Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Axioms about the various properties of wisdom and folly: that prudence rightly orders every state of life; that it moves one to mercy and moderates the passions; but that imprudence and vices destroy the children of Adam.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 14:1-35
1. The wise woman builds her house: the foolish one will pull down with her hands what has been built. 2. He who walks the straight path and fears God is despised by him who goes along an infamous way. 3. In the mouth of the fool is a rod of pride: but the lips of the wise preserve them. 4. Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty: but where there are abundant harvests, there the strength of the ox is manifest. 5. A faithful witness does not lie: but a deceitful witness utters falsehood. 6. The scorner seeks wisdom and does not find it: the learning of the prudent is easy. 7. Go against the foolish man, and he knows not the lips of prudence. 8. The wisdom of the shrewd man is to understand his way, and the imprudence of fools is wandering. 9. The fool mocks sin, and among the just grace shall dwell. 10. The heart that knows the bitterness of its own soul — in its joy no stranger shall intrude. 11. The house of the wicked shall be destroyed, but the tabernacles of the just shall flourish. 12. There is a way that seems right to a man: but its end leads to death. 13. Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning seizes upon the extremes of joy. 14. The fool shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man shall be above him. 15. The innocent believes every word, the shrewd man considers his steps. For the deceitful son nothing shall go well: but for the wise servant his affairs shall prosper, and his way shall be directed. 16. The wise man fears and turns away from evil: the fool leaps across and is confident. 17. The impatient man works folly, and the crafty man is hated. 18. The simple shall possess folly, and the shrewd shall look for knowledge. 19. The wicked shall lie before the good, and the impious before the gates of the just. 20. Even to his neighbor the poor man shall be hateful: but the friends of the rich are many. 21. He who despises his neighbor sins; but he who shows mercy to the poor shall be blessed. He who believes in the Lord loves mercy. 22. Those who work evil go astray: mercy and truth prepare good things. 23. In every work there shall be abundance: but where there are many words, there is often want. 24. The crown of the wise is their riches: the foolishness of fools is imprudence. 25. A faithful witness delivers souls; and the double-dealer utters lies. 26. In the fear of the Lord is confidence of strength, and for His children there shall be hope. 27. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, that they may turn aside from the ruin of death. 28. In the multitude of people is the dignity of the king, and in the fewness of the people is the disgrace of the prince. 29. He who is patient is governed by much prudence: but he who is impatient exalts his own folly. 30. The life of the flesh is soundness of heart: envy is the rottenness of the bones. 31. He who slanders the needy reproaches his Maker: but he who has mercy on the poor honors Him. 32. In his wickedness the impious man shall be driven out: but the just man hopes in his death. 33. In the heart of the prudent wisdom rests, and it shall instruct all the unlearned. 34. Justice lifts up a nation: but sin makes peoples wretched. 35. An intelligent minister is acceptable to the king: an unprofitable one shall bear his wrath.
Verse 1: The Wise Woman Builds Her House
1. THE WISE WOMAN BUILDS HER HOUSE: THE FOOLISH ONE WILL DESTROY EVEN WHAT HAS BEEN BUILT. — In Hebrew, the wise among women (that is, each wise woman, says Vatablus) has built her house; and folly (that is, a foolish woman, through her folly) destroys it. Hence the Chaldean, she who is wise among women, etc. The Septuagint, wise women built their houses, but the imprudent one demolished it with her own hands. By 'house' understand the family and household estate — namely sons, daughters, maidservants, menservants, and their peace, harmony, virtue, and diligence, by which they abound in provisions, clothing, and other necessities, and increase their wealth and estates. For this is what a wise mother of the household provides, as will be evident in chapter 31; for it is her role to manage the house, just as it is the husband's role to attend to external and public affairs. Hence the Apostle commands Titus, chapter 2, verse 5, to instruct "the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, prudent, sober, chaste, caring for the house." Hence also the Interlinear Gloss on Genesis 2, on those words: And the Lord built the rib which He had taken into a woman: "The rib," it says, "was built into a woman, so that the woman herself would be the model for governing the household." Aristotle in his Economics, book 2, chapter 1: "A good woman," he says, "should rule over all that is within the house, and have care of all things according to the written laws." And further: "The life of the mother of the household is the rule of the whole house."
Thus Ruth built the house of Boaz, "Rachel and Leah built the house of Israel," Ruth 4:11; Sarah built the house of Tobias, Abigail the house of Nabal, etc. So even now in Calabria, where mulberry trees and silkworms spinning silk thrive, over which women preside, we see that a single woman skilled in this art feeds an entire household and family through the homes. And so the meaning is, says Jansenius, as if to say: A wise wife by her diligence and prudent administration and governance instructs, enlarges, and increases her family, even though it be small and of no particular worth, excellently providing for the household in all necessities, and rightly educating her children and servants. On the contrary, a foolish woman will not only allow a household well-established by another to perish, but with her own hands through her folly will destroy and ruin it, squandering the household wealth, and corrupting every member of the household by her words, deeds, and examples. Simonides praises the wife who is like a little bee: chaste, frugal, intent upon her work, not a gadabout, nurturing her offspring. Mystically this maxim was fulfilled in the Church of the Gentiles and the Synagogue of the Jews.
Symbolically, the wise woman is a queen, who by her wisdom builds up both the household and family and lineage of her husband, and the entire kingdom, and crowns it with every temporal and spiritual good. Thus Clotilda built the house of Clovis and the kingdom of France, especially when she converted her husband along with the kingdom to Christ. Thus St. Cunegunde built the house of Emperor Henry I and the entire empire; St. Blanche built the house of St. Louis and the kingdom of France; St. Hedwig, the kingdom of Poland; St. Elizabeth, queen of Portugal, recently inscribed in the catalogue of Saints by our Holy Lord Urban VIII, built the kingdom of Portugal; from her thenceforth all the kings of Spain and Portugal down to the present Philip IV descend in direct succession.
Tropologically, the wise woman is the mind, which, says Hugo, builds the house of its soul with every virtue and wisdom.
Furthermore Bede in his Commonplaces, chapter 72, On Simplicity, aptly constructs and describes the spiritual building of the soul, or the house of virtues, from St. Jerome part by part in detail: "The spiritual building is firm faith in the heart, the helmet of salvation on the head, the word of truth in the mouth, good will in the mind, the love of God in the breast, girded chastity in ardor, honesty in action, sobriety in habit, stability in goodness, patience in tribulation, hope in the Creator, love of eternal life, perseverance to the end." I have said more about this mystical building of the Church and soul at the end of the Prophet Haggai.
Allegorically, the wise woman is the Blessed Virgin who through Christ built, and daily builds, the Church in the number and virtue of the faithful — namely of the Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins, Confessors, etc. — as I have discussed at greater length in chapter 8, verse 22, and chapter 9, verse 1.
Verse 2: Walking the Straight Path and Fearing God
2. HE WHO WALKS THE STRAIGHT PATH AND FEARS GOD IS DESPISED BY HIM WHO GOES ALONG AN INFAMOUS WAY. — In Hebrew, he who walks in his uprightness fears (or, he fears) the Lord, and he who is perverse in his ways despises (or, he despises) Him. Here the word 'Him' can refer either to the Lord or to him who walks in uprightness. R. Solomon, R. Levi, Jansenius, and others refer it to the Lord, and in a twofold sense. The first is causal, as if to say: The reason someone walks the straight path of virtue is the fear of the Lord, or that he fears the Lord. For this fear continually spurs him to walk the straight path pleasing to God, lest by any deviation he offend God. Conversely, the reason someone is wicked and perverse in his ways, that is, in his actions, is that he despises God and the fear of God. For he who has cast off the fear of God rushes headlong and unbridled into every crime, as do atheists and worldly politicians. So says the author of the Greek Chain.
Again you may explain it thus, as if to say: He who walks the straight path of virtue thereby gives a manifest sign that he fears God; but he who proceeds along the crooked path of vice by that very fact signifies that he despises God. For one's outward life testifies to the internal fear or contempt of God, according to that saying of St. Gregory: "The proof of love is the display of works."
The latter interpretation is, as if to say: He who walks by the straight rule of divine law fears, that is, reverences and devoutly worships God; but he who departs from this rule gradually despises God and the reverence and worship of God. For just as virtue begets the fear and worship of God, so vice and a vicious life beget contempt of God, of religion, and of piety, according to Psalm 13:1: "The fool has said in his heart: There is no God." And Proverbs 18: "When the wicked man comes into the depths, he despises."
But our Translator, Aben-Ezra, Baynus, and others refer 'him' to the one walking the straight path, as if to say: The wicked and perverse man despises the pious man who walks straight according to the law, and fears and reverences God. Yet ultimately this meaning comes to the same as the previous ones: for he who despises one who fears God indirectly despises God Himself; just as he who despises a servant also despises the master of the servant, and finally, as the contempt grows, directly despises the master himself, namely God. This is what Christ says, John 15: "If you were of the world, the world would love what was its own; but because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you." And Job chapter 12, verse 4: "The simplicity of the just man is laughed to scorn." See St. Gregory there. For so great is the perversity of wicked men that unless they make everyone like themselves, they are not at peace; hence they ridicule and mock the pious and good, calling them twisted, hypocrites, Jesuits, etc. The cause is the difference in morals: for they see their own life and vices actually censured and rebuked by the contrary virtues and conduct of the pious; therefore, unable to bear these perpetual censors of their life, like thorns in their eyes, they ridicule, harass, and persecute them, to make them like themselves. St. Prosper gives the same reason in his Maxims and Epigrams, chapter 39, on the world's hatred of Christians: "All," he says, "who wish to live piously in Christ must necessarily suffer reproaches from the impious and unlike, and be despised as fools and madmen who throw away present goods and promise themselves invisible and future things. But this contempt and this mockery shall be turned back upon them, when both their abundance shall pass into want, and their pride into confusion.
The impious part of the world is hostile to the part of the pious, / Nor can it bear minds unlike its own. / Laughing at those who refuse to use present riches, / And hope that what was entrusted can be given to them. / But these reproaches must be scorned by holy peoples, / Which hearts estranged from God foolishly hurl. / For our hope from this sight becomes more certain in every way, / Because He who promises, whatever we believe, this is God."
And Salvian, book 8 of On the Governance of God: "The greatest cause of discord," he says, "is the difference of wills, because it either cannot happen at all, or can scarcely happen, that anyone should love in another what he himself disagrees with; and so they hate, not without reason, those in whom they judge everything to be rival and hostile to themselves." Indeed even Pliny in his Panegyric of Trajan, chapter 53: "This," he says, "is the first duty of pious citizens toward the best emperor: to pursue those who are unlike; for they have not sufficiently loved good princes who have not sufficiently hated the bad." And the Comic poet: The faction of the wicked always hates the good.
Furthermore, the Septuagint take the Hebrew bozehu, that is, 'he despises him,' reflexively as 'he despises himself.' For among the Hebrews the reflexive pronoun is the same as the absolute. Hence they translate: 'He who walks crookedly in his ways shall be dishonored,' or 'shall be disgraced.' For just as virtue begets praise, so vice begets reproach and disgrace, on account of which the vicious man is despised and scorned by all. He therefore by his own vice brings contempt upon himself, and is himself the guilty party and author of it, and condemns himself for having unworthily done injury to his brother. And St. Jerome confirms this meaning when he says: For just as virtue begets praise, so vice begets reproach and disgrace, on account of which the vicious man is despised and scorned by all. He therefore by his own vice brings contempt upon himself, and is himself the stain and cause of it.
Verse 3: The Rod of Pride in the Mouth of the Fool
3. IN THE MOUTH OF THE FOOL IS A ROD OF PRIDE: BUT THE LIPS OF THE WISE PRESERVE THEM. — The Septuagint, from the mouth of the imprudent comes a staff of insult (Theodotion, a rod of injury); but the lips of the wise preserve [the Scholiast adds: heal, namely the pains and wounds of the soul, which either a proud and insulting tongue has inflicted upon themselves or others] them; the Chaldean, in the mouth of the fool is a rod and tribulation; the Syriac, a goad and insult. For pride begets injury and insult; for the proud, in order to exalt themselves above others, despise them and treat them with injury and contumely. Our Salazar, by 'rod,' understands a scepter, or rod that is the emblem of authority and power, so that the meaning is: "In the mouth of the fool is a rod of pride," that is, the foolish and senseless sinner, out of vanity and pride, as if he bore a rod and scepter of authority in his mouth, thinks it lawful for him to attack everyone's reputation, and so assails all with reproaches, loads them with insults, and blackens them with slander. But the Hebrew does not have scebet, that is, scepter, but choter, that is, a rod or staff for striking — namely for inflicting reproaches, injuries, and insults — as the Septuagint, Theodotion, the Chaldean, the Syriac, our Translator, and the Hebrews render it. Hence Vatablus says: The staff or rod of pride is the tongue, with which we beat men, as a rod beats horses.
The solid and clear meaning therefore is, as if to say: The fool, because he is proud, with his mouth and tongue as if with a rod of pride lashes others — ridiculing this one, despising that one, reviling another, etc.; but in lashing others he also lashes himself, because those whom he lashes in turn lash him by the law of retaliation. His proud words which he utters with his mouth will therefore be a rod to him, that is, the cause and instrument and switch by which he is beaten, confounded, and punished. "But the lips of the wise preserve them," both because they take care not to, like the fool, lash others with their curses and thereby bring upon themselves the lashes both of words and of blows in return; and because if they are attacked by the fool with the lashes of slander, they defend themselves against them with the shield of prudence, modesty, and gentleness. For they act and respond so prudently, modestly, and gently that they prove their innocence and confound the slandering fool, and compel him to be silent, according to the saying of St. Augustine, Sermon 15 On the Resurrection: "A curse repelled by patience returns upon its author, leaving unharmed him who was attacked." And Bede explains it thus: "In the mouth of the fool," he says, "is a rod of pride, and the lips of the wise preserve them: because fools by their vain talk afflict the humble whom they despise; but those same humble in spirit fortify themselves by the teaching of wisdom lest they be deceived." Hence St. Ambrose, book 3 of On Duties, chapter 4, teaching that we should not seek our profits from others' disadvantages, shows how grave a sin slander and insult is.
"For what punishment is graver," he says, "than the wound of the inner conscience? What judgment more severe than the domestic one, by which each person is his own defendant, and accuses himself for having unworthily done injury to his brother? Scripture condemns this in no slight measure, saying: From the mouth of fools comes the staff of insult. He who commits insult is therefore condemned of folly. Is not this more to be avoided than death, than loss, than poverty, than exile, than the pain of weakness? For who would not consider a defect of the body, or the loss of patrimony, lighter than a vice of the soul and loss of reputation?"
Symbolically, St. Gregory, Moralia 24, chapter 9, applies this maxim to proud prelates and preachers: "But these," he says, "are wont to be the characteristics of arrogant preachers: that they prefer to correct their afflicted hearers more harshly than to gently comfort them; for they strive more to rebuke evils by scolding than to confirm good things by praising. For they desire to appear superior, and so they rejoice more when anger elevates their spirits than when charity makes them equal; they always seek to find something to strike harshly by rebuking; hence it is written: In the mouth of the fool is a rod of pride: because he knows how to strike harshly, but does not know how to show humble compassion."
St. Isidore follows St. Gregory as is his custom, in his Origins, book 1, chapter 41: "Proud teachers," he says, "know how to wound rather than to correct, as Solomon attests: In the mouth of the fool is a rod of pride; because they act harshly in rebuking, and do not know how to show humble compassion." Because, as Polychronius says in the Greek Chain, "those whom they rebuke, they strive not so much to correct as to confound." So also St. Chrysostom in the same place. And Hugo says: "In the mouth of the fool is a rod of pride," that is, he says, imperious correction is in the mouth of the fool, and conversely in the mouth of the just man is a rod of gentleness and sweetness. For this reason the manna was in the Ark together with the rod. And of Aaron's rod it is read that it budded and brought forth almonds — which are food for the weak.
Finally St. Jerome at the beginning of his third Apology against Rufinus, turning Rufinus's attack back upon himself: "I understood," he says, "that this saying of Solomon was fulfilled in you: In the mouth of the fool is the staff of insult."
Verse 4: Where There Are No Oxen, the Manger Is Empty
4. WHERE THERE ARE NO OXEN, THE MANGER IS EMPTY (in Hebrew, 'clean'): BUT WHERE THERE ARE ABUNDANT HARVESTS, THERE THE STRENGTH OF THE OX IS MANIFEST. — Theodotion wrongly reads beon (that is, 'in labor' or 'in strength') instead of been (that is, 'where not'), and translates: 'in the strength of oxen the produce is gathered into the manger, and the multitude of produce in the power of the bull.' For thus there is no antithesis, but only an empty tautology; one should therefore read been, that is, 'where there are no oxen.' It is a litotes and metonymy: for where oxen are lacking who produce grain by plowing, not only is the manger empty, but also the granary; for where there is no chaff, neither can there be grain — as if to say: Where the ox is lacking, the field cannot be cultivated; and with the field uncultivated and unplowed, no produce can be expected from it. Hence the Hebrew ebus, that is 'manger,' Marinus and others translate as 'storehouse, granary, barn,' also 'threshing floor' where crops are threshed and winnowed. Therefore from 'manger' by metonymy and metalepsis understand both storehouses and cellars, and tables (for the manger is like a table for oxen and beasts of burden), and food and provisions — for the manger contains these and offers them to the animals for eating. And by beasts of burden understand men; for where provisions are lacking for the animals, they consequently lack for men as well. Hence from the Hebrew you may translate thus: where there are no oxen, the storehouses are clean, that is, empty; and an abundance of produce comes from the strength of oxen — that is, says Vatablus, he who labors has something to eat; but he who pursues idleness has want in his house. Or: where there is labor and laborers, there is an abundance of things; but where there is idleness and idle folk, there is want. The translation of Symmachus comes to the same thing: because there are no oxen, the produce of the manger — that is, the hay which is placed before the beasts in the manger — grows up in place of grain; and the multitude of produce is in the power of the bull; the Chaldean: the multitude of crops is in the strength of the ox; and Aquila: where there are no oxen, there is hay; choice produce and the multitude of fruits is in the strength of the young bull — as if to say: Where there are no oxen plowing the earth, the land does not produce grain but spontaneously puts forth only barren hay; but where oxen plow vigorously, there an abundance not of hay but of grain is produced.
This proverb therefore, grammatically and physically, teaches, says Jansenius, that farmers must take care to provide themselves with oxen, and strong ones, by which to properly cultivate the land, if they wish to reap an abundant harvest from it. Then ethically, under this example, it is signified that all must labor who wish to eat and grow rich, and that want will come upon those who pursue idleness. And politically, that the state must provide itself with energetic and prudent governors, who, if they are absent, the state will be destitute in every way; but if they are present, will bring it an abundance of all good things by their tireless labor and prudence.
He mentions oxen rather than horses, both because in Palestine and Egypt, as well as in Italy and other places, they plow with oxen rather than horses; and because oxen, though slowly, plow more deeply and vigorously, cutting furrows and breaking up the clods of earth, so that the seed puts down deeper roots, germinates more abundantly, and yields more grain; and finally because oxen are frugal, living on grass and hay, while horses require oats, barley, and grain — hence they consume a large part of the crops they produce, while oxen, content with straw and hay, leave all the grain for their master, and thus enrich him. Hence among the ancients the ox was a symbol of plowing, and consequently of harvest and fertility, as is clear from the strong oxen that Pharaoh saw in Genesis 41:2. See the remarks on Isaiah 32, the last verse.
Mystically and tropologically, St. Jerome on Habakkuk chapter 3: "Oxen," he says, "shall not be in the stalls, because where the stalls are full, the strength of the ox is manifest. The ox is a worker, the ox bears the Lord's yoke, the ox in whose track whoever sows is blessed." And St. Gregory, book 3 of his Register, letter 30 to Eulogius: "That the people of the Church are growing," he says, "that spiritual harvests are being multiplied for the heavenly granary — this we have never doubted comes from the grace of almighty God, which flows abundantly in you most blessed ones. We therefore give thanks to almighty God, because we see fulfilled in you what is written:
Where there are abundant harvests, there the strength of the oxen is manifest. For if the strong ox had not driven the plow of his tongue into the soil of the hearers' hearts, so great a harvest of the faithful would never have sprung up."
In particular Bede applies each detail thus: "By oxen," he says, "he means Catholic teachers; by the manger, the assembly of hearers; by harvests, the fruits of good works. In vain therefore does the proud man swell and beat the ears and hearts of his subjects with unlearned eloquence, because where there are no learned preachers, the crowd of people gathers in vain to listen; but where the most abundant works of virtue appear, there it is most clearly evident that it was not a heretic chattering in vain, but one who labored for the fruit of the word — one who knows how to ruminate the word itself with a pure mouth, and to walk the way of truth with the right foot of discernment. Nor should it be wondered why we said that hearers are signified by the manger, since the ox is fed from the manger, while the teacher customarily nourishes his hearers with the word; but it should be noted that from the ox's labor the manger is filled, and the ox himself is refreshed from the manger by his own fruit. For indeed the faithful preacher both refreshes his hearers with the word and himself profits before God from the same refreshment — which is prefigured in the work of Elijah, who feeds the widow of Zarephath, by whom he himself is also fed."
Moreover the qualities of the ox aptly correspond to the Evangelical teacher and preacher, so much so that if he observes and imitates them, he will abundantly fulfill all the requirements of his office. For first, the ox is most laborious and therefore a symbol of labor. Hence the ancients, as Pierius testifies in his Hieroglyphics, when they wished to depict labor, painted the head of an ox; in like manner the teacher and preacher, if he is to bear fruit, must labor greatly in preaching and teaching — about which I have said more on Ezekiel 10:14.
Second, the ox is an innocent, simple, and sincere animal. Such also should the preacher be, so that he does good to all and harm to none. Hence Ovid, Metamorphoses 15: What have the oxen deserved, an animal without treachery or guile, / Harmless, simple, born to endure labors?
Third, the ox labors for others, not for itself, according to the saying, "Thus you oxen bear the plows not for yourselves." Likewise the Evangelical preacher labors and preaches not for himself but for others, and so, after the manner of St. Paul, spends and is spent entirely for the salvation of others. Hence the ox is a symbol of beneficence.
Fourth, they are vigorous and strong: the preacher also should be strong, so as to fear no one. So St. Dionysius, On the Celestial Hierarchy, chapter 15: "The image of the ox," he says, "bears the appearance of strength and might, by which they cut spiritual furrows to receive the heavenly and fruitful rains." Hence oxen, with speed, firmly plant their feet in their course; hence too they are armed with horns, with which they attack their enemies, and put them to flight or lay them low.
Fifth, the ox is frugal for itself, and eats only straw, grass, and hay: "The bull," says Horus Apollo in his Hieroglyphics, chapter 44, "with intact strength, strong and temperate." So too the preacher should be sober and frugal for himself. Certainly St. Peter, as St. Nazianzen attests, ate only lupins. Yet just as it is fitting that the ox be fed from the harvest in which it labored, so too it is proper that the preacher be supported by the faithful to whom he preaches, according to what God ordained through Moses and through Paul: "You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain," Deuteronomy 25:4, and 1 Corinthians 9:9.
Sixth, the ox was a victim that was sacrificed to God. Hence it was a symbol of religion, as well as of mortification and martyrdom, and represents the Martyrs — such as were the Apostles and the Apostolic preachers.
Seventh, among the four mystical animals of Ezekiel, chapter 1, verse 10, which bore the chariot of God's glory and the Gospel in every direction throughout the world, there was the hoof of a calf, and thus the third animal was an ox. Explaining this, St. Gregory in Homily 3 on Ezekiel says: "Because," he says, "holy preachers are designated by the name of oxen, the Apostle Paul teaches by expounding the testimony of the law: You shall not muzzle the ox that treads out the grain. In the holy preachers therefore the foot is that of a calf — namely, walking with maturity, and strong, and cloven; because each preacher has reverence in his maturity, and strength in his work, and division of the hoof in his discernment. For his preaching is not easily received if he appears to be light in his conduct. And there will be no show of maturity if, against all adversities, the strength of his work is not present."
Eighth, the ox is slow in its gait and in plowing, but thorough and perfect: so too the teacher should be deliberate, accommodating himself to a rude and slow people, and not wearying of frequently explaining and pressing the same things in detail.
Ninth, land which is not subdued by the plow of oxen produces hay, thorns, and thistles; but that which is subdued by them yields a joyful harvest of grain: so too souls that are not cultivated by preachers with the plow of God's word grow wild and bring forth nothing but the tares and thistles of vices; but those that are furrowed, weeded, and sown by the same plow bear a joyful crop of virtues.
Tenth, Cajetan and following him Salazar aptly explain the present parable of the oxen thus: Just as he who lacks oxen has a manger — that is, a clean stable; but he who has oxen, even though his stable be dirtier, yet rejoices in the abundance of his produce and fruits: so also he who does not take up the care of souls, nor labors in cultivating the Lord's field, but devotes himself entirely to himself, perhaps enjoys greater cleanliness and purity of conscience; but he who yokes his oxen, that is, devotes his labors to his neighbors, and joins the active life to contemplation — he indeed has a dirtier manger or stable of his mind and conscience: for from human intercourse and a busy life some dirt, at least slight, always accrues, yet he reaps more abundant and copious fruits.
We see the truth of this maxim in this happy age of ours, when we see and marvel that Religious men burning with zeal for God, laboring strenuously like oxen in the Lord's field, have converted many thousands of heretics in France and Germany to the orthodox faith, and have brought the Emperor of Ethiopia with his entire empire under the Roman Church; when we behold Blessed Francis Xavier and his followers drawing Indians, Japanese, and Chinese to Christ, and give thanks to God. Indeed in one island of Japan alone seven hundred thousand Christians are counted, of whom many willingly and eagerly pour out their blood and life for Christ. To pass over other things, in the single year of our Lord 1624, one hundred and sixty-five Christians in Japan steadfastly met death for the faith. Of these, fifty and more were burned and roasted over a slow fire, others killed by freezing, others drowned in the sea, others crucified, others struck by the sword. Their leaders were three Fathers of the Society of Jesus. Following them as their pastors came nobles, commoners, virgins, married women, even decrepit old men, and very many boys and infants, who went playfully to death as if to a feast. There were, whether you consider the cause, the age, the sex, the rank, or the kind of death, new Lawrences, new Agneses, new Symphorosas, new Maccabees both male and female, new Adrians, new Getulii, new Nathalias, new Pancratiuses, new Vituses, new Holy Innocents — because there was no lack of a new Herod; to whom accordingly you may chant that which the Church sang to the early martyrs:
Hail, flowers of the Martyrs, / Companions of the budding rose; / Before the very altar, in simplicity, / You play with palm and crowns.
Watered by the blood of these martyrs, the Church shall grow far more happily in Japan; as Prudentius sings in his Peri Stephanon, that is, On the Crowns: The number of Martyrs always grew / Under every hailstorm.
By recent letters from Macao it is now reported that five hundred Christians in Japan have bravely fallen, slaughtered by various kinds of torments for the faith of Christ, so that already several thousand slain for Christ are counted in Japan.
Go now, brave ones, where the lofty path / Of the great example leads. Why, as cowards, / Do you turn your backs? The conquered earth / Bestows the stars.
Verse 5: A Faithful Witness Does Not Lie
5. A FAITHFUL WITNESS DOES NOT LIE; BUT A DECEITFUL WITNESS UTTERS FALSEHOOD. — In Hebrew: a witness of truths, or of fidelities, will not lie; but a witness of falsehood breathes out lies; the Septuagint: an unjust witness kindles false things (the Complutensian and the Royal edition read: a lying witness); Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion: a lying witness announces false things; the Chaldean: he who speaks falsehood is a detracting witness; Vatablus: a truthful witness does not lie; a false witness vomits out lies. The meaning seems plain, yet it contains many things, which various authors variously express.
First, R. Levi, R. Solomon, Jansenius, and Baynus explain thus: A witness who does not habitually lie in his familiar conversations and detests falsehood will likewise be a faithful and truthful witness when he is called into court to testify juridically about something; but he who habitually babbles lies among his own people and constantly lies — if this man is questioned by a judge, he will easily be a liar and will produce false testimony as is his custom. For habit turns into a settled disposition, a settled disposition into nature, and is as it were a second nature; therefore he who has accustomed himself always to speak the truth will with difficulty bend himself to utter a falsehood in some circumstance; and conversely, he who is accustomed to lie restrains himself from lying with difficulty, especially when the hope of gain or some other advantage lures and invites him to it.
Second, R. David explains thus: He who wishes to be regarded as a faithful witness abstains from lying; for if he is caught even once in a lie, he will lose his credibility, even when he speaks the truth and no one will believe him; therefore he who even once utters a lie will henceforth lose his credibility, and will everywhere be regarded as a deceitful and lying witness, or at least suspected of lying.
Third, Hugo explains thus: A faithful witness, even though he may sometimes err and say something false through mistake, nevertheless never lies deliberately, that is, he never speaks against his mind, so as to say that what he knows to be true is false, or the reverse; but a deceitful witness lies deliberately, and asserts that things are true which he knows to be false, and vice versa.
Fourth, more forcefully Lyranus and following him Salazar: "A faithful witness does not lie," that is, he cannot be induced to lie by any entreaty or bribe, by any threats or punishments; but a lying witness without any bribe or threats spontaneously produces and breathes out lies, just as a furnace breathes out and exhales embers and sparks. For the Hebrew iaphiach, that is, 'breathes out,' signifies: first, the ease and readiness to lie; second, the abundance of lies, as great as that of sparks in a fire — hence Vatablus translates, 'vomits out lies'; third, that his heart is full of fraud and falsity, and therefore exhales the same through his mouth, just as smoke full of fire continually exhales sparks through the chimney. Fourth, force and vehemence, as if to say: The liar breathes out his lies with great force and vehemence to persuade his hearers, just as a pyre hurls its sparks with great force and vehemence. Fifth, vanity — namely that lies are fleeting, while truth is firm and stable. For lies are like bubbles which children easily blow through a tube from soap, but which are just as easily burst; for when the thin and fragile bubble rises into the air, it bursts at the slightest movement of the breeze, and suddenly vanishes into thin air: for in a similar way a lie is quickly fabricated and contrived, and just as quickly scattered and burst. Furthermore, the Hebrew cazab, that is, 'lie,' in its letters as well as its meaning alludes to casaph, that is, 'illusion,' 'spell,' 'sorcery': for such is a lie. Hence a liar is like a conjurer and sorcerer, who by his lie as if by a spell dazzles, bewitches, bedims, and deceives the ears of his hearers. Hence again a lie is called cachas, that is, 'thinness,' 'leanness,' 'emaciation,' because it has nothing of truth and substance — so that if you wished to paint a lie, you would paint a haggard and emaciated woman. Moreover cachas alludes to sacach, that is, 'he has forgotten,' and to chasach, that is, 'he has been darkened,' by metathesis. For in a lie mere vanity, confusion of memory, and obscurity of mind all concur.
Finally, "a faithful man will not lie," because as dear as faith is to him, so dear is truth to him, and so hateful is lying; therefore, just as faith, so also truth is sacred to him and equivalent to an oath. For this reason Christ forbade the faithful to swear, Matthew 5:34: "But I say to you not to swear at all; etc. But let your speech be: yes, yes; no, no; and whatever is more than these comes from evil" — namely from the vice of incredulity and distrust innate in man from original sin, by which it happens that often one who simply asserts is not believed, while one who swears is believed. Therefore swearing is not lawful unless this evil compels it, namely man's incredulous distrust. Hence in paradise, where this evil did not exist, swearing was not lawful, just as it is not lawful for the Blessed in heaven: for the Blessed are so truthful, and so reverent of the divine name, that they would not dare to swear. Indeed even Isocrates, writing to Demonicus, though a pagan, says: "Good men show themselves more trustworthy than an oath." And Plutarch in his Problems: "An oath," he says, "is to a free man what torture is." For the Romans extracted truth from slaves by torture, from a citizen by oath, from a priest by his word alone. So Chromatius, Bishop of Aquileia, whom St. Jerome calls the most learned and holiest man of his age, writing on the cited words of Christ in Matthew, says that Christ forbade the faithful to swear, because their words "should always be so true, so most faithful, that they be held as an oath." And he adds: "The cause of an oath is that everyone who swears, swears to this end: that he may speak what is true. And therefore the Lord wished there to be no distance between an oath and our speech; because just as in an oath there should be no treachery, so also in our words there should be no lie, because both perjury and lying are condemned by the penalty of divine offense (others more correctly read: 'of divine judgment'), since Scripture says: The mouth that lies kills the soul. Therefore whoever speaks the truth swears, because it is written: A faithful witness will not lie." He swears not expressly and formally, but tacitly and in terms of purpose, because he speaks the truth, for which all use of oaths was introduced; for the end of an oath is truth and the knowledge of truth, which the faithful man achieves without an oath, simply stating the matter as it is; therefore he swears interpretively, that is, he achieves by a simple assertion what another who swears achieves by his oath. These words of Chromatius (wrongly attributed to Chrysostom in old codices of Canon Law) were transferred into Canon Law, and are found in Causa 22, Question 5, Canon 12: On the Oath, where the Gloss rightly notes that the phrase 'the Lord wished there to be no distance between an oath and our speech' must be limited to the generality of the precept — that just as God forbade all perjury, so He also forbade all lying, lest anyone think that outside of perjury it was lawful to lie, as Chromatius explains; otherwise in the gravity of the offense there is a great distance: for one who perjures himself sins far more gravely by perjuring than a liar by lying.
Chromatius concludes: "Thus from God, who is truthful and knows not how to lie, whatever is said is forbidden as an oath, because everything He speaks is true." So sacred is truth to God, and it is fitting for the faithful to imitate this.
Mystically, the author of the Greek Chain says: "The unjust and unfaithful witness" is the devil; for while he promises fools the enjoyment of temporary pleasure, he provides nothing other than the punishment of eternal fire. But "the faithful witness" is the Lord; for He is most faithful in all His words and promises, and never lies or deceives. Furthermore, the unjust witness "kindles" a lie, because what lay extinguished he stirs up again either by a new accusation or by false testimony. So says the author of the Chain according to the Septuagint.
Again, a faithful witness is a Martyr, who testifies to the truth of the faith and his fidelity to God by his death, and seals it with his blood. Again, one who lives rightly and holily, and faithfully perseveres in holiness by resisting all difficulties and temptations. Hence Blessed Theodoret the Studite, among his Catechetical homilies published by John Livineius, a Canon of Antwerp, prefixed to the tenth this title: "Martyrs are not only those who pour out their blood, but also those who lead a godly life;" and he proves this both by the authority of St. Paul and by reason. For the Apostle says, he notes, Hebrews 11: "They wandered about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being in want, distressed, afflicted — of whom the world was not worthy — wandering in deserts, in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth." And a little later: "Having so great a cloud of Martyrs, laying aside every weight and the sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us, looking to Jesus the author and finisher of faith." Do you see how he universally called Martyrs all lovers of piety who draw out an afflicted life with endurance? Therefore... we, brethren, are numbered in this martyrdom: for we who embrace the cross-bearing hardships of life with endurance, who guard our virginal vow, and do not refuse the obedience in which there is something like a contest — we testify that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God, we testify that there will be a judgment and a recompense, we testify that we shall render an account of our life at the terrible tribunal of Christ, resisting the devil, the enemy of Christ, who tortures us, and by the constant temptation of deadly pleasures, as if with whips, urges us to deny that we belong to God. So far the Studite.
Verse 6: The Scorner Seeks Wisdom and Does Not Find It
6. THE SCORNER SEEKS WISDOM AND DOES NOT FIND IT; THE LEARNING OF THE PRUDENT IS EASY. — In Hebrew: the mocker seeks wisdom and it is not, or as Cajetan explains, it is not there: and knowledge is light to the understanding; Symmachus: the pestilent man sought wisdom, and it was not. For 'easy' the Chaldean translates: and knowledge is cheap to the prudent man, that is, it is acquired at a low and cheap price. The phrase 'the learning of the prudent is easy' can be taken in two ways: first, passively, as if to say: the learning of the prudent is easy to be learned by the prudent themselves, that is, prudent people easily grasp and learn doctrine. Hence the Hebrew has: knowledge is light or easy to the understanding, or to the understanding person; and thus there is a clear and direct antithesis between the scorner and the understanding or prudent person in learning wisdom — that for the scorner wisdom is difficult, indeed impossible, because with all his effort in seeking it, he does not find it; but for the understanding or prudent person it is easy, because the scorner, addicted to his pleasures, does not seek it seriously, but as if in jest and laughter, indeed he laughs at and derides it: such are hypocrites, heretics, and Jews. But the prudent man searchingly, seriously, and resolutely tracks it down, and therefore easily finds it, because to one who seeks in this way, wisdom comes to meet him and freely offers herself — namely honesty and virtue. Hence Vatablus translates: he who excels in judgment, to him wisdom is ready at hand. So Bede and Jansenius; for as St. Cyril says on John, book 1, chapter 12: "The wise man imitates hunting dogs that seek game here and there. For he himself, often and at length tracking down a thing not understood, and questioning, finally attains it."
Second, actively, as if to say: "The learning of the prudent is easy" not only to be learned from them, but also to be taught by them; because the prudent easily teach doctrine or prudence, seeing that they themselves have learned it by long study and practice and are thoroughly versed in it; and accordingly the unlearned and unskilled will easily learn the same from them, if they submit themselves to their teaching. Hence the Septuagint translate: you will seek wisdom from the wicked and not find it; but understanding among the prudent is easy; or, as the author of the Greek Chain translates: among the prudent, sense and understanding are easy to find. For although the wicked sometimes give good speculative counsels and precepts about virtue, yet because in practice they do the opposite, they do not persuade their hearers, who trust works more than words; but the prudent and upright, because what they teach by word they also show by example, easily implant and impress the same upon others.
To these are reduced the various probable and fitting expositions of this verse by different authors. For first, R. Solomon explains thus: The scorner, when he has need of wisdom and seeks it, finds his mind stripped of it. This will happen especially on the day of judgment, according to the parable of the foolish virgins, whose oil ran out when the bridegroom came, Matthew 25.
Second, Baynus takes 'scorners' to mean boys: who, addicted to jests and games, do not grasp the precepts of wisdom, but are as it were dumbfounded and laugh at them, and quickly disdaining them return to their trifles and amusements — as if to say: Buffoons and those addicted to jests and games do not grasp wisdom, but the prudent, sensible, and serious do; for to these, virtue, which consists in maturity and strict discipline of the passions, is easy.
Third, Jansenius explains forcefully and in detail: The scorner, that is, one who for a long time not only through weakness failed to heed the salutary counsels of the wise, but also by ingrained malice resisted truth and wisdom and abandoned it — by God's just judgment falling into tribulations and distresses, and therefore seeking wise counsel by which to escape pressing evils, frequently does not find wisdom assisting and advising him well, but is left to his own counsels to slide ever further into worse. Again, those who mock the teaching of truth, as heretics and Jews do, however much they seek true wisdom with the greatest efforts, nevertheless do not find it — both because they seek poorly, and outside the Church where it is not; and because, given over to a reprobate mind, they have become foolish, and like the blind groping at midday. Likewise those who from youth have devoted themselves entirely to trifles and vain things, refusing to submit to wisdom — when in adulthood they wish to apply themselves to wisdom and desire to grasp it, they are found to have great difficulty in grasping it and to make slow progress in it. On the other hand, "the learning of the prudent is easy," for which the Hebrew has: knowledge is easy for the prudent (understanding) person — that is, the prudent man who has always loved prudence and from his youth has always applied himself to understanding will easily grasp all branches of knowledge and whatever is wisely said. The Syriac version favors this exposition, translating: the wicked man seeks wisdom, and it is not found.
Fourth, Lyranus and following him our Salazar explain thus: The scorner, that is, the proud man who out of arrogance and swelling disdains the teaching of others, even of Doctors and Wise men, and presumes to track down, judge, and measure wisdom by his own talent, in which he trusts — this man will certainly not attain it, because wisdom is not to be learned from one's own rude and proud talent, but from the wise and the humble; for just as the wind scatters the tracks of wild animals and dulls the tracking power and scent of hunting dogs, so also the vanity and pride by which someone attributes much to his own talent and scorns and derides others takes away the power of tracking down wisdom. But "the learning of the prudent is easy," that is, whoever humbly listens to others and wishes to be taught by them will easily and in a short time acquire great wisdom for themselves.
Verse 7: The Foolish Man Knows Not the Lips of Prudence
7. GO AGAINST THE FOOLISH MAN, AND HE KNOWS NOT THE LIPS OF PRUDENCE. — Instead of 'he knows not,' Jansenius and certain others read 'know not' (as an imperative). For so the Hebrew has, and they give this meaning: If you go against a foolish man — that is, if you oppose him in argument — you will not know, that is, you will not discover in him the lips of prudence, nor will you learn from him to speak learnedly and prudently. For the imperatives here do not signify a command, but permission, or rather a consequence of one thing from another, namely what will follow from a given situation. Similar was chapter 12: "Turn the wicked, and they will not be" — as if to say: if you turn the wicked, it will follow that they will no longer exist. Others read the contrary, 'know not the lips of imprudence,' as if to say: Beware lest from the company of fools you learn to speak foolishly and imprudently.
But the Roman codices, Bede, and others read: 'he knows not the lips of prudence.' Hence Bede first explains it thus: If you openly go against a fool by arguing, he does not know how to understand what you wisely say. So also Lyranus and Dionysius: If you encounter a fool by reproving him, or by arguing with him, he will indeed hear you; but he will not know, that is, he will not grasp your words, however skillfully and prudently uttered.
Second, and more properly, instead of 'against' the Hebrew has minneged, that is, 'opposite,' 'from before' — meaning 'from afar,' 'far,' 'at a distance.' For min signifies removal and distancing. Minneged therefore means the same as 'far away'; and it is opposed to leneged, that is, 'before' or 'in the presence of.' The meaning therefore is: "Go against," that is, in the opposite direction from the foolish man — so that if he goes to the East, you withdrawing from him should go to the West — that is: flee, depart, distance yourself from the fool; "and" (that is, because) "he knows not the lips of prudence," that is, because he does not know how to hear or speak prudence, but whatever comes into his mouth he rashly and imprudently babbles out. So Aben-Ezra. When, he says, the word neged has min attached to it, it means to withdraw far away; but if lamed is added to it, it signifies proximity to the thing, or approach to it — as if to say: Depart from the fool's sight, and be far from the stupid man who is devoid of knowledge, for the lips of prudence signify knowledge. So too R. Levi: Remove yourself far, he says, from the senseless man, lest you form a partnership with him. So also the Chaldean, Pagninus, Tigurina, and others.
You may ask: On what basis does our Translator render 'and he does not know' in the third person, when in the Hebrew it is 'and you did not know,' in the second person — that is, 'know not' (imperative) or 'you will not know'? I answer: Our Translator seems to have judged that there is here a change of person, which is frequent in Scripture — namely, that Solomon turning from the wise man to the fool says: You, O wise man, go against the foolish man — that is, distance yourself from the fool by going the opposite way; but you, O fool! know not the words of prudence — that is, keep to yourself your own ignorance and lack of prudence, do not spread it to the wise man, nor breathe it upon the simple. This our Translator clearly renders by changing the second person to the third: 'and' (that is, because) the fool 'knows not the lips of prudence'; for among the Hebrews this sudden change of person is customary, but among the Latins it is unusual and strange. Similar tacit and sudden changes of person are frequent in the Prophets and the Canticles: for the Prophets suddenly pass from Cyrus, David, Solomon, etc., to Christ, as is clear in Isaiah chapter 45, verse 8, and chapter 16, verse 1. Or certainly, if you refer these things to the same person of the wise man, it must be said that there is an antiphrasis, so that 'prudence' is used for 'imprudence,' as some Latin codices and Pagninus read, who translates: go far from the foolish man, and you will not know lying lips. For the fool seems to himself wise and to speak most prudently; but this wisdom and prudence of his, in the eyes of the wise, is true imprudence and folly.
Furthermore, others variously translate and explain these words from the Hebrew. First, R. Solomon says: go before the foolish man, and you will not know the lips of prudence — that is, if you keep company with a fool, you will not learn prudence from him.
Second, the Tigurina version: go from the presence of a foolish man, in whom you do not perceive the lips of knowledge.
Third, Vatablus: go from the presence of the unwise man, since you do not know the words of knowledge — that is, have no dealings with a fool, if you are inexperienced and ignorant: because from a fool you will not learn knowledge, but folly.
Fourth, the Chaldean: go by another way from the foolish man, because on his lips there is no knowledge; and to this Cajetan and Baynus bring back the Vulgate version, by supplying the pronoun 'him': "Go against," they say, "the foolish man, and him who knows not the lips of knowledge" — that is, depart far from the fool and from him who speaks unskillfully and imprudently.
Fifth, Jansenius, as if to say: go against the foolish man — that is, distance yourself from the fool — and know not the lips of knowledge — that is, be silent; indeed, if necessary, pretend that you know nothing and that you are unskilled in speaking and devoid of prudence, rather than converse or debate with a fool.
Sixth, the Septuagint go in an entirely different direction: All things, they say, are contrary to an imprudent man; but the weapons of sense (in Greek, aistheseos) — that is, of sense, judgment, knowledge, doctrine, that is, of a prudent and sensible mind (for aisthesis means noesis) — are the lips of wisdom. Or as the author of the Greek Chain translates: to a foolish man all things fall adversely; but the lips of the wise man are instruments of judgment and sense — that is, he says, "the lips of the wise are fitting instruments of judgment and sense, since they turn away foolishness and deliberately pursue malice; for malice can have nothing in common with true wisdom." For just as in a musical organ, by the exact judgment of the ears, the smaller pipes are harmonically fitted and blended step by step with the larger ones in a great proportion of sounds, and from this produce a sweet melody and harmony: so likewise the wise man arranges and blends his words with a great sense of prudence, and thereby wins for his hearers as well as for himself a wonderful grace and charm — to such a degree that when they hear him speaking, they think they are hearing the harmony of a musical instrument. For the Greek hopla signifies not only weapons, but also instruments and implements of any kind. But if you translate 'weapons' in this passage with the Complutensian and Roman editions, the meaning will be: To the imprudent man, because of his imprudent words by which he brings upon himself everyone's hatred, all things turn out contrary and adverse; for all rise up against him and provoke him. But the weapons of sense are the lips of wisdom — that is, the weapons of the sensible man, by which he fortifies himself against all adversity, and even makes friends of his enemies, are words prudently and graciously uttered by his lips. Or, as our Salazar says: All people and all things wage a cruel war against the imprudent man; but no weapons are more savage against him than the lips of wisdom of a sensible man. For by these he is pierced more cruelly than by arrows and javelins; by these his dullness and folly are stabbed more savagely than by swords and spears. Furthermore, the 'fool' here, and in the other proverbs, is the same as the imprudent, vicious, depraved, wicked man; while the 'wise man' is the prudent, virtuous, upright, good man: for this is true and practical wisdom, as I have often noted. So St. Ambrose, book 3, letter 19, near the beginning: "Let your words," he says, "be full of understanding. Hence Solomon also says: The weapons of understanding are the lips of wisdom. And elsewhere (Proverbs 15): Let your lips be bound with sense — that is, let the expression of your words shine, let understanding flash forth, and let your speech and discussion not need another's defense, but let your discourse protect itself as if with its own weapons."
Finally, Abbot Theodore in Cassian, Conference 6, chapter 9, explains the Septuagint thus: "As," he says, "it is said of the perfect and wise: For those who love God, all things work together for good — so it is declared of the weak and foolish: All things are adverse to the foolish man; for he does not profit from prosperity, nor is he corrected by adversity. For it belongs to the same virtue to bear sorrows bravely as to moderate success; and it is most certain that he who is overcome in one of these cannot endure either. Yet one can more easily be crushed by prosperity than by adversity. For adversity sometimes restrains and humbles even the unwilling, and by a most salutary compunction either causes them to sin less or corrects them; but prosperity, lifting up minds with soft and pernicious blandishments, strikes down those who are secure in their good fortune with a greater ruin."
Verse 8: The Wisdom of the Shrewd and the Imprudence of Fools
8. THE WISDOM OF THE SHREWD MAN IS TO UNDERSTAND HIS WAY: AND THE IMPRUDENCE OF FOOLS IS WANDERING. — The Chaldean: the wisdom of the shrewd man is the understanding of his way; the folly of the senseless is fraudulent; the Syriac: the skillful man in his wisdom understands his way; but the way of the fool is in error. 'Shrewd' (in Hebrew arum) in these Proverbs is taken in a good sense, meaning cautious and prudent. The meaning is, as if to say: The cautious and prudent man understands his ways, that is, his actions, because before he undertakes them, he foresees and considers the manner in which he may carry them out prudently, rightly, and honestly according to God's law and will, so that through them he may aim directly for and arrive at an honest and ultimately blessed life. And in this consists his true wisdom. But the imprudence and foolishness of the stupid consists in this: that they do not understand, do not look ahead, so that their ways might be straight; but from rectitude they wander into the pathless and devious errors of pleasures, into which sense and concupiscence drag them; whence from one pleasure they stray and wander into another and another, until by constantly straying more and more, they finally fall into ruin and hell, which is the greatest and irrevocable error.
For 'wandering' the Hebrew has mirma, that is, guile, fraud, deception, as Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Septuagint translate. The Septuagint say: The madness of the imprudent is 'in deception' or 'in error,' because their error deceives them and leads them to destruction and hell. And thus in reality guile and deception are the same as error, as our Translator renders it. So the author of the Greek Chain: "The wisdom of the prudent understands their ways; but the madness of fools leads into error. Because," he says, "the prudent wisely order all their actions; but the mad do not even recognize their error while they are erring, but constantly dwell in the dark shadows of ignorance and stupidity." Second, the word 'guile' can here be taken in its proper sense. Hence Vatablus, repeating 'to understand,' translates thus: the wisdom of the cautious man is to understand his way; but the folly of fools is to understand guile — that is, fools think of nothing else than how to deceive others. And thus there is a beautiful antithesis: The wisdom of the truly prudent and cautious man is not to know frauds and guiles by which to acquire wealth or honors, or to craftily oppress his neighbor, but to know his own way — namely, what he must do and where he must go to arrive at heaven and a blessed life. Conversely, the wisdom of fools is to contrive guiles and frauds by which to enrich and aggrandize themselves; for they think themselves wise and shrewd because they can attain their ends through guile. But this wisdom of theirs is the height of folly and imprudence, because they neglect to examine and know their own ways — by which they might tend toward happiness — and are entirely occupied in examining the ways of others, that is, the actions of their neighbors, in order to overthrow them through guiles and frauds; by which method they overthrow not so much their neighbors as themselves, and hurl themselves headlong into ruin and hell. What could be more foolish? For as the Psalmist says, Psalm 7: The foolish and wicked man "opened a pit and dug it out, and fell into the hole which he had made;" for guiles fall back and recoil upon the head of the guileful, and frauds upon the head of the fraudulent.
This alludes to the prudence of the serpent, which in Hebrew is called arum, that is, shrewd, Genesis 3:1, about which Christ said: "Be prudent as serpents, and simple as doves." Among other proofs of the serpent's prudence, one is, says Salazar, that since it lacks feet and must therefore crawl, it avoids precipices and generally directs its way along flat and level ground, as Pliny attests, book 6, chapter 15; on level ground it moves so swiftly that it equals the speed of the lightest horses — as if Solomon were saying: Imitate, O man, the shrewdness of the serpent; for just as the serpent loves flat ways suited to itself, so you too should love "ways," that is, actions, pursuits, and occupations suited to your nature and talent; for these are level, indeed downhill for a man, while the rest are difficult and uphill.
Third, and more properly: "The wisdom of the shrewd man is to understand his way" — that is, the way suited and fitting for him — as if to say: The wise man understands what way, that is, what state of life, what rank, what office, what occupation, what pursuit, what art, what action is his own — that is, suited to him — namely, what matches his temperament, disposition, inclination, abilities, and talents. And in this consists his wisdom. "But the imprudence of fools is deception, guile, and error," because they do not consider what suits them and their disposition, or what conduces to their salvation; but they embrace whatever ambition, fickleness, avarice, or lust drives them to; whence they fall into grave present and eternal difficulties from which they cannot extricate themselves — which is great imprudence. Thus every day we see most people err in choosing their state of life, in embracing offices, because they do not consider whether that state or office is suited to them and conducive to salvation, but only whether it is wealthy, splendid, and honorable. For example, a pastorate, an abbey, a rich and splendid bishopric is offered — it is immediately snatched up, and no prior examination is made as to whether it is proportioned to the nature, grace, abilities, and shoulders of the one who snatches it; whence it happens that many are unequal to the burden, and precipitate not only themselves but also the subjects whose care they accept into perdition. Is this not imprudence, and the greatest imprudence, since it concerns a most grave matter? For such is eternal salvation, which is the ultimate end and man's supreme good. What is more absurd than to prefer the means to the end — a bishopric to salvation — and then to try to accommodate, indeed to force, the end to fit the means one has chosen — that is, salvation to fit the bishopric? "O the cares of men! O how much emptiness there is in things" — indeed how foolish, stupid, and pernicious! Another embraces marriage because a bride is offered who is rich, beautiful, and noble; and he does not consider whether her character matches his own, whence it happens that later, finding her character unlike and even contrary to his own, he lives in perpetual affliction, quarrels, and sorrows. Another applies himself to study in order to obtain a prebend or dignity, when he is of dull talent and born for mechanical work: this man wastes his time, wastes his natural aptitude, wastes the talent given him by God, and strives to seize by force another talent not given to him — and so on with the rest. Hence the loss of his soul and the shipwreck of salvation. How many are damned in the secular state who would have been saved in the ecclesiastical or religious state, and vice versa. Therefore Solomon teaches that true wisdom consists in this: that each person wisely according to God, by the judgment of right reason, setting aside private inclinations and the allurements of the world and the flesh, should discern namely what way — that is, what occupation, what state, what office, what action — is suited to him, that is, proportioned, measured, and appropriate to his disposition and inclination, and to his abilities both of nature and of grace, so that he may live rightly and honestly, and thus arrive at eternal happiness, for which he was created by God, and to which this life is nothing but a way, a pilgrimage, and a race. Whoever does otherwise is now imprudent, and deceives not so much others as himself.
The root of this disparity is that the wise man examines and weighs everything according to the dictate of wisdom, by divine and eternal reasons; but the foolish man according to human, temporal, and perishable reasons, which he prefers to divine and eternal ones — which is the height of folly. Our Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga noted this, and is therefore depicted with a balance, in one pan of which he weighs temporal reasons, in the other eternal ones, which, far outweighing the former, urge him to do and measure all his affairs according to the dictate of divine and eternal reasons. This is what the wise man says: Whatever you do, do it prudently, and look to the end. And St. Bernard, in Sermon 20 among his shorter ones: "Consider, O man, whence you come, and blush; where you are, and groan; where you are going, and tremble." And the Psalmist: "I considered the days of old," he says, "and I had in mind the eternal years." If you are wise, therefore, in each of your actions choose this, do this, which at the hour of death, which on the day of judgment, which through all eternity you will wish you had chosen and done: "Once spoken, thought, done — it is eternal: live, strive, labor for eternity." This is the wisdom of the Saints.
Verse 9: The Fool Mocks Sin
9. THE FOOL MOCKS SIN; AND AMONG THE JUST GRACE SHALL DWELL. — Instead of 'the fool' (nominative singular), the Complutensian codex and the Codex of Monte Amiata and the Lombard version read 'fools' (dative plural), and so it can be translated from the Hebrew. For 'mocks,' the Hebrew has ialits, which different authors translate variously: first, to mock; second, to cavil — that is, to interpret someone's deed or word in a bad sense; third, to palliate or excuse; fourth, to speak, especially sophistically; fifth, to intercede. Hence first, the Chaldean translates: fools put comparisons to sin; and among the upright is good pleasure — as if to say: Fools diminish their own crimes by comparing them with worse criminals, and flatter themselves that in comparison with them they appear good and upright. Second, Pagninus: the fool speaks words of offense; and among the upright will be words of love — that is, as Vatablus says, if a fool has done something wrong, he broadcasts it; and among the upright mention is always made of charity. Third, the Tigurina: fools excuse their offense, but among the upright is good pleasure or benevolence. Fourth, R. Emmanuel: each of the fools will palliate his offense, and among the upright is good will — or, the fool will be the spokesman or mediator of offense, and among the upright benevolence. Fifth, Baynus: the fool speaks of offense, and among the upright is grace — that is, he says, the fool speaks shameful things which ought not even to be named; but the words of the just are seasoned with grace and elegance.
Sixth, R. Solomon translates: for fools a fine intercedes. For, he says, since they have sinned against God and men, it is necessary that they make satisfaction to both for the offense through a fine, just as the Philistines paid five golden mice for the crime committed against the Ark of God, 1 Samuel 6:5. Seventh, R. Levi translates: sin will cause fools to speak. For, he says, when they see that through sin they did not achieve the end they desired, but rather incurred punishments and miseries, they will speak and complain about their wretched and unhappy lot. Eighth, Aben-Ezra says: ialits means to interpret the mind of others and accommodate oneself to it; for melits means interpreter — as if to say: The fool, that is, the impious man, speaks according to the mind of those with whom he is eager to commit sin, according to Isaiah 3:9: "They have proclaimed their sin like Sodom and have not hidden it."
But our Translator most excellently and most properly translates ialits as 'mocks,' and Symmachus as 'derides,' which embraces many meanings. First, as if to say: The fool with laughter and jest, as if playing, commits sin, just as if he were playing with sin and mocking it, according to what was said in chapter 10: "The fool works wickedness as if in jest." And chapter 2: "They rejoice when they have done evil, and exult in the worst things." Where I have said more on this subject. Again, when the fool — that is, the impious man — is rebuked for sin, he mocks, that is, by equivocating, excusing, and laughing he evades the one rebuking him and his correction; but in turn the fool will be mocked by sin — hence the Complutensian and the codices already cited and Dionysius the Carthusian read: sin will mock the fools — just as bait on a hook deceives fish, says Dionysius. And Aquila: sin will mock the fools, but among the just there will be grace — as if to say: Punishment will mock the pleasure and guilt of the wicked, which guilt will bring upon them unexpectedly; but with the just there will be God's grace, which will prosper them and finally make them blessed. The fool therefore who rushes headlong into crimes seems to mock sin; but sin mocks him more — and the devil who presides over sin; for on account of sin he will torture him most bitterly both in this life and in hell, where he will ridicule, mock, and scoff at him for having been so mad as to yield to his sworn enemy tempting him to sin — indeed for having believed him — for having been so senseless as not to think of the fires of hell, but for a little pleasure to have handed over his soul to them. But "among the just grace shall dwell," because by acting honorably they will win for themselves the grace of God and men. Hence the Syriac translates: fools commit sin and the upright do what is pleasing.
Second, the fool mocks sin — not his own, but another's — that is, he derides sinners and recalls their sins with laughter and jest, and holds them up for others to ridicule; for by 'sin' he metonymically understands the sinners themselves. The following antithesis accords very well with this meaning: "And among the just grace shall dwell" — in Hebrew ratson, that is, good pleasure or benevolence — as if to say: The fool, when he sees someone sinning, publishes, ridicules, and scoffs at his sin, and makes him an object of everyone's laughter, whereby he stirs up the anger and hatred of that person and of others against himself; but the just man, if he sees someone sinning, kindly covers and excuses his sin, and privately and gently corrects him so that he may amend; therefore among the just there dwells grace, that is, benevolence, peace, harmony, and friendship. So Jansenius.
Third, 'sin' is often taken metonymically for the sacrificial victim offered for the atonement of sin, as in Leviticus 6:17 and chapter 5:6. Thus Christ is said to have been made a curse and sin for us, that is, a victim for sin and for the curse, 2 Corinthians 5:21. Again, ratson, that is, grace or good pleasure, is sometimes taken for a victim offered graciously and voluntarily, as in Isaiah 60:7: "They shall be offered upon My acceptable altar" — in Hebrew, 'upon the altar for grace,' that is, as a gracious and voluntary victim. The meaning therefore is: The impious man, having committed sin, if he is urged to offer the sacrificial victim prescribed by the law of Leviticus chapter 5 for the expiation of sin, refuses to comply, but mocks — that is, evades or derides the one urging him. But "among the just grace shall dwell," by which they keep themselves unstained by sin, so that they do not need a victim for sin; therefore if they offer any sacrifice, they present it to God not for sin, but as a gracious and spontaneous offering. The Septuagint translation supports this: the houses of the wicked shall owe purification, but the houses of the just are acceptable — as if to say: The wicked refuse to pay the victim owed for sin, but remain in this debt as if mocking and deriding both sin and the victim for sin; but the just are acceptable, that is, pleasing and acceptable to God, hence they do not need a victim for sin; but if they offer one, they offer it not for sin, but as a spontaneous offering to win God's grace more fully for themselves. So Salazar. Hence the Syriac, following the Septuagint as is its custom, translates: the houses of the wicked rightly seek cleansing, and the houses of the just receive it. This meaning is more obscure and profound, while the second is clearer and fuller.
Verse 10: The Heart That Knows Its Own Bitterness
10. THE HEART THAT KNOWS THE BITTERNESS OF ITS OWN SOUL — IN ITS JOY NO STRANGER SHALL INTRUDE. — The Syriac: the heart knowing, or understanding, is the sorrow of its soul; the Arabic: the sensitive heart of a man (which is easily touched and feels), his soul is sad; and in its joy magnificence will not be mingled. First, Jansenius and Baynus explain it thus: The heart which is distressed and conscious of a secret grief will not easily be won over by comforts applied from outside. For true sorrow, which penetrates and pervades the heart, is not easily removed by external blandishments. And this is what is said: "A stranger," or something foreign, "will not be mingled in its joy," because it does not bring it joy, it will not temper the heart's grief with joy; for no external show of affection can serve as joy, that is, unto joy — namely, that it might give itself to joy and thereby temper its sadness as with consolation. This is experienced by those conscious of a graver sin. Hence Symmachus translates: and in its joy it will not be mingled with foreign things — namely with foreign delights and joys. For as St. Augustine says in Against the Letters of Petilian, book 3: "If the truth of one's crime gnaws at the conscience, what does it profit me if the world continually extols me with praises? For this is merely external, but that is inmost." Wherefore St. Ephrem, in his treatise On Prayer: "All worldly and profane pleasure," he says, "cast into a bitter conscience, is like a little drop of honey poured into a barrel of wormwood."
Second, Cajetan explains thus: The sensible man conceals the sorrows and anguish of his soul and presses them down in his heart, according to the saying: He feigns hope on his face, but presses deep grief in his heart. Likewise, when he rejoices and is glad, he conceals his joy, and is the sole possessor of his own gladness: "But the joys of the imprudent, like their sorrows, tend to overflow," says Seneca, letter 100.
Third, our Salazar offers two expositions. The first is by adding the word 'alone' in this way: "The heart which alone knows the bitterness of its soul" — that is, the heart which in adverse fortune alone knows and feels its anguish, and has no one privy to or sharing in its sorrow — this same heart, when it then enjoys good fortune, will call no one into the fellowship of its joy and gladness, but keeping silent alone will likewise possess and enjoy its joys by itself.
The latter, which he himself prefers to the former, takes 'knows' as meaning 'loves' — as if to say: "The heart that knows the bitterness of its soul" — that is, the heart which has arrived at such a point of sorrow and anguish that it loves its own bitterness and harshness, and sadness becomes a pleasure to it — "in its joy no stranger shall intrude" — as if to say: Good heavens, or begone! Certainly no one will wish to be invited to share in such a joy and pleasure. And so the proverb censures those who, giving free rein to their sadness, reach the point where they now willingly indulge in it, and love and embrace their griefs and sorrows. Seneca censures such people in his book On Consolation to Marcia: "Just as all vices take deep root unless they are crushed while they are growing, so also these sad, wretched things that rage against themselves are ultimately nourished by their very bitterness; and pain becomes the perverse pleasure of an unhappy mind."
But these expositions, while indeed ingenious, obscure or complicate Solomon's plain meaning. The Hebrew has: the heart knows the bitterness of its soul, and in its joy no stranger shall intrude — that is, says Vatablus, the mind itself knows the bitterness and joy of its own conscience, and no one else does; for no one can sufficiently express to another the grief or joy hidden in his heart; nor however much he tries to explain, can another perceive those things as he himself feels them in his heart. For it is one thing to hear or see them, another to feel them. The Tigurina translates in the neuter: and in its joy nothing foreign intrudes — as if to say: Its joy is pure and unmixed, not mingled with any sorrow or other passion.
Our Translator more forcefully condenses this maxim by silently supplying, in the Hebrew manner, the relative pronoun 'which,' so that his meaning is: The heart — that is, the mind and conscience — which alone is perfectly aware of its own bitterness and sorrow, this same heart will likewise alone be perfectly aware of and possess its own joy when it emerges from sorrow into joy: just as one who has escaped from the danger and anguish of shipwreck and swum to shore — he alone, just as he alone felt his anguish in the shipwreck, so he alone feels, appreciates, and tastes the joy and the weight of joy at his escape and deliverance. Thus Jacob, mourning Joseph as though dead, when he heard that he survived and was alive, "his spirit revived, and he said: It is enough for me if my son Joseph is still alive; I will go and see him before I die," Genesis 45:28. Thus some mothers, thinking their sons had fallen in battle and therefore mourning, when those sons unexpectedly appeared and presented themselves alive to their mothers, from the sudden and excessive joy their vital spirits dissolved and they breathed their last. Thus the Hebrews, afflicted by Pharaoh in Egypt, mourned bitterly; but liberated by Moses they rejoiced wonderfully, and in their joys neither Egypt nor any foreigner had a share.
Moreover this maxim can be applied to any sadness and joy of the heart; but it is most true in supernatural sorrow and joy, especially in the compunction of soul by which the penitent bitterly grieves over his own or others' sins and the other dangers or afflictions of the spirit: for to this compunction is joined an ineffable joy, which neither the penitent can express nor another person lacking compunction can grasp. And so compunction in itself and in its very sorrow contains a wonderful and heavenly joy — and this firstly, because compunction is holy, and reconciles the soul to God, which is the matter and cause of immense joy.
Hence St. Ephrem, that great lover and herald of compunction, in Sermon 3 On Compunction, exclaims: "O power of tears! How far do you reach, you who with great confidence, impeded by no restraints, penetrate heaven itself? O power of tears, which if you wish can stand with joy before the holy and exalted throne of the immaculate Lord? O power of tears, in whose presence and confidence the orders of Angels and all the heavenly powers always exult! O might of tears! How in the twinkling of an eye, as if lifted on swift wings, you are borne up and ascend to heaven, and obtain your requests from holy God; and there comes to meet you joyfully
...soothes the pain. Going further, St. Ephrem, volume 1, in his Oration On the Last Judgment and Compunction: "Know certainly, brethren," he says, "that there will be nothing sweeter on earth than the grace of tears. If any of you, having experienced the sweetness of tears through prayer, desires to be lifted from the earth, he is entirely carried beyond the body into heaven. And why do I say beyond the body? Indeed he is entirely beyond the whole world, and his conversation is no longer found on earth." This joy of compunction the Psalmist tasted when he said: "You shall feed us with the bread of tears, and shall give us drink of tears in measure," Psalm 79:6. Thus St. Mary Magdalene was nourished by her tears with which she washed the feet of Christ, more than Simon by his banquets. Hence she withdrew to Balmam, and there for thirty years alone devoted herself to Christ alone in compunction and the sweetest tears; therefore, carried up daily into heaven, she merited to hear the harmony of Angels, and to be nourished by it as by food, both in body and mind.
Fourth, because compunction brings a sure hope of blessedness, and is like an earnest and foretaste of heavenly joy. Hence the elder Macarius rightly says, Homily 15: "Christians have," he says, "the consolation of the spirit — tears, mourning, and lamentation; and these tears stand in the place of delights." Indeed St. Chrysostom, in Homily 24 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: "Nothing," he says, "is as pleasant as the mourning that comes from God." St. Augustine, having experienced this sweetness of tears, says on Psalm 127: "If hope is so sweet, how much sweeter will the reality be?" And with a few words interposed: "Sweeter are the tears of those who pray than the joys of the theaters." This is what Christ promises, Matthew 5:5: "Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted." On which St. Chrysostom says, Homily 45: "But where, tell me, shall they be comforted? Both here certainly, and what is more, there in the future. Therefore if you wish to be comforted, mourn. And do not think what I said is a riddle. For when God comforts, even if a thousand griefs rush upon you, you rise above them all."
Fifth, because compunction delights God, the Angels, and all the Saints; why then should not the penitent rejoice that through it he delights God and the Angels? Hear Christ: "There shall be joy in heaven over one sinner doing penance, more than over ninety-nine just," Luke 15:7. To which St. Bernard alludes, Sermon 68 on the Canticle: "The Angels," he says, "rejoice at the repentance of a sinner. But if my tears are the delights of the Angels, what are those delights themselves?" Therefore the tears of sinners are wine for the Angels. And the Psalmist, Psalm 55:9: "You have placed," he says, "my tears in Your sight;" as Symmachus translates: You have placed my tears within Yourself. Therefore tears are gems more than crystalline, which God holds so dear that He stores them in His bosom. For this reason God soothes those who give themselves to compunction with wonderful consolations, according to that saying: "According to the multitude of my sorrows in my heart, Your consolations have gladdened my soul," Psalm 93, verse 19.
Second, because compunction proceeds from the love of God: for the penitent grieves that he has offended God because he sees how great a good God is whom he has offended, and how lovable He is to himself and to all — and love causes joy. Hence St. Basil, in Homily 4 On Thanksgiving, posing the objection: If you command perpetual joy, O Paul (Philippians 4:4), why do you interpose tears? To this, he says, we can say that the laments and tears of the Saints arise from the fervor of charity; for with the eyes of the heart fixed upon Him whom they love, they accumulate joy for themselves from that source. And shortly after: "The Apostle," he says, "permits us to weep with those who weep, because such tears are a kind of seed and interest, by which that eternal joy daily increases and accumulates." Thus tears do not impede spiritual joy, but increase it, and like oil nourish and kindle a fire.
Third, because the penitent desires and rejoices to be compunctionate, and is nourished by compunction itself and by tears as by the most delicate banquets. Hence you may explain 'the heart that knows' as: the heart that loves the bitterness, that is, the compunction, of its soul. Thus Christ says to the reprobate: "I never knew you," that is, I do not love you, I hate you, Matthew 7:23. Wherefore Blessed Antiochus, Homily 107 On Compunction: "The dewy sprinklings of tears," he says, "are as the sweetness of honey to the heart, or as sweet-smelling incense before God." Rightly does Peter of Celles say, in his book On Breads, chapter 20: "The bread of mourners is the abundance of tears. For just as bread refreshes the hungry, so tears refresh the grieving soul: the hungry man fails without bread, the afflicted soul languishes without the outpouring of tears; bread assuages hunger, tears bringing pardon and remission of sins? Grant therefore to me, Your unworthy servant, O Lord, tears, illumination of heart, and strength, that pouring forth fountains of tears continually with sweetness, my heart may be illumined in pure prayer; and that the great bond of my sins may be blotted out by modest tears, and the burning fire there may be extinguished by a little weeping." And in Sermon 4, speaking of David: "In one night," he says, "he sinned, and through every night he wept and kept vigil, watered his bed, washed his wound, and by the power of tears was made blessed." And shortly after: "O virtue of tears, which from hell brings back to the very heavens those who long for you! O virtue of tears, which is the healing workshop of sinners! Through you sinners are made blessed; hence our Lord also proclaims such people blessed, saying: Blessed are you who weep now; for you shall laugh — in the future, that is. He did not say blessed are those who weep for the dead, or for the loss of a house, or for necessity, or for anything else of this world: But blessed, He says, are those who mourn for their sins. For now they weep for a little while; but there they shall be consoled for everlasting ages. O how great is the joy in heaven as soon as a sinner on earth has shed tears!"
Anagogically Bede, Lyranus, Dionysius, and others take this of heavenly joy, as if to say: The penitent and the patient, who in this life suffer hard things and mourn bitterly — these through their mourning will arrive at heavenly joys, in which no stranger shall intrude — namely, one who is impenitent, impatient, and therefore reprobate. They drew this from St. Gregory, who in Moralia, book 6, chapter 10, says: "The heart that knows the bitterness of its soul, etc. For the human mind knows the bitterness of its soul when, kindled with desires for the eternal homeland, it recognizes by weeping the penalty of its pilgrimage. But no stranger shall be mingled in its joy, because he who now is a stranger to the grief of the heart will then have no share in the joy of consolation" — which words he also repeats elsewhere. This is what Christ says to the Apostles: "Amen, amen, I say to you, you shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice; you indeed shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." He explains the cause and greatness of this joy when He adds: "I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one shall take from you."
Indeed the Rabbis explain it in the same way, who, like the authors already cited, present this meaning as the literal one. R. Solomon: "The just man," he says, "is conscious of his labor and pain, which he has endured for the sake of studying the law. Therefore when in the future age he receives his rewards, no stranger shall be mingled in his joy." Aben-Ezra: "It is fitting," he says, "that the mind strive to afflict its body with grief and hardship, to discipline it with fasts, and to withdraw it from the delights of this world; but in the joy with which it will be filled, no stranger shall be mingled — that is, weakness and toil shall not be mingled with its pleasure, and this pleasure pertains to the future age, which no pain shall disturb; or it is understood of the pleasure of salvation, according to the saying: I rejoiced in Your salvation." So he says.
Furthermore the Septuagint translate: the heart of a man is sensitive, and his soul is sad; but when it rejoices, insult will not be mingled with it. And from this the Syriac: the understanding heart at all times is sorrowful to itself; which our author Salazar explains thus: "The heart of a sensitive man," that is, one who is weak in feeling and easily touched by sorrow, and grieves from the slightest causes; "his soul is sad," namely it is always sad, because slight causes and reasons for grieving are always at hand from every side. "But when he rejoices, he will not be mingled with insult," that is, if ever he conceives joy, he will not do so dissolutely, he will not mingle with those who overflow with joy, burst into laughter, and dissolve into guffaws: for that is shameful and insulting. Or alternatively and rather, by the word "insult" he understands mockery and ridicule, as if to say: His joy will not be dissolute, not scurrilous: for it will not be mingled with mockery or ridicule, etc.
More sublimely and piously, the author of the Greek Catena thus renders and explains the Septuagint: the heart of a man who feels the force of sin renders his soul sorrowful; but when he is flooded with joy, it is not mingled with pride. The mind that grasps the sense of sin saddens the soul; for he who desires to obtain the name of a good man and to maintain its reputation, recalling the sins he has committed, cannot but be stirred within himself and detest from his heart what he has done. As for joy, the speech here concerns that which is undertaken according to virtue. In like manner, it is not about any injury or insolence, but about that which is joined with malice: for contraries cannot come together in one. So says the author of the Greek Catena. And if you read and explain the Septuagint in this way, they agree with the Vulgate, and the meaning will be the same as that which I assigned a little before.
Moreover the matter and cause of compunction are: first, one's own sins; second, the sins of others — for he who is zealous for the honor of God and the salvation of souls is wonderfully pierced and tormented every time he sees or hears the sins of others, by which God's goodness and majesty are offended. Thus the Psalmist: "I saw the transgressors," he says, "and I pined away, because they did not keep Your words," Psalm 118:158. And: "The reproaches of those who reproached You fell upon me."
Third, the very many and very great afflictions, temptations, and dangers of this life, from which the holy man desires to be rescued and to rescue others; hence, pierced with compunction, he groans with St. Paul: "Unhappy man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" Fourth, the desire for the heavenly homeland, from which he says with sighs: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ. How lovely are Your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts! My soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord." Fifth, the desire for God; for the holy soul insatiably desires and thirsts for God — that is, it ardently desires to love Him most intensely and to please Him, and again to see Him and enjoy Him; therefore when it sees itself weighed down by this body, and unable to love its God as much as it would wish, and to have Him always present to its mind, it is pierced with compunction and groans. Thus the Psalmist, Psalm 41:4: "My tears," he says, "have been my bread day and night, while it is said to me daily: Where is your God? I remembered these things, and poured out my soul within me: for I shall pass over into the place of the wonderful tabernacle, even to the house of God." And the bride, pierced with desire for the bridegroom: "I sought," she says, "him whom my soul loves; I sought him and did not find him. I will rise and go about the city, through the streets and broad ways; I will seek him whom my soul loves."
So, as is found in the Lives of the Fathers, book 5, booklet 3, On Compunction, St. Arsenius wept during the whole time of his life, and therefore carried a handkerchief in his bosom to wipe away these continual tears. Abbot Pastor: "A monk," he says, "should always have mourning within himself." St. Syncletica: "Labor," she says, "and a great struggle belong to the impious who are converted to God, and afterward unspeakable joy. For it is written that our God is a consuming fire: so we too must kindle this divine fire within us with tears and labors." Abbot Hyperichius: "Night and day," he says, "the monk labors, keeping vigil, persevering in prayers; and pricking his heart he produces tears, and more quickly provokes God's mercy." Another in the same place: "If," he says, "I could not bear my mother's reproach, how shall I be able to bear the confusion of Christ and His holy Angels against me on the day of judgment?" Another, seeing someone laughing: "Before the Lord of heaven and earth," he says, "we are to render an account of our whole life, and you laugh?" Another: "Just as we carry the shadow of our bodies with us everywhere, so we should have weeping and compunction with us, wherever we are."
"We should always weep and say: Woe to me, woe to me!" Another: "Tears are like the promised land, and if you reach them, you will no longer fear war. For God wills the soul to be thus afflicted, that it may always desire to enter that land." For more and marvelous things, see Climacus in Step 5, On Exact Penitence, and St. Chrysostom in the two books he wrote On Compunction of Heart. See also our Thomas the God-taught, On the Imitation of Christ, book 1, chapter 16 and following, where he establishes this axiom: "Give yourself to compunction of heart, and you will find devotion." For compunction is the mother of devotion and of devout joy. Therefore St. Chrysostom earnestly exhorts all to it in Homily 65 to the People, and adds the reason: that compunction itself begets sincere joy of heart, while the joys of the world beget sadness and end in it.
Our author Salazar explains it thus: "The heart of a sensitive man," that is, one who is weak in feeling and easily touched by sorrow, and grieves from the slightest causes; "his soul is sad," namely it is always sad, because slight causes and reasons for grieving are always at hand from every side. "But when he rejoices, he will not be mingled with insult," that is, if ever he conceives joy, he will not do so dissolutely, he will not mingle with those who overflow with joy, burst into laughter, and dissolve into guffaws: for that is shameful and insulting. Or alternatively and rather, by the word "insult" he understands mockery and ridicule, as if to say: His joy will not be dissolute, not scurrilous: for it will not be mingled with mockery or ridicule, etc.
More sublimely and piously, the author of the Greek Catena thus renders and explains the Septuagint: the heart of a man who feels the force of sin renders his soul sorrowful; but when he is flooded with joy, it is not mingled with pride. The mind that grasps the sense of sin saddens the soul; for he who desires to obtain the name of a good man and to maintain its reputation, recalling the sins he has committed, cannot but be stirred within himself and detest from his heart what he has done. As for joy, the speech here concerns that which is undertaken according to virtue. In like manner, it is not about any injury or insolence, but about that which is joined with malice: for contraries cannot come together in one. So says the author of the Greek Catena. And if you read and explain the Septuagint in this way, they agree with the Vulgate, and the meaning will be the same as that which I assigned a little before.
Verse 11: The House of the Wicked Shall Be Destroyed
In Hebrew, the tent of the upright shall flourish; the Tigurина, shall cause to flourish; the Septuagint, the tabernacles of the upright shall stand, or shall remain unmoved. The literal sense is clear, as if to say: The houses, that is, the dwellings and palaces which the wealthy wicked magnificently build, so that they might endure for all ages, along with their family and posterity, shall soon be destroyed by God the avenger; but the house, family, and offspring of the just shall flourish, and shall stand stable and firm for many ages. Thus we see at Rome those magnificent palaces, columns, statues, and trophies of Julius Caesar, Pompey, Augustus, Nero, Decius, etc., have utterly perished, so that not even ruins remain, indeed the very place where they were erected is scarcely known. But the Basilicas of the Lateran, of St. Peter, of St. Paul, of St. Lawrence, erected by Constantine the Great, and of St. Mary Major erected by John the Patrician, and others like them endure to this day, are frequented and celebrated. Moreover, the Baths of Diocletian, because they were built by Christian Martyrs, endure to this day and have been converted into the church of St. Mary of the Angels, lest the labor of the Martyrs should perish, but rather serve the Blessed Virgin: for by her help they obtained the crown of martyrdom.
St. Largus, St. Smaragdus, St. Zeno, with ten thousand soldiers, whom Diocletian, fearing them as Christians, condemned to the construction of the baths.
When the construction was finished, he ordered them all to be slaughtered to a man at the Salvian Waters, where St. Paul had been beheaded by Nero. The Church recalls their feast day with an annual commemoration on the 9th of July.
Anagogically, the wicked build houses as if they were going to dwell in them forever, and therefore those houses are quickly destroyed by God. But the just, knowing themselves to be guests and pilgrims here, do not build houses but tabernacles, from which grow for them the trees of virtues, from which they may construct for themselves eternal dwellings, from which the heavenly Jerusalem is built. Thus Bede says: "A house is indeed kept in a permanent dwelling, a tabernacle on a journey. Therefore the house of the wicked shall be destroyed, because the wicked shall lose in death the dwelling of the present life in which they desired to remain. But the tabernacles of the just shall flourish, because from the tabernacles of the present life, in which they are now pilgrims and guests, they shall be transferred to the heavenly fatherland." So also the author of the Greek Catena, who adds a tropological sense: A tabernacle, he says, is indeed less than a house: for a house is the seat of those who remain fixed, but a tabernacle is for those passing through or in motion. Wherefore by the tabernacle is designated a thought still wandering and unstable, but by the house a settled habit; if therefore the houses of the wicked are destroyed, much more shall their tabernacles be overthrown. But among the just the opposite holds. Or certainly by the houses of the wicked are signified their depraved and habitual actions: but by the tabernacles of the upright, their free choices." Therefore "the tabernacles of the just shall flourish," that is, they shall always bloom and be verdant with merits and glory, until they germinate and produce the very fruits of heavenly glory.
Verse 12: The Way That Seems Just but Leads to Death
In Hebrew, but the end thereof are the paths of death; the Chaldean, there is a way which the sons of men think to be right, and the end thereof is the way of death; the Syriac, its ways are the path of death; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, they go into the way of death; the Septuagint, there is a way which seems right among men, but meanwhile its last things lead down to the bottom of the underworld. This way is desire, disordered affection, pleasure, ambition, which, although depraved, nevertheless to the desirous, the pleasure-seeking, the ambitious person blinded by his own desire, pleasure, and ambition, appears honorable, fair, and right; but this way is truly a deviation from the right, from salvation, from heaven, and from God: wherefore the more they follow it, the more they stray from the right and from heaven, and at last they descend straight into death both of guilt, blindness and obstinacy, and of hell, and that not by one way but by many ways and paths: for as many as are his desires and crimes, so many are his ways to death and hell. So the author of the Greek Catena says: "The way in this place is the mind or human will blinded by lust, which prefers apparent goods to true ones, fleeting things to stable ones, temporal things to eternal and immortal ones." For, as St. Augustine says in Sermon 12 On Time: "The inclination of the will seeks authority for vices; and what custom has established, it persuades us is good or close to good." Note the word "last things." For desire does not immediately lead men to mortal sin and hell, but is venial at first: yet progressing gradually from lesser things to greater, it at last slips into mortal sin, and continually growing accustomed to it, one becomes hardened in it and dies, and so descends to the underworld. Wherefore the Wise Man here warns that the beginnings of desire must be resisted, for a small error in the beginning becomes great in the end. Hence the saying:
Resist beginnings: the remedy is prepared too late, When evils have grown strong through long delays.
Therefore this maxim applies to any vice: if you indulge it, you will slide from one to another and another, and at last into ruin. Thus the way of virtue is narrow and rough, but leads to heaven: the way of pleasure is broad and pleasant, but leads to the underworld, Matt. VII, 13. Choose, but look to the end. With this meaning agrees the following proverb: "Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the ends of joy."
Second, Baynus and Salazar take this "way" as earthly happiness, to which, because everything turns out prosperously and according to one's wishes, many applaud and think it the right way to full blessedness, but they err: for its end terminates in ruin and destruction, and that by various ways, methods, and reasons. Hence Eusebius of Emesa, in his homily On Saints Epiphorus and Alexander: "Do you, he says, call this man happy, who is brave only for his own death? For whom the deceptive shadow of present gains gathers up the causes of eternal evils? Who would reasonably praise one who rushes headlong toward steep precipices? Who would marvel at his ascent, when one foresees from the summit that he is about to fall?"
Third, this "way" can be taken as error, either in faith or in morals. Error in faith is atheism, paganism, Saracenism, heresy. For to the atheist atheism, to the pagan paganism, to the Saracen Saracenism, to the heretic heresy seems the right faith and the right way to salvation: but its last things lead to death and hell. Error in morals is when someone thinks lawful and honorable and conformable to God's law what is deformed, dishonorable, and unlawful. This happens frequently when one indulges too much and trusts the judgment either of oneself or of unskilled or wicked counselors, teachers, confessors, etc. Wherefore Solomon tacitly warns here that no one should trust his own judgment, or that of others, unless he knows them to be skilled and upright. For imprudent and unhappy is he who, following the guidance of bad counselors or confessors, when asked: "Where are you going?" answers: "Where these men lead me" — for they lead themselves and their followers to death. Here is relevant the fable of the fox in Aesop. For when all the animals, invited by the lion to his cave, eagerly entered it, the fox alone held back. Asked the reason, she said: "Because I see all the footprints of animals turned inward, none turned outward; I see all entering, none returning" — namely all were torn apart by the lion in the cave: this was the end, this was the fate of those entering, and seeing this the fox wisely avoided entering. Let the prudent man imitate the fox, who when invited by the flesh or the devil to illicit pleasures leading to hell.
Verse 13: Laughter Mingled with Sorrow
In Hebrew, in laughing the heart shall grieve; Symmachus, the heart shall labor; the Chaldean, even in laughter the heart grieves, and the end of joy is sorrow. So also the Syriac. This maxim properly pertains to the laughter and joy of the wicked, and thus coheres with the preceding verse and confirms and explains it, as if to say: To the wicked their enticements and pleasures are very pleasing, and seem right and just: but they err, both because their laughter and pleasure is intermingled with great sorrows, and because their joy will ultimately end in mourning. The cause is, first, because their companion is a bad conscience, which always terrifies and torments them, so that they never have pure and solid joy; second, because they use pleasures immoderately and pour themselves into them — for everything that is immoderate is harmful and distressing; third, because often their pleasures consist in gluttony, drunkenness, and lust, which create nausea, vomiting, fevers, filth, and diseases; and finally, because God has appointed this punishment of sorrow for the wicked on account of their wickedness. Thus honey is turned into gall and bile by bilious stomachs, as Galen testifies in his book On Good and Bad Humors; thus all the sweet waters of rivers end in the sea, and there become bitter.
Again, our author Alvarez de Paz, in book V of his Instructions for Attaining Perfection, part III, chapter XLI, aptly applies this maxim to levity of mind, which pours itself out into laughter and guffaws, and opens the door to greater vices. For levity of mind and unbridled laughter generates buffoonery, detraction, and mockeries; it stirs up anger and indignation in those who are mocked, and not seldom bursts into open insults hurled back and forth. This is the enemy of compunction, the foe of devotion; but the mother of foolish mirth, which often tends to end in sadness and sorrow, because it is written: "Laughter shall be mingled with sorrow, and mourning takes hold of the ends of joy." Truly vain laughter is mingled with sorrow, when a bitter word resists the word with which, laughing, you pricked your brother; and mourning takes hold of the end of joy, when the ignominious word with which you saddened him is answered by an open insult directed at you. So says Alvarez.
The symbol of this mixture of joy with sorrow among the wicked is the gadfly-fish, the size of a spider, which harasses other fish, especially tuna. Just as the tuna experiences gadflies in calm waters, so every human pleasure and happiness experiences its own thorns. "It often shines, but the same sky sometimes blackens with storms," says Accius in the Bacchae.
Again, the symbol of this laughter is the phalangia, lethal creatures that kill with laughter, as Strabo testifies in book XI: for thus the laughter of the world often dissolves into tragedies and groans, in which it seems to imitate the dances of the Lapps. For the Lapps, freezing under the harsh North, to refresh themselves arrange feasts with hired musicians, at which they pour themselves into dances and leaps: but soon, turning to groans and deep sighs, they collapse to the ground. Such are the wicked joys of the mind. See Olaus, book IV, chapter VIII. Likewise the gem-studded apple of Fenella, which whoever touched was immediately pierced with many javelins, as thus pierced was Kenneth, King of the Scots, as Cardano testifies, book XII, chapter LVI. So pleasure pierces its followers with the javelins of sorrows. Moreover, the bears of Russia, gaping after the honey of bees, dash their heads — which are their weakest part — against a club armed with iron spikes, which hunters place near the honey, and thus crush themselves and kill themselves, as Olaus testifies, book XVIII, chapter XIV: indeed "pleasure purchased with pain is harmful."
However, second, this maxim can be taken generally of any laughter and joy over the comforts of this life, even honorable or indifferent ones. For all such joy is mingled with sorrow, and often ends in mourning. The cause is that this is the nature of pleasure and temporal goods — that they are intermingled with many evils that create sorrows: for just as all mixtures consist of four elements contrary to one another, so all things consist of a mixture of contrary things and qualities, which produce sadness and joy, and God did this to call us away from these things to the solid goods and joys of the virtues and of heavenly glory; hence He willed that in heaven there should be pure and unmixed joys, in hell pure and unmixed sorrows and anguish: but on earth, which is midway between heaven and hell, He mingled sorrows with joys, so that man might aspire to the pure joys of heaven and avoid the unmixed sorrows of hell. Just as a worm is born in a fruit, and dregs are mixed in wine: so sorrow is born in and mixed with pleasure; hence pleasure foams off into it, and settles into it as into dregs. All worldly joys, therefore, are brief and mixed with gall, according to the common saying: "Where there is an udder, there is a tumor; where there is honey, there is gall." Hence the philosophers said that God has two casks, one of honey and another of gall, and from both He serves to each his own cup. And the Psalmist: "For in the hand of the Lord there is a cup of strong wine full of mixture; and He poured out of this into that," Psalm LXXIV, 9. And the Comic poet: "So it pleased the gods: from the same summit pleasure comes, and sorrow follows as its companion." Apuleius, book II
More appropriately, our own Roman Consul, Philosopher, and Martyr Severinus Boethius, in book III, meter 7, sings thus: Every pleasure has this trait: With stings it drives those who enjoy it; And like a swarm of flying bees, When it has poured forth its pleasant honey, It flies away and with too tenacious A sting it strikes the smitten hearts.
Wherefore Epictetus, article 20: "He is worthy, he says, to be a guest of the gods, who uses created things moderately; but he who despises even lawful pleasures is no longer a guest of God, but a companion."
Solomon alludes to effuse and excessive laughter, which dissolves the vital spirits of the heart, and thus torments the heart and ends in sadness. This can be seen in melancholic persons, who are sometimes very joyful and pour themselves out in laughter, but soon become very sad and sorrowful. Hence a sign of melancholy is the effusion of the soul into laughter and mirth: for nature excites this to arm itself against melancholy; but when melancholy soon returns it is overcome and succumbs to it, as if Solomon said: "In laughing the heart shall grieve, and the end of joy is sadness."
St. Bernard gives Christ the Lord as the illustrious and preeminent example, in Sermon I on Palm Sunday: for on that day Christ was led in triumph by the people into Jerusalem as king and Messiah; but five days later, by the same crowd crying out "Crucify, crucify," He was demanded for the cross. "Let the worldly soul see, he says, let it see and understand that mourning takes hold of the ends of joy, etc. Hence He willed to be exalted in the glory of the procession, who shortly after knew that the day of His most ignominious passion was imminent. Who therefore ought any longer to hope in the uncertainty of temporal glory, when he sees were accusing each other and provoking each other with insults. When the former was strenuously striving to reconcile peace and friendship between them, he accomplished nothing. At last he bound them with an adamantine chain, so that however much they might be divided by hatreds, they would always be together and follow each other. What mystery shall we believe lies beneath this fiction? In troubled and adverse circumstances, one must not wholly despair of better fortune. Conversely, in favorable and wished-for circumstances, one must not be entirely free from fear: for in human life joyful things perpetually succeed sorrowful ones, and sorrowful things succeed joyful ones; and pleasure is tempered by sorrow, and sorrow by pleasure. This then is the "bittersweet" of pleasure, that is, sweetly bitter, or pleasantly bitter. Athenaeus, book XI, page 43, and Herodotus, book IV, write that the Hypanis river flows thin and sweet from its springs for five days' journey; but then after another four days' journey it becomes exceedingly bitter: so pleasure, honeyed at first, turns sour at the end and becomes gall-like. For, as Cicero says in his oration for Caelius and in book II of On the Orator: "Loves and delights quickly fade, and in all things the greatest pleasures are closely bordered by disgust." that even in Him who committed no sin, the creature of time and the founder of the universe, after so great an exaltation, so great a humiliation nevertheless followed? For in the same city, by the same people, and at the same time He is now indeed honored with the glory of a procession and with divine praises; but afterwards questioned with insults and torment, and counted among criminals. This is the end of transitory joy, this is the fruit of temporal glory. Therefore the Prophet wisely prays: That His glory may sing to the Lord and not be pierced, that is, that it may have a procession which no passion follows."
All the joys of the world, therefore, are preceded by sorrow, accompanied by sorrow, and terminated by sorrow. Indeed Charles V, that mighty and fortunate Emperor, when at Brussels he was transferring his dominions and kingdoms to Philip II, his son, confessed before the entire Senate with tears that during the whole time of his reign he had not had even a quarter of an hour of pure and unmixed joy, but that all of it had been intermingled with many cares, anxieties, and sorrows, and sprinkled as it were with abundant gall. Just as therefore in music low notes are mixed and tempered with high ones, and thus produce a moderate and pleasing harmony: so God mixes and tempers prosperity with adversity, joyful things with sorrowful, so that man may produce a pleasing harmony of temperance, patience, hope, and prayer. Hence St. Ambrose, book I of On Cain and Abel, chapter IV: "God, he says, sets a limit to our delights and joys, lest poured beyond their channel they overwhelm reason." This is the first cause. St. Augustine gives the second, in Sermon 29 on Matthew: "Therefore, he says, God mingles bitterness with earthly happiness, so that that happiness may be sought whose sweetness is not deceptive." And St. Chrysostom, in his homily on Psalm CXXIII: "Therefore, he says, God neither always leaves men in sorrows, lest they fail; nor allows them to remain in quiet and prosperity, lest they become more careless; but He varies their salvation by changes and vicissitudes." Finally, just as aging honey becomes bitter like gall, so also does pleasure. "All old honey is rendered bitter by boiling; nor is this surprising, since even without boiling it becomes more bitter with time from being sweeter," says Galen, in On Antidotes, after the beginning.
Let the conclusion therefore be: Human life is a continuous tragedy, whose catastrophe and end terminates in mourning, especially in death. Moreover, just as tragedy has a threefold argument, namely the terrible, the marvelous, and the pitiable, and that on account of the threefold end and emotion which it strives to excite in the audience — namely through the terrible, terror; through the marvelous, admiration and veneration; through the pitiable, compassion — as Aristotle teaches in the Poetics: so likewise the tragedy of human life looks to this same threefold object, ordained by God to the same threefold end and emotion, as is evident to one who considers it; for the tragic falls of others, indeed our own, first deter us from pleasure, which is their parent; second, they inspire veneration of the Divine Power and admiration of His judgments; third, compassion, so that we may sympathize with the tragic life of mortals by consoling and healing as much as we can. The examples and living mirrors of this maxim of Solomon are therefore the tragic events and the deaths of the powerful and fortunate of this world, such as Cyrus, Alexander, Darius, Pompey, Julius Caesar, Nero, Vitellius, Galba, Julian, Valens, etc., and of the rich man Dives; Luke XVI, 22.
Moreover, the Septuagint renders: in joys sorrow shall not be mingled, but in the end it goes to mourning; the Scholiast, and the end of its joy is evil. Which reading directly contradicts the Hebrew, the Chaldean, the Latin Vulgate, and all others; wherefore it seems that the negation "not" has crept in: for if it is removed, it gives the same meaning as the Hebrew and the Vulgate; if however you wish to maintain it with the "not" so that it agrees with the others, explain it thus, as if to say: Although sometimes, however rarely, joy is pure so that sorrow is not mingled with it, nevertheless one must not trust it overmuch, nor rely on it as if it would last forever, because sorrow will soon succeed it. Or, as the author of the Greek Catena, who reads it thus: to full joy no sorrow is mingled, but mourning takes hold of the ends of joy; and he explains it thus: The Wise Man, he says, speaks of that joy which in the future world awaits the just: for that is full and free from all sadness. By "the ends of joy" he means the pleasure of the present life, as if to say: only in heaven is there full and unmixed joy, but on earth all joy ends in mourning, and therefore in heaven there is happiness happy in all respects; but on earth happiness is unhappy and wretched, and wretchedly happy, and unhappy.
Verse 14: The Fool Filled with His Own Ways
As if to say: The fool, that is, the wicked man, is fed for a time by his riches and pleasures; but the good man surpasses him, because he is fed by solid and eternal goods, which he grasps by sure faith and hope. Hence the Chaldean renders: he who is vain in his heart shall be filled with his own ways, and the good man shall be satisfied with his fear. For fear has annexed to it faith and hope by which the just man is fed and satisfied. The Septuagint: the bold in heart shall be satisfied with his own ways (St. Jerome Against Rufinus reads, the rash man), but the good man from his thoughts. For the just man rejoices in his faith and hope, and from it expects eternal satisfaction: but the fool fills and inebriates himself with his pleasures; yet he is not fully or solidly satisfied by them, especially because soon after them he awaits eternal hunger. Our author Salazar takes the fool, or as the Chaldean has it, the vain in heart, as the proud man; and the good man as the humble, as if to say: The proud man shall be filled with his pride, that is, he shall pay the full penalties of his pride; but the humble shall receive the reward of his humility, and shall be preferred to the proud, and shall subject him to himself.
Maurer, reading in the latter member ממעלליו (which the Arabic interpreter seems to have read), translates: with his ways, that is with his deeds, is the perverse of heart satisfied, whose soul is turned away, has fallen from God; and the good man is satisfied with his deeds. Each one receives the fruit of his deeds, both the wicked and the just.
Moreover, Cajetan translates thus: with his ways shall he be filled who goes out from his heart, and from his leaves the good man (the Hebrew על signifies both "leaves" and "above," as our translator renders it), and he explains it thus: He who goes outside himself to external delights shall be filled with his going out, that is, he shall pay its penalty, because he shall be filled with delights to the point of nausea; for soon those very things shall turn into tedium, as St. Gregory beautifully teaches in Homily 36 on the Gospels. "And from his leaves the good man" — repeat: shall be filled, that is, as Cajetan says: "The good man dwelling within himself is satisfied not only with fruits but also with leaves, because for the just all things work together for good, according to that saying of Psalm I: And his leaf shall not fall." Where Theodoret says: "Leaves and flowers are the hope of blessedness, the fruit is blessedness itself;" because just as leaves and flowers are the precursors of fruits, indeed they produce and cause them: so likewise hope is the precursor of blessedness, and produces and causes it. Again, leaves signify the modesty and beauty of external conduct, says Origen on Psalm I: for this, like leaves, covers, adorns, preserves, and enhances the beauty of the fruits, that is, of the internal virtues of the mind. Now just as all worms that feed on leaves produce threads by spinning — such as caterpillars, silkworms, etc., as Pliny and Aristotle testify; indeed silkworms from mulberry leaves spin silk threads, in which they finally wrap themselves and die, but reviving in the warmth of spring become butterflies and fly into the sky: so likewise from modesty, the beauty of conduct, and the grace of speech and edification, the just man spins for himself the threads of hope of heavenly glory, in which dying and reviving in the resurrection he shall fly into heaven. Hence St. Basil, in Homily 8 on the Hexaemeron, teaches that the transformation of the silkworm is an express figure of our resurrection.
Moreover, hope is rightly compared to a thread, and in Hebrew is called תקוה (tiqvah), that is, extension, or an extended thread, because just as we extend threads and ropes twisted from them very far, and bind and fasten ourselves to the most remote things: so likewise through hope, which we extend to God and to heaven, we bind and fasten ourselves to God and heaven. Hope therefore is tiqvah, that is, a thread and a line of long expectation, by which the soul of the one hoping extends and prolongs itself toward the thing hoped for, while yearning for it by hoping, and thus as it were unites it to itself, as I said on Hosea II, 15.
Verse 15: The Innocent Believes Every Word
St. Ambrose, in book III of On Duties, chapter X, whose words have been transferred into Canon Law and are found in 22, Question IV, final chapter, takes "innocent" to mean the just, simple, and candid man, who measuring others by his own candor, easily gives credence to anyone and is not suspicious of evil; such was Joshua, who believed the Gibeonites when they lied about being from a distant land, and made a treaty with them contrary to God's will, Joshua IX. "And because, he says, he was still ignorant of the places and unaware of the inhabitants, he did not recognize their tricks, nor did he consult God, but quickly believed. So holy was faith in those times that no one was thought capable of deceiving. 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 it is to deceive; they willingly believe what they themselves are, and cannot suspect what they are not. Hence Solomon says: The innocent believes every word. Not a facility to be blamed, but a goodness to be praised. This is what it means to be innocent — to be ignorant of what harms; and if one is deceived by someone, he nevertheless judges well of all, because he considers faith to be in all."
St. Ambrose adds that Joshua, when the fraud of the Gibeonites was discovered, did not revoke the peace he had given them: "Lest, while he accused the treachery of others, he should break his own faith."
But for "innocent" the Hebrew is פתי (peti), that is, a little one, inexperienced, unskilled, foolish, who is easily persuaded of anything, and whose excessive readiness and lightness in believing anything is here reproved. Hence Aquila translates: "the beguiled, the flattered one believes every word, the shrewd man uses understanding"; Symmachus: "a little child, or boy"; the Chaldean and the Tigurina: "the foolish." Hence Bede says: "John forbade this innocence, and taught us to have this shrewdness, in his first epistle, chapter IV, when he says: Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether they are of God."
The meaning therefore is clear and plain, as if to say: The rude, inexperienced, and foolish man easily believes every word, and thus believes any suggestion, impulse, and counsel that is given him by anyone, even a fraudulent and hostile person, whereby he allows himself to be led to his own ruin and destruction; but the shrewd man, that is, the cautious and prudent one, does not believe every word and counsel, but considers his steps, namely where he may prudently and safely plant the foot of his action, lest he fall into the ditch or pit of rashness and perdition; wherefore he cautiously judges and distinguishes good counsel from bad. Hence the Syriac translates: the shrewd man discerns good from evil; the Chaldean: he attends to his own good. For the Hebrew אשור (ashur), that is, step, alludes to, indeed is the same root as אשר (osher), that is, blessedness, happiness, right success, the good of man. This seems to be what the Septuagint intended when they translate: the simple man believes every word; but the shrewd man goes to repentance, as if to say: The shrewd man foresees things to be repented of, that is, the evils that will follow from the word and counsel that is wrongly suggested to him, which he would repent of if he followed it; wherefore, foreknowing them, he says: I do not buy repentance at so great a price, I do not believe, I do not follow that counsel, because it will lead me to late repentance; I condemn excessive credulity, because its companion is repentance.
This is what the Hebrew יבין (yavin) signifies, that is, he considers, understands, foresees, namely what בין (bin), that is, the difference between good and bad counsel or path. He therefore opposes פתי (peti), that is, one soft and flexible to believing, with ערום (arum), that is, the cautious and prudent man, who believes nothing unless well examined; for, as the proverb-writer says: "Worms do not grow in cypress because of its bitterness, nor in boxwood because of its hardness: so the plague of flattery flees from severe and stern dispositions, and catches soft and easy ones." And Seneca: "To believe everyone and to believe no one, he says, are both faults; the former I would call the more honorable fault, the latter the safer." For both excessive slowness to believe and excessive lightness are faults. The former belongs to heretics, who believe nothing unless they see it with their eyes or comprehend it with their mind, about whom there exists a book On the Art of Believing Nothing; the latter belongs to children and the frivolous.
Somewhat differently the author of the Greek Catena translates and explains the Septuagint: "The simple man, he says, believes every word; indeed also the shrewd man, who believed more quickly than he should have, is led to repentance;" and he explains it thus: Is it madness then to believe every word? It absolutely is. He who does everything by counsel and reason, he says, easily avoids those losses that usually befall the incautious and rash. But a simple man (such as one who immediately draws conclusions after the first impression, or who believes at once what he has heard only superficially) is light and imprudent. Indeed even a prudent man, if he immediately gives credence to the first impression, is not rarely deceived, and thus is led to repentance.
Finally, this maxim is general and can therefore be applied to various cases: first, to those who believe flatterers, and therefore esteem themselves more highly than they really are; second, to those who believe those suggesting bad counsel; third, to those who believe detractors; fourth, to those who believe their own rash imaginations and suspicions, as melancholic persons do, when they should resist them and say to themselves: This is suggested by melancholy, not by truth; therefore it is sad and false, not joyful and true. So Seneca advises, in book II of On Anger: "Let us believe nothing (about the faults of others), he says, unless it strikes the eyes and is manifest, and as often as our suspicion appears vain, let us rebuke our credulity. This correction produces the habit of not easily believing."
Solomon is followed by Sirach, Ecclesiasticus XIX, 4: "He who believes quickly is light of heart, and shall be diminished;" see what I said there. Moreover, how mendacious and deceitful flatterers are, so that one may not believe them, Alanus teaches in his book On the Complaint of Nature: "These, he says, are the courtiers of princes, palace dogs, artisans of flattery, craftsmen of praise, potters of falsehood; these are they who sound the loud trumpet of commendation in the ears of the rich, who, to extract gifts, anoint the head of the rich man with the oil of flattery."
Cyril illustrates this proverb with a beautiful fable of the ox and the pig, in book I of the Moral Apologues, chapter XI, whose title is: Digest all things by more diligent rumination before you act. The fable goes thus: "After a little digestion of the food he had eaten, the ox again recalled it to his jaws, and as he lay ruminating, the pig seeing this approached him and said: What is this you are doing, horned one? To which the ox replied: I am chewing the cud. Then the pig said: A little while ago you laid down so burdensome a yoke, why do you not rest now? Is it not enough to have chewed once? To this the ox is said to have replied: Indeed, my brother. If you chewed the cud, you would by no means think so. Where, I ask, is the sense of nourishment located? Is it not in the throat? Therefore the more diligently we chew our food, the more we perceive its flavor, and the more vehemently we are delighted by the judicial sense of taste. Certainly provident nature fabricated double molar teeth so that there would be greater chewing; and the sense of taste is providently placed in the mouth, so that by delight we may hold food longer under the palate. Moreover, when I chew the cud, I digest better and take in more purified nourishment. Then the pig, hearing this, added: Who taught you to chew the cud? To which the ox replied: Indeed that art instructed me to do this in the body, which taught the wise man to ruminate in the mind. For the prudent man by subtle meditation ruminates on whatever he says or does. Wherefore he speaks things well digested, and likewise performs things well tested. For to what purpose was the clear counsel of reason given to man, and the most precious gift of meditation granted to him? Is it not that he might use them beneficially in his affairs? Hence the chewing of premeditation must always be placed first in all human actions. Those who are governed by wisdom generally pursue more digested and purer studies." He then adds that the same thing must be weighed more than once, and proves it from the four digestions of food: "Nor is it enough, he says, to look at a matter to be done once, but it is necessary to ruminate on it subtly several times; just as food is precooked by four digestions, so that it may be given purer to the members. For all food, before it is united to the soul, is prepurified by four digestions. First it goes to the stomach, and there is digested, and the pure is separated from the impure, and what is impure is expelled through excretion. Then the pure remainder is transmitted to the liver, where it is digested and becomes blood; and the pure is again separated from the impure, and the impure is expelled through urine. Then the pure remainder is drawn by the kidneys, where it is digested a third time, and again the pure is separated from the impure, and the impure is expelled through sweat and saliva. Then the pure remainder is distributed through the members, and in the members is digested a fourth time; and again the pure is separated from the impure, and that impure matter which is as it were pure is stored in the spermatic vessels and expelled in generation; but the purest remainder, converted into the substance of the members, is at last united to the soul, made living and the substance of life. Hence no impurity of food reaches the soul, unless the food has been purged four times of all impurities. You therefore, dear friend, because you do not ruminate, receive more impure nourishment, and on account of this by divine law you are judged an unclean animal." Hearing this, the pig went away blushing."
IN THE DECEITFUL MAN THERE SHALL BE NO GOOD: BUT FOR THE WISE SERVANT, HIS ACTIONS SHALL PROSPER, AND HIS WAY SHALL BE DIRECTED. — This maxim is not in the Hebrew, and therefore has no verse number, but is coupled with the number of the preceding verse. Our translator transcribed it from the Septuagint, who placed it in the preceding chapter, where I explained it.
Verse 16: The Wise Man Fears and Turns from Evil
For "leaps across" the Hebrew is מתעבר (mitabber), which signifies both to be angry and to pass over and leap across; hence the Tigurina translates: the fool, when he has transgressed, is confident; Vatablus however: the fool is angry and confident, as if to say: The fool is enraged against the law of God and is confident when he acts wrongly; and the Chaldean: the fool rages in his folly and trusts in it. The Septuagint however in their manuscript had מתערב (mitareb) by metathesis instead of מתעבר (mitabber); hence they translate: the fool mingles with the wicked: "The wise man, they say, fearing shall turn from evil; but the imprudent man trusting in himself shall mingle with the wicked;" and the Syriac: he mingles in it confidently; the author of the Greek Catena: he who trusts in himself is defiled by iniquity. St. Jerome agrees in his work Against Rufinus: "The wise man, he says, fearing turns from evil; the fool trusting mingles with it;" and Lucifer of Cagliari in his Apology for St. Athanasius: "The fool fearing shall turn to evil; the foolish man mingles confident in wickedness." But instead of "in evil" one should read "from evil," as the other Greek and Latin manuscripts have it. Both versions come to the same thing, as if to say: The wise man fears punishments and penalties, and therefore turns away from evil and withdraws from calamity: but the fool, burning with anger, leaps over laws and rights, and mingles himself with wicked men and rash actions, confident that no evil will befall him from this, indeed that he will dominate both things and men, and thus he plunges himself into the grave entanglements of lawsuits and other calamities and punishments. Hence Rabbi Solomon translates the Hebrew בוטח (boteach), that is, is confident, as: he slips and falls to the ground; but incorrectly, as those skilled in Hebrew think. So Remus, brother of Romulus, rashly leaped over the first walls of Rome; but he paid for this rashness with his death, being beheaded by his brother Romulus.
Hence Hugo says: "The fool is like a horse without a bridle and blinded, who fears nothing because he sees nothing; hence it is commonly said that nothing is bolder than a blind horse." "For fear is the bridle of an exulting spirit," says St. Basil, because the one with eyes foresees future calamities that will come upon him from evil; wherefore fearing them, he abstains from evil. Just as we see those who by nature are cold, and therefore timid, guard themselves from dangers into which the overly ardent, bold, and rash heedlessly plunge themselves. Much more does the fear of God do this, which, foreseeing far greater damages of hell to befall one from sin, with every effort flees from sin, lest he should willingly cast himself into such fires. So also Bede: "Just as it is the fool's way, he says, to trust in his own agility, wanting to leap across a rapid torrent or a wide chasm; while the wise man's way is to go around to level ground or a bridge: so he who shuns sin as much as he can, fearing lest he be entangled in evils, is wise; but that man is foolish who sins contemptuously, flattering himself that either later he will repent of what he has committed, or if he suddenly dies, he will bravely endure the punishments of hell." Finally the interlinear Gloss explains it thus: "The wise man fears punishments, the fool trusts in impunity."
Verse 17: The Impatient Man Works Folly
In Hebrew: the one short or narrow of nostrils shall do folly: and the man of devices shall be hated. "Short of nostrils" means quick-tempered, that is, swift to anger; just as "long or wide of nostrils" is called long-suffering, that is, patient and slow to anger; for the latter is a sign of mildness, the former of choler, indeed even a cause, because in one who has wide nostrils, the breath and choler expire more easily; while in one who has narrow nostrils, it is constricted and compressed, and thus makes him choleric, as I explained on Exodus chapter XXXIV, verse 6.
For "crafty man" the Hebrew is איש מזמות (ish mezimmot), that is, a man of thoughts, contrivances, machinations — that is, a thoughtful man, one who contrives and plots much. But because this can happen in various ways, it is variously translated here. First, the Chaldean takes it as the slow and tardy person: "He who is hasty in his spirit, he says, is reputed a fool, and he pursues with hatred the one who defers his counsel" — namely the slow and deliberate man, especially one who, by delaying his anger, restrains his fury; for the angry hate the cold, the slow, and the moderate, as being unlike themselves and resistant to their anger and precipitousness. Again, "the man of thoughts," says Vatablus, is a man who always thinks and does nothing — that is, an idle man, whom all hate as lazy, inert, and a useless burden on the earth.
Second, the Septuagint takes "the man of thoughts," or the thoughtful man, as a prudent man; hence they translate: the impatient man acts with rashness; but the prudent man endures much; the author of the Greek Catena: he dissimulates and bears much. They seem to have read in their manuscript ישא (yissa), that is, he will endure, tolerate, instead of which our translator and the others, with the letter nun inserted, read ישנא (yissane), that is, he shall be hated. The Tigurina, taking שׂ for ח (for the Hebrews interchange these letters), and reading שׁ shin instead of שׂ sin, namely reading ישנא as yishane or yishne, that is, he shall be changed, translates: the angry man reveals his folly; but he who is circumspect acts otherwise. Moreover, our author Salazar thus explains the Septuagint and adapts the Latin Vulgate to it: The difference, he says, between the imprudent man and the one who excels in prudence is described by Solomon. For the former from anger commits many rash and absurd things, but the latter endures much; the former inflicts damages, the latter sustains them; the former strikes and inflicts blows on others, the latter receives them; the former inflicts injuries, the latter does not shrink from those inflicted by others. To this meaning should be recalled the Vulgate translation: "The impatient man works folly," that is, he most foolishly becomes angry and rages; "and the crafty man is hateful," namely he who from craftiness and shrewdness laudably restrains his anger and bears with equanimity the injuries and insults inflicted on him, is hated by that same fool, etc. But this meaning seems rather forced. Therefore:
Third, plainly and genuinely our translator takes "the man of thoughts" as the crafty man, who namely turns over in his mind arts and frauds, and through guile contrives evils against others, so as to express his hatred or malice against them when occasion is given; for "crafty" is what he is called who turns his mind to malice, or who by a certain inconstant motion of soul is carried hither and thither in various and feigned ways. Hence Festus says: "Crafty men are called those whose minds are frequently turned to malice." And Cicero, in book III of On the Nature of the Gods: "I call those crafty whose minds quickly turn about." Related to the crafty man is the "shapeshifter" (versipellis), who namely easily changes his skin, that is, his countenance, and alters his face in any way he likes — that is, the cunning one, the dissembler, the old fox. For Solomon contrasts the angry man, who immediately betrays his anger through signs and words of impatience, with the crafty man, who cleverly suppresses his anger and dissimulates it for a time, and seeks the opportunity and means of harming and avenging himself.
For the impatient man immediately vomits out his bile, and sins only in this, that he foolishly displays and betrays his anger through outcries and unseemly gestures; hence from him you have little or nothing to fear once his anger has cooled down: merely yield to the raging man for a moment and be silent. For the angry, says St. Gregory in part III of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 17, "we correct better if we withdraw during the very disturbance of their anger; for when disturbed they do not know what they hear, but when brought back to themselves they receive words of exhortation all the more willingly, as they blush at having been so calmly tolerated." But the crafty man dissimulates his anger, feigns friendship, and brews and turns over in his mind the deceits by which he will crush you unwary when you least expect it: this man therefore you must fear. For the anger and rage of the impatient man is like a flame, which once kindled immediately consumes itself by its own heat: but the hatred of the crafty man is like burning coals covered with ashes, which when you unwarily touch them, you are burned by the hidden fire.
Again, the impatient man is like a dog that barks but does not bite; but the crafty man is like a serpent that does not bark but bites secretly. This proverb therefore warns that nothing should be done through anger, much less through hatred and deceit. "For anger is momentary madness," says St. Basil, in his homily On Anger. And St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Meekness: "Who, he says, seeing a man raging with anger, would doubt whether the wretch is driven by a demon, or voluntarily leaps into such madness? Anger is a voluntary demon, a desired madness of the mind, a falling away. Guile and hatred are obstinate madness, an obstinate demon." Therefore, "says the author of the sermon To the Brothers in the Desert, attributed to St. Augustine, volume X, sermon 28, let us not have a heart steeped in hatred, lest we be children of Judas the traitor, lest we be hanged with him, and dragged by the devil together with him to hell. He who carries hatred in his heart is a second devil; and he who obstructs peace is an Antichrist; and he who establishes peace among brothers is truly a son of God."
Verse 18: The Simple Shall Possess Folly
For "shall possess" the Hebrew is נחלו (nachalu), that is, they shall inherit, as Aquila, Symmachus, Theodotion, and the Syriac translate. This word signifies first, that the simple, that is, the foolish, have folly as it were innately, says Vatablus, so that it seems to be their own dowry, inheritance, and peculiar property; second, that they do not allow themselves to be torn from folly, just as an heir does not allow himself to be separated from his inheritance; third, that they rejoice in, feed on, and enjoy folly as their rich estate; fourth, that they share their folly with others, just as the rich man shares the goods of his field with others. Hence the Septuagint translates: the imprudent shall divide evil; but the shrewd shall hold fast to understanding. For folly is here taken practically, that is, as evil and malice, just as conversely knowledge or wisdom is taken for good, and goodness and virtue itself. Moreover, the author of the Greek Catena explains the word "divide" in three ways: "He contrasts understanding with malice; malice is opposed to virtue: understanding therefore in this place signifies virtue. Malice, he says, the foolish divide among themselves as a certain delicate delicacy; and they also cut into portions and lots, or divide among themselves the wickedness of fools. For he who is rash or bolder than is just, is not fearful: nor The meaning is that things turn out badly both for the hasty anger and the insidious one: for the former acts foolishly, the latter is hated. he who is a flatterer or sycophant is also proud." Another author in the same place explains it thus: "The same should be established regarding other similar opposing vices. The foolish divide malice among themselves as a common treasure, since they both mutually hate each other and bite one another, and inflict injury on each other, and mutually envy one another; and thus, with malice equally distributed among themselves in a certain way, they rise up against one another. But the just obtain understanding, because they command all their senses and accurately keep them in their duty, lest namely through sight, or hearing, or smell, or taste, or touch, or through words, or deeds, or thoughts, they commit anything that offends God and thus render themselves unworthy of the heavenly kingdom."
Mystically, Hugo says: "The wise of this world are therefore called little children by the Saints, because like little boys learning their ABCs or their first elements, in the book of the universe they admire and marvel at the beauty of creatures, which are the letters of this book; but the meaning of them, namely God's power, wisdom, goodness, and other attributes, they utterly fail to grasp.
Moreover, "the shrewd shall await knowledge," that is, the prudent shall devote themselves to knowledge and virtue, patiently awaiting the fruit of their study and labor, so that they may attain, possess, and hold fast to the perfection of knowledge and virtue, as the Septuagint translates, to such an extent that they pour it out upon others. Hence the Syriac translates: the prudent shall distribute knowledge, just as the rich distribute bread and food to the poor, and parents to their children.
For "shall await" the Hebrew is יכתירו (yakhtiru); which properly signifies to encircle and to crown. Hence the Chaldean translates: the crown of the shrewd is knowledge; Rabbi Solomon: the shrewd shall weave a crown of knowledge for their head; Aben-Ezra: the wise shall acquire the diadem of knowledge, and shall be raised to honors; Vatablus: the clever shall crown themselves with knowledge; Pagninus: they shall be crowned with knowledge; others: they shall crown knowledge; others: they shall crown others with knowledge. These three versions are aptly and wisely explained by Baynus, Vatablus, Jansenius, Cajetan, and from them our author Salazar. The first is, he says: "The shrewd shall place upon themselves the crown of knowledge," that is, they shall glory and pride themselves in the knowledge of virtue and honesty alone, and crowned as with a royal wreath they shall rule over others. Or alternatively: They shall receive that knowledge as a certain crown, by which they shall be constituted kings and emperors of themselves for governing the powers of their soul. The second is: "The shrewd shall crown knowledge," as if to say: They shall lead very many to the study of true wisdom, so that it no longer appears destitute but surrounded and crowned with a throng of very many disciples. Or, "they shall crown knowledge," that is, they shall ennoble it, and endow it with glory and splendor. For when the wise have perhaps obtained a crown, honors, and authority through the power of their wisdom, it is not so much they themselves as their wisdom that is adorned and crowned. For we commonly call the rewards and ornaments of learning and wisdom those things which are conferred on the learned and wise. The third is: "And the shrewd shall crown others with knowledge," that is, they shall be wise not only for themselves, but also for others, whom they shall adorn and honor with similar wisdom.
Verse 19: The Evil Shall Lie Before the Good
For "shall lie prostrate" the Hebrew is שחו (shachu), that is, they shall bow down; the Septuagint: they shall fall; the Syriac: they shall fall; the Chaldean: the evil fall before the good, and the wicked are stupefied at the gates of the just. That this will happen in the future age is the view of Rabbi Solomon, Bede, and Hugo: for then the rich man Dives, before whose table the poor Lazarus lay, shall lie before the feet of Lazarus; Nero, confounded, shall lie before the feet of Saints Peter and Paul; the unhappy Trajan shall prostrate himself before the feet of St. Ignatius, Decius before the feet of St. Lawrence, Dacian before the feet of St. Vincent, etc. But although this will happen universally and supremely in the world to come, nevertheless in this world too it not rarely happens that God exalts the pious, humbles the wicked, and compels them to become suppliants to the pious and implore their help. Thus Isaiah prophesies of the wicked and the idolatrous nations being subjected to the Church, chapter XLIX, 23: "Kings shall be your foster fathers, and queens your nursing mothers; with their faces bowed to the ground they shall worship you, and lick the dust of your feet." So Diocletian and Maximian lay before the feet of Constantine the Great; Eugenius, Maximus, and the other tyrants before the feet of Theodosius; the Saxons and Saracens before the feet of Charlemagne. So today the Calvinists and heretics of Germany lie before the feet of Ferdinand II, the most clement and most pious, and therefore blessed by God, and most fortunate Emperor.
Moreover, that the wicked are subjected to the good is a great benefit not only for the good but also for the wicked. For the good compel the wicked subject to them toward faith, piety, and salvation, who otherwise because of their wickedness would have been going to hell. This therefore is an effect of God's love, benevolence, and predestination; just as conversely it is a sign and effect of divine hatred, malediction, and reprobation when He allows the wicked to dominate the good. Hence the Septuagint translates: the wicked shall watch at, or cultivate the gates of the just, because, led at last by repentance, they submit themselves to the teaching of the just, says the author of the Greek Catena. Thus at Rome we see the Gentiles, once idolaters, indeed any sinners, who come to the city for the sake of penance, with great humility and devotion prostrating themselves at the thresholds of the Apostles, and venerating them, kissing them, and bathing them with profuse tears, so that from St. Peter, the key-bearer of Christ and of heaven, they may merit pardon for their sins and the grace of God by which heaven may be opened to them. And therefore they also bow their necks to the Supreme Pontiff, as the Vicar of Christ and the successor of St. Peter, and prostrate themselves at his feet to obtain absolution and blessing.
Verse 20: The Poor Man Hateful to His Neighbor
The Septuagint: friends shall hate beggar friends. He speaks of friends who are not true: for true friends, even if poor, love for the sake of the honor of friendship; but of common people, who measure friendship by utility after the manner of the crowd, according to that saying: The crowd judges friendships by utility. For since these cultivate friendship only for the advantages they hope from it, they despise poor friends as inconvenient to them, indeed burdensome, but court the rich. Take "hatred" here not positively but negatively, so that it means the same as lesser love, contempt, disdain; for the rich man does not properly and positively hate his poor relatives. "Hateful" therefore means less loved, neglected, despised. So it is said in Genesis XXIX, 31, that Leah was hated, that is, less loved and neglected compared to Rachel by Jacob, and in Malachi I, 3: "Esau I hated," that is, I neglected; and in John XII, 25, we are commanded to hate, that is, to love less our soul, and to place it after divine law and the love of Christ. So Job and Tobias, reduced to poverty, were hateful to their own people, even to their wives. The common saying is:
As long as you are fortunate, you will count many friends; If times become cloudy, you will be alone.
And Maximus, Sermon 11 from Socio: "Dolphins, he says, as long as the wave is beneath them, accompany ships swimming alongside: but they never come ashore. So flatterers remain in good fortune, but desert in adversity." Cicero, in book IV to Herennius, compares these to swallows that come in summer and fly away in winter: "As swallows, he says, are present in summer time, and driven away by cold they depart: so false friends are present in the fair weather of life, but as soon as they see the winter of fortune, they all fly away." Hence Epictetus in his Altercation with the Emperor Hadrian: "What is a poor man, he says? One whom all look upon as an abandoned well, and leave in his place." And Martial:
You will always be poor, if you are poor, Aemilianus; Wealth is now given to none but the wealthy.
This is what St. James rebukes in the faithful, chapter II, 2: "If, he says, there enters into your assembly a man with a gold ring in fine apparel, and there enters also a poor man in shabby clothing, and you attend to the one wearing the fine garments and say to him: Sit here in a good place; but to the poor man you say: Stand there, or sit under my footstool — are you not then judging among yourselves and become judges with evil thoughts?" See what I said there.
Mystically, Rabbi Levi and the author of the Greek Catena take "rich" and "poor" not only in terms of wealth, but also of knowledge and eloquence. For the learned and eloquent have many followers, so that they may learn knowledge and eloquence from them; but the uneducated and inarticulate are neglected and despised by all.
Verse 21: He Who Despises His Neighbor Sins
Our translator read in the Hebrew for "poor" ענים (aniim), that is, of the poor; others now read ענוים (anavim), that is, of the meek. The Hebrew and Chaldean therefore have it thus: he who despises his companion is a sinner; but he who has mercy on the meek, or the afflicted — blessings to him, that is, thrice and four times blessed is he. The Septuagint: he who dishonors the poor sins; but he who has mercy on beggars is most blessed, according to that saying of David: "Blessed is he who understands concerning the needy and the poor," Psalm XL, 1. The meaning is clear, as if to say: He who despises his needy neighbor sins, first, by pride, because he proudly despises him; second, by mercilessness and inhumanity, because he abandons the needy and does not help him in necessity; and because he sins, he is therefore wretched, and brings upon himself miseries both present and eternal. Conversely, he who has mercy on the poor performs a noble and quasi-divine work of almsgiving, and therefore is now blessed in hope, and will in reality be blessed in heaven after death.
Hence for "sins" the Hebrew is חוטא (chote), that is, he strays, deviates, deflects from the way, from the mark, from the law — namely from the virtue of mercy, from God, from heaven and blessedness, toward which the merciful man tends by the straight way of mercy. Otherwise, to "sin" (peccare) in Latin is said to be as it were "to keep a concubine" (pellicare), that is, to consort with a concubine, or to commit adultery, says Sipontinus: from that, however, sinning is extended to any crime, and signifies transgressing any law, as here it denotes one who violates the rights of charity and almsgiving. Here, however, he also mystically commits concubinage or adultery, because he so loves his wealth as concubines that he prefers to transgress God's law rather than to distribute them to the poor, as the law of charity commands.
You ask, why is he who has mercy on the poor most blessed? I answer first, because the poor are blessed, according to that paradox of Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven;" this kingdom therefore, as being their own, the poor will give to those whom they have found to be beneficent in this life. For the blessed will share their blessedness with their benefactors and likewise make them blessed. Wherefore Christ says, Luke XVI, 9: "Make for yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when you fail, they may receive you into eternal tabernacles." Hence St. Augustine, homily 39 among the 50: "In such a case, he says, the worker lives happily and now dies securely, since his patrimony walks with him into an immortal granary, in which he has made the Lord his debtor by giving to feed another. He shall be able to incur no ruin who has procured piety through almsgiving, to whom the Prophet offers such testimony: Save him and give him life, O Lord. O double benefit of the Prophet! He saves and likewise commends that he may be saved, because he too will save that he may be given life, and he will give life in the land to the one asking." And St. Chrysostom, homily 35 to the People: "So great, he says, is the power of almsgiving, that with great confidence it introduces its nurslings; for it is known to the doorkeepers of heaven, to those guarding the doors of the bridal chamber; indeed it is venerable, and those whom it recognizes as its devotees, it will introduce with great freedom; and no one will contradict, but all will yield."
Second, because "it is more blessed to give than to receive," as St. Paul says from the teaching of Christ, Acts XX, 35, where I said much on this matter. Third, because it is the promise of Christ: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." Hence St. Augustine, homily 29 among the 50: "Before the doors of hell, he says, mercy stands, and permits no one to be sent to prison." And St. Chrysostom, homily 33 to the People: "It is better, he says, to know this art of giving alms than to be a king and be crowned with a diadem, etc. For this teaches you how you can become like God, which is the highest of all goods." And in homily 36: "Scripture says: A great thing is a man, and a precious thing a merciful man. This is a greater grace than raising the dead. For it is much greater to feed the hungry Christ than to raise the dead in the name of Jesus: for here indeed you deserve well of Christ, but there He deserves well of you. And the reward is in doing well, not in suffering well. For here, in signs I mean, you owe to God, but in almsgiving you have God as your debtor." And in homily 9 On Penance: "Almsgiving that queen of virtues will most swiftly lead men to the very citadels of heaven, serving in the place of the best advocate. Almsgiving is a great thing: it surpasses the air, passes beyond the moon, exceeds the rays of the sun, comes to the very summit of the heavens, passing through the heavens themselves, running through the peoples of Angels and the choirs of Archangels and all the higher powers, and stands before the royal throne." St. Jerome, epistle 150 to Hedibia: "Do you wish to be perfect and stand at the first pinnacle of dignity? Do what the Apostles did: sell everything you have, and give to the poor, and follow the Savior. Do you not wish to be perfect, but to hold the second rank of virtue? Give up everything you have, give it to your children, give it to your relatives."
Fourth, almsgiving makes us divine men, and as it were certain earthly gods; therefore it blesses and makes blessed. So St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his book On the Beatitudes: "If the name of merciful, he says, is fitting for God, to what else does the word of Christ exhort you, than that you become God, as one marked with the proper sign of divinity." St. Gregory Nazianzen in his oration On the Love of the Poor: "Man has nothing so divine as to deserve well of others, although the one confers greater benefits and the other lesser, each according to his own abilities. Be a god to the wretched, by imitating the mercy of God." See what I said on Deuteronomy chapter XV, 10, and chapter XXVI, 12, where I enumerated twenty-one fruits and as it were beatitudes of almsgiving. See also Julius Fulcus, in his book On the Good of Almsgiving.
HE WHO BELIEVES IN THE LORD LOVES MERCY. — This verse is absent from the Hebrew and the Septuagint; nevertheless it exists in the Bibles corrected at Rome, and therefore should be retained, not abolished, as Cajetan and Jansenius wish.
First, Lyranus and Dionysius explain it thus, as if to say: "He who believes in the Lord" with faith formed by charity, "loves mercy;" for he who through charity loves God, by the same charity loves also his neighbor, and exercises mercy toward him. For by charity we love God for His own sake, and our neighbor for the sake of God.
Second, Hugo says, as if to say: He who believes the oracles of God, by which in Sacred Scripture He promised ample rewards to the merciful, certainly loves mercy, so that through it he may obtain the rewards just mentioned. Among which some, and among them our author Salazar, establish this: that God has decreed by the firmest resolution that no one more generous in distributing alms shall die impenitent in mortal sin. Of this there are many examples available.
Third, more plainly and forcefully, as if to say: He who believes in the Lord, or who trusts in God's goodness, who has placed his confidence in God, who has transferred his hopes to God, hoping with certainty that God will be generous to him if he himself shows himself generous to the poor, and therefore that nothing necessary for life will be lacking to him, but rather that he will abound in all things — this man certainly loves mercy, and by loving it he practices it, confident, indeed knowing that through it he will acquire great riches. For the whole reason why the timid and the avaricious do not distribute their goods to the poor is the fear of want and distrust in God; this therefore Solomon here removes. This is what the Apostle says when exhorting the Corinthians to almsgiving, in his second epistle, chapter IX, verse 10: "He who supplies seed to the sower, and bread for food, shall multiply your seed and increase the fruits of your righteousness." Where I taught that almsgiving is like a seed which, cast into the earth, that is, into the bosom of the poor, sprouts again a hundredfold; and I quoted the words of St. Basil, who compares almsgiving to a well, which the more it is drawn from, the more pure water it gushes and bubbles forth.
Verse 22: They Err Who Work Evil
The Syriac: the merciful and just do all good things. For "they err" the Hebrew is התעו (hit'u), that is, they deviate, they stray — namely from the way of virtue and salvation, like vagabonds or wandering sheep, according to that saying of Isaiah LIII, 6: "All we like sheep have gone astray, each one has turned to his own way." Hence Christ, as the Good Shepherd, took sinners like wandering sheep upon His shoulders and led them back to the way of salvation. Or like drunkards, whose brains being filled with fumes do not know how to direct their steps, but totter on their feet, and straying from the paths wander into trackless wastes, according to that saying of Isaiah XIX, 14: "The Lord has mingled in the midst of it a spirit of giddiness, and they have caused Egypt to err in all its work, as a drunkard staggers and vomits." For the sinner, like a drunkard, totters and errs in his desires, and everywhere strikes against rocks. The Septuagint translates πλανώμενοι, that is, wandering or vagabonds; and like planets, or wandering stars, which do not go straight like fixed stars, but wander sideways in circles; hence St. Jude in his epistle, verse 13, calls heretics "wandering stars, for whom the storm of darkness is reserved forever."
For "work" the Hebrew is חרשו (choreshu), that is, those who plow or who fabricate evil, which Cajetan explains, as if to say: Not only those err who work evil with their hands, but also those who conceive and contrive it in their mind. Our translator renders more fully: "Those who work;" for to plow and to fabricate is to work, and indeed the chief works of craftsmen are plowing and fabrication, and to contrive is to work: for the mind works by contriving just as the hand works by laboring.
Therefore the Hebrew literally has: Do they not err who fabricate, or plow, evil? Mercy and truth fabricate, or plow, good. It is a metaphor from agriculture or from the craft of building. From agriculture, as if to say: Those who work evil plow badly and stray from the right way and the straight furrows and rows of virtue, and are delirious, so to speak; wherefore their plowing and sowing shall not be answered by a harvest, that is, they shall reap not a reward but a penalty and punishment. So Aben-Ezra and Rabbi Levi. He says therefore: Do they not err who, plowing a stony or thorny field, sow in it harmful and poisonous seeds? For what shall they reap from it except thorns, tares, wild gourds, and other bad and poisonous herbs? As if to say: They certainly err, and indeed most grievously. In the same way, those err most grievously who in the field of their wicked heart sow wicked thoughts and desires of pride, anger, gluttony, lust, etc.; for from these they shall reap nothing but arrogance, quarrels, brawls, drunkenness, fornications, adulteries, etc., by which they shall create evil for themselves, that is, death and ruin both present and eternal. Conversely, those who in the rich field of a good heart sow good thoughts, these shall bear the fruit of good works, and through them the reward of eternal blessedness. From the craft of building, as if to say: Just as a smith errs and sins who fabricates new and harmful weapons, because by them he himself often perishes and is killed: so those err who fabricate sin, which is like a sword killing the soul of the sinner. The sinner therefore is himself the smith of his own death and hell: just as the Cyclopes were the smiths of their own destruction, and just as Perillus, the inventor and maker of the bronze bull, was the first to be enclosed and burned in it by the tyrant Phalaris; concerning whom Ovid says in the Art of Love:
And Phalaris roasted in the bull the limbs of the violent Perillus; the unhappy author was the first to test his own work.
The wicked therefore err by the whole heaven, because by fabricating the evil of guilt they fabricate for themselves the evil of punishment and hell; conversely, the pious, by fabricating for themselves the good of virtue, fabricate for themselves the good of reward and heavenly glory. Now this good of virtue is either mercy or truth, that is, justice; for every duty of virtue is either owed, and is called justice, or unowed, free, and gratuitous, and is called mercy, as I have often noted. This is what our translator means when he translates: mercy and truth prepare good — namely the good of reward and glory both present and eternal; because they build houses, indeed heavenly palaces, according to that saying of St. Chrysostom, homily 8 On Penance: "Eternal are the tabernacles in heaven, which do not fall with time, nor change their possessors. Let us spend our money on this building: we need not have great care for architects or workers. The hands of the poor build such houses; the lame and the hungry build them; and almsgiving itself is the craftsman."
Hence the Septuagint translates: they err who fabricate evils; mercy and truth the good fabricate. Which they explain when they add: the fabricators of evils do not know mercy and faith; but almsgiving and faith are with the fabricators of good. So also the Syriac, as if to say: Those err who fabricate evils; because while they do not know, that is, do not think about, do not esteem, do not weigh how great a good mercy and faith — that is, justice — are, neglecting it they fabricate works of mercilessness, or avarice and injustice, by which they fabricate a rack for themselves in hell; but the upright, because they esteem and weigh how great a good mercy and justice are, practice it and fabricate it, and guard against all mercilessness and injustice, and by this very thing fabricate for themselves eternal houses and crowns in heaven.
Moreover, because the Hebrews lack grammatical cases, and therefore their nouns can be rendered in any case, hence instead of "fabricate" or "prepare," others translate: for the fabricators, or for those who prepare. Thus the Chaldean says: the perverse err who think evil; mercy and truth for those who think good, as if to say: God's mercy and truth, that is, faithfulness, will mercifully and faithfully render to the good the reward He promised, so that, just as they showed themselves merciful and faithful to God, so in turn they may experience God as merciful and faithful toward them. For our mercy toward our neighbors attracts and provokes God's mercy toward us, and faithfulness attracts faithfulness. So Jansenius, Baynus, and the Tigurina, which translates: do they not err (Vatablus: are they not frustrated) who contrive evil? But kindly and faithfully shall it be dealt with those who contrive good; and Pagninus: mercy and truth shall be for those who work good. Although this meaning is grammatically and verbally different, as to sense it nevertheless comes to the same conclusion as the one already assigned, as is evident to one who considers it.
One could also take "truth" as the light by which God illuminates the intellect of the one who works well, so that he may better know the dignity of virtue and the goods promised to him by God, so that he may exercise it more ardently, according to that saying of Psalm CXVIII: "The declaration of Your words gives light, and gives understanding to the simple."
Note: The error here, by which those who work evil err, is not speculative but practical — that is, it is an erroneous and perverse choice and operation of the evil of guilt, which carries with it the evil of punishment. Wherefore this error is properly imprudence and an imprudent choice, by which evil is preferred to good. Choice, however, is an act of the will and of free will; wherefore properly the error is in the will. This error of the will, however, ordinarily has as its companion, indeed its predecessor, an error in the intellect of the sinner. For sometimes the intellect errs speculatively, thinking lawful what is forbidden and unlawful, as is evident in those who sin from ignorance; often, however, it is not speculative but practical — that is, it is the dictate and judgment of practical reason dictating, for example, to a thief: Here and now you must steal, to provide for your life and pleasure; or certainly it is a failure to consider the many reasons and motives that could restrain and hold back the will from sin. For often the sinner does not have the explicit judgment, for example: Here and now you must commit this sin of theft — but only a defect of consideration, whereby he so considers the beauty and advantages of the money he intends to steal that he gives little or no consideration to the turpitude and damages of the sin annexed to this theft. Hence it happens that, with the beauty and advantages of the money proposed by the intellect considering them, the will, carried away, chooses to steal, not reckoning the damages that will befall it from this. This defect of consideration ordinarily brings with it a judgment partly explicit and partly implicit of sinning. For a thief, for example, before he decides to steal, has this explicit judgment: Here and now it is good for you to take this money; in which is interpretively contained this implicit judgment: It is good for you here and now to sin and steal, because to take another's money here and now is nothing other than stealing and sinning. This practical judgment therefore about what is to be done or desired, absolutely produced by the intellect and reason with such lack of consideration, is an imprudent act, and deformed in regard to both judgment and right appetite; wherefore it is practically erroneous, and consequently the choice of the will following and embracing it equally errs and becomes erroneous. So St. Thomas and the Scholastics, I-II, Question LXXVIII, article 1, reply to objection 1. Thus sinned Adam, Lucifer, and the Angels, in whom there was no error but the clearest knowledge of things and of God's law, through a mere defect of consideration: for they so considered their own beauty, without considering that they had it from God, that they were pleased with themselves beyond what was right, became proud, and at last rebelled against God. In a similar way sin those who sin from certain knowledge and malice. Truly St. Augustine says in his Confessions: "You have commanded, O Lord, and so it is, that every disordered soul is its own punishment, etc. You scatter penal blindness over illicit desires."
Verse 23: In All Labor There Shall Be Abundance
For "labor" the Hebrew is עצב (etsev), that is, labor, pain, care, solicitude, fatigue, affliction; for the root עצב (atsav) signifies to labor, to grieve, to be tormented in spirit. For "abundance" the Hebrew is מותר (motar), that is, increase, abundance, superabundance, excellence, dignity, prerogative. For "want" the Hebrew is מחסור (machsor), that is, deficiency, penury, want.
First, Pagninus translates from the Hebrew thus: in all things in which a man labors there is dignity; but the word of superfluous lips is truly imputed to deficiency, as if to say: Labor is dignity for a man, but talkativeness is indignity and want. "For man is born to labor, and the bird to flight," Job V, 7. Hence Adam, the parent of all nobles, kings, and princes, not only after the fall but also before it was placed in paradise to cultivate it by his labor, Genesis II, 15.
Second, Baynus translates from the Hebrew thus and explains it: "In all pain and sadness which a man retains within himself, there will be abundance; and day by day secret grief grows, but through the words of the lips it is diminished; that is, sorrow disclosed and poured into the bosom of a faithful friend is mitigated. And according to this meaning the verse can be applied to confession; for truly nothing more mitigates the sadness which one conceives from his sins than a sincere and free confession made into the ear of a pious priest. For those words of the lips — namely of the one confessing and the one absolving — vehemently mitigate the mourning conceived from sins and bring consolation."
Our author Salazar takes "the sweet one free from pain" as the parasite and flatterer: for this person is wordy above all others, and by flattering seeks a seat at the table, just as a dog begs for food from its masters by fawning with head and tail, as if to say: Where there is labor, there is abundance of things; where there is flattery, trifles, and buffoonery, there is want: for those who hunt for riches by the shameful allurement of words are always needy and destitute.
Third, Cajetan translates: in all labor there shall be abundance; and the word of the lips tends only to deficiency. And the meaning of the parable, he says, is that all labor by its own nature produces some gain, except labor in speaking. For the more someone labors to multiply words, the more he tends toward deficiency. So loquacity by its own nature tends not to gain but only to deficiency, and truly it is so. Because it produces disgust in the hearer, sin in the speech, and indignity for oneself through loquacity. So far Cajetan.
Fourth, our translator most aptly renders: in all labor there shall be abundance, etc., as if to say: From any work and labor comes profit and abundance of things, but no fruit comes from empty speech. In whatever art one may labor, the notable fruit of labor will be evident; but verbosity produces nothing but emptiness and want. So Rabbi Solomon, Rabbi Levi, and Aben-Ezra. It is therefore signified, says Jansenius, that riches are procured by labor and diligence, not by garrulity, which frequently leads to want and deficiency, because the garrulous allow their time to be mostly spent in idleness. He says moreover: "In all work and labor," that is, through any labor, or work of whatever kind, abundance will come to man, because through various kinds of activity riches are procured — through agriculture, through commerce, through crafts, etc. Therefore honest labor is commended, and just as by many other maxims of this book, so also by this verse idle garrulity is condemned.
Moreover, what is understood literally of the labors of the body and bodily advantage must mystically be taken of the working of virtues. For he who, according to the parable of the Gospel, having received five talents works with them, shall gain another five, and to everyone who has it shall be given, and he shall abound. But those who delight only in words and speak only of virtue — not from the heart but merely with the lips — or who only invoke God with a multitude of words, while remaining barren in good works, shall not arrive at fruitfulness; they shall suffer a deficiency of virtues and of God's grace, and finally eternal want. "For not everyone who says to Me: Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven," Matthew VII, 21.
Here is relevant the Chaldean version: in everything, it says, that makes you solicitous, there shall be advantage for you; and superfluous lips shall be in want. For solicitude sharpens the industriousness of seeking every means and investigating any methods whatever, so that the matter which troubles and concerns us may be skillfully and successfully accomplished. And the Syriac: in whatever matter you are solicitous, there shall be joy and delight; but he who is needy in his house shall be quiet and cheerful. The Lord heals every sorrow. The speech of the lips of the wicked produces want for them. For it is fitting that they be fed with their own words, not with bread, who know nothing but to pour forth words and not to labor. And the Septuagint: in every solicitous person there shall be abundance; but the sweet and free from pain shall be in want.
But the author of the Greek Catena thus renders and explains the Septuagint: to every diligent and solicitous person abundance is present; but he who lives pleasantly and free from care and pain shall struggle with want. "He who seriously devotes himself to the pursuit of virtues must necessarily excel both in action and in knowledge. For it is scarcely possible that he who is perpetually occupied in the consideration of those things which fall under action should not abound in both. But it is entirely consistent that he who is disposed otherwise should shun the labors and troubles of virtue."
Therefore "in all labor there shall be abundance," etc., as if to say: Virtue consists not in speaking but in acting; nor is he just who says good things, but he who accomplishes good things by vigorous action.
Moreover, Abbot Abraham in Cassian, Conference XXIV, last chapter, explains the Septuagint thus: "He who is sweet and without pain shall be in want. For the kingdom of heaven is not seized by the idle, the lax, the delicate, the soft, but by the violent. Who then are these violent ones? Namely those who do not inflict violence on others, but inflict a noble violence on their own wills, who by a praiseworthy plundering, depriving themselves of every pleasure of present things, are pronounced by the Lord's voice outstanding plunderers, and through this kind of rapine they violently invade the kingdom of heaven. For the kingdom of heaven, according to the Lord's saying, suffers violence, and the violent seize it. These are indeed praiseworthy violent ones, who do violence to their own perdition."
Finally, similar to this proverb is that of verse 4: "Where there are no oxen, the manger is empty; but where there are very many harvests, there is manifest the strength of the ox." Consult what I noted there.
Verse 24: The Crown of the Wise Is Their Riches
First, the plain meaning is, as if to say: Riches are an ornament to the wise man, and encircle and adorn him like a crown, like a royal diadem. But "the folly of fools is imprudence" — in Hebrew: the folly of fools is folly — that is, all the glory of fools is folly; fools have no crown with which to adorn themselves except folly, because even if they are rich, nevertheless riches, inasmuch as they do not know how to use them rightly, are not for their honor and utility but for their loss and disgrace. Hence the Chaldean translates: and the glory of fools is their folly, as if to say: Fools have nothing good except folly; every thing, every hope of theirs is mere folly; their whole estate is folly; all their riches and all their goods end in folly, according to the saying: An ape remains an ape, even if it wears golden insignia." Solomon signifies that riches add to wisdom a certain amplification and dignity, just as they were added to Solomon. Hence he himself says: "All good things came to me together with her, etc., because she is the mother of them all," Wisdom VII, 11. And: "Wisdom is more useful with riches, and profits more those who see the sun," Ecclesiastes VII, 12. So Lysander congratulated Cyrus: "Rightly they call you blessed, he said, because fortune is joined to your wisdom," as Cicero testifies in his book On Old Age.
Therefore riches like a crown adorn the wise man and add splendor to him: first, because wisdom deserves to be crowned with them, and shines with them, not foolishness — that is, those endowed with virtue are decorated with riches, not the vicious; second, because riches in the hand of the wise man are well placed and as it were blessed, because through the wise man they attain the end for which they were created by God, which is that they be properly spent on almsgiving and other works of virtue. For riches are instruments of great works for the wise man. Hence Bion used to say "riches are the sinews of actions," because without them nothing is accomplished, as Laertius testifies, book IV, chapter VII. Another said, "riches are the sinews of war." Pythagoras asserted that "no one can govern either a horse without a bridle or riches without prudence." Democritus said that the use of money with prudence is useful for exercising generosity and for helping others; but with foolishness it is a common profligacy, as Stobaeus testifies, sermon 92. Wherefore, if riches were endowed with sense, reason, voice, and other qualities, they would fly from the foolish, wicked, and avaricious to the wise, pious, and generous, and would cry out: We do not wish to dwell with the wicked, but with the holy; we do not wish to be hidden in the chest of the avaricious, but in the belly of the poor; injustice is done to us, violence is inflicted on us, when we are given to the unfit and unworthy and are compelled to serve their avarice, pride, gluttony, and lust in hard slavery. Come, O holy ones; come, O merciful ones, deliver us from this hard slavery; seize us so that with you we may be sanctified and exercise mercy: for this is our end, this our blessedness, for which we were created by God; third, because the wise distribute riches in almsgiving; and almsgiving is the queen of virtues, says St. Chrysostom, homily 7 On Penance, and therefore places its royal crown on the head of the wise. And in homily 9: "Almsgiving, that queen of virtues will most clearly lead men to the very citadels of heaven, serving in the place of the best advocate." And in homily 8 he adds: "For her, with great authority the gates of heaven are opened, and as if their queen were entering, none of the guards stationed at those gates dares to ask who she is or whence she comes; rather all receive her: for almsgiving is truly a queen;" fourth, because the wise man uses riches as their lord and king, but the fool and miser is enslaved to them as a servant; the former possesses gold, the latter is possessed by gold. An ape remains an ape, even if it wears golden insignia." Solomon signifies that riches add to wisdom a certain amplification and dignity, just as to gold: so St. Chrysostom, homily 16 on Matthew. Gold therefore serves the wise man as a king, like a royal crown; but it binds and chains the fool like fetters and shackles; fifth, the wise, because they know how to rightly use riches, are adorned by them and become wiser and holier and more merciful; but fools, having obtained riches, are made more infatuated by them and become more foolish and as if mad and insane, as St. Chrysostom says, homily 7 on the epistle to the Colossians. Finally, riches are a crown for the wise man because, when spent by him on works of piety, they produce for him unfading crowns in heaven, which Christ will decree and award to almsgivers alone on the day of judgment, Matthew XXV.
Second, Lyranus says: The crown of the wise, he says, is wisdom, which adorns and enriches them like great riches, as if to say: Wisdom crowns and adorns the wise man more than any riches, any golden and jeweled crowns, because the crown of wisdom is the richest. Hence Aristotle, in book XII of the Rhetoric: "And because, he says, to reign is the sweetest of things, it is also sweet to seem wise; for to be endowed with wisdom belongs to kings." Calanus the Gymnosophist said to Alexander the Great: "You will be king, he said, if you rule yourself; you will be king, if reason rules you." And Bias, fleeing when his city was captured, when he was advised to carry his possessions with him like the others, replied: "I carry all my possessions with me." So also the author of the Greek Catena explains it: Riches, he says, or the glory of the wise is prudence. On this crown of wisdom and virtues I said more at chapter IV, verse 9, and Ecclesiasticus I, verses 11 and 12.
Third, the Septuagint in their manuscript, instead of עשרם (osram), that is "their riches," removing the letter ע and reading ערום (arum), that is "shrewd," translate: the crown of the wise is the shrewd man; but the conduct of the imprudent is evil. So also the Syriac, following the Septuagint in its usual way. The meaning is, as if to say: One man, eminent in shrewdness, that is in skill and wisdom, like a crown adorns and decorates the other wise men and their whole college and assembly; but one imprudent and foolish man by his folly disgraces the whole assembly of both wise and foolish, because he breathes and blows upon them the poison or at least the disgrace and infamy of his folly and vices. So the crown of the Alexandrian Church was St. Athanasius, of the African Church St. Augustine, of the Greek Church St. Basil, of the Roman Church St. Gregory, who, as St. Ildephonsus says in his book On Famous Men: "He surpassed Antony in holiness, Cyprian in eloquence, and Augustine in wisdom." So the crown of the Cistercians was St. Bernard, of the Camaldolese Blessed Peter Damian, of the Dominicans St. Thomas Aquinas, of the Franciscans St. Bonaventure, etc.
Mystically, Bede says: "The greatest folly of fools is this, that, improvident of eternal things, they rejoice only in present comforts. For imprudence is said to be as it were improvidence."
Verse 25: A Faithful Witness Delivers Souls
In Hebrew: a witness of truth rescues souls, and deceit, that is, a deceitful man, breathes out lies; or, repeating the word "witness": and the deceitful witness breathes out lies; the Septuagint: a faithful witness shall deliver a soul from evils (St. Cyprian, book III of Testimonies, reads: a faithful martyr); "but the deceitful man kindles lies (the Roman and Complutensian editions read "renounces" — the Greek word ψευδής signifies both); the Chaldean: he who speaks lies is deceitful. Take "lies" as full and complete, that is, not merely idle and jocular, but harmful and pernicious: for these are par excellence called lies in Scripture, which the liar breathes out and hurls from his mouth like pestilential fires against the innocent, and thus the antithesis is clear, as if to say: He who testifies, either publicly or privately, as Jansenius says, about the deeds and words of someone, and indicates the matter as it is, frequently delivers souls, that is, men who are unjustly oppressed. He delivers them from imminent death, from attempted calumny and injury, from infamy and any unjust oppression; and when he delivers some one person, he delivers not just one soul but many — such as his whole family and friends, who would be spattered with his disgrace — so that it is well said: "A faithful witness delivers souls." Conversely, he who bears false testimony about a matter oppresses souls, which he deprives of either inheritance and possessions, or life, or finally of honorable reputation.
Second, our author Salazar more profoundly considers that here is given a sign by which a truthful witness may be distinguished from a false one. For a truthful witness, he says, especially strives to deliver the accused, excusing and as far as possible minimizing faults; but conversely the false witness strives to condemn and oppress with his lies, exaggerating small faults and amplifying lighter offenses. Wherefore, among other instructions of the jurist Bartolus by which he informs judges for discerning witnesses, he teaches that this is a notable sign of a false witness: "If he exaggerates the faults and indicates by his words that he very much desires the condemnation of the accused. For truth, he says, is benevolent; but lying is cruel and savage."
Finally, this verse coincides with verse 5, and with verse 17 of chapter XII; wherefore I shall not add more here.
Mystically, the truthful witness is Christ, says Hugo, and any preacher and teacher of true and saving doctrine; for He delivers souls from sin, the devil, death, and hell. The false witness is the heretic, the impostor, and the hypocrite, who by flattering and by proposing the enticements of pleasures and the freedom of the flesh, drives souls into heresy, luxury, and pride, and thus destroys them and casts them into hell.
Verse 26: In the Fear of the Lord Is Confidence of Strength
The fear of the Lord here is understood mainly as filial fear, which is nothing other than reverence, worship, and love of God. "Confidence of strength" means strong and robust confidence. Hence the Syriac: the fear of the Lord is a strong and mighty hope; or by hypallage, a confident strength, which namely does and endures all things confidently, freely, and fearlessly, indeed undertakes and overcomes all difficult things. Therefore it signifies that the fear of the Lord begets both strength and confidence; yet he says conjunctively "confidence of strength" to indicate that confidence is the cause of strength. For those who fear God are strong and robust because they have placed all their confidence in God the Almighty; wherefore since they know they are in God's care and close to His heart, they fear nothing, but generously overcome all temptations, persecutions, tribulations, and enemies: for the fear of God surpasses the fears of all things that are inferior to God, just as the light of the sun surpasses and outshines any light. They say therefore with St. Paul: "If God is for us, who is against us?" And with David, Psalm XXVI, 1: "The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom shall I fear? If armies should stand against me, my heart shall not fear. If battle should rise against me, in this I shall hope," as if to say: He who would conquer me must first conquer God; for God is my protector and shield-bearer. So St. Gregory, book V of the Morals, chapter XII: "On the way of God, he says, one begins from fear so that one may arrive at strength. For just as in the way of the world boldness begets strength, so in the way of God boldness begets weakness. And just as in the way of the world fear begets weakness, so also in the way of God fear begets strength, as Solomon attests: In the fear of the Lord is confidence of strength, because namely our mind the more strongly despises the terrors of temporal things, the more truly it subjects itself to their Author through reverent fear; for the mind established in the fear of the Lord will find nothing outside to fear, because while it is joined to the Creator of all things by right fear, it is raised by a certain power above all things."
This is what Sirach, following Solomon in his usual way, frequently urges, as in Ecclesiasticus XXV, 14: "The fear of the Lord has placed itself above all things." And chapter XXXIV, 19: "The eyes of the Lord are upon those who fear Him, a protector of might, a firmament of virtue, a covering from heat, and a shade at midday, a prayer against offense, and a help against falling, raising the soul and enlightening the eyes, giving health and life and blessing." See what I said there. Armed with this fear of God, St. Lawrence overcame the gridiron, St. Sebastian fearlessly received all the arrows, St. Vincent laughed at the rack of Dacian, St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Agatha, St. Lucy, etc., conquered fires, scaffolds, lions, and all the torments of tyrants. Armored with this fear, St. Athanasius despised all the persecutions of the Arians, St. Anthony dispersed all the illusions of demons like spider webs, St. Hilarion, St. Macarius, and the other ascetics transcended all the blandishments of the flesh and all the temptations of the world. St. Ignatius, the founder of our Society, when he frequently undertook difficult tasks beyond the powers of nature, was accustomed to answer those who marveled: "You do not know how great are the powers that hope in God possesses." He knew this himself, because he continually experienced them. Confidence therefore in God is confidence of strength; confidence in kings and princes is confidence of fragility. Hence the Psalmist:
"Do not, he says, put your trust in princes, in the sons of men, in whom there is no salvation," Psalm CXLV, 2.
AND TO HIS CHILDREN THERE SHALL BE HOPE. — For "hope" the Hebrew is מחסה (machse), that is, as the Chaldean has it, protection, shelter, refuge, and hence hope: for, as Rabbi Levi says, hope like a shield guards and protects the one who hopes; the Septuagint: firmament; Rabbi Solomon: refuge: for they shall trust, he says, and under the shadow of the parent's merits the children shall hide safely.
Baynus refers the pronoun "his" to the Lord who preceded, as if to say: To the children of the Lord God there shall be hope; so that the meaning is: In the fear of the Lord is confidence of strength, because the fear of the Lord makes those who fear Him children of God: and for the children of God there is the highest hope; for what would the children of God not hope for from God their Father?
Better, Bede, the author of the Greek Catena, and others refer the pronoun "his" to the fear of the Lord, as if to say: To the children of the fear of the Lord, that is, to those who supremely fear God, so much so that they seem to be begotten, conceived, and born from the fear of the Lord as from a womb, there shall be hope, shelter, and protection. For thus the very wise are called children of wisdom, the very obedient are called children of obedience, the very loving are called children of love, so that they seem born from love as from a mother's womb. Thus the Romans used to say that Cato was so continent that he appeared to have been born from the womb of continence. In a similar manner, therefore, children of the fear of God are called those who greatly fear and revere God, and therefore walk carefully in His sight, striving to please Him in all things and not to offend Him even in the slightest.
Again, refer the pronoun "his" to the fear of the Lord not in the abstract but in the concrete; "his" therefore means "of the one fearing the Lord": for the concrete "the one fearing" lies hidden and is included in the abstract "fear." And this phrase and reference to the concrete contained in the abstract is frequent among the Hebrews. The plain meaning therefore is, as if to say: The fear of the Lord begets confidence of strength, not only for the one who fears, but also for his children; for God strengthens, empowers, and heaps His every blessing upon them on account of the fear and merits of the father. Therefore his children nourish great hopes, and from them bear lofty spirits; just as the children of kings and princes, because they nourish sublime hopes, likewise foster sublime spirits.
Finally, how great this hope is, and how great its strength, St. Leo powerfully describes in Sermon 2 On the Ascension: "This faith (and hope: 'for faith is the substance of things hoped for,' Hebrews XI, 1), increased by the Lord's ascension and strengthened by the gift of the Holy Spirit — neither chains, nor prisons, nor exiles, nor hunger, nor fire, nor the mauling of wild beasts, nor tortures devised by the cruelty of persecutors terrified. For this faith throughout the whole world, not only men but also women; not only boys below the age of puberty but also tender virgins fought even to the shedding of their blood. This faith cast out demons, drove away diseases, raised the dead." St. Leo then adds: "Nor is there anyone among you, O most beloved, on whom nothing is conferred in the distribution of this grace; because the cause of justice is common to all Christians, and the fullness of blessing pertains to all. Let no good person therefore despair of the merit of his hope, since even the thief, crucified with the holy kiss of Christ, rests among the delights of paradise." So says St. Leo.
Verse 27: The Fear of the Lord Is a Fountain of Life
This verse is treated jointly with verse 26, as the two form a connected pair on the fear of the Lord. See the commentary on verse 26 above.
Verse 28: In the Multitude of People Is the Dignity of the King
In Hebrew, in the destruction of the people is the ruin of the prince; Vatablus, the wearing away of the empire; the Septuagint, in the failing (Symmachus, in the scarcity) of the people is the ruin of the prince; the Tigurina, in the multitude of the people is the magnificence of the king: but where there is no people, the prince is afraid. For the Hebrew word הדרת hadrat means dignity, beauty, ornament, magnificence.
The meaning therefore is clear, as if to say: In the multitude of the people, or, as you may translate from the Hebrew, in the multiplication of the people, that is, when the people is multiplied both in number, and in probity, virtue, and obedience, and in wealth and resources, and in wisdom, industry, strength, and fortitude, the king is likewise multiplied, increased, and grows, both in the number of his subjects, and in the reputation of his virtue; for the king is estimated from the people: for as the king is, so is the people; and the whole world is ordered after the example of the king; also in riches: for a wealthy people enriches the king with its tributes and gifts; also in wisdom and strength: for the wisdom, industry, and polity of the people flows from the wisdom of the prince, according to that saying in chapter 11:14: Where there is no governor, the people shall fall; but safety is where there are many counsels. Again, a strong people makes a strong prince, because in war they protect and defend him even at the risk of their lives. Therefore Symmachus truly says, letter 34, book 10: To be loved, he says, to be revered, to be cherished, is greater than rule.
The Poet:
The prince nourishes not only his citizens, but also his enemies: As a gray she-wolf carries the offspring of another.
Conversely, when the people declines in number, in virtue, in wealth, in wisdom and strength, the prince declines equally in the same: for the riches and goods of the prince are situated in the riches and goods of the people. Therefore it is a sign that the prince is either imprudent, or avaricious, or wicked, when the people declines. For a good prince by his wisdom, clemency, governance, and industry attracts foreigners and strangers from everywhere to himself and his kingdom: but a bad one and a tyrant, burdening his own people with tributes and taxes, disperses and drives them away, so that they seek other lands where, having found a better prince, they may be better treated. For a good prince seeks not his own, but the people's advantage: indeed he considers the people's advantage as his own, as it truly is; but a tyrant looks to his own, not the people's advantage, whence he plunders, oppresses, and crushes the people; and therefore the people hates the tyrant, and either avoids him, or defrauds and steals from him whatever it can, or even rebels and plots his destruction. Hence the Septuagint translates, in the failing of the people is the ruin of the prince. the overthrow of the prince. For, as Blessed Peter Chrysologus rightly says, sermon 173: Just as the honor of the head extends to the members, so the punishment of the members extends to the pain of the head, to the injury of the head.
Hence God, as King of kings and Lord of lords, shows His magnificence in the innumerable multitude of the holy Angels, the Blessed, the stars, and all creatures serving Him. Whence Daniel, beholding it, says in chapter 7: Thousands of thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times a hundred thousand stood before Him. And the Psalmist thus describes the magnificent kingdom of Christ, Psalm 2: Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession. And Psalm 71:8: He shall rule from sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the world.
Hence Solomon, a type of Christ, was wonderfully magnificent in the number, wealth, and strength of his soldiers and servants, so much so that by the mere sight of them the Queen of Sheba was astonished, 3 Kings 10. Thus Xenophon writes of Cyrus, book 8 of the Cyropaedia, chapter 30: Such was the affection of men toward him, that every nation considered itself to suffer loss if it did not send to Cyrus whatever was excellent in its region, whether it was born, raised, or perfected by art. Likewise every city, every private person considered himself wealthy if he had rendered something pleasing to Cyrus. For Cyrus received from each person those things which the givers had in abundance; and in turn he lavished upon them what he perceived they lacked.
Understand these things concerning a multitude properly trained, organized, and ordered: for this brings honor and strength to the king. For if it is disorganized and disordered, it will rather disgrace and weaken the king, to such a degree that it may be routed and defeated by a few brave men properly arranged in battle line. An example is Xerxes, who, covering the sea with fleets, the land with troops, indeed with the Hellespont bridged and Mount Athos tunneled through, traversing seas on foot and mountains by fleets, says Cicero, book 2 of On the Ends, and leading two hundred thousand Persians into battle, was routed and slaughtered at Thermopylae by three hundred Spartans under the command of Leonidas; and Demaratus had predicted this to him, whom Seneca, book 6 of On Benefits, chapter 31, introduces speaking wisely to Xerxes as follows: Demaratus alone said that that very multitude in which he took pleasure was undigested and unwieldy, and was to be feared by the one leading it; for it had not strength, but weight; what is excessive can never be governed, nor does what cannot be governed long endure. At the very first mountain, he said, the Spartans placed in your path will give you a taste of themselves. Those three hundred will hold up so many thousands of nations, they will stand fixed in their tracks, and will defend the narrow pass entrusted to them and block it with their bodies. All of Asia will not move them from their place. A very few will withstand such great threats of war and the assault of nearly the entire human race rushing upon them. And further on: It is true what is said, that the preparation for war is greater than what can be received by those regions which you plan to attack; but this fact works against us.
On this account Greece itself will defeat you, because it cannot contain you. You cannot make use of the whole world. Furthermore, the one thing that is the salvation of affairs — to meet the first onslaughts of events, and to bring aid to those that are wavering — you will not be able to do, nor to prop up and steady what is tottering. You will be conquered long before you realize you have been conquered. Moreover, there is no reason for you to think that your army cannot be withstood by this force, because its number is unknown even to its leader. Nothing is so great that it cannot perish; its very magnitude becomes the cause of its destruction, even if other factors are at rest. What Demaratus predicted came to pass: three hundred men commanded to stand their ground turned back the divine and human force that was driving and changing whatever stood in its way; and Xerxes, routed throughout all of Greece, understood how great is the distance between an army and a mob.
Conversely, tyrants bring about, indeed deliberately seek, the poverty, powerlessness, and fewness of their subjects, lest they dare to rise up and rebel against them: as we read of Dionysius and the other tyrants of Sicily. The same may be seen today in the Turk, of whom this common saying is current: Wherever the Turk sets foot, desolation and devastation of lands and inhabitants immediately follows. Aristotle gives the reason, book 5 of the Politics, chapter 10: The guard of a king, he says, is from his own citizens; but of a tyrant from foreigners: he trusts his own people in no respect. Therefore to take away arms from his citizens, to crush and trample the multitude of the people, to drive them from the city, and to render the city empty of inhabitants, is proper to tyranny: also to harass the nobility, to overthrow them secretly and openly, and to send them into exile, as if they were adversaries and plotters against his power. Hence the counsel of Periander given to Thrasybulus to pluck off the tallest ears of grain, as though it were fitting to remove the most eminent citizens. All these are the beginnings of revolutions. See the same author, chapter 11, where he teaches that a tyrant, to confirm his tyranny, first deprives the subjects of courage; second, makes the citizens discordant among themselves; third, cuts down all their power, wealth, and strength.
A symbol of this matter is the pilot fish, a small fish that goes before, leads, and guides the whale: for it tests the shallows and dangers ahead. For just as the glory of the pilot fish is the greatness of the whale, so the glory of the king is the greatness of the people, concerning which the Poet says:
By this guide the whale is safe through the waves: And the people is happy under their watchful prince.
For, as the Comic Poet says:
By the labor of citizens the glory of princes is achieved: It is a disgrace to the shepherd if his flock is not well: When the principal member is sick, the whole body suffers: No one is a friend, no one is faithful to an ungrateful prince: A good prince is poor to himself and rich for the public: Providing for the security of all, he disregards his own.
Finally, God rewards pious and humble kings with a multitude of people, and punishes impious and proud ones with a fewness of the same, as is evident in the case of David. Hence in Canon Law 1, Question 4, chapter 11 Ecclesia, from St. Gregory, or, as the older codices have it, St. Augustine, it is said: Sometimes on account of the merits of the Prelates the life of the subjects is depraved and condemned, so that the subjects favoring their Prelates toward evil may fall together with them, just as the children of Israel, long bearing (tolerating) the sins of the priests, finally fell with them into the hands of their enemies. Likewise David numbered the people, 2 Kings, last chapter, by which sin the sword of the Lord raged against the people. But in a broad (ample, large) nation is the glory of the king, and in the diminishing of the people is the ruin of the prince. He therefore who grew proud over the great number of his nation, was justly punished in its diminishing.
Verse 29: He Who Is Patient Is Governed with Much Prudence
That is, he betrays and displays his folly with loud voices, shouts, and waving of hands and arms. In Hebrew, long of nostrils (that is, longsuffering and slow to anger, as I said above), great in understanding; but short of spirit, exalting his folly; the Chaldean, he who is longsuffering has much prudence; and he who is hasty in his spirit multiplies folly; the Septuagint, makrothymos, that is, a longsuffering man, is great in prudence; oligopsychos, that is, impatient or pusillanimous, very imprudent; the Complutensian, but the impatient one is strong (for they read ischyros, that is, strong, for ischyros, that is, strongly, powerfully, very) in folly; the Syriac, but the sorrowful one is very foolish, because by his pusillanimity and sadness he does not soothe his trouble, but increases, doubles, and triples it. Blessed Antiochus, homily 24, reads: A longsuffering man is of great prudence; but the pusillanimous one is strong in folly; St. Jerome, on chapter 5 to the Galatians: The pusillanimous one is vehemently foolish; but he who is patient and sustains all things is a wise man. For longsuffering people are magnanimous, and therefore prudent, patient, and slow to anger; but the pusillanimous are small of soul, and therefore imprudent, impatient, and quick to anger, as is evident in children and women. Hence in Hebrew they are called short of spirit, that is, of a meager, narrow, and confined soul, which can bear nothing, but immediately leaps and springs into anger. On this matter Aristotle speaks beautifully, book 7 of the Ethics, chapter 6: Anger, he says, seems to hear reason to some extent, but not perfectly, just like swift servants who run out before they have heard the whole of what is said to them; and so they go astray in their actions. Dogs too, before they consider whether it is a friend, if someone has only knocked at the door, bark: so also anger, on account of the heat and swiftness of its nature, though it hears reason, yet not hearing the command, rushes to vengeance.
Wherefore Blessed Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln: In all things, he says, let us show ourselves as ministers of God, as St. Paul admonishes, 2 Corinthians 6:4. Much patience shines in this; if great longanimity bears many adversities and afflictions with great gentleness. For patience without longanimity will not be much, but short: without true gentleness it will be utterly nothing. So his Life records. See Cassian, Conference 16, chapter 27, and Conference 18, chapter 13.
Hear St. Ephrem, treatise On Vices and Virtues: A longsuffering man is governed with much prudence. But what is more excellent than he? For the longsuffering man always dwells in joy, gladness, and exultation, he keeps his hope fixed on the Lord, and is free from all anger. For the longsuffering man endures all things, is not easily stirred to anger, nor turns to insults, is not easily moved by empty words. If he suffers an injury, he does not take it hard. He does not resist those opposing him. In any matter whatever he remains firm and constant. He is deceived by no tricks. He is not easily provoked to anger. He rejoices in adversity. He delights in every good work. He bears the envious with an equal and willing spirit. When commanded he does not resist, when rebuked he does not grieve. In longanimity he always exercises himself.
Moreover, the prudence of the patient man and the imprudence of the impatient manifest themselves, first, in that the patient man shows himself the master of anger, the impatient its slave; the patient man therefore rules himself and his passions, and so abides in continual peace and tranquillity; but the impatient is driven by unceasing passions, and so lives in perpetual tumult and disturbance of mind. Hence Abbot Benjamin in Palladius's Lausiac History, tormented by severe dropsy, said calmly to his sympathizing companions: Pray that my inner man may not be dropsical. For this body neither profited me when it was well, nor harmed me when it was ill. St. Gregory says excellently, book 5 of the Morals, chapter 30: If therefore anger takes away the quiet of the mind, it closes its dwelling to the Holy Spirit, by whose departure the vacant soul is soon led to open madness, and is scattered from the innermost foundation of its thoughts to the surface. And shortly after: In what respect then is this man far from those possessed, who is not conscious of his own actions? Whence it commonly happens that anger rushes even to blows; and the further reason retreats, the more boldly it rises, and the soul cannot restrain itself, because it has come under an alien power, and fury exercises the members outwardly in blows, inasmuch as inwardly it holds captive the mind, the very mistress of the members.
Second, the patient man by keeping silent and enduring rules not only his own anger, but also that of others; the impatient serves and is enslaved to both. Thus St. Vincent on the rack, mocking the tyrant Dacian: Rise up, he says, against me, and rage with your whole spirit of malice; you will see me by the power of God able to do more than you yourself who torture me. He said it and did it, so that Dacian in a fury exclaimed: We are conquered. So also St. Lawrence, mocking Valerian: Wretch, he says, I have always longed for this feast; this flame gives me refreshment.
Third, the patient man by suffering often converts the impatient, and by his patience makes him patient; while the impatient man by his impatience makes a patient man impatient. The impatient man therefore is like a feverish person, and the patient man is like a physician who cures the fever of impatience, and restores the impatient to patience and right mind. Hear Blessed Peter Chrysologus, sermon 38: Does not every time the fire of choler inflames a wretched man, and the dominating fever renders the sick person mad, the senses are disturbed, the mind perishes, ferocity approaches, humanity departs, and, to be brief, while the man dies, fury lives? Hence it is that he gnashes his teeth, tears at his relatives, rends his neighbors, strikes with his fist, bites and assaults those attending him; then the physician arms himself for the praise of virtue, the glory of art, the height of fame; he takes up endurance with patience, despises injuries, bears bites, endures labors, and suffers not light punishments, in order to free the sufferer from punishment; he warms with oil, persists in his cares, administers medicine, certain that the sick man will repay the reward of honor with obedience, once he has recovered his health. I ask, what greater madness, what graver force of fury, what truly is the insanity of striking the cheek of a holy man, of beating the face of a gentle brother, of drenching the grace of a calm countenance with sad pallor? To strip a man of the only garment that covers him? And for a vile prize to leave nothing to God, nothing to man, nothing to nature, nothing to modesty? To press into service a man occupied with his own affairs? And to reckon another's punishment as one's own consolation? Therefore, brothers, if we have recognized that those who perpetrate such things labor under the most grievous madness, let us obey Christ, and let us bear the bites, blows, and burdens of our raging brothers with all the power of piety, so that we may both free our brothers from punishment and ourselves obtain the eternal reward of patience. See what I have said at length about the patient man and patience in Exodus 1.
Thus St. Gregory the Great used to say to the Emperor Maurice and his sons who persecuted him: Since I am a sinner, you reconcile God to yourselves so much the more (as I think) the more you afflict me serving Him sluggishly. So at last he conquered by patience him whom he could not by arms; so his Life records, book 4, chapter 17. Indeed:
A noble manner of conquering is patience: he conquers Who suffers; if you wish to conquer, learn to suffer.
Fourth, because the patient man by suffering acquires perfect patience, and Patience has a perfect work, James 1:4. See what was said there. Hence St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, when asked what was the shortest way to perfection, replied: If you suffer much for the name of Christ. Wherefore that noble lady at Alexandria, according to Cassian, sought from St. Athanasius a very troublesome sick woman, so that by serving her and receiving reproaches from her, she might learn patience: So that, she said, I may accustom myself to returning good for evil, and a benefit for an injury. Therefore to do brave things is Roman, to suffer brave things is Christian; because the queen of all things is patience, which overcomes all things, just as a cliff by enduring conquers the assaults of the sea.
Verse 30: Soundness of Heart Is the Life of the Flesh
The Hebrew קנאה kina means zeal, emulation, envy, as if to say: A healthy heart, that is, a soul sound and free from passions, especially from spite and anger (whence the Septuagint translates, a meek heart), makes even the body and flesh lively and healthy; but the passions of the soul, and especially envy, so afflict and consume the body that they destroy and cause to waste away even the bones, which are the hardest and most solid parts. For from a good and cheerful disposition of the soul there follows by natural sympathy a good condition of the body, and vice versa, as the natural philosophers and experience teach. For the soul breathes and communicates its health, rest, and joy, as well as its sickness, disturbance, and sadness, to the body, as being intimately united to it. So R. Levi, R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Jansenius, and others.
Hear St. Basil, homily On Envy: The envious confess this vice with their very face; their look is dry, their cheek somewhat sad and hollow, their brow downcast: whence envy is called pallor, that is, pain of heart, and because it makes the eyes, nose, mouth, etc., livid, that is, darkish, pale, and sad. For the envious, consuming themselves with grief, contract a livid color, according to that epigram of Virgil, On Envy:
Envy, a wasting poison for the wicked, Devours the marrow in untouched bones, And drinks all the blood from the limbs.
That this is the meaning is clear from the Septuagint, a meek man of heart is a physician; but the moth of the bones is a sensitive heart. The author of the Chain of the Greeks translates, a heart wounded with the sense of error, that is, one which, sick with envy, black bile, or anger, easily feels adversities and is agitated by passions, and is pricked and struck as if touched by a needle even by a single little word spoken somewhat inaptly. Seneca graphically depicts the sensitive heart, book 3 of On Anger, chapter 10: For as sores, he says, are painful at a light touch, and then even at the suspicion of being touched, so the affected mind is offended by the smallest things, to such a degree that greeting, a letter, a speech, and a question call some people to a quarrel: sick things are never touched without complaint. And in chapter 29, book 3, he says thus: What you see happening in dumb animals, the same you will find in stupid men; we are disturbed by trifling and empty things. A red color excites a bull, a cobra rises at a shadow, a cloth provokes bears and lions; everything that is fierce and rabid by nature is startled by the smallest things. The same happens to stupid minds; they are struck by the suspicion of things, to the point that they call moderate favors injuries.
The Chaldean also intimates this meaning, who says: he who saw the anger of his heart, it is medicine for his flesh; and as rottenness is strong in wood, so also envy is in the bones; and the Syriac, he who calms his anger is his own physician, the moth of the bones is envy; and Vatablus and Pagninus, the life of the body is a gentle soul; and the rottenness of the bones is envy, as if to say: The healthfulness of the body is to renounce anger and to be gentle; but envy corrupts the body. Note here: the Hebrew מרפה marpe means the same as health and gentleness; for physicians cure diseases by soothing them with remedies. A healthy heart therefore is a gentle heart, not a light one, as some incorrectly translate. Therefore the soundness of heart, first, is gentleness and meekness itself: for this is directly opposed to anger and envy, which is the greatest sickness, wasting, and death of the heart; and this brings health and longevity to the flesh and body, which anger and envy diminish and cut short. Hence the common saying: ta achola makrobia, that is, animals that lack bile and gall are long-lived, like deer.
Second, the soundness of heart is love and charity. Hence St. Augustine, or whoever the author is, sermon 47 On Various Topics: Let all the envious know, he says, who rejoice at the troubles of others, that they are putrefied, severed, and dead members, and therefore they have no feeling, and when they depart from other members, they feel nothing, because they are without sensation. Our sensation, brothers, is one faith, and one charity is one health: let us hold faith as sensation, let us hold charity as health; and although different members have different functions, yet let them be held together by the unity of charity, so that they may deserve to follow the head.
Third, the soundness of heart is the soundness of reason, mind, and judgment: for this soothes anger and envy, by proposing reasons that mitigate anger and envy, for example, that the things of this world are worthless and trivial, and unworthy things for which a man born for heaven should grow angry or envy anyone; that the good of charity, grace, and peace of mind is greater than all that on account of which one envies another; that envy harms the envious man more than him whom he envies; for the greatest torment of the envious man is envy itself, according to that saying:
The tyrants of Sicily found no Torment greater than envy.
Wherefore St. Gregory, book 5 of the Morals, chapter 34: He who, he says, desires to be fully free from the plague of envy, let him love that inheritance which the number of co-heirs does not narrow; which is one for all and whole for each; which is shown to be the more abundant the more the multitude of those who receive it is expanded. The diminishing therefore of envy is a feeling arising from interior sweetness, and its complete death is the perfect love of eternity. For when the mind is drawn back from the desire of that thing which is divided by the number of those who receive it, it loves its neighbor all the more, the less it fears losses for itself from the other's gain.
Fourth, R. Solomon, Baynus, and the Tigurina for soundness of heart translate, a healing heart: for this is what the Hebrew מרפא marpe properly means; whence the soundness of heart here may be taken not only in the passive sense, which consists in the heart being sound in itself, but also in the active sense, which heals others who are sick and afflicted, as if to say: A meek, prudent heart, full of charity, heals the pains and passions of others, by instructing, consoling, and encouraging them with prudent and gentle reasoning, and so restores life and joy to their flesh and body also. The complete opposite is done by a heart wasted with envy: for this infects and consumes both the spirits and the flesh and bones, both its own and others'. Hence the Septuagint translates, a meek man of heart is a physician, because he dispels anger and envy, which is a grievous disease, from both his own soul and that of others; and because he drives away the pallor and wasting of flesh and bones that flows from envy. The meek man therefore is marpe, or Raphael, that is, the physician of God, or I will heal, and God who heals, because just as Raphael healed and freed the elder Tobias from blindness, the younger from Asmodeus, and Sarah from widowhood and anguish, so likewise the meek man cures all the sicknesses of the soul.
He alludes to the natural health of the heart; for just as this natural health begets the life and health of the flesh and other members — for the heart is the workshop that generates the vital spirits, which it sends into each member; hence, if it is sound and vigorous, it will create lively and vigorous spirits, which, distributing through the members, will make them likewise alive and vigorous; but if it is sick and badly affected, it will generate corrupted spirits, which, scattering through the members, will breathe upon them its own sickness and defect, to such a degree that it will cause the bones to rot and waste away — so likewise the health of the heart, that is, of the mind, generates spirits, that is, thoughts and affections that are healthy, lively, and vigorous, by which all the senses, both interior and exterior, and the flesh itself and the whole body, are invigorated and flourish, and indeed it breathes the same vigor and bloom upon others; but if the mind is sick with anger, envy, or any other passion, it will create angry, envious, sad thoughts, etc., by which it will impress the same passions and sicknesses upon all the senses and the whole body, as Isaiah teaches, chapter 1, verses 5 and 6.
Hence St. Chrysostom, homily 6 on the Acts: Not so quickly, he says, did a physician free a feverish man from fevers by his treatment, as a longsuffering man, having taken hold of an angry man blazing with anger, cooled him by the spirit of his own words. And further on: The meek, he says, cure envy, the worst of all passions; or rather, a meek man never admits that grievous disease into his soul; but if he sees his brothers honored, he rejoices and congratulates them, reckoning the glory of others as his own, and considering all the things of friends as common, he rejoices indeed in their good fortune; and in their sorrows he grieves with them.
For this reason he so urgently warned in chapter 4, verse 23, saying: With all diligence keep your heart, because from it proceeds life; and therefore we must constantly pray with the Psalmist, Psalm 50: Create a clean heart in me, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. For it is God who says: I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in the midst of you, Ezekiel 36:26. Where I have said much about this heart.
Mystically, St. Gregory, book 5 of the Morals, last chapter; and Part 3 of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 6, by flesh and bones understands weak and strong virtues: The life of the flesh, he says, is soundness of heart, because if the innocence of the mind is preserved, even those things which are outwardly weak are strengthened. And the rottenness of the bones is envy, because through the vice of envy, even strong deeds of virtue perish before the eyes of God. For the bones to rot through envy is for even strong things to be destroyed.
Morally, learn here how harmful and pestilential envy is, not only to others who are envied, but to the envious man himself. Hence St. Basil, homily On Envy: Just as they say a viper is born by breaking open the belly of its mother, so envy gnaws and wastes away the soul that conceives it. St. Basil's brother, St. Gregory of Nyssa, in his Life of Moses: Envy, he says, is the chief of evils, the mother of death, the first gate of sin, the root of vices, the beginning of sorrow, the parent of calamity, the cause of disobedience, the origin of disgrace, a deadly sting, a hidden blade, a disease of nature, poisonous bile, a willingly embraced wasting, a bitter weapon, a nail piercing the soul, a flame of the heart, a fire in the entrails. He who has it is unhappy not because of his own evils, but because of the good fortune of others. Like kites, which they say feed on carcasses and die from precious ointment.
St. Jerome on chapter 5 to the Galatians: Envy is tormented by the happiness of others, and is split into a double passion, when either there is something in himself in which he does not want another to be, or seeing another to be better, he grieves that he is not similar to him. Someone beautifully played with the idea of envy, saying:
Nothing is more just than envy, which immediately Gnaws its very author and tortures his soul.
St. Chrysostom, homily 40 to the People: The envious are worse than wild beasts, and equal to demons, and perhaps worse: for wild beasts arm themselves against us when they lack food, or when provoked by us; but the envious, even when enticed by benefits, have pursued those who deserved well with injuries. Demons too, although they wage relentless war against us, do not plot against members of their own kind; whence Christ shut the mouths of the Jews when they accused Him of casting out demons by Beelzebub. But the envious have neither respected the communion of nature nor spared themselves. And shortly after: This sin is without any pardon. For the fornicator can allege concupiscence, the thief poverty, the murderer fury. But what cause will you give, I ask? Absolutely none, except only intense wickedness, etc. This vice is worse than fornication and adultery. For that stops only at the act, but the force of envy overturns the whole Church and harms the entire world. This is the mother of murder: thus Cain killed his brother, thus Esau Jacob, thus his brothers Joseph, thus the devil all men.
Wherefore the symbol and image of the envious man is the basilisk. For just as the basilisk, according to Solinus, Aelian, and others, is a serpent born as a deadly agent for the destruction of the earth, which by its very look infects the air, burns plants, kills animals, and dissolves even rocks; and yet this same creature, if it looks at itself in a mirror, is killed by its own weapons as its breath is reflected back upon it: so the envious man and calumniator, is preserved, even those things which are outwardly weak are strengthened. And the rottenness of the bones is envy, because through the vice of envy, even strong deeds of virtue perish before the eyes of God. For the bones to rot through envy is for even strong things to be destroyed. who hurls curses at a pure soul, is killed by his own arrows and slaughters himself with his own sword.
Symbolically, Hugh says: The life of the flesh is the soundness of the heart. By the name of heart, he says, the Prelate is denoted, because from him the spirit of life flows into others as into related members, when he is sound and healthy; but if he is unsound and labors under vices, he will instill his vices into the members subject to him, to such a degree that even the bones, that is, those who are strong and mighty in virtue, will gradually wither and waste away with vices, and especially if he suffers from the vice of envy and grieves that his subjects equal or surpass him in wisdom and grace: for this envy will in turn provoke the aversion, anger, and envy of the subjects, which will corrode, consume, and destroy the bones, that is, the innermost and strongest parts of the republic, college, monastery, etc.
Seneca says excellently, in his book On Clemency: For princes indeed, he says, to be envied and to envy are kindred evils; but to envy is the greater evil: for to be envied belongs to virtue, to envy to weakness and madness. Therefore the rottenness of the bones is envy, because, just as the marrow of the bones is nourished and irrigated from the head and brain through the spine, and therefore when the brain fails and is emptied, the marrow also fails and is emptied: so also when the prince, who is the head, fails through envy, the bones of the republic, that is, the nobles, waste away; for from this are generated rivalries, suspicions, hatreds, wars, and seditions, by which both the king and the nobles are destroyed.
To this purpose is what we read in the Life of St. Mechtild: when she was suffering severely from a headache, so much so that she could find no rest, Christ appeared to her, and showing the wound of His heart said: Enter here, that you may rest; immediately she entered with joy, and it seemed to her that her head was refreshed by as many silk pillows as there were blows of pain striking it. Hence she heard Christ saying: Silkworms produce silk, and of Me it is written: I am a worm, and not a man. Wherefore in every tribulation and need she would take refuge in the heart of Christ, and from it drew wonderful comfort and joy.
Finally, from this passage and similar ones, Abbot Chaeremon in Cassian, Conference 12, chapter 6, teaches that meekness and patience are the most effective remedy against the temptation of the flesh and all other vices, because patience commands and brings peace to the soul and all the members. By which, he says, it is clearly shown that patience is the most effective medicine of the heart, according to that saying of Solomon: A meek man of heart is a physician, so that it may uproot the fuel not only of anger, sadness, sloth, vainglory, and pride, but also of lust and all vices equally; for in longanimity (as Solomon says) is the prosperity of the king. For he who is always mild and tranquil is neither inflamed by the disturbance of anger, nor consumed by the anguish of sloth and sadness, nor puffed up by the vanity of vainglory, nor lifted up by the swelling of pride. For great peace have those who love the name of the Lord, and there is no stumbling block for them, Psalm 118.
Anagogically, St. Jerome at the end of his Commentary on Isaiah, on the words, Their worm shall not die: This worm, he says, is understood by most as the conscience of sinners, which torments those placed in punishments, according to what is said in Psalm 31: I was plunged in misery while the thorn is fastened. And in Proverbs, Chapter 14: The moth of the bones is a sensitive heart (in Greek aisthētikon, that is, sensitive). And again Proverbs 25: As a moth eats a garment, and a worm eats wood, so sorrow torments the heart of a man. For the damned in hell, like dogs, are supremely tormented by envy, anger, sadness, anguish, and the remorse of conscience, because they understand and feel what grievous punishments they are forced to endure for the slight pleasure of sin; for here these passions gnaw and consume them like moths, but in such a way that they never completely devour and destroy them, but continue gnawing and consuming for all eternity. Hence Isaiah says: Their worm shall not die.
Verse 31: He Who Slanders the Needy Reproaches His Maker
For slanders the Hebrew is עשק oschek, that is, he uses force, defrauds, oppresses. He slanders therefore, that is, he casts calumny and reproach, mocks, ridicules. Again, he slanders, that is, by calumny, sycophancy (for the Septuagint translates sykophantei, about which word I shall say more in chapter 28, verse 10), and fraud he defrauds the poor person either of his right or of the alms owed to him: for it is opposed to he who has mercy. Hence Pagninus translates, he who takes something from the poor; the Tigurina, he who uses force against the lowly; others, he who defrauds the needy. For reproaches the Septuagint translates, paroxynei, that is, irritates, or exasperates; Theodotion, blasphemes; St. Jerome against Rufinus, provokes; the Chaldean, he who oppresses the poor makes reproach for his own soul; and he who has mercy on the one suffering injury, honors himself, because we are all brothers from the same God the Father, indeed from the same Adam, and the same earth, and born of the same Eve. Just as therefore he who oppresses or helps his brother oppresses or helps, as it were, a part of himself and himself: so also he who oppresses or relieves the poor oppresses or relieves his brother and himself; for a brother is, as it were, a second self. The Syriac, he who speaks evil to the poor stirs the anger of the Creator; he who honors the Lord has mercy on the poor.
You may ask why? The first reason is general, which I have already given, namely that the poor person by the common right of creation is the work and creature of God; and he who praises or blames a creature tacitly praises or blames the Creator as the craftsman who created and fashioned it. So St. Paulinus, letter 32: He who despises the poor, he says, provokes Him who made him, that is, the common Creator of all, who just as He rejoices in the refreshment of the needy, so He is saddened by their failure.
The second reason is specific, namely that poverty, equally with wealth, was created by God. For God willed that the greater part of men be poor, both for the merit of patience and poverty; and so that through poverty they would be compelled to labor, to cultivate fields, and to practice all the mechanical arts, without which human life and the order of the universe would not hold together, nor subsist. For, as St. Chrysostom says, homily Against those who come only to feasts, which is the third from the last of volume 5: If poverty were removed, the entire constitution of life would be destroyed, and every manner of living would be thrown into confusion; because there would be no sailor, no helmsman, no farmer, no weaver, no shoemaker, no painter, nor any other craftsman: and if we were to lack these, everything would go to ruin; for now the necessity of poverty, like some excellent teacher, drives each person even unwillingly to work. But if all were rich, all would also live in idleness; and so everything would be corrupted, and nothing would not perish. And from this fact St. Chrysostom in the same place shows that there is a Deity, and demonstrates His providence over human affairs. This is what Ecclesiasticus says, chapter 11:14: Poverty and wealth (that is, riches) are from God. See what was said there. He therefore who criticizes or mocks the poor, tacitly criticizes and mocks God, and God's providence, which established the order and series of the poor. Much more does he do this who oppresses the poor. For the violent oppressor thinks that God cannot withdraw the poor person from his power and force, as R. Levi and Aben-Ezra say.
The third reason, more proper and particular, is that God by His ineffable providence and arrangement has so ordered all things that in particular cases these and those should be poor, while others should be rich, according to Proverbs 22:2: The rich and the poor have met one another; the Lord is the maker of them both. Hear St. Chrysostom in the Chain of the Greeks: Two sins are assigned in this place, namely the calumny of the poor, and the offense against God. But how does the reviler of the poor irritate God, who had made him? Because God not only created him according to soul and body, but also created him such as he is, namely poor and wretched, and so constituted that he could easily be seized and attacked by a malicious tongue. You will say again: If God creates some people needy, and by His wisdom ordains that they lead a needy and wretched life, why should we have mercy on them? For indeed I have heard not a few who spoke thus: By what right are we obligated to be generous and merciful to the poor? If God had loved them, He would not have made them poor. How long shall we trifle against our own salvation? How long shall we laugh at those things on account of which we rightly ought to tremble, fear, and shudder? Do we make a mockery of one who is sordid and filled with a thousand evils? Did God love Lazarus the beggar and the ulcerous man more, or the rich man who feasted? Surely this destroys us, that we turn even divine utterances into jests and witticisms.
Fourth, because God claims the poor for Himself as those abandoned by the world and often oppressed, and bears a special care, providence, and protection for them, just as a mother bears special care for her small children, the sick, and the afflicted, according to that saying: To you the poor man is left, you shall be a helper to the orphan, Psalm 10:34. The poor therefore have God as the steward and manager of their sustenance and life, who presides over the Angels in heaven, and under whom those who bear the world bow down. Hence Christ also says: What you did to one of the least of Mine, you did to Me; whence also on the day of judgment He will award heaven to those who are generous to the poor, as being benefactors to Himself, but will consign the avaricious toward the poor to hell, as being malefactors to Himself, Matthew 25.
Fifth, because Christ coming into the world honored, consecrated, and as it were deified poverty, because He united it to Himself, that is, to God, hypostatically together with human nature: For He chose a poor mother, a poor fortune, and in short everything poor, says the Council of Ephesus. The poor person therefore is the living image of the poor Christ, as St. Francis used to say.
Sixth, because Christ sanctioned voluntary poverty as an Evangelical counsel, and placed it in the first place among the blessed of His kingdom, saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, Matthew 5:3. For this poverty is divine and imitates and reflects the perfections of God. For just as God, self-sufficient, rises above all created things, so also the poor in spirit, despising earthly things and yearning for heavenly ones, fixed in God, looks down upon everything that is beneath God.
Again, just as God is Lord of the whole world, so also in his own way is the poor in spirit, according to that saying of St. Paul, 2 Corinthians 6: Having nothing and possessing all things. Hence Climacus, step 17, asserts that the poor monk is lord of the world, and because he has cast his care upon God, he possesses all nations as his servants through faith. He adds that the poor servant of God loves nothing in a disordered way: for all things that he has, or can have, he reckons as if they did not exist; and if they should depart, he esteems them as dung. In the same sense, St. Bernard says excellently, sermon 21 on the Canticle, that what was said by the Only-Begotten, as he puts it: If I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all things to Myself; this same thing, he says, is common to all His brothers, to whom all things are not only added but also subjected, provided they have been stripped of earthly things and raised higher above them. If this is so, he says: Let not the rich of this world think that the brothers of Christ possess only heavenly things, because they hear Him saying: Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Let them not, I say, think that they possess only heavenly things, because they hear those alone in the promise. They also possess earthly things, and indeed as having nothing and possessing all things, certainly all the more masters in proportion as they are less covetous. In a word, for the faithful man the whole world is a treasure of riches. The whole, plainly, because both adversity and prosperity equally serve him and conspire together for his good. Therefore the miser hungers for earthly things like a beggar, the faithful man despises them like a lord. The one by possessing begs, the other by despising preserves.
Moreover, just as God is rich in grace and virtues, so also is the poor in spirit; whom, as St. Ambrose says, book 3, letter 1, God alone knows to be rich, as being rich in eternity, who stores up not the fruits of wealth but of virtues. Does he not seem rich to you who has peace of mind, tranquillity, and rest, so that he desires nothing, is agitated by no storms of desires, neither loathes old things nor seeks new ones, and does not become needy amid the greatest riches by always desiring?
Furthermore, just as God, elevated above all earthly things, dwells in heaven, so also the poor in spirit, according to that saying of St. Cyprian, treatise On the Lord's Prayer: He who has now renounced the world is greater than its honors and the world; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms. And St. Gregory, book 1 of the Register, letter 5, describing the state of his mind when he was a religious: Seeking nothing in this world, he says, fearing nothing, I seemed to myself to stand on a certain pinnacle of things, so that I almost believed fulfilled in me what I had learned from the promise of the Lord through the Prophet (Isaiah, chapter 58): I will lift you above the height of the earth. For he is lifted above the height of the earth who, even the things that seem lofty and glorious in the present world, tramples upon by contempt of mind. The poor in spirit therefore, and consequently the despiser of the world, leads:
Innocent days without cloud, nights without crime; He occupies heaven on earth, nor are the stars lacking.
Finally, the poor in spirit emulates, as far as is permitted, the purity, sanctity, and perfection of God and Christ, and strives to pour his own will entirely into the divine, so that he may will in all things the same as God wills, and so become one spirit with Him, and therefore he aspires to and imitates the stability and eternity of God. Hear St. Bernard, sermon 21 on the Canticle: You will be, he says, amid the adversities and prosperities of changing times, holding a certain image of eternity, namely this inviolable and unshaken equanimity of a constant soul, blessing the Lord at all times, and thereby claiming for yourself, even in the uncertain events and certain failings of this wavering world, a state of perpetual immutability in a certain way, as you begin to renew and reform yourself in that distinguished ancient likeness of the eternal God, in whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration. For as He Himself is, so you too will be in this world, neither timid in adversity, nor dissolute in prosperity.
Wherefore Salvian, Bishop of Marseilles, who flourished in the year of the Lord 460: Concerning those, he says, who, freed from all or nearly all burdens, follow the way of the Savior, and the Lord Jesus Christ not in sanctity alone, but also in poverty, nothing can be said except only what the Prophet also said: But Your friends, O God, are exceedingly honored by me; for I honor them in no other way than as imitators of Christ, I venerate them in no other way than as images of God, I look up to them in no other way than as members of Christ. The same author, book 3 Against Avarice, calls the poor the money-changers of the Savior, and in book 4, forcefully: There are those, he says, who even though they lack many things, do not lack everything. Christ alone is the only one for whom there is nothing that does not fail in the entire human race. None of His servants is in exile, none is tormented by cold and nakedness, with whom He does not also feel cold. He alone hungers with the hungry; He alone thirsts with the thirsty. And therefore, as far as His compassion extends, He is in greater need than all others. For every needy person is in need only for himself; Christ alone is the only one who begs in the whole body of the poor. And since this is so, what do you say, O man, who call yourself a Christian, when you see Christ in need, that you leave your resources to those who are not in want? Christ is poor, and you heap up the riches of the wealthy. Christ hungers, and you prepare delicacies for those who have plenty. Christ even complains that He lacks water, and by you the cellars of drunkards are filled with wine. Christ is worn out by the want of all things, and by you supplies are gathered for the luxurious. Christ promises you eternal rewards for the gifts given by you, and you lavish everything on those who will give you nothing in return.
To this belongs the story of Blessed Martin, clothing Christ in a poor man at Amiens, when Christ the following night appeared to him surrounded by a choir of Angels, displaying the garment given by him to the poor man and saying: Martin, still a catechumen, clothed Me with this garment. So Severus in the Life of St. Martin.
St. Chrysostom excellently says that poverty is a kind of persona or mask, under which God Himself hides and is concealed: and when a beggar extends his hand, God Himself receives the alms.
Verse 32: The Impious Man Expelled in His Wickedness
Various are the versions and consequently the interpretations here: First, Baynus, translating sua as his (referring to the wicked), expounds thus: The impious man in the very machination of his wickedness, that is, while he contrives and schemes it, is often expelled from both life and his scheme: hence the just man hopes in his death, namely that with him removed by death, he will be freed from his harassment and injury.
Second, the Septuagint translates, in his wickedness the impious man is repelled, but he who trusts in his holiness is just; or, as the author of the Greek Chain reads: The impious man on account of his wickedness will be expelled and proscribed; but he who hopes in the Lord with justice and holiness will be deemed just; and he explains it thus: The impious man, he says, on account of his wickedness will be expelled and uprooted from the earth, and cast out he will be plunged into a narrow place, and there he will be guarded and watched forever. But he who trusts in the Lord, etc. It is indeed beautiful and safe to trust in the Lord; if however one has been furnished with good works, since such a man will merit the name of a just and holy man before Him. For hope is vain and rash which is utterly destitute of good works.
You may ask, why did the Septuagint substitute holiness for death? I answer, because a holy death follows the holy life of the just man: the death of the just man therefore is holy, indeed holiness itself, because it confirms, blesses, and glorifies the just man in holiness. And this is the reason why the just man hopes in his death: because his death is holy and the consummation of holiness. For if his death were impious and wicked, he certainly would not hope for it, but would dread it. Perhaps also the Septuagint innovates the Greek ὁσιότης, that is, holiness, and assigns it a new meaning (as they did with certain other Greek words), so that it means the same as ὅσια, that is, the funeral rites of the dead, the due ceremonies of burial, parentalia, the expiation of souls. Whence ὁσιόω means to expiate, to render due rites, also to sanctify, to consecrate. They understand holiness here therefore not so much of life as of funeral rites, by which namely the deceased, expiated after the manner of the faithful by the prayers and sacrifices of the living, may be freed from the punishments of Purgatory and pass into eternal rest. For the dying desire this, and commend it to their own, and place their hopes after death in it.
Third, the Chaldean, in his wickedness the impious man is repelled (the Syriac, destroyed); and he who trusts that he will die, is just; the Syriac, he who trusts that he is free from sins, is just. For he who is free from sins does not fear death but awaits it as a door and passage to a better life. Hence Climacus, step 6: Proven is that man, he says, who expects death every day; but truly holy is he who desires it every hour.
Fourth, Jansenius: For repelled, he says, the Hebrew word more properly signifies, shall be driven or pushed forward, according to which meaning it will be most fittingly signified that the impious man is to be driven by his own wickedness, so that he is never secure or stable, but always of a restless mind, harassed by the remorse of conscience; so that he is carried away to every kind of vice, driven by the blast of his own passions and evil suggestions, and by the disposition of divine justice he is driven from one misfortune into another. For this is what the first psalm compares the impious man to: dust which the wind casts from the face of the earth. And in another place: Let them become, he says, like dust before the face of the wind, and the angel of the Lord pressing upon them, Psalm 34; or, as the Hebrew has it, driving them. Therefore Isaiah also says that the impious are like a boiling sea that cannot be at rest, and that there is no peace for the impious, Isaiah 57. With this meaning what is opposed agrees well: But the just man hopes in his death, that is, while the impious man is always driven by his wickedness so that he is never secure anywhere; on the contrary, the just man even in his death, when men are most accustomed to fear, is confident and secure.
Fifth, more forcefully our translator renders the Hebrew יִדָּחֶה iiddache as shall be expelled, as if to say: In wickedness, that is, from wickedness, through wickedness, on account of wickedness, and often in wickedness itself and in the very act of the crime, the impious man is expelled from life, hope, scheming, happiness, and all his goods, and is thrust into hell to be consigned to eternal chains, fires, and torments: therefore he dies unwillingly, fearfully, and anxiously, indeed by violence he is expelled from life; but the just man hopes in his death, namely that through death he will pass to a blessed life, from earth to heaven, from men to the Angels and God, from time to a happy eternity; therefore he dies willingly, joyfully, and eagerly. He hopes therefore and trusts in his death, that is, he dies with confidence, indeed he desires and longs for death as the end of the labors, pains, and troubles of this life, and the beginning of the joys and happiness of eternity. Hence a Philosopher, asked in what respect the pious differed from the impious, replied: In good hope. For the pious hope for a better lot and life, the impious despair, indeed they expect a most wretched lot and life in hell. Therefore the impious man hopes in life for riches, pleasures, and honors; but expelled from these, he falls from his hope; but the just man hopes for nothing in this life, expects nothing in it except tribulations; but he hopes in death, namely that through it his afflictions will end and his delights will begin. He says therefore: Life is tedious to me, death is my desire. Thus violently, fearfully, and anxiously were expelled from life Antiochus, 2 Maccabees 9, Herod the infanticide, Diocletian, Valerian, Maximian, Valens, etc.
Conversely, these were the words of the pious who were confident in death. St. Nicholas: Into Your hands, O Lord, I commend my spirit; St. Martin: Allow me to look at heaven rather than earth, so that the spirit, about to go on its journey to the Lord, may be directed; St. Ambrose: I have not lived in such a way that I am ashamed to live. Nor do I fear death, because we have a good Lord; St. Jerome: Woe to me, that my sojourn has been prolonged! As the deer longs for the springs of water, so my soul longs for You, O God; St. Mary of Egypt: Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace; the Venerable Bede: Glory to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit; St. Gorgonia: In peace, in the selfsame, I will sleep and rest; St. Francis: Bring my soul out of prison to confess Your name; the just wait for me until You reward me; Blessed Peter of Alcantara: I rejoiced in the things that were said to me: we shall go into the house of the Lord; St. Mary of Oignies: How beautiful You are, O Lord our King! Alleluia; St. Nicholas of Tolentino: My Lord Jesus Christ, leaning upon His most holy Mother and our Father Augustine, says to me: Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.
See more in St. Gregory, book 4 of the Dialogues, and in John Severanus, who last year published a large volume on the precious death of the Saints.
But most of all the Martyrs hope in their death, because through martyrdom they pass to the crowns and palms of the Martyrs. Hence our Edmund Campion, a noble champion of the faith in England, condemned to the cross, sang for joy: We praise You, O God; which before him John Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, had done. And Rudolph Sherwin, Campion's companion in death: This is the day, he said, which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it. The words of the other Martyrs were similar, similar their exultations and jubilations: for death is for them the seed of eternal glory and the supreme crown. Wherefore the Psalmist, congratulating them, sings: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints, Psalm 115; which namely life makes precious in the Confessors, and the cause in the Martyrs, whose past life is dyed with perpetual death. Hence Prudentius, On the Crowns:
A beautiful thing, he says, to suffer a blow beneath the sword of the persecutor, Through a great wound a noble gate is opened for the just.
Thus St. Genesius of Arles, says Eucherius, is immolated to Christ and drenched with triumphant blood, and with the wave of precious blood the Sacraments of baptism are fulfilled. And truly the wounds of the Martyrs are precious, which lend a brief life to God in exchange for eternity. Of whom you may rightly say:
Purple blood flowed from the snowy breast.
And that saying of Claudian on Honorius:
And the lion, rejoicing in his sacred wounds, Receives the spear, more proud than death.
For as many as are the wounds in a Martyr, so many are his glories. Hence Tertullian, book On the Soul, chapter 55, says of them that they glory and rejoice even in the scars of their bodies,
They who by the wound of iron, By the gift of martyrdom, shine as a proud gem.
And Fortunatus on the Maccabees:
Breasts which could conquer warlike steel, Invite dear wounds to their own throats.
St. Leo, sermon On St. Lawrence: All torments, he says, were found for the glory of the Martyrs, when the instruments of punishment passed into the honor of triumph. St. Cyprian, book 2, letter 6: Blood flowed, he says, which would extinguish the fire of persecution, which would overcome with glorious gore the flames and fires of hell; and in his Exhortation to the Martyrs: Precious is this death which buys immortality at the price of its own blood, which has received the crown in the consummation of virtue. So in Eucherius: The mother, honorable in her glorious mourning, poured the Maccabean sons into the bosom of divine adoption by a death to be envied. And Arnulph of Lisieux, in a sermon at the Council of Tours: Happy, he says, are those who compensated for the priceless blood of Christ with their own unworthy and corruptible blood! It is a beautiful thing for us (says Tertullian, chapter 39 of the Apology) that we are summoned to tribunals, we conquer when we are slain; this is the palm-garment, this the chariot of our triumph: the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of Christians; for the light repays such loss abundantly, this kind of death is glorious. Prudentius: The triumph of the Lord is the passion of the Martyrs, and for the name of Christ the shedding of blood, and amid torments joy.
Verse 33: In the Heart of the Prudent Wisdom Rests
In Hebrew, in the heart of the intelligent man wisdom rests, and in the midst of fools it is known, that is, when the prudent and intelligent man brings forth his wisdom among fools, that is, the wicked, so as to restrain their folly and impiety, and teach them prudence and probity, as if to say: Wisdom sitting in the heart of the wise man, that is, the prudent and good, as in its own chamber and throne, rests, and adorns, illumines, and decorates him with all its splendor, beauty, and glory, to such a degree that it even enlightens and changes the foolish and impious, and makes them wise and pious. So great is the power of wisdom and virtue. So great in turn is the zeal and ardor of the wise and holy man, who, knowing that the wisdom and holiness given to him was not for himself alone, but as a universal good, imparts and communicates it to all others, especially the unwise: therefore he loses so little of his wisdom that he increases it by great increments of advancement: just as fire, insinuating itself into neighboring straw, does not diminish but amplifies its heat; and the sun, spreading its rays, does not empty but multiplies its light; and God, creating Angels, men, the world, and communicating His gifts to them, does not diminish them but extends them far and wide: for it is the property of divinity to communicate itself and its gifts to creatures without any loss to itself, indeed with great increase of its glory. Therefore let the wise and holy man imitate God, so that like a sun he may walk among fools and breathe upon all the rays of his wisdom:
As if God walking on earth, And a holy Angel in the flesh.
Furthermore, the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theodotion translate the opposite way: in the good heart of a man wisdom rests; but in the heart of the foolish it is not recognized, as if to say: Wisdom and virtue dwells in a wise and holy heart; but in a foolish and wicked heart there dwells not wisdom, but folly and malice, according to Wisdom 1:4: Into a malicious soul wisdom will not enter, nor will it dwell in a body subject to sins.
It seems therefore that the Hebrew codices formerly varied: for those which the Septuagint, Aquila, and Theodotion used had the negation not; but the codices which our translator and the Chaldean used lacked it, just as today all the Hebrew and Latin codices everywhere also lack it: and each reading has its own true and fitting meaning, as is clear from what has been said.
Verse 34: Justice Exalts a Nation
Understand justice here both in the general sense for any virtue, and in the special sense as the virtue that renders to each his own right: for this most of all exalts and elevates kings, kingdoms, and republics, just as conversely plundering, tyrannies, and all other injustices and impieties are the ruin and destruction of kings and kingdoms. For makes wretched there is a double reading in the Hebrew. For some codices read חסר cheser, that is, deficiency, diminution, want, misery. So the Septuagint read. Hence they translate, but sins diminish tribes and families. Our translator also seems to have read the same.
Now for חסר cheser others read חסד chesed, that is, piety; for the letters ר and ד are similar and neighboring; but chesed various interpreters translate and explain variously. First, some say, as if: But the piety of peoples is sin, that is, the religion and piety of the nations is the sin of idolatry: for their religion is the worship of idols, not of the true God. Others say, as if: Whatever the idolatrous nations do without faith is sin. But this is an error that conflicts with the words of St. Paul, Romans 2:14; Matthew 5:47; Daniel chapter 4, verse 24. See what was said on Romans 14:23, on the words: Everything that is not from faith is sin.
Second, others say, as if: Chesed, that is, piety or mercy, is for peoples a sin-offering, that is, a sacrifice for sin, by which namely the people may expiate their sins, according to Daniel 4: Redeem your sins with alms. For sin in Scripture not infrequently signifies by metonymy a victim for sin. Hence Vatablus translates, but beneficence for peoples is an expiatory sacrifice.
Third, and more fittingly, chesed here, as also in Leviticus 20, verses 17 and 25, can be taken to mean disgrace, as if to say: Justice makes a nation glorious: but sin makes it disgraceful and wretched, as our translator renders. Hence also the Chaldean, the disgrace of the people is sin; the Syriac, sin makes them vile.
Fourth, our Salazar also fittingly takes chesed, that is, mercy, metonymically for misery, which is the object of mercy, as if to say: The mercy of peoples is sin, that is, sin makes peoples worthy of pity and mercy, namely on account of their misery; while conversely justice endows peoples with praise and glory, and therefore makes them worthy not of pity, but of emulation even to the point of envy.
Moreover, justice exalts kings and peoples, both in wealth, renown, and glory; and by extending their kingdoms, borders, and boundaries; and by prospering them in all things; and finally by adorning them with every virtue and grace in this life, and with glory in the future, which is the end of every republic, namely to direct peoples through virtues to heavenly happiness and glory. Conversely, the misery that sin brings upon peoples is manifold, namely famine, pestilence, war, seditions, plunder, deceit, fraud, disgrace, crimes, and finally hell. Examples are found in the tribe of Benjamin, which on account of the outrage committed against the wife of the Levite was utterly cut down and nearly exterminated, Judges 20:47. Likewise in the families of Jeroboam, Jehu, and all the kings of Israel, which were in turn utterly destroyed by their successors; while conversely under David, Solomon, Hezekiah, and Josiah, when justice and piety flourished, both their family and the people subject to them were powerful, rich, happy, and glorious. The same may be seen today in just and pious kings and kingdoms. Indeed God exalts and enriches the Emperor Ferdinand II with so many victories, lands, and kingdoms, that for many hundreds of years no Emperor was more powerful, more fortunate, or more glorious than he, and he himself seems to be the just happiness and the happy justice of his times, indeed of many centuries: for justice begets exaltation, and exaltation begets happiness. Indeed in these very days in which I write, he showed his justice and piety by a distinguished and kingly maxim. For when a certain heretical prince demanded from him liberty of religion, he responded prudently, justly, and indeed piously, that this liberty was not within his jurisdiction and authority, and that it should be sought not from the Emperor, but from the Pontiff. See Thomas Bozius, On the Signs of the Church, where he recounts and demonstrates the happiness of the faithful and pious in every kind of thing, and the unhappiness of the unbelieving and impious.
Verse 35: An Intelligent Minister Is Acceptable to the King
The useless one is here called foolish and imprudent, and therefore harmful and injurious, as being one who puts the king to shame. For he is contrasted with the intelligent one.
An intelligent minister of the king therefore is one who is prudent in counsel, clever in discovering, versatile in dealing with people, dexterous in handling affairs, effective in executing, swift in expediting, and in sum wise and strong in every action, as well as faithful and upright; and so he is useful to the king for wisely and successfully conducting all his business. This man therefore is acceptable to the king, indeed he is like the mouth, hand, and soul of the king. Wherefore Sixtus, not the Pontiff but the Philosopher, in his Sentences, number 180: Revere, he says, the wise man as a living image of God. And number 137: God inhabits the mind of the wise man.
The Hebrew, Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion have, the good pleasure or favor of the king toward an intelligent servant, and his anger or fury will be confounding, that is, putting to shame; the Chaldean, in his anger or displeasure he will be one who puts to shame; the Syriac, by his wisdom the wicked man is abolished; Pagninus, the love of the king is toward an intelligent servant, and his anger will be against him who puts him to shame; the Tigurina, but the disgraceful one kindles his anger. The government of the republic and of peoples is a supremely difficult and arduous matter: hence it demands the highest prudence and wisdom. Wherefore kings and princes select for themselves counselors and administrators excelling in wisdom, and hold them very dear, indeed regard, love, and honor them as masters and governors; conversely they hate the imprudent and foolish, who either suggest counsels through imprudence, or imprudently carry out what was prudently established, such as the rash, the unskilled, the inexperienced, the headlong, the indiscreet, the hot-tempered, and the like. For these men bring shame and disgrace both upon themselves and upon the king whose administrators they are, and heap dishonor and ignominy upon him. For their imprudence and folly is ascribed and imputed to the king who appointed them: just as conversely, the prudence and wisdom of an ambassador or minister is attributed to the king; for the king is esteemed to be such as his ambassador, counselor, or administrator is. That man therefore carries the honor or dishonor of his king in his mouth and in his hand.
Thus David was a wise minister of Saul, and dear to him, until after he had slain Goliath, and Saul heard him preferred to himself by the people singing: Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands; moved by envy, he persecuted him. Thus the wise minister, indeed the teacher, of Arcadius was Arsenius, later an anchorite; of Justinian, Belisarius; of Theodoric, Cassiodorus; of Henry VIII, King of England, Thomas More, not a papist, but a wise man: as long as Henry trusted himself to him, so long he was wise; but when, carried away by lust, he rejected his sound counsels, he became foolish, and therefore killed Thomas; in whose death he cut off the head not so much of Thomas as of himself and all of England. Foolish ministers were Eusebius to Constantine, Valens and Ursacius the Arians to Constantius, Eutropius to Arcadius, Maximus to Julian, Wolsey to Henry VIII, King of England, who therefore incurred the anger of kings and perished miserably.
Memorable is the opinion of Homulius the Roman Senator, who said that he would rather have a bad prince who had good counselors and friends, than a good one who had bad ones to whom he would commit the administration. For the government depends more on these quasi-administrators than on the prince himself: and these too, if they are good, will make the prince good. So Fulgosius, book 7, chapter 2. Alfonso, King of Aragon, used to say that the counselors of kings ought to be like kings, or to have the souls of kings. When the Catalans urged him to give his young son Alfonso seven wise, just, and upright governors, he replied: If you give him not seven, I say, but even one such man, I would readily entrust to him both the government and the kingdom. So Aeneas Sylvius and Panormitanus, book 2, On the Deeds of Alfonso.
Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, says Plutarch in his Life, used to declare that more cities had been subdued by Cineas through oratory than by himself through arms. He held him in honor and employed his services in the most important affairs, according to that saying of Euripides: Eloquent words can storm everything that threatening steel can. This is that Cineas who, sent ahead by Pyrrhus, with his wise speech of princes, so that as the occasion demands they may know how to turn themselves to every shape and manner of approach appropriate to the place, persons, and time, by which they may conclude the business entrusted to them and correct errors committed.
Furthermore, the author of the Greek Chain mystically refers this versatility to repentance, by which the penitent, coming to his senses, turns from sin to God, and he gives as examples Saints Peter and Paul: Of such versatility, he says, that is, of easy and happy conversion, Paul was a minister; since the zeal with which he burned, but not according to knowledge, touched by the heavenly Power he suddenly changed into that which was according to knowledge. Peter was also such a minister; for having denied the Lord three times, turning again to repentance with his whole soul, he not only freed himself from that foul stain of denial, but even became more illustrious and dearer to God than he had been before.
But for the latter part of the verse or antithesis, the Septuagint translates, anger destroys even the prudent, as if they were translating literally from the Hebrew, anger is one that puts to shame, that is, destroys, the wise; for fools are not put to shame, inasmuch as being full of disgraces and shameful things, they have rubbed their foreheads bare and have unlearned how to feel shame; indeed they have become callous in the sense of shame.
Tropologically, if a king seeks intelligent ministers, and hates foolish ones, how much more does God who is the King of kings? Hence St. Ambrose on Psalm 118, octave 6: He has, he says, skillful ministers of very many operations. The same men are fishermen, the same are also hunters and reapers. These are the Apostles and the apostolic teachers and preachers, who ought to employ all skill in capturing souls, the same skill that fishermen use in catching fish, hunters in catching birds and wild beasts, and reapers in gathering the harvest, as St. Basil beautifully teaches, homily on the text, Attend to yourself. and by his eloquent speech was winning and subjecting all peoples to Pyrrhus, who at last wisely and modestly reproving Pyrrhus's lust for dominion: What, he said, shall we do, O Pyrrhus, after capturing Italy? We shall invade Sicily, said Pyrrhus. What after capturing Sicily? Cineas continued: We shall attempt Africa and Carthage, said Pyrrhus. What after Africa? Cineas rejoined. When we have become masters of all, what then? Pyrrhus, smiling: We shall live in leisure, good man, we shall drink together daily, and amuse ourselves with mutual conversation. Then Cineas aptly: And now, he said, what prevents us from drinking together and passing our leisure together, since we already possess these things, and they are at hand without trouble, which we are about to seek through blood, through much sweat, through dangers, and bring many calamities upon others and receive them ourselves? Was this not wise counsel? Pyrrhus would have been fortunate if he had followed it; but the lust for ruling drove him astray and destroyed him, so that he became prey to the Romans.
Furthermore, the Septuagint explains who the intelligent minister is, when it adds: An intelligent minister is acceptable to the king, and by his agility he removes disgrace, as if to say: An intelligent minister is therefore pleasing to the king, because by his agility, that is, his diligence, skill, grace, and swiftness, he immediately dispatches what has been entrusted to him by the king. Hence the author of the Greek Chain reads: For by his shrewdness and agility he removes disgrace from their midst. For in Greek it is eustrophia, that is, shrewdness, agility, by which one turns and adapts oneself in all directions to accomplish the task. Hence eustrophos means well-turned, twisting, versatile, agile, adaptable, and thus immediately correcting error; such as was Ulysses, who transformed himself into every form and manner of men. Hence he is called by Homer polytropos, that is, multiform, manifold, multifarious; and such ought to be the ambassadors and ministers of princes, so that according to the occasion they may know how to turn themselves into every form and manner, appropriate to the place, persons, and time, by which they may dispatch the affairs entrusted to them, and correct errors that have been committed.