirmity brings forth the salvation of the soul? Hear the Lord answering the Apostle: 'Virtue is perfected in weakness'; as if He were to say: Embrace the weakness you suffer: for thus you will advance from virtue to virtue, if virtue grows in weakness. Now virtue is the salvation of the soul, weakness is of the body; since, when through virtue the soul gives birth to salvation, it is a gift of God: for the salvation of the soul comes from nowhere else but from God. Therefore do not despise the scourge of God, but when scourged, say: Thanks be to God. Love the one who corrects, love the one who amends, love the one who reproves. Not in fury, not in anger, but in mercy open to Him who knocks, be devoted to Him who calls, give thanks to Him who has mercy, return to yourself, think for a moment, think about God, consider if you can, that His mercies are above all His works. He Himself is God, He Himself is the Judge, and He does not wish you to be condemned, nor does He wish you to be judged badly; He wishes to have mercy on you, He scourges in you mercifully what you have committed against Him stubbornly."
Hence St. Augustine, Book 1 of On the Lord's Sermon on the Mount (and it is found in 23, Question 4, chapter 51 Ea vindicta), teaches that Superiors should imitate God, so that like fathers they chastise their subjects out of love, not out of hatred or revenge. Again, God, says St. Cyprian in the book On the Dress of Virgins, corrects in order to amend through discipline, and consequently teaches everyone, even priests, to love rather than hate discipline, and those who admonish and correct them for their errors. "Discipline," he says, "is the guardian of hope, the rein of faith, the guide of the way of salvation, the fuel and nourishment of good character, the teacher of virtue; it causes one to remain always in Christ, and to live constantly in God, and to arrive at the heavenly promises and divine rewards. To follow it is salutary, and to turn away from it and neglect it is deadly. 'My son, do not neglect the discipline of the Lord, nor fail when corrected by Him,'" etc. He adds the reason: "Considering that our members are temples of God, purged from every stain of ancient contagion by the sanctification of the life-giving bath; nor is it lawful for them to be violated or polluted, since he who violates them is himself violated. We are the worshipers and priests of these temples; let us serve Him to whom we have already begun to belong."
Third Part: On the Dignity, Use, and Value of Wisdom
The same subject is treated by Ecclesiasticus, chapters 1, 15, and 39. See what I said there.
Verse 13: Blessed Is the Man Who Finds Wisdom
13. BLESSED IS THE MAN WHO FINDS WISDOM, AND WHO ABOUNDS IN PRUDENCE. — The Syriac has, "who finds prudence"; the Chaldean, "who brings forth or pours out understanding"; the Septuagint, "and the mortal" (St. Augustine, Against Adimantus, chapter 19, reads "immortal") "who has seen" (the Scholiast, "who has held") "prudence"; the Zurich Bible, "O happy is the man who finds wisdom (that is, knowledge of God, which comes through discipline and tribulation, says Vatablus), and who draws out or extracts prudence"; Pagninus, "blessed is the man who finds wisdom, and the man who brings it out into the light." In Hebrew it is יפיק iaphic, which Aben-Ezra explains as meaning: Blessed is the man who, after being imbued with wisdom, brings it forth to the public. And R. Solomon says: Iaphic means "he draws out," as if to say: Blessed is he who imbues others with wisdom, who namely draws forth from his mouth what lay hidden and enclosed in his heart, and shares it with others.
Bede, Aben-Ezra, Dionysius, Salazar, and others connect these words with what precedes: "The discipline of the Lord, my son, do not reject," so as to add the reason, saying: "Blessed is the man who finds wisdom," as if to say: Embrace the discipline and chastisement of God; indeed, consider yourself blessed, because through it you will arrive at true wisdom and virtue, in which true blessedness consists, according to Job 5:17: "Blessed is the man who is corrected by God; therefore do not reject the rebuke of the Lord: for He Himself wounds and heals; He strikes, and His hands will cure." Therefore God's pathemata (sufferings) are mathemata (teachings), indeed makariotetes (blessednesses); namely, the sufferings and crosses sent by God are disciplines and teachings, indeed beatitudes, and as St. Pacian, Bishop of Barcelona, says in his Exhortation to Penance: "Tribulation is the repository of divine things and the inventory of the knowledge of God." For in the cross God is found, according to the Psalmist's saying: "I am with him in tribulation."
But this is a general statement, and not to be restricted to crosses alone: for Solomon returns as is his custom to the praises of wisdom. The full meaning therefore is, as if to say: Blessed is he who whether through prayer, or through study, or through tribulation, or by whatever other means finds and acquires wisdom; more blessed is he who gradually grows in it until at last he overflows and abounds in wisdom, so that he pours it forth and pours it out upon others. Hence St. Bernard, On the Conversion of Clerics: "If you have wisdom in your heart," he says, "you will overflow with prudence from your mouth; but take care to overflow, not to flow away" — namely, be a basin, not a channel: for a basin first fills itself with water before it sends any out; but a channel sends out all the water it receives and retains nothing in itself. Therefore first fill yourself with wisdom, then pour it out upon others; for the foolish, who as soon as they know something want to be teachers, pour out all their wisdom and retain none of it in themselves, as he also says in Sermon 18 on the Song of Songs: "Therefore if you are wise," he says, "you will show yourself a basin, not a channel, etc. But today in the Church we have many channels and very few basins."
Here applies that saying of St. Chrysostom, Oration 4 Against the Jews: "Just as," he says, "in the matter of money, he who has gained two gold pieces is inclined to collect and amass ten, and then twenty: so it happens in practice with virtue — he who has done a good work or performed a service, takes from it a stimulus and exhortation to accumulate good deeds in every way." For as St. Dominic Loricatus used to say when asked how he had arrived at such great austerity of life: "Just as sleep begets sleep, so vigils beget vigils, labor begets labor, penance attracts and invites penance," so that if you have done one, you may eagerly wish to do a second, third, fourth, etc., and thus grow in it, until at last nothing seems hard or difficult to you, as can be seen in those ancient Ascetics and Anchorites. In a similar way the Hebrews say: "Sin draws sin, and precept draws precept," as if to say: Just as one sin attracts another, so the observance of one precept attracts the observance of another, so that if you fulfill one, you may desire to fulfill another.
14. THE GAINING OF IT IS BETTER THAN THE TRADING OF SILVER, AND ITS FRUIT THAN THE PUREST GOLD. — Jansenius and others read, "and than the purest gold its fruit"; the Complutensian, "and than the finest gold its fruit"; the Syriac, "its fruits are more precious than refined or most tested gold." Thus our version should be connected and expounded so that the phrase "is better than the trading" is repeated in the second member, in this way: The acquisition of wisdom is better than the trading of silver, and its fruit is better than the trading of the finest and purest gold.
That this is the meaning is clear from the Hebrew, which reads thus: For its trading is better than the trading of silver, and its increase is better than gold. So Pagninus, the Chaldean. And the Septuagint say: It is better to trade for it than for treasures of gold and silver; the Zurich Bible: Because its merchandise is more valuable than the merchandise of silver, and its revenue than pure, unmixed gold, as if to say: The pursuit of wisdom far surpasses the pursuit of riches, says Vatablus.
Now since in trading there are two things — namely the merchandise that is bought and the price by which it is bought — hence a twofold meaning can be given here: The first, as if to say: Wisdom is a merchandise more precious than gold and silver, and therefore to be acquired above all gold. The second, as if to say: It is better to trade and buy salvation and every good with wisdom as the price, than to trade and buy any merchandise, even the most precious, with gold; the revenue and fruit, therefore, which wisdom brings forth and produces is better and more excellent than any gold and any revenue from gold. From this he leaves it to be inferred that blessed is he who finds and acquires wisdom; for this preceded, and this he here proves — namely that the wise man is blessed, because the value of wisdom is inestimable. Therefore he signifies two things: First, that the best trading is spiritual, by which we trade for wisdom and virtue; and we trade for it by prayer, study, contempt of earthly things, exercise, and patience in adversities. Therefore this trade is far better — that is, both worthier and more useful — than the trade by which gold and silver are acquired, because wisdom far surpasses them and is far worthier and more fruitful, by which he tacitly implies that in comparison with wisdom all other things are of little or no importance. Second, it is far better for us through wisdom to trade for and acquire God's grace and glory than for merchants through gold and silver to trade for and buy even the most excellent bodily goods; therefore we must devote ourselves to this one trade of wisdom above all trade of gold and silver, both to acquire it and through it to obtain eternal happiness. It is therefore more precious than any price and any precious thing, says Eustathius in the Greek Catena. Therefore, just as merchants labor constantly to accumulate gold, so let the wise man labor night and day to increase and accumulate wisdom and virtue, namely good works and merits, by which he may store up for himself immense treasures of glory in heaven. R. Solomon adds that the trade of wisdom is better than that of gold and merchandise: because in the latter, he who sells them loses them and surrenders them to the buyer; but in wisdom, he who shares it with others retains the same for himself, indeed increases it — just as one who lights another's candle with the light of his own does not lose his light, but increases and multiplies it. Here applies the Arabic proverb I cited elsewhere: "Acquire gold for yourself with measure, and knowledge without measure," as if to say: Let wealth suffice for what life needs, but pursue wisdom and virtue without limit.
15. IT IS MORE PRECIOUS THAN ALL RICHES; AND ALL THINGS THAT ARE DESIRED CANNOT BE COMPARED WITH IT. — Pagninus and Vatablus have, "it is more precious than pearls, and nothing you can desire can be equaled or compared to it." For "riches," the Hebrew is פנינים peninim, which Cajetan, Pagninus, the Zurich Bible, and others translate as "pearls." Our translator in chapter 20, verse 15, translates it "gems"; the Syriac, "precious stones, and nothing can be compared to it"; some translate it "diamonds." Hence the Septuagint, whom St. Augustine follows in Against Adimantus, chapter 19, paraphrastically adding some things, translate thus: "Shall no evil resist it? It is well known to all who approach it; and nothing precious is worthy of it." It signifies that wisdom is so precious that in dignity and value it surpasses all the most precious things — such as gems, diamonds, and pearls, which in ancient times, when their great rarity existed before the route to India had been opened, were of the highest value. "Pearls hold the first place and summit of the value of all things," says Pliny, Book 9, chapter 35. Alluding to this, Christ, says St. Chrysostom in the Catena, says in Matthew 13:45: "The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls; and having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all that he had and bought it." See the thirteen analogies between the pearl and wisdom or virtue, especially heroic and apostolic virtue, which I listed at Apocalypse 21:21; therefore I will not add more here.
Here therefore is true that saying of Tertullian in the Scorpiace, chapter 4: "If glass costs as much as a true pearl?" — that is, if glassy and false riches and honors so attract the souls of worldly men that they spend all their labors, sorrows, and life for them: how much should the heavenly riches and glory, which wisdom and virtue produce, rouse the faithful, so that for them they may willingly take up all labors, and bear any reproaches, torments, and martyrdoms with a brave and eager spirit!
Second, it signifies that wisdom surpasses every desirable thing, and therefore alone fills and satisfies the desire of our heart; because created wisdom is divine, and uncreated wisdom is God Himself, who alone fills the immense capacity and thirst of our soul; so that "pleasure is full when desire is not stimulated," says Ambrosiaster on 1 Corinthians 1:12. For God is an immense good, which so fills, satisfies, and inebriates the soul that it can desire or receive nothing further. Hence Nazianzen in his poem On the Beatitudes:
"Happy is he who buys Christ with all his fortunes. Happy is he who has surrendered his whole heart to God."
Third, he teaches that wisdom and virtue are more precious than all gems and diamonds, which resist iron, hammers, and fire, indeed become harder; for in a similar way solid virtue overcomes all adversity. Hence the Septuagint translates, "no evil shall resist it"; indeed, "virtue grows when shaken by adversity"; it is therefore stronger than diamond. Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 4 on Genesis: "God's grace makes us more solid than diamonds, and, if we will it, completely unconquerable. And so, just as one who strikes a diamond does it no harm, but tires himself and diminishes his own strength: in this way things stand between us and the adversary of our salvation, if we arm ourselves with the weapons that the grace of the Holy Spirit provides for us." Pliny adds, Book 37, chapter 4, and from him St. Jerome on Amos 7: "The diamond," he says, "renders poisons ineffective, drives away frenzies, and expels vain fears from the mind, and for this reason some have called it the 'Anachites.'" Wisdom and virtue do the same to a far greater degree. Third, St. Isidore (with whom St. Augustine agrees, City of God, Book 22, chapter 4), Book 16 of the Origins, chapter 13: "The diamond," he says, "is so at variance with the lodestone that when placed nearby it does not allow iron to be drawn by the lodestone, or if the lodestone has seized it, it snatches it away and removes it." Thus the virtue of the Martyrs not only despised and laughed at the threats, torments, and terrors of tyrants, but even sought them out and drew them to itself.
Hear St. Ambrose, Book 7, Letter 53, in which he narrates that St. Paul appeared to him and revealed the bodies, as well as the martyrdom, of Saints Gervasius and Protasius: "Astasius commanded," he says, "that Blessed Gervasius (because he had mocked the mute idols) be beaten with lead-tipped scourges until he breathed his last. When he was removed, he ordered Protasius to stand before him. And he said to him: 'Wretch, at least you try to live, and do not die by biathanatos (a violent death) like your brother Gervasius.' To which Blessed Protasius answered: 'Who is the wretch — I, who do not fear you, or you, who are shown to fear me?' Astasius said: 'I, wretched man, how do I fear you?' Blessed Protasius said: 'In this you are shown to fear and be harmed by me, if I do not sacrifice to your gods (for the priests of the idols had persuaded Astasius that he would not have victory in war unless he forced Gervasius and Protasius to sacrifice to the angry gods). For if you did not fear being harmed by me, you would not compel me to sacrifice to idols. But I, not fearing you, despise your threats, and regarding all your idols as dung, I worship God alone, who reigns in heaven, etc. Therefore proceed with what you have begun (in torturing me), so that the kindness of our Savior may meet me today with my brother Gervasius.' Then Astasius ordered him to be beheaded."
I said more about the diamond and the virtue of Christ and the Martyrs, which it represents, at Amos 7:7. The same was seen dimly by the philosophers. Hence the Stoic dogma was: "Nothing is to be sought except virtue, nothing to be shunned except vice." Antisthenes, in Laertius, Book 6, chapter 1, asserts "that virtue suffices for happiness and needs nothing else except Socratic strength; that virtue is an armor that cannot be stripped away. For a sword and shield can be knocked out of one's hand; but the wise man endowed with virtue is never unarmed, and therefore cannot be conquered." Phocion says: "Virtue alone is powerful; all the rest are trifles."
Verse 16: Length of Days Is in Her Right Hand
16. LENGTH OF DAYS IS IN ITS RIGHT HAND, AND IN ITS LEFT HAND RICHES AND GLORY. — The Septuagint has, "for length of age and years of life are in its right hand," etc. The Arabic, "for in its right hand is length of age, and in its left hand riches, honor, and nobility"; the Zurich Bible, "at its right hand is long life," etc., which Vatablus explains thus, as if to say: In the power of wisdom is long life, riches, and glory.
It is a personification. For wisdom is here described in poetic and dramatic fashion as a heavenly virgin, indeed a queen, displaying rewards to her devotees and followers in her right and left hands. Now the right hand in Scripture is nobler and more powerful than the left, just as the right hand in man is more powerful and stronger than the left, and the right-side parts of an animal are superior to the left. Hence the movement of animals begins from the right, and therefore porters place burdens on the left: "For since the right is suited to move and the left to be moved, for this reason burdens should be imposed not on the moving part, but on the movable one," says Aristotle in the book On the Gait of Animals. Hence also athletes and soldiers fight with the right hand, and therefore the right is a symbol of defense and protection, although among profane authors some are uncertain whether the right or the left was considered superior. For there was a varied custom and practice in this regard among different ages and nations. Hence Cyrus, in Xenophon's Cyropaedia, Book 8, used to seat his guests whom he wished to receive in a more honorable place on his left, and said that side was more worthy as being closer to the heart. Bellarmine proves the same, Book 1 On the Roman Pontiff, chapter 27, from Eusebius, Book 1 of the Life of Constantine, and therefore asserts that in ancient images St. Paul is painted at the right hand of St. Peter, not as more worthy than he, but as his bodyguard and attendant, namely to defend him with his sword: for one who is at someone's right hand is, as it were, his shield-bearer and protector. Thus Nebrissensis in the Quinquagena, chapter 39. See more in Bellarmine, Baronius, Lipsius, etc. But among the Jews the right was more powerful and more honored than the left. For in Scripture the good and good things are placed on the right, and the evil and evil things on the left, as is clear in the elect and the reprobate (Matthew 25:33). Moreover, Solomon takes pleasure in the use and comparison of the right with the left, as is evident in chapter 4, verse 27: "The Lord knows the ways that are on the right; but perverse are those that are on the left." And chapter 27:16: "He shall call the oil of his right hand." And Ecclesiasticus 10:2: "The heart of the wise man is in his right hand, and the heart of the fool in his left." And the Song of Songs 2:6: "His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me." Therefore he places length of days in the right hand of wisdom, because in man nothing is better than life and the preservation and continuation of life. For life is the foundation and basis of riches, glory, and all other honors.
Hence, although eternity in inanimate things, such as the heavens and the elements, is merely essential eternity, in animate beings, however, such as Angels and men, it is the perpetuity and everlastingness of life. Hence Isidore of Pelusium, Book 3, Letter 149: "Aidiotes," he says, "or aionotes, that is, eternity is as it were everlastingness, or eternal-livingness, that is, the continuation of eternal life, and hence properly dear to God alone, inasmuch as He alone, without beginning, has lived from eternity and shall live for eternity," he asserts is fitting.
Moreover, Antonio de Nebrija in the Quinquagena, chapter 16, citing this passage of Solomon, says: Although by "length of days" is understood the pleasant possession of unending life, it nevertheless refers to the fact that one who reached his hundredth year of life began to count on his right hand, having counted the higher numbers on his left; as with Nestor, who had said in Ovid:
"Scarcely two hundred years, and now a third age is being lived."
Juvenal says:
"Happy indeed is he who for so many ages has deferred death, and now counts his years on the right hand."
And St. Jerome, Book 1 Against Jovinian: "The hundredth number," he says, "is transferred from the left hand to the right." Nebrija explains the method of counting of the ancients with the fingers of the right and left hands in the same place. Here applies what Pliny writes, Book 34, chapter 7: "The double-faced Janus, dedicated by King Numa, who is worshipped as a symbol of peace and war, with his fingers so shaped that by the sign of 365 days, signifying a year, time, and age, he indicated himself to be a god." For Janus is the sun, whose annual course those same number of days complete. Add that in the right hand lies religion. Hence Pliny, Book 11, chapter 45: "Religion inheres," he says, "also in other parts; just as the right hand is sought with the reverse side for kisses, and is extended in pledge of faith." For by the extended right hand faith is given and ratified: therefore when it is extended, safety is denoted. Hence when Marius was ravaging the Romans, he would indicate those he wished to save by raising and extending his right hand, as Plutarch and Appian attest in his Life. "Right" is also used for what is most dear, as in Genesis 35:18, Benjamin is called "son of the right hand," because he was his father Jacob's delight. Finally, Pliny, Book 7, chapter 4, Hippocrates, Aphorisms 5, chapter 47, and Galen, Book 14 of On the Use of Parts, teach that male offspring are conceived on the right side, females on the left.
Therefore, literally, wisdom displays in its right hand and promises to its disciples longevity: because God had promised the Jews (for whom Solomon writes these things first and directly, as his own countrymen) through Moses (Leviticus 26 and elsewhere) a long and happy life in this world, if they kept His, that is, wisdom's, precepts, and then riches and glory — namely abundance of wine, oil, grain, victory over enemies, etc. Moreover, through these temporal goods, eternal ones are symbolically signified. For life is the foundation and basis of riches, glory, and all other honors. the good things promised to the Jews, promises similar spiritual things to Christians, equally as to the Jews: who fulfilled the law not in a Jewish and carnal sense, but in a spiritual and Christian spirit of charity, such as Moses and the Prophets, and other Saints of the Old Testament. Therefore wisdom here promises to Christians a long life, that is, eternal life, in which our blessedness consists; likewise glory and spiritual riches, which are virtues, grace, and the endowments of heavenly glory. Wisdom therefore more greatly confers these gifts it has promised on Christians than on Jews. For it confers on Christians eternal life, says Jansenius, which here begins in the spirit and is perfected in the future life. It also confers true riches and true glory, because it fills the soul with many gifts of graces, and makes them children of God, and creates them kings and priests, and in the future life bestows abundance of every good and eternal glory. Here applies that saying of Cato: 'The master of arts is honor and glory.' For honor nourishes the arts.
Symbolically, many understand by length of days eternal blessedness, and by riches and glory the abundance and felicity of temporal goods, as if to say: Wisdom confers goods both spiritual and eternal, as well as corporal and temporal; but spiritual things in the right hand, that is, of themselves and primarily, while temporal things in the left hand, that is, concomitantly and accessorily. Rightly indeed are those represented by the right hand, because they are advantageous and felicitous to all; while these are represented by the left hand, because to many they are sinister and unfortunate, as they were even to Solomon himself, are foreshadowed. Hence R. Levi and Lyranus understand by the right and left hand the primary and secondary intention, as if to say: Wisdom and God primarily promise and confer on their worshippers spiritual and eternal goods; secondarily, as if by way of bonus, He adds riches and glory, according to that saying of Christ: 'Seek first the kingdom of God and His justice, and all these things shall be added to you,' Matt. 6:33. For eternal things are faithful and certain (for the right hand is a symbol of fidelity, says Rhodiginus, bk. IV Antiq. ch. III. Hence in pacts, by which one pledges his faith to another, he joins his right hand to the other's); but temporal things are unfaithful, unstable, and deceptive, because they often desert a man. So also St. Gregory on Penitential Psalm V: 'It is established,' he says, 'that through length of days everlasting life is understood: but through brevity the course of this age is designated; for it is written: Length of days is in her right hand. For what is designated by the right hand, if not perpetual life? Because therefore the rest of the Saints is closed by no limit, rightly in the right hand of God is said to be the length of days.' The same author, Part III of the Pastoral, ch. 27, citing that verse Cant. 2, His left hand is under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me: 'The left hand of God,' he says, 'that is, the prosperity of the present life, he placed as it were under the head, which he suppresses by the intention of supreme love: but the right hand of God embraces it, because under His eternal blessedness it is wholly contained in devotion. Hence again through Solomon it is said:
Length of days is in her right hand, and in her left hand are riches and glory. He taught therefore how riches and glory are to be held, which he mentioned as placed in the left hand.' So also St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, octave 14, on the words: My soul is in your hands always, citing this passage: 'Both hands,' he says, 'are endowed with good gifts. Yet in this they have a variety of their gift, that they comprehend both present and future times, so that the left hand is the rewarder of present things, and the right hand of future things.'
More illustriously, however, St. Augustine on Psalm 120: 'The Bride,' he says, 'speaks of the Bridegroom, the Church speaks of Christ in the embrace of piety and chastity. What does she say? His left hand is under my head, and His right hand shall embrace me. But why was the right hand above, and the left below; and so the Bridegroom embraced the Bride, placing His left hand beneath for consolation, placing His right hand above for protection? His left hand, she says, is under my head. God gives that, therefore it is His left hand, because God gives all those temporal things.' And shortly after: 'Therefore if there is a left hand, let it be the left hand, but let it be under the head. Let your head be above it, that is, let your faith be above it, where Christ dwells. Do not prefer temporal things to your faith, and the left hand will not be above your head; but subject all temporal things to your faith, and set your faith before all temporal things, and the left hand will be under your head, and rightly His right hand will embrace you. Hear this same thing explained in Proverbs, what the left hand itself is, what the right hand is, when speaking of wisdom: Length, he says, of days and years of your life in her right hand, and in her left hand riches and glory. That length of days is eternity. For Scripture in its proper manner calls long that which is eternal. For whatever has an end is short. In another place: With length, he says, of days I will fill him.' And then: 'But long life is put for that eternity. Long life is in her right hand. But riches and glory, that is, the sufficiency of this life, those things which are esteemed good by men, that is the left hand. Someone comes and wants to strike your right hand, that is, to take away your faith. You have received a slap on the right hand; offer the left, that is, so that he may take away what is temporal, and not those things which you have as eternal. Hear the Apostle Paul doing this. Men persecuted him because he was a Christian; his right hand was struck, and he offered his left: I am a Roman citizen, he said. They despised his right hand, and he terrified them with the left, because they could not fear his right hand: for they had not yet believed in Christ.'
Finally, the Alchemists, from the fact that riches are here said to be in the left hand of wisdom, conclude that wisdom invented alchemy, that is, the art of making gold or silver from bronze or other metal by the power of the philosopher's stone, and accordingly that Solomon was the author of this art. But these are frivolous trifles. See Pineda, bk. IV On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 21, n. 1 and following. Better is Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks: 'By the right hand of wisdom,' he says, 'the perfection of men, their virtue and energy is signified; by the left hand, the abundance of the goods of this life. By the right hand, the knowledge of divine things from which the life of immortality arises; by the left hand, the knowledge of human things, from which glory and abundance of wealth is born.'
Otherwise R. Solomon Isacides, as if to say: Those who rightly engage in wisdom and duly perform their labors, these will obtain length of life, and concomitantly riches and glory. But those who walk by the left path, although they undergo labors, will not however attain to the same name and dignity, yet they will nonetheless carry away riches and glory from it.
Moreover, the reasons why wisdom and virtue prolong life are five. First, because wisdom wisely provides for both the advantages and disadvantages of health and life; it avoids disadvantages and seeks advantages.
Second, because wisdom moderates anger and sadness, and other passions of the soul, which are wont to consume strength, spirits, and life, and makes a person peaceful, joyful, cheerful, and therefore long-lived: for 'a joyful spirit makes a flourishing age, a sad spirit dries up the bones.'
Third, because wisdom teaches prudence and temperance in food and drink, which is the mother of health and longevity. Hence we read in the Lives of the Fathers that St. Paul, St. Anthony, St. Macarius, St. Romuald, etc. lived to, indeed surpassed, the hundredth year. So even now in monasteries we see nuns, being free from cares, sober, content, and cheerful, living 90 or a hundred years.
Fourth, because virtue is nothing other than the honesty and rectitude of life, which merits and effects length of life: for it is just that he who rightly spends his life should obtain a long and lengthy one.
Fifth, because the law of God is: 'Honor your father and mother, etc., so that you may live a long time,' Deut. 5:16; for it is a fitting reward that life be preserved for him who knows and honors the Author of life: but God and wisdom are the Author and Father of our life. Therefore if we honor it and obey it, it will preserve and prolong the life which it has given.
Moreover, the Septuagint here appends another sentence, which is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Chaldean, nor in the Latin, namely this: 'From her mouth proceeds justice, and she carries law and mercy on her tongue.' On which words Olympiodorus in the Greek Catena says: 'Before, the Wise Man had mentioned the years of life, and likewise the right and left hand of wisdom; but here he makes mention of her tongue and mouth, and thus describes the figure of the whole body, and its entire structure and symmetry, and by a certain personification places it before our eyes.'
The sense therefore is, as if to say: Wisdom utters from her mouth, teaches and commands those things which are just and holy, namely what is conformable to the eternal law of God, and to mercy and piety. So St. Augustine, in his book Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, ch. 11: 'Who (God),' he says, 'commanded us to bear injuries with equanimity and to forgive, etc. And this for the reason that it was said of the wisdom of God, that she carries law and mercy on her tongue. Nor would we knowingly remit debts to our debtors through mercy, unless through the law we discerned those very debts.'
Second, the same St. Augustine, in his book On Grace and Free Will, ch. 18, vol. VII: 'When it is said,' he writes, 'Let us love one another, it is law; when it is said: Because love is from God, it is grace. For the wisdom of God carries law and mercy on her tongue. Hence it is written in Psalm 83: For He who gave the law will also give a blessing,' as if to say: Wisdom by her mouth proclaims and enacts the law, but by the same mouth promises mercy, that is, grace, by which you may fulfill the law, according to that saying of St. Leo: 'He justly insists on the precept, who first provides the assistance.'
Third, our Salazar explains, as if to say: Wisdom mitigates the harshness of the precept with the sweetness of the reward. For by the same mouth by which she brings the precept, she also brings mercy, that is, a liberal and munificent reward, which sweetens the gravity of the precept.
Finally, St. Gregory of Nyssa notes that by a personification wisdom is here introduced as a royal bride, who commends herself to the bed with every ornament; for he says: 'In her left hand are riches and glory. Then he also speaks of the fragrance of her mouth, breathing the good odor of justice, saying: From her mouth proceeds justice. And on her lips he says that law and mercy flourish in place of natural color. And so that the perfect beauty of this bride may be found in every respect, her gait is also praised. For he says: She walks in the ways of justice. Nor is greatness lacking among the praises of her beauty, since her growth has extended like some well-sprouting plant. But so that you may understand to which plant her height is compared: She herself, he says, is a tree of life, which is indeed nourishment for those who lay hold of her, and for those who lean upon her, a firm and stable column that cannot be overthrown. By both I understand the Lord: for He Himself is life and the support and foundation. And thus the context of the passage runs. She is a tree of life to all who lay hold of her. And among her other praises, power is also comprehended, so that through all good things the praise of the beauty of wisdom may be fulfilled. For God, he says: By wisdom founded the earth.' And a little further on: 'After these things he begins, as it were a groomsman, to lead the young man to such cohabitation, now bidding him look to the divine bridal chamber. For he says: Do not forsake her, and she will preserve you; love her, and she will guard you; surround her, and she will exalt you on high; honor her, that she may embrace you, that she may give to your head a crown of graces: and a crown of delights will protect you. Having adorned her with these nuptial crowns as a bride, he commands that one never be separated from her, saying: When you walk, lead her. arranged so as to captivate all in admiration of themselves (while on the contrary the practices of vices are shameful, infamous, hateful, and abominable), and at the same time to bring peace, that is, the serenity and joy of conscience: for this consists in the victory over the passions, which virtue produces. Likewise to bring peace with God, and even with men, insofar as it depends on virtue. For it renders to each his own right, and even exhibits charity, which is the mother of peace. Finally, to bring peace, that is, all prosperity and every good. But just as among those who quarrel, peace must often be obtained through litigation or war: so too virtue, because it is diametrically opposed to concupiscence, must by continual struggle and warfare with it win for itself victory and peace; which having been accomplished, it says with the Psalmist, Psalm 4: 'In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest.' For in God and in Christ, who is our peace, it sleeps and rests secure and joyful. Hence Bede, who understood all these things of Incarnate Wisdom, that is, of Christ: 'The ways,' he says, 'that is, the actions and teachings of Christ, which are contained in the Gospels, are beautiful, because they are divine and far exceed the standard of a pure man, and all His commands lead to eternal peace: all that He did in the flesh pertains to reconciling mortals to God, to making peace between the human race and the Angels, and to showing His own the examples of peace and love to be preserved among one another.' The author of the Greek Catena adds that the ways of Christ are peaceful, 'because He Himself forbade us from striking back when struck, or resisting when attacked by injury, or recriminating when unjustly accused, or mocking in return when mocked.' To this saying of Solomon pertains that maxim of St. Lawrence Justinian: 'Those things are to be avoided which are impeded by many obstacles, because the works of the Holy Spirit are easy and smooth, but those of the devil are harsh and full of thorns.' So his Life states, ch. 9. and let her be with you; when you sleep, let her guard you, so that when you awake she may speak with you.'
Verse 17: Her Ways Are Beautiful Ways
17. HER WAYS ARE BEAUTIFUL WAYS, AND ALL HER PATHS ARE PEACEFUL. — As if to say: The ways through which wisdom walks and goes before us, and which she sets before us to tread and follow, are elegant, and bring peace and the prosperity of all things, according to that verse Cant. 7:1: 'How beautiful are your steps in sandals, O daughter of the prince!' For 'beautiful' in Hebrew is noam, that is, beauty, comeliness, grace, elegance, as if to say: The ways of wisdom and virtue are ways of beauty, comeliness, and elegance... For virtue is the true Naomi, that is, true beauty, true comeliness, true grace of the soul and of actions, and of the whole person. Hence St. Augustine, placed at the crossroads of virtue and vice, when on one side the allurements of lust were enticing him to itself, and on the other the beauty of chastity, conquered by this he banished all lusts: 'For there opened before me,' he says, 'on that side to which I had turned my face, and where I trembled to pass, the chaste dignity of continence, serene and not dissolutely merry, honestly alluring me to come and not to doubt, and extending pious hands to receive and embrace me, full of flocks of good examples. There were so many boys and girls, there a great multitude of youth, and every age, and grave widows, and aged virgins: and in all of them continence herself was by no means barren, but a fruitful mother of children of joys by You, her husband, O Lord. And she mocked me with an exhortatory mockery, as if saying: Can you not do what these men and women do? Or indeed, can these men and women do it of themselves, and not in the Lord their God? The Lord their God gave me to them. Why do you stand in yourself, and not stand? Cast yourself upon Him, do not fear, He will not withdraw so that you fall. Cast yourself, He will receive you securely and will save you.' So St. Augustine, bk. VIII Confessions, ch. 11.
Moreover, the Hebrew words literally read thus: and all her ways are ways of beauty, and all her paths are peace, that is, full of peace, so much so that they can be called peace itself; the Septuagint: her ways are good ways, and all her paths are in peace; the Syriac and Chaldean: her ways are ways of sweetness, and all her paths are peaceful; Vatablus: her ways are pleasant ways; Pagninus: delightful; Aben-Ezra: which flood with pleasure the one walking in them, and all her paths are tranquil; the Arabic version: from her mouth proceeds justice, and upon her tongue she carries law and mercy, her ways are ways of goodness, and her course is in peace.
For 'way,' the Septuagint translates axos, which first signifies axles of chariots; second, the tablets on which laws with their punishments and rewards are inscribed; third, the tablets on which the names of soldiers are recorded; fourth, ways and paths. All of which can rightly be applied to wisdom. But in this passage axos signifies nothing other than ways and paths, as is clear from the Hebrew netibot, which all without exception translate as ways or paths. The sense therefore is that the ways of wisdom or virtue, that is, the methods and principles of acting, are beautiful and elegant, and thus with such grace
Verse 18: She Is a Tree of Life to Those Who Lay Hold of Her
18. SHE IS A TREE OF LIFE TO THOSE WHO LAY HOLD OF HER: AND HE WHO SHALL HOLD HER IS BLESSED. — The Septuagint: she is a tree of life to all who embrace her; St. Augustine on Psalm 32: to all who possess her; St. Jerome on Isaiah 65: to all who approach her; the same on Ezekiel 47: to all who believe in her. It could also properly be translated: to all who strengthen her, that is, to all who firmly and robustly embrace her and defend, propagate, and champion her. The Arabic: she is a tree of life, guarding all who are protected by her, and who lean upon her, as those who lean upon the Lord. It is a catachresis, as if to say: Wisdom brings to her devotees an immortal and most sweet life, as did the fruit of the tree of life in paradise, indeed much more than it. Hence our Pineda on Ecclesiastes ch. 2, v. 5, n. 9, explains thus, as if to say: Adam was not blessed because he could eat of the tree of life, whose fruit cost no labor of his hands: but blessed is the man who by the labor and effort of his hands has so laid hold of sanctity and honesty of the labor of virtue, so that sanctity may seem to fix its roots in his hands and labors, from which it sprouts like a tree of life, whose fruit is blessedness.
By an elegant metaphor he compares wisdom to the tree of life, as if to say: He who so firmly holds wisdom, that is, virtue, that it seems to have put down roots in his hands, and can no more easily be plucked from them than an ancient tree from the earth in which it has driven the deepest roots: in his hands there truly becomes a tree of life, that is, a tree that bears a life-giving fruit similar to that which grew in paradise, and so he will eat the fruit of his hands. For just as paradise tropologically signified the holy soul, blooming with perpetual joy and the flower and fruit of virtues: so the tree of life represented wisdom, or virtue in general; and the four rivers which sprang up beside it from the midst of paradise represented the four cardinal virtues, namely the Ganges prudence, the Nile temperance, the Tigris fortitude, and the Euphrates justice. So St. Ambrose, bk. On Paradise, ch. 1, St. Augustine, City of God XIII.21, Origen on Genesis 2, Philo, bk. On Allegories. See what was said on Genesis 2:8 and 9.
Wisdom therefore is called a tree of life, or as you may translate from the Hebrew, of lives: First, because it procures, preserves, and prolongs both the natural life of the soul and the supernatural life of grace.
Second, because just as the tree of life restored the vigor of life, namely the radical moisture and natural heat weakening through the decline of old age, and restored them to their original integrity: so likewise wisdom or virtue restores the powers of the soul and of grace, worn away and aging through the fault of concupiscence, to their former vigor, indeed strengthens and increases them. So Cajetan, according to that passage of Isaiah 65:22: 'According to the days of the tree shall be the days of my people, and the works of their hands shall grow old.' For he looks back to what was said in verse 16: 'Length of days is in her right hand.' Hence St. Jerome, citing this passage of Isaiah 65, says: 'The just man shall flourish like a palm, daily triumphing over his adversaries and bearing the trophy of victory.'
Third, just as the fruit of the tree of life was most sweet and was like nectar and ambrosia for the innocent and holy man already beginning felicity: so likewise is wisdom and virtue, according to that passage Psalm 35: 'They shall be inebriated with the abundance of Your house, and You shall make them drink of the torrent of Your pleasure.' So Jansenius.
Fourth, just as the tree of life preserved man from death and caused him to be transferred alive from this life to the heavenly and blessed one: so too wisdom transfers man from the life of grace to the life of glory, says Lyranus.
Fifth and especially, the tree of life in paradise represented the vision of God, which the Saints enjoy in heaven, and thereby are rendered immortal and blessed for all eternity: for they attain this by the merit of wisdom and virtue; so St. Jerome on Ezekiel 47, St. Augustine on Psalm 32, and others. And that this is so is clear from Apocalypse 2:7: 'To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God.' And ch. 22, v. 1: 'And he showed me a river of the water of life, bright as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb, and on either side of the river the tree of life.' See what I noted in both places. Solomon therefore signifies that the use and eating of the tree of life, lost through Adam's sin, is restored through wisdom, and consequently immortality also, which this tree conferred, is restored. So St. Jerome on Isaiah 65. Here applies that common saying, says Aben-Ezra: 'From wisdom life is brought to man, who is a certain small world.'
Allegorically, St. Jerome on Isaiah ch. 65 understands by the 'tree of life' Christ, who is raised up in the midst of paradise, that is, of the Church, as a living tree, bestowing life on all who believe in Him. So also St. Gregory, bk. XII Morals 4, St. Augustine, bk. I Against the Adversaries of the Law and the Prophets, ch. 15, and Bede, whom hear: Just as the tree of life gave life to Adam, 'so through the wisdom of God, that is Christ,' he says, 'the Church is vivified: from whose Sacraments and Blood she now receives the pledge of life, and in the future will be beatified by His present gaze.' The tree of life therefore among other things represented the Eucharist, which preserves the life of grace, and by whose power we shall rise to immortal life, as Christ teaches, John 6:55. So also Dionysius: 'Christ,' he says, 'is called the tree of life, because He refreshes and sustains the faithful with manifold nourishment, until they are elevated from the life of grace to the life of glory, namely by the bread of tears, the vigor of good works, the gifts of grace, the consolation of virtues, and the hope of future things, indeed by Himself and the Sacrament of His Body and Blood.'
Moreover, Polychronius in the Greek Catena understands by the 'tree of life' the Cross, on which Christ hung like a fruit on a tree, so that He might feed and nourish us by His redemption, Blood, and grace, and restore us to immortality. 'By the tree of life,' he says, 'he denotes the Cross: for he who sincerely and firmly adheres to Christ, from that tree flows to him incorrupt life. And for those who attach themselves to its base, a most powerful foundation is laid on which they may stand unshaken. For they are almost in the same condition as those who have fixed their foot on firm ground. Wisdom is a tree of life to all who energetically pursue her; moreover, for the pious she is a firm defense, who securely lean upon her. For she rests in God, and languishing with love, gently leans upon her beloved.'
AND HE WHO SHALL HOLD HER IS BLESSED, — who, that is, shall have constantly held her, weighing with anxious care even her smallest counsels, says R. Levi, and observing them, and who shall have firmly persevered in her to the end of life, this one is truly blessed, because immediately after death he will be endowed with eternal blessedness. In Hebrew it is tomchea, that is, those sustaining her; tamach means to sustain from above, lest anything fall or perish: for virtue, since it is situated in a high and steep place, must be sustained upward by constant labor and effort, lest from frailty and concupiscence it fall down and flow away toward sensible and carnal pleasures. Hence the Chaldean translates: who trade or are occupied in her; St. Augustine: who possess her; St. Jerome: who lean upon her, not as upon a soft and delicate bed, but as upon a strong column and an unbreakable support (for this is what the Hebrew tamach means: and such was the tree of life); and elsewhere: who believe in her; Pagninus: who support her, so that in turn they are supported and sustained by her; the Septuagint: who lean upon her as secure in the Lord, as if to say: Wisdom to those who lean and rest upon her is asphales, that is, safe, faithful, secure, just as if they were leaning and resting upon the Lord Himself, as indeed they truly do lean and rest upon Him. For wisdom brings God, indeed is the inseparable companion, associate, and daughter of God: for in Hebrew meusschar signifies both 'secure' and 'blessed'; for the root isscher in the piel form signifies both to walk straight and to make one's steps firm, that is, to walk securely, and also to bless and make blessed. Hence St. Hilary on Psalm 1, omitting the word 'secure,' clearly reads thus: she is a tree of life to all who embrace her, and who lean upon her as upon the Lord. But St. Jerome, on Isaiah 65, reads: and those who lean upon her, as upon the Lord, strength: supply 'will be' or 'will come to them.' And St. Augustine on Psalm 32, from this passage teaches that God is our secure possession: 'Let the soul,' he says, 'speak with complete security, let it say: You are my God, You who say to our soul: I am your salvation. Let it speak securely, let it say: He will do no injustice, when He has said this; indeed He will do it, if He has not said it. You wanted to have trees by which you might be blessed. Hear Scripture saying of wisdom: She is a tree of life to all who possess her; behold, it called wisdom our possession; but lest you think that wisdom itself, because Scripture called it your possession, is something inferior to you, it follows and adds: and to those who lean upon her as in a safe dwelling. Behold, your Lord is to you like a staff; a man leans securely, because He does not give way. Say therefore securely: She is your possession; Scripture said to those who possess her: It filled confidence, it removed doubt. Say securely, love securely, hope securely. Let those words also be yours in the psalm: The Lord is the portion of my inheritance. Therefore whence shall we be blessed? By possessing God.'
Moreover, the author of the Greek Catena reads thus: she is a tree of life to all who adhere to her, and who firmly lean upon her as upon the Lord Himself; explaining which Didymus says: 'If the wisdom of God is the tree of life, not unjustly was Adam commanded to abstain from it. For wisdom will not enter a malevolent soul. But since the tree of life arises from the fruits of justice, not finding anything to which he might compare him who yearns for that tree of life, he turns his speech toward herself, saying: He who trusts in me is so established, as if he were casting his hope upon the Lord Himself.' Finally, Sirach, imitating Solomon as was his custom, ch. 15, v. 3: 'She will feed him (the disciple of wisdom) with the bread of wisdom and understanding (as with the tree of life), and she will give him the water of saving wisdom to drink; and he will be made firm in her, and will not bend: and she will hold him, and he will not be confounded.' Which words I explained in that place.
Verse 19: The Lord by Wisdom Founded the Earth
19. THE LORD BY WISDOM FOUNDED (Syriac: laid the foundations of) THE EARTH, HE ESTABLISHED (Syriac: ordered) THE HEAVENS BY PRUDENCE. — For the earth hangs suspended in the middle of the world without any support, and stands firm and immovable, resting upon nothing except God and God's wisdom, which so founded it and sustains it once founded, as I said on Genesis 1:1. Likewise the heavens, and their mass, number, orders, motions, light, stars, etc., He so established in this empty and previously vacant space that they perpetually subsist in the same course; He Himself therefore, like Atlas, sustains and strengthens them. The Septuagint for 'established' translates etoimasen, that is, 'suddenly prepared, or produced without labor,' says the author of the Greek Catena. For the Hebrew conen, that is, to prepare, is the same as to create, make, strengthen, establish. This is what the Psalmist says: 'For He established (Hebrew con, or conen) the world, which shall not be moved,' Psalm 92:1. For He founded the earth as the center, base, and fulcrum of the world, and Job marvels at this in ch. 38, v. 4: 'Where were you,' he says, 'when I laid the foundations of the earth? Who set its measures? or who stretched a line upon it? upon what were its bases made firm?' He says these things to show how great is the loftiness of wisdom, inasmuch as God used and uses it in His greatest works, namely in the creation and governance of the entire universe.
By wisdom understand both the essential wisdom, which is common to the entire Holy Trinity, and the notional or personal wisdom, which is the Word or the Son of God. Hence Didymus in the Greek Catena: 'These things also,' he says, 'aptly apply to the Son of God the Father, as He who is that true and eternal knowledge and wisdom, through whom all things were made. He founded the earth. Indeed, the soul of every faithful person can also be called earth, as one born to bring forth a hundredfold fruit. For this is she who is made wise from the richness of divine wisdom, with God the Father founding and establishing it in her.' Therefore, what R. Solomon and the modern Rabbis understand by wisdom as the law of Moses, and assert that through it all things were created, is insipid and fabulous.
20. BY HIS WISDOM THE DEPTHS BROKE FORTH, AND THE CLOUDS GROW THICK WITH DEW. — Hebrew: they flow or drip with dew, that is, rain; or from dew they drip, supply rain: for the clouds thicken and condense when they resolve into dew and rain, and this happens by the wisdom of God, namely so that through rain plants, sprouts, and animals may be nourished. The Hebrew words literally read: by his knowledge (Septuagint: by his understanding) the depths were split or broken open (Vatablus: gape open),
The depths and the clouds distill dew. So also the Syriac. By the abyss, first, can be understood the abyss, that is, that immense gulf of waters created at the beginning of the world, from which the rest was then formed, Genesis 1:2. Second, the abysses are springs and rivers, which by God's wisdom spring forth in various places under and from the earth, say Vatablus, Lyranus, Jansenius, and others. Third, properly speaking the abysses and cataracts of heaven were broken open in the Flood, when they poured down upon the earth the water that overwhelmed the entire earth in the time of Noah, Genesis 7:11. So Bede and Cajetan. The second exposition seems most genuine: for it compares the abysses, that is, springs, with the clouds and dew as stable and perennial things; and springs and rivers are said to be split or divided and cut through, both because by cutting through the dry land they divide it as it were, and because they burst forth in diverse and as it were separate places.
One may ask how these things are connected to the preceding? For what does physical wisdom, which created earth and heaven, have to do with ethics, which is treated in this chapter and in the whole book? I respond: There are various reasons why Solomon adds this to the foregoing: First, because in this chapter, as also in chapter 8, and following him Sirach in Ecclesiasticus ch. 24 and chapters 42 and 43, he praises wisdom generically or in general, insofar as it encompasses both created and uncreated, both physical and ethical wisdom.
Second, because in God both are one thing; and indeed the one is so connected with the other that one in turn requires the other and is as it were the origin of the other. For God has a most wise providence and physical omnipotence, by which He created the heavens and the earth and all things that are in them; hence He likewise has a most wise providence and ethical omnipotence, by which He governs ethically the rational creatures that are in heaven and on earth, as its parts and members, namely Angels and men, and teaches them to live rightly and holily, proposing for this purpose great rewards to those who do so, and punishments to those who do not. Conversely, God and God's wisdom and holiness, by which He governs rational beings, and which He communicates and inspires to men and Angels, requires omnipotence to create the earth, on which men may dwell as in a place of contest and struggle, and the heavens as the place of the Angels and as the reward of the right contest of holy men, so that He may endow them with heaven and make them blessed.
Third, because God in the creation of the universe showed not only physical wisdom, but also ethical wisdom. For God, as the Psalmist says, 'is holy in all His works.' Indeed among other things, God in the creation of heaven, earth, etc., showed His goodness, by which He deigned to communicate Himself and His goods to creatures, especially to man and angel, for whose sake and for whose use He created all things. Hence St. Jerome on Ezekiel 1: 'Each thing,' he says, 'flashes forth the knowledge of God,' and consequently the reverence, worship, and love of God. For the world, and its creation, preservation, and governance is the work of divinity and proper to God: wherefore in it divinity clearly shines forth, and consequently the majesty, wisdom, holiness, etc. of God; for divinity includes all these things in itself. Hence 'He established the heavens by prudence,' because it was a great act of God's prudence to create such, so many, and so great heavens and to set them before men and Angels for contemplation, so that from their appearance they might recognize, worship, and love the majesty, wisdom, and holiness of God, in which their true wisdom, virtue, and holiness consists.
Fourth and properly, these things pertain to the length of days, riches, peace, firmness, glory, etc., which he said just before that wisdom brings to her devotees. And it is an argument from the greater to the lesser, as if to say: Do not marvel that I said wisdom provides all these things; for she has provided and provides far greater things, when she created and still creates, that is, preserves, the heavens, the earth, and all things that are in them; for if she can do these things, which are far greater, surely she can also do those which are lesser. Our Salazar adds that these things are said to teach that wisdom is not idle and lazy, but active and industrious, and therefore men ought to labor constantly in the exercise of wisdom and virtues, just as God and God's wisdom constantly works, while preserving, moving, and governing the heavens and the earth, and all things that are in them.
Mystically, Dionysius says: The heavens represent the Church Triumphant, the earth the Church Militant, the clouds the Prophets and Apostles, the dew their doctrine and grace, with which they irrigated and fertilized the minds of men, so as to teach them wisdom and virtue. So also essentially Bede. Hence just as the earth depends on heaven, so the Church Militant depends on the Church Triumphant, inasmuch as from it she receives clouds and dew, that is, apostolic men, doctrine, and grace.
Again, the author of the Greek Catena says: The clouds signify the inexhaustible depth of the judgments of God.
Verse 21: My Son, Let Not These Things Flow Away from Your Eyes
21. MY SON, LET NOT THESE THINGS FLOW AWAY FROM YOUR EYES: KEEP THE LAW AND COUNSEL. — Understand eyes not so much of the body as of the mind, as if to say: Take care that these precepts and counsels of mine do not slip from your mind and memory through the occurrence of other things and images; but setting aside all other things, and as if forgetting them, attend to these alone, let these alone constantly be present to your mind and memory, so that you may fulfill them in deed, and thus live wisely and holily, so as to attain eternal felicity. He alludes to schoolboys, who because of a moister brain and the changeability of youth, just as they easily learn something, so they easily let it flow away when other images present themselves and they forget, while old men who have a drier brain constantly retain what they once learned; therefore teachers repeatedly admonish boys to preserve in their minds what they hear. Aptly St. Gregory Nazianzen, Oration 19: 'What,' he says, 'we observe happening in calm waters, that when a thrown pebble has made a center, another circle is stirred up by another, and continually agitated toward the surface, always dissolving the outermost one: this plainly happens to me here too; for one thing comes to mind, another supervenes, another withdraws itself; and I labor in the choosing, while that which I first seized gives way and flows out to that which later flowed into my mind.'
The Septuagint translates: son, lest you flow away; alluding to which St. Paul, Hebrews ch. 2, v. 1: 'Therefore,' he says, 'we ought more abundantly to observe the things which we have heard, lest perhaps we flow away or overflow.' Where I explained this passage at length: therefore I will not repeat it here.
Keep the law and counsel. — In Hebrew: keep my essence and my thought. The law is called essence, or subsistence, both because it is eternal and always subsists; and because it makes its observers eternal, immortal, and blessed; and finally because the good of law and virtue is solid and stable, while all other things are transient and fleeting, unless they serve law and virtue. See what was said on ch. 2, v. 7. Hence the Septuagint translates: keep my counsel and judgment; the Tigurina: observe essence and foresight, that is, as Vatablus says, sound doctrine and prudence. Here applies that saying of Isocrates in Maximus, Sermon 17 On Education: 'The words which one has been permitted to hear from the wise must be preserved more diligently than deposits of money.'
22. AND IT SHALL BE LIFE TO YOUR SOUL, AND GRACE TO YOUR JAWS. — Life, namely of grace and glory. Hence from the Hebrew you may translate 'lives' in the plural; for chaiim in this signification is only plural in Hebrew, and therefore signifies both life and lives; for wisdom is a tree of life, or a life-giving tree, as I said at verse 18. The Septuagint: that your soul may live, and that grace may be about your neck; the Syriac: let charity or piety be at your neck; Pagninus: and (my precepts) shall be life to your soul, and grace to your throat, as if to say: If you observe these precepts of mine, you shall attain the life of grace in this world, and of glory in the future, according to that verse Baruch 4:1: 'This is the book of the commandments of God, and the law that is forever; all who keep it shall come to life; but those who have forsaken it, to death.' Moreover these precepts of mine shall be grace to your jaws, that is, they will win for you the favor of God and of men, and will adorn you, just as a golden chain is wont to adorn the jaws and neck, according to that verse ch. 1, v. 9: 'That grace may be added to your head, and a chain to your neck;' which the Septuagint repeats here. See what was said there. Second, Bede, as if to say: These precepts will give you a taste and savor of divine things (for taste is in the jaws) so that you may say with the Psalmist: 'How sweet are Your words to my jaws!' and: 'Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.' Third, Basil in the Greek Catena, and Dionysius, as if to say: The virtue of temperance will be given to your taste for eating moderately; for wisdom, or prudence, teaches and confers this. Fourth, Lyranus, Cajetan, and Hugo, as if to say: The grace of conversing, teaching, preaching, and persuading will be given to you, so that from your jaws, that is, from the deepest sense of your heart, you may bring forth ardent and effective words, by which you may pour forth into others the wisdom and virtue with which you are full. Our Salazar thinks that Solomon alludes to the sapphire, on which the Hebrews relate that the law of Moses given by God was inscribed, according to the testimony of Lyranus and Abulensis, Exodus ch. 24, v. 12; as well as Suidas under the word Moses, St. Epiphanius, bk. On the 12 Gems, and Anastasius of Nicæa, Question 38 on Sacred Scripture. For a sapphire was accustomed to hang from boys' necks, both for ornament and to ward off the evil eye, says Pliny, bk. 37, ch. 9, as if to say: The law once inscribed on the sapphire will adorn your neck more and win you the favor of God and men, and will ward off every spell of the flesh and world, more than that jeweled sapphire of yours with which you customarily wreathe your neck. Add that the sapphire, because of its splendor, is a symbol of the presence and majesty of God. See what I noted about the sapphire on Exodus ch. 34, v. 10, and Apocalypse 21:19, where among other things I said that in ancient times Pontiffs, as high priests of wisdom, wore a sapphire around their neck, on which truth was inscribed.
Verse 23: Then You Shall Walk Confidently on Your Way
23. THEN YOU SHALL WALK CONFIDENTLY ON YOUR WAY, AND YOUR FOOT SHALL NOT STUMBLE. — Pagninus: shall not strike; the Septuagint: that you may walk trusting in peace on all your ways, and that your foot may not stumble, according to that verse ch. 4, v. 19: 'The way of the just is without stumbling block;' the Chaldean: then you shall walk in hope (Syriac: with hope) on your ways, and your foot shall not offend, as if to say: The way of wisdom and virtue is smooth, lacking scandals and stumbling blocks: therefore if you walk through it, you will walk securely without anxious fear, because nowhere will you stumble, offend, or fall, and you will incur no fault or punishment: if any tribulation occurs, you will prudently avoid it or bravely cross over and overcome it. 'For the offense of a reasoning nature is either an impure thought, or a false and deceitful opinion,' says Basil. Again 'you shall walk,' that is, you shall make progress on the way of God and virtue, and making progress you shall trust in the Lord, and having a good conscience you shall be a man of good hope, says Dionysius. For even the Philosopher asserts that those who are well disposed toward divine things have better hope. 'And your foot shall not stumble,' that is, your affection or operation, by which you tend toward your end, shall not trip by departing from the way of virtues and the mean of reason. For prudence will direct you, so that with the Psalmist, Psalm 25, you may say: 'My foot has stood in the right path;' and with Job ch. 23: 'My foot has followed His steps.' He alludes to that verse Leviticus 26:3: 'If you walk in my precepts, etc., you shall dwell in the land without fear of yours. I will give peace in your borders; you shall sleep, and there shall be none to terrify you.' Finally, Bede beautifully and piously explains: 'We walk confidently,' he says, 'on our way, when trusting in God's grace, we embrace progress in our good conduct. If therefore we humbly submit to His commands, we shall more sweetly touch the taste of heavenly love with the jaws of the mind, and shall always obtain increase of good works; but also in temptations, we shall be defended by His help so that we do not fail.'
24. IF YOU SLEEP, YOU SHALL NOT FEAR: YOU SHALL REST, AND YOUR SLEEP SHALL BE SWEET. — As if to say: Just as in walking and movement I promised you would be secure, so likewise I promise you will be secure in rest and sleep; therefore both in movement and in rest, both in wakefulness and in sleep, both by day and by night, always and everywhere you will be secure, fearless, joyful, and vigorous. Hence the Septuagint: for if you sit, you shall be without fear; if you sleep, you shall sleep sweetly; Vatablus: when you rest, you shall not be afraid; when you lie down, your sleep shall be pleasant, both because sleep is sweet after labor, and because joyful virtue produces joyful sleep. For just as sadness occurring to a wakeful mind disordered during the day recurs in dreams by a natural resonance of the imagination and mind, and makes sleep sad and troublesome: so conversely the joy which the exercise of virtue practiced during the day produces in an ordered mind, by a natural sympathy will recur in the imagination during the night, and will make sleep sweet and pleasant. He alludes to Deuteronomy ch. 28, v. 66: 'The Lord shall give you a fearful heart, etc., and your life shall be as it were hanging before you. You shall fear night and day, and shall not trust your life;' and to Psalm 90: 'You shall not fear the terror of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the pestilence that walks in darkness, the attack and the noonday devil. A thousand shall fall at your side,' etc.
Anagogically, 'you shall sleep sweetly,' that is, you shall die sweetly; 'your sleep shall be sweet,' that is, your death shall be sweet, as the Poet says:
Fool, what is sleep, if not an image of cold death?
Indeed the brother of death, says Homer; and thus death begun and halved. Hence the Hebrew areba, that is, 'it will be sweet,' some translate: your sleep will be pledged, as if to say: Your sweet sleep will be a pledge of a sweet future death, on account of the hope of a blessed resurrection, by which from death as from sleep you will awaken to eternal life. Hence from the Hebrew araba and erabon is derived the Greek arrabon, and the Latin arrha or arrhabo, that is, a pledge which is customarily given to a creditor until the debt is paid. Hence as sleep is, so death tends to be: if sleep is serene, quiet, joyful, death likewise will come serene, quiet, joyful through the confidence of virtue and a good conscience; if sleep is troubled, restless, sad, death too will come troubled, restless, and sad because of crimes and the fear of a bad conscience.
Finally, the author of the Greek Catena explains thus: It was established by the Law among the Jews that whether they remained at home, or arose in the morning from bed, or did anything else, they should always ponder the divine words in their minds. If we therefore are so occupied with meditation on divine things, we shall be free from the fear of the enemy and shall obtain peace and tranquility of soul from evil thoughts, and we shall by no means waver in uncertain judgment. If, I say, we are well fortified with wisdom, we shall neither be shaken by fear while sitting at home, nor disturbed by phantasms while sleeping at night, nor terrified by the ambushes of evil thoughts which are brought on by the external enemy, nor shall the impious and wicked men (who, to break our strength and despoil us of the goods of nature, are sometimes wont to rush upon us with force from here and there) easily overthrow us. For the Lord will so defend us and make our steps firm in such a manner that we remain immovable everywhere. Or receive these things in this way: Whether you spend your life on earth, you shall live free from fear; whether you are called hence through death, you shall depart from life with joy; nor shall you dread the enemies who do not come within sight, whether they have brought your works to examination, or the holy angels.'
The Philosophers also perceived this in a shadow, who teach that the just man dreams of honest and tranquil things, the wicked man of dishonest and turbulent things, and therefore from sleep one may gather progress in virtue. So Aristotle, bk. I Ethics: 'Better,' he says, 'are the dreams of the virtuous;' and Plutarch: 'How one may perceive one's own progress in virtue,' among other signs gives dreaming, namely if one dreams not of shameful but of honorable things. 'For as yoke-horses,' he says, 'trained to run straight, do not leave the road even when the charioteer is sleeping: so brute affections once tamed do not easily kick back even in dreams.' But in carnal and impious persons, 'sleep is a sea of thoughts, waves of defilements, the third son of the belly,' says Nicetas on Oration 3 of Nazianzen.
Verse 25: Do Not Fear Sudden Terror
25. DO NOT FEAR SUDDEN TERROR, NOR THE POWERS OF THE WICKED RUSHING UPON YOU. — First, many connect this to the preceding, as part of the reward of the studious practitioner of virtue, as if to say: You shall walk confidently and rest, do not fear, that is, so that you will not fear, or you shall not fear; for thus you may translate from the Hebrew. Hence the Septuagint: you shall not fear the terror coming upon you, nor the assaults of the wicked pressing in; the Chaldean: you shall not fear sudden terror, and sudden calamity, and the desolation or calamity of the wicked, when it comes; the Syriac: you shall not be afraid of sudden fear, and of the onslaught of sinners.
Second, these can be taken as a precept or admonition; hence the Scholiast translates: if you are struck with alarm, do not fear, as if to say: If some danger, if some terror unexpectedly invades you, do not yield, do not fear, because you have God at your side. Better, however, these are taken not as a precept, but as a reward you should understand. For here is promised to the student of wisdom and virtue security from every terror, both of demons and of men, even that which suddenly and unexpectedly rushes upon us with great force and power, and therefore is wont to strike and confound men who are without help and counsel, indeed to overwhelm and oppress them, according to that verse of the Psalmist, Psalm 26: 'If camps stand against me, my heart shall not fear.' For 'powers,' in Hebrew is schoa, that is, the desolation and calamity of the wicked, which can be taken in two ways. First, actively, as if to say: The calamity which the wicked inflict on others near you shall not reach you, if you devote yourself to wisdom and God. So our translator. Second, passively, as if to say: If you live according to virtue, the public calamity which overwhelms other wicked men shall not involve you, because God will protect and exempt you from it. So the Chaldean. Thus at the end of the world there will be dreadful eclipses of the sun and moon, falling of stars, earthquakes, roaring of the sea, and terrifying changes of all things, so that men will wither with fear and expectation of what will come upon the whole world. But the Saints will then not tremble, but rejoice: 'When these things begin to happen,' says Christ, Luke 21:28, 'look up and raise your heads, because your redemption draws near.' 'Raise your heads, that is, cheer your hearts,' says St. Gregory, Homily 1 on the Gospels, 'because as the world ends, whose friends you are not, the redemption you sought draws near.'
26. FOR THE LORD SHALL BE AT YOUR SIDE, — just as bodyguards and attendants are at the prince's side, to protect him against all attacks, and therefore they were called laterani and latrones (side-men), according to Isidore and Varro, as in that verse of David, Psalm 15: 'I set the Lord always in my sight, because He is at my right hand, that I be not moved.' For 'side,' in Hebrew is kesel, which properly signifies foolishness, inconstancy, changeability. Hence kesilim are everywhere called the inconstant and fickle, that is, fools. Hence kesil designates Orion, a star so called from inconstancy, because at the time when it rises (which is around November), it stirs up storms on sea and land, according to that verse of Virgil:
Stormy Orion with his waves.
Others think kesil refers to the stars called the Hyades, from the Greek 'to rain,' because they bring rains. The same are called Suculæ, not from 'pigs,' but from the Hebrew kesil with metathesis inverted, as some learned men hold. Hence also Casleu is the name of the month of November from the inclemency and inconstancy of the sky. Therefore thus properly translated from the Hebrew: because God shall be in your inconstancy, changeability, and instability, namely supporting, strengthening, and sustaining you, lest you waver, slip, and fall. Hence explaining, he adds: 'He shall keep your foot that you be not captured.' Hence also R. Solomon thus translates and explains, as if to say: 'The Lord shall be present to help you in those matters in which you seemed to act foolishly.
Second, kesel by antiphrasis signifies the contrary of what I just said, namely firmness, immovability of soul, confidence, constancy, by which one stands firm, as is clear from Leviticus ch. 3, v. 4 ff., Job 15:27, Psalm 77:7: 'That they may place their hope in God;' in Hebrew kislam. Thus kesel by metathesis is almost the same as sechel, that is, intelligence, prudence, constancy. According to this meaning translate: the Lord shall be your constancy, confidence, and immovability, so that He may sustain you in slippery, precarious, and dangerous situations, lest you fall, and make you constant and immovable. Hence the Septuagint translates: the Lord shall be over your ways, as their president, director, and guardian; or on all your ways, as walking with you, leading and protecting, so that neither wild beasts, nor robbers, nor anyone or anything else can harm you; Pagninus and Baynus: because the Lord shall be your confidence; R. Levi: in those things which you have hoped for, God will favor you, as if to say: God will be present to you and will protect you in those things in which you have trusted and relied upon Him, and which you have hoped for from Him, and He will take care that you are not entangled in any calamities.
Third, kesel signifies the flanks, loins, vertebra, spondylus. Hence translate: God shall be in your loins or flanks, or at your loins, flanks, and spondylus, that is, at your side, as our translator renders it. Marinus in his Hebrew Lexicon gives the reason, that foolishness and inconstancy are attributed to the flanks, just as doctrine is attributed to the kidneys. In this meaning the Tigurina translates: the Lord, he says, will be present at your side, namely so that He may guard and strengthen your loins and flanks, that is, the more tender and vital parts, and therefore those more exposed to being pierced, wounded, and killed, and consequently the whole body and life itself, lest it be harmed by any weapon, injury, or evil. The Chaldean: the Lord shall be for your help; the Syriac: with you.
AND HE SHALL KEEP YOUR FOOT THAT YOU BE NOT CAPTURED, — the Syriac: that you be not captured by hunting, as wild beasts are captured by a snare; the Septuagint: He shall make firm (the Scholiast: shall preserve) your foot, that you be not moved; the Complutensian: that you be not shaken or disturbed, as if to say: In ambushes, on a slippery path, among rocks and stumbling blocks God shall guard you and your feet, lest you be caught, lest you waver, lest you stumble and fall, according to that verse Psalm 65: 'Who has placed my soul in life, and has not given my feet to be moved.' Symbolically St. Gregory, Morals 31, ch. 17, understands by the foot progress into the interior of virtue, and by the side the circumspection and caution against ambushes; for one without the other does not suffice. 'Rightly therefore it is said,' he writes, 'the Lord shall be at your side, and shall keep your foot that you be not captured; because the soldier of God, protected by the shield of divine grace, both watchfully considers what may come from the side, and does not cease advancing and pressing forward.' Again, 'that you be not captured,' understand either from temporal evil, or from temptation; for temptation entices the intellect by showing a pleasant good, and binds the affection by love of the forbidden: but the Lord's protection frees these two feet of the soul from the snare, if He finds it obedient to His commands
He illuminates the intellect of the just, who strive to fulfill His will. For it is written: 'A good understanding to all who do it,' Psalm 110:10.
Morally, learn from this that the fruit of wisdom and virtue is security and immunity from fear, which is indeed very troublesome to man and afflicts and tortures him. Hence Seneca: 'Alas,' he says, 'how wretched it is to grow old from fearing!' Hence the more virtue grows, the more security also grows. Wherefore some become so perfect that when a terrible or fearful thing occurs, they do not even feel the first movements of sudden fright, which is a sign of great virtue, faith, and hope in God. So the Psalmist, Psalm 26:1: 'The Lord,' he says, 'is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, before whom shall I tremble?' So in the Lives of the Fathers we read of Abbot Theodore, that when someone asked him: 'If a great crash or noise happens unexpectedly, do you fear?' he answered: 'If the sky should cling to the earth, Theodore would not be afraid.' Even if the shattered world should collapse, he would be undaunted— the ruins would strike the fearless; for he had asked the Lord to take away fear from him, and had obtained it. And of St. Pachomius we read that he trampled snakes and scorpions occurring in his path unharmed, and even swam across rivers riding a crocodile securely, because perfect hope and charity casts out fear, 1 John 4:18. And of Abbot Macarius, that when he happened to be lying in a pagan tomb and had placed the corpse of a dead man under his head as a pillow, demons, to frighten him, began to make voices and speak from the corpse and around the corpse. And then Macarius, fearing nothing, but striking the corpse with his head, confidently said to the devil: 'Get up, go where you can.' On the other hand, some are so imperfect and timid that when they are alone, especially at night, they dread all whistlings, noises, and shadows, and they are truly wretched: let them therefore conquer fear with boldness, confidence, and prayer, and let them recite Psalm 90: 'He who dwells in the aid of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven,' etc., which therefore the Church commands to be recited by all clergy at Compline before nightfall.
Fourth Part: Emulate the Good, Not the Wicked
Verse 27: Do Not Forbid Him from Doing Good
27. DO NOT FORBID HIM WHO CAN FROM DOING GOOD: IF YOU ARE ABLE, DO GOOD YOURSELF. — After the praise of wisdom he returns to its particular precepts. Therefore just as in verse 5 he assigned the first precept of wisdom about the worship of God, so here he assigns the second about beneficence toward one's neighbor. The Hebrew words literally read: do not withhold good from its owners or masters, when it is in the power of your hand to do it, that is, when you are able to do it. Which various authors explain variously. Our translator by 'masters' or 'lords' understands the rich and powerful, who have the means of doing good: then he judged that 'do not forbid' should be repeated in the second half of the verse, as if to say: Do not forbid the rich from doing good to the needy, but you too, when you can do the same, do not forbid yourself and your hand from a good work. Ben-Sira supports Solomon, saying: 'Be good, and do not forbid your hand from good.' 'A good man,' says Cicero, 'is one who helps those he can, and harms no one.'
Others, however, by 'masters' understand the needy and the poor; for to these a benefit and alms are owed not from justice, but from charity. Hence St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, and others assert that the superfluous goods of the rich are the property of the poor. 'Why then are you indignant when the poor ask something of you? They seek their father's property, not yours,' says St. Chrysostom in Antonius's Melissa, ch. 7. Hence also St. John the Almsgiver called the poor his masters. So Vatablus: do not turn away one who needs it. So R. Levi and Aben-Ezra: The master of the benefit, he says, is both the poor man and the benefactor himself; for the latter is the master of his money, while the miser is its slave. For, as Seneca says: 'Money, if you know how to use it (by doing good), is a servant; if you do not, it is a master.' Hence the Septuagint: 'Do not abstain from doing good to the needy, whenever your hand has the power to help.'
Again, Cajetan thinks that restitution is here commanded, as if to say: Restore the good which you justly or unjustly possess to its masters and owners. But others generally hold that beneficence is treated here. Hence the Chaldean: do not cease to do good, while your hand has the power to do it; the Syriac: do not restrain yourself from doing good, while your hand can perform it. Somewhat differently R. Solomon, as if to say: If you see a friend intent on benefiting the needy, do not forbid him, nor divert him elsewhere, when you have the power to do it, that is, when it is in your power to forbid and remove him from doing good.
In sum, our translator translates excellently; for the Wise Man wills that no one should be prohibited from beneficence, and indeed that good should be done to everyone if possible.
The reason is given by Publilius Syrus in his Sentences: 'He who gives a benefit to a worthy person receives by giving;' and: 'When you give a benefit to worthy persons, you oblige everyone.' For 'he who receives a benefit sells his liberty.' Conversely, as Antonius says in the Melissa, chapters 27 and 23 On Beneficence, from Photius: 'Those who give much to the unworthy commit three absurdities: for they themselves suffer the loss of what they give, and they strengthen the wicked by providing material for vices, and they are insulting to the good.' Therefore charis, that is, grace, is given to its bealau, that is, to its master or husband, when it is given to a worthy person; for it ought to be given to him, and therefore she is bound to him as by marriage. Hence Homer said that Pasithea, the first of the Charites or Graces, was joined in marriage, because she looks to the worthy and is bound and owed to them like a wife. More excellently St. Chrysostom in Antonius's Melissa, ch. 29: 'He does not do a favor,' he says, 'who does a favor, but he himself rather receives the benefit than gives it. For he receives greater things than he bestows; because he lends to God, not to men; he increases wealth, he does not diminish it; indeed he diminishes it if he takes nothing away, if he gives nothing.' Moreover, just as the first degree of beneficence is not to impede those doing good; the second, to exhort and help them in doing good: 'for he abounds in many virtues who loves others' virtues,' says the Wise Man; the third, to do good oneself: so conversely, the first degree of maleficence is not to want to do good; the second, to discourage and impede benefactors; the third, to help and incite evildoers; the fourth, to do evil oneself.
28. DO NOT SAY TO YOUR FRIEND: GO AND COME BACK: I WILL GIVE TO YOU TOMORROW, WHEN YOU CAN GIVE IMMEDIATELY. — The Chaldean: if you have it with you; the Septuagint adds: for you do not know what the following day will bring forth; or, as St. Cyprian reads, bk. III To Quirinus: 'For you do not know what may happen on the following day.' This is the first reason why a benefit should be given immediately, lest, if it is deferred to the next day, some impediment preventing the gift may arise. So Nazianzen, Oration 16, whose words I shall cite shortly. Second, because he who gives quickly, quickly relieves the need of his neighbor; he who gives slowly, allows him to be stuck in it and to endure the torment. Third, because he who gives quickly, gives with his gift a prompt and liberal spirit, which is more valuable than the benefit. Conversely, 'he who did it late, long did not want to,' says Seneca. Fourth: 'He gives twice who gives quickly,' says St. Jerome and others, both because he quickly relieves the need and wish of the petitioner; and because speed often doubles the fortune; and because he who gives quickly can give a second time: for one act of beneficence invites and provokes another. Seneca says excellently: 'All kindness,' he says, 'hastens, and it is characteristic of the doer to do quickly; if drawing it out from day to day he helped, he did not do it from the heart. And so he has lost two very great things: both the gratitude and the time.' Fifth, if you delay, you force the petitioner to return repeatedly, and thus to suffer the loss of time, business, and profit, which is often worth more to him than your benefit: therefore he not infrequently regrets having asked for the benefit; for it rarely works out for him, what he bought with so many prayers, journeys, labors, and losses. Truly wise: 'It becomes a twofold goodness, if speed is added.' Ausonius:
A favor that is slow is ungrateful: The favor that hastens to be done is more welcome.
And Democritus in Antonius's Melissa, ch. 29 On Beneficence: 'If you are about to do a favor, do it at once; for delay makes the gift faulty. Rather bestow small things than promise great ones. For this is free from danger, and he who has received needs deeds, not words.' More excellently the same Antonius in the Melissa, ch. 27, from St. Gregory Nazianzen: 'Show a specimen of gratitude to God,' he says, 'because He made you one of those who can bestow benefits, not of those who need to receive; and because you should not be looking at others' hands, but others at yours. Be rich, not only in wealth, but also in piety; not only in the possession of gold, but moreover of virtue; surpass others by showing yourself more upright and more generous. Be a god to the afflicted, by imitating the mercy of God; for nothing more divine than beneficence can befall a man. Let not even night intercept your mercy; do not say: Come back another time, and I will give tomorrow, lest something happen between your intention and the benefit that may impede it.' Job himself practiced the same, saying in ch. 31: 'If I denied what the poor wanted, and made the eyes of the widow wait.' God exhibits the form and mirror of this precept, when He does not dismiss empty those dearest friends of His who ask something of Him, but keeps them with Him, full of the goods they ask for, and joyful and exultant. Thus Hannah, the mother of Samuel, came barren to the temple to pray, and departed as the future mother of so great a son, 1 Kings 1. Thus Sarah was immediately freed by God's help through prayer from the reproach of being a killer of husbands, Tobit 3. Thus Judith, armed more with prayer than with the sword, with God as leader slew Holofernes, routed the Assyrian army, and liberated Israel, Judith 13.
Verse 29: Do Not Devise Evil Against Your Friend
29. DO NOT DEVISE EVIL AGAINST YOUR FRIEND, WHEN HE HAS CONFIDENCE IN YOU. — In Hebrew: do not plow or fabricate evil against your companion, and (that is, when) he himself sits in trust with you; the Chaldean: do not think evil against your neighbor, when he himself dwells with you in peace; the Syriac: who sits with you in quiet; the Septuagint: do not fabricate evils against your friend who dwells near you and trusts in you. So the Complutensian editors and the author of the Greek Catena, although the Roman edition for 'friend' reads contrarily 'enemy'; the Tigurina: do not plot evil against your neighbor, when he dwells securely with you; Vatablus: when he himself fears nothing of the sort from you. For 'devise,' in Hebrew is tachares, which signifies both to plow and to fabricate: for just as one who plows prepares the land for sowing; so one who plots evil seeks and prepares methods and arts of deceiving and tripping up his neighbor. So R. Solomon. The same person fabricates something good and friendly in appearance, but inwardly hostile and harmful, just as the Greeks fabricated the horse of Pallas, who is the patroness of mercy; but they deceitfully placed soldiers inside it, who, after the horse was brought into the city by the Trojans, emerged by night and betrayed the city to the Greeks.
The meaning is clear; for after having praised beneficence, he censures maleficence, especially against friends. For this contains a twofold malice: first, the violation of friendship, in that it injures a friend; second, treachery, in that under the guise of friendship it deceitfully and treacherously supplants him. Therefore such false friends are worse than open enemies; for from the latter, since they are known to you, you guard yourself: from the former, because you do not know them, indeed they pretend to be friends, you cannot guard yourself. They are therefore the plague of every assembly, society, and human community, which is bound and held together by faith and love. Hence Seneca: 'Concealed hatreds are worse than open ones; more dangerous is the enemy who lurks beneath the breast.' On which more in chapter 11.
Verse 30: Do Not Contend Against a Man Without Cause
30. DO NOT CONTEND (Hebrew: do not quarrel) AGAINST A MAN WITHOUT CAUSE, WHEN HE HAS DONE YOU NO EVIL. — The Septuagint translates the latter part differently; for they have: do not exercise enmity against a man without cause, lest he do (Hebrew: repay) evil to you; Vatablus: lest he repay you evil; the Tigurina: do not rashly take up a quarrel with anyone, if he has done you no wrong; the Syriac: do not quarrel with a man without cause. For every lawsuit is harmful, but especially one brought against an innocent person; for the judge, or certainly God, is the protector and avenger of the innocent. Hence Seneca in his Proverbs: 'To contend with an equal is uncertain; with a superior, madness; with an inferior, sordid.'
Verse 31: Do Not Envy the Unjust Man
31. DO NOT ENVY THE UNJUST MAN (Hebrew: ish chamas, that is, as Vatablus says, a man of injustice or rapine; the Tigurina: the violent man; the Chaldean: the robber; the Syriac: the wicked man), NOR IMITATE (Hebrew: choose) HIS WAYS. — The Syriac: nor let all his ways please you. For 'envy,' in Hebrew is tekanne, which, when construed with lamed, signifies to be zealous, to burn with zeal, to desire something vehemently; but when construed with beth, as happens here, it signifies to be angry and to envy. The sense therefore is, as if to say: Do not be angry that you see the unjust oppressing others by force and fraud, and enriching and exalting themselves, nor be indignant at and envious of their prosperity, so as to want to draw it to yourself by imitating their ways, that is, their actions and robberies. He alludes to Psalm 36:1: 'Do not envy the wicked; nor be zealous for those who do iniquity.' Where for 'envy,' in Hebrew is titchar, that is, do not be angry, do not be indignant; for 'be zealous' is the same verb as here, namely tekanne. Hence secondly, some explain 'do not envy' as 'do not imitate.' So the Tigurina. Hence also the Septuagint translates: do not acquire the reproaches of evil men, namely by imitating their frauds, robberies, and crimes, so as to enrich and make yourself wealthy like them. For this is, and always has been, a common temptation of the pious, that they see the impious prosper, while they themselves are oppressed and harassed by adversities. For on this matter Jeremiah complains and as it were expostulates with God, chapter 12, verse 1 ff.; Job, ch. 21, v. 7; Habakkuk, ch. 1, v. 13; and David, Psalm 72 throughout. But men solid in faith and virtue should not be disturbed by this, because they hope for heavenly things and despise earthly ones. Hence St. Chrysostom, Homily 8 on 2 Timothy: 'Do not envy,' he says, 'the unjust man: if no evil person were punished, no one would think God cares about human affairs: if all were punished, no one would hope for a future resurrection, since the reward would be given to all here; therefore He punishes some here, and does not punish most.' Further on he suggests another reason: 'There are many good people who have some evil mixed in, which they lay aside here (namely through punishments paid), and likewise evil people who have some good works, whose return they receive here, so that there they may be punished eternally. If we consider all these things within ourselves, nothing will be able to harm or disturb us, nothing to provoke us to envy or zeal.' A third reason is given by St. Augustine, Epistle 70: 'These goods,' he says, 'lest they be thought evil, are given also to the good: and again, lest they be thought the highest goods, they are given also to the evil. And likewise they are taken from the good, that they may be tested; and from the evil, that they may be tormented.'
Verse 32: For Every Mocker Is an Abomination to the Lord
32. FOR EVERY MOCKER IS AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD, AND WITH THE SIMPLE IS HIS COMMUNICATION. — For 'mocker,' our translator seems to have read nalots, with tsade; now they read naloz, with zain, that is, depraved, perverse; R. Solomon: who is driven crosswise through byways; R. Levi: who deviates from the right path and enters upon a winding course, that is, the wicked. The wicked person is therefore called a mocker, both because he deceives himself and others with the alluring appearance of pleasure, by which he brings upon himself sin and consequently damnation; and more properly because the very wicked, like the impious and atheists, not only despise monitors and warnings, but also mock all things human and divine (which is the highest degree of impiety), and these are properly called in Scripture letsim, that is, scoffers or mockers, as is clear from Psalm 1:1, where the first degree of sinners is established: 'Blessed is the man who has not gone in the counsel of the ungodly;' the second: 'And has not stood in the way of sinners;' the third and highest: 'And has not sat in the chair of pestilence (Hebrew: letsim, that is, of scoffers).' Hear Blessed Antiochus, Homily On Obedience and Disobedience: 'Who is a mocker? A mocker is one who corrupts the words of God by understanding and teaching them perversely. A mocker is one who insultingly despises his simple and poor neighbors. A mocker is one who despises the great promises of God as if they were small, and scorns the punishment of eternal damnation as if it were tolerable.'
Therefore Solomon here opposes to the mocker the simple, in Hebrew iescharim, that is, the upright, honest, just. Hence the Septuagint translates: for every wicked person is unclean before the Lord; but among the just He does not take counsel, or: nor does He take a seat (a judicial seat for punishment) in the assembly of the just, as if to say: God judges and condemns every wicked person, as if unclean and unclean; but with the just He does not deal in a council, as from a tribunal and a long bench, but in a friendly and familiar manner. And, as the Hebrew has it, with the upright is His sod, that is, His secret, His conversation, the familiar speech of God; the Chaldean: because all iniquity is banished from God, and with the upright is His conversation. This is a clear antithesis, as if to say: God distances iniquity and the iniquitous from Himself, but draws near to Himself the fair and the just. The Syriac: because the wicked is polluted before God, and with the just is His conversation; Pagninus: because every perverse person is an abomination to the Lord, and with the upright is His secret.
In Hebrew therefore sod properly signifies a secret, a mystery, as if to say, says Aben-Ezra: God reveals His secrets and plans to the upright, for example, with what calamity He has decided to afflict the wicked. Moreover, the word 'because' gives the reason why the unjust, who prosper, should not be envied or imitated; but rather the just and pious, who are harassed and afflicted: because the unjust are abominable to God, while the just are lovable, indeed friends and secretaries, as those to whom God discloses His secrets, judgments, and plans, both those which He revealed in Scripture, especially concerning the heavenly rewards which God has prepared for the just who are harassed here; and those which He suggests to them through internal inspirations, consolations, and illuminations, by which He so strengthens and cheers them that they both generously trample all the world's prosperity and fear none of its adversities, according to that verse Psalm 24:14: 'The Lord is the foundation of all who fear Him, and His covenant is that it be made manifest to them;' for which St. Jerome translates: the secret of the Lord is for all who fear Him, and He shows them His covenant.
In Hebrew it is the same noun as here, namely sod, which properly signifies a secret; but the Septuagint by aphaeresis took sod for iesod, that is, firmament or foundation. Therefore from them you may similarly translate here: and with the upright or simple is His foundation, as if to say: God makes the upright firm and makes them the foundation of others.
How true this statement is, is clear from the life of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Isaiah, and the other Prophets and Apostles, to whom God revealed His secrets, according to that saying of Christ, John 15:15: 'I will no longer call you servants; because the servant does not know what his lord does. But I have called you friends; because all things whatsoever I have heard from My Father, I have made known to you.' The same is clear from the Life of St. Anthony, St. Hilarion, St. Pachomius, and other Anchorites, to whom God revealed many hidden and future things. Hence Abbot Anuphius, in Palladius's Lausiac History, ch. 58, says: 'No desire for anything descended into my heart, except for God alone. God hid nothing from me of earthly things, which He did not signify and show to my eyes. I took no sleep by day, I did not rest by night seeking God: an angel of the world always stood by me, showing me its powers; I received every petition from God immediately. I often saw myriads attending on God, I saw the choirs of the just, I saw the multitude of Martyrs, I saw the monastic way of life.' And in ch. 43, Abbot John, who predicted victory to Emperor Theodosius: 'It is necessary,' he says, 'that the mind of those who seek God be at leisure from all other things. Be still and know, he says, that I am God, Psalm 45. Therefore he who has attained knowledge of God in part (for no one can receive it entirely), also attains knowledge of all other things, and sees the mysteries of God who reveals them, and foresees the future, and contemplates revelations, as the Saints do, and works virtues, and obtains from God every petition.' And in ch. 20, Abbot Macarius says to himself: 'You have Angels, Archangels, all the heavenly Powers, Cherubim and Seraphim, God their maker. Dwell there, do not descend below the heavens, do not fall into worldly thoughts.' The same is evident from the Life of St. Mechtild, St. Lydwina, St. Mary of Oignies, St. Catherine of Siena, with whom Christ so familiarly conversed that He taught her to read, to chant the psalms, and to recite the Hours, etc.
Memorable is what we read in the Life of Blessed Hermann Joseph of the Premonstratensian Order, that from boyhood with childlike simplicity and candor he was accustomed to visit in the church the image of the Blessed Virgin with the child Jesus, to converse familiarly with her, and to offer food and fruits, and when once he offered her an apple, the Blessed Virgin extended her hand and accepted it. This familiarity of Hermann with the Blessed Virgin and Jesus grew with age, so much so that she would visit him on successive days, converse with him as with a brother, procure money for his food and clothing, dispel illnesses, and disperse any temptations and adversities; indeed she even accepted him as a bridegroom and imposed on him the name of her bridegroom, namely Joseph. For when one night as was his custom he spent the night in prayer, he saw in the middle of the choir a virgin of indescribable beauty, adorned with royal regalia; and two angels attended her on the right and left, in the appearance of most handsome young men, one of whom said: 'To whom shall we betroth this virgin?' The other answered: 'To whom indeed if not to the brother here present?' Then the other said: 'Let him come, then.' Called, he approached, quite bashfully. When he reached the queen, the other angel said to him: 'This most illustrious maiden must be betrothed to you.' He, humble and modest, proclaimed himself unworthy of so great a bride. And when by resisting he was weaving delays, the angel grasped his right hand and joined it to the hand of the Blessed Virgin, and with these words betrothed her to him: 'I hand over this virgin to you as bride, just as she was once betrothed to Joseph, so that you may receive the name of the bridegroom along with the bride, and henceforth be called Joseph.' From then on he had a perpetual familiarity with the Blessed Virgin, as with a bride: by whom he was at last called to the heavenly bridal chamber in the year of the Lord 1236. These and more things are found in his Life in Surius, under April 7, which his close acquaintance, a man of weight, wrote. I cite the last Cologne edition of Surius, which was greatly augmented by Mosander.
Here applies what Philip Ferrarius writes from the Office of the Church of Piacenza approved at Rome, under the date February 4, in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy: St. Gelasius, he says, a boy of Piacenza, when he found his little brother St. Opifius praying in his room, beheld with his own eyes a multitude of Angels conversing with him, and heard a voice: 'Let the little children come to Me; for of such is the kingdom of heaven.' Both lived around the year of the Lord 420.
Hence Bede on this passage: 'The conversation of the Lord,' he says, 'is with the simple, because heavenly wisdom illuminates with its secrets those whom it sees having nothing of earthly pride or duplicity. For hence He says: You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and have revealed them to little ones,' Matt. 11. Bede drew this from St. Gregory, Pastoral, Part 3, admonition 12, where he says thus: 'God is said to converse with the simple, because He illuminates their minds with the ray of His visitation concerning heavenly mysteries, whom no shadow of duplicity obscures.' Therefore 'the simple' here are called the upright, as the Hebrew has, and the just, because these are simple in acting and speaking, while the depraved and sinners are often double and deceitful, saying one thing with their mouth, thinking another in their heart, doing another in their actions.
Another sense is offered by Lyranus and Dionysius, so that 'his' refers to the mocker, as if to say: The mocker is wont to converse with the simple person in order to deceive him: not with the astute, who knows his tricks. For, as Nazianzen says, 'simplicity is not very cautious. For he least suspects wickedness, whose mind is free and pure from wickedness.' And St. Ambrose, bk. III On Duties, ch. 10, speaking of the Gibeonites who deceived Joshua: 'Joshua,' he says, 'believed quickly, so holy was faith in those times that it was not believed that anyone could deceive. Who would reproach this in the Saints, who judge others by their own disposition? And because truth is dear to them, they think no one lies; they do not know what deception is; they willingly believe what they themselves are, and cannot suspect what they are not.' But the former exposition is the common and genuine one, so that 'his' refers to God, not to the mocker.
33. WANT FROM THE LORD IS IN THE HOUSE OF THE WICKED: BUT THE HABITATIONS OF THE JUST SHALL BE BLESSED, — that is, shall be supplied with goods. First, with temporal goods: for these, as God promised to the Jews, Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, and elsewhere, so He actually provided; but to the wicked, as He threatened poverty, so He actually inflicted it. So Lyranus, Cajetan, Jansenius, and others. So even now prostitutes, however much wealth they extract and scrape together from their lovers, are always poor. So also craftsmen and merchants who strive to enrich themselves through frauds and injustices are impoverished. The same can be seen among thieves, robbers, and men of similar stripe.
Second, with spiritual goods, namely the endowments of grace and virtues in this life, and the endowments of glory in the future. So Bede and Hugo. This is always true: for granted that the pious are now often oppressed with temporal poverty, they nonetheless abound in spiritual riches. Conversely, granted that the impious abound in temporal goods, they nonetheless live in the greatest poverty of spiritual goods. He adds the reason, saying: 'From the Lord,' as if to say: Therefore the pious are rich and the impious poor, because God blesses, that is, does good to the pious, as friends and children (for God's saying is efficacious, and therefore the same as doing); but He curses and does evil to the impious, as enemies, and deprives them of goods, punishes and chastises them.
Hence the Hebrews have: the curse of God is in the houses of the wicked; but He will bless the house of the just; the Septuagint: the curse of God is in the houses of the wicked; but the cottage of the just is blessed.
This is the second reason by which he proves what he said in verse 31: 'Do not envy the unjust man, nor imitate his ways.' For the first reason was in verse 32: 'Because every mocker (Hebrew: perverse person) is an abomination to the Lord, and with the simple (Hebrew: with the upright) is His communication.' The second, connected with the former, is here: that God rewards the pious with abundance, and punishes the impious with poverty. Moreover, the author of the Greek Catena, as translated by our Peltanus, reads thus: in the houses of the wicked dwells the curse of the Lord, but the cottages of the just are heaped with blessing. Which Olympiodorus explains thus: 'The possessions of the wicked,' he says, 'although they appear splendid and magnificent to men, are nevertheless vile and abominable before God. On the contrary, the possessions of the just, although they appear lowly and small, are yet copiously enriched with divine blessing. In a more sublime sense, by house the faculties of the understanding soul are designated, and by cottages or stables the irascible and concupiscible powers of the same; for in those faculties, brutish perturbations and passions of the soul, devoid of reason, rage and domineer widely.' And Basil in the same place: 'The house of the wicked, which compared to a cottage or hut, as a human dwelling, is ranked higher and considered more excellent, receives a curse: but the stable of the just, which compared to a house, as a shelter for beasts, is ranked lower and considered cheaper, is filled with blessing; mystically, the cottages or stables of the just can be understood as their external actions, while the house represents the contemplative virtue of the soul. Or the cottages or stables are the uneducated, who are brought to the just as to workshops of good learning; the house, however, represents disciples already perfected and educated. If then the cottages of the just are blessed, much more will their houses be enriched with divine blessing. And this indeed is the case among those who are devoted to piety and religion: but among the wicked the contrary prevails.' And another anonymous writer in the same place: 'The unclean spirits have various houses; for one house of theirs is the proud, another house of theirs is all the envious, another likewise all those enslaved to foul pleasures, yet another all the ambitious, yet another finally all the hypocrites; and in all these houses eternal punishment rages. But the cottages of the just are the mansions of the Saints, which are abundantly heaped with the blessing of God.' These are the words of the Fathers in the Greek Catena.
34. HE HIMSELF SHALL DELUDE THE MOCKERS (Hebrew: He shall mock the mockers), AND TO THE MEEK HE SHALL GIVE GRACE. — This is the third reason, as if to say: Do not imitate the ways of mockers, that is, of the impious, who mock the pious and as if in play harass them with fraud and injustice, because God will in turn mock them, according to what He said in ch. 1, v. 26: 'I also will laugh at your destruction and will mock;' and therefore He will exhibit them to men and demons as objects of ridicule. For this is the just law of retaliation, that God mocks the mockers. You mocked another, you will be mocked by another. You defrauded your neighbor, you will be defrauded by your neighbor. You seized earthly, vain, and perishable things, you will be deprived of heavenly, true, and solid things, and often even of earthly ones. 'For justice,' says Cassiodorus, bk. V Epistles, 'requires that the arrows of fraud return to the deceitful head of the archer.' Wherefore St. Augustine aptly says on Psalm 122: 'Bear,' he says, 'the one who insults you, and you will later laugh at him groaning.' In similar fashion, noble animals do not tolerate mockers. Pliny, and from him Pierius, Hieroglyphics bk. I, ch. 10, teaches that a lion seized by fever, even though he rages furiously, is cured by feeding on a monkey: for so great is the indignation with which a lion bears a monkey that there is no animal he more eagerly desires to destroy. The reason is the impudence of the ridiculous animal, provoking the lion in most unworthy ways. For as soon as it finds from some tree or from a safe hiding place the opportunity to spring upon the lion, it considers it a great achievement to attach itself to his tail and fix itself to his haunches, and thus to mock its king in whatever ways it can: which when the lion bears impatiently, he rages violently against such an animal.
Moreover, the Septuagint translates: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. And rightly, because mockers are the proud, and the meek are the humble. The Septuagint is followed and cited by St. Peter, 1 Epistle, ch. 5, v. 5, and by St. James, ch. 4, v. 6, where I explained this passage at length, and therefore I will not add more here, nor repeat what has been done. Finally, the Syriac translates: He Himself shall overthrow and destroy the mockers (the Chaldean: shall drive away), and to the wise He shall be merciful.
R. Levi explains thus, as if to say: 'God causes those who hold others in mockery and receive them with scorn to be mocked by others in turn, when they rush to their ruin; but to the humble, who treat others with honor and respect and abase themselves, He will win favor and goodwill among mortals.'
35. THE WISE SHALL POSSESS GLORY: THE EXALTATION OF FOOLS (so read with the Roman, Greek, and Hebrew editions; not 'exultation' as some read) IS IGNOMINY. — This is the fourth reason why the ways of the pious should be imitated, not those of the impious, as if to say: The wise and pious acquire glory both present and eternal, both before God and the Angels, and before men; but the modest exaltation and glory of fools, that is, of the impious, shall be turned into ignominy both present and eternal in hell.
Our translator seems to have read in the Hebrew marom, that is, exaltation, loftiness: now they read merim, that is, exalting, as if to say: Each fool exalts ignominy, that is, however much the impious person strives for heights, he nevertheless exposes himself to the greatest and most extreme ignominy. For the higher he climbs, the deeper he will fall, according to that verse of Claudian:
They are raised on high, that they may fall with a heavier crash.
Hence the Septuagint translates: the wise shall inherit glory, but the impious shall exalt ignominy; St. Jerome, Apology against Ruffinus, reads: The impious exalt insult; the Chaldean: fools shall receive tribulation; the Syriac: they shall inherit grief; Pagninus: but the fool exalts what is ignominious; the Tigurina: the wise acquire glory, but the fools ignominy, as an inheritance when they are raised up; Vatablus: the wise shall attain glory by hereditary right, and every fool bears ignominy, that is, he says, the foolish are afflicted with ignominy; Aben-Ezra: a curse, that is, poverty in the house of the wicked from God, etc. He Himself shall address the mockers through an interpreter (that is, shall mock them), to the meek (that is, to those who, because they have been received with scoffs and mocked, seem lowly), He shall give grace. The wise shall inherit glory, the fools raise up and exalt derision, or the fools exalt and honor the ignominious man; R. Levi: shame receives and elevates the foolish.
For 'shall possess,' in Hebrew is iinchalu, that is, shall inherit, or shall possess as if by hereditary right, as if to say: From the pious studies and labors of youth there devolves upon wise men advanced in age, as the fruit and inheritance of their earlier years, honor and glory: for just as the inseparable companion and follower of vice is reproach and disgrace, so conversely the constant and faithful companion of virtue is honor and glory. Conversely, the exaltation of the impious, that is, the separated possession, inheritance, the portion peculiarly assigned to them, is ignominy. For exaltation is opposed to possession; for in Hebrew rum in the hiphil, that is, to exalt, is the same as to separate and set apart for oneself by exalting or lifting some peculiar thing that may fall into one's possession. Thus of David God says, Psalm 88:20: 'I have exalted one chosen from my people;' the Chaldean: 'I have set apart a young man from the people.' For David was, as it were, the special treasure and jewel of God. Hence of him Sirach says, ch. 47, v. 2: 'As the fat separated from the flesh, so David from the children of Israel.' Exaltation therefore means the same as glory, as if to say: Glory is the proper endowment and praise of the pious. If you say: Even the impious are sometimes exalted and attain glory; the answer is that this glory is not so much glory as ignominy, both because glory does not become the impious, nor does it adorn him, but disgraces him: for an impious man in glory is the same as a monkey in purple; and because this glory must soon be turned into ignominy. And thus the antithesis of the latter half of the verse with the former is clear. The truth of this statement is evident in Joseph, Haman, Mordecai, Saul, David, etc.
Second, R. Levi: The fools, he says, shall exalt ignominy, that is, great and lofty shall be their ignominy, with which they shall be marked on account of their folly, so that because of it they are banished and driven from that seat in which they were known and famous to all. Third, the impious exalt, that is, lift up and as it were raise a huge burden, to place upon their head a glory soon to be turned into ignominy, which will weigh down and press their haughty necks to the ground, indeed to the abyss and hell. Therefore the wise shall possess glory, inasmuch as God is their Father, the Angels their brothers, their occupation the noblest of all, namely to know and serve God: whom God loves as His dearest children, the Blessed Virgin cherishes as her most beautiful offspring, and the Holy Church holds dear as most precious gems, with which she proceeds illustrious and splendid.
Granted then that the pious in this life are often without glory and unhonored among worldly people, while the impious are glorious and honored; yet before wise men, who know how to estimate things according to each one's value, the pious are glorious and the impious without glory, especially because the pious refuse and flee honors. For, as Aristotle says, 'great dignity consists not in using honors but in making yourself worthy of them.' And St. Chrysostom, Homily 4 on 1 Corinthians: 'Another kind of person,' he says, 'is one who needs nothing, despises all things, and has greatness from himself.' Therefore God will endow such a person with eternal glory, and indeed will exalt him in it and make him higher than the rest. The reason is given by the author of the Greek Catena: 'God,' he says, 'insofar as He is Justice itself by essence, resists the unjust; insofar as He is the first truth, He resists liars and the false; insofar as He is supremely meek and humble, He resists the proud, but receives and embraces the humble; insofar as He is wisdom, He abhors the foolish, honors and glorifies the wise.
Therefore St. Gregory, bk. I, Epistle 5, speaking of himself living the monastic life before his pontificate: 'Desiring nothing,' he says, 'in this world, fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand on a certain summit of things, so that I almost believed that saying of Isaiah 58 was fulfilled in me: I will lift you above the heights of the earth. For he is lifted above the heights of the earth who tramples underfoot by the contempt of his mind even those things which seem lofty and glorious in the present world.' And St. Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer: 'He who has already renounced the world is greater than its honors and kingdom; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms.' Thus Moses was more glorious than Pharaoh, whose glory was drowned in the Red Sea; Elijah more than King Ahab, Elisha more than Joram, John the Baptist more than Herod, St. Athanasius more than Constantine, St. Ambrose more than Theodosius, St. Basil more than Julian.