Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that a surety must strive to free himself from his pledge at once. Then, at verse 6, he rouses the sluggard to labor by the example of the ant. After this, at verse 12, he describes the apostate, and the seven vices which God hates. Next, at verse 20, he exhorts to the keeping of the law, and returns to urging flight from the harlot and the adulteress.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 6:1-35
1. My son, if you have pledged yourself for your friend, if you have struck your hand with a stranger, 2. You are ensnared by the words of your mouth, and caught by your own speeches. 3. Do therefore what I say, my son, and free yourself: because you have fallen into the hand of your neighbor. Run about, make haste, rouse your friend: 4. do not give sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber. 5. Rescue yourself like a doe from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. 6. Go to the ant, O sluggard, and consider her ways, and learn wisdom: 7. which, though she has no guide, nor instructor, nor ruler, 8. provides her food in summer, and gathers in harvest what she may eat. 9. How long, O sluggard, will you sleep? When will you rise from your slumber? 10. A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep: 11. and want shall come upon you like a traveler, and poverty like an armed man. But if you are diligent, your harvest shall come like a fountain, and want shall flee far from you. 12. A man who is an apostate, a worthless fellow, walks with a perverse mouth, 13. he winks with his eyes, scrapes with his foot, speaks with his finger, 14. with a depraved heart he contrives evil, and at all times sows quarrels. 15. To this man his ruin shall come suddenly, and he shall be shattered in an instant, and shall have no remedy. 16. Six things there are which the Lord hates, and a seventh His soul detests: 17. Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood, 18. a heart that devises the worst schemes, feet swift to run to evil, 19. a false witness who utters lies, and him who sows discord among brothers. 20. Keep, my son, the precepts of your father, and do not forsake the law of your mother. 21. Bind them upon your heart continually, and fasten them about your neck. 22. When you walk, let them accompany you: when you sleep, let them guard you, and when you wake, speak with them. 23. For the commandment is a lamp, and the law a light, and the way of life is the rebuke of discipline: 24. that they may guard you from the evil woman, and from the flattering tongue of the stranger. 25. Let not your heart covet her beauty, nor be caught by her glances: 26. for the price of a harlot is scarcely a single loaf: but the adulteress captures the precious soul of a man. 27. Can a man hide fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn? 28. Or walk upon hot coals, and not scorch his feet? 29. So he who goes in to his neighbor's wife shall not be clean when he has touched her. 30. The fault is not great when someone steals: for he steals to fill his hungry soul: 31. and if caught, he shall restore sevenfold, and deliver up all the substance of his house. 32. But he who is an adulterer, for lack of sense shall destroy his own soul: 33. he gathers disgrace and ignominy upon himself, and his reproach shall not be blotted out: 34. because the jealousy and fury of the husband will not spare in the day of vengeance, 35. nor will he yield to anyone's entreaties, nor accept the greatest gifts as ransom.
First Part of the Chapter
Verse 1: On Surety
1 AND 2. MY SON, IF YOU HAVE PLEDGED YOURSELF FOR YOUR FRIEND, YOU HAVE STRUCK YOUR HAND WITH A STRANGER, YOU ARE ENSNARED BY THE WORDS OF YOUR MOUTH, AND CAUGHT BY YOUR OWN SPEECHES. — He has taught the young man to beware of the harlot, lest with her he squanders his wealth; now he teaches the same youth to beware of rash (for rare and prudent suretyship is honorable, and a work of beneficence and charity) surety, which in like manner often drains one's resources. For there are improvident young men who stand surety immediately for any friend, and therefore when that friend defaults they are compelled to pay the debt, whereby it happens that they often plunge themselves and their family into great distress, and reduce themselves to extreme poverty, or even to prison. The same topic of suretyship is treated more at length in Ecclesiasticus chapter XXIX, 19 and following, and by me in that place; therefore here, following Solomon, I shall be brief.
The meaning is, as if to say: If for another's crime or debt you have pledged your word and bound yourself, namely that you will see to it that the accused person clears his crime, or makes satisfaction for it, and so pays the appointed penalty, or as a debtor pays the debt; "you have struck" -- that is, by the stipulation and striking of your hand into the hand of the creditor you have bound yourself. Hence the Chaldean translates clearly: you have promised to pay the stranger with your hand; the Syriac: you have extended your hand to the stranger; the Septuagint: you will deliver your hand to your enemy; the Scholiast: you have fixed your hand in a chain. Hence our Martin de Roa, book I of the Singularia, chapter IV, explains it thus: "You have struck your hand with the stranger" -- that is, you have given the stranger the right and power to seize you by the hand and summon you before the judge as his debtor, and demand what you promised. Moreover, "you are ensnared by the words of your mouth," because with your mouth you promised to pay the debt, or to suffer the punishment for the crime of the friend for whom you stood surety; and "you are caught by the words of your mouth" -- that is, by your pledge you have bound yourself, and as it were delivered yourself as a captive to the creditor or judge, so that he can seize you and throw you into prison, if, when the debtor defaults, you do not pay his debt. Hence the Septuagint translates: for a man's own lips are a strong snare to him, and he is caught by the words of his mouth.
The Philosophers urged the same thing. Famous is that saying of Thales: "Be surety, and trouble is at hand." Hence Ausonius adds on this saying of Thales: "Through a thousand examples I could run, to prove / That sureties and guarantors are guilty of regret." And that saying of Chilon: "Loss never fails to attend a pledge." Hence Pliny, book VII, chapter XXXII: "Mortals," he says, "have given Chilon a share in the oracles, by consecrating three of his precepts at Delphi in golden letters, which are these: That each man should know himself; that he should desire nothing to excess; and that misery is the companion of debt and litigation." Chersias, in Plutarch's Banquet of Plato, relates the fable of Homer about Ate who, because she had assisted Jupiter's pledge concerning the birth of Hercules, was cast down by him to the earth.
Symbolically, some apply these words to Christ, who undertook surety for our debts and sins, and offered Himself as guarantor and pledge to God the Father as creditor, when He actually paid our debts and atoned for our crimes, when He allowed His hands to be nailed to the cross.
Mystically, you may apply these words to pastors, bishops, princes, and kings, who bind themselves to God and promise that they will care for the salvation of their subjects: therefore if their subjects perish through their negligence, God will require their blood at their hands. Hence the Septuagint translates: my son, if you have pledged your friend; Aquila: your companion; Symmachus and Theodotion: your neighbor -- namely, that you will present him to God and show him safe. So say Bede and St. Bernard: "God," he says, "is a friend when the pledge is given, but a stranger when the account is demanded." Hear St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 5: "To stand surety for a friend is to receive another's soul at the peril of one's own conduct. Hence the hand is struck with the stranger, because the mind is bound to a care of solicitude that was previously absent. And he is ensnared by the words of his mouth, and caught by his own speeches, because while he is obliged to speak good things to those committed to him, it is first necessary that he himself keep what he has said. He is therefore ensnared by the words of his mouth, since the demands of reason constrain him, lest his life slip away to something other than what he teaches. Hence before the strict Judge he is compelled to pay out in deeds as much as it is clear he prescribed to others by word." For on the day of judgment, Christ the Judge will say to the Bishop, the Pastor, the Superior, that word of Jeremiah XIII, 20: "Where is the flock that was given to you, your noble flock? What will you say when He visits you? For you have taught them against yourself, and instructed them against your own head," by giving evil examples of life, contrary to what you taught with your mouth. "Shall not sorrows seize you, as a woman in labor?"
Hence St. Thomas, on chapter XIII of the Epistle to the Hebrews, lecture 3, explains "you have struck your hand, and you are ensnared by the words of your mouth" thus, as if to say: O pastor, you have bound yourself to God, to expend your hand and your mouth for your flock, so that whatever you can speak with your mouth, and whatever you can do with your hand for the salvation of your flock, this you are bound by your pledge to perform -- namely, to feed your flock with the example of every virtue, and with the unceasing eloquence of doctrine.
Again others apply these words to vows, especially religious vows, as if to say: If you have vowed to God chastity, poverty, obedience, for a friend -- that is, for the salvation of your soul -- you are held bound by your vows before God. Run about therefore, make haste, do not give sleep to your eyes, bend all your efforts to render to God the vows which your lips have uttered. But this sense is accommodated; for the discussion here is not about a vow, but about suretyship: for the Hebrew word arab signifies this; unless you say that vows are a surety for the debt and guilt of the threefold concupiscence, by which every human soul is held guilty and bound: for against the concupiscence of the flesh, the vow of chastity stands surety and pledges; for the concupiscence of the eyes, or avarice, the vow of poverty pledges; for the pride of life, the vow of obedience pledges. Hence Rabbi Levi mystically takes "friend" to mean concupiscence.
Finally Basil, in the Greek Chain, mystically takes "friend" to mean the body, and the pledge to mean the resolution of amendment. "A strong snare," he says, "is the delay of penance and continence; for he who puts it off too long is at last miserably caught by his own evil deeds as by his own snares." And then: "Take care that you are not slothful or dissolute; take care that your spirit does not collapse, or that you do not flee from the hardships of fortitude. Tame the body which you have pledged to God, and rouse it continually to the observance of the precepts which He has set forth." And further on: "The Wise Man wishes him who devotes himself to virtues by fixed purpose to be strong in prosperity of spirit, and to raise himself bravely above the snares of adversaries, lifted on high by the wings of virtues."
Verse 3: On Freeing Oneself from Surety
3 AND 4. DO THEREFORE WHAT I SAY, MY SON, AND FREE YOURSELF, BECAUSE YOU HAVE FALLEN INTO THE HAND OF YOUR NEIGHBOR. RUN ABOUT, MAKE HASTE, ROUSE YOUR FRIEND: DO NOT GIVE SLEEP TO YOUR EYES, NOR LET YOUR EYELIDS SLUMBER. — "Free yourself" from the obligation of the pledge by which you have made yourself a debtor for your friend's debt, and guilty for his crime before the creditor or judge, so that he now has a right over you and your possessions, your liberty and your life, and can deprive you of your goods, consign you to prison, or even hand you over to death. "Because you have come into the hand of your neighbor" -- both of the creditor or judge, before whom you stood surety. So Vatablus, as if to say: Even though the creditor into whose hands you have fallen is a friend and neighbor, still free yourself from the obligation: how much more should you hasten if you had fallen into the hands of a stranger. Hence the Septuagint translates: because you have come into the hands of evil men on account of your friend; the Syriac: because on account of your friend you have fallen into the hands of your enemy.
What then is to be done? He suggests the remedy, saying: "Run about, make haste, rouse your friend" -- both the one for whom you pledged, so that he may satisfy the creditor, and thus free you from your surety. Hence St. Ambrose, in the book On Tobias, chapter XXIII, reads: "Spur the citizen for whom you pledged." In sum, all these versions signify that the surety must labor with all zeal and solicitude to free himself from the obligation of his surety; hence he adds: "Do not give sleep to your eyes" -- as if to say: Do not be drowsy and slow, but alert and keen, to shake off this burden.
Sponsors, or godparents, at Baptism and Confirmation ought to be all the more watchful and zealous, so that they instruct, admonish, and guide in the way of virtue and Christian perfection the person baptized or confirmed for whom they pledged. But above all, Pastors who have assumed the care of souls ought to be such, about whom St. Gregory says, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 5: "Whoever is set before others as an example of life, is admonished not only to be watchful himself, but also to rouse his friend. For it is not enough for him to be watchful by living well, if he does not also separate from the torpor of sin the one over whom he presides. And rightly it is said: Do not give sleep to your eyes, nor let your eyelids slumber. For to give sleep to the eyes is, by ceasing one's attention, to neglect entirely the care of those subject to you. And the eyelids slumber when our thoughts recognize what must be reproved in those under us, yet dissemble, weighed down by sloth."
Verse 5: Deliver Yourself Like a Doe
5. RESCUE YOURSELF LIKE A DOE FROM THE HAND, AND LIKE A BIRD FROM THE HAND OF THE FOWLER. — The Septuagint: that you may be saved like a doe from the snares, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler. Does are wild she-goats, which, being timid, guard themselves from hunters and snares, and being swift, flee most rapidly. The meaning is: Just as the timid and wary doe most swiftly escapes and snatches itself from the hand of the hunter trying to catch it, and just as the bird by flight frees itself from the snares of the fowler, so you also must strive to free yourself at once from the hand and right of the creditor, lest he seize you and your goods and transfer them to his own ownership.
Verse 6: Go to the Ant, O Sluggard
6, 7, AND 8. GO TO THE ANT, O SLUGGARD, AND CONSIDER HER WAYS, AND LEARN WISDOM: WHICH, THOUGH SHE HAS NO GUIDE, NOR INSTRUCTOR, NOR RULER, PROVIDES HER FOOD IN SUMMER, AND GATHERS IN HARVEST WHAT SHE MAY EAT. — From the rash suretyship to be avoided, lest through it the family and household suffer, he fittingly passes to the avoidance of idleness, and the pursuit of labor and diligence, so that through these each person may provide for himself and his family food, clothing, and the necessities of life. And he adduces a most fitting stimulus, namely the ant, which is so provident, busy, and laborious that she seems to have been created by God for the purpose of providing men with an example of providence, labor, and diligence. Concerning her, Horace says, book I, Satire 1: "The tiny ant is an example of great labor, / She drags in her mouth whatever she can, and adds it to her store."
Moreover, the providence, skill, and diligence of ants is manifold, and has many aspects and acts for us to imitate. First, the ant by gathering grain provides herself with food in summer, so as to live on it in winter. So St. Basil, Homily 9 on the Hexaemeron: "Will you not apply the same diligence, O man? Will you not lay up stores for yourself in this present time, following the ant's example? The ant diligently stores up for herself in summer the food for winter, and does not, because the hardships of winter have not yet arrived, spend the time in idleness; but with an unceasing and intent zeal for gathering seeds she labors until she has laid away sufficient food in her cells. Nor does she do this carelessly, but with a certain wise providence, so that the food may last and be preserved for as long a time as possible. For she cuts the grains in half with her tiny claws, and stores them gnawed, lest they sprout again from the earth and become useless to her for food."
Second, the ant carries grain into her underground chambers, as into cellars and storehouses, and there stores and preserves it. Hence the ant (formica) is said to be named as if "carrying" (ferens) or "boring through crumbs" (forans micas). We must do the same: namely, by the labor of youth we must prepare the sustenance of old age, and by the sweat of time the rewards of eternity. So Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 6: "Seeing the ant storing up food for herself in summer, imitate her, and treasure up for yourself the fruits of good works for the ages to come."
Third, the ant cuts grains and gnaws away the eyes of the seed, says Rabbi Levi, lest they sprout and rot. So too we must circumcise our good works from vanity, lest they break out into vainglory and be corrupted.
Fourth, the ant selects the better grains: so you too, O Christian, exercise acts of the better virtues, such as charity and humility.
Fifth, the ant senses fair weather, and then exposes her grain to the air; and rain, and then stores her grain in her chambers. So too the faithful person should display publicly his doctrine and acts of virtue in times of peace, but hide them in times of temptation and persecution.
Hear Blessed Peter Damian, book II, epistle 18, to the Cardinal: "Who, I ask, trained the ant in this kind of threshing, that she should distinguish the grains of the crop, and rejecting the ignoble ones, choose the fruit of the finer kind? For she carefully examines the heap of grain, and disdains barley as fodder for beasts, scorning it as beneath her: but where she finds a grain of wheat she gladly embraces it. She also detects by certain signs the time of coming fair weather, and when she perceives that her cellars are growing damp from the moisture in the air, she carries out on her own shoulders the grain stored for her food, and guarding against household damage she dries them in the streaming rays of the sun; and as if that were not enough, she cuts the same grains with her own mouth, lest through the harshness of winter rain they swell again, and denied the hope of food, they sprout into grass."
Sixth, Pliny, book XXX, chapter XI: "Ants, like bees, share their labors; but bees make useful foods, while ants store them, and if anyone compares the burdens to their bodies, he must confess that their strength is far greater in proportion: they carry them in their jaws; larger items they move backward, straining on their shoulders with their hind legs. They have a system of government, memory, and care. They store gnawed seeds, lest they sprout again from the earth; larger ones they divide at the entrance; those moistened by rain they bring out and dry."
Seventh, what the ant cannot accomplish by strength, she achieves by strategy and perseverance. Hence by laboring constantly she excavates paths, stones, and rocks: for she always travels the same path, and that a royal and safe one. So you too, O Philothea, walk the royal way of the Fathers: do not enter the dubious and dangerous byways of innovators; and firmly persuade yourself that there is nothing so difficult that you will not overcome by continued labor through God's grace. Hear Aristotle, book IX of the History of Animals, chapter XXXVIII: "Of insects, the most industrious of all animals is the genus of ants and bees. They always walk the same path, and store food, and make storerooms." More splendidly, St. Ambrose, book VI of the Hexaemeron, chapter IV: "There is in the nature of four-footed creatures something which the prophetic word exhorts us to imitate, so that by its example we may guard against sloth. For the ant is tiny, yet she dares things greater than her strength, and is not compelled to work by servitude, but by the voluntary resolve of her own foresight she lays up for herself future supplies of food. That you may imitate her industry, Scripture admonishes you, saying: Go to the ant, O sluggard, and emulate her ways, and be wiser than she. For she possesses no farmland, having no one to compel her, and being under no master; yet see how she prepares her food, how from your labors she stores up her harvest for herself: and while you are often in want, she has no lack." And further: "The plunder is carried by a dark column through the fields; the paths seethe with the company of travelers, and the great grains that cannot be grasped by their narrow mouths are pushed along on their shoulders. The lord of the harvest watches this, and blushes to deny the profits of such scant and pious industry."
Eighth, Pliny says that giant ants in India dig gold from the sand. Thus by the labor and study of scholars, as it were rational ants, the gold of wisdom and charity is dug out, and each person accumulates as much for himself as he labors in the digging.
Ninth, ants have two eyes, which govern their body and direct their path. If any ant is deprived of her eyes, she embraces most firmly an ant that has good eyes, and does not let go until she is led home: for among them there is great mutual love, peace, concord, and assistance. Let reason and deliberation be our eye, so that we never act without reason and counsel.
Tenth, ants, although they live in a swarm, nevertheless have no king, leader, or instructor. Yet they kindly yield to one another and obey. Hear Bede: "If so tiny a creature, lacking a ruler, and devoid of reason, provides for itself for the future by the guidance of nature, how much more ought you, created in the image of God, called to behold His glory, to gather in the present the fruits of good works, by which you may live forever in the future. For this life is compared to harvest and summer, because now amid the heats of temptation is the time for gathering the merits of future rewards."
Eleventh, ants so detest foul-smelling things, such as oregano, sulfur, and burnt horn, that if the smoke or ashes of these are scattered over their dwellings, they emigrate elsewhere. So too the faithful person should avoid not only foul things, but also a foul reputation.
Twelfth, all ants are narrow around the abdomen; in old age, having acquired wings like birds, they fly. So the lover of wisdom should tighten his stomach through temperance and abstinence.
Thirteenth, nightingales eagerly seek out and eat ants and their eggs, because from these they recover when sick, and become melodious. So virgins should seek prudence and industry like the ants, by which they are cured of the disease of sloth.
Fourteenth, the ant-lion snatches the food of ants and devours it in winter, because in summer, being improvident, he did not provide food for himself. So the idle and hypocrites lie in wait for the resources of the industrious and diligent. Again, the ant-lion is the devil, who strives to devour virtues: if you fear him, he will rage like a lion; if you despise him, he will be more timid and weak than an ant.
Fifteenth through twentieth: ants grow in strength as they advance in age; they render burdens easier to carry by dividing them; they rest in winter and enjoy food collected in summer; they are wary of wine; they are harbingers of death; they were the Egyptian hieroglyphic of three qualities -- diligent investigation, clever foresight, and indefatigable perseverance.
Twenty-first, ants follow straight paths yet zigzag with winding courses. So the wise person should set out on the straight path of virtue, which is the cross, and desire to suffer much for Christ; but yet should avoid hatreds and persecutions by taking a roundabout way.
After this verse about ants, a similar one about bees is added in the Septuagint: "Or go to the bee, and learn how she is a worker; and what a venerable work she produces; whose labors kings and private persons bring to their health. She is desirable and illustrious to all: even though she is weak in strength, having honored wisdom she has been exalted." St. Jerome, in Ezekiel chapter III, reads: "Go to the bee, learn how she is a worker, and how chaste a work she produces; whose labors kings and common people make use of for their health." The bee is fittingly joined to the ant, because both are laborious; but the ant labors only for herself, while the bee labors for herself and for others. Hence she teaches men to practice almsgiving and beneficence.
St. Jerome, in his epistle to Rusticus the monk: "Never be without some work, so that the devil may always find you occupied. Learn to construct hives for bees, to which Solomon's Proverbs send you, and learn the order of monasteries and royal discipline in those small bodies."
Moreover St. Ephrem, in his Ascetical Sermon to the Brethren, combines the ant with the bee, and from this forms the proverb: "After the ant, the bee" -- that is, after labor, rest; after bitterness, sweetness; after tribulation, consolation; after struggles, the crown and glory. "The sweetness of rest succeeds the harshness of labor, and joy succeeds the roughness of life," he says. And he adds that, just as Solomon bids us imitate the ant and the bee, so Christ bids us imitate the serpent and the dove, saying: "Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves." For the serpent, he says, is analogous to the ant, and the dove to the bee. Hence he adds: "Unless we are hated as serpents, we shall not be made lovable as doves. Unless we have been lowly and abject like ants, we shall not be industrious like bees."
Verse 9: How Long Will You Sleep
9, 10, AND 11. HOW LONG, O SLUGGARD, WILL YOU SLEEP? WHEN WILL YOU RISE FROM YOUR SLUMBER? A LITTLE SLEEP, A LITTLE SLUMBER, A LITTLE FOLDING OF THE HANDS TO SLEEP: AND WANT SHALL COME UPON YOU LIKE A TRAVELER, AND POVERTY LIKE AN ARMED MAN. — It is a sharp rebuke of sloth and the slothful, whom shortly before he spurred by the example of the ant and the bee. By sleep he means idleness and laziness, and also sleep properly so called: for the idle and lazy tend to be sleepy, and to sleep night and day. As if to say: How long will you indulge in idleness, leisure, and sleep, O sluggard? How long will you snore, and sleep the sleep of Endymion, so that you seem not so much to live as to suffer from lethargy and to die? When will you shake off this stupor, which is a living death? Wake up at last; enough has been given to sleep and death: awake, act, be busy, live, seize upon labor with eagerness.
The sluggard says: Please allow me to sleep a little; or at least to doze. To which Solomon responds that not only from deep and prolonged sleep, but also from this frequent dozing, to which the sluggard has become accustomed, want will follow. Martin de Roa takes "traveler" to mean not one who makes a journey, but a lictor or officer of the court. See then what a soldier does in a captured city, what a bailiff does in a mortgaged house. For poverty will do the same: when it rushes in, neither gold nor silver is left; precious vessels and tapestries are sold; neither country estate, nor dwelling, nor bed, nor clothing remains; everything either perishes, or is seized, or pledged.
BUT IF YOU ARE DILIGENT, YOUR HARVEST SHALL COME LIKE A FOUNTAIN, AND WANT SHALL FLEE FAR FROM YOU. It is the antithesis of the diligent to the lazy: the lazy man by his laziness begets want for himself, but the diligent man through labor and diligence prepares for himself a copious harvest of good things, which overflows as a fountain overflows with water.
Morally, learn here how much idleness and inertia, both bodily and spiritual, must be avoided: for each causes want. Therefore Cato: "Be always more watchful, and not given to sleep; / For prolonged rest provides nourishment to vices." And: "He who fears the thorn will not pluck the rose. / Idleness is the burial of a living man." Finally, "the fruit of good labors is glorious," Wisdom III, 15.
Morally, Dionysius the Carthusian says: From these things we are taught to avoid all laziness and drowsiness in God's service. And certainly it is to be feared by the lazy what the Most High says in Revelation III, 16: "Would that you were cold or hot! But because you are lukewarm, I will begin to vomit you out of My mouth."
Finally St. Bernard, On the Way of Living Well, chapter 11: "He who loves God with his whole mind, for God's sake puts idleness aside. The kingdom of God will not be given to the idle, but to those zealous in God's service." Consider that saying of St. Francis: "A little labor, immense glory. A little pleasure, eternal punishment."
Mystically, St. Chrysostom in the Greek Chain: The sleep of the soul is the wickedness of depraved thoughts, and the ignorance of them. Slumber is an inclination toward the same things with a certain imperfect consent. From this follows the want and lack of holy thoughts, desires, illuminations, grace, virtue, and every good.
Verse 12: The Apostate Man
12, 13, AND 14. A MAN WHO IS AN APOSTATE, A WORTHLESS FELLOW, WALKS WITH A PERVERSE MOUTH, HE WINKS WITH HIS EYES, SCRAPES WITH HIS FOOT, SPEAKS WITH HIS FINGER, WITH A DEPRAVED HEART HE CONTRIVES EVIL, AND AT ALL TIMES SOWS QUARRELS. — By a fitting and appropriate order he passes from idleness and laziness to impiety and crimes, which are born from idleness: for the idle are gossips, robbers, contrivers of evil, whisperers, etc. "For idleness has taught much wickedness." Therefore the idle person either is, or becomes, an apostate.
For "apostate" the Hebrew is belial, which is best derived from beli and ol, that is, "without a yoke." Hence belial signifies first, disobedience, rebellion, impiety; second, the disobedient, the rebellious, the impious; third, the devil, who was the prince of all apostasy and disobedience, and who as the first apostate shook off the yoke of God's law, faith, and obedience. Hence "men" or "sons of Belial" are the name for apostates, as if to say, sons of the devil, or sons of disobedience.
The vice of apostasy here is not single, but manifold. He paints the apostate with these traits: First, that he is "a worthless fellow" -- that is, harmful. It is a litotes: for little is said and more is meant. Second, that "he walks with a perverse mouth" -- because from a perverse heart he has a perverse mouth, when he speaks fraudulent things; when with his mouth he feigns friendship, while in his heart he bears hatred.
Third, "he winks with his eye." Fourth, "he scrapes with his foot." Fifth, "he speaks with his finger." You will ask: what do these gestures denote? Most aptly, they refer to frauds and the contriving of evil: the wicked, deceitful man, while speaking amiably with someone against whom in his heart he plots evil, at intervals signals to his associates and accomplices, winking with his eyes, stamping with his foot, and pointing with his finger to indicate what needs to be done, so that they may treacherously attack the friend and afflict him. So in ancient times masters, by snapping their fingers, would indicate to their slaves what they wanted done. Hence Martial: "The eunuch knows the signs of snapping fingers."
St. Bernard, treatise On the Steps of Humility: "The first step of pride is curiosity. You will detect it by these signs: if you see a monk begin wherever he stands, walks, or sits, to let his eyes wander, to hold his head erect, from the movements of the exterior man you may recognize that the interior man has changed. For a perverse man winks with his eye, scrapes with his foot, speaks with his finger, and from the insolent movement of the body a fresh disease of the soul is detected."
The sixth mark is: "With a depraved heart he contrives evil." For a heart depraved by malice -- what can it think, will, and belch forth except evil, depraved, and perverse things? Just as a bitter spring can pour forth nothing but bitter water.
The seventh is: "And at all times he sows quarrels." This is the last and worst, and the most harmful vice of the apostate, in which apostates from the faith or from Religious life excel.
Verse 15: His Sudden Destruction
15. TO THIS MAN HIS RUIN SHALL COME SUDDENLY, AND HE SHALL BE SHATTERED IN AN INSTANT, NOR SHALL HE HAVE ANY REMEDY. — His wound will be incurable and without remedy; he shall be shattered like a potter's vessel, which cannot be repaired, but shatters into the tiniest pieces and is ground to dust. How true this is, experience teaches: for so we often see wicked men, contrivers of evil, and disturbers of the public peace, overwhelmed by sudden, unexpected, and unavoidable misfortunes, which not rarely bring upon them present and eternal death. For it is a just and fitting punishment that those who have torn and lacerated the peace and friendship of others should themselves have their own health and salvation irreparably torn and lacerated.
Verse 16: The Seven Things God Hates
16, 17, 18, AND 19. SIX THINGS THERE ARE WHICH THE LORD HATES, AND A SEVENTH HIS SOUL DETESTS: HAUGHTY EYES, A LYING TONGUE, HANDS THAT SHED INNOCENT BLOOD, A HEART THAT DEVISES THE WORST SCHEMES, FEET SWIFT TO RUN TO EVIL, A FALSE WITNESS WHO UTTERS LIES, AND HIM WHO SOWS DISCORD AMONG BROTHERS. — Since he has just described the man of belial, and his habits and crimes, into which men are accustomed to fall through idleness and sloth, he now subjoins a catalog of the most grievous crimes, which are most hateful to God. These seven vices correspond almost equally to the seven listed in the description of the apostate: "haughty eyes" corresponds to "he winks with his eyes"; "a lying tongue" to "he walks with a perverse mouth"; "hands shedding innocent blood" to "a worthless fellow"; "a heart devising evil schemes" to "with his heart he contrives evil"; "feet swift to run to evil" to "he scrapes with his foot"; "a false witness uttering lies" to "he speaks with his finger"; and "he who sows discord among brothers" to "at all times he sows quarrels."
The question is raised: how is sowing discord among brothers placed as the seventh and gravest sin? Although murder in itself is graver than whispering, nevertheless from its attendant circumstances and effects, whispering is graver than murder and the other five vices, and more hateful to God. So teaches St. Thomas, II-II, Question LXXIII, article 3.
The first reason is that whispering often destroys fraternal love and charity, and as it were kills and destroys it between brothers. Now it is graver to take away charity than natural life through murder: for charity is far more excellent than life. St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 24: "All who are separated by discord wither from the freshness of love. Let those who sow quarrels consider how manifoldly they sin, who while they perpetrate one wickedness, from human hearts uproot all virtues at once. For in one evil they accomplish innumerable evils; because by sowing discord they extinguish charity, which is assuredly the mother of all virtues. Whoever therefore by sowing quarrels destroys the love of neighbors, serves God's enemy more intimately."
The second reason is that from whispering there often follow murders, not just one, but many. How many wars between kings and friendly princes, with the slaughter of many thousands, and the overthrow of kingdoms, have whisperers stirred up! Therefore St. Clement: "St. Peter used to say that there are three kinds of murder, and the punishment for them would be equal."
The third reason is that from whispering arise very many sins -- hatreds, calumnies, lawsuits, brawls, murders, robberies, arsons, devastations of cities and kingdoms, and a thousand other crimes. Hence Ecclesiasticus XXVIII, 15: "The whisperer and the double-tongued is cursed: for he shall disturb many who have peace. A third tongue has moved many, and scattered them from nation to nation."
The fourth reason is that whispering in itself overthrows a city, a commonwealth, a college, a monastery, a religious order. For it removes the union of citizens, and tears and rends apart a city and an order. There is no greater plague for the Church than schism, because it alone lacerates the whole Church.
Finally St. Thomas, II-II, Question LXXIV, article 2: "Whispering is a greater sin than detraction, and even than insult, because a friend (whom the whisperer takes away) is better than honor, and to be loved is better than to be honored. This sin is especially against God, because God is love."
Now the first among the seven crimes, he lists "haughty eyes," by which is understood pride and haughtiness, and the consequent contempt of others; for the proud man has lofty eyes, and looks down upon and despises others. Hence Ecclesiasticus XXIII, 5 prays: "Do not give me the haughtiness of the eyes."
The second vice is "a lying tongue." He speaks of the pernicious lie, which is very hateful to God and to men: because it directly opposes God's truth; because it is injurious to one's neighbor; and because it overturns all human commerce, contracts, and partnerships. For who would deal with one who lies and deceives?
The third is "hands shedding innocent blood." Murder is the greatest crime of the second table of the law.
The fourth is "a heart devising the worst schemes." Jansenius aptly notes that the heart is placed in the middle position, fourth among the seven vices, because the heart is the fountain and source of all the rest.
The fifth is "feet swift to run to evil." This swiftness denotes the insatiable appetite for crime and determined zeal. To shed blood from sudden anger is not so grave; but with deliberate intent, and as it were with a thirst for blood, to shed it with such eagerness is grave and abominable to God.
The sixth is "a false witness uttering lies." In Hebrew: he will blow forth, forge, inflate the lies of a witness of falsehood. Just as bubbles are inflated by the breath of children, so also lies are inflated by the breath of the wicked; and just as bubbles, so also lies are empty and insubstantial. We see false witnesses turn pale, falter, and tremble before the judge.
The seventh is "him who sows discord among brothers." How great this evil is I have said above. St. Cyril of Jerusalem says splendidly, Catechesis 13: "Fraternal hatred will give place to the Antichrist. The devil prepares schisms among peoples, so that the enemy may be received all the more easily." For just as fraternal charity prepares a dwelling for the whole Holy Trinity, so nothing prepares a more fitting place for the devil than hatred, quarrels, and schisms.
Second Part: Keeping the Law and Flight from the Harlot
Verse 20: Keep the Precepts of Your Father
20 AND 21. KEEP, MY SON, THE PRECEPTS OF YOUR FATHER, AND DO NOT FORSAKE THE LAW OF YOUR MOTHER. BIND THEM UPON YOUR HEART CONTINUALLY, AND FASTEN THEM ABOUT YOUR NECK. — He returns as usual to urging the keeping of discipline and the divine law, which he himself as a father has instilled in his children, and which individual fathers and virtuous mothers ought to instill in their children.
How much the upbringing by parents avails in children is clear in Japan, where Christian parents so form their little ones that they seek martyrdom; thus children joyfully and eagerly offer themselves voluntarily to the executioners to be slain, and surpass men in virtue. Moving is what Victor of Utica relates, book II On the Vandal Persecution, about a mother urging her little son to join the Confessors condemned to exile: "Run, my lord, you see all the saints, how they go and hasten joyfully to their crowns!"
Verse 23: The Commandment Is a Lamp
23. FOR THE COMMANDMENT IS A LAMP, AND THE LAW A LIGHT, AND THE WAY OF LIFE IS THE REBUKE OF DISCIPLINE. — The Septuagint has: because the commandment of the law is a lamp and a light, and the way of life, and rebuke and discipline. Nor is it only a light, but also "the way of life," that is, the way to life. For "the rebuke of discipline," or of instruction, is a rebuke that reproves and corrects failings, and thereby opens and shows the way to life.
He alludes to, indeed he cites, that saying of his father David in Psalm CXVIII, verse 105: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my paths."
Mystically, St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII says: The law is a lamp to the imperfect, and to the perfect it is a light and a sun. St. Basil and Theodoret say: The old law was a lamp, because it illuminated one nation; hence it rightly compares to a lamp. But the new law, or the Gospel, is a light and a sun, because it illuminates all nations throughout the world. St. Augustine says: The uncreated Word is a light, indeed a radiance; the created word is a lamp.
Verse 24: Guard Against the Evil Woman
24 AND 25. THAT THEY MAY GUARD YOU FROM THE EVIL WOMAN, AND FROM THE FLATTERING TONGUE OF THE STRANGER. LET NOT YOUR HEART COVET HER BEAUTY, NOR BE CAPTURED BY HER GLANCES. — Note the word "covet"; for from it is clear, against the Pharisees, that not only the act of adultery, but also the desire and concupiscence by which the beauty of a woman is lustfully coveted, is prohibited and sinful.
"Nor be captured by her glances." In Hebrew: and let her not capture you with her pupils. I heard in Belgium a wise and holy matron warning confessors, even Religious and holy men, to guard themselves from the gaze and conversations of female penitents. The eyes of women therefore contain a certain fascination, by which they bewitch and, as with a net, ensnare those who look upon them.
Verse 26: The Price of a Harlot
26. FOR THE PRICE OF A HARLOT IS SCARCELY A SINGLE LOAF: BUT THE ADULTERESS CAPTURES THE PRECIOUS SOUL OF A MAN. — The meaning is: A most vile thing is a harlot: for her price is scarcely that of one loaf of bread; if you estimate her value, you will find that she is cheaper than the cheapest food. But the adulteress captures the most precious thing, namely the soul of a man, both because she makes it mad, and because through lust she destroys it.
Mystically, all these things that are said about the harlot, with a change of name, may be applied to heresy and to any concupiscence. For this is a most vile harlot who for the most transient pleasure captures the most precious soul of a man.
Verse 27: Can a Man Hide Fire in His Bosom
27, 28, AND 29. CAN A MAN HIDE FIRE IN HIS BOSOM, SO THAT HIS GARMENTS DO NOT BURN? OR WALK UPON HOT COALS, AND NOT SCORCH HIS FEET? SO HE WHO GOES IN TO HIS NEIGHBOR'S WIFE SHALL NOT BE CLEAN WHEN HE HAS TOUCHED HER. — First, St. Ambrose by fire in the bosom understands the thought of burning lust in the bosom of the mind, which like fire burns, and by burning blackens the soul with the soot of sin.
Secondly, St. Augustine by fire in the bosom understands a lustful gaze, the image of a beautiful woman burning in the eyes and mind.
Thirdly, the Chaldean, Hugo, Cajetan, Dionysius, and others generally understand these words of adultery itself.
Fourthly, the Fathers generally understand these words not of adultery itself, but of familiarity, conversations, simple touch, and association with women. St. Chrysostom: "Solomon, who knew very well how dangerous it was for a man to approach a woman, used to say: Will anyone wrap fire in his bosom, and his garments not burn?"
St. Francis Xavier used to warn confessors to beware of women: for they are approached with less fruit and greater danger. Severe, but true, is the judgment of St. Bernard, sermon 63 on the Song of Songs: "To be always with a woman and not to know a woman, is it not more than to raise the dead?"
Morally, learn from this how much conversation with a woman must be avoided: for her voice, eyes, face, and entire body is like fire, silently and imperceptibly burning those who come near. St. Nilus, Oration 20 Against Vices: "Approach rather a burning fire than a woman. For if you approach fire, struck by pain you will recoil: but a woman draws you to herself by pleasure, and you will not recoil until you are consumed."
Verse 30: Theft Compared with Adultery
30 AND 31. THE FAULT IS NOT GREAT WHEN SOMEONE STEALS: FOR HE STEALS TO FILL HIS HUNGRY SOUL: AND IF CAUGHT, HE SHALL RESTORE SEVENFOLD, AND DELIVER UP ALL THE SUBSTANCE OF HIS HOUSE. — He compares and places adultery above theft in harm and wickedness. A thief steals from necessity, and if caught, he can make restitution sevenfold and the matter is resolved. The meaning is: A thief abundantly makes good the damage he inflicted on the owner; but an adulterer cannot restore to the husband the integrity of his wife. Adultery is more serious and more harmful than theft, since the damage of the latter is reparable, that of the former irreparable.
Verse 32: The Adulterer's Poverty of Mind
32 AND 33. BUT HE WHO IS AN ADULTERER, FOR LACK OF SENSE SHALL DESTROY HIS OWN SOUL: HE GATHERS DISGRACE AND IGNOMINY UPON HIMSELF, AND HIS REPROACH SHALL NOT BE BLOTTED OUT. — What is the "poverty of heart" of the adulterer? First, some understand the concupiscence that impoverishes the mind. Secondly, "poverty of mind" is poverty of spirit, namely softness, weakness, and infirmity of the strength and powers of the mind. Thirdly, it is poverty of judgment, because lust overturns judgment and drives a man mad. Fourthly, it is poverty of reason; for adultery deprives a man of reason and makes him a brute, indeed worse than a brute.
The particular and signal poverty of mind and foolishness of the adulterer is this: that although he could draw the same, indeed a greater, pleasure from his own wife lawfully, he seeks it unlawfully from another's wife, with the greatest risk to his soul, his reputation, and his life.
He gathers to himself shame and dishonor. It is evident that among all nations, adultery is considered the most shameful and ignominious of crimes. For "shame" the Hebrew has nega, that is, a wound -- the wound of conscience, which St. Chrysostom graphically depicts: "He who commits adultery, even if he were a thousand times hidden from men, carries his accuser within himself."
Verse 34: The Jealousy of the Husband
34 AND 35. BECAUSE THE JEALOUSY AND FURY OF THE HUSBAND WILL NOT SPARE IN THE DAY OF VENGEANCE. NOR WILL HE YIELD TO ANYONE'S ENTREATIES, NOR ACCEPT THE GREATEST GIFTS AS RANSOM. — Because the injury to the marriage bed is the greatest, and cannot be compensated by any gifts, and therefore it makes the husband who has been wronged implacable and inexorable. From this he leaves us to conclude: if a husband so avenges adultery, how will God avenge it, who sanctioned and instituted marriage? For this reason, adultery could not be expiated by any sacrifices of the old law. For, as St. Jerome says on chapter VI of Amos: "A husband would more willingly hear that his wife was killed than that she was defiled."
Similar and reciprocal is the jealousy of wives against husbands who violate the fidelity pledged to them through adultery. For they roar implacably, and rage like lionesses whose cubs have been taken. Seneca in Medea sings: "No force of flame or swelling wind / Is so great, nor the menace of a hurled weapon, / As when a wife, bereft of her marriage torch, / Burns and hates."
Mystically, adultery is heresy, and any mortal sin; for through it the soul betrothed to God, having despised Him, commits adultery with the flesh, the world, and the devil; hence the sinner gathers to himself sorrows and disgrace, and his reproach will not be wiped away, because the jealousy and fury of the husband, namely of God, will not spare in the day of vengeance, that is, in the day of death and judgment. So Bede says: "The Lord, who now spares the reprobate, will not spare in the day of death, nor will He acquiesce to the prayers of those who cry out to Him too late; for He is zealous if anyone presumes to corrupt His bride, that is, the Church, or any faithful soul."