Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
A dry morsel with joy is better than sacrifices with strife: a wise servant will rule over foolish sons: the Lord tests hearts: he who despises the poor despises God: the crown of the old is their grandchildren; he who conceals a fault gains friends: the fool trusts in his folly: riches are useless to the fool: he who makes his house high seeks ruin: a friend loves at all times: a joyful spirit makes a flourishing body, a sad one dries up the bones: wisdom shines in the face of the wise: the fool who keeps silent will be considered wise.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 17:1-28
1. Better is a dry morsel with joy, than a house full of sacrifices with strife. 2. A wise servant shall rule over foolish sons, and shall divide the inheritance among the brothers. 3. As silver is tested by fire, and gold by the furnace, so the Lord tests hearts. 4. The wicked obeys an unjust tongue, and the deceitful heeds lying lips. 5. He who despises the poor reproaches his Maker; and he who rejoices at another's ruin shall not go unpunished. 6. The crown of the old is their grandchildren; and the glory of children is their parents. 7. Eloquent words do not befit a fool, nor lying lips a prince. 8. A most pleasing gem is the expectation of him who waits; wherever he turns, he understands prudently. 9. He who conceals a fault seeks friendships; he who repeats a matter separates allies. 10. A reproof profits the prudent more than a hundred blows the fool. 11. The wicked always seeks quarrels; but a cruel angel shall be sent against him. 12. It is better to meet a she-bear robbed of her cubs, than a fool trusting in his folly. 13. He who returns evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house. 14. He who releases water is the source of quarrels; and before he suffers insult, he abandons judgment. 15. He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both are abominable before God. 16. What does it profit a fool to have riches, when he cannot buy wisdom? He who makes his house high, seeks ruin; and he who avoids learning shall fall into evils. 17. He who is a friend loves at all times; and a brother is proven in distress. 18. A foolish man claps his hands when he has pledged surety for his friend. 19. He who plots discord loves quarrels; and he who raises his threshold seeks ruin. 20. He who is of a perverse heart shall not find good; and he who turns his tongue shall fall into evil. 21. A fool is born to his own shame; but neither shall the father rejoice in a fool. 22. A joyful spirit makes for a flourishing life; a sad spirit dries up the bones. 23. The wicked accepts bribes from the bosom, to pervert the paths of justice. 24. Wisdom shines in the face of the prudent; the eyes of fools are at the ends of the earth. 25. A foolish son is the anger of his father and the grief of her who bore him. 26. It is not good to impose a fine on the just, nor to strike the prince who judges rightly. 27. He who restrains his words is learned and prudent; and the man of understanding is of a precious spirit. 28. Even a fool, if he keeps silent, will be considered wise; and if he closes his lips, intelligent.
Verse 1: Better Is a Dry Morsel with Joy Than a House Full of Sacrifices with Strife
1. BETTER IS A DRY MORSEL (Theodotion: a morsel by itself, that is, alone without any side dish) WITH JOY, THAN A HOUSE FULL OF SACRIFICES WITH STRIFE. — In Hebrew: better is a dry morsel and peace with it, than a house full of sacrifices of strife; the Septuagint: better is a morsel with pleasure in peace, than a house of many goods, and of unjust sacrifices with strife; the Syriac: better is dry bread with tranquility, than a house full of sacrifices of judgment, that is, sacrifices extorted through a judge in court; St. Ambrose, Book II of Duties, ch. 21: "Better is bread with sweetness and peace." For 'joy' the Hebrew has שלו (salva), that is, peace, tranquility, health, happiness, prosperity (whence the Latin salve, by which in greeting we wish others health, prosperity, and peace), and thence joy; for there is nowhere joy except in tranquility and well-being; just as conversely there is nowhere sadness except where there is adversity, dissension, and strife of a person either with his neighbor, or with God, or with himself in his own mind. Whence Vatablus clearly translates: better is a dry piece of bread with tranquility, than a house full of slaughtered animals with contention. First, R. Solomon explains it thus, as if to say: God acted better when He destroyed His house, that is, Jerusalem and the temple, through the Chaldeans and Romans, and reduced the Jews to poverty so that they might fill their stomachs with dry bread, than when He allowed the Jews in the city and temple to offer sacrifices full of strife: for when Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed, He put an end to the crimes of the Jews. But this interpretation is not only mystical, but also forced and strained. For when the city was destroyed, the Jews did not have salva, that is, peace, health, and prosperity, but rather the greatest tribulation and adversity.
Second, Aben-Ezra connects this verse with the two preceding ones: "Better is the patient man than the mighty," etc., as if to say: Better is it for him who restrains his spirit from anger through patience to have a dry morsel with tranquility of mind, than a house full of strife and dissension, by which he would be constantly provoked to anger and become impatient. Moreover, strong conquerors of cities are accustomed to abound in spoils and delicacies; therefore they seem more blessed than the poor who endure much. But Solomon refutes this, saying: Better is a morsel with peace than a sumptuous table with strife. So also R. Levi: He pursues, says he, the praises of peace, and condemns dissensions and quarrels, when he says it is better that a person eat dry bread without any side dish, enjoying tranquility, than if, entangled in quarrels and lawsuits, he should eat sacrifices and meats to satiety.
Third, others generally take this maxim as independent of the preceding ones, absolutely and universally, as if to say: It is better to eat dry bread and enjoy peace, than to feast sumptuously with strife and quarreling. For 'sacrifices' signify the more lavish and sumptuous dishes and meats; for such were accustomed to be offered to God as victims, and after the offering and immolation to be eaten by the offerers. For they concluded the sacrifice with a sacred and lavish banquet, as I explained in Leviticus III. The a priori reason is that peace and joy are a greater good and more excellent than all delicacies; just as conversely discord and quarrels are a greater evil and worse than poverty and any cheapness of food.
Hear St. Ephrem, treatise On Patience and the Consummation of the Age: "Better is a morsel of bread with salt in rest and tranquility, than a table furnished with sumptuous dishes amid distractions and cares. Hear the Lord saying: Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest. The Lord wishes to give you rest from cares, from anger, from tribulations and distractions of this world. He wants you to be free from the heavy work and labor of the bricks of Egypt. He wants to lead you into the wilderness, that is, to holy rest, so that the pillar of cloud may illuminate your ways, so that He may feed you with manna, namely the bread of tranquility and rest; so that you may receive as an inheritance the good land, namely the heavenly Jerusalem." And a little earlier, admiring the benefits of a quiet life, he exclaims: "O rest, the advancement of monks! O rest, heavenly ladder! O rest, way to the kingdom of heaven! O rest, mother of compunction! O rest, conciliator of penance! O rest, mirror of sins, which shows a person his own crimes and offenses! O rest, which by no means impedes tears! O rest, parent of meekness! O rest, companion and partner of humility! O rest, which leads a person to a peaceful state!" And with some remarks interspersed: "O rest, security of the soul! O rest, sweet yoke and light burden, refreshing and bearing him who bears you! O rest, joy of soul and heart! O rest, bridle of eyes and ears and tongue! O rest, slayer of impudence and enemy of shamelessness! O rest, mother of piety and religion! O rest, prison of the passions! O rest, cooperator of every virtue! O rest, host and friend of voluntary poverty! O rest, field of Christ, bringing forth the best fruits! O rest, joined to divine fear, wall and bulwark of those fighting for the kingdom of heaven!"
Furthermore, because there is a threefold peace and a threefold strife, as I have already indicated, namely with God, with men, and with oneself, that is, with one's own mind, this maxim can be explained in three ways. First, concerning peace and strife with men, which Solomon is properly and genuinely judged to intend here, as if to say: Better is a frugal table with peace, than a sumptuous one with quarreling, where the guests are rivals or quarrelsome, who argue and fight with you and with others. Thus this maxim corresponds as a parallel to that of chapter 15: "Better is it to be invited to vegetables with charity, than to a fatted calf with hatred;" for peace surpasses all delights, the enjoyment of which strife and contention lulls and extinguishes. Second, concerning the peace and joy that a mind well conscious of itself has within, to which is opposed the mind that constantly quarrels and contends with itself on account of remorse; and thus this saying will be similar to that which precedes in the aforesaid place: "Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great and insatiable treasures." For it is better to eat dry bread with the joy of a mind well conscious of itself, than to have a house filled with the most delicate foods, but on account of which, being ill-gotten, the mind is restless and quarrels within itself. The truth of this saying is experienced by the scrupulous and anxious, whose minds are so torn and tormented by scruples that no food has any taste for them. So Hugo says: Better is a dry morsel, that is, a modest substance with peace of mind, than great riches with care and anxiety, which is the strife of the mind. Third, Polychronius in the Catena of the Greeks explains it of the peace and strife that the mind has with God through grace or sin, as if to say: It is better to lead a poor life in God's grace, than a lavish one in sin and offense against God, according to that saying of Tobias to his son, chapter IV, verse 23: "We lead indeed a poor life, but we shall have many good things if we fear God." Or, as Polychronius puts it: A small portion of heavenly wisdom, which brings peace with God, is more excellent than the universal wisdom of those who oppose God. Furthermore, since this saying is general, it can be applied to various particular cases, such as forensic, domestic, private, and public disputes. Mystically, Bede says, as if to say: "It is better to do small good deeds with charity without the knowledge of preaching (for this is what the dry morsel means), than to shine more brightly with virtues mixed with discord."
Second, Baynus says: "The meaning is more hidden if it is referred to the endowments of the soul, so that by the dry morsel we understand God's wisdom hidden in the Sacred Scriptures, of which Paul says: We speak wisdom among the perfect. And although the wisdom of this world, stuffed with secular eloquence, may appear fuller and more delicate to men, nevertheless those who are puffed up with the vanity of the sciences are accustomed to be proud and litigious. For among the proud there are always quarrels. Better therefore is a morsel of the sacred page with tranquility of spirit."
Allegorically, R. Samuel of Morocco, in his book On the Coming of the Messiah, and St. Thomas, in his opuscule On the Sacrament of the Altar, explain this maxim of the Eucharist, as if to say: Better is a dry morsel, that is, the morsel of the Eucharist alone, than all the sacrifices of the Old Law; or a dry morsel, that is, the unbloody host of the Eucharist, which is received with joy of mind, is better, that is, more savory and more excellent, than all the banquets of kings. Whence some translate: better is a morsel that dries up. For the Eucharist dries up all the humors, motions, and heats of lust and concupiscence. Hugo says: Better is, he says, a morsel of the Eucharist, dry without the drink of tears, without the side dish of devotion, without the seasoning of contrition, with the joy of hope and a clean conscience, than a house full of sacrifices, that is, than works of prudence and mortification, by which many animals of vice are slain for God with strife, that is, with enmity against God, or with strife, that is, with rebellion of the flesh; for although this is good, the former is nevertheless better.
Tropologically, the same Hugo says: "Better is a dry morsel with joy," that is, he says, better is a modest alms given with cheerfulness, than a great and large one with scolding and sadness; second, as if to say: Better is moderate penance with cheerfulness of mind, than great bodily affliction with murmuring. Whence St. Jerome says: It is better to sing a few psalms with cheerfulness of spirit, than to rush through the entire Psalter with sadness. So says Hugo.
Verse 2: A Wise Servant Shall Rule over Foolish Sons
2. A WISE SERVANT SHALL RULE OVER (the Arabic: holds, obtains dominion) FOOLISH SONS, AND SHALL DIVIDE THE INHERITANCE (the Arabic: portions) AMONG BROTHERS. — The Septuagint: a wise servant shall rule over foolish masters (the Romans and St. Ambrose at the passage soon to be cited: shall govern foolish masters), and among brothers he shall divide portions; the Syriac: shall divide the profit. For 'foolish sons' the Hebrew has מביש (mebis), that is, a son who causes shame, namely to his father; Vatablus: a disgraceful son; the Syriac: a son who brings confusion; the Chaldean: an impudent son, or rather one who brings reproach; Symmachus and Theodotion: a confounding son, as if to say: A wise servant on account of his wisdom will rule over the foolish sons of his master, and being appointed by him as governor and guardian of his sons, or even being chosen with the sons as an heir by the same master, he will divide the inheritance among them; from which it is left to be inferred that wisdom, that is, prudence and probity, is nobler and more excellent than freedom, inasmuch as it confers dominion, inheritance, and freedom. Following Solomon, Sirach says: "To the wise servant, free men shall serve," Ecclesiasticus chapter 10, verse 28, where I explained this verse; therefore I will not add a single iota here. See St. Ambrose on Psalm 104, where he extensively teaches that only the wise man is free, and therefore every foolish person is a slave, since he serves his own foolishness and concupiscence, and therefore it is fitting that the fool should serve the wise man and be governed by him, just as Joseph, though he was a slave, was placed over all of Egypt by Pharaoh on account of his wisdom, Genesis 41: "A contract," he says, "does not change one's nature, nor does wisdom take away freedom. Indeed, many free men serve a wise servant (as it is written): and there is a wise servant who governs foolish masters. Whom therefore do you consider more free? Wisdom alone is free, which sets the poor above the rich, and which makes servants lend to their own masters—not money, but understanding—lend the talent of that Divine and eternal treasure which never perishes." And further on: "For the wise man is always free, always honored, always one who presides over laws. The wise man therefore is free, because he who does what he wills is free. But it is not the prerogative of every good will, but only of the wise, to will all things that are good." And soon after: "The wise man does nothing unwisely, but does all things wisely; and he who acts wisely has nothing to fear. For fear is in sin; but where there is no dread, there is freedom; where there is freedom, there is the power to do what one wills. Therefore the wise man alone is free." And after some remarks: "Therefore for the wise man, even to serve is freedom. From which it is inferred that for the fool, even to command is servitude; and (what is worse) although he rules over few, he serves more numerous and harsher masters. For he serves his own passions, he serves his own desires, whose dominion he can escape neither by night nor by day, because he has masters within himself and suffers intolerable slavery within himself." And again: "The sinner therefore serves fear, he serves desire, he serves avarice, he serves lust, he serves malice, he serves anger, and he thinks himself free; but he is more a slave than if he were placed under tyrants. But those are free who live by the laws, indeed who are themselves the law."
He then cites and praises the letter of Calanus the Gymnosophist to Alexander the Great: "Friends," he says, "persuade you to lay hands on and use force against the philosophers of India, not even seeing in their dreams our works. You will transfer bodies from place to place, but you will no more compel minds to do what they do not wish, than stones and logs to emit a voice. Fire produces the greatest pain and destruction to living bodies, but we are above this: for we are burned alive. There is no king nor prince who can extort from us to do what we have not proposed; nor are we like the philosophers of Greece, who have studied words instead of deeds for the fame of opinion. For us, deeds are joined to words, and words to deeds; deeds are swift, and speeches brief; in virtue, blessed freedom is ours." Then, preferring wise believers, virgins, and martyrs to Calanus and the philosophers, he adds: But among us, even maidens have raised the steps of virtues from their desire for death all the way up to heaven. What shall I say of Thecla, of Agnes, of Pelagia, who, sprouting like noble vine shoots, hastened to death as to immortality? Among lions the virgin exulted, and awaited the roaring beasts without fear. And, to compare our heroes with the Gymnosophists of India, what that man boasted of in words, St. Lawrence proved in deeds, so that he was burned alive, and surviving the flames said: Turn me over and eat. No less noble was the contest of the children of the Abrahamites and the Maccabees, of whom some sang upon the flames; others, while being burned, did not beg to be spared, but reproached, so that the persecutor might be further inflamed. The wise man, therefore, is free. But what is more sublime than St. Pelagia, who, surrounded by persecutors, before she came into their sight, said: "I die willingly; no one shall touch me with a hand, no one with a lustful eye shall violate a virgin. I shall carry my modesty with me, and my chastity unharmed; the robbers shall gain no profit from their insolence. Pelagia shall follow Christ; no one shall take away my freedom, no one shall see a free faith captive, nor my distinguished chastity, nor the lineage of my prudence." She said this and did it. For, to escape the hands of the seducers, she cast herself headlong into the river with her mother and sisters, a victim equally of virginity and of martyrdom, as the same St. Ambrose narrates, Book III On Virgins, where he asserts that she was only fifteen years old. If the wise person masters fires, lions, racks, swords, waters, and even death itself, why should he not master the foolish, and wisely govern and direct them?
Mystically, St. Chrysostom and Polychronius in the Catena of the Greeks say: The servant, they say, is the people of the Gentiles, who, having become wise through faith in Christ, ruled over the Jews, and divided the inheritance of the Church with those among them who were converted to Christ; indeed, he became the dispenser of divine mysteries and charisms for them. Bede says: "Any sinner, formerly subject to his own sins, who after the conversion of his life was made wise, and burning with the most ardent love and affection for God, serves and through his activity or preaching exercises authority over foolish sons, that is, certain believers who grew lukewarm in the love of God after receiving the faith; and among his perfect brothers, namely the saints, he will divide the inheritance of the heavenly fatherland."
Verse 3: As Silver Is Tested by Fire, So the Lord Tests Hearts
In Hebrew: the smelter (goldsmith) or the crucible for silver, and the furnace for gold, and the Lord tests hearts; or more clearly, as Pagninus has it: as the crucible (tests) silver, and the furnace gold, so the Lord tests hearts; and the Zurich Bible: as the refiner tests silver, and the furnace gold, so the Lord examines hearts; the Septuagint: as silver and gold are tested in the furnace, so chosen hearts are tested before the Lord; Cassian, Conference VII, chapter 25: so the Lord chooses hearts; the Syriac: as silver is tested in the crucible, so the Lord searches hearts. The reason is that this searching of hearts belongs to the full knowledge and providence of God, who is therefore called the Knower of Hearts. Solomon compares God to a goldsmith; for just as a goldsmith alone by his art in the furnace or smelting fire tests gold and silver through fire, so God alone tests the hearts of men. But with what fire, what furnace, what smelting crucible?
Note: 'To test' signifies many things by metalepsis, namely: first, to search out; second, to see through; third, to discern; fourth, to purge and separate the pure from the impure; fifth, to judge; sixth, to choose and reward, or to reject and punish. For just as a goldsmith searches out, sees through, and discerns the purity or impurity and alloy of gold by the fire of his distillatory furnace, separating and purging gold from dross, choosing the gold and rejecting and casting away the dross: so God tests the hearts of men in exactly the same way.
Therefore, first and properly, the furnace and fire by which God tests the hearts of all men, both good and evil, is the keen examination of the divine mind and intellect, by which, as by a most effective fire, He tests, that is, searches, examines, and sees through the innermost thoughts, volitions, and understandings of hearts, that is, of minds, and discerns the quality, weight, and value of each: namely, how pure or impure each one is, of how great or how little worth and merit. For just as gold is of great value with the goldsmith, so the hearts of men are greatly esteemed by God, inasmuch as He cares for them above all other created things, tests them, weighs them, discerns them, purges them, judges them, rewards or punishes them. Thus Malachi, chapter III, verse 2, compares the keen examination of the divine mind to the fire and furnace of the goldsmith: "He Himself is like a smelting fire, and like fullers' lye; and He shall sit smelting and cleansing silver." This maxim is therefore parallel to that of chapter 16, verse 2: "All the ways of a man are open to His eyes; the Lord is the weigher of spirits." For this is the same thing, as if to say: The Lord is the tester of spirits; but the word 'weigher' takes its metaphor from a balance, while 'tester' or 'smelter' takes it from the goldsmith's furnace. Thus David, conscious of his own right deeds, asks to be tested by God, so that his conscience might be shown: "Test me, O Lord, and try me; burn (in Hebrew: smelt, like a silversmith) my innermost parts and my heart," Psalm 25:2; and Job 23:10: "He knows my way, and He has tested me like gold that passes through fire."
Second, God tests the hearts of men through His law and commandments, and through His teachers and preachers, as through a furnace of fire. For the hearts of those who obey these things by repenting and living well are like purified gold; but those who do not obey, and remain in the dregs of their vices, are cast away and rejected by God like dross. This is what God says in Jeremiah 6:27: "I have set you as a strong tester among My people; and you shall know and test their way, etc. The bellows have failed; the lead is consumed by fire; the smelter has smelted in vain; their evils have not been consumed. Call them rejected silver, because the Lord has cast them away." Thus God tested the heart and obedience of Adam, commanding him not to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil; and of Abraham, commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Genesis 22. For just as gold is separated from dregs and dross by the force of lead liquefied by fire, so the obedient is separated from the disobedient by the force of a commandment.
Third, the furnace by which God tests the hearts of men is tribulation: for by this the good are purged through patience and become acceptable to God, while the wicked grow foul through impatience and displease God. This is what is said in Wisdom 3:6: "Like gold in the furnace, He tested them." And Ecclesiasticus 2:5: "Gold and silver are tested in fire, but men who are acceptable (pleasing, grateful to God) in the furnace of humiliation." Where I said much about this furnace. And Malachi 3:3: "He will purge the sons of Levi, and refine them like gold and silver, and they shall be to the Lord offering sacrifices in righteousness." Whence the Septuagint at this place translate: thus chosen hearts are before the Lord, or, as the author of the Greek Catena clearly reads: "Just as silver and gold are tested in the furnace, so the Lord examines the hearts of the elect by the fire of tribulation," as if to say: Just as the goldsmith in the furnace selects the gold and rejects the dross liquefied and separated from the gold by the force of fire, so God chooses the hearts of the Saints, which remained solid and constant in the fire of tribulation; but rejects those of the impious, who, like dross liquefied in it, failed. So Cassian beautifully explains this maxim concerning tribulation, Conference VII, chapter 25: "Moreover, we know that even holy men have been bodily handed over to Satan or to great infirmities for even the slightest faults, since divine mercy does not allow even the slightest blemish or stain to be found in them on the day of judgment, purging away in the present all the dross of their hearts, according to the Prophet's—indeed God's—sentence, so that He may transmit them to that eternity like purified gold or silver, needing no penal purgation: And I will smelt away your dross to purity, and I will take away all your tin; after this you shall be called the city of the just, the faithful city, Isaiah 1. And again: As silver and gold are tested in the furnace, so the Lord chooses hearts."
Fourth, the furnace by which God tests hearts is temptation, according to Psalm 16: "You have tested my heart, You have examined me with fire, and no iniquity was found in me." Thus through heresies and heretics He tests the faith of the orthodox, according to Deuteronomy 13:1: "If there arise among you a prophet, etc., and he says to you: Let us go and follow strange gods; you shall not hear the words of that prophet, because the Lord your God is testing you, that it may be made clear whether you love God or not, with all your heart," etc.
Fifth, the furnace by which God tests the hearts of all, that is, examines, judges, chooses and rewards, or rejects and punishes, is the keen judgment, both particular and universal, by which Christ the Judge will search the consciences of all, and will assign the holy to heaven and the wicked to hell. Thus Daniel 7:9, describing the judgment of God: "His throne," he says, "was flames of fire; its wheels were burning fire. A fiery and swift river flowed forth from His face." Hence many of the ancients, such as Origen, St. Basil, Lactantius, St. Ambrose, and Rupert, believed that a real fire was placed by God before heaven, so that all holy souls destined for heaven would be compelled to pass through it, and be tested thereby, and if they were impure, be purged, as I discussed in 1 Corinthians 3:12.
Verse 4: The Wicked Obeys an Unjust Tongue
In Hebrew: he gives ear to the tongue of perversity. For מדין (mezin) is placed for מאזין (maazin), says Aben-Ezra. The Septuagint: the wicked indulges the unjust tongue, and the unjust likewise attends to lying lips. So the author of the Greek Catena. But the Romans and St. Cyprian, Book I, epistle 3, read the latter part differently, thus: but the just man does not attend to lying lips; the Syriac: the just man does not hear the tongue of the wicked. But the former reading agrees with the Hebrew, which for 'deceitful' has שקר (sheker), that is, lie, deceit; whence the Chaldean translates: falsity and accusation in a perverse tongue. But our translator, Pagninus, and others take the abstract for the concrete: "A lie," that is, a liar and deceiver, who constantly deceives and lies, who feeds on lies and frauds, and delights in and fills himself with them. Whence Vatablus translates: the liar complies with the pernicious tongue. The meaning is clear, as if to say: The wicked obeys the tongue that speaks or counsels evil and iniquity, because these things suit his temperament and character, namely his malice. Likewise the liar and deceiver heeds and obeys the one who suggests lies and frauds, because he is a liar and feeds on lies. It signifies that the proud and deceitful tongue seeks out like-minded persons who are perverse and deceitful: for it easily persuades them of its views; whereas the faithful and truthful, who pursue truth, abominate liars and deceivers along with their lies and frauds. So St. Cyprian, Book IV, epistle 9, to Florentius: "You have fallen, he says, but by your own cruelty and in a religious matter; you have fallen, but by your own mind and sacrilegious will, since you readily hear impure, impious, and wicked things against a brother, against a priest, and you gladly believe them, and you defend others' lies as if they were your own private cause; nor do you remember that it is written: The wicked heeds the tongue of the unjust, but the just man does not attend to lying lips." To this saying pertains what St. Gregory of Nazianzus says, Oration 14, On Peace: "My tragedy," he says, "is a comedy to my enemies," as if to say: My enemies receive my adverse fortunes so pleasantly and agreeably, as if they were watching an enjoyable and pleasant comedy of an actor portraying an enemy. So Blessed Antiochus, homily 26, compares the words of detractors to manna; for just as manna tasted to each person like what he desired, so also detraction tastes to its hearers according to each one's disposition — pleasantly, that is, if one is ill-disposed toward the person being slandered; unpleasantly, if one is devoted and well-disposed toward the same person.
This saying teaches that the ears must be carefully guarded. Therefore the just man, in order to preserve his justice and not become unjust, should guard his ears, lest he hear things by the hearing of which he prepares himself for obedience to iniquity. Rightly therefore St. Bernard, to urge us to guard our ears, says: "The tongue easily slips, and no less easily does it slip into the heart, so that for many who are speaking, having restrained their own tongue has been of little profit, since they have not guarded against another's. The brother who speaks to you is useful; the Religious is wise and God-fearing; I say more: he is an angel, and an angel of light; even so, beware lest you hear something by which you are harmed. I would not want you to be suspicious of the person, but of the tongue, especially in common conversation." So says St. Bernard, Sermon On the Threefold Guard of Hand, Tongue, and Heart.
Second, our commentator Salazar explains this maxim as threatening punishment against the unjust and deceitful: Solomon shows, he says, in what manner God is accustomed to take vengeance on the wicked and deceitful. For so that He may repay like with like, He has ordained that the wicked man, who is injurious to others, should be subjected to an evil tongue, and likewise that the deceiver who practices fraud on others should be assigned to a deceitful tongue, so as to be deceived by it. This is the meaning of those words, 'obeys,' 'complies,' that is, is subjected or made subject to; and the same reason applies to the words 'hears' and 'gives ear to.' Whence St. Basil, in his homily On Anger, compares abusive and deceitful words to an echo, which reflects and reverberates the received sound back at the one who made it: "For," he says, "the echo is not so much broken against those who shout inopportunely, as insult is returned upon the unjust and abusive man."
To this saying, the Septuagint adds another, which is not in the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, or Latin; and it is this: "For him who is faithful, the whole world of riches exists; but for him who is unfaithful, not even an obol" — repeat and supply — "is the whole world," as if to say: For the unfaithful, the whole world is not worth an obol; the unfaithful man is poor and does not have an obol, even if he possessed the whole world. For 'world,' the Greek has κόσμος, which the Complutensians translate as 'adornment.' Whence the author of the Greek Catena translates thus: the faithful man possesses whatever is of value in riches; but the faithless man does not even have an obol at his disposal. Cassian explains this maxim, Conference XXIV, chapter 26, concerning the hundredfold, for those who leave all things for God's sake, with this promise: "In place of that joy which one had in the possession of a single field and house, one will enjoy a hundredfold greater delight in riches, who, passing into the adoption of the sons of God, will possess as his own all things that belong to the eternal Father, and in feeling and virtue, in imitation of that true Son, will proclaim: All things that the Father has are Mine, John 16. Now he will go about everywhere not with that painful anxiety of distraction and worry, but secure and joyful as if in his own possessions, hearing the Apostle daily preaching to him: For all things are yours, whether the world, or things present, or things to come, 1 Corinthians 3. And from Solomon: The faithful man's is the whole world of riches." So also Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks. St. Augustine, epistle 54 to Macedonius, near the end, citing this maxim, applies the latter part to usurers. And he adds: "Money is badly possessed by the wicked, and is possessed all the better by the good, the less it is loved." This passage of St. Augustine has been transferred into Canon Law and is found in 14, Question IV, chapter Quid dicam, which is the second to last. The same St. Augustine, Book V of the Confessions, chapter 4, addressing God, says: "Unhappy is the man who knows all those things but does not know You; but blessed is he who knows You, even if he knows not those things. Thus the faithful man, whose is the whole world of riches, and who, having as it were nothing, possesses all things by clinging to You whom all things serve — even if he does not even know the circuits of the Great Bear — it would be foolish to doubt that he is in any case better than the measurer of the heavens and the counter of the stars and the weigher of the elements who neglects You, who have arranged all things in measure and number and weight."
St. Jerome, epistle 103 to Paulinus, exhorting him to contempt for riches and the world, near the end says thus: "It is an ancient saying: The miser lacks what he has as much as what he does not have. For the believer, the whole world of riches exists; the unbeliever is in need of even an obol. Let us live as having nothing and possessing all things. Food and clothing are the riches of Christians. If your property is in your power, sell it; if not, cast it aside. He has given all to God who has offered himself; he easily despises all things who always remembers that he is going to die. Moreover, 'believing' or 'faithful' is the one who has placed all his faith and hope in God, believing and hoping that God will abundantly provide for all his needs. Again, 'faithful' is the one who faithfully serves God and obeys His commands, and especially who faithfully distributes to the poor the wealth given him by God, according to the law and will of God. Finally, St. Ambrose, Book V, epistle 25 to the Church of Vercelli, a good deal before the end, says: "He is rich in the Church who is rich for the poor, not for himself. In the Church indeed the faithful man is rich. For the faithful, the whole world of riches exists. What wonder if the faithful possesses the world, who possesses the inheritance of Christ, which is more precious than the world?" And further on: "He therefore is rich who is the heir of God, the co-heir of Christ, etc. Do you want to be rich? Be poor. Then you will be rich in all things, if you are poor in spirit. It is not one's income that makes one rich, but one's spirit. For the poor in spirit says: The Lord is my portion," etc., Psalm 118. St. Bernard gives the example of St. Malachy in his Life, as one who, though materially poor, yet rich in hope in God, was building large monasteries. Hear St. Bernard: "The servant of God found in God's purse what was lacking in his own. And rightly so. For what is more just than that he for whom nothing was his own for God's sake should enter into partnership with God, and that there should be one purse for both? For the faithful man, the whole world of riches exists. And what is this world, but a kind of purse of God? For He says: Mine is the earth, and its fullness. Hence Malachy, when he found many silver coins, did not store them away, but spent them. For he orders that every gift of God be spent on the work of God. He does not consider his own needs nor those of his people, but casts his thought upon the Lord, to whom he does not hesitate to have recourse whenever necessity demands." The translator of St. Ephrem, treatise On the Fear of God, renders it clearly: "All the riches of the world belong to the faithful man; but to the unfaithful man, not even an obol."
Therefore for the faithful, the whole world of riches exists. First, because the whole world was created by God for the use of the faithful, not of the unfaithful; therefore all things are owed to the faithful, nothing to the unfaithful. Second, because the faithful man uses the whole world not for luxury, but for necessity and for the service of God. Therefore all things faithfully serve the faithful, but nothing serves the unfaithful: for the sun ministers and serves the faithful man when it bears the torch before him for serving God; fire, when it warms him; water, when it refreshes him; air, when he breathes through it; the earth, when it supports him; food, when it nourishes him; clothing, when it covers him; and so on for the rest. Finally, the faithful man, content with his lot however small, lives so tranquilly, joyfully, and cheerfully as if he possessed the whole world; on the contrary, the unfaithful and the avaricious, the more they have, the more they desire. Third, Didymus in the Greek Catena: He possesses all things, he says, who scorns all things for the sake of Christ; for the faithful man is higher than the world, and with his mind fixed on heaven, he tramples and treads underfoot all earthly things as if placed beneath his feet. See St. Chrysostom, homily 12 on 2 Corinthians. Fourth, because in each individual created thing, the faithful man recognizes, loves, gives thanks to, and praises the Creator by whom and for whose honor they were made. And this knowledge, love, worship, and praise of God are the true riches of the world. So Didymus in the Catena of the Greeks. Fifth, because the faithful man uses the whole world rightly and holily for his salvation and God's glory; but the unfaithful and impious man misuses it for his own lusts. But he is rich who knows how to use wealth; he is poor who does not. Sixth, because the faithful man possesses God, whose is the whole world; therefore by possessing God he possesses all things that are God's, that is, all things that are in the world. Seventh, because by God, blessedness and heavenly glory are prepared for the faithful; and among other endowments, this includes dominion over the world. For every blessed person is the lord and king of the world, indeed Adam in paradise was like a king of the world. This is what the Wise Man says, chapter 3, verse 7: "The just shall shine and like sparks in a reed bed they shall run about. They shall judge nations and shall rule over peoples." Accordingly, St. Ambrose, Book II On Abraham, chapter 7, sets up Abraham as an example of this saying, to whom God promised dominion over all of Canaan. Where, among other things, he teaches that Plato and the Stoics derived their axiom—All things belong to the wise man—from this maxim of Solomon. "How much earlier," he says, "was Solomon than Zeno, the master of the Stoics and founder of that school? How much earlier than the very father of philosophy, Plato? But who is wise except the faithful? But perhaps you say: How does the whole world of riches belong to the wise? I answer: Because nature itself gives him a share of all things, even if he himself possesses nothing." He adds that this share, which embraces all things under its dominion, is wisdom itself; for he says: "Wisdom is the mistress and possessor of all things, which considers the gifts of nature as its own, since they were given for the use of men, and it lacks nothing, even if all things necessary for sustenance are wanting. For if a musician sometimes does not have his instruments, and a doctor the necessary medicines, and a helmsman the things necessary for the ship's equipment, he still has them by the very fact that he can use them, even if their use is not available for the time being; how much more does the wise man judge as his own whatever belongs to nature, who lives according to nature?" Therefore St. Ambrose here teaches that the wise, that is, the Saints, even though they often do not have the use of the things and riches of the world, nevertheless have a certain dominion over them that is quasi-proper and natural, from the institution of God, while the impious who have the use of these things have only civil dominion, and, so to speak, improper dominion, because they claim it for themselves contrary to nature and God's institution. And a little earlier: "Hence, as from a spring, the Stoic philosophers drew the thesis that all things belong to the wise man. For East and West, North and South are portions of the universe; for the whole world is contained within these: when God promised to give these to Abraham, what else does He declare but that all things are at the disposal of the wise and faithful, and nothing is lacking? Whence Solomon also says in Proverbs: The faithful man's is the whole world." And after some remarks he adds: "Finally, when Lot (that is, a deviation of morals) was still attached to Abraham, he had not received so great and ample a share. But when, freed from the ambiguity and winding path of deviation, his soul began to tread the straight paths of the virtues, he was sent as possessor into all the land." And again: "Therefore he who merits wisdom, and is not the son of a maidservant, not a slave of sin, but the son of Sarah who does not serve but rules, a son of good stock, good character, and the title of perfect virtue, shall acquire the inheritance of the whole universe," etc.
Verse 5: He Who Despises the Poor Reproaches His Maker
In Hebrew: he who mocks the poor (Vatablus: who ridicules the poor) reproaches his Maker; he who rejoices in destruction shall not be innocent, that is, unpunished; the Chaldean: he who despises the poor provokes the wrath of the Creator; and he who rejoices in another's destruction shall not be innocent; the Syriac: he who laughs at the poor stirs up the anger of his Maker; he who rejoices in another's ruin shall not obtain mercy; the Septuagint: he who mocks the needy provokes (Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion: reproaches) Him who made him; but he who rejoices at the perishing shall not be innocent; but he whose bowels are moved with compassion shall obtain mercy. The Septuagint adds this last part on their own, because it is tacitly contained by antithesis in the preceding hemistich. The author of the Greek Catena reads: he who derides the poor provokes God who made him; but he who gladly insults the afflicted shall not go unpunished. And he adds the reason: Because he derides the wise governance of God, who made this man poor and afflicted so that you might have compassion on him and exercise mercy toward him. Who then would be so cruel and so forgetful of all humanity as to hold in derision one whom he was in every right bound to pity? So says that author. The first part of this saying was explained in chapter 14, verse 31. The latter part is clear, and its reason is the law of retaliation; for he who rejoices at another's ruin deserves the same, that he should fall into the same or similar ruin, so that others may likewise rejoice at his calamity and insult him, just as he rejoiced at others' ruin and insulted them. An example is found in Shimei, who reproached and cursed David when he was fleeing from Absalom as a fugitive, and was therefore shamefully put to death by Solomon, 3 Kings 2:44. Whence Blessed Antiochus, homily 58, reading: "And he who insults the sufferer shall not be innocent," says thus: "Let us therefore not, dearly beloved, ever insult the misfortunes of our neighbors, lest the providence of God allow us to fall once and again into the same calamities." And then he confirms the same thing with another reason: "For if a foot," he says, "happens to stumble or slip, will the hand insult it? Surely this goes in the opposite direction; for it treats the foot with an application of oil or a plaster. Since indeed we are one body, nothing would be less consonant with reason than to mock and insult one member of the body that is somewhat afflicted. Rather, it would be fitting to have mercy on the afflicted, and with a pious feeling of compassion to grieve and lament together."
Verse 6: The Crown of the Old Is Their Grandchildren
The Septuagint for 'glory' translates καύχημα, that is, boasting, as if to say: Children boast that they had wise and upright parents, just as conversely parents boast that they leave behind them upright children and heirs of their virtue. Whence the Zurich Bible translates: the honor of children is their parents; Vatablus: grandchildren are an ornament to the aged. For 'crown' the Syriac translates 'praise'; the Chaldean, 'beauty'; R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra explain, as if to say: The diadem of grandfathers and old men is their grandchildren, whom they see walking on the right path of virtue; upright parents in turn confer glory on their upright children. R. Levi adds that grandfathers are rather crowned by grandchildren than fathers by children, because grandfathers, who will soon die, love more their own likeness, which endures in grandchildren; while the love of fathers does not so much overflow toward grandfathers, but the glory of children is their parents themselves. This maxim therefore admonishes parents to take diligent care that their children and grandchildren are well educated; and it conversely admonishes the children to honor their parents and grandparents with due respect. For it redounds to the notable praise of the old that they have so educated their children and grandchildren that they are supported and honored by them. Whence St. Ambrose, on chapter 1 of St. Luke, says: "Fruitfulness of offspring is a divine gift. Therefore let fathers give thanks because they have begotten; children, because they have been begotten; mothers, because they are honored with the rewards of marriage: for children are the wages of their military service." Moreover, the 'crown' is given to the parent; but 'glory' to the children, because parents are as it were princes of their children, and as it were kings of their families. Whence Aristotle, Book VIII of the Ethics, chapter 10: "The society of a father to his children bears the likeness of a kingdom; for children are a father's care. Hence Homer also calls Jupiter 'father.'" And in chapter 11, he teaches that paternal authority over children is royal. "The crown of the old, therefore," that is, their ornament, is that they have not only children but also grandchildren, through whom they become more secure about their posterity, through which they are in a way to be immortal — they who already recognize that death is near, about which immortality of posterity old men have some doubt when they see their children without offspring. Hence the blessing of the Jews was to see their children's children, according to Psalm 127: "May you see your children's children, peace upon Israel." In turn, parents are the glory and honor of their children, because their virtue and nobility adorns the children and procures them honor. To this is added that the morals and actions of children are attributed to the parents, as their begetters, educators, and teachers. Therefore, just as the bad morals of children redound to the disgrace of the parents, so conversely, their virtues are referred back to the parents, as their first authors.
Second, by this maxim Solomon signifies that the reward, and as it were the crown, of a well-lived and holy life of the parents, is old age, if indeed they reach such an age that they see their children's children, that is, grandchildren, surrounding them like a crown in the third and fourth generation; whence conversely the reward of good children and grandchildren is to have parents and grandparents long surviving. "The glory therefore of children is their parents," that is, this reward, this glory, God is accustomed to give back to upright and obedient children, that they see their parents long surviving, which Plato, Book III of the Laws, considers most fortunate. For this is a sign that the parents are kindly and comfortably treated by their children; for the reverence of children, by which they cherish, honor, and nourish their parents, brings joy to the parents and thereby longevity. Conversely, the hardness and impiety of children who despise, abandon, and harshly treat their parents brings them sorrow and an early death. This is a great disgrace and reproach to the children, just as the former is a great honor and glory for them. Therefore Solomon here tacitly admonishes parents to educate their children well; and conversely, children to repay their well-educated upbringing by honoring and supporting their aging parents; for thus dignity, honor, and glory like a crown will accrue to both. Third, Solomon gives a stimulus to parents as well as to children toward all uprightness, because the honor and glory of uprightness does not remain with themselves alone, but flows to the other. Be upright therefore, O father, not for yourself alone, but also for your children, because the honor of your uprightness does not stop with you, nor does it honor you alone, but will also make your children honored. Conversely, be upright, O children, because the fame of your uprightness pertains not to you alone, but also to your parents: whom, if you act otherwise, you will afflict with notable infamy. For the fame and infamy of parents is the fame or infamy of children, and vice versa; for father and son are civilly reckoned as one and the same, and as one domestic person.
Allegorically, Bede says: "By 'the old,' he means the Patriarchs and Prophets, who are celebrated with worthy praise by the children of their children, that is, by the successors of the Apostles; and it is the glory of the preachers of the New Testament that they merited to be children of the ancient fathers." Tropologically, by parents understand Prelates, Pastors, Doctors, Preachers; by children, the common people, disciples, etc. So the author of the Greek Catena says: "The crown and ornament of the old, that is, of learned and wise men, are their hearers who are obedient in word, and the pupils of the orthodox Church." Thus St. Paul calls the Philippians whom he converted, chapter 4:1, and the Thessalonians, epistle 1, chapter 2, verse 19, his joy, his crown, his glory. See what was said there.
Verse 7: Eloquent Words Do Not Befit a Fool, nor Lying Lips a Prince
For 'fool' the Hebrew has נבל (nabal), by which name was called the husband of Abigail, who was both foolish and avaricious. Hence some Hebrews according to Baynus translate: excessive speech does not befit a miser, nor lying lips a generous man, as if to say: The miser, because he is mean, does not exceed in giving, but promises and gives little; but the generous man, as he is generous in promising, so he does not lie, but faithfully and generously fulfills what he has promised. For 'composita' the Hebrew has יתר (iether), which signifies excellence, dignity, remainder, superfluity, superabundance, extension, expansion, such as is in a string and rope. Hence iether also means string and rope. For this reason our translator renders it as 'composita' (well-composed), that is, aptly woven and twisted like a rope or string, which when aptly composed on a lyre produces a composed and harmonious concert. Whence: first, R. Solomon translates: glorious and proud words do not befit a fool, still less do lips of falsehood befit a prince; second, the Chaldean: excessive speech does not befit the foolish, nor lying lips a prince; third, Pagninus: a tongue of excellence is not becoming to a fool; the Zurich Bible: magnificent speech; others: speech of dignity or authority; fourth, Cajetan: lips of superfluity do not befit a fool; fifth, the Septuagint: faithful lips do not suit a fool, nor lying lips a just man. So also the Syriac.
First, our commentator Salazar explains it thus, as if to say: Eloquent words, that is, feigned and deceitful ones, do not befit a fool, that is, a vile and abject man; indeed, these are usually turned to his reproach and shame; how much more do the same not befit a prince, as if to say: If it is turned to the reproach of a low man to lie and deceive, how much more will the same be shameful for a prince? For 'to compose' sometimes means the same as 'to feign,' as in Daniel chapter 2: "Because you have composed a deceitful interpretation full of deception;" hence 'composita verba' are called feigned and fraudulent words. But the Hebrew iether does not mean feigned or deceitful.
Second, R. Solomon, Cajetan, and others explain: as if to say: Words of excellence, superfluity, or superabundance, that is, of boasting, do not befit a fool — namely, that he arrogates more to himself than is fitting, and thinks himself wiser than others, and wants to be heard, approved, and praised above all. Conversely, lying words do not befit a prince, because these are unworthy of him and make him base and buffoon-like. Therefore, just as it does not befit a vile fool to boast and exalt himself with swollen and proud words, so conversely it does not befit a prince, who is supreme, to lower and debase himself to the level of the common people, indeed below the common people, through base and vain words, especially lies.
Third, our translator excellently renders 'verba composita' (well-composed words): for these are words of dignity and excellence, as if to say: Just as grave, composed, and magnificent speeches do not befit a fool, since he has a light, disorderly, abject, and fatuous mind, so conversely, ill-composed words, especially lies, do not befit a prince. For just as the heart of a prince ought to be truthful, faithful, serious, moderate, prudent, and composed, so it is fitting that his words be truthful, faithful, serious, moderate, prudent, and elegant. For 'verba composita' (composed words) are those that have dignity, authority, and weight, which therefore it is fitting to be spoken not by a fool but by a wise man, teacher, or prince. Whence in chapter 26, verse 7, it is said: "As a lame man has beautiful legs in vain, so a parable is unfitting in the mouth of fools." And chapter 25:11: "Golden apples on silver beds — he who speaks a word in its time." Hence Lyranus by 'verba composita' (well-composed) understands a diplomatic mission, as a metalepsis, as if to say: It is not fitting that a fool should be entrusted with an embassy to serious men or princes, in which it is necessary to have well-composed words. Akin to this exposition is the version of the Septuagint and the Syriac: faithful lips do not suit a fool, nor lying lips a just man. For, as Polychronius says in the Greek Catena: "Each speaks words that are inconsistent with his own thoughts." Where the antithesis is clear, as if to say: Just as fools, that is, the impious, are accustomed to be unfaithful in their words and to lie and deceive much, so conversely the just abominate lies and strive to be truthful and faithful in their words: for the former, through their wickedness, have lost both conscience and reputation, while the latter, through their uprightness, firmly protect and preserve both.
Furthermore, lying is disgraceful to every man, but especially to a prince. First, because truth, fidelity, and veracity befit the majesty of a prince; therefore he injures his own majesty and himself if he lies. For, as St. Cyprian wisely says, Book I, epistle 3: "This is true madness — not to think or know that lies do not deceive for long; that night lasts only so long as dawn breaks; but when the day is brightened and the sun rises, darkness and mist yield to light, and the robberies that raged through the night cease." Second, because the people and the republic rest upon and are governed by the word of the prince: and if they discover it to be false and deceitful, they will withdraw from him all faith and trust, as well as authority and obedience. Third, because what a prince has once said, decreed, promised, or given, he cannot honestly and justly retract; indeed, if he lies and deceives, he will often inflict injury and serious harm upon his subjects. Hence the Greek Emperors at their inauguration solemnly swore that, setting aside deception, they would speak the truth, as Curopalata testifies, On the Offices of the Palace. For a prince ought to be not only a follower of truth, but also its guardian and patron. Rightly did Aspar seize Emperor Leo by the garment and rebuke him for not keeping his promises, saying that it was a crime for one clothed in purple to lie. So Zonaras, volume III. Fourth, because "lying is the vice of slaves," says Aristotle. Therefore it is unbecoming for free-born men, especially princes, who are the vicars of God and represent on earth God, who is the first truth and fidelity itself. Accordingly, St. Thomas, in his opuscule On the Education of Princes, proves at length that a prince should love truth and abominate lying as a poison. The same was the opinion of the philosophers. Thucydides, Book IV: "For those who are in dignity, it is more shameful to circumvent or harm by honest fraud than by open force." And Silius, Book XIV:
He is the best soldier Whose first and last concern In war is to keep faith. The same, Book II: Do not break the covenants of peace, Nor place kingdoms above fidelity. Hence Agesilaus, king of Sparta, so abhorred lying that when asked to hear someone who imitated the melody of the nightingale, he refused, lest he seem to assent to even a deceitful song. Therefore impious is that saying of politicians in Euripides: "Justice must be violated for the sake of ruling; in other matters observe piety." For just as faith establishes the republic, so perfidy overturns it. Again, if you take away faith among men, you will also take away faith and religion in God, and make people atheists. Aristotle, Rhetoric to Alexander, chapter 18, admonishes princes "not to perjure themselves, fearing both divine retribution and human infamy." Cicero, Book III of Duties: "No thing," he says, "more strongly holds together the republic than faith." The same, in his speech for Roscius Comœdus: "It is treacherous and criminal to break faith, which holds life together." For, as Aristotle says, Rhetoric to Theodectes, Book I, chapter 15: "When pacts are weakened and violated, the use of commerce among men is taken away." Accordingly, the Romans placed an altar to Fides near Jupiter on the Capitol, says Cato the Censor. "For faith," says Seneca, epistle 89, "is the most sacred good of the human breast." More divinely, Silius celebrates Faith with these praises: Born before Jupiter, the glory of gods and men, Without whom neither earth nor seas know peace: The companion of justice, and a silent divinity in the breast. Finally, Alfonso, king of Aragon, as Panormitanus testifies, Book I On His Deeds, approved that prince "whose simple word was worth as much for trustworthiness as the oath of private men." He repeatedly said that "kings ought to be better than private men by as much as they exceed them in honors and dignity."
Verse 8: A Most Pleasing Gem Is the Expectation of Him Who Waits
For 'expectation of him who waits' the Hebrew has שוחד (shochad), that is, a gift or present. Therefore the Hebrew has: a stone of grace is a gift in the eyes of its master (the one who has it); in whatever direction he looks, he acts prudently; the Chaldean: a stone of gift is a grace in his eyes; he who carries it, wherever he turns, acts prudently; Symmachus: a weight of favors; the Septuagint: the reward of favors, they say, is discipline for those who use them; wherever he turns, he shall prosper. For the Hebrew שכל (sachal) signifies first, to understand; second, to prosper; third, taking שׂ for ס (because these two letters have the same sound and power), to be infatuated. Whence some translate: a stone of grace is a gift in the eyes of the one who has (receives) it; wherever he turns, he shall be infatuated. For gifts blind and infatuate those who receive them, according to: "Gifts blind the eyes of the wise and change the words of the just," Deuteronomy 16:19. Vatablus: a pleasing gem is a gift in the eyes of those who possess it; wherever it turns, it shall prosper, that is, in whatever direction one wishes, that gift will turn and incline the hearts of judges. So also Pagninus, Baynus, and others.
Therefore, from the Hebrew, the meaning is clear, as if to say: A gift or present is like a gracious gem, which draws to itself the eyes and hearts of those who receive it, and turns them in whatever direction the giver wishes, so as to obtain his lawsuit or cause, even if it is somewhat unjust, according to the saying: Believe me, gifts win over both men and gods. Whence R. Levi says: "Gifts are received like most pleasing gems by those to whom they are given, just as if they were precious stones conferring grace on the one adorned with them. Therefore whatever enterprise the generous man undertakes, he succeeds most happily." Aben-Ezra, however, taking 'master' or 'lord' to mean not the recipient but the giver of gifts, says: "Just as a precious stone captivates the minds of those who see it, so gifts win favor for their masters, that is, those by whom they were sent: for since it is wrong to accept a gift, the one who receives it cannot be called the gift's master." More precisely, Cajetan says: A gift given to a judge or prince wins his favor, and compels him to understand and feel what the giver understands and feels, whether it is just or unjust. And so the Vulgate version can be explained, so that 'the expectation of one who waits' is called a gift, which the one who will receive it awaits and expects. Whence Baynus says: "This maxim depends on the preceding one: Lying lips do not befit a prince; but conferring the benefits that one has promised wins wonderful favor; indeed, gifts procure favor and grace from all. For a gem or precious stone is pleasing to all who behold it; so is a gift in the eyes of the one who expects it, or (as the Hebrew has it) of its master, that is, of the one who receives it. And wherever he turns, or wherever the one who bestows gifts looks, he will prosper and accomplish what he undertakes."
Our commentator Salazar ingeniously takes 'a most pleasing gem' to mean transparent gems, through which the observer sees everything pleasantly. Thus St. Isidore, Book XVI of Etymologies, chapter 7, reports that Nero was accustomed to watch gladiatorial combats through a green emerald placed before his eyes, whereby everything appeared tinged with the same color to his eyes, and the spectacle was rendered more pleasant. Solomon therefore says: "A stone of grace is a gift in the eyes of its master," as if to say: A gift bestowed on a judge or prince is like a precious stone, beautiful and transparent, placed before the eyes; because just as this stone tints everything with its color and makes it pleasant, so also a gift placed before the eyes similarly colors the cause of the giver, and makes it appear more just and more conformable to equity to the one looking at it.
He also takes 'a most pleasing gem' to mean a gem that wins grace and love, such as St. Epiphanius, in his book On Gems, asserts the sapphire to be, and St. Isidore the jasper. The ancients also believed the hyacinth to be such. Whence concerning the fifth kind of hyacinth, which approaches crystal, Pliny writes thus, Book XXXVII, chapter 9: "Some prefer to call such stones pæderotes, others anterotes, many the gem of Venus, which seems most fitting both in appearance and in the extreme color of the gem." He adds that the Magi believe it is beneficial for those about to approach kings. Similarly, the diamond is said to suppress anger and foster conjugal love, and is therefore called the gem of reconciliation, says Anselmus Boetius, Book II On Gems, chapter 4. The same author, chapter 177, asserts that the navel of Venus (the name of a gem resembling a shell) takes its name from Venus, because it is believed to conciliate grace and love. I say 'believed,' because many powers of gems commonly believed are fabulous and false.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: "A stone of grace (or benevolence) is a gift in the eyes of its master," that is, a gift offered to a prince attracts his favor just like some precious gem from those which have the secret power of arousing love and winning benevolence, as if to say: The prince, receiving someone's gift in hand, is as if he placed a ring on his hand set with some gem from those that inspire benevolence and love in the heart. Furthermore, the 'stone of grace' can be called the magnet stone, which, on account of its power to draw iron to itself, is usually ascribed to love and grace; whence among the ancients it received the name of being called the 'stone of love'; and Pollux attests that the Greeks were accustomed to call the magnet ἐρωτίδα, that is, love, as if to say: A gift, especially one bestowed on a prince, draws his favor and benevolence no differently than the magnet draws iron. Truly wonderful, mysterious, and almost inscrutable is the power of the magnet in attracting iron, so much so that some think 'magnet' is derived from 'magnus' (great); although Pliny, Book XXXVI, chapter 17, considers it named after its discoverer, while Lucretius derives it from the place, namely Magnesia, where it is found. For he sings thus: Whom the Greeks call Magnet from their native name, Since born within the Magnetes' native bounds. A similar power of attracting and winning minds is found in gifts and presents, so that they seem to be themselves alive and animated, just as Thales, followed by Cardanus, held the magnet to be living and animated: for the power of moving itself, he says, seems to show a soul, although Scaliger rightly refutes this, as does our Nicolaus Cabeus, Book II On the Magnet, chapter 2. Again, just as the power of the magnet increases with size — for the greater the magnet, the greater the things it attracts — so also the greater the gifts, the more they bind minds. Moreover, just as the power of the magnet is broken, and as it were weakens with cold, ice, rain, and especially if it remains for a long time under water or in a damp place, as Cabeus teaches, Book II On the Magnet, chapter 2, and explains the reason — though he denies the power of garlic to weaken the magnet, which many have attributed to it, but falsely — so the power of gifts is weakened if they come from a cold, lukewarm, and as it were watery spirit: for a gift receives its estimation, force, and weight from the spirit of the giver; therefore let the spirit with love and benevolence equal, indeed surpass, the gift, and let this be shown by a cheerful countenance and cheerful words: for these are the signs of the spirit. Finally, Symmachus, for 'gem,' or as the Hebrew has it, 'stone,' translates 'weight' (for in ancient times stones were used as weights) of a gift of grace, as if to say: Just as the weight of a balance weighs down the scale on which it is placed and makes that scale outweigh the opposite one, so a gift given to a judge weighs down the scale of his will, and thereby of his justice, and draws it to itself, and makes the opposing party's side seem more equitable and just. Finally, R. Solomon takes 'gift' to mean prayers, which are offered to God as a gift, as if to say: When a man offers God the gift of prayers, it is pleasing to God like a precious gem; therefore He will grant him a happy success in all that he asks. But this is a mystical interpretation of 'gift.'
But the Vulgate version, which translates 'gift' as 'the expectation of one who waits,' though it can be explained in the same way, as I have already said, properly signifies the thing that is expected, as if to say: When the thing (for example, a gift, a benefit, a dignity, a victory, a prosperous success, etc.) which someone eagerly expected and long awaited is fulfilled and arrives, it so refreshes and satisfies his spirit as if he had obtained a most pleasing and precious gem; therefore, before he obtains it, while he is still expecting it, wherever he turns, he prudently understands, that is, he conducts himself prudently and intelligently, so as to obtain what he so eagerly expects. Or, as Jansenius puts it, as if to say: The thing expected is greatly valued by the one who waits, and is in his eyes like a most pleasing gem; and so wherever such an expectant person turns, and whatever he undertakes, or wherever he goes, he strives to conduct himself prudently, so as not to be cheated of the most desired thing, but to obtain it at last, according to chapter 13:12: "Hope deferred afflicts the soul; but when the desire comes, it is a tree of life." Hence the root and, as it were, the a priori reason of this saying is apparent, namely that desire is in the soul what hunger is in the stomach. Just as the most pleasing thing to the hungry man is food, by which he satisfies his hunger, so the most pleasing thing to one who desires is to obtain the thing desired, because it satisfies the desire and hunger of the soul. Jansenius adds that our translator seems to have read, instead of שוחד (shochad), that is, gift, שחר (shochar), that is, a thing sought in the morning: for this is 'the expectation of one who waits'; for what someone awaits, this he seeks and procures early in the morning; for the root שחר (shachar) means to eat in the morning, to rise early, to seek early. But it is not necessary to resort to this, especially since shochar is not in use among the Hebrews. Therefore the Hebrew literally has: a stone of grace is a gift in the eyes of its masters, that is, a gift which masters always have in their eyes and affection, which they await and eagerly expect. For whatever one loves and desires, this one continually looks at with the eyes; this therefore is 'the expectation of one who waits.'
Note that the Hebrew השכיל (haskil), that is, 'to understand,' often in Scripture means 'to act prudently,' as the Chaldean here translates it: to work diligently, to apply oneself carefully and watchfully to some matter, as in Psalm 41:1: "Blessed is the man who understands concerning the needy and the poor," that is, blessed is he who thinks, as the Chaldean translates, and diligently attends to providing for the sick and the poor. Psalm 14:2: "To see if there is any who understands (acts intelligently and wisely), or seeks God." Psalm 36: "He was unwilling to understand so as to act well," that is, he was unwilling seriously to attend to and apply himself to good deeds; and frequently elsewhere. Finally, שוחד (shochad), that is, 'gift,' sometimes in Scripture means 'reward,' as the Septuagint here translate it. For a reward is like a gift and a prize suitable and due for labor, so that the meaning is, as if to say: The reward is in the eyes of the laborer like a most beautiful gem that incites him to labor energetically; therefore wherever he turns, that is, whatever he does by agreement and contract in his work, he performs prudently and carefully, so as to obtain the reward so greatly desired; which therefore the employer ought to render to him immediately upon completion of the work, if he wishes to satisfy his merit, prayer, and expectation.
Hence anagogically, Bede takes the most pleasing gem to mean heavenly rewards; for he says: "He who faithfully awaits future rewards rejoices as if in the possession of a most splendid gem. For in the Gospel too, the wise merchant sold all that he had for the acquisition of the precious pearl, that is, for heavenly desire; and such a zealous person, whether adverse or prosperous things befall him, is not turned from his purpose, understanding prudently that for those who love God, all things work together for good." Moreover, the Septuagint for 'gem' translates 'discipline,' because this is a heavenly and most excellent gem, indeed the evangelical pearl of which Christ speaks, Matthew 13:46; unless one says that the Septuagint instead of אבן (eben), that is, stone, gem, read הבין (habin), that is, to understand, and understanding, or doctrine and discipline. So the Septuagint translate: the reward of graces is discipline for those who use them; wherever he turns, he shall prosper; or, as the author of the Greek Catena more clearly puts it: "The reward of graces and virtues, especially for those who use them rightly, is the teaching of morals. And wherever a person instructed in such teaching turns, he will always proceed prosperously." Polychronius explains it there: "Moral discipline is the reward of the virtues, which he here calls by the name of graces. Therefore he who has completed the course of virtues will obtain moral wisdom as the reward for labors expended." Others explain it thus: "Discipline is the reward of graces," that is, discipline brings a most pleasing reward, or an ample reward of graces and virtues, to those who use and practice and exercise it. Finally, our Alvarez de Paz, treatise On Perfection, takes the most pleasing gem to mean the perfection of virtues, which the faithful and the Saints most eagerly await, and toward which they strive with all the powers of their souls, and therefore in all their resolutions, words, and deeds they conduct themselves prudently, taking care lest they deviate from the path of virtue even in the slightest degree.
Verse 9: He Who Conceals a Fault Seeks Friendships
In Hebrew: he who covers transgression seeks love; and he who repeats, or changes, or varies a matter, separates a leader. So Theodotion. For 'allies' the Hebrew has אלוף (alluph), that is, a leader, by which R. Solomon understands God, as if to say: He who casts others' faults in their face separates himself from God, who said and decreed: "You shall not seek vengeance, nor be mindful of the injury of your fellow citizens," Leviticus 19:18. More correctly, others generally take 'leader' to mean leaders, by enallage of number. Our translator renders it as 'allies,' because leaders and princes are accustomed to form alliances and establish treaties among themselves. Also, alluph can mean 'ally' by allusion to אלף (eleph), that is, a thousand, and to alluph, that is, an ox: for oxen go in herds and pasture as if allied. Whence the Chaldean translates: he who repeats a matter divides a friend; the Septuagint: he who conceals unjust deeds seeks friendship; but he who hates (they read שנא sone, that is, hates, instead of שנה scone, that is, repeats) to conceal, divides friends and household members. So the Romans and the rest. Therefore in the Complutensian text, instead of 'divides,' the contrary reading κοσμεῖ, that is, establishes, erects, is erroneous; the Syriac: he who refuses to conceal, separates friends and household members; Symmachus: he who repeats and reiterates a matter, separates familiarity, that is, the accustomed intimacy of friends; Vatablus: he who conceals a sin, seeks friendship; but he who reveals a matter causes prince to disagree with prince, that is, he who does not cast another's sin in his face shows charity; but he who does cast it up turns even princely friends away from himself. This is what Solomon said in chapter 10, verse 12: "Hatred stirs up quarrels, and charity covers all offenses."
First, St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena, taking 'fault' to mean one's own rather than another's, explains it as if to say: "He who through virtues hides his own vices becomes a friend of God. Therefore through justice we conceal and abolish injustice; through temperance and chastity, wantonness and intemperance; through love and charity, hatred and enmity." But others generally take 'fault' in this passage to mean another's, not one's own. Whence: Second, Blessed Antiochus, sermon 64 On Keeping Secrets, explains: He who conceals another's fault committed in secret to him, and buries it in his mind, this man cultivates friendship; but he who reveals it divides household members from himself and stirs up everyone against himself. So also St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena, who attaches this meaning too to the former. Third, the Zurich Bible translates: he who varies words dissociates magnates, as if to say: He who conceals a fault, that is, excuses it, minimizes it, and covers it up as much as he can, easily establishes peace and friendship among those who disagree: but he who "varies words," that is, who exaggerates and amplifies the fault by injuring another, and narrates it differently from how it happened — this man dissociates even allied "magnates," and stirs up suspicions, hatreds, lawsuits, and wars among them. Fourth, fully and genuinely, as if to say: He who does not broadcast or cast up the fault of another committed either against himself or against others, but conceals it, buries it in oblivion, and does not show himself angry — this man wonderfully wins the love of the one by whom he was injured or offended; furthermore, he unites others with one another and joins them in friendship. But he who repeatedly brings up and rubs fresh a fault of another that was already laid to rest or buried, separates from himself and from one another those who were allies and friends. For just as a wound that has formed a scab, or been covered with a poultice, if it is reopened and rubbed, becomes raw again, so offenses and hatreds buried in oblivion, if they are rubbed fresh by new words, become raw again, are sharpened, and eventually become incurable, as daily experience teaches. Solomon therefore teaches the way in which offenses are laid to rest, and the way in which they are renewed, so that we may embrace the former and reject the latter.
St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, did this, about whom he himself writes in these words, Book IX of the Confessions, chapter 9: "This great gift You had also granted to that good handmaid of Yours, in whose womb You created me, my God, my mercy — that between any dissenting and discordant souls, wherever she could, she showed herself so peaceful that when she heard from each side many very bitter things about the other, such as swelling and undigested discord is accustomed to belch forth when the cruelty (or, as others read, crudity) of hatred is exhaled in sour conversations about an absent enemy to a present friend — she would nevertheless reveal nothing of the one to the other except what would serve to reconcile them. This would seem a small good to me, had I not sadly experienced innumerable disturbances from some horrible plague of sins most widely spread, where people not only betray to angry enemies the things said by angry enemies, but even add things that were not said; whereas on the contrary, for a humane spirit it should be too little merely not to stir up or increase the enmities of men by speaking ill, unless one also strives to extinguish them by speaking well — such as she was, taught by You, the intimate teacher in the school of the heart. Finally, she also won her husband for You at the very end of his earthly life, and did not grieve in him, now a believer, over what she had tolerated in him when he was not yet a believer.
From what has been said, it is clear that the root and, as it were, the a priori reason of this saying is charity. For the reason why one who conceals a fault wins the friendship of the offender for himself and his friends is that he shows him remarkable charity, by concealing his fault he conceals his infamy, and preserves his honor and reputation whole and unblemished. For sensible people value reputation very highly; therefore they wonderfully love the one who protects it: for love is the great incentive and enticement of love. On the contrary, he who rubs fresh and broadcasts a fault, injures and wounds the reputation of the offender, and therefore makes him hostile to himself and to his own, certainly from a lack of charity and prudence.
Verse 10: A Reproof Profits the Prudent More Than a Hundred Blows the Fool
In Hebrew: a reproof breaks the understanding man more than striking a fool a hundred times; the Septuagint: threats crush the heart of the prudent, but the fool, though beaten, does not feel it; Theodotion: reproof comes upon the understanding man more than a blow upon the imprudent; the Chaldean: reproof penetrates the understanding man more than striking the fool a hundred times with rods; the Syriac: threats oppress the heart of the wise; and in place of reproof the fool is tortured and does not feel it. For 'profits' the Hebrew has תחת (techath), which some derive from the root נחת (nacha), that is, he led down. Whence Vatablus and Cajetan translate: reproof descends into his heart; R. Levi: it falls; Theodotion: it comes. But far more correctly others derive techath from חתת (chatat), that is, he broke, he crushed. The meaning is therefore clear, as if to say: The prudent man, wherever he slips or errs, is more moved by being corrected with a word to correct his error, than a fool, that is, an imprudent and wicked man, is moved even by a hundredfold beating. Understand 'correction' whether it be that which comes from man or that which comes from God, concerning which the author of the Greek Catena explains, as if to say: "The prudent man, he says, is stricken in heart and comes to his senses on account of divine threats; but the fool, even when struck by famine or another calamity or temptation, neither feels it nor turns to repentance, but obstinately persists in his wickedness, and thereby willingly involves himself in various evils and the inconveniences of vengeance."
The first reason for this saying is that the prudent man follows the guidance of right reason. And so, if by true reason you show him that he has erred, he will yield to truth and reason, acknowledge his mistake, and correct his fault. But the fool does not follow the guidance of reason, but of imagination and concupiscence; because he clings stubbornly, he cannot be torn away except by many blows. Therefore the fool is like a brute animal, for example, a dog, a horse, or a donkey. For just as a dog gnawing a bone does not allow itself to be torn from it except by many blows — indeed sometimes it allows itself to be mauled and killed rather than release the bone — so also the fool does not allow himself to be pulled from his pleasures except by many lashes. So St. Jerome, whom Dionysius cites here: "There is no need," he says, "to prick twice one who does not kick back, for whom his own reason is his teacher, and his own conscience is his rod." But it is necessary to prick the kicking fool and impious man many times, so that he may walk on the right path, because his teacher is imagination, and his nurse is concupiscence. The second reason is that the prudent man slips from ignorance or weakness, which is removed by a word of correction, whereas the fool errs from malice and obstinacy, which can only be broken and shattered by a long and harsh hammering of blows. Furthermore, the prudent man is noble, honorable, and modest, for whom a word suffices to correct his mistake; but the fool is cowardly, insolent, and shameless, who must be compelled to his duty by many blows, according to that saying of Quintus Curtius: "A noble horse is governed by the shadow of a whip; a lazy one cannot be moved even by the spur." And that saying: "Guide and bend the wise man by a nod, the fool by a stick." Whence St. Gregory, Part III of the Pastoral Rule, chapter 8: "Those who are shameless must be admonished in one way, and the modest in another. For the former are restrained from the vice of shamelessness only by harsh reproof; but the latter are for the most part set right by a modest exhortation. The former do not know that they are sinning unless they are rebuked even by many; for the latter, it usually suffices for their conversion that their teacher at least gently brings their faults to their memory. The former are better corrected by one who reproves them vehemently; but for the latter, greater progress is made if the fault that is reprehended in them is, as it were, touched upon from the side. Indeed, the Lord openly rebuking the shameless people of the Jews says: You have the forehead of a harlot, you refuse to blush, Jeremiah 3. And again He gently encourages the modest one, saying: You shall forget the confusion of your youth, and you shall not remember the reproaches of your widowhood, because He who made you shall rule over you, Isaiah 54."
The third reason is that the prudent man prudently believes and yields to words, lest he be compelled by blows; but the fool foolishly is not moved by words, but waits for blows, from whose frequent striking he at last grows callous and becomes insensible, as we see insolent youths not moved by rods but rather hardened, and slaves already accustomed to their masters' whips treating them as nothing. Hence that saying of the Comic poet, advising not to beat a servant who had already grown hard and callous to blows, as one likely to hurt his own hand rather than the servant: "Please," he says, "do not beat a stone, lest you hurt your hand," as if to say: He who beats an incorrigible man, or teaches an unteachable one, beats a stone. Such is the drunkard and the intoxicated man, who says, Proverbs 23:35: "They struck me, and I felt no pain; they dragged me, and I did not feel it; when shall I awake, and find wine again?" And the wicked of whom Jeremiah complains, 5:3: "You struck them, and they did not grieve; You crushed them, and they refused to accept discipline; they hardened their faces beyond stone, and were unwilling to return." For from what is habitual, no suffering arises, and habit takes away the feeling of evil, and in beatings, those who have once ceased to grieve put on indifference and do not feel the blows, just as if they had a back of stone.
Verse 11: The Wicked Always Seeks Quarrels; a Cruel Angel Shall Be Sent Against Him
In Hebrew: surely the wicked man seeks rebellion; and a cruel messenger shall be sent against him; the Septuagint: every wicked man stirs up contradictions (Symmachus: contentions; Theodotion: exasperation): but the Lord will send against him an unmerciful angel (Symmachus: ἄσπλαγχνον, that is, without bowels, or disemboweled); or, as the author of the Greek Catena: the wicked and base, each and every one, stir up controversies and contradictions; but the Lord will send a cruel angel against such people; the Chaldean: truly a bitter man seeks evil, etc.; R. Solomon: he whose words are venomous and insolent always seeks evil.
First, Cajetan says: First, the particle אך is ambiguous; for it can be translated: "Only the rebel seeks evil," or "the wicked man seeks only rebellion." Vatablus follows the former version: "The rebel seeks only evil." Which can be explained in two ways. First, as if to say: Other criminals commit evils when the occasion of gain, honor, or some other enticement presents itself; but the rebel deliberately seeks evils, to foster rebellion; second, as if to say: The rebel seeks nothing good, but only evil, because only evils are useful to him for sustaining rebellion. This is manifest from experience in public rebellions; in private ones we see the same thing happening not infrequently. Thus in our time, in many places heresy and the crimes consequent upon it have been introduced by rebels, because these served the rebellion; for the Catholic faith and conscience cannot tolerate plotting rebellion. The meaning of the latter version is, as if to say: Only the wicked man, that is, the depraved and perverse, seeks rebellion; and because rebellion is an enormous crime, a cruel angel will be sent against him by God the avenger. By this angel, that is, messenger, understand either a demon, or an executioner who punishes rebels, or a similar one appointed by God for the chastisement of rebels.
Second, Pagninus translates: indeed the rebellious man seeks his own evil, and a cruel messenger shall be sent against him, as if to say: The rebel, by rebelling against his prince or superior, brings and creates evil not so much for the prince as for himself, just like one who kicks against the goad; because he will be crushed and overthrown by the prince, who is more powerful. For the prince will send against him a cruel messenger, namely a lictor or soldiers, to seize and destroy him. A clear example is Pharaoh, who, rebelling against God and Moses and disputing and quarreling with them, received the most grievous plagues of God sent through evil angels (as Psalm 77:49 says), and was at last submerged with his entire army in the Red Sea, Exodus 14. Pharaoh therefore is an example, indeed a model, of the vengeance upon rebels. Similarly, Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, rebelling against Moses, were swallowed alive by the earth and dragged by demons into Tartarus, Numbers 16.
Third, some explain this of a subordinate who protests against and rebels against a Superior who is humanely correcting him: for he will fall into the hands of a severe Superior who, like a cruel angel, will crush and break his stubbornness with harsh blows. Indeed, the same Superior who previously dealt with him gently as a lamb, seeing his stubbornness, will put on the character of a lion and rage against him as a lion. So St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 1, the Apologetic Oration on His Flight, teaches that a Superior ought to imitate Proteus and assume various forms, now transforming himself into the form of a lamb with the obedient, now into the form of a lion with rebels. This explanation is true, but too narrow. For the maxim is general; therefore 'the cruel angel' should be understood not only as a severe Superior, but as anyone raging against the rebel by God's command. For God is accustomed by His just judgment to bring it about that those who, trusting in their own strength, rebel against their Superiors, fall into the hands of someone stronger than themselves, appointed by God, who enters into a kind of duel with them and vanquishes, overthrows, crushes, and tramples them. This one, so cruel that he is moved by no mercy, will be sent against him to put him to death, says Aben-Ezra, and to afflict him with a most grievous calamity, says R. Levi, nor will he be moved by any pity, because the rebel has defected from God. Again, the same R. Levi explains it thus, as if to say: It is not enough for the rebel that his reproof has produced absolutely no result; he must also constantly gape after defection; and although a fierce angel is sent against him, from whom he endures horrible scourges, he still adds to his crimes the crown of impiety.
Verse 12: Better to Meet a She-Bear Robbed of Her Cubs Than a Fool in His Folly
In Hebrew: let a bear robbed of its cubs encounter a man, but not a fool in his folly. Supply: it is better, as if to say: It is safer to run into a bear than into a fool, because a fool is more destructive than a bear, says Aben-Ezra: for a bear destroys the body, while a fool, that is, an impious man, destroys both body and soul. Moreover, you can avoid the fury of a bear, since it is a brute, by reason and counsel; but a fool who uses and misuses reason, indeed is armed with it — by what skill will you escape him? Finally, a fool is fiercer than a bear when you try to draw him away from his cubs, that is, his lusts, and correct and chastise him. Symmachus: let a bear robbed of its cubs encounter a man, but not a fool in his folly; supply: it is better. The Chaldean: a bear and terror encounters the wise man, he says, and he is not moved; and the fool falls in his folly; the Septuagint: care shall fall upon the intelligent man, but the imprudent shall devise evils; the Syriac: thought and fear fall upon the wise man, and upon the fool his foolishness. This saying depends on the preceding verses; therefore by 'fool' understand not just any vicious person, but one who is plainly depraved, impious, and rebellious, who rages against those who admonish him, about whom the preceding verse said: "The wicked always seeks quarrels." He therefore compares and rates the ferocity of such a man above that of a she-bear, rather than a male bear, as if to say: It is safer to encounter a she-bear than a fool, who attacks you more furiously than a she-bear, to rob you of your reputation, wealth, or even your life — indeed, your conscience and soul. For a she-bear is fiercer than a male bear. Hear Aristotle, Book IX of the History of Animals, chapter 1: "Among bears, contrary to the custom of other animals, the female is more spirited and fierce," especially if someone snatches away and steals her cubs: for then she rages and is furious to an astonishing degree. For a she-bear above all other animals loves her cubs, because she gives birth to them formless, and then shapes them by licking, just as a fool, that is, an impious person, shapes his perverse schemes by thinking about them, as it were licking them in his mind, so that he may deftly carry them out to the ruin of others. "A she-bear," says Aristotle, Book VI of the History of Animals, chapter 30, "gives birth at most to five; she is accustomed to produce offspring smaller than a cat, larger than a mouse: naked, blind, and with legs and most other limbs almost indistinguishable and shapeless," and therefore "unarticulated," as the same says, Book IV On the Generation of Animals, chapter 6. So also Aelian, Book II On Animals, chapter 19. Hear Pliny, Book VIII, chapter 36: "These (bear cubs) are a white formless flesh, a little larger than mice, without eyes, without hair; only the claws protrude: these she gradually shapes by licking." And St. Ambrose, Book VI of the Hexameron, chapter 4, where he sets up the she-bear as an example of diligent education of children: "The she-bear, it is said, brings forth from her womb formless offspring, but she shapes them with her tongue and forms them into her own likeness and image. Do you not marvel at such dutiful offices of the mouth in a wild beast, whose nature expresses loving devotion? The she-bear therefore shapes her young into her own likeness: can you not train your children to be like you?"
Pliny adds evidence of the she-bear's love for her cubs: "She warms her stiff offspring by pressing them to her breast, hatching them no differently than birds do their eggs." And soon after: "Their eyes are often dulled. The head is the weakest part of a bear, which for the lion is the strongest: therefore when pressed by force and about to throw themselves from some cliff, they cover their head with their paws and throw themselves down; and often in the arena they are killed by a blow that breaks the head. The Spaniards believe that poison resides in the brain, and burn the heads of those killed in the spectacles, testifying that the drink drives one into a bearlike frenzy. Nor is any other animal more clever in its cunning" (the word 'stultitia' should apparently read 'astutia', i.e., cunning). All of which very aptly applies to the fool: for his eyes of the mind are dulled; his head is the weakest, destitute of all counsel, reason, and wisdom; his brain is filled with malice, tricks, frauds, and madness, which drives him and others into a bearlike frenzy and impiety. Hence the bear is a symbol equally of deceit and ferocity. So St. Basil, homily 10 on the Hexameron: "Deceit," he says, "whenever it chooses its dwelling in a soul that is a contriver of tricks and frauds, is more implacable than any bear lurking in its cave." Hence the malice of the Antichrist, armed and strengthened with deceit, is compared to the feet of a bear, Apocalypse 13:2. And a she-bear is more deceitful than a male bear. For in every kind of animal, as Aristotle says, Book IX of the History of Animals, "the females are more malicious, more cunning, more treacherous, and more careful in nurturing their offspring; the males, on the contrary, are simpler and less treacherous." Moreover, a bear, when enraged, hurls stones backwards at anyone who encounters it or follows it, without discrimination: so a fool, if he is criticized, hurls insults and curses at the one who criticizes him, indeed at any bystanders without discrimination. Furthermore, a bear remembers an injury: for after many months, indeed years, it recognizes the one who injured it in a large crowd of hunters, attacks and kills him: so also the fool nurses his anger for months and years. Moreover, a bear is moved by no mercy, but pursues its enemy to the death. Whence Ovid, Book III of the Tristia, elegy 5: The greater one is, the more placable his anger, And a noble mind is swayed by easy impulses. For the great-hearted lion it suffices to have struck down bodies: The fight has its end when the enemy lies fallen. But the wolf and the dread bears press upon the dying, And whatever wild beast is of lesser nobility. Thus the wise and magnanimous man spares the enemy who humbles himself: but the fool, like a bear, inflexible and merciless, does not cease to pursue his enemy until he crushes and destroys him.
Now, that a furious fool is fiercer than a she-bear raging over her stolen cubs is clear from the fact that a she-bear is tamed by the sight of a maiden and an infant — which a fool does not do. Aelian reports, Book XIII of Various Histories, chapter 1, that Atalanta, the most celebrated maiden, recently born and exposed by her father Jason, was nourished by a she-bear who, having been robbed of her cubs by hunters, nursed the maiden with her teats swollen with milk, and thus both mitigated her own grief over the stolen cubs and gave the maiden life. Add that the bear has much phlegm, by which it dilutes its anger and ferocity. A sure sign of this phlegm is that the bear in winter, when it breeds, lies hidden for 40 days as if stupefied and half-asleep, and then lives without food, and yet grows fat, as attested by Aristotle, Book VIII of the History of Animals, chapter 17, and Pliny, Book VIII, chapter 36, who writes thus about bears: "The males lie hidden for forty days, the females for four months. For the first fourteen days they are weighed down by so heavy a sleep that they cannot be awakened even by wounds. Then they grow amazingly fat from their torpor. From those days onward, they sit up and live by sucking their forepaws." But the fool, when he rages, turns entirely to bile, and converts all phlegm into choler and fury.
The a priori reason for this saying is that the ferocity that is natural to a bear is worse when it becomes stupidity, that is, wickedness, assumed by free will and deliberate malice by the fool, that is, the wicked man; and as it is worse, so also it is sharper and more ingenious in doing harm. An example of this saying is found in Simeon and Levi, the sons of Jacob, who, intending to avenge the rape of their sister Dinah, fiercer than raging bears rushed upon the Shechemites and treacherously slaughtered them to the last man, Genesis 34:25. We see similar things frequently among those who are driven by the fury of vengeance to the destruction of many. Moreover, the Septuagint, Chaldean, and Syriac translate 'bear' as worry, fear, and terror: because a bear, anxious about its cubs and striking terror into those it meets, is a symbol of anxiety and terror. Whence the author of the Greek Catena from the Septuagint translates thus: various cares and anxieties press upon the intelligent man; but fools devise and plan evils; the Chaldean: a bear and terror encounters the wise man, he is not moved; and the fool falls in his folly, as if to say: Terrors not infrequently encounter both the wise man and the fool: but the wise man is not moved by them, because he resists them with his counsel and nobility of spirit and disperses them; but the fool foolishly yields and succumbs to them. For the terrifying bear is an image of terror. For, as Horace says, Epode 16: And the evening bear groans around the sheepfold. And Oppian graphically depicts the bear and its ferocity and terror thus: Monstrous bears, a cruel race, savage limbs; Covered with a vile shaggy and dense coat, Misshapen in appearance, a face dishonored, bloody, Grim, with saw-like teeth and a great gaping maw, And their dark mouths exhale boiling vapors. Thus often the devil sends terrifying imaginations, specters, and fears upon a person to strike him down and cast him headlong into pusillanimity, despair, or some other crime. But the wise man is not moved, indeed he laughs at these as empty specters. So to St. Anthony there appeared in the form of bears, lions, wolves, and giants, to disturb him; but Anthony, experienced in his deceits, laughed at them, and by the sign of the cross and prayer dispersed all these phantoms, so that they immediately vanished into smoke. Seneca truly says: "It is the images and phantoms of things that terrify us, not the things themselves." Therefore it is necessary to conquer one's imagination and rebuke it, and say to oneself: Do not believe it or yield to it; it is a vain phantom that frightens you; scorn it, and it will vanish into thin air. Those who suffer from vertigo think everything is spinning and turning, and fear they will fall into an abyss. But the healthy strengthen them and say: There is nothing to fear; you stand firmly: things are not spinning; it is your brain that is whirling. So the wise man says when fears present themselves: Nothing will be able to strike terror into me who lean upon God; these imaginations are sent into the brain: they are terrifying phantoms, not truly terrible things. Therefore I am not moved by them; I stand secure in the bosom of Divine Providence, and sing with the Psalmist: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High shall abide under the protection of the God of heaven, etc. His truth shall surround you as a shield; you shall not fear the terror of the night."
Verse 13: He Who Returns Evil for Good
The Septuagint: evils shall not be removed from his house. The meaning is clear, as the author of the Greek Catena says: The unjust, ungrateful, and treacherous man "who repays benefits received with injury, will be enveloped by the avenging God in continuous evils. And rightly so; for if punishment is deserved by one who returns evil for evil, how much more will that man experience the evil of punishment who returns evil for good?" For this is not only a remarkable ingratitude, but also treachery, which violates the very laws of nature, which accordingly God, the avenger of nature and crimes, is accustomed to punish and chastise with severe punishments, whether of infamy, poverty, disease, persecution, exile and prison, or death itself — indeed, even after death in one's children and family. This is what Christ, through David, complains of with great anguish concerning the Jews: "They repaid me evil for good, barrenness for my soul," Psalm 34:12. And: "Those who repay evil for good slandered me, because I followed goodness," Psalm 37:21. Accordingly, God punished the Jews, so ungrateful toward Christ — since they rendered insults, curses, and the cross in return for His teaching, labors, and miracles — with the destruction and ruin of the entire nation, and continues to punish them to this day. For what they themselves cried out to Pilate when he wished to release Christ — "His blood be upon us and upon our children" — we see fulfilled even today, as the vengeance for Christ's blood pursues the Jews, fugitives throughout the whole world, everywhere on earth. So Lyranus, Dionysius, Jansenius, Baynus, Arboreus, and others.
Mystically, Hugo applies this maxim to those who are indignant against their persecutors and others who trouble them: for persecution is an immense good, and therefore one ought to respond with good, not evil. "Everyone," he says, "who is angry at the one who does him evil, returns evil for good; for every affliction and tribulation is good and salutary for a person, either for satisfaction, or for the proof and increase of virtue; therefore he who is angry at the one who afflicts him is like a scabby child who is angry at his mother washing his head and reviles her. Likewise, such tribulation is water for extinguishing the fire of concupiscence: therefore he who is angry at the one who afflicts him is like the one whose house is on fire and who reviles the one bringing him water to put it out. Likewise, tribulation is the patience of the soul, Lamentations 3: He shall be filled with reproaches. Therefore he who is angry at the one who afflicts him is like a dog that bites the hand extending bread to it." And a little later he meets an objection: "But someone will say: Even if those who afflict us do good things, they do not do them well, because they do not intend this, and therefore they should not be endured. Friend, the thorns that enclose and guard your vineyard do not intend to do this, but if you reject them for that reason, you are foolish." Moreover, the root and a priori reason of this saying is the law of retaliation, which commands that evil be returned for evil, so that what someone unjustly did to another, the same he should justly undergo and suffer. Therefore he who returns evil for good deserves to receive equal evils in return for this enormous evil.
Verse 14: He Who Releases Water Is the Source of Quarrels
Salonius takes 'water' to mean the tongue, which is light and flowing like water; but this is a mystical interpretation. In Hebrew: he who opens waters is the beginning of strife; and before the quarrel becomes intermingled, leave off; the Chaldean: he who pours out blood like water stirs up quarrels; and before the strife becomes inflamed, it must be dropped, as if to say: Just as a furnace or pyre that has been lit, when a small amount of water is thrown on it, is not extinguished but is rather inflamed more by antiperistasis and burns hotter, so also if blood is shed in a brawl, the brawl is not extinguished thereby but burns hotter, so that greater fights and killings are committed; the Syriac: he who pours out blood stirs up judgment before the prince; the Septuagint go in another direction: they say: The beginning of justice gives authority to words; but contention and strife precede destitution; others: the beginning of quarrels is like water breaking forth, etc.
In our Latin version, as in the Hebrew, after the Hebrew manner, the comparative particle 'just as' must be understood, as if to say: Just as one who opens a crack or hole in waters enclosed in a vessel or channel causes at first only a little, but gradually, as the hole and flow increase, a great deal of water to flow out, which floods and devastates entire fields — for a hole is easily opened, and once opened is difficult to close — so likewise, he who gives the beginning to lawsuits and quarrels gives the occasion and opens the way to great quarrels, brawls, seditions, and wars, which are then most difficult to quell, so that sometimes entire cities, provinces, and kingdoms fall into schisms and are stirred up into prolonged wars. For one lawsuit sows not just one but many lawsuits, just as from one grain many are sown. The beginning of the outflow of water is small, but afterwards it becomes great: so also in a lawsuit. Solomon therefore teaches that the prudent man must flee lawsuits, and therefore their very first beginnings must be cut short, because once begun, lawsuits gradually and imperceptibly grow and become inextricable and insuperable, so as to deprive a person of peace, wealth, reputation, life, and sometimes even conscience. Whence Baynus briefly and clearly explains, as if to say: Just as he who opens waters and cuts a ditch provides the cause of a great flood, which he cannot afterwards restrain or call back, so it is easy to give a beginning to strife and quarreling, but most difficult to settle a lawsuit. Or the meaning is, as if to say: He who gives the beginning to strife should be considered the author of the entire lawsuit, just as he who opens and releases the waters to flood over the land, which previously flowed in their channel, is the author of the flood. And therefore, just as in moderating other passions, one must resist the beginnings, so also in lawsuits and contentions: for just as water that has broken through a ditch cannot be called back, so neither can anger; and strife, once it has begun, gathers strength.
This proverb especially condemns heresiarchs and founders of sects, according to the allegorical sense. The counterpart to this saying is that Arabian proverb, century 1, number 12: "Be the wild donkey upon whom hunters come," that is, flee most swiftly when quarrels unexpectedly come upon you: for wild donkeys are the swiftest in flight and running. And that paradox of Plato, which Cicero cites in the Tusculan Disputations: "Half is more than the whole." For often the greedy in a lawsuit desire the whole and will not agree when the opposing party offers half; but in the lawsuit they demand the whole; whence it often happens that they lose the case, and those who greedily sought the whole lose the whole; for them therefore "the half is more than the whole." So St. Gregory of Nazianzus voluntarily yielded the archbishopric of Constantinople to settle the disputes of the bishops, adopting that saying of Jonah: "If on my account this tempest has arisen, cast me into the sea, that you may cease to be tossed about;" who therefore in iambic couplets, number 53, counsels: Lawsuits put to flight those whom they move to fear and anger. For lawsuits often beget grievous frenzy. Christ gave the same counsel, Matthew 5:25: "Be agreeable with your adversary quickly while you are on the way with him; lest perhaps the adversary hand you over to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be cast into prison. Truly I say to you: You shall not go out from there until you repay the last penny." And verse 40: "And if anyone wishes to go to court with you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well." And St. Augustine in his Rule, chapter 37, decrees: "Have no lawsuits at all, or settle them as quickly as possible, lest anger grow into hatred, and make a beam out of a splinter, and make the soul a murderer. For thus you read: He who hates his brother is a murderer," 1 John 3. Because, as he also says, epistle 87: "Just as vinegar corrodes a vessel if it stays too long in it, so anger corrupts the heart if it lasts to another day." To this is added St. Gregory, Part III, Pastoral Admonition 43, who compares the release of water to the release of words. AND BEFORE HE SUFFERS INSULT, HE ABANDONS JUDGMENT. — This is an antithesis of the preceding hemistich, such as frequently occur here, as if to say: On the contrary, he who avoids quarrels immediately abandons the lawsuit and forensic judgment before he suffers insult. Or rather it is an inference and conclusion drawn from the first hemistich, as if to say: He who gives the beginning to a lawsuit opens the door to great quarrels; therefore he who is wise, at the very beginning abandons the lawsuit and forensic judgment before he suffers insult, and before he entangles himself in a lawsuit that will last for ages. That this is the meaning is clear from the Hebrew, which has: before the quarrel becomes intermingled, leave off. So R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Jansenius, and others; whence the Zurich Bible translates: as one who opens (an exit and flow) for waters, so is the one who first gives the occasion for litigation: before the lawsuit becomes intermingled, it must be abandoned; and Vatablus: like one who opens the bank of a river, etc. St. Gregory, tracing the origin of quarrels more deeply, attributes it to the breaking of silence. For he writes thus, Part III, Pastoral Admonition 43: "Hence (from much speaking) stings are sown, quarrels arise, torches of hatred are kindled, peace of hearts is extinguished. Whence it is well said by Solomon: He who releases water is the source of quarrels. To release water is to let loose the tongue in a flow of speech. Conversely, in a good sense it is again said: Deep waters are words from the mouth of a man. Therefore he who releases water is the source of quarrels; because he who does not restrain his tongue destroys concord." He says the same in Book VII of the Morals, chapter 17. And also what Isocrates attributes to the breaking of silence. For he writes, Part III, to Demonicus: "From common matters procure singular things; he is the author of quarrels." Bede, following St. Gregory as usual, briefly explains: "He who releases water is the source of quarrels, because he who does not restrain his tongue destroys concord. Whence conversely it is written, Proverbs 26: He who imposes silence on a fool dissipates anger." So also Salonius, who metaphorically takes 'water' to mean the tongue, which like water is mobile and flowing. "This is said figuratively," he says, "for by water is designated the light and flowing tongue; and he who immoderately relaxes his tongue is the source of quarrels, because he who does not restrain his tongue stirs up quarrels and lawsuits and destroys concord." This is most true of one who reveals a friend's secret, whether a vice, a plan, or a purpose: for he is the cause of enmity, hatreds, brawls, and lawsuits. Less correctly, Lyranus takes 'water' to mean wine, which, as he said, is "water of the vine," or water cooked in the vine by the sun, as if to say: He who releases water, drinking wine that is too strong, is the source of quarrels that arise from drunkenness, "and before he suffers insult, he abandons judgment (of discretion)," injuring his neighbor without cause.
Second, it can be aptly explained thus, as if to say: "He who releases," or, as the Hebrew has it, opens, "water" from a river, or spring, or pool, namely so as to divert for his own use water that is common property, and as it were appropriate it for himself — this man is the origin and cause of quarrels. Thus we see millers, when they divert public water to their own mill, fall into lawsuits with sailors who complain that the river water is diminished by them so that they can no longer navigate through it; and with farmers who complain that the irrigation of the river has been diverted and stolen from their fields; and with any others who feel that their share of the water supply has been taken from them, and rightfully demand it back. This proverb therefore signifies that a frequent cause of lawsuits is when someone makes common goods, such as water, his own property; for then the rest, for whom it was a common good, rise up against him and bring a lawsuit against him. Therefore, he who is wise "before he suffers insult, abandons judgment," preferring to give up the resource he had converted to his own use and restore it to the public good, rather than fall into lawsuits by which he would bring upon himself ignominy and a fine, being condemned, defamed, and fined as a plunderer of the public good. I return to the one who releases waters. Indeed we see in Rome frequent lawsuits arising over the waters of fountains, for example, over the Aqua Virgo, from which most people drink, and over the aqueducts which Popes Sixtus V and Paul V brought into the city. For since these waters, distributed through ounces and half-ounces into smaller pipes and channels, have been sold to various parties, and often the fountains do not supply as much water as has been sold to each buyer, or if they do supply it, it is diverted elsewhere — which is easy to do if someone inserts a larger or lower pipe than the pipes of others into the common basin into which the fountain flows — for he will then draw off a greater and purer supply of water to the damage of the rest; then indeed those who have suffered damage bring lawsuits against the masters who sold the water, and they insist that all pipes be inserted at the level of the common basin, and be precisely reduced to the quantity of the ounce or half-ounce for which they purchased the water, so that if pipes remain larger, they draw off more water than is fair, which consequently diminishes the share owed to others.
Third, some explain it thus, as if to say: "He who releases water," that is, he who lets go of the memory of benefits (which Plutarch, in his book On Friendship, calls "the cask of gratitude") received from a friend, and forgets them — this man "is the source of quarrels," because benefits are the bond of friendship, which, if they are abolished through forgetful ingratitude, old injuries are soon rubbed fresh, and new ones follow, which are the seeds of quarrels. But the other part of the hemistich does not cohere with this exposition: "And before he suffers insult, he abandons judgment."
Fourth, others think the allusion is to the water that turns a mill wheel; for when the wheel, turned by the flowing water, has no grain to grind, it strikes the millstones themselves so hard by its rotation that it elicits fire from them as from flint; this fire, growing from the collision of the stones at their borders, produces a great conflagration by which the whole mill is burned down. In a similar way, the tongue in familiar conversations, when there is no useful subject matter to, so to speak, grind, wears away the stone beneath it, that is, turns to the slander, insults, and abuses of neighbors, by which it kindles the fire of quarrels, so much so that from its sparks not just one house but great cities not infrequently go up in flames. The mill wheel, then, that stirs up the fire of discord is the unbridled tongue, of which St. James, chapter 3:6, says: "The tongue is set among the members as that which stains the whole body and inflames the wheel of our birth, being inflamed by hell." Where Vatablus says: "It is the tongue that brings the whole man into danger when it is moved without deliberation, just as mills set the whole mill on fire when they have generated fire by excessive motion. And before he suffers insult, he abandons judgment," that is, the wise man drops the dispute before the adversary hurls insults at him and inflicts some disgrace upon him. This meaning is profound and apt, but it supplies much and adds to the saying itself.
Fifth, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew מדון (madon), which our translator renders as 'quarrels,' as 'justice': for madon signifies a lawsuit, brawl, contention, and judgment; for lawsuits are conducted before a judge in court, so that the judge may decide and determine them according to justice. Again, for 'releases,' or, as the Hebrew has it, 'opens water,' the Septuagint translates 'gives authority or license to words.' For they seem to allude to the water-clock (clepsydra), which was formerly made from the flow of water (as now from the flow of sand); for in former times prosecutors and accusers in court delivered their speeches by the water-clock, so that when it had run out, they would stop and give place to the defendants to defend themselves. Whence Apuleius, in The Golden Ass: "Again, summoned by the herald's loud cry, a certain elderly accuser rises, and with a small vessel narrowed like the neck of a flask, and through this, the water dripping drop by drop, he thus addresses the people." Hence the Greek word clepsydra, meaning literally κλέφωσα ὕδωρ, that is, 'stealing water.' And Philostratus in his Life of Adrian the Sophist calls sophists 'men of the water-clock,' who practiced to the flow of water. And Cicero, Book III of the Orator, speaking of Pericles: "But," he says, "no mere shouter had taught him to bark at the water-clock." Therefore to 'release water' in the water-clock is to give license and the beginning of a speech. So the Septuagint translates: the beginning of justice gives authority to words; but contention and strife precede destitution; or, as the author of the Greek Catena more clearly translates: "The just ruler (for the Greek ἐξουσία signifies both authority and beginning) grants liberty and authority to speech for pleading; but dissension and fighting pave the way to destitution," as if to say: A just judge or prince gives litigants, both the plaintiff to accuse and the defendant to defend himself, a fair period for pleading; but he who is cautious and prudent flees lawsuits and litigation, because these impoverish litigants and reduce them to destitution. For the expenses of litigants in lawyers, agents, witnesses, the judge, etc., are very numerous and continuous, and these drain the resources of litigants. So the Septuagint version, thus explained, comes to the same thing as the Latin Vulgate.
Symbolically, our Alvarez de Paz, treatise On Interior Mortification, takes 'waters' to mean the thoughts of the mind, which all the Saints collect and fix on God and heaven, and therefore lead a holy, peaceful, and joyful life. But if through carelessness they let them go and allow them to flow downward, namely so that the thoughts wander in the fields and vanities of the world, immediately there arises in them mental distraction, restlessness, strife and quarreling, as concupiscence draws the mind downward, while charity draws it upward. This quarrel of the soul is described at length by the Apostle, Romans 7. Accordingly, Christ says to Martha, anxious about many things: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the better part, which shall not be taken from her," Luke 10:41. And St. Gregory of Nazianzus, in his Poem On Beatitude: Blessed, he says, is he who, withdrawn from the world, lives as a hermit In austerity, and raises his mind to the stars. Blessed is he who, joined to many, not busying himself with most things, Is not distracted, but has given his whole heart to God. Blessed is he who buys Christ with all his fortunes, etc. No longer a man, but one of the company of heaven-dwellers.
Verse 15: He Who Justifies the Wicked and He Who Condemns the Just
In Hebrew there is an elegant paronomasia: מצדיק רשע ומרשיע צדיק (matsdik rasha umarschia tsaddik), that is, as Pagninus renders it: justifying the wicked and making the just man wicked — both are an abomination to the Lord; the Septuagint: he who judges the just man to be unjust, and the unjust man to be just, is unclean and abominable before God; Vatablus: the Lord equally (as if with equal injustice and equal iniquity) abhors both him who acquits the criminal and him who condemns the innocent; for an equal injury is done to God, and there is an equal perversion of justice, whether you take justice away from the just man, to whom it belongs, or attribute it to the unjust, from whom it is abhorrent. The a priori reason is that God in His essence is justice itself — uncreated, immense, and fontal; from Him therefore, as from a fountain, flows all created justice of Angels and men, which He therefore loves as His own, and conversely hates and abhors all injustice as essentially contrary to Himself and originating from the devil.
This usually occurs in three ways, through three degrees of impiety and unjust judgment, growing by stages. First, the author of the Greek Catena explains these words of private judgment. To judge, he says, does not here refer to the civil court, but to the judgment and feeling of the soul. For here 'to judge' means the same as to reckon or to esteem. This is gathered from the fact that he declares that before God, the one who judges the just man unjust, and conversely the unjust man just, is unclean and execrable. And by this the Wise Man admonishes that we should never prefer anything to what is just or true. For he who condemns the just man and acquits the unjust man does a grave injury to the just man, as an innocent and blameless person, and to justice and virtue itself. Finally, he is the occasion and cause that others imitate unjust morals while the morals of the just are despised. Men often do this from private love or hatred; for him whom they love, they excuse and praise his actions even though they are vicious; but him whom they hate, they blame and interpret sinisterly his actions even though they are honorable. This is what the Psalmist complains of, Psalm 9: "The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the unjust man is blessed." Thus many praise all the actions, even the vicious ones, of the rich, the noble, and the powerful, by flattery, because they hope for an office or a benefit from them. So St. Jerome explains in his epistle to Philemon, whose words have been transferred into Canon Law and are found in 11, Question III, canon 54 Si quis digerit, and canon 55 Si quis hominem. "If anyone," he says, "believes that a man who is not holy is holy, and joins him to God's company, he violates Christ, whose body all of us are members of. He who says the just man is unjust, and the unjust man just, both are abominable before God. Likewise, he who says the holy man is not holy, and again asserts the unholy man to be holy, is abominable before God."
Second, Baynus, Vatablus, Jansenius, and others explain these words of forensic judgment, by which a judge, corrupted either by love, or hatred, or fear, or a bribe, condemns the innocent and acquits the guilty, according to Isaiah 5:23: "Who justify the wicked for bribes, and take away the justice of the just man from him." This is a notable injustice properly so called, overturning commutative justice and therefore obligating to restitution. For a judge was established by God to administer justice as His vicar in God's name and to render to each his due; if he does not do this, he inflicts a grave injury upon God, justice, and the innocent, and is bound to make restitution for the damage.
Third, this saying can be taken of justice and injustice itself, as if to say: "He who justifies the wicked," that is, the wickedness of the wicked, "and he who condemns the just," that is, the justice of the just, is abominable to God. Perverse men do this, who cloak vices with the name of virtues and dishonor virtues with the appearance of vices: for example, those who call piety hypocrisy, frugality avarice, prodigality generosity, obscenity urbanity. Again, they call the proud magnanimous, and the humble pusillanimous; the reckless they call bold, the modest simple-minded; the gluttonous they call jovial, but the abstemious scrupulous, and so on for the rest. This is the third and highest degree of unjust judgment and impiety. For these men invert and pervert the entire form and nature of virtues and vices, just as if someone were to take away humanity from a person and ascribe it to some beast, and transfer wildness from the beast to the person; and thus they cause people to embrace vice in place of virtue, and to abominate virtue as though it were vice. Therefore they are abominable to God, who accordingly threatens them with the woe of eternal malediction, saying, Isaiah 5:20: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil!" Where I cited the illustrious sayings of St. Gregory and St. Maximus on this matter. Parallel to this saying of Solomon is that of the Arabs, century 1, number 11: "Be a balance to everyone," that is, be equitable and just to everyone.
Verse 16: What Does It Profit a Fool to Have Riches?
In Hebrew: why is there a price in the hand of a fool, to buy wisdom, when he has no heart? So Pagninus and Aben-Ezra: Why, he says, riches for a fool, when he lacks heart, that is, when he is held by no desire for wisdom, and is therefore foolish and incapable of wisdom? The meaning therefore is, as if to say: In vain does the fool, that is, the vicious man, have riches: for wisdom cannot be bought with them by itself, nor does he have heart, that is, the will and prudence, to obtain it — namely, to use his wealth to procure books and wise men to imbue him with wisdom; indeed, since he is senseless and heartless, he misuses his riches for his own vices, namely gluttony, lust, and luxury. Riches in the hand of a fool are therefore like a sword in the hand of a madman, who, because in his frenzy he does not know how to use it, misuses it to his own and others' harm. It is a litotes: for little is said, but more is meant; for it says riches do not profit, but it means they actually harm, and especially the fool, inasmuch as they make him proud, gluttonous, lustful, etc. Solomon signifies that riches without wisdom are useless and vain, indeed harmful, because by a wise man through wisdom they ought to be wisely spent on useful works of piety and mercy. Whence the Septuagint, and from them St. Ambrose, Book I of Duties, chapter 27, translate: why does money abound for the imprudent? For the senseless man will not be able to acquire wisdom. Whence St. Ambrose concludes: "The first fountain of duty, therefore, is prudence."
Second, the Chaldean translates: what will business or trade profit the fool, who has no heart, that is, knowledge? As if to say: A merchant who is entirely intent on trade and profit, to increase his wealth, and does not have heart, that is, the will and prudence to acquire wisdom, that is, the virtue by which he may live honorably and attain heavenly happiness and riches — this man is surely foolish, and in vain acquires merchandise and wealth. Whence Aristotle, Book II of the Rhetoric, chapter 16: "Riches," he says, "are almost nothing other than madness." And St. Chrysostom, homily 7 on the Epistle to the Colossians, says that the desire to grow rich is a Scylla and a monster more monstrous than Scylla, the Chimera, and the Hippocentaur, and therefore the greedy man "has all beasts at once." The same St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena: "The mystical meaning," he says, "is: To what end is wisdom given to pagans or heretics, except that they misuse it to their own condemnation? Why do you hasten to grow rich, when before all things you ought to seek that which is more valuable than all wealth and more necessary for the salvation of souls, namely wisdom?"
From what has been said, it is clear that the root and, as it were, the a priori reason of this saying is the excellence of wisdom and the worthlessness of riches, from which it follows that riches ought to serve wisdom as its instruments, and be governed by it, and be rightly and wisely expended, so that they may attain their end, for which they were created by nature and by God; whence it follows that for the fool who lacks wisdom, riches are useless and harmful.
Symbolically, Bede, Dionysius, Cajetan, Jansenius, and others say: Spiritual riches, they say, are Scripture, talent, knowledge, eloquence, and even faith; but these do not profit a man, even a Christian, if he is foolish, that is, vicious, because through these he cannot acquire true wisdom, that is, grace and glory, since he is enslaved to his vices. What does it profit, says Bede, a Jew or heretic to have the riches of Scripture, when he cannot understand Christ in them? What good is it for a bad Catholic to have the riches of the true faith, when he has neglected to have the wisdom of pious action?" Whence Cyril in his Proverbs (as Dionysius cites here): "Avarice," he says, "has an eye but not sight; for it loves the good, but does not recognize the supreme good (for the sake of which all other things are to be desired)." Hence Abbot Nesteros in Cassian, Conference XIV, chapter 16, from this saying of Solomon teaches that the wicked cannot possess true knowledge. For even if the wicked are sometimes philosophers and are skilled in all human disciplines, they cannot obtain true knowledge, which consists in the knowledge, love, and worship of God.
He Who Makes His House High Seeks Ruin
This verse is not in the Hebrew, except that in verse 19 it has: "And he who raises his threshold seeks ruin," from which Jansenius thinks this saying originated; but our translator transcribed it from the Septuagint, who have: he who makes his house high seeks destruction; but he who approaches learning crookedly shall fall into evils. In Greek it is ὁ δὲ σκολιάζων τοῦ μαθεῖν, which the Complutensians translate: he who refuses to learn shall fall into evils; and the author of the Greek Catena: "He who refuses to learn what he ought to know shall fall into evils;" the Romans: "He who approaches crookedly;" for σκολιόν in Greek means oblique, tortuous, winding, curved, distorted, rough, malignant, crooked; hence σκολιάζω means the same as to make oblique, to twist, to curve.
Grammatically, or by the bark of the letter, it signifies that those who build a high house bring ruin upon themselves; for: Strong winds seek the heights and fell the summits. Again, high houses gape and collapse under their own mass and weight, unless they are supported by large foundations and very thick walls; but these are often neglected by the avaricious but proud, who gaze at the high gables of houses and do not attend to the solidity of foundations and walls. He therefore who makes his house high seeks ruin and destruction, so that the house, too high and suddenly collapsing, may crush the builder along with its inhabitants.
Now, beneath this bark of the letter and quasi-grammatical sense, parabolically and as it were in the marrow, it signifies: first, that those who wish to enrich and exalt their fortunes and families at great expense bring ruin upon themselves, both because what is quickly and badly acquired quickly melts away, according to chapter 13, verse 11: "Wealth gotten in haste shall be diminished;" and because all things of this world are perishable, and when they have reached the summit and have reached the peak, they begin to decline and fall. Second, it signifies that those who exceed moderation and attempt things too great, fall and involve themselves in their own ruin. So St. Chrysostom in the Greek Catena: "He who exceeds moderation," he says, "having finally slipped into destitution, becomes worse; as a house, when it is raised to a height beyond what is proper, is exposed to the danger of ruin (for the foundations cannot sustain the mass placed upon them): so also it is in the matter of folly. For when we place upon the base of our reason a burden that it cannot bear, it collapses downward." Third, it signifies those who proudly seek great honors, dignities, and prelacies, and seize upon lofty offices that surpass their own strength and endowments — they are thrown down from these with disgrace when their incompetence or ambition or some other crime is revealed. Hence learn that those are foolish who with joy take up the office of governing others, for which they will have to render a strict account to God. Therefore that common saying is true: "A private life is a blessed life."
Fourth, it signifies those who boast of their learning beyond what is due, and who wish to teach what they have not learned, in order to be considered teachers and draw flocks of disciples after them — they are shamefully abandoned or deposed when their ignorance and vanity become apparent. Solomon himself thus interprets this proverb, when explaining it he adds: "And he who avoids learning shall fall into evils," namely into reproach, infamy, loss of his chair, etc. The a priori reason is that evils cannot be avoided unless they are foreseen by prudence and, once foreseen, removed; but the fool neglects to learn prudence, whence it comes about that through imprudence he falls into evils. For 'avoids' the Greek has σκολιάζων, that is, making oblique, distorting the structure of discipline and doctrine; for he who undertakes to build without a teacher, who is like a skilled architect, makes it oblique and distorts it, and consequently makes it liable to ruin. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Just as one who raises a building too high without the examination of a plumb line and rule constructs a building that will immediately collapse, so likewise, wisdom that is built without a teacher or master, like a crooked and curved wall, when raised too high, weakened by many errors, totters and falls. For the instruction of a teacher is like a plumb line and rule, by which the structure of wisdom is governed, lest, bent by any errors, it gape or crack. The author of the Greek Catena agrees, and explains thus, as if to say: "He who excessively prides himself on the knowledge he possesses will at last be cast down from it." And Hugh of St. Victor, Book I of the Didascalicon: "The beginning of learning," he says, "is humility, and puffed-up pride learns nothing, by which one wishes to soar to the summit of virtue without the help of another person. He who makes his house high seeks ruin; and he who avoids learning shall fall into evils. Not all who build high houses seek ruin, but those who without a firm foundation and without proper joining of stones raise a great mass of building, and thus they seek ruin, because when the foundations fail, that very mass drags everything into collapse. Thus those who, without the humility by which they would subject themselves to a spiritual master's teaching, wish to attain the highest perfection, tend to experience no small falls.
Tropologically, Solomon here warns us to flee lofty things, as they are close to ruin, and to pursue humble things, as they are stable and secure, namely: Envy seeks the heights; the winds blow upon the loftiest places. And: Far from Jupiter, far from his thunderbolt. And: Live for yourself, and flee far from great names.
Again, the world, because it is proud, looks only at lofty things, and thus imprudently neglects foundations, being the lowest parts: whence it happens that lofty things, supported on weak foundations, collapse. Thus that golden statue of Nebuchadnezzar, which represented the mind and vanity of the world, was sixty cubits tall; but because it did not have the proper width, it therefore collapsed; for it was only six cubits wide, when it should have been ten cubits in width; for the width of a man is a sixth part of his height. A statue of a man sixty cubits tall therefore requires ten cubits of width, as Vitruvius, Cardanus, and others teach.
Finally, Solomon here warns that the foundation and support of height and loftiness is humility; therefore, the higher you wish to climb, whether on earth or in heaven, the more deeply humble yourself. Well-known are the words of Augustine in Sermon 10 On the Words of the Lord: "Do you wish to be great? Begin from the least; are you thinking of constructing a great edifice of loftiness? First think about the foundation of humility."
Verse 17: He Who Is a Friend Loves at All Times
17. HE WHO IS A FRIEND (Chaldean, COMPANION) LOVES AT ALL TIMES; AND A BROTHER IS PROVEN IN DISTRESS. — In Hebrew, and a brother is born for distress (or in distress); the Syriac, a brother is born for tribulation; the Chaldean, a brother is born for the time of distress. "Brother" here can be taken in two ways: first, for a brother properly so called; second, for a friend. In the former sense, the meaning will be, as if to say: A friend and a brother are alike, and of equal lot and condition. For just as a true, not counterfeit, friend is faithful to his friend at all times, both adverse and prosperous: so likewise a brother especially in adversity shows himself faithful and truly a brother. For to this end God and nature produce brothers, that they may be present and help their brother in distress. Thus Joseph nourished his brothers in the distress of famine, and Judas Maccabaeus protected and vindicated his brothers and kinsmen, and all Israel in the distress of persecution by Antiochus. For "brother" is said as if "almost another"; and, as Petrarch says: "It is fitting that those whom the distresses of the same womb contained should never fail each other in any calamities and distresses of affliction."
This is what the Septuagint intends when it translates: let a friend be with you at all times; but let brothers be useful in necessities: for they are born for this purpose, as if to say: See to it that you cultivate friendship with friend and brother at every time, even in adversity, so that he may always be your friend and may feel you to be a friend; and in turn, seek a friend who will be your friend at all times. Thus the author of the Greek Chain: "The meaning is," he says: "Neither in happy nor in sad times abandon your friend; or if you wish to acquire friends for yourself, acquire such as will be present with you at every time."
In the latter sense, which is more fitting in this place, the meaning is, as if to say: A friend loves at all times, and thus in distress shows himself to be truly a friend, that is, a brother. For a friend is like a brother to his friend, indeed often more than a brother, according to that saying in chapter XVIII, 24: "A man who is friendly in companionship will be more a friend than a brother." Against this precept sin dainty friends, who, struck by a light word from a friend, or affected by a slight injury, break the bond of friendship. Is it just that on the pretext of one small injury the right and memory of so many and such great benefits should be abolished? Oh, how true is that saying of Plautus in the Poenulus: "If you do a kindness, gratitude is lighter than a feather; if any fault is committed, they bear leaden anger."
The foundation of this maxim and, as it were, the a priori reason is that natural friendship, such as that of the Philosophers and Pagans, if it is to be a virtue, should be entered into not for the sake of utility but of honor. Now the honorable good surpasses the useful, and is of a higher order. Therefore, in order to protect this honorable good, or the honor of friendship, it is necessary that you set aside useful goods for its sake, yield them, and if need be, lavish and lose them in favor of a friend and friendship, and that you be present to him in distress, even when there is danger of losing wealth, liberty, and dignity. For friendship is a greater good than all these. Add that friendship is principally entered into with this name and purpose, that a man in the adversities and distresses of this life may have a friend who may lighten, console, remove, and dispel them by his counsel, aid, and companionship, so that he may flee to a friend as to an asylum and last refuge. This is what is signified by and a brother is born for distress, as the Hebrew has it, as if to say: Just as a brother is born alongside his brother to help him in distress, so likewise a friend is obtained for a friend and civilly, as it were, born alongside him for this purpose and use, that he may help him in distress. For this is the aim of friendship; if you remove this, you remove friendship and its use.
Again: "A brother is born in distress," as the ancients translate, because just as a mother with great pain and distress brings forth from the womb her child and brother: so true and solid friendship, and a true and solid friend, is begotten and born in adversity, if in it he shows himself faithful and constant to his friend; just as patience is born from the constant endurance of adversity, and martyrdom is born from the constant tolerance of torments and death for Christ.
Wherefore the virtue of friendship is, as it were, conceived... in prosperity, that is, in pleasant and benevolent conversation with a friend; but the same friendship and its solidity and beauty are properly generated in adversity. For fidelity in adversity begets solid and stable friendship. Whence Nazianzen in Iambics 45: Nothing, he says, consider more excellent than faithful friends, Whom harsh fortune produces, not drinking cups, Who counsel what will be profitable, not what pleases.
Therefore a brother is shown not so much by the right of kinship as by the occasion of necessity. Therefore, just as the distress of the womb brings forth the child and brother, so the distress of tribulation, like a womb, brings forth and begets true and solid friendship and a friend.
Furthermore, R. Levi thus explains the word "is born," as if to say: A brother is often neglected by his brother while he prospers; but if he falls into calamity, he is immediately roused to come to his aid, nature impelling him to this, since they share the same frame of body and bones.
But supernatural friendship is the love and charity which rests on God, is united and reconciled to God, for it is on account of God whom you love that you also love your friend. Therefore, just as you place the love of God before the love of any earthly thing, so also the love of a friend; and just as in distress you do not abandon God, so neither your friend. For the love by which you love God and the love by which you love a friend on account of God are the same. Whence Bede, taking "friend" to mean God, thus explains: "He who truly loves the Lord preserves His love at all times; nor does he desert in the distress of suffering Him whom he confessed in the tranquility of peace," as did St. Stephen, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and the other Martyrs.
Thus St. Augustine (or whoever the author is), in the book On Friendship, chapter 10: "The foundation of friendship," he says, "is the love of God, to which all things that love suggests or affection prompts; all things that any spirit secretly or any friend openly advises, must be referred and diligently examined: so that whatever is built may agree with the foundation; and whatever is found to exceed it, do not hesitate to recall it to its form and convert it entirely according to its quality." The same author, in chapter 15, citing this maxim of Solomon: "Friendships," he says, "are to be unstitched, not torn apart altogether. Friendship is eternal; whence he who is a friend loves at all times. If he whom you love has injured you, love him still. If such is the case that friendship must be withdrawn, let affection never be withdrawn. Look after his salvation as much as you can; look out for his reputation, and never betray the secrets of his friendship, even if he has betrayed yours." And in chapter 19: "Nothing," he says, "is more excellent in friendship than fidelity, which seems to be its nurse and guardian. It presents itself equally in all adversities and prosperities, joys and sorrows, pleasures and bitterness; looking with the same eye upon humble and exalted, poor and rich, strong and weak. Yet fidelity lies hidden in prosperity and stands out in adversity. For he who is a friend loves at all times." And in chapter 20: "The form of friendship," he says, "is that which the divine word has prescribed:
Love, He says, your neighbor as yourself. Then he whom you love will be another you, if you have poured your charity into him. For, as Ambrose says, friendship is not a source of revenue but full of beauty; it is a power of grace, not of gain; because it is polished not by money but by grace; not by bidding on prices but by a contest of benevolence. It ought not to be mercenary but gratuitous. The friendships of the poor are more certain than those of the rich, since poverty so removes the hope of gain as to increase charity."
Finally, Sirach, following Solomon in his usual manner, Ecclesiasticus 6:7: "If you possess a friend," he says, "possess him in trial, and do not easily trust him. For there is a friend according to his own time, and he will not remain in the day of tribulation." He has similar things in chapter 37, verse 4, where I have cited the maxims of the ancients on this matter. Relevant here is that saying of Seneca: "Prosperous times best acquire friends, adverse times most surely prove them." I have said more about friendship at Ecclesiasticus 6:17.
Mystically, R. Halcusi in Galatinus, book III of On the Secrets of the Faith, chapter 28: "At all times a friend loves, and a brother is born for distress or tribulation. This," he says, "is God, the Holy and Blessed, who said: I will be a brother to Israel in the hour of his tribulation or distress. As it is said in Psalm 121: For the sake of my brothers and friends or kinsmen, or my companions, I will now speak peace in you." Galatinus adds: "Thus far the tradition. From which it is clearly established that God is called the friend and brother of Israel, because He was to be born according to His humanity for the sake of distress." For Christ in the Incarnation especially showed Himself to be our friend and brother, freeing us from the distresses of sin, death, and hell; indeed for this one reason He willed to become incarnate and be born.
Verse 18: A Foolish Man Claps His Hands When He Has Given Surety
18. A FOOLISH MAN WILL CLAP HIS HANDS WHEN HE HAS GIVEN SURETY FOR HIS FRIEND. — In Hebrew, a man lacking in heart strikes the hand, pledging a pledge before his friend. Thus Pagninus; the Septuagint however, a foolish man claps and congratulates himself, even when by pledging he has pledged his own friends. Some codices have, his own friend; and add, and in his lips a condition; but these are absent in the Roman, Complutensian, and Royal editions. The Chaldean, a son of man lacking understanding strikes his hand, and pledges surety for his friend; the Syriac, extends his hands; Vatablus, one lacking sense fixes his hand and pledges a pledge in the sight of his neighbor. And he adds: "To fix the hand is to give surety; for those who give surety for others are accustomed to give the right hand;" the Tigurina, he who with a pledged hand gives surety for his neighbor is foolish. The author of the Greek Chain from the Septuagint thus translates and explains: A foolish man claps his hands and foolishly flatters himself, just as also that one who by a certain pledge has bound his faith for his friend, when yet he has called down burning fire upon himself by his own lips. He who unjustly gratifies another, he says, kindles the judge against himself, and brings upon himself certain loss. Another: "He who, on account of flattery or some small gift, gives surety for a friend and does not stir him up to pay his debt, stores up consuming fire against himself, and brings upon himself no ordinary damage on account of the surety. Notice, he does not simply say 'a soul' but 'his own soul.' Why does he not also admonish that this benefit should be rendered even to an enemy? Because they were not yet fit hearers of that doctrine which teaches that even enemies should be loved. Therefore, lest the discourse should occasion transgression, he confines the matter within the limits of friendship." These are the words of the anonymous author in the Greek Chain.
Note: For "claps" the Hebrew is תוקע tokea, which means fixes, fastens, strikes the hand, stipulates, also sounds a blast, claps: whence תקע teka is called a blast, and תקוע takoa a trumpet, horn, tuba. Our Vulgate, the Septuagint, and Theodotion translate, claps his hands, for plaudere (to clap) belongs to the hands, plodere (to stamp) to the feet. For to clap is to strike with the hands and make a noise as a sign of joy, as if congratulating and exulting over a thing well done, for example, that by his surety he has freed his friend from the hands and prison of a creditor. "Thus the partridge claps with its wings, and the stork claps for itself with its clattering beak," says Ovid, Metamorphoses VI. Thus, when a comedy was finished, they used to say: "Applaud," as if to say: Applaud the comedy well performed.
The a priori reason for this maxim is that he who gives surety for another takes upon himself an enormous burden, namely the obligation to pay another's debt: therefore the wise man, considering this, is afraid and is slow to approach surety. But the fool, because he does not consider this burden but only the present liberation of his friend, rashly claps and exults. Wherefore he often pays the deserved penalties of his folly and foolish surety, when, if the debtor cannot or will not pay, he himself is compelled to pay the debt for which he pledged. This maxim was assigned and explained in chapter 6, verse 1; therefore I will not add a word here.
Mystically, Bede says: "He is foolish," he says, "who, when he takes on the governance of a brother's soul, boasts of his own deeds, and does not rather with humble compassion render whatever saving help he can." Thus today many rejoice when they obtain rich pastorates, or bishoprics, or abbacies, when they should rather groan under so great a burden, because they take upon themselves the care of so many souls, and pledge their own soul and eternal salvation to God for them. Wherefore "the episcopate is a burden formidable even to the shoulders of angels," says the Council of Trent.
Verse 19: He Who Meditates Discord Loves Quarrels
19. HE WHO MEDITATES DISCORD LOVES QUARRELS: AND HE WHO RAISES HIGH HIS GATE (some incorrectly read 'mouth') SEEKS RUIN. — In Hebrew, he who loves transgression, loves strife: and he who raises high his gate, seeks fracture or rupture or destruction. The first hemistich can be rendered in two ways. In the first way, as if to say: He who loves transgression, this one loves strife. Thus our Vulgate. For transgression is often the same as discord, rebellion, schism, apostasy. Thus Moab is said to have "transgressed the covenant," that is, to have rebelled against the king of Israel, 4 Kings 3:5. In the second way, as if to say: He loves transgression who loves strife. Thus Pagninus, Baynus, and others. For lawsuits generate many quarrels, insults, blasphemies, and other sins. Whence the Septuagint, he who loves sin rejoices in quarrels, and he who is hard of heart does not encounter good; the Chaldean, he who loves sin loves quarrel; the Syriac, he who loves iniquity loves iniquity and oppression: he who raises high the gate seeks ruin for himself.
St. Thomas, II II, Question 41, article 2, reply to 5, understands this of others' discords and quarrels, as if to say: "He who meditates discords loves quarrels; that is," he says, "he who intends to sow discords among certain persons, brings it about that they quarrel with each other." Others take it of one's own discords. Now, First, R. Solomon thus expounds: He who devises wicked things against a friend (in Hebrew פשע pescha, that is, crime), this one loves quarrels: for he pursues contentions and altercations. "He who raises high the gate," that is, he who speaks proudly and arrogantly, "seeks ruin." Therefore "mouth" and "gate" are the same, according to Micah 7:5: "Guard the gates (our Vulgate translates, bars) of your mouth." For just as a gate closes or opens a house, so the mouth by silence closes and by speaking opens the secrets of the mind. Thus also Aben-Ezra: He who, he says, raises his voice, which is the gate of speech, this one takes care to bring extreme destruction upon himself: for the mouth is the gate to the mind. Lyranus concurs: He who raises high the gate, that is, he says, he who elevates his mouth by boasting of himself and despising others in comparison with himself, seeks ruin; because he stirs up many against himself, who drive him to ruin.
Second, R. Levi, as if to say: "He who meditates discords, in Hebrew pescha, that is, evil, that is, he who wishes to detect a fault in those things which are said or done, and weighs them too anxiously and sharply, loves dissensions and lawsuits, since quarrels are generated from this. He who raises high his gate, so as to perceive in affairs the way by which he may place himself in a seat of higher dignity, from which it happens that he finds fault in affairs, regarding himself as a man of great esteem and dignity and worthy of the highest honors; this one, I say, seeks his own destruction; for thus he brings the gravest evils upon himself. Which indeed is elegantly depicted by this metaphor of one raising high a gate: for it can happen that he who builds his gate in a lofty place falls from it and is broken." Less correctly R. David Kimchi thus explains it, as if to say: Everyone who devotes himself to buildings, namely constructing high houses, will be impoverished.
Third, Cajetan translates, he who loves rebellion loves contention; he who raises his gate seeks fracture, and thus explains: He who raises his gate, not so much by bodily exaltation as by usurped authority, wishing that those entering the gate of his house be kept unpunished: for many nobles and princes thus raise high the gate of their house, arrogating to themselves the right of immunity and asylum; but these seek fracture, because by the king or magistrate, whose duty it is to seize the guilty, his gate is broken down, and he himself is then severely punished as a rebel.
Fourth, Baynus, connecting this to the preceding verse about the fool's surety, thus explains, as if to say: It is not safe enough to give surety for a friend, for there are those whom it pleases to pursue lawsuits; which is evident from the fact that they love ruin, or (as it is in the Hebrew) transgression, that is, they love not to stand by their promises. And just as he who by building raises high his gate, that is his dwelling (the whole from a part), seeks the fracture and rupture of his dwelling, since the strength of the building does not correspond to its height (although he does not realize this): so he who raises and elevates the gate of his mouth, promising greater things than he can perform, and wishes to give surety on behalf of his promises to a friend, this one seeks the destruction and ruin of the friend with whom he loves to litigate, after he has transgressed by not fulfilling his promises. According to the mystical sense, it is a proverb against those who put their hand to the plow and look back: who, since they promise more than they perform, by the exaltation of their mouth seek their own ruin. Thus Baynus.
Fifth, our Salazar thus expounds: He who raises high his gate, that is, he who makes access to himself difficult, will experience hatreds, and thence ruin. For he who raises the threshold of his gate makes entry through the gate to himself difficult.
Sixth, and genuinely, as if to say: He who wishes to introduce discords, this one seeks lawsuits; for from lawsuits discords arise and grow. Or, as if to say: He who through pride and haughtiness is so disposed in spirit that he always disagrees in opinion with others, and holds the contrary view, and wishes to defend the contrary of others' opinion, this one in fact shows himself to love quarrels, which are born from this disagreement and discord and disturb the common peace. Whence he adds the cause of discords saying: "He who raises high the gate seeks ruin," as if to say: He who raises high the gate, and consequently his house, this one is the cause of discords. For it is the cause why neighbors, not tolerating his house being raised above and towering over theirs, and threatening them, so as to obstruct their light, air, and ventilation, and so as to have a view into their house, gardens, and courtyards, and as it were to dominate them, indignantly bring a lawsuit against him and compel him to demolish it and bring it level with the rest — which is indeed a great disgrace and ruin for him. Hence in cities where good governance prevails, the magistrates do not allow anyone to build a house higher than the others, but to build to the height of the neighboring buildings, as I have seen in Antwerp where all are built to an equal height. For this equal height of houses contributes to the elegance of the city and to the convenience and peace of the neighbors. This is the meaning of the proverb as to the bark of the letter, under which proverbially is signified that the cause of discords is he who raises his house above the rest, that is, he who strives to stand out and excel above all others in any matter, so that the rest compared with he despises them, and wishes to command and dominate them. Wherefore against such a one all rise up and bring lawsuits against him, until they level his pride and eminence and make him their equal, indeed sometimes their inferior, and trample him underfoot. Therefore he who raises his gate above his neighbors, that is, he who strives to surpass and excel above all others, this one brings ruin upon himself. See what was said at verse 16. For it is the certain law and fitting order of eternal truth that everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled. For pride is hateful to all, and the proud exaltation of oneself above others, when in a community all things ought to be common and equal. The root, therefore, of discords and lawsuits is the desire of preeminence. So teaches St. Thomas, II II, Question 38, article 2, where, asking "whether discord is a daughter of vainglory," he responds: "It must be said that discord has an affinity with envy, as regards the departure from him with whom one is at discord, or against whom one contends; but as regards that in which the contender rests, it has a conformity with pride and vainglory, inasmuch as one stands in one's own opinion."
And a little before: "Discord is a daughter of vainglory, because each of the disagreeing parties stands in his own opinion, and one does not yield to the other. But it is proper to pride and vainglory to seek one's own preeminence." This maxim therefore condemns the vice of ambition and preeminence, as being the cause of discords, lawsuits, ruin, and destruction. For just as upon a house higher than the rest there rise up blasts of wind, so upon the ambitious one there rise up blasts of words, indeed blasts of blows. This can be seen in cities, colleges, monasteries, where we observe that those who set themselves above the rest, or withdraw themselves from common obedience, burdens, and rules, become objects of envy and hatred to the rest. Indeed at Rome a distinguished physician assured me that for 28 years he had practiced medicine in various monasteries, and by continual experience had found that the most miserable in them, and those constantly afflicted both in body and in spirit, were those who on the pretext of health or some other reason withdraw themselves from the common life and seek special treatment in food, clothing, and other things. Whence he concluded: "The best medicine for all diseases, whether of body or of spirit, whether private or communal, is humility," by which a man sets himself above no one, but makes himself equal to and conforms with the rest, indeed subjects himself to and ranks himself below all.
Note here the style and depth of the Proverbs of Solomon: the style, by which he weaves together what is connected — namely the antecedents and consequences of what he said in the first hemistich — in the second hemistich; the depth, by which in the same words he assigns causes and effects. For in the first part he said that discords beget quarrels; in the second, he indicates their antecedents and consequences, namely causes and effects, as if to say: Discords beget quarrels. But do you wish to know the origin and root of discords? Behold, I point it out to you with my finger directed at the source, and I say the root is the desire of preeminence. Do you likewise wish to know the effect and end in which they terminate? Behold, I assign you ruin and destruction. Therefore see the chain of this vice: the desire of preeminence begets discords, discords beget quarrels, quarrels drive the quarrelers to mutual slaughter, to ruin and destruction. Thus the lofty end in the lowly, pride in dejection, height in ruin.
Verse 20: He Who Is of a Perverse Heart Will Not Find Good
20. HE WHO IS OF A PERVERSE HEART WILL NOT FIND GOOD: AND HE WHO TURNS HIS TONGUE WILL FALL INTO EVIL. — For "who turns his tongue," the Hebrew has, turned, converted, or perverted in his tongue; for the Hebrews lack compound words, whence they use a simple word for any compound. Hence the Chaldean translates, and he who is perverted in his tongue will fall into evil. And so the latter part corresponds to the former as effect to cause. For a perverse heart begets a perverse tongue, as if to say: He who has a perverse heart and mind will not find good; but he who is so perverse in mind that he also utters perverse things with his tongue to the destruction of others, this one assuredly will fall into grave evils and calamities. Thus Vatablus who translates: he who is perverse in heart will not find good; but he who is perverse in his tongue will fall into evil.
Now "perverse in tongue" — first, refers to liars; for they turn and pervert truth into falsehood. Wherefore Plato in the Sophist compares liars to potters, who turn and knead clay to form earthen vessels. "Potters," he says, "are liars: for the latter fashion fables, the former fashion vessels." Second, they are detractors: for these turn and pervert the reputation of their neighbor into infamy, and not rarely truth into falsehood. Third, and very fittingly, they are those who by deceit and fraudulent words circumvent others, and lead them into losses — whether of fortune, or imprisonment, or infamy, or sin, or faith, namely into heresy.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: He who with a perverse heart devises evil against others, this one is unworthy of good fortune and lot, and therefore is often deprived of it by God. But he who actually carries out the deceit and evil that he devises against others and constructs it by speaking with a fraudulent tongue: this one, whether by a judge acting or by God avenging, will fall into evil, and often into that very evil which he constructed against others, says Aben-Ezra, according to the saying: "Evil counsel is worst for the counselor;" as happened to Haman who plotted against Mordecai, to Saul and Ahithophel who plotted against David, and to the counselors of Darius who plotted against Daniel. This sense is supported by the fact that to "he who turns his tongue" is joined, and as it were equally opposed, he "who is of a perverse heart." For this in Hebrew is עקש ikkes, that is, perverse, crafty, deceitful, false, one who pretends and dissembles and deceives under the appearance of rectitude and truth; just as for "who turns his tongue" the Hebrew is נהפך nephach, that is, inverted in tongue, that is, one who turns, inverts, subverts, converts, perverts his tongue. Whence in Exodus 7, it is attributed to the rod which was turned by Moses into a serpent, just as the perverse turn their tongues, which are human, into serpentine ones: whence תהפכת tapuchot are called perversities and distortions, and פוך puch is called cosmetic paint, by which the face is painted and its color changed and altered.
Second, Pagninus translates, the perverse in heart will not find good, and he who has turned himself in his tongue will fall into evil; which the Septuagint thus clearly expounds: the hard of heart does not encounter good things; a man easily changeable in tongue will fall into evils. Which Rudolphus first attributes to the faithless, who do not fulfill their pledged word but deceive: for these on account of their perfidy incur lawsuits and severe penalties. Second, Hugo and others attribute it to flatterers: for these, like a wheel, change and turn their faces and words at the nod of the prince or friend whom they flatter. Whence St. Basil compares them to the octopus, which takes on every color of the rock to which it attaches itself. Others compare them to the moon and the planets, which change their light at the sight of the sun and their motion at the direction of the higher heavens.
Recently a serious Catholic man in England, asked by the chief counselor of Queen Elizabeth, who secretly wished to be regarded as Catholic, what the overseas Catholics thought of him, wittily replied: "They consider you a planet, and think you move and revolve with the motion of the primum mobile." Therefore, just as planets have their motion, so flatterers undergo a similar turning and twisting of sense and speech in order to win the favor of princes; and therefore they often fall, like those who, spun around by dizziness, fall to the ground, as can be seen among the Turkish monks, who worship God by dancing in a circle and repeatedly spinning around, so that from dizziness they fall to the ground — which they themselves call the Dance of the Angels — and they do this following the example of their false prophet Muhammad, who, since he suffered from vertigo and epilepsy, and from it would fall foaming to the ground, pretended that he was driven by divine inspiration and was conversing with angels, as Greek men of gravity and eyewitnesses told me at Rome.
In a similar way, flatterers fall when their flattery and spinning, that is, their deceits and impostures, are detected: for then princes pursue them with hatred and punish and chastise them as they deserve.
Verse 21: A Fool Is Born to His Own Disgrace
21. A FOOL IS BORN TO HIS OWN DISGRACE (the Hebrew has, for toil or sorrow: so R. Levi); NOR WILL A FATHER REJOICE IN A FOOLISH SON. — Our Vulgate reads the passive יולד iullad, that is, "is born": now with different vowel points others read it actively יולד ioled; whence they translate with Pagninus, he who begets a fool will beget him to his own sorrow; Vatablus, he begets sorrow for himself; the Chaldean, he who begets a fool, sadness will be his; the Syriac, he who begets a fool to his own confusion, the father of a fool will not rejoice; the Septuagint, reading לב veleb, that is "and heart," for יולד iolid, translate: but the heart of a fool is sorrow to him who possesses it; a father will not rejoice over an undisciplined son (Aquila, dissolute; Symmachus, foolish; Theodotion, senseless; the Hebrew is נבל nabal, that is, a worthless fellow); but a prudent son gladdens his mother — which words the Septuagint supply, to complete the antithesis between a wise and a foolish son, which are found in the Hebrew in chapter 10, verse 1, where I have explained them.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: He who begets a fool, that is, one imprudent and vicious, this one creates for himself labor in correcting and properly educating him, and sorrow and grief, when he finds him incorrigible and incapable of discipline, and therefore a source of disgrace and reproach both to his parents and to himself. The a priori reason is that prudence, reputation, honor, and virtue are goods more excellent than life itself. Therefore parents, since they cannot live forever, beget children so that in them their wisdom, honor, and virtue may, as it were, endure and continue forever. Therefore they rejoice greatly when they see themselves having obtained their wish — namely when their children, imitating the integrity of their parents, extend and propagate their honor and fame to their grandchildren. Conversely, they are greatly grieved when they see themselves frustrated in their wish — namely when they see their children are wicked, who bring reproach upon them and brand them with dishonor. For it would be better to have died childless and without sons, and to have their virtue die with them, than to leave behind children who defame and dishonor them and scandalize the commonwealth.
Note: The words "for sorrow and disgrace" do not signify intention, or the end intended by the father: for no father intends his own disgrace, namely to beget a fool who will be a source of disgrace and sorrow to him; but it signifies the consequence or outcome, which happens contrary to the father's intention, against his will and involuntarily, as if to say: If a father begets a son who then becomes foolish, that is, wicked, this assuredly turns and tends to the father's disgrace and brings reproach and sorrow to the father, and thence sometimes even death. Thus Jacob says to his sons in Genesis 43:6: "You have done this to my misery, that you told him you had yet another brother" — namely Benjamin, whom Jacob alone loved, and therefore did not want him taken from him, and therefore blamed his sons for having told Joseph that they had left Benjamin at home: for from this Joseph took occasion to summon him, which brought misery and sadness to their father Jacob.
Verse 22: A Joyful Spirit Makes a Flourishing Age
22. A JOYFUL SPIRIT MAKES A FLOURISHING AGE: A SAD SPIRIT DRIES UP THE BONES. — In Hebrew, a joyful heart makes good גהה geha, which our Vulgate translates as "age"; the Syriac, "body"; others, "health" or "vigor"; others, "medicine"; others, "splendor of countenance" or "appearance," as if גהה geha were derived from נגה naga, that is, it shone, was radiant; others, "elevation" or "relief," as if גהה geha corresponds in letters and meaning with גאה gaa, that is, it elevated, exalted.
First, therefore, Pagninus, Cajetan, and Aben-Ezra, supplying in the Hebrew manner the caph of comparison, that is "as," translate: a joyful heart will do good like a medicine, as if to say: A joyful heart brings with it good disposition, constitution, and health, like a medicine. The best medicine for all diseases is joy. Whence Galen teaches that many have escaped diseases through joy alone, and Avicenna, book I, teaches that joy is very beneficial to the sick. Seneca gives the reason:
"For whatever raises the spirit also benefits the body." Baynus however translates: "A joyful heart makes medicine good," that is, the joy of the heart commends and makes medicine effective, as if to say: Medicine will not avail unless the one who receives it is of joyful spirit — both because, as Cornelius Celsus teaches in book 4, worry and sadness themselves are a kind of illness which, if it is added to the prior illness from which the patient suffers, will aggravate and increase it; and because sadness induces coldness, which impedes the digestion and operation of medicine. The same happens in the spiritual realm: for a sad spirit cannot digest any remedy of admonition or correction; wherefore its spiritual illness — namely the vice from which it suffers — is nearly incurable.
Second, R. Solomon: "A cheerful spirit makes the countenance bright and flourishing." Baynus: "A joyful heart makes the sight of the eyes good, which tends to fail especially in the elderly; and a sad spirit dries up the bones, in which the strength of the body chiefly resides." Marinus in his Lexicon: "A joyful heart makes good the splendor of the countenance, or benefits the appearance." For a joyful heart pours its joy into the countenance and makes it rosy, flourishing, lively, smiling, and radiant. Whence St. Anthony was recognized among many thousands of monks by strangers solely from the splendor of his countenance, which the joy of his mind imparted to him. For, as Pacatus says in his Panegyric on Emperor Theodosius: "The face, that betrayer, declares the intimate feelings of the mind, so that in the mirror of the brow the image of the soul stands forth." Therefore sadness dulls the eyes of both mind and body, while joy sharpens both. So Basil, Bishop of Seleucia, Oration 2 On Lazarus: "Does not," he says, "intense sadness generate death? Does it not obscure the clarity and sharpness of the soul, so that scarcely anything suitable can be made known? Therefore let us at last raise the eye of the mind to heaven, and dismissing sadness, turn our soul to what is spiritual."
Third, the Syriac translates: a cheerful spirit makes the body beautiful. For, as R. Levi explains: "From cheerfulness of spirit the body's pleasant form is produced, when the blood and innate warmth are widely diffused through its parts; but a dejected spirit, enveloped in grief, contrary to what joy provides, dries up and withers the limbs, as the blood and warmth withdraw to the inmost recesses of the body. From which we clearly understand that cheerfulness is praiseworthy, while on the contrary grief is not free from fault."
Fourth, the Septuagint translates: a joyful heart causes one to be well, but a sad man's (Aquila, a stricken spirit; Symmachus, a humbled one; Theodotion, a pricked one) bones are dried up, the bones are parched.
Fifth, our Vulgate aptly translates: a joyful spirit makes a flourishing age; Vatablus, it makes the body more vigorous; others, it makes youth bloom. For the Hebrew יטיב ietib, that is "makes good," is the same as making it joyful, pleasant, flourishing, blooming. The Tigurina: a joyful heart makes good health; a mind but a sad mind exhausts the bones; Blessed Antiochus, homily 25: a rejoicing and cheerful heart begets good health; but the bones of a sad man are dried up.
The a priori reason is that joy is the flower, beauty, exultation, and as it were the life of the soul; but the soul is the life of the body; therefore, since joy gives the flower of life to the soul, it transmits the same through the soul into the body. Add that joy and the other passions exist not only in the soul but also in the body; for they arise from the heart, as Aristotle teaches, book III On the Parts of Animals, chapter 4: "For the heart," he says, "being the first of all parts to be formed, is full of blood; the movements of joy and sadness, and finally of all sensations, seem to arise from here and end here." Therefore the joy of the soul by sympathy produces a similar effect in the body: for joy causes the vital spirits to be sharpened and warmed, and to diffuse themselves through the body, especially through the face. These spirits make the countenance and body vivid, flourishing, healthy, vigorous, broad, and cheerful; sadness produces the opposite; for through it the heart contracts, the spirits are depressed, coldness is induced — which three things make the body languid, weak, and as if dead. Wherefore Galen, book III On the Causes of the Pulse: "In joy," he says, "the pulse is large, slow, and infrequent; for in the joyful, warmth is diffused through the whole body, and its motion is carried more outward, as in the sad it goes inward. Whence their pulse becomes deservedly larger, but not more intense. In sadness the pulse is small, languid, slow, and infrequent; for since sadness itself cools and drives the warmth inward, it deservedly produces effects contrary to the above, which attend joy." The same Galen, in the book On the Diagnosis and Cure of the Soul's Diseases, chapter 8, says he received these three principles from his father, and by observing them arrived at a healthy old age. The first: "I remain," he says, "undaunted and unmoved at all the things that happen daily in life, just as I then observed my father remaining; thus neither loss nor the destruction of any thing affects me with any disturbance. The second: My father accustomed me to despise glory and honor, so that I might hold only the bare truth in esteem. For I see some people, when they think themselves despised by someone, or when they have lost some money, consumed with great grief. The third: Not to go hungry, not to be cold, not to suffer thirst." Avicenna, book II: "By frequent joy," he says, "the natural power becomes stronger and the spirits are rarefied." Francis Valesius, On Sacred Philosophy, chapter 72: "Through joy," he says, "warmth is abundantly poured forth." Hippocrates, Cornelius Celsus, Fernelius, Cardanus in the book On the Preservation of Health, and generally all other physicians, teach the same.
Whence Seneca, in the book On the Happy Life, chapter 5: "Distress," he says, "does not befall the wise man; for his mind is serene, nor can anything occur that would cloud it. Nothing becomes a man so much as a great spirit; but a spirit cannot be great if fear and grief cloud and constrict it.
AND A SAD SPIRIT DRIES UP THE BONES. — The reason is that sadness eats away the marrow of the bones: for it contracts and withdraws the vital spirits, and therefore induces coldness; whence it happens that the vital moisture, which irrigates and nourishes the bones through the marrow and the other members, fails and dries up. For this moisture is warm: for human life consists in warmth. Thus Galen, book On the Preservation of Health, chapter 16: "From sadness," he says, "men are plainly seen to be thinner, drier, and less obedient." And Hippocrates, book II On Diseases: "Care in the bowels seems like a thorn, and to prick them." Whence Theodotion translates: a pricked spirit (that is, a sad one, which pricks like a thorn) dries up the bones.
To this pertains that saying of David, Psalm 31:4: "I was turned in my affliction, while the thorn is fastened" in me, as the Greek adds, that is, I was turned to God while I feel myself pierced by Him with the thorn of tribulation and sadness. For, as Theodoret says in the same place: "The sweetness of sin drives in a long thorn of bitterness after itself." And St. Jerome: The thorn, he says, is the sting and the consciousness of sin, which always pricks the mind. And St. Gregory: "Every sin," he says, "while it brings delight, as it were by pricking lacerates the mind." Hippocrates adds: "When this anxiety seizes the mind, it flees the light and men, and loves darkness, and fear invades, one is parched, and suffers at every touch, and is terrified, and sees frightful apparitions and horrible dreams." The same author, in book III, teaches that sadness kills those who suffer from dropsy. The same: "Care," he says, "is a grave disease." And Lucretius:
Both pain and disease, each a fabricator of death.
Francis Valesius teaches the same, in Sacred Philosophy, chapter 72, whose words I have cited at Ecclesiasticus 30:25. The Fathers teach the same, as do the philosophers and poets. St. Gregory Nazianzen, Poem 3 On His Own Calamities:
Care, he says, is for man a cross and a deadly poison.
St. Chrysostom, Homily 10 on the Epistle to the Philippians: "Sorrows," he says, "and anxieties, when they distract the soul beyond measure, deprive it of its strength." Blessed Antiochus, Homily 25: "In no way," he says, "should sadness be admitted, nor should such a troublesome sickness of the soul be accepted." And further: "A monk wasting away with grief is like one who labors with a burning fever; in no way will he raise his mind to the pursuit of contemplation, nor will he receive sincere prayer, nor exhortation, nor counsel." So also St. Thomas, III, Question 37, article 4, and Question 33, article 1, where he teaches that delight, or joy, delights the heart and mind of man: "Which," he says, "assents to the delightful thing and rests in it, in a certain way yielding itself to it, and inwardly embracing it; and thus the affection is expanded of man through delight, as if yielding itself to hold inwardly the delightful thing." Wherefore the Comic Poet wisely gives these partly doctrines, partly precepts concerning joy and sadness:
Sadness of heart is the tightest bond. Fear of the future strangles all joy. Nothing so eats the soul as care. Leave to fate cares beyond your power. As we contract with grief, so we swell with joy. The wise man restrains his joys in a quiet breast. The cause of supreme sorrow is supreme joy. Life without any joy is a living death. Sickness of the soul is the most powerful disease. Pain of the soul begets languor of the body. A generous spirit is not harmed by a sick body.
Finally, St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Distichs: "Sorrows," he says, "bring premature old age upon mortals. An anxious mind gnaws the bones like a moth; but the body, bidding all cares farewell, flourishes excellently."
The sum of all is, as if to say: Joy alone provides medicine for all diseases of soul and body, and makes the body vigorous and flourishing; but sadness exhausts and consumes the vital sap and blood, and so consumes the marrow of the bones, and thus dries them out — whence it happens that a man wastes away and gradually perishes from consumption. See what was said at chapter 15:13, and more at Ecclesiasticus 30:22ff., where the goods of joy and the evils of sadness are treated at length. Finally Cajetan here: "Sadness," he says, "is very hostile to the health of the body and to life, because it consists in a motion contrary to the vital motion. For the vivification of the body proceeds from the heart in the manner of a pulse. But sadness consists in the withdrawal of the spirits."
Mystically, Bede: "He who," he says, "rejoices in the interior consolation of the Holy Spirit is also adorned with the flower of good action and awaits the fruits of heavenly rewards. But he who is distressed by the sadness of the world, which works death, can in no way possess the richness of divine charity in the strength of the virtues which he seems to exercise; but withers as if with dried-up bones, because in the good acts which he performs, he has lost the grace of love." Thus from a good conscience, the holy Anchorites, always serene and joyful, lived long — as St. Paul the first Hermit lived 113 years, St. Anthony 105, St. Romuald 120, Elijah 110, John de Tampes (whom they mistakenly call "de Temporibus") 360, though it is more true that he lived only 160; see the Theatre of Human Life, under the long-lived. The Seven Holy Sleepers are said to have lived and slept for 160 years from the time of Decius to Theodosius. Indeed, even now in monasteries very many virgins dedicated to God, free from cares and sober, serene and cheerful, last to their ninetieth and hundredth year, as Cardanus notes, book I On the Preservation of Health, chapter 18, and as experience shows. Likewise, for the same reason, Josephus reports that in former times very many of the Essenes lived to a hundred years — Josephus, book II of the War, chapter 7. This is what Ecclesiasticus 30:23 says: "Joyfulness of heart — this is the life of man, and a treasure of holiness without defect; and the exultation of a man is longevity."
Verse 23: The Wicked Man Receives Gifts to Pervert the Paths of Judgment
23. THE WICKED MAN RECEIVES GIFTS FROM THE BOSOM TO PERVERT THE PATHS OF JUDGMENT. — The Chaldean: to turn aside from the way of judgment; the Syriac: he who receives gifts is unjust, for he turns aside the way of judgment; the Septuagint: the ways of him who unjustly receives gifts in his bosom do not prosper; but the wicked man turns aside the ways of justice. Therefore R. Solomon incorrectly translates and explains it thus: "God secretly receives gifts of words and prayers from the bosom of the wicked between Himself and him, in order to change the judgment to which the wicked man was subject from bad to good." For it is clear that this passage deals not with God but with the wicked man, who receives gifts in order to pronounce a sentence in favor of the giver, and unjustly condemn the opposing party which has a just cause. The phrase "from the bosom," or as the Septuagint has it, "from the bosoms," signifies a gift given secretly and covertly. For those who foster unjust causes are accustomed to give gifts to the judge secretly — both because they are ashamed to buy an unjust sentence with gold, and because they fear that, if the matter becomes public, they may be summoned before the higher tribunal of the prince and there pay the penalties for accepted bribes and violated justice. So Aben-Ezra and R. Levi.
Now this maxim can be taken both of the giver and of the receiver of gifts. Of the giver, as if to say: The wicked man takes, that is, draws forth gifts from his bosom, to give them secretly into the hands of the judge, and thereby bend him to his love, so that the judge may adjudicate the case in his favor, unjustly, against or beyond the laws of justice. Solomon says this so that judges and magistrates may take this as a kind of mark of injustice and may know that those who strive to obtain and win by bribes what they cannot by right are fostering an unjust or at least inequitable cause. Of the receiver, interpreters generally take it, as if to say: A counselor or judge who, from the bosom of the giver, and even the learned are otherwise tenacious; for gifts silently draw out the affection of the recipient and bind him to the giver. For who does not love back one who loves him, indeed one who gives him gifts? Who is so brazen-faced as to show himself an adversary to one who gives, indeed to condemn him? What mouth would bear to bark at the one who feeds it? Wherefore, as Blessed Gregory Nazianzen says in his Distichs: "When gold speaks, every speech is idle; for it persuades even without uttering a word. By gold men are caught as birds by snares. Gold moves minds and rouses the mute to speech." The same, Oration 24: "Gold," he says, "is a hidden tyrant (because it does violence to those greedy for gold and oppresses them as with tyranny, says Elias of Crete in the same place), through which now many things are tossed up and down as in a game of dice." The same, in the Poem On His Own Life, citing the disputation of Zerubbabel and his companions about what is strongest: "Strong is wine, strong is a king, strong are women, but strongest is truth," 3 Esdras 3, says that gold is stronger than all of these. For he sings thus:
Someone asserted that wine conquers all; Another, woman; the third gave the palm to truth; But I would have given the greatest strength To gold, which turns all things by its own judgment.
Admirably, Blessed Peter Damian, book II, epistle 2, which in order is 23: "The sons of Samuel," he says, "are recorded to have had no other crime except that they loved gifts; and because they did not follow the example of their father's purity, they irrecoverably lost the leadership of the Israelite people. And it should be noted that when Scripture says of them: They turned aside after avarice, they accepted gifts, it immediately added: They perverted judgment. For it is close and connected that after a gift is accepted, judgment is also perverted by the corrupted censor." And after some intervening words: "When gifts have been accepted," he says, "if we wish to act against the giver, immediately the words in our mouth grow soft, the sharpness of our speech is blunted, the tongue is impeded by a certain blush of shame. For the mind, conscious of the received gift, weakens the vigor of judicial censure and represses the freedom of eloquence. For although the rectitude of judgment is not totally removed, yet the authority of judging is enervated."
Wherefore the Romans, by the law of the Twelve Tables, punished a judge who accepted gifts with death. For the Hebrews, Moses — indeed God through Moses — strictly forbade the acceptance of gifts, Exodus 23:8: "You shall not accept gifts," He says, "which even blind the wise and subvert the words of the just." Deuteronomy 27:25 contains the last, and therefore the gravest curse: "Cursed is he who accepts gifts to strike down the soul of innocent blood. And all the people said: Amen." Wherefore Isaiah gravely accuses the Jews, chapter 1:23: "Your princes," he says, "are faithless, companions of thieves; all love gifts, they pursue rewards." On the other hand, he wonderfully extols the one who refuses gifts, chapter 33:15: "He who walks," he says, "in justice and speaks truth, who casts away gain from oppression and shakes his hands free from all gifts, etc., he shall dwell on high; the strongholds of rocks shall be his height." And the Psalmist, Psalm 14:1, asking: "Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle?" responds among other things: "He who swears to his neighbor and does not deceive: who has not given his money to usury and has not accepted gifts against the innocent." Wherefore Samuel boasts that he rejected all gifts, 1 Kings 12:3; and Paul, Acts 20:33.
Moreover, Cicero, book I, epistle to Q. Frater, who held a magistracy in Asia, gives him this notable warning: "Let it be the opinion, not only of those who have accepted something, but also of those who have given, that you will be their enemy if you discover it; and truly no one will give when it is clear that nothing is ordinarily obtained from you through those who pretend to have great influence with you." Furthermore, the Septuagint adds: "The ways of him who unjustly accepts gifts in his bosoms do not prosper;" because, as Job says, chapter 15:34: "Fire will devour the tents of those who gladly accept gifts" — namely the fire of God's wrath and vengeance, who not infrequently consumes with bodily fire wealth unjustly acquired through bribes and other means.
Solomon teaches here that the power of gifts is great, but hidden, which deceives even honest and sensible men.
Verse 24: In the Face of the Prudent Man Wisdom Shines
24. IN THE FACE OF THE PRUDENT MAN WISDOM SHINES: THE EYES OF FOOLS ARE IN THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. — First, the plain and genuine meaning is this, as if to say: In the face of the prudent man, and especially in his eyes — which are grave, modest, clear, and composed for all honesty and virtue — the interior wisdom and virtue of his mind shines forth; conversely, in the face and eyes of fools the foolishness and senselessness of their heart flashes out, because their eyes are light, wandering, fickle, unstable, so that like a wheel they spin around to look at the ends of the earth. Whence Vatablus translates: the very countenance of the prudent man shows forth wisdom; but the eyes of fools wander over the ends of the earth.
The reason is that the heart and mind of the prudent is grave, stable, and composed, which therefore composes the countenance and eyes to honesty and gravity; but the mind of fools is light and wandering, and therefore produces light and wandering eyes, according to that saying: "The heart of a fool is like a cart wheel, and his thoughts like a revolving axle," Ecclesiasticus 33:5. For the mind shines through the body and face, as a torch through a lantern, and the sun gleams and shines through glass, according to that saying of Pacatus cited at verse 22: "In the mirror of the brow the image of the soul stands forth." And that of St. Bernard, On the Manner of Living Well, chapter 65: "The face of a man is the mirror of his heart." And Cicero, book III On the Orator: "Every motion of the soul," he says, "has from nature its own distinct sound and gesture; the countenance is the image of the soul." And St. Augustine: "A severe countenance is the guardian of discipline and integrity; if this is absent, like a torch of levity exposed to the wind, it is extinguished." For the body, and especially the countenance, is the workshop of the soul. Therefore, just as an artisan in his workshop, for example a potter in his pottery and clay, paints and forms the concepts and shapes of his mind: so also the mind paints and forms its wisdom or folly, virtue or vice in the body, and especially in the countenance and its gestures and movements. Add that acumen of intellect and maturity of judgment are often recognized from the physiognomy of the face and eyes. Whence the Septuagint translates: the intelligent countenance of a wise man; but the eyes of the fool are at the ends of the earth. Hence Aristotle in the Physiognomics, chapter 6: "The signs of an ingenious person are," he says, "flesh that is rather moist and soft, not of good condition nor very fat; around the shoulders and neck rather lean, and around the face, etc.; a white body mixed with redness, and pure; thin skin, hair not very hard nor very black; the eye charopus, moist" — charopus, that is blue, such as the color of the sea and sky, or tawny, such as that of eagles and lions: the Latins call it ravus. See what was said at Ecclesiasticus chapter 19:27. So Bede, Lyranus, Cajetan, Baynus, Jansenius, and others generally. Hear Lyranus giving the reason: "In the face of the prudent man wisdom shines," he says, "through maturity and honesty; because the disposition of the heart appears more in the face, in which all the senses are located, than in the other parts."
Whence Bede, giving Christ as the example, indeed the exemplar of all: "In the face," he says, "of the Lord and Savior shone the wisdom of His divinity, which, appearing in the flesh, He demonstrated by the testimonies of His virtues and doctrine. But the eyes of the unbelieving Jews were intent rather on fulfilling earthly desires than on His saving admonitions."
Second, the Chaldean translates: the face of the prudent man is cheerful in wisdom; and the eyes of fools are in the depths of the earth, as if to say: The face and eyes of the prudent, the just, and the saints are serene, joyful, and cheerful, like the clear sky toward which they strive, seeming to imitate and gaze upon it; because the interior joy which sanctity of mind brings shines through and pours itself into the face and eyes. But the face and eyes of fools, that is, of the imprudent and wicked, cast down from the dread of a bad conscience, are sad and depressed toward the earth, so that they seem to want to penetrate and peer into the very depths and lowest parts of the earth, and as it were to look at the place prepared for them in the depth of hell. The type of the wise man's countenance, therefore, is that it should show forth affability mixed with gravity, and cheerfulness mixed with severity — that is, to be severely cheerful and cheerfully severe. Such was the countenance of the Essenes, the Ascetics, St. Anthony, St. Athanasius, and St. Basil, whose additional image and maxim was: "Pallor and leanness become a monk." Plutarch says truly in the Moralia: "Just as a spring," he says, "never lacks moisture always flowing from it, so a virtuous man always has joy, even if external circumstances change."
Third, the Hebrew has: with the face, or before the face, of the intelligent is wisdom, as if to say: The wise man always has wisdom before his eyes, he gazes upon it continually, and according to its dictates and nods he does and works all things; whence the Syriac translates: the face of the prudent man gazes upon wisdom; but the eyes of the fool are at the extremity of the earth, as if to say: The wise and holy man looks to the goods and rewards of heaven, which wisdom sets before him; but the fool and wicked man looks to earthly goods — namely, riches, honors, pleasures — which the foolishness of concupiscence suggests and presents to him. He therefore looks to the ends of the earth, namely the boundaries of his fields and estates, to extend and expand them; indeed he sometimes looks to the ends of the entire earth and aspires to the dominion of the whole world, as did Alexander, Cyrus, Pompey, Julius Caesar, and other Romans.
Fourth, R. Solomon, Clarius, and others, as if to say: The wise man is a friend, neighbor, and intimate of wisdom; but the fool is as far from wisdom as if he had his eyes at the ends of the earth, namely placed and separated at the greatest distance from wisdom. Aben-Ezra concurs: "Wisdom," he says, "is before the prudent man; the fool runs about with his eyes to investigate wisdom at the extreme ends of the world, since he considers the senseless people of his own regions to be like himself; and therefore he brings sorrow to his mother, since he wants to transport himself to distant regions." And R. Levi: "The prudent man," he says, "easily finds the reasons of wisdom ready at hand, since from all things that exist he is roused to acquire admirable wisdom; and also, because of the wisdom in which he excels, he understands higher things. On the contrary, the fool, when he devotes himself to the study of wisdom, will have his eyes fixed on the ends of the earth, thinking it can only be found there; and therefore he gives himself entirely to idleness." And Vatablus says: wisdom is always at hand for the prudent man; but the fool seeks it throughout the whole world and does not find it. Akin to this is the maxim of Ecclesiastes 2:14: "The eyes of the wise man are in his head; the fool walks in darkness," as if to say: The wise man, with eyes raised in his head, prudently looks about at all things and surveys them clearly, and thus walks in light; but the fool is carried away imprudently by blind error wherever his feet — that is, his affections and desires — lead him. Therefore he seems to have his eyes not in his head but in his heels.
Whence mystically St. Gregory, Moralia 17, chapter 5, teaches that the just man considers the ways, that is, the laws of God, which he beholds in his head, namely Christ; but the wicked man looks to his own ways, that is, the leadings of his concupiscence: "For the way of the proud," he says, "is pride; the way of the robber, avarice; the way of the unchaste is carnal concupiscence. In his own ways, therefore, every wicked man casts down his eyes, because he attends to vices alone, in order to satisfy his soul through them. Whence Solomon says: The eyes of fools are in the ends of the earth; because with the whole intention of their heart they look only at that by which they may be led to the end of their earthly desire. But the sinner would by no means fix the gaze of his consideration on the earth if he were to lift the eyes of his mind to the holy ways of his Redeemer. Whence through Solomon again it is said: The eyes of the wise man are in his head; because evidently every wise man considers with his sole intention Him whose member he reckons himself to be through faith."
Again, the mystical face of the wise man is the wonderful beauty and splendor of his mind, in which the brilliance and majesty of wisdom and virtue shines forth, so that if one were to say they beheld it, we would discern in it certain rays of divinity — to such an extent that Seneca, who recognized only natural wisdom and virtue, not the supernatural virtue of grace, writes in Epistle 145: "If we were permitted to look into the soul of a good man, oh, what a beautiful face, how holy, how shining from its magnificent and tranquil splendor we would see! Justice shining on one side, fortitude on another, temperance and prudence gleaming forth. Beyond these, frugality and self-restraint, endurance, generosity and kindness, and (who would believe it?) that rare good in a man — humanity — would pour their splendor upon it; then foresight, then elegance, and from these the most eminent magnanimity — good gods, how much beauty, how much weight and gravity they would add! How great would be the authority joined with grace! No one would call it lovable without also calling it venerable. If anyone were to behold this face, loftier and more radiant than is accustomed to be seen among humans, would he not stand still, astonished as at the appearance of a divinity, and, as if it were lawful to have seen it, pray in silence?" And immediately he adds: "Then, drawn forth by the kindness of the very countenance, he would adore and supplicate, and having long contemplated the figure so greatly outstanding and elevated above the measure of those usually seen among us, with eyes indeed mild but nonetheless blazing with vivid fire — then at last, reverent and astonished, he would utter that verse of our Virgil:
Oh, by what name should I call you, maiden! For your face is not Mortal, nor does your voice sound human. Be blessed, and lighten whatever labor is ours.
She will be present and will lighten it, if we are willing to honor her. But she is honored not by the slaughter of fat-bodied bulls, nor by gold and silver hung up, nor by money poured into treasuries, but by a pious and upright will. No one, I say, would not burn with love of her, if it were granted us to see her."
Finally, akin to this maxim is that of Ecclesiastes chapter 8, verse 1: "The wisdom of a man shines in his countenance, and the Most Mighty will change his face." Where I shall speak again on this subject.
Verse 25: A Foolish Son Is the Anger of His Father
25. A FOOLISH SON IS THE ANGER OF HIS FATHER (Septuagint, ἄφρων, that is, imprudent), AND THE SORROW OF THE MOTHER WHO BORE HIM. — In Hebrew, bitterness to his mother; Theodotion, παράπικρασμος, that is, exasperation; Aquila and Symmachus, πικραίνων, that is, embittering his mother; the Chaldean, a foolish son exasperates his father and embitters his mother. The meaning is, as if to say: A foolish, dissolute, disobedient, perverse son provokes his father to anger and his mother to bitterness and sorrow — both because he rejects their admonitions and instruction, and because by his wicked and shameful life brings them disgrace and reproach; and because he devours their labors and wealth by feasting and luxury; and because in rebellion he threatens and plots against them with words, and sometimes blows, and even death. Should not, therefore, his father be angry with him and rage against him not as a son but as an enemy, and his mother grieve and sigh from the heart? For fathers, being manly, are seized more by anger than by grief on account of their sons' offenses; but mothers, being women, tender and fondly loving their children, are seized more by grief than by anger. For who would be angry at the son of her womb, whom she bore with such great pains, nourished with so many troubles, and raised to adolescence with so many labors? Solomon says this both to deter sons from wickedness, lest they bring anger to their father and sorrow to their mother; and to exhort parents to the strict education and chastisement of their children from tender years, lest, if they give them the reins too indulgently, they later find them wicked and rebellious to their own loss, anger, and sorrow. Wherefore God is accustomed to punish this indulgence of parents through the rebellion of their children, and by punishing to purify, so that in the very thing in which they sinned, in the same they are punished according to the law of retaliation. See what was said at chapter 10, verse 1, where the same maxim is inculcated. Thus Ham, uncovering the nakedness of Noah his father, drew upon himself his anger and curse: "Cursed," he said, "be Canaan (the son of Ham); a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers," Genesis 9:25. Thus Esau, by taking foreign wives, offended Isaac and Rebecca his parents, Genesis 26:35. Thus Simeon and Levi, by killing the Shechemites in revenge for the violation of their sister Dinah, heard from their father Jacob: "Cursed be their fury; I will divide them in Jacob and scatter them in Israel." Thus Absalom, by killing Amnon his brother, incurred the indignation of David his father and became an exile and fugitive. Thus St. Augustine by his heresy and concubinage was the grief of Monica his mother, as he himself relates in book 5 of the Confessions.
Symbolically, R. Solomon: A foolish son, he says, was Jeroboam, who, hostile to God, stirred up that anger against himself and all Israel; likewise he brought the bitterness of sorrow upon his mother, namely the Synagogue, which he dragged into the idolatry of the golden calves and thence into all evils.
Verse 26: It Is Not Good to Inflict Harm on the Just
26. IT IS NOT GOOD TO INFLICT HARM ON THE JUST, NOR TO STRIKE THE PRINCE (Symmachus, the noble one) WHO JUDGES RIGHTLY. — In Hebrew, nor to strike princes on account of rectitude or equity; the Septuagint, nor for a holy man to plot against just princes; the Chaldean and Syriac, to punish the just is not good, nor to strike the just who speak rightly; Aquila, on account of, that is because of, rectitude.
First, Cajetan thus expounds, as if to say: Although it is not good to inflict harm on the just and innocent, yet it is worse to strike with the tongue or hand — that is, to criticize or beat — a prince or judge who has condemned a man who is just and innocent in himself, but who has been proved guilty and criminal by the evidence and witnesses presented; in order to signify that it is not lawful for private persons to examine and calumniate the judgment of a judge, according to that saying of Maximus, Sermon 5 from Epictetus: "As a just balance is neither corrected by a true balance nor examined by a false one: so also a just judge ought neither to be examined by the just nor accused by the unjust."
Second, Baynus, referring the Hebrew גם gam, that is "also," to the one who accepts gifts in verse 23, thus expounds: To accept a gift from the bosom in order to pervert judgment is evil; also to condemn the just without a gift is evil, as if to say: Judges who accept gifts sin doubly: first, because they accept gifts; second, because they condemn the innocent.
Third, more weighty and elegant is Jansenius: This maxim signifies, he says, that most people commit two evils against justice — first, they unjustly harm the just man, inflicting damage on him in his goods or person; and then they are troublesome to the princes and judges who have pronounced sentence against them in defense of the just man, attacking and striking them with tongue or even with hand. Solomon says this, says R. Levi, because to the wicked every just man who acts rightly seems wicked: for the wicked consider only themselves and those like them to be good, but those unlike them they consider wicked; therefore they afflict and persecute them as wicked and hostile to themselves.
Fourth, more profoundly, our Salazar, taking "the just man" as a judge, thus expounds, as if to say: He who violates a most equitable judge appointed and commissioned by the prince, does the same as if he were injuring and violating the prince himself, whose person that judge represents. For thus the common consensus of men holds, that injuries inflicted upon inferior magistrates in some way pertain to the prince. For which reason, to kill or strike a magistrate is, by Law 1 of the Julian Law in the Digest, a crime of lese-majesty; and the Caesars deemed that the same punishment should apply to that which is committed against the person of the prince.
Fifth, in Hebrew it is one sentence, which literally sounds thus: It is not good to punish or afflict the just man, to afflict princes on account of rectitude. Where the word "also" connects this sentence to the preceding one, as Aben-Ezra teaches, as if to say: Just as it is not good to offend parents, so also it is not good, but perverse, to offend just men: for these are like parents, because by word and example they propagate justice and spiritually beget many just men like themselves; nor to offend princes: for these are the parents of the commonwealth and fathers of the fatherland, and as such are to be honored by the citizens. Wherefore God avenges the injuries of the just and of princes just as He does those of parents. In this exposition, the phrase "it is not good" must be understood in the latter hemistich from the former, as the two-part sentence requires. Whence Pagninus translates: also to condemn the just is not good, to strike the prince on account of rectitude is not good. Furthermore, if anyone does not wish to repeat "it is not good" but simply takes the sentence from the Hebrew as one, as it sounds, let him say that the first part either serves the latter or is explained by it, so that the just man is called antonomastically a "prince," who is the president, guardian, keeper, and avenger of justice, as if to say: It is not good — that is, it is an evil thing, indeed a very evil thing (for it is a litotes, because little is said but more is meant) — and therefore provoking the grave anger and vengeance of God, to afflict the just man antonomastically, that is, to strike the prince or magistrate who is the guardian and avenger of justice and represents it in the commonwealth by his person; whence he is even commonly called "justice" by the people. Or certainly, by "the just man" one may understand the king or supreme magistrate, who is the supreme president of justice; by "princes" one may understand the judges and rulers subject and subordinate to the king, as if to say: He who afflicts the king or strikes his princes does the worst thing, because he afflicts and strikes the whole commonwealth. For the commonwealth depends upon and is sustained by the king and princes, as by its foundations and pillars. For when these guardians of justice are removed, justice is taken from the commonwealth, and violence, robbery, sedition, slaughter, and every injustice enters in, by which the whole commonwealth is thrown into confusion, brought to ruin, and overthrown.
Wherefore this maxim applies most fittingly to Christ and the Apostles, as if to say: He does the very worst who afflicts Christ, the Just One and the Holy of Holies; but he afflicts Christ who afflicts, strikes, and kills His princes — namely the Apostles and rulers of the Church — who labor to propagate the true faith and justice, as the Jews and Gentiles did. Thus Bede: "This maxim," he says, "can be understood both of the prince and judge of the ages Himself, who willed to be struck for our salvation; and generally of all the rulers of the Church, who were either stripped of their possessions by the wicked, or consumed by death itself."
The anonymous author in the Greek Chain concurs: "He who," he says, "takes away what is fair and just from the just man, and leads away the just man's disciples — although they were walking rightly — from the level and straight path of virtue, does a work that is by no means good. For since the just man held them as his own possession, he is compelled to suffer their loss. But he who plots against princes, even just ones, attempts a thing that is by no means safe, indeed one exposed to great dangers. And he here calls those princes who reign in Christ and through Christ."
All these meanings are probable and apt; the third is simpler than the rest, the fourth more profound, the fifth more conformable to the Hebrew.
Verse 27: He Who Moderates His Words Is Learned and Prudent
27. HE WHO MODERATES HIS WORDS IS LEARNED AND ("and" here means "that is," as is clear from the Hebrew) PRUDENT: AND THE MAN OF PRECIOUS SPIRIT IS WISE. — In Hebrew: he who restrains or contains his words knows knowledge; precious in spirit is the man of understanding. For "precious" the Hebrew is יקר iekar, for which Vatablus and others read וקר vekar, that is, and cool in spirit is the man of understanding; "cool in spirit" is he who does not burn with anger or in the fervency of speaking, but is moderate and silent, often sends forth love, fervor, and zeal — as he knows how to restrain his affections and the itch to speak — as I said in chapter 16, verse 2; so he is of precious spirit, who, and, as R. Solomon says, is sparing in speech, excels in extraordinary charity and zeal. Whence the Chaldean translates: and he who is humble in spirit (for the humble breathes sparingly and hopes for small things, while the proud breathes swellingly and aspires to great things), is a man of understanding; the Septuagint: he who spares from uttering a harsh word — that is, he is skilled or prudent (Aquila, knowing); μακρόθυμος, that is, long-suffering or patient, is a prudent man; the Syriac: he who restrains his words knows knowledge; the long-suffering and patient man is wise. The "learned," "knowing," and "educated" man is called by Solomon "wise" and "prudent"; and "learning," "knowledge," "erudition" refers to prudence and virtue itself: for this is the practical knowledge of the Saints, as I have already often warned.
Time and again Solomon commends moderation of the tongue and sparingness of words; for this is difficult and is not achieved except by great prudence and virtue. Therefore he is wise who knows how to moderate his words, so that he speaks neither more nor less than is fitting, nor at any time or place blurts out what he knows or thinks; but, as the Hebrew has it, keeps his words to himself, retaining what should be kept silent, and reserving for the opportune time what should be said, and uttering them with due moderation.
The question is asked: who is here called "of precious spirit," or, as it is in Hebrew, preciousness of spirit, that is, precious in spirit; the Tigurina, of noble spirit?
First, Aben-Ezra takes "spirit" to mean doctrine, and "precious" to mean rare, as if to say: The doctrine of a silent man is precious and rare, while on the contrary the senseless man pours out everything he knows.
Second, R. Levi takes "spirit" to mean speech, as if to say: The prudent man wants his words to be precious, that is rare — not out of pride but out of prudence. For speech is formed by that breath which we draw by frequent breathing.
Third, Baynus: Precious in spirit, he says, that is, endowed with a certain rare intelligence of mind, he delights more in solitary contemplation and meditation than in conversing with others.
Fourth, others take "spirit" to mean the impulse to speak, according to that saying of Elihu swelling to speak: "The spirit of my belly constrains me. Behold, my belly is like must without a vent, which bursts new bottles," Job 32:18. Therefore "precious in spirit" is he who restrains the impulse to speak, who considers his words rare and dear; for things that are rare are also precious. Moreover, this rarity and sparingness of words requires: first, that one speak only when compelled by necessity or great utility; second, that when one does speak, one express and encompass the whole matter in few words; third, that one first exactly weigh, premeditate, and ponder them in the mind.
Fifth, Lyranus: A man, he says, of precious spirit, that is, of precious soul, who namely holds his soul in value, is learned in knowledge and morals, because the preciousness of the soul consists in these. Again, "spirit"
Sixth, others take "spirit" to mean the secret, or the intention and depth of the heart; for the spirit is the innermost sanctuary and secret of the soul, as if to say: He who is precious, that is, rare and sparing in revealing the secrets and depths of his heart, this one is prudent.
Seventh, Cajetan thus explains the whole verse from the Hebrew: The more anyone excels above the rest in knowledge, the more he weighs his words, and by much consideration retains his sayings to himself, aspiring to better things. "And precious in spirit is the man of understanding" — that is, a man who also excels in the acuteness of understanding is held in great esteem — not of money, but of spirit; spiritual esteem, I say, to which all riches are incomparable.
Eighth, physically and plainly there is a twofold spirit in man; both are necessary for speaking, indeed they are the artisans of voice and speech. The first is spiritual — namely, the soul itself and its concepts, senses, and desires, which stimulate it to utter them by voice, as if to say: He who holds the senses and desires of his soul in high value, so as not to rashly pour them out by speaking, but to keep them to himself as secrets, as precious things — that is, rare and dear — this is a learned man, that is, prudent and wise. The latter spirit is corporeal — namely, the very breath or respiration by which we breathe; for this, striking against the teeth, palate, tongue, and throat, produces voice and speech, as if to say: He who has a precious spirit and breath, by which he forms his sounds and words, so that he can master it, govern it, keep it for himself as a precious thing, and rarely emit it outward through speech — this one is a "learned man," that is, wise; by which he signifies that voice and speech should be of as much value and as much concern to us as the very breath by which it is formed and on which the life of man depends. For breathing causes life: "Thus both life and death are in the power of the tongue," chapter 18, verse 21.
That this is the meaning is clear from the preceding hemistich. For "he who moderates his words is learned and prudent" explains what is parabolically and elegantly added: "And the man of precious spirit is wise." Therefore, "of precious spirit" is he who moderates his words. Second, because in a similar phrase and meaning it is said in chapter 29, verse 11: "A fool utters all his spirit; a wise man defers and reserves it for later." And in chapter 1, verse 23: "Behold, I will pour out my spirit to you and will show you my words." Therefore, "of precious spirit" is he who knows how to restrain his spirit, as I have said speaking gently, lest he rashly break out into words by which he would reveal himself and his thoughts, and bring forth and publish whatever he has in mind; but who sets a price and weight on his mouth and words — that is, one whose words are precious, meaning rare and mature, and who is sparing of words.
Therefore his spirit is called precious: first, because it is of great worth and value; second, because it is nonoble, as Vatablus translates; third, because it is rare; fourth, because it is dear; fifth, because it gives esteem and weight to words and deeds. Thus in Proverbs 25:17, for what our Vulgate translates: "Withdraw your foot from your neighbor's house, lest being sated he hate you;" the Hebrew has: make your foot precious from your neighbor's house, that is, visit your neighbor more rarely, lest you become cheap to him and cease to be esteemed. And Isaiah 13:12: "Man shall be more precious," that is rarer, "than gold," because almost all will be killed. Therefore "precious" in Scripture often means the same as "rare"; for everything rare is dear and precious. Hence in 1 Kings 3:1, it is said: "The word of the Lord was precious in those days," that is, God then gave no oracles, or certainly rare ones. Psalm 116:5: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints," that is, it happens with the greatest difficulty and very rarely that God permits His servants to be slain by the savagery of enemies, according to Psalm 72:14: "Honorable is their name before Him." Where St. Jerome translates from the Hebrew: precious is their blood before His eyes, that is, He will not easily suffer their blood to be shed.
Therefore a learned man, that is a wise man, is precious, that is most sparing in words. On the contrary, it is said of the fool, Proverbs 25:28: "Like a city that lies open and without walls, so is a man who cannot restrain his spirit in speaking." Therefore words must be weighed with delay and slowness, examined, and tested at the touchstone of reason — namely, the mouth should be opened only with the key of reason. For St. Chrysostom wisely says in his commentary on Psalm 50: "Let us perpetually guard our mouth, applying reason to it as a key." See what was said at James 1:19.
Relevant here is the saying of Anacharsis who, when asked what in a man is best and what worst, replied: The tongue; perceiving that the tongue is of the highest importance and value: for if it is rightly governed, it is of the greatest utility; if not, it is most pestilential. So Laertius, book I, chapter 9. Hence also Bias, when Amasis king of Egypt ordered him to send back what was best and worst in the victim he had sent him, sent back the tongue, cut out, implying that the tongue is a thing most excellent and most precious if you use it moderately, but most evil if you abuse it. So Plutarch, treatise On Talkativeness.
Furthermore, the same meaning is conveyed by what others, reading וקר vekar in the Hebrew, translate: and cool in spirit is the man of prudence. For "cool in spirit" is he who does not itch to speak, but is relaxed, slow, and moderate in this regard — and such men are most suited to governing. For those who burn and itch to speak, and wish to blame, criticize, and cut to the quick everything that is done contrary to rules, these offend many and accomplish little; but those who prudently overlook many things, and are cool in commanding, reproving, and admonishing — these, by their modesty and moderation, win the hearts of their subjects, and obtain from them what they want; but such men are precious, that is, few and rare. Well known is the saying: "Let the prince see everything, overlook much, punish little." Cool in spirit was Philip II, King of Spain, who for this reason obtained the name of a prudent ruling prince. For anyone to achieve this, it is necessary to mortify the passions, tame anger, bridle pride, dominate all affections, and thus put on moderation, gentleness, and patience of soul, so as to appear phlegmatic rather than choleric. Hence the Chaldean interprets "cool in spirit" as humble and modest in spirit: for the humble breathe modestly in speech and breathe forth subdued words; but the proud puff out their cheeks and blow forth inflated words from a swollen mouth. Whence St. Chrysostom, Homily 14 on Genesis, compares the humble to divers, who, holding their breath, lower themselves into the depths of the sea to gather there pearls and treasures. For in a similar way, the humble man, containing his spirit, plunges into the depths of God, and there gathers precious treasures of graces.
Finally, our Salazar translates the Hebrew יקר iekar as "beamed in spirit" [contignatus spiritu]; for it is derived from קרה kora, that is, a beam, and קרא kara, that is, to frame with beams; whence קרת keret is a city, which consists of and grows from many stories of buildings. He therefore translates: but the man of beamed spirit is prudent, that is, as the Septuagint has it, patient and long-suffering — namely, he who in the face of insults, taunts, calumnies, and injuries is silent, and responds not harshly but gently, is a prudent man. For he can truly claim the name of long-suffering and patient whose spirit and soul is beamed together and, as it were, compacted with inserted timbers. Hence St. Chrysostom, in the Homily On Patience, calls "patience the strongest beam of the whole building, on which the rest of the roof's mass rests." Furthermore, it will be permissible to call a man of beamed spirit one who has nailed his spirit to the wood of the cross through interior mortification and has pierced his concupiscences with beam-like nails. This meaning is ingenious and pious; would that it were equally genuine and solid! For the Hebrew iekar nowhere signifies "beamed"; whence no other translator renders it so.
Verse 28: Even a Fool, If He Keeps Silent, Will Be Considered Wise
28. EVEN A FOOL, IF HE KEEPS SILENT, WILL BE CONSIDERED WISE: AND IF HE SHUTS (in Hebrew, stopping up; Aquila and Theodotion, blocking; Vatablus, controlling) HIS LIPS, INTELLIGENT. — The word "even," says Aben-Ezra, serves for a greater amplification of the praises of one who is sparing in speech, to such a degree that even a fool who devotes himself to silence is accustomed to be regarded as wise. The Arabic: and he who does not have understanding, when he is asked about wisdom, that will be reckoned to him as wisdom. He who makes himself silent will be considered ingenious. Here the Wise Man gives counsel to the foolish, namely to keep silent; for thus he will be considered not foolish but wise. The a priori reason is, both because by silence he covers his foolishness, and because silence is a sign of a wise soul. Whence Solon, to someone saying that the reason he did not speak was because he was insane, replied: "No fool," he said, "can keep silent." Also because, as R. Levi says, silence befits the wise man: for it draws the mind back from the mouth to the heart, so that it may consider what it ought prudently to do and say. Therefore a silent fool seems like a statue of wisdom or of some divinity, which does not speak, but is nevertheless honored by all, because it represents wisdom or a divine being. For thus the fool by his silent gravity represents the wise man.
The Septuagint in the Greek Chain translates: a senseless man asking about wisdom (or asking the wise man) will be considered wise; and whoever makes himself mute will seem to be prudent. Less correctly, the Complutensians omit the word "wisdom." For the Septuagint corrected at Rome has: to the fool asking about wisdom, wisdom will be reckoned. And so reads St. Justin, epistle to Zenas and Serenus, and Cassian, Conference IV, chapter 9: "To discern the divisions," he says, "and lines of questions is a portion of understanding, and the greatest part of intelligence is to know what you do not know. On which account it is said: To the fool asking about wisdom, wisdom will be reckoned; because although the one who asks does not know the force of the proposed question, yet because he prudently inquires and understands that he does not understand, this very thing is reckoned to him as wisdom, because he has prudently recognized what he did not know." Therefore incorrectly in St. Hilary on Psalm 118, letter H, one reads: "In the Proverbs," he says, "of Solomon we find written: To those ignorant of wisdom who wisely ask, wisdom is attributed;" since in a very ancient book of the most learned Cardinal Sirletus it appears that the text was: "To the unintelligent man asking about wisdom, wisdom is attributed." For explaining this very thing, St. Hilary immediately adds: "The sense in which this seems to be shown is that he who does not understand, and wisely asks, is believed to be wise," because this asking is a sign that he wishes to be instructed and to learn wisdom.
The Septuagint adds the first hemistich on its own account, to signify that in two ways a foolish man can look after himself and his reputation so as to be regarded as wise: first, if he asks wisely; second, if he keeps silent. For a wise question is a sign of a wise mind, and at the same time from a wise man it elicits a wise response, by which one learns what he himself should wisely answer and say in a similar question. This especially befits the young: for their part is to question the old, that from them they may draw wisdom. Thus Christ at twelve was found by His mother in the temple in the midst of the teachers, questioning and listening to them, Luke 2:46. Solomon drew this maxim from Job 13:5: "Would that you kept silent, that you might be thought wise!" From Solomon the same was drawn by Philosophers, Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins. A Hebrew proverb says: "A jar full of coins will not make a sound; but if there is only one or two coins in it, it will make a sound and ring." Thus indeed the more learned a man is, the more modest and taciturn he is; the less learned, the more bold and talkative, in order to display his wisdom (which is really foolishness and arrogance). Seneca in his Proverbs: "He who does not know how to be silent," he says, "does not know how to speak;" for by keeping silent we premeditate what we ought to say. And: "Silence for a foolish man serves as wisdom," because it restrains him from uttering the stupid, superfluous, impertinent, and perverse things he carries in his mind. Theophrastus, to someone who was constantly silent at a banquet: "If you are unlearned and imprudent," he said, "you act prudently; but if learned, imprudently." So Laertius reports, book V, chapter 2. But Plutarch writes that he spoke thus: "If you are a fool, you do a wise thing; but if wise, a foolish one." For it is no small part of wisdom to cover foolishness with silence. A maxim of St. Cyril, which Dionysius cites here, is: "Be a miser with words, and listen gladly." Finally, the law of St. James, indeed of the Holy Spirit, is: "Let every man be swift to hear, but slow to speak," James 1:19. Fools and chatterers do not observe this. For, as St. Gregory says: "The wicked, as they are light in understanding, so are they headlong in speech; because what a light mind conceives, a lighter tongue immediately reveals."