Cornelius a Lapide

Proverbs XXIV

Table of Contents

Synopsis of the Chapter

Not by plunder and fraud, but by wisdom, is a house built and enlarged: the wise man is strong, he who plans evil is a fool. Rescue those destined for death. Wisdom is sweeter than honey. Seven times the just man falls and rises again. Do not rejoice at the fall of your enemy: the destruction of detractors will rise up suddenly. He who justifies the wicked will be cursed, he who rebukes will be praised. Cultivate your field. Do not say: I will repay like for like. Poverty will come upon the lazy man like a runner, and like an armed man.

Vulgate Text: Proverbs 24:1-34

1. Do not envy evil men, nor desire to be with them: 2. because their mind meditates on plunder, and their lips speak fraud. 3. By wisdom a house is built, and by prudence it is strengthened. 4. By knowledge the storerooms will be filled with every precious and beautiful substance. 5. A wise man is strong: and a learned man, robust and powerful. 6. Because war is waged with planning: and there will be safety where there are many counsels. 7. Wisdom is too high for the fool, at the gate he will not open his mouth. 8. He who plans to do evil will be called a fool. 9. The thought of the fool is sin: and the detractor is an abomination to men. 10. If you despair, weary, in the day of distress, your strength will be diminished. 11. Rescue those who are led to death: and do not cease to free those who are dragged to destruction. 12. If you say: I have not the strength: He who is the inspector of the heart, He Himself understands, and nothing escapes the guardian of your soul, and He will repay each man according to his works

13. Eat, my son, honey, because it is good, and the honeycomb most sweet to your palate. 14. So also is the teaching of wisdom to your soul; when you have found it, you will have hope in the end, and your hope will not perish. 15. Do not lie in wait, and seek wickedness in the house of the just, nor lay waste his rest. 16. For seven times the just man will fall, and will rise again: but the wicked will fall into evil. 17. When your enemy falls, do not rejoice, and in his ruin let not your heart exult. 18. Lest perhaps the Lord see, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him. 19. Do not contend with the worst, nor envy the wicked. 20. Because the evil have no hope of the future, and the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished. 21. Fear the Lord, my son, and the king, and do not mingle with detractors: 22. because their destruction will rise up suddenly: and who knows the ruin of both? 23. These things also to the wise: To show partiality in judgment is not good. 24. Those who say to the wicked: You are just, peoples will curse them, and tribes will detest them. 25. Those who rebuke him will be praised: and a blessing will come upon them. 26. He who gives an honest answer kisses the lips. 27. Prepare your work outside, and diligently cultivate your field: so that afterwards you may build your house. 28. Do not be a witness without cause against your neighbor: nor flatter anyone with your lips. 29. Do not say: As he did to me, so will I do to him: I will repay each one according to his work. 30. I passed through the field of a lazy man, and through the vineyard of a foolish man: 31. and behold, nettles had filled it all, and thorns had covered its surface, and the stone wall was destroyed. 32. When I had seen this, I laid it up in my heart, and by example I learned discipline. 33. A little, I said, you will sleep, a little you will slumber, a little you will fold your hands to rest: 34. and poverty will come upon you like a runner, and want like an armed man.

1 and 2. DO NOT ENVY EVIL MEN, NOR DESIRE TO BE WITH THEM; BECAUSE THEIR MIND MEDITATES ON PLUNDER, AND THEIR LIPS SPEAK FRAUD.

For "evil men" in Hebrew is "men of malice," who namely are not simply evil, but wholly given over to malice, so that they meditate on nothing but plunder and fraud. For "plunder" in Hebrew is שׁוֹד (shod), that is, devastation, destruction, ruin. For "fraud" in Hebrew is עָמָל (amal), that is, labor; but labor among the Hebrews is often taken for fraud, iniquity, injury, injustice. For in contriving this the wicked labor, and they cause those against whom they contrive their plots to labor and suffer, in order to overthrow them from their fortunes. Whence the Chaldean translates it as "iniquity." The sense therefore is, as if to say: "Do not envy," that is, do not envy the prosperity of the wicked, so as to desire to enter into partnership with them in order to attain it, and to imitate their malice, because their mind devises nothing but ways of stealing and plundering, and their mouth utters nothing but frauds and iniquities; wherefore their company is wicked as much as their prosperity, and therefore not to be envied, but pitied, both because it cannot last long: for riches acquired by injury and crime quickly melt away and vanish; and because they will shortly pay atrocious penalties for their crimes, either in this life, or in hell. See what was said on chapter XXIII, verse 17. The Septuagint translates: because their heart meditates lies and deceits, and their lips speak of troubles; which words give the same sense. Some however take lies, deceits, and troubles to mean riches even lawfully acquired: for these are not true riches, because they do not satisfy the soul, nor make it happy; but are merely painted over, and therefore similar to prostitutes, who though they are ugly, procure for themselves by cosmetics and pigments an appearance and beauty, not true and natural, but painted, that is, artificial and false, as St. Chrysostom beautifully teaches, homily On Riches and Poverty.

Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena takes "evil men" to mean demons; for these suggest evils and frauds to men, and drive them toward evil by their counsels, in order to plunge them into ruin and hell. Moreover they do this with great art and fraud. For, as the Apostle says: "Satan transforms himself into an Angel of light;" for where Satan is recognized, he is easily repelled. Therefore in the first temptation that he suggests, man's care should be to recognize that this is a temptation, sent not from a good spirit, but an evil one, namely Satan. For he who notices this resists with all zeal both Satan and his suggestion. Again, Satan is full of lies, deceits, and frauds; wherefore he covers the gall of his malice with the honey of pleasure and the paint of probity, and what he suggests appears to be upright and just. Therefore with great shrewdness and discernment these deceits of his must be uncovered, and his sophisms resolved; for thus it will happen that their emptiness and imposture will appear, and like a spider's web will easily be blown apart and vanish.

3. BY WISDOM A HOUSE IS BUILT, AND BY PRUDENCE IT IS STRENGTHENED.

This is the antithesis of the preceding verse, as if to say, Bede states: Do not mix with the wicked, so as to acquire for yourself wealth and a large house through frauds and plunder.

Third sense, as if to say: Not by plunder, fraud, and injustice, but by wisdom, that is by virtue, probity, and justice, are great families raised up, and by the same they are preserved, strengthened, and grow, both because God grants this to virtue, not so much as a reward (for virtue deserves a greater reward, namely a heavenly and eternal one), but as a bonus and addition, which is customarily added and given over and above the reward to the laborer; and because virtue is lovable to all, and wins the favor of everyone, so that all strive to help and advance the one endowed with virtue. Riches therefore and families acquired by virtue are stable and firm; while those which are procured by plunder and crime immediately collapse and fall. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 2 on the Epistle to the Ephesians: "What force," he says, "drives you to plunder? Poverty, you will say, and fear regarding necessities. On the contrary, for this very reason you should not plunder; for such riches are not stable and firm. You do the same as if someone, asked why he lays the foundations of his house on sand, were to say: Because of the cold and rain. For that very reason one should not lay foundations on sand; for storms and winds certainly overturn them. Therefore if you wish to be rich, do not be avaricious, nor desirous of having more; if you wish to pass on riches to your children, possess just riches, if any such exist: for these endure and stand firm and stable." This is what he said in chapter XXIII, 17: "Let not your heart envy sinners, but be in the fear of the Lord all day long; because you will have hope in the end, and your expectation will not be taken away."

Note: For "will be strengthened" in Hebrew is יִתְכּוֹנֵן (itconan), which signifies many things and is variously translated. First, the Chaldean translates: and by prudence it is prepared, as if to say: The wise man erects a great house and family, because beforehand at the appropriate time he procures and prepares for himself everything necessary for its construction, and calculates all expenses by a just reckoning, lest they exceed his means and resources, according to the counsel of Christ: "Which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the costs that are necessary, whether he has enough to complete it?" Luke XIV, 28.

Second, the Septuagint translates ἀνωρθώθη, that is, it is corrected, amended, restored. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena translates: by wisdom a house is built from the foundations, and by prudence what has collapsed is restored anew. For by the care of domestic affairs and the virtue of providence, both new houses and families are constructed, and those that have collapsed are restored to wholeness; as by this virtue David restored the declining family of Jesse, indeed elevated it to royal grandeur. Whence it is said of him, 1 Samuel XVIII, 14: "In all his ways also David acted prudently, and the Lord was with him. Saul therefore saw that he was exceedingly prudent, and began to beware of him." And verse 30: "David conducted himself more prudently than all the servants of Saul, and his name became exceedingly famous."

Moreover wisdom can be taken in three ways: first, for prudence: for this is the practical wisdom of the just, which Solomon teaches throughout this whole book; second, for industry, skill, and cleverness: for industrious men are wise in their craft; third, for virtue and probity: for this is the wisdom of the saints. Hence a threefold sense likewise arises.

First sense, as if to say: By wisdom, that is prudence, a house is built both material and rather more civil, namely a large family, and a long-lived, rich, and splendid posterity. By the same it is also strengthened, grows, and is perfected; for by those same means by which things are made and consist, by those same means they are strengthened, grow, and are perfected. This is the genuine sense, and properly and primarily intended by Solomon and the Holy Spirit.

This maxim therefore teaches both the use and fruit of prudence, and that the way of acquiring houses and families consists not in plunder, not in wealth, not in nobility, not in an abundance of friends, but in prudence; for a prudent man prudently investigates profitable but just and upright means by which he can easily increase his affairs, and he seizes these, and avoids the contrary ones that seem likely to cause him loss, so as to diminish his affairs; whence by this path he safely and justly increases and advances his affairs. This is what Wisdom says, chapter VIII, 18: "With me are riches and glory, proud wealth and justice."

Second sense, as if to say: By wisdom, that is by industry and skill, a house and family is built, and by the same it is strengthened. This is clear in a material house; for it is constructed by the art of architecture, and the greater this art is in the architect, the more beautifully the building rises, and walls, vaults, and foundations are made, which seem impossible to nature deprived of art. Consider in Rome the ancient and new structures, for example the Pantheon, without columns, beams, or windows, joined together by one continuous vault, and open above in a circle, so that it receives the light by which the whole structure is illuminated. Likewise the amphitheater, the columns of Trajan and Antoninus, the colossi and pyramids; but especially the basilicas of St. Mary Major, St. Lawrence, St. John Lateran, St. Paul, and above all St. Peter's, which is the wonder of the city and the world, and you will see that all these were constructed by the art and industry of great craftsmen, and stand firm and robust through so many centuries. Again, prudence dictates that in building houses as well as cities, as Aristotle teaches in the Politics, two things especially must be considered and sought, namely healthy waters and breezes, that is air and winds, as in Rome they seek the North wind; for this is healthful and vital to the Romans; because both air and water pervade and penetrate man's innermost being. In a civil house, that is in a family, the same is clear from experience. For we see craftsmen, merchants, and other intelligent and industrious men, through their cleverness rise to great wealth and fortunes, and form and establish these for themselves.

Third, Vatablus translates: by wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is completed; R. Levi: by prudence it will be completed and adorned, as if to say: The wise man through his wisdom and prudence, just as he prudently begins to build a house and family, so also he prudently and happily completes it: because the wise man sets the limits of his family in accord with his prudence and lot, and is content with them, nor does he plan to extend himself beyond them ambitiously and imprudently. For he knows this to be proud, as well as dangerous and full of cares and anxieties; wherefore in order to live quietly, measuring himself by his own foot and content with his lot: on the contrary the foolish and arrogant plan greater things in their mind than they can accomplish; whence they expose themselves to everyone's mockery, and of them is said: "This man began to build, and was not able to finish," Luke XIV, 30.

Fourth, our translator most excellently renders it "will be strengthened": for the Hebrew כּוֹנֵן (conen) means to make firm, to strengthen, to establish, and thus to complete and perfect a thing; whence Pagninus translates: and by understanding it will be made stable; the Syriac: it is made firm. Now a family is strengthened by prudence, both because prudence establishes and assigns to each member of the family an office, rank, and order suitable and necessary or useful to the family; and because it removes the seeds of quarrels, and procures everything that serves to maintain peace; and because it establishes the family with annual revenues, estates, and income, from which it timely provides and procures abundant provisions and furnishings for the family, as follows.

Fifth, Cajetan and others translate: it is directed or arranged. For it belongs to prudence: first, to raise up a family; second, to direct and arrange it so as to assign to each member his office; and third, to provide it with provisions and furnishings.

Antistrophic to this maxim of Solomon are those sayings of the seven sages of Greece, which Plutarch recounts in the Banquet of the Sages. For when asked what was the best house and family, each in his order responded thus. Solon: "That house," he said, "seems best to me, in which the estate has been neither unjustly acquired, nor is there place for distrust in preserving it, or regret in spending it." Bias: "One in which the master of his own accord behaves as he would outside because of the laws." Thales: "One in which the most leisure is granted to the master." Cleobulus: "One in which there are more who love than who fear the master." Pittacus: "Where neither the superfluous is sought, nor the necessary is lacking." Chilon: "A house ought especially to resemble a city that is under a king;" and he added that Lycurgus, when someone urged him to establish a popular government in Sparta, replied: "First do this in your own house."

Allegorically, Christ by wonderful wisdom built and strengthened the house of His Church, as is clear from the Gospels, both from its firmness and its propagation through all nations and all ages. By similar wisdom the founders of Religious Orders founded their houses and religious families, as did St. Basil, St. Augustine, St. Benedict, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, as is evident from the innumerable wise and holy men who have come forth and continue to come forth from them.

Tropologically, the spiritual house, which consists in the perfection of virtues, namely the holy soul, is built by a threefold wisdom: first, prudence; second, practice and industry; third, virtue. For Cassian teaches from this passage, Conferences II, chapter IV, that discernment and industry are of great value for the perfection of virtue, as experience also shows.

For first, those who follow the state and virtue for which they are naturally apt, capable, and inclined, make great progress in it; but those who follow the state and virtue for which they are naturally unfit, and from which they shrink, these advance little or nothing: for they sail against the current and the wind, which cannot endure; the former, however, are carried by a favorable current and wind. For nature cooperates with grace, and grace perfects nature; when therefore these two conspire together, they accomplish something great. For to this end man seems to have been made and fashioned by God.

Second, many undertake great labors, fasts, austerities, and make little progress in virtue, because they do not know that the force of virtue consists not so much in bodily labor as in vigor of spirit. The wise man therefore, knowing this, attends principally to the latter; yet he does not neglect the former. Whence St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 23: "Sharpness of mind," he says, "when it has been joined to piety, begets zeal; and zeal is the protection of faith."

Third, many do not know, or do not think about adding right intentions to a work that is indifferent, or otherwise good; for these increase the goodness of the work by as many virtues as there are intentions. The wise and industrious man therefore, when he prays, studies, preaches, etc., will think and say: I wish and intend to do this work out of virtue, that is out of the intention and motive of charity, namely that I may please God more; and at the same time out of the virtue of gratitude, that I may give Him thanks for the innumerable benefits bestowed upon me; and out of the virtue of penance, that I may make satisfaction to God for the sins committed against Him; and out of love of neighbor, that I may benefit them and lead them to salvation; and out of imitation of Christ, that I may conform myself to His life and passion, etc.

Fourth, many do not know which is the greater and which the lesser virtue. But the wise man knows that the chief virtues are three, namely humility with obedience, religion, and charity; wherefore he exercises himself continually in these, and especially in charity: for this is the queen of virtues, and their knot, bond, and embrace. Wherefore he who does all things out of charity, and daily intensifies it, grows wonderfully in virtues and merits, just as one who chooses gold over silver, bronze, and other metals, when all are offered to him indifferently, so that he may take what he wishes. This the Apostle urges upon the Colossians III, 14, saying: "But above all these things have charity, which is the bond of perfection."

And 1 Corinthians XVI, 14: "Let all your things be done in charity." And Galatians V, 13: "By the charity of the Spirit serve one another." And to Timothy, epistle 1, chapter I, 5: "The end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith."

4. BY KNOWLEDGE THE STOREROOMS WILL BE FILLED WITH EVERY PRECIOUS AND BEAUTIFUL SUBSTANCE.

In Hebrew: by knowledge the inner chambers will be filled with every precious and beautiful substance; the Chaldean: and pleasant; Vatablus: with all kinds of rare and delightful riches; the Septuagint: by sense and understanding the storerooms are filled with all precious and good riches; the Syriac: they will be filled with every possession, and glory, and delight. Knowledge, or science, is the same as prudence and industry, as I have often noted. The sense therefore is, as if to say: The work and fruit of prudence is first, to build a house and family; second, to stabilize and strengthen the same, as I said on the preceding verse; now I add third, it also belongs to it to furnish the family with both abundant provisions and beautiful and precious furnishings: for thus the house and family will obtain all its perfection, all its dignity and adornment. It signifies therefore that these three things are laborious and difficult, and consequently that great prudence and industry are needed to acquire them. Again, it notes that prudence prescribes the fitting order to be observed in these three things, namely first, that the house and family should be procured, proportionate to each person's station and means, so that there be as many servants, handmaids, clients, horses, and carriages as the station requires, and as one is able to support; second, that the same should be strengthened both by duties duly distributed among servants and handmaids; and by procuring their probity, peace, and concord; and by providing for the annual income and estates necessary to support them. Then third, that decent and choice provisions and furnishings should be procured. For the provision of both should be made at the opportune time for the following months and years, according to the laws of domestic prudence. This is the genuine sense of our Vulgate. Cajetan and other Hebraizers, who translate the Hebrew יִתְכּוֹנֵן (itconan) not as "is strengthened," but "is directed" or "is arranged," translate and explain it somewhat differently, as I said on verse 3; but the sense comes to the same. Alluding to this, Sirach, Ecclesiasticus I, 21: "He will fill," he says, "his whole house with generations (fruits and produce generated and produced by himself), and his storerooms from his treasures." An example is Joseph, who by his wisdom foreseeing the coming famine, filled the granaries of Egypt with wheat, by which through seven years of barrenness he fed Egypt and nearly the whole world, Genesis XLI, 47 and following.

Mystically R. Levi: The care of wisdom, he says, that is of the holy law — you will penetrate its secrets — the storerooms, that is the innermost parts of man, namely the mind, will be filled with beautiful and precious goods; for far more glorious and delightful to a man is the possession of this perfection than any precious riches.

St. Prosper splendidly describes these spiritual riches of the just and zealous man, book II, On the Contemplative Life, chapter XIII: "Those riches," he says, "are to be sought by us which can adorn and at the same time fortify us, which we can neither acquire unwillingly, nor lose, which arm us against hostile attacks, separate us from the world, commend us to God, enrich and ennoble our souls; when they are with us, they are within us." And immediately, to manifest more clearly these most ample riches, he adds: "Our riches are to be reckoned as: chastity, which makes us chaste; justice, which makes us just; piety, which makes us pious; humility, which makes us humble; meekness, which makes us meek; innocence, which makes us innocent; purity, which makes us pure; prudence, which makes us prudent; temperance, which makes us temperate; and charity, which makes us dear to God and men, mighty in virtues, despisers of the world, and followers of all good things."

5. A WISE MAN IS STRONG: AND A LEARNED MAN, ROBUST AND POWERFUL.

R. Solomon: the wise man always prevails in strength; Aben-Ezra: a wise man is found endowed with strength; and he who is endowed with knowledge strengthens and reinforces his powers. He said that wisdom builds, increases, and enriches houses and families; now he adds that it is also robust, and makes the wise strong and powerful for accomplishing or enduring any difficult things, even if they are bodily weak and feeble.

The reason is that bodily strength, such as that of bulls, consists in the robustness of muscles; but strength of mind and virtue, which surpasses the former as much as the mind surpasses the body, and which accomplishes and perfects the greatest things, consists in wise counsel, direction, art, and industry, which through small and feeble forces accomplishes great and wonderful things, as is evident in wars, of which the following verse treats.

Whence in Hebrew it is: a wise man is in strength; and a man of knowledge, strengthening power, or more precisely, raising up virtue. For the Hebrew אָמַץ (amats) means to raise up and erect the powers of body or mind, to be vigorous, to be of upright courage or virtue. For a prudent counsel suggests a thousand ways of accomplishing a difficult matter, and thus raises up and erects the powers and spirits to accomplish the matter bravely.

Add: The wise man is a man, as Solomon says here: wherefore he is of manly and strong spirit; hence also "virtue" (virtus), which is proper to the wise man, is derived from "man" (vir), as if it were "manliness." Hear St. Bernard, treatise On the Solitary Life, to the Brothers of Mont Dieu, shortly before the end: "What is virtue? The daughter of reason, but more of grace. For there is a certain force from nature; but that it may be virtue, it has from grace. Force comes from the judgment of approving reason; but virtue from the desire of an enlightened will. For virtue is a voluntary assent to the good. Virtue is a certain equality of life in all things agreeable to reason. Virtue is the use of free will according to the judgment of reason."

Second, Vatablus thus translates and explains: a wise man is in power; and a learned man strengthens his forces, that is: "A wise man is of the greatest authority, and continually grows in it."

Third, R. Levi thus translates and explains, as if to say: A man becomes wise because of fortitude and strength; for a mortal becomes possessed of wisdom because of the power by which his mind prevails to restrain the desires of matter, and to completely vanquish them. "A learned man is robust," as if to say: He who is filled with learning strengthens and reinforces the powers by which the mind excels, so as to restrain the other faculties, and bring them under its own control, which indeed happens because of the excellence of knowledge, and its incredible love, by which it draws the learned man to itself, so that he places all his study and vigils in it, and is continually watchful over it, and all other powers are subjected to the acquisition of this one. So says he.

Fourth, the Syriac, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint read the Hebrew מֵאַמֵּץ (meammets), that is "robust," with a different vowel pointing as מֵאַמִּיץ (meammits), that is "more than the robust" (for מ min is a comparative particle, equivalent to "more than" or "better"), and thus translate: the Chaldean: the wise man is better than the strong, and the man of knowledge more than he who is girded with his own strength; the Syriac: the wise man is better than the strong, and the learned than a robust giant; the Septuagint: the wise man is better than the strong, and the man who has prudence than a great farmer. So the Complutensian and Royal editions, although the Vatican translates "a great field": for γεώργιον signifies both a field and agriculture, and thence figuratively γεωργός, that is a farmer.

The Septuagint seems to have linked this verse to the preceding one about the provisions and riches that wisdom procures, as if to say: Wisdom is strong and powerful enough to fill all the storerooms with provisions and precious things, more than a vigorous farmer who by his industry fills the storehouse with every abundance of grains and fruits. Or, if you translate "than a great field," as if to say: Wisdom produces more fruits and riches than a great field diligently cultivated by an industrious farmer; wisdom therefore is more powerful and richer for filling the storehouse with every abundance of things than is a great and fertile field. He compares wisdom to a field, because the best income is that which is gathered from a field. Hear Aristotle, book II, On Domestic Economy, after the beginning: "The best income is that which is derived from the products proper to one's own region; the next best, that from trade; the last, that from annual and recurring revenues."

The wise man therefore is strong: first, because he wisely undertakes strong things, for example wars or heroic deeds, and successfully accomplishes them; second, because he bravely restrains and curbs his desires with wise reason. For, as Aristotle says in Antonius's Melissa, part I, chapter XII: "He is stronger who conquers his desires than who conquers enemies, for to conquer oneself is the most difficult thing. Strong therefore is he who overcomes enemies, but stronger he who is superior to pleasures: for many who conquered enemies were conquered by women," such as Samson, David, Solomon, Alexander the Great. Third, because he wisely, and therefore bravely, endures all adversities; for wisdom makes one exalted and magnanimous.

Splendidly Seneca, To Helvia, chapter V: "Neither do prosperous things," he says, "exalt the wise man, nor adverse things cast him down." More splendidly St. Ambrose, book On Jacob and the Happy Life, chapter VIII: "Perfect virtue," he says, "always remains amid adversities and delights, and adversities diminish nothing of its perfection, nor do delights add to its perfection." And shortly after: "For it is the mark of a perfect man to sustain the common lot of nature with courage and virtue, and to lead things toward what is better, and not to succumb to those things which seem terrible and frightful to most, but like a brave soldier to sustain the assault of the gravest calamities, to undergo conflicts, and like a provident helmsman to steer the ship in a storm, and by meeting the rising waves to better avoid shipwreck by ploughing through the waves than by turning aside." So says he. From which it sufficiently appears that the wise man ought not to avoid dangers, but to overcome them by meeting them.

Hence the Hebrews, as Aldrovandus testifies in his work On the Ass, give the ass as the symbol of the wise man, because like an ass he must wisely and bravely endure many things. Rightly Ammonius of Alexandria, famous for his great disciples Origen and Porphyry, is reported to have used an ass as a fellow disciple for them: and Cleanthes, not ashamed of such an appellation, most confidently replied: "I am indeed an ass, but one who can carry the burden of Zeno." Therefore the wise man, according to this sense, must most willingly bear all things; for of his son Jacob said, Genesis XLIX, 14: "Issachar is a strong ass;" and Issachar signifies reward and wages: for the wise man should regard this as his reward and wages, to be a strong ass, and not be wearied by labors, but willingly undertake all hardships.

6. BECAUSE WAR IS WAGED WITH PLANNING; AND THERE WILL BE SAFETY WHERE THERE ARE MANY COUNSELS.

He proves that the prudent man is strong, from the fact that by his prudent planning and counsels wars are waged and brought to completion. This is an argument from example, or from species to genus.

Planning here can be taken in three ways: first, for governance, or for the commander who governs and disposes the army; second, for the order and battle line by which the army is aptly and suitably arranged; third, for the counsels by which wars are organized and arranged. For the Hebrew tachbulot means governance, order, and counsels by which a ship is governed by a captain, and analogously an army by a commander, or a republic by a prince or magistrate — is governed, arranged, and ruled. For just as a captain governs a ship by his counsel, industry, and experience: so too by these three a general governs an army, and a king his kingdom.

First therefore, according to the first meaning, explain it thus: By the counsel and art of the commander the army is governed, just as a ship by helm and rudder. For just as it is wonderful that one man by turning the helm drives a vast ship in every direction at his will: so also it is wonderful that by the prudence and art of one commander, whole armies book III, chapters XVII and XXVII, teaches that a fleeing enemy should not be pursued if there is a danger in the pursuit that battle formations will be disrupted: "For he who inconsiderately follows with his forces scattered," he says, "wishes to give to the enemy the victory which he himself had received." This recently happened to the Christians fighting against the Turks in Hungary, when Sigismund, Prince of Transylvania, in vain recalled his men who were pursuing the fleeing Turks with their formations broken; and to the Belgians fighting against the Dutch at Nieuwpoort, who, having gained the victory, overconfidently pursued the Dutch without order, were cut down by them, and handed them the victory.

Third, and most genuinely, "planning" here is taken for the counsels and stratagems by which wars must be governed and arranged so as to produce victory; for the Hebrew tachbulot properly signifies this. Whence Pagninus translates: by counsels you will wage war for yourself; Cajetan: by ingenuity war is conducted; the Septuagint: with governance, that is with the method of governing, war is made; the Chaldean: because by helmsmen you will wage war for yourself: and safety will be in the multitude of counsel. Less aptly the Syriac: because by advance you will wage war; more aptly Vatablus: because by industry you will wage war, and safety in a multitude of counselors, as if to say: Because you must wage war by industry, which wisdom gives, which renders a man prudent and industrious.

It signifies therefore: first, that in wars prudence and stratagems avail more than the number of soldiers, or their strength and force; second, that war requires great and careful governance, and great consideration, circumspection, and skill on the part of generals and governors; third, that the enemy must not be met rashly or inconsiderately, as the Author of the Greek Catena says, "but with deliberation and mature consideration, whether this be done by the powers of the mind, or by whatever other means." This is what Euripides says in the Antiope: "The prudence of a man is of great moment in war: for a wisely formed counsel conquers many hands; inexperience combined with a multitude is a worse evil." More excellently Plutarch in his book Against Bodily Strength: "What happiness," he says, "does it seem to you to be so strong in force that on its account you would think nature was a stepmother to men, but a parent to brutes? Yet in men the proper force consists in the reason of the mind, by which they capture elephants through forests with snares, bridle horses, yoke oxen, bring down birds with reeds, and extract what is submerged in the deep with nets. Who would not rather be Ulysses than Cyclops in war?"

I have said more on this matter on chapter XI, 14: "Where there is no governor, the people will fall; but there is safety where there are many counsels." For what is said there of the people and the republic, is said here of war and the army. And chapter XX, 18: "Plans are strengthened by counsels, and wars must be conducted by helmsmanship."

"And there will be safety where there are many counsels," as if to say: A commander, if he wishes the army to be safe, should employ the counsels of many prudent and experienced soldiers and generals. For Vegetius teaches that this should be done, book III, On Military Matters, chapters IX and XXVII: "What ought to be done," he says, "discuss with many; but what you are finally going to do, with very few and most faithful, or rather with yourself alone." And Plutarch in his Moralia: "A helmsman," he says, "seeks the best sailors, and often takes them into counsel: so also a prince should choose as counselors those who are most suited to administering the republic." Thus above all others did the Emperor Severus, as Lampridius testifies in his Life.

Moreover, how much a prudent and experienced general is worth in war, Hannibal, Scipio, Alexander, and Julius Caesar showed by their own example; and among the faithful, David, Judas Maccabaeus, Constantine, Theodosius, and Charlemagne, who by their prudence and skill filled the world with victories and triumphs.

Hence the Author of the Greek Catena from the Septuagint thus translates: war is successfully administered by the prudence of governors; but aid must be sought from a prudent and deliberate heart.

Second, according to the second meaning of "planning," the sense is, as if to say: Wars must be waged not so much by the number of soldiers, as by order and suitable disposition. For few soldiers properly arranged in battle line will overcome many who fight in a tumultuous manner without order. Xenophon beautifully shows this by analogy with the construction of a house, in his book On the Sayings and Deeds of Socrates: "It is good," he says, "for a commander to know most skillfully how to order a battle line. For just as stones, wood, and tiles thrown together in disorder are useful for nothing, but the same things, if rightly ordered from top to bottom, compose a strong house that will never collapse: the same judgment applies to an army. For the most densely packed phalanxes of soldiers, unless they are reduced to order, accomplish nothing: but the very fewest warriors, if they adopt proper order and disposition, are the strongest and most invincible." Hence he concludes that, just as in a house, the highest and lowest parts should be the firmest and strongest, while the middle parts may be less strong, for example they can be of brick: so also in battle the front line and the rear should be the strongest, while in the middle the more timid should be placed, so that they may be led by the example of those in front, and pushed into battle by those behind.

Wisely Macrinus in Herodian, book IV: "Let us seize our arms," he says, "and, as is the custom of the Romans, let us keep our ranks in battle formation, for in the battle line of barbarians the undisciplined and disorderly multitude will hinder and crush itself." Hence we see a few Christian soldiers, well arranged, routing and defeating many columns of Turks rushing in without order and in confusion.

Finally, Vegetius teaches that an effective method of conquering is for the general to attack the enemy unprepared, and not give them time to properly form their battle line.

"And there will be safety where there are many counsels." Safety here is taken in any sense: for sound counsels produce any kind of safety. But since the subject here is war, properly the safety of the army is indicated here, especially victory. Whence the Zurich version translates: for wars are waged by counsels, and victory is procured by a multitude of counselors.

Mystically, in the temptations and spiritual wars which we wage against the devil, the world, and the flesh, prudence avails more than strength. For prudence teaches that lust must be overcome not by manfully resisting it, but by skillfully fleeing from its thoughts and incentives: that the suggestions of the devil are conquered by humility, if you immediately refer them to a superior or a prudent man: that the world is overcome if you behold and consider the emptiness of its pomps, that is, if you see and laugh at them: that the flesh is tamed if you oppose its brutal appetites, and mortify it by fasts, sleeping on the ground (that is, lying on the bare earth), hair shirts, heat, cold, and other austerities of life. Whence St. Anthony used to say that discernment is the chief of all virtues, inasmuch as it overcomes temptations, with firm step leads the intrepid monk to God, and keeps the other virtues unharmed. "For discernment is the mother, guardian, and moderator of all virtues," says the Abbot Moses in Cassian, Conferences II, chapter IV, who then demonstrates the same with many examples. See Alvarez de Paz, volume II, treatise On Conquering Temptations, book I, part III, chapter XI, where he lists ten imprudent and foolish military counsels that a prudent Christian soldier must avoid.

7. WISDOM IS TOO HIGH FOR THE FOOL, AT THE GATE HE WILL NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.

For "too high" in Hebrew is רָאמוֹת (ramoth), which first means "lofty things"; second, horns of the unicorn or rhinoceros: for this animal is called in Hebrew רְאֵם (reem), because its horns are lofty, and effective against poisons; third, corals: for thus translate Pagninus, Vatablus, R. David, and others, Job chapter XXVIII, 19. R. Solomon here considers ramoth to be a gem of the greatest value. Finally, our translator, Ezekiel XXVII, 16, translates it as silk. Moreover ramoth, that is "lofty things," is plural: and thus in ancient times temples and altars erected to God on mountains and lofty places were called, to which he alludes here, as if to say: Wisdom seems to the fool to be sacred, and hidden in lofty temples, and inaccessible to him. Whence he does not dare to approach its gates.

Again, for "wisdom" in Hebrew is חָכְמוֹת (chachmot), that is wisdom in the plural: both to signify that wisdom is indeed one, but embraces many things. For the same reason God is called Elohim and Adonai in the plural, because He, although He is one governor and lord, nevertheless transcends all both kings and lords, and eminently embraces them in Himself; and because the species, parts, laws, and dictates of wisdom are various.

The sense therefore is, as if to say: Practical wisdom, namely prudence and virtue, seems to the fool, that is the imprudent man who follows his own fancy and desire, to be lofty, arduous, and as it were impossible to know and practice, so that he thinks it easier to find or acquire the horn of a unicorn, or corals and the most precious gems, than wisdom and virtue; for corals were rare and costly. Whence Pliny, book XXXII, chapter II: "As much value," he says, "as Indian pearls have among us, so much value does coral have among the Indians."

The first a priori reason is that some are of such dull, depressed, and blunt intellect that they cannot grasp the lofty teachings of wisdom. There are many such among the Indians, and even among Christians in mountainous and inaccessible places, who are ignorant of the mysteries of faith, God, and heaven, and do not understand discourses about matters of salvation, just as if they were Hebrews or foreigners.

The second, that many are inactive and lazy, unwilling to undertake the labor of hearing and learning, much less of carrying out the things that pertain to salvation.

Third, that they are immersed and submerged in earthly goods and carnal pleasures, whence it happens that they cannot grasp the things of the spirit, nor raise their mind and hands to heavenly and divine things.

Fourth, that many are proud, so that they refuse to lower themselves to hear wisdom: while others on the contrary are fainthearted, who refuse to rise and raise their mind to the teachings and precepts of wisdom. Thus St. Augustine on Psalm LVIII: "There is a twofold class of men," he says, "who cannot attain to wisdom: the proud and the fainthearted. Therefore wisdom is deep to the proud (because out of haughtiness they refuse to lower themselves to it), and lofty to the fainthearted," because from meanness of spirit they refuse to raise themselves to it.

Fifth, which best fits this passage, is that the foolish esteem wisdom as so lofty and sublime that they despair of being able to aspire to it: for they think wisdom is above them and placed in the heavens, and say with the Jews that passage of Deuteronomy XXX, 12: "Who among us can ascend to heaven, to bring it (the commandment of God) down to us, that we may hear it and fulfill it in practice?" Hence the Chaldean translates: the fool murmurs against wisdom, as though it were above his comprehension and powers, and things are commanded to him that are impossible for him to grasp and do. Hence "the fool at the gate will not open his mouth," as if to say: He will not dare to speak or utter a word among wise men and leaders (such as the judges who in ancient times held court at the gates of cities); but, as a fool and a blockhead, he will fall silent and stand dumbfounded from ignorance and folly, and will be like an owl among birds, like a goose among swans, like an ass among lions.

Solomon tacitly signifies that besides the fruits of wisdom already assigned, namely besides riches and the splendor of the family, besides fortitude and victory, wisdom also brings dignities, professorships, and offices; for the wise are chosen as judges, magistrates, and governors; while from these functions the foolish are excluded. Whence the Septuagint translates: wisdom and good thought (or right understanding) is found at the gates of the wise; they do not turn aside from the mouth (the Complutensian: from the law) of the Lord, but they deliberate in assemblies, that is, as the Author of the Greek Catena translates: having been placed in the assembly of the prudent, they wisely weigh what is proposed. This is, as our Salazar rightly explains: At the gates of the wise, that is in the senate and on the benches of judges, or magistrates, who excel in knowledge and learning, wisdom itself presides and governs all things, and with its help the judges in pronouncing sentences do not depart by even a nail's breadth from the mouth of the Lord, that is from the laws and statutes which the Lord pronounced with His own mouth. In those cases however where the law has prescribed nothing, but matters must be settled at the judge's discretion, they do not judge rashly; but with long deliberation they weigh the moments of justice, and thus at last pronounce the most just sentences.

Moreover, to understand how lofty this spiritual wisdom is, hear the seven steps which St. Augustine recounts, book II, On Christian Doctrine, chapter VII: "Fear of God, piety, love of God above all things, consolation of the Holy Spirit, desire for heavenly things, dying to the world, and then at last at the summit of the seventh step is true wisdom." So says St. Augustine, who then explains each of these steps individually and at length. Finally, wisdom is lofty if you consider the mere powers of nature; for it far transcends them; but the same is easy and simple if you consider the powers of grace, which God prepares for each person; for wisdom, that is virtue and sanctity, is connatural to God's grace, and of the same nature and order as it; but the foolish measure themselves by the powers of nature, while the wise measure themselves by the powers of grace; wherefore to the former wisdom seems lofty and impossible, to the latter near and easy. For, as Sextus the Pythagorean says, Sentence 136: "The mind of the wise man is always close to God; God inhabits the mind of the wise man." And Sentence 140: "For happiness it suffices to know and imitate God alone." And Sentence 40: "A holy temple to God is the mind of the pious, and the best altar is a pure heart without sin." For, as Nazianzen says, Iambic 18: "He who gives himself to God, receives God; for such is the nature of God who gives." And elsewhere: "The wise man is a most limpid mirror for God; as the wise man follows God, so God follows the soul of the wise man." For just as the plant called heliotrope, or sun-follower, always turns itself toward the sun, and the sun in turn toward the heliotrope: so the soul of the wise man continually looks toward God, and is in turn looked upon by God. "For as the sun is the light of the eyes, so wisdom is the light of the heart;" and this light is God and the sight, illumination, and grace of God. Golden is the maxim of Seneca, epistle 41: "Just as the rays of the sun touch the earth, yet are where they are sent from: so a great and sacred soul, sent down here so that we might know divine things more closely, dwells indeed with us, but clings to its origin. It hangs from there, looks to that and strives toward it." More briefly and divinely St. Paul: "Our conversation is in heaven," Philippians III, 20. See what was said there.

8. HE WHO PLANS TO DO EVIL WILL BE CALLED A FOOL.

For "fool" in Hebrew is בַּעַל מְזִמּוֹת (baal mezimmot), that is "man of machinations" or "master of plots," who namely devises arts, methods, cunning tricks, schemes, and frauds for doing evil and harming others, inventor of evils, architect and author of crimes, who intends to inflict evil on others not from weakness, but from deliberate purpose, indeed he devises it.

As the Apostle calls the philosophers impious toward God "inventors of evil," Romans I, 30. For since they possessed secular genius and knowledge, they abused these to devise wickedness and to defend it with false reasoning, just as some wickedly defended sodomy and pederasty. Our translator renders it as "fool," namely practically, that is impious and wicked, namely eminently by antonomasia; for such is the one who contrives and devises arts of maligning and harming, as those do who devise ways of doubling and tripling interest rates, new fraudulent and unjust contracts, new arts of cheating buyers, new exactions, and unjust taxes, etc.; and crafty lawyers, who in the hope of profit devise a thousand subtleties and quibbles to start lawsuits even in a clear case, whether it be of fact or of law. For the Hebrew בַּעַל (baal) means lord, man, possessor, owner, powerful one, patron, husband. For such is the deviser of arts for doing evil; for he as it were dominates and commands them. Whence the Chaldean translates: having the worst cunning; the Syriac: wicked; others translate: husband or spouse of evil arts. For just as a husband begets offspring from his wife, so this man by his subtle and malign genius, from the evil arts to which he has as it were married himself and wholly devoted himself, begets a thousand ways of harming, a thousand evil works and crimes.

Hence also Cajetan translates: the one who thinks about doing evil, they will call him the master of evil thoughts, to whom namely, as to the master and lord of malice, his evil thoughts and inventions immediately present themselves like servants, attend and obey; who consequently excels, dominates, and presides in the kingdom of wickedness like the devil. For thought is like an emperor, who resides in the heart as on a throne: whence if it is good, it commands good things; if evil, it commands evil things, as St. Augustine teaches, Preface to Psalm CXLVIII.

Cajetan adds that the one who contrives evil is called the master of thoughts, because his thoughts serve him to the desired success, so that he actually accomplishes in deed the evils he intends. The reason, he says, why those who think evil rather than those who think good achieve their wishes, is manifold. For the one who thinks is himself more inclined to evil than to good, and therefore more disposed and eager for evil, and the multitude of servants suited to evil is more readily at hand than for good; and good has many impediments which evil lacks, because good arises from an entirely whole cause, while evil arises from any particular defect.

Therefore by this maxim Solomon signifies, says Jansenius, that he who slips and sins from weakness and ignorance is indeed worthy of pardon; but he who strives to do evil, and devotes his thoughts to this, so as to be one of those of whom the Prophet says:

"They have meditated iniquity on their bed;" and whoever always devises new methods of doing evil and harming others, will incur great infamy among men. For this is signified when he is said to be called wicked, or, as our translator renders it, a fool. Although such a person is rightly to be called a fool, because he has no regard for his own salvation, nor is he deterred from his evil purpose and from thinking of doing evil by fear of divine judgment, or because the vanity of his thoughts will eventually become known.

For evil thoughts, especially frequent, deliberate ones harmful to others, cannot be concealed in the mind, but burst forth into harmful words and deeds that are plotted in the mind: wherefore when they burst forth, their authors are called by all "fools," that is impious and wicked, are defamed and condemned.

Fourth, our Salazar explains, as if to say: The fool, that is the impious man, is so prone to evil that when there is no opportunity for external action, he gravely offends by the mere thought and intention of the mind; for he feeds himself on evil thoughts, when he cannot feed himself on evil pleasure and deeds. Similarly the angry man, who cannot actually harm another, delights in harming him with his jeers and mockeries.

Fifth, Jansenius very aptly explains, as if to say: Foolishness, that is wickedness, constantly suggests evil thoughts to a man, so that he desires nothing but to sin, and mocks and detracts from those who act well and give counsel. The Wise Man, he says, proceeds to call away from foolishness. First indeed by saying that every thought which foolishness suggests to a man, that is, every thought of the fool insofar as he is foolish, is evil and sinful, and tends toward sin, which will not remain unpunished. Second, by adding that he who not only thinks evil, but also mocks those who admonish and counsel well, is abominable to men, as one of whom there is no hope.

9. THE THOUGHT OF THE FOOL IS SIN; AND THE DETRACTOR IS AN ABOMINATION TO MEN.

In Hebrew: an evil thought, or the machination of foolishness, is sin, and the scoffer is an abomination to man; Pagninus: the evil thought of a foolish man is sin; Vatablus: the deed of a foolish man is sin, and men will abominate the scoffer; the Chaldean: the cunning of the fool is sin, the scoffer is an abomination to the wise man; the Syriac: the wickedness of the fool is sin, and malice will rule the wicked.

First, R. Solomon explains thus: The thought of the fool, that is, a foolish plan is sin, because he who follows it binds himself with the guilt of sin. Again, the thought and action of the fool is sin, says R. Levi, because he performs it without any deliberation and counsel; the same does the scoffer: for every consultation is hateful to the scoffer, since he concerns himself only with ridiculous things without any mature and provident counsel; wherefore he acts imprudently and commits sin.

Second, Aben-Ezra links this verse to the preceding one, as giving its reason, as if to say: He who thinks evil will be called a fool, because the thoughts of the foolish are directed to nothing but the committing of sin; wherefore he who plans to commit it is foolish and ought to be called so.

Third, Cajetan likewise links this verse to the preceding one, but with a different connection, as if to say: The people praise him who thinks evil, and call him the master of thoughts, because his thoughts serve him to the happy success of his wishes, so that he actually accomplishes what he plans, as I said on the preceding verse. But in this opinion and praise of theirs the people gravely err, because the thoughts of the foolish, such as those who plan evil, are sins, and therefore worthy of blame, not praise; moreover the fool who has reached the point of being a scoffer and mocking upright deeds, is indeed abominable and detestable to the people. But this sense cannot be fitted to the Vulgate translation, which asserts that the one who thinks evil is called a fool by men, and therefore is not praised but blamed by men.

Moreover, just as the wicked are wholly devoted to contriving and devising evils, so that they seem to be, as it were, incarnate demons: so on the contrary the eminently holy are wholly devoted to devising new ways and means by which they may please God more, and more propagate His glory in the salvation of souls, as did St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius (whose saying this was: "To the greater glory of God"), St. Xavier, etc. For wisdom, sanctity, and charity are insatiable, and grow like fire, so that the greater they are, the more they seek, and the more they strive to grow.

Solomon had said, verse 8: "He who plans to do evil will be called baal mezimmot, that is, a man of machinations;" now he explains what these machinations of his are like, and that they are not good, but evil, and are sins. Whence for "thought" in Hebrew is זִמָּה (zimma), that is the machination of foolishness or of the fool, is sin. It signifies therefore that the fool, that is the wicked man, is so driven and carried away by his evil thoughts and machinations that he seems to be not so much their master as their slave, because he cannot restrain them, but like an unbridled horse strives to fulfill them and perpetrate sin, and so mocks those who admonish and rebuke him well, and detracts from them. For this is the difference between the wise and the foolish, that although both are assailed by evil thoughts, the wise by resisting immediately crush them, while the foolish by consenting comply with them. Whence St. Chrysostom, homily 4 on Genesis: "The just," he says, "strangle every first evil thought, but the wicked receive and nourish it." Note: strangle; for just as a traitor or serpent, as soon as it is detected, is strangled, lest it leave behind any harmful seed: so an evil thought, as soon as it is felt, must be suffocated, lest it leave behind some troublesome titillation and pestilent temptation. Therefore the impious, because they do not suffocate it, but nourish and indulge it, open their heart and throat to it, so as to speak it out, and when rebuked they mock those who rebuke them, and detract from them, which among men is infamous and abominable.

Moreover the Septuagint goes in a different direction; for they translate: death encounters the undisciplined; and the imprudent dies in sin. This is the antithesis of what in the same version preceded: "The wise do not turn aside from the law of the Lord," as if to say, says the Author of the Greek Catena: The wise, who devote themselves to the pursuit of virtues, apply themselves to them with all diligence and effort, and do not turn aside from them for a trivial reason; but wicked and pestilent men, who obstinately cling to sins and vices, and have already turned them into a fixed and firm habit, up to the last breath of life, that is, as long as death does not overtake them, do not cease to sin and do evil, and thus are extinguished in their sins. This can be seen in heretics, and similar persons who obstinately and tenaciously cling to their perverse opinions, which they have imbibed, until death, as if possessed by a spirit of error.

Morally, learn here that the greatest care must be given to thoughts, so that evil ones are warded off and good ones summoned, for from good thoughts follows good will, good conversation, good action, as from evil thoughts evil. Here serve the sayings of the Fathers in Antonius's Melissa, part II, chapter LXXXVII: Clement's: "Not abstinence from crimes justifies the believer, but purity of thoughts and pure sincerity;" Philo's: "The house of God is the thought of the wise man, and He is properly called the God of this one, who is the Lord of all things, because He walks in it as in a palace;" St. Basil's: "The first and most blessed thing is what is pure in our heart, because the counsel of the heart is the root of all bodily actions." And another: "You are such as you often think;" carnal, if carnal things; heavenly, if heavenly things; proud, if proud things; humble, if humble things.

10. IF YOU DESPAIR, WEARY, IN THE DAY OF DISTRESS, YOUR STRENGTH WILL BE DIMINISHED.

Some manuscripts read "fallen"; but it should be corrected with the Roman editions to "weary"; for in Hebrew it is: if you are slack, or make yourself slack in the day of distress, your strength will be narrow; Cajetan: if you relax your spirit in the day of distress, so that you partly yield and succumb to it, your strength will be narrow. For he who has begun to succumb, he says, will no longer be in the fullness of his strength, but has diminished and narrowed it by yielding. This we experience to be true in temporal as well as spiritual matters. Vatablus: if you are of dejected spirit in the day of tribulation, your virtue is narrow, that is you will not be able to bear the tribulation; the Chaldean: if you are slack in the day of tribulation, your strength will be narrowed; Symmachus: to cease as if despairing in the hour of tribulation is the mark of one who is slow and slothful; Aquila: if you were slow or slothful; Theodotion: if you were slack.

The Syriac and the Septuagint of the Complutensian edition and some others link this verse to the following one. For the Syriac translates thus: in the day of distress deliver those who are led to death. Whence R. Solomon, Aben-Ezra, and Baynus say: If you are slack in coming to the aid of your neighbor who is placed in distress, you likewise by the just judgment of God will fail in your own strength, and will be reduced to similar distresses, to which you will succumb; for the law of retaliation is: "With what measure you have measured, it shall be measured to you again." Whence Maximus, sermon 45: "To our beneficence," he says, "in all its dimensions divine beneficence corresponds," so that as long, broad, and deep as your beneficence to the needy has been, so long, broad, and deep may you in turn experience God's beneficence toward you, "so that in our neighbors we may, as it were, rehearse our blessedness and happiness," says St. Augustine, sermon 20 On the Seasons, according to Psalm XXXVI: "All day long he shows mercy and lends, and his offspring will be in blessing." On the contrary, concerning the unmerciful St. James says, chapter II, 13: "Judgment without mercy to him who has not shown mercy."

But others generally take this maxim as separate, broadly and generally as it sounds: but they explain it variously in detail, yet so that all terminate and converge in one general exposition.

First therefore R. Levi explains thus: If you conduct yourself slackly in the study of wisdom, certainly in time of adversity your forces will be feeble and unequal to resisting such a calamity: both because it is wisdom that strengthens the spirit to patience and constancy in adversity by its prudent reasons and counsels; and because, as R. Solomon says, if you are slack and idle in the sacred law, the Angels who are ministers of the divine will, will not strengthen your forces, and thus deserted by them you will lose your vigor, and become weak and feeble in resisting tribulation.

Second, Jansenius: The Hebrew, he says, reads thus: If you fail in the day of distress, your strength will be narrow, as if to say: If when something adverse happens, you fail in spirit through impatience, this comes from the fact that the strength of your spirit is narrow and slight, and not from the fact that the adversity is intolerable or insurmountable, as St. Chrysostom teaches, homily 44 to the People. This sense can scarcely be fitted to the Vulgate, which translates in the future tense: "Your strength will be diminished."

Third, others with Cajetan translate: if you relax your spirit in the day of distress, your strength will be narrow, and thus explain, as if to say: If you relax the vigor of your spirit in the day of tribulation by indulging in delights and carnal comforts, you will become nerveless, delicate, and weak in resisting adversities: for delights by relaxing the spirit dissolve its rigor and strength, and thus disarm the armed man and render him defenseless; but austerity braces and strengthens him. Thus the delights of Capua broke the previously unconquered strength of Hannibal and the Carthaginians, so that he was conquered and prostrated by the Romans: namely where there is rigor, there is vigor; where there is pleasure, there is laxity and weakness.

St. Francis experienced this, of whom St. Bonaventure says, chapter V of his Life: "By sure experience," he says, "he had learned that demons are terrified by austerity, but strongly emboldened to temptation by delicate and soft garments. Whence when on a certain night, because of an infirmity of the head, he had, contrary to his custom, a feather pillow, the devil, entering into it, disturbed him until the morning hour."

Fourth, others very aptly consider that Solomon here urges that in the day of tribulation the mind should strengthen itself, summoning all its forces to itself, so that, fortified and armed with these, like gathered troops, it may resist the tribulation: for thus a general summons all his forces when the enemy attacks, to repel him with full strength. Wherefore the Hebrew, if you are slack or make yourself slack, explain thus, as if to say: If in temptation you relax the customary exercises of piety and mortification, for example if you abandon prayer, fasting, penances, and the duties of humility and charity; your strength will be diminished, so that you will scarcely be able to resist the temptation.

Fifth, others consider that Solomon here urges continuous exercise in labor and combat. For just as soldiers become robust by daily handling weapons, laboring, and fighting; but are weak and idle if they lay down their arms and give themselves to leisure: so likewise the faithful person becomes robust if he exercises himself in continuous labors and combats against adversities; but weak if he gives himself to rest and idleness.

Sixth, our translator skillfully and profoundly, for the Hebrew "if you are slack," or "if you let yourself, that is your spirit, go slack," translates: "if you despair, weary." For he gives a double root and cause of the slackness of spirit here discussed. The first is diffidence and despair; the second is weariness. For when the spirit distrusts that it can struggle free from the distress that afflicts it, or can overcome and conquer it, because it thinks that distress is superior to its own forces; then it relaxes its vigor and strength of endurance, and becomes slack, nerveless, and languid. Again, when the distress lasts longer, a soft spirit grows weary in tolerating it: whence it relaxes and loosens its effort to resist, and wearied begins to yield and succumb to it. Therefore just as vigor and strength of spirit consists in the hope of struggling free or conquering: so languor, slackness, weakness, and the fall of spirit consists in despair of endurance or victory. For hope extends, expands, and strengthens the spirit, by placing before it the reward of virtue and triumph; but despair contracts, narrows, and weakens it: this can be seen in the combat of soldiers and in the siege of cities: for as long as citizens hope that they can sustain it and repel the enemy, they resist bravely; but when they despair of it, their spirits fall, and they think of surrender. The sense therefore is, as if to say: If in the day of distress you are broken in spirit by despair, the strength of your spirit will become more narrow, that is, by that despair you will become weaker to escape the distress that befalls you. By this sentence he wishes to warn that when distresses press upon us, we should not lose heart, but strive to overcome adversities by greatness of spirit, according to the Poet's saying:

Yield not to evils, but go forth more boldly against them.

The fainthearted person therefore, who as it were despairs of being able to emerge from tribulation, makes himself weaker for emerging: for victory resides in magnanimity, which the hope of conquering begets; wherefore hope is the root of patience and fortitude. And this sentence serves to raise up the spirit, not only when the storms of external adversities assail, but also when the conscience is distressed by the gravity of sins committed: for then the spirit must not be cast down, nor must one despair of God's mercy; but the mind must be raised by trust in God's mercy, lest the strength of spirit utterly perish. Thus Lyranus, Hugo, Jansenius, and Bede, whom hear: "Nothing is more execrable than despair," he says, "which whoever has, loses both the general labors of this life, and, what is most harmful in the contest of faith, the constancy of fortitude." And St. Isidore, book II, On the Supreme Good, chapter XIV: "To perpetrate some crime," he says, "is the death of the soul, but to despair is to descend to hell." From which St. Thomas, II-II, Question XX, article 3, teaches that despair is the greatest of sins, not in itself: for unbelief and hatred of God are greater sins; but because despair is the cause of all sins: for the desperate person is driven into them. But understand this not only in the same distress, temptation, and tribulation, but in any other that may come afterwards: for whoever once loses heart in one tribulation paves the way to do the same in any other; and thus diminishes his strength so as to succumb. The reason is that hope sharpens and stimulates the spirit, and thus increases strength, and diminishes the temptation and the battle: conversely despair dulls and blunts the spirit, and thus diminishes strength, and increases the temptation and the battle. Wherefore the Psalmist suggests this shield against temptation and tribulation: "Act manfully, and let your heart be strengthened, all you who hope in the Lord," Psalm XXX, last verse. And St. Peter, epistle I, chapter V, verse 8: "Your adversary like a roaring lion goes about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist, strong in faith," and consequently strong in hope; for the strength of faith begets the strength of hope: for he who by living faith believes that God is faithful in His promises, by which He has promised that to those who place their hope in Him, and invoke Him in tribulation, He will give strength to conquer — such a one firmly hopes, asks, expects, and actually obtains that very thing from God.

This maxim is most abundantly attested by experience, especially in the struggle with the devil. Our St. Francis Xavier experienced this on the Japanese voyage, which the devil, foreknowing the future harvest of the faithful there, tried by various arts to impede. He writes in a certain letter that he then truly learned in such a temptation that nothing is more to be feared than distrust: for if someone stands firm in hope of divine help, he will feel it, and will blow away the suggestions and machinations of the devil like spider webs; but if he wavers and distrusts in hope, he will feel the demons most fiercely rising against him, so that they can scarcely be repelled.

The ancient Ascetics in the Lives of the Fathers also perceived and taught the same, book VI, booklet IV, number 29. A certain elder told someone who was tempted that temptations must be bravely endured, just as Joseph manfully bore the same, and God glorified him to the end: "Let us see also Job," he said, "that he who feared God did not relax himself to the end; whence no one was able to move him from hope in God." Likewise, book V, booklet V, number 10: "The Abbess Sara," he says, "remained thirteen years bravely assailed by the fornications of demons, and never prayed that this kind of fight would depart from her; but only said this: Lord, give me strength." And number 15, the elder says: "In the world there are pancratists, who, when they have stood after being severely beaten and have appeared strong, receive crowns. And sometimes even one is beaten by two; and strengthened by the blows he conquers those who beat him. Did you see how great a virtue he acquired through bodily exercise? And you, stand firm and take courage, and the Lord will fight your enemy for you."

St. Ephrem, in the Life of St. Abraham the Hermit, writes that though he was gravely and long tempted by demons, he steadfastly despised all their temptations, saying: "Anathema to you and all your power, most foul demon; but glory and honor to the Lord, to the only holy and wise God, who has delivered you to be trampled by us His lovers, and therefore we mock and despise your wiles. Know therefore, most weak and most wretched demon, that we neither fear you nor your phantoms." He then adds that the demons harassed him with various arguments and devices, but with futile effort, so much so that they did not even strike fear into him: "Rather," he says, "by fighting they stirred up greater eagerness in him, and the greatest love toward God; for loving God with his whole soul, and ordering his life according to His will, he abundantly merited divine grace, and therefore the devil was unable to harm him: for he had perseveringly knocked, so that the treasures of divine grace might be opened to him." Wherefore when he saw a great throng of demons rushing upon him, confident and eager he sang: "They surrounded me like bees around a honeycomb, and blazed like fire among thorns, and in the name of the Lord I shall be avenged upon them." Psalm CXVII. See St. Basil in his Rules more fully discussed, Rule 63; Cassian, Conferences IX, chapter XXII, and Conferences XXIV, chapter XXV. See also what I said at length on the remedies for temptations on Ecclesiasticus II, 1 and following.

The philosophers also saw the same through a shadow and learned it from Solomon, whose opinion this is: that a strong man is strengthened by adversities, and sharpens his fortitude, just as a sword is sharpened by a whetstone; for adversities are the whetstone of fortitude. Thus Seneca, epistle 24: "More keen," he says, "is virtue in seizing dangers than cruelty in inflicting them." And epistle 72: "For I mean a virtue that is courageous and exalted, which is spurred on by whatever assails it." And in the book On the Governance of the World: "Virtue is eager for danger, and thinks about where it is going, not what it will suffer." And epistle 114: "Fortitude is the impregnable fortress of human weakness; whoever has surrounded himself with it, endures secure in this siege of life." Hence the sayings: "Virtue wastes away without an adversary. Virtue greatly increases when provoked." Cicero, book III, On Duties: "It is the mark of fortitude and greatness of soul to fear nothing, to despise all human things; to think nothing that can happen to a man intolerable." And book III, On Ends: "He who is of great and brave spirit despises all things that can befall a man, and counts them as nothing. And this lofty and excellent man of great spirit, truly brave, considers all human things beneath him." Chrysippus used to say that the wise man indeed grieves, but is not tormented, inasmuch as his spirit does not yield to evil. The Greeks said that fortitude is the soul of the wise man. Plato, asked how one ought to be disposed regarding adversities, replied: "So that by foresight one may take care not to fall into them; but if through imprudence he has fallen into them, he should care for nothing."

Virgil: Then shame kindles strength, and conscious virtue.

Ovid: Virtue appears and is proved by adversities.

Lucan: Virtue grows in adversity.

Silius Italicus: Adversities test men, and through hardships Dauntless virtue strives toward praise up the steep slope.

Horace: Oppose brave hearts to adverse circumstances.

Seneca the Tragedian: It is virtue's work to tame what all men fear. Whomever you see as brave, deny that he is wretched.

Plautus: He who bravely endures evil, afterwards enjoys good.

Moreover the Septuagint varies here; for in place of what was said in the preceding verse: "The scoffer is an abomination to men," or the pestilent, namely the detractor, they translate: but uncleanness (of infamy and human abomination) will pollute the pestilent man. Then in the same tenor the Vatican edition adds: In the evil day and in the day of tribulation until it fails, as if to say: The scoffer and detractor is the hatred of God and men; wherefore he will fall into tribulation, in which, deserted by all as abominable, he will wretchedly die and perish. The Author of the Greek Catena explains this of the obstinate, who persist in sins to the end of life, as if to say: "In the wicked and pestilent man, sin already hardened into the manner of a habit and deeply fixed, persists for so long, until at last on the day of judgment he is destroyed, and consigned to everlasting death." But the Complutensian and Royal editions link "but uncleanness will pollute the pestilent man" with the preceding words; then, after a colon, they begin a new sentence: In the evil day and in the day of tribulation until it fails (that day), deliver those who are led to death; which reading is plain, but diverges from the punctuation of the Hebrew and Latin Vulgate text: although the Syriac followed it, as I said at the beginning of this verse.

11. RESCUE THOSE WHO ARE LED TO DEATH: AND DO NOT CEASE TO FREE THOSE WHO ARE DRAGGED TO DESTRUCTION.

In Hebrew: free those who are captured for death, and those tottering toward destruction, (to free them) if you cease, that is, do not cease; for "if" among the Hebrews often serves as a negation, and is equivalent to "do not" or "not." Pagninus reads it as a question: will you cease? as if to say: You will by no means cease. The Chaldean: redeem those who are captured for death, and prevent those who are led to slaughter; the Septuagint: and do not spare from redeeming those who are being killed, that is, do not delay, do not hesitate. He speaks of those who are unjustly led to death: for if justly, it is not fitting, indeed not permitted, to free them and impede justice, as St. Thomas teaches, III part, Question LXVIII, article 10, reply 1: for justice serves to terrify the rest, and by fear of a similar punishment to deter them from crime; whence the saying: "Let justice be done or let the world perish." The reason is that charity dictates that one must come to the aid of a neighbor placed in hunger or other necessity: but the greatest necessity is danger of life; wherefore he must be aided according to the law of charity. This maxim therefore signifies that we should free those who are unjustly led to death, either by pleading, or by counseling, or by ransoming with money, or even by snatching them away by force and arms, if it can be done.

Thus Reuben and Judah freed Joseph from the death which his brothers threatened him with, Genesis XXXVII, 21 and 26; and Daniel freed Susanna from calumny and death, Daniel XIII.

Thus St. Ambrose on Psalm CXVIII, sermon 8: "Rescue," he says, "deliver him who is led to death, that is, rescue him with intercession, rescue him by your authority, O priest, or you, O emperor, rescue him by a decree of pardon, and you have loosed your own sins, you have freed yourself from chains;"

Again St. Ambrose, book I, On Duties, chapter XXXVI, and it is found in the Decretum, 23, Question III, chapter VI, teaches that this liberation of the innocent is an act of true fortitude: "The law of virtue," he says, "consists not in inflicting, but in repelling injury; for he who does not repel injury from a companion, if he can, is as much at fault as the one who commits it. Whence St. Moses first began from here to repel the attempts of feeble fortitude. For when he had seen a Hebrew suffering injury from an Egyptian, he defended him in such a way that he struck down the Egyptian and hid him in the sand. Solomon also says: Deliver him who is led to death."

Likewise Anastasius and Pope Damasus: "He who can," they say, "confront and disrupt the perverse, and does not do so, does nothing other than favor their impiety. Nor is he free from the scruple of secret complicity, who ceases to confront a manifest crime."

Moreover, if charity commands that a man be rescued from bodily death, much more from spiritual and eternal death: wherefore religious men, priests, indeed any of the faithful, when they see someone intending a mortal sin in their heart, or having already committed it, and there being danger lest he die in it and be damned, should think that these words are sounding in their ears: "Rescue those who are led to death," indeed to hell. Whence Bede: "It can," he says, "be taken mystically. Rescue those who are deceived by heretics, by preaching the right faith; free, by showing the examples of good works, those who are drawn to destruction by badly living Catholics: and also if you see any who have fallen or are about to fall in the contest of persecution, strive to restore them to life by zealous exhortation. If you see any who will perish from hunger, any who will perish from cold, revive them by giving them food and clothing."

Likewise Cassian, Conferences II, chapter XIII, applies this maxim to those who are tempted: for these are led by the devil to the death of grace, whom therefore he teaches should be gently treated, consoled, and encouraged, by the example of a certain man who, harshly rebuking one who was tempted, was soon assailed by the same temptation, and nearly succumbed to it.

Moreover God customarily punishes this sin by retaliation, so that he who refused to free others from death when he could, incurs the same danger, and finds no one to free him. A memorable example is found in John Moschus, in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter CLXVII. Abbot Poemen told Abbot Agathonicus that he would be devoured by wild beasts; he added the reason: "In our province," he said, "when I was there (for both were Galatians), I was a shepherd of sheep, and I despised a passing traveler, and he was eaten by dogs; for when I could have saved him, I did not, but left him, and he was torn apart by dogs; and I know that I too must die in this way. And so it happened: for after three years he too was torn apart by beasts, as he had said."

Many similar and wonderful things are found in the Life of St. Ephrem, which I briefly recounted on Genesis XLII, 21.

as I recounted above; for your cruelty, which violates all the laws of charity, deserves this retaliation.

Note that God is called the guardian of the soul: first, because He preserves it; second, guardian, that is observer, because He observes all the thoughts and deeds of men; third, because He protects and preserves it from many evils, so that by this title and the remembrance of this benefit He may more strongly encourage us to in turn preserve others from death and other evils.

12. IF YOU SAY: I HAVE NOT THE STRENGTH; HE WHO IS THE INSPECTOR OF THE HEART, HE HIMSELF UNDERSTANDS, AND NOTHING ESCAPES THE GUARDIAN OF YOUR SOUL, AND HE WILL REPAY EACH MAN ACCORDING TO HIS WORKS.

In Hebrew: if you say: Behold, we did not know this man (or this), does not He who weighs hearts understand, and He who guards your soul know? The Septuagint: but if you say: I do not know this man, know that the Lord knows the hearts of all, and He who formed the spirit for all, He Himself knows all things, who repays each one according to his works; Aquila: does not He who weighs hearts understand? Lucifer: and He who formed the spirit for all of them. Our translator, for "we did not know this," renders: "I have not the strength," because he who does not know a way to free an innocent person from death, for him the strength to free him is lacking. Whence the Syriac translates: if you say: I do not know (how to free him, that is, I cannot), know that God examines the thoughts of your mind, and your guardian knows that perhaps you can free him.

Moreover the Septuagint and others who translate: if you say: We did not know this man, etc., can be explained in two ways. First, as if to say: We do not know whether this man has deserved the punishment of death or not, and therefore we do not dare to free him. Second, as if to say: If you say: This man who is led to death is bound to me by no bond of friendship or kinship, but is a stranger and unknown; therefore I will leave him to be freed by strangers who know him: if, I say, you say this, know that this is a bald excuse, because this man, although unknown to you, is nevertheless known and dear to God, who has entrusted the care of freeing him to you as his neighbor; wherefore you will incur the offense and indignation of God, who breathed soul and life into you, and continually preserves them on this condition, that you preserve the same for your neighbor, as if to say: He is a friend of your Friend. For he is well known by God, who ought to be known to you by so many titles: for the law of friendship is this, that we should embrace even the household members and acquaintances of our friends. He adds: "Who repays each one according to his works." To God, I say, this gratitude must be rendered, who returns the like for our works, and deals with us in the same manner in which we ourselves deal with our neighbors.

The Author of the Greek Catena explains the Septuagint somewhat differently, as if to say: All men know each other mutually, since they are of one nature and form. If, he says, you say: I did not know this person; God will convict you of lying, and you will become guilty of two crimes, namely murder and lying. For since all mortals are of one origin, they cannot fail to know each other mutually, since even brute animals of the same species recognize and help one another.

Now first, some explain it thus, as if to say: If you truly and not falsely say that you lack the strength to rescue your neighbor from death, let not your spirit fail on that account, but have good will, because God, who thoroughly knows the hearts of men, approves the good will of each person and accepts it kindly, whenever the ability to act is lacking. And so "according to his works" means the same as "according to his ability," as if to say: God weighs not the quantity of works, but the ability; and even if works are absent, He compensates good will alone with rewards.

Second and genuinely, as if to say: If you say: I have not the strength to free an innocent person from death, take care lest this be a bald excuse, which you use as a pretext for your negligence or sluggish will, so that when you are unwilling to undergo the trouble of freeing him, you say that you lack the strength to free him; because God who is the inspector of the secrets of the heart, and sees through to its bottom, and who is the guardian of your soul, that is, who as He created your soul, so He continually preserves it, lest it fall back into the nothingness from which He brought it forth through creation, and therefore He sees through the innermost depths of your soul, as something created and preserved by Himself, so that you cannot deceive Him or fool Him: He, I say, sees whether this excuse of yours is true, or fabricated by you, and therefore He will render to you and others the merited reward or punishment, not according to your words and pretexts, but according to your works; so that if you free an innocent person from death, He in turn will free you from present and eternal death: but if you refuse to free him, and falsely say you cannot, He will let you similarly fall into danger of both deaths, and find no one to free you: examples of which shortly

13 and 14. EAT, MY SON, HONEY, BECAUSE IT IS GOOD, AND THE HONEYCOMB MOST SWEET TO YOUR PALATE: SO ALSO IS THE TEACHING OF WISDOM TO YOUR SOUL, WHICH WHEN YOU HAVE FOUND IT, YOU WILL HAVE HOPE IN THE END, AND YOUR HOPE WILL NOT PERISH.

The Septuagint: eat, my son, honey; for the honeycomb is good, that your palate may be sweetened: so you will perceive wisdom in your soul; for if you find it, your departure will be good, and hope will not desert you; the Chaldean: so be wise in your soul; and if you have found it, the last things will come better than the first, and your hope will not be consumed; the Hebrew and the Syriac: will not be cut off.

The sense is, as if to say: Just as the eating of honey and honeycomb is good

and is healthful to the stomach and the whole body, as well as pleasant to the palate and sweet to the throat: so likewise wisdom is healthful to the soul, as well as sweet to the mind: and in this respect honey surpasses, that honey growing old turns sour and becomes vinegar; but wisdom, the older it grows, the sweeter it becomes. Alluding to this, Isaiah, chapter VII, 15, says of Christ: "He shall eat butter and honey, that He may know to reject evil and choose good." See what was said there. And the bride, Canticle V, 1: "I ate," she says, "the honeycomb with my honey."

Note: Honey is the symbol of true and practical wisdom, which makes men endowed with virtue, and leads them to heaven; which therefore is prudence itself, sanctity, and charity: and this because of many analogies between the two.

The first is that honey falls from heaven, and is like heavenly manna. Whence Pliny, book XI, chapter XII, speaking of honey: "Whether," he says, "it be the sweat of heaven, or the saliva of the stars." And chapter XIV, he calls it "divine nectar;" whence Virgil, Georgics I:

Heavenly gifts of aerial honey.

The same, book IV:

Others pack the purest honey And swell the cells with liquid nectar.

Again Galen, book VII, On the Properties of Simple Medicines, chapter X, asserts that sugar is honey: "Sugar," he says, "which is conveyed from India and Arabia Felix, grows in reeds, as they say, and is itself a species of honey." The same teach Pliny, book XII, chapter VIII, and Dioscorides, book II, chapter CIV. Others however, such as our Conimbricenses, more truly hold the contrary, namely that honey solidifies from dew, while sugar is produced from the juice of canes. So likewise true wisdom is from above, and therefore Christ descended from heaven to bring it to earth and teach men, Baruch III, 38.

Hear our Conimbricenses physically narrating the causes and generation of honey from Varro, Aristotle, and Pliny, treatise VII on the Meteorologica, chapter IX. When together with that thin vapor from which dew is generated, certain subtle parts of the earth are carried up, especially in the pre-dawn hours, from the varied mixture of such parts with thin moisture, if the watery moisture is not much dissolved, a very sweet juice is produced, which is received by herbs, leaves, blossoms, and the surface of the earth, and this is called honey. With this liquid, leaves of trees are found dewy in the early dawn; those who have been outdoors at night sometimes notice their clothes anointed with it and their hair stiffened; and bees carry this same substance, gathered in their little sacs, into their hives, and their honey consists of no other juice, as Aristotle teaches, book V, On the History of Animals, chapter XXII. Therefore he says that they construct honeycombs from flowers, fashion wax from the sap of trees, and collect honey from the dew of the air. And that bees themselves do not make honey, but transport what they find already made, he concludes with a twofold argument. First, because in one or two days beekeepers find the cells filled with honey. Likewise, because in autumn they do not replenish honey that has been taken from them, although flowers are available even at that time. But if deprived of a great part of their food, or reduced to want, they would certainly, with their characteristic cleverness and foresight, resume the task of making honey, if they made it from flowers. Some however, whom Seneca mentions in epistle 84, believed that bees by a certain property innate to them, and as if by a ferment, transform the collected dew into that flavor; but the opinion of Aristotle, which Pliny also supports in the cited passage, should be embraced.

Second, honey is made, or rather collected, by bees, because they are chaste and virginal; whence Pliny, Columella, Varro, and others teach that honey must be made and handled by the pure. Hence Pindar in the Pythians called bees "sacred ministers of Ceres"; others called them "Nymphs who preside over sacrifices." So likewise wisdom loves, indeed makes, the chaste and virginal. Plutarch adds in his Conjugal Precepts: "Bees treat roughly those who come fresh from marital relations; but they attack more fiercely women who have indulged in sensuality, and those who smell of wine or perfumes:" so the wise and holy hate the impure and unchaste, and often perceive their intolerable odor, as St. Catherine of Siena used to perceive.

Third, honey is made by peaceful bees, collaborating and making honey in their hive with wonderful harmony: so likewise wisdom is peaceful, loves concord, flees discord. Wherefore in baptism Christians were formerly given milk and honey. "Thence, having been received, we taste in advance the harmony of milk and honey," says Tertullian, and from him St. Jerome, Against the Luciferians; and Nazianzen, oration 17: "Christian charity," he says, "and the incredible union of souls must be undertaken from the very cradle of religion, especially by those who seriously wish to follow Christ." Here is relevant what St. Isidore writes, book XII, Origins, chapter VIII: "Bees," he says, "are so called either because they bind themselves to each other by their feet, or because they are born without feet; for afterwards they acquire both feet and wings," as if apis were ἄπους, that is footless, lacking feet; for the first alpha is privative, meaning without or lacking. So likewise the wise man should be footless on earth, and fly on the wings of the mind to heaven toward God, to gather from the flowers of paradise the honey of divine wisdom.

Fourth, the best honey is made by small bees. Hear Columella, book IX, On Agriculture, chapter III: "Aristotle, and Virgil following his authority, most approve small bees, oblong, light, shining, blazing with gold, and their bodies marked with equal spots, also of gentle habits; for the larger and also the rounder the bee, the worse it is.

So true wisdom is best learned and taught by the humble and meek, according to that saying of Christ: "I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent (of the world, namely the proud philosophers), and have revealed them to little ones," Matthew XI, 25.

Fifth, honey is the sweetest, subtlest, and most healthful juice, says Pliny, which is therefore pleasing to all, and seasons all foods, sweetens them and makes them savory: so also wisdom is pleasing and sweet to all who use right reason, and sweetens all things, even sad and adverse ones, and makes them light and palatable. "Honey," says Varro, book III, On Agriculture, chapter XVI, "is something most sweet, and is acceptable to both gods and men; for the honeycomb comes to the altars, and honey is served at the beginning of the feast and at the second course."

Sixth, honey, mixing itself with all things, nevertheless accommodates its own flavor and sweetness to all; for in wine it has a winey sweetness, in vinegar a vinegary one, in meat a meaty one, in flour a floury one, etc.: so likewise wisdom and sanctity adapt themselves to all things, times, and persons; wherefore the wisdom of the young is different from that of the old, that of priests from that of religious, that of men from that of women, that of prelates from that of princes, etc.; for in the young it is youthful and eager, in the old aged and grave, in priests priestly, in religious religious, in kings royal, etc.

Seventh, honey is beneficial, because it is most healthful and cures very many diseases, which Pliny recounts, book XI, chapter XIV, and Dioscorides, book II, chapter CI: "Not medicines but honeys are produced," says Pliny, "heavenly gifts for the eyes, ulcers, and internal organs." And soon after: "There is no other sweetness and power for recalling mortals from deadly ills than that of divine nectar," that is, honey. And more at length, book XXII, chapter XXIV: "It draws out stings," he says, "and everything from the body, disperses swellings, softens hardness, soothes nerve pains, and closes with a scar even ulcers already despaired of. The nature of honey itself is such that it does not allow bodies to rot, with a pleasant and not harsh flavor, of a different nature from salt: most useful for the throat, tonsils, quinsy, and all afflictions of the mouth, and for the tongue drying in fevers: indeed for those with pneumonia and pleurisy when boiled down; likewise for wounds from snake bites, and against poisonous mushrooms."

He likewise teaches that honey and mead, which is made from honey and water, make people healthy and long-lived: "Many," he says, "have sustained a long old age on the nourishment of mead alone, and no other food, in the celebrated example of Pollio Romulus. When he exceeded his hundredth year, the Divine Augustus as his guest asked him by what means he had chiefly preserved that vigor of mind and body; and he replied: Internally with mead, externally with oil." Varro reports that it was given the surname "royal," because it is cured with mead. "It is a doctrine of the Pythagoreans to use honey very much," says Pliny, book XXII, chapter XXIV; and Athenaeus, book II of the Deipnosophists, chapter VIII, reports that the Pythagoreans used honey very much. Democritus is reported to have prolonged his life for some days as a service to his friends, not only by eating warm bread, but also by the vapor of honey applied to his nostrils. And indeed they say that those who have used honey more frequently prolong their lives longer; while on the contrary those who delight in acidic foods have shorter lives. Certainly Athenaeus reports that the Cyrinian peoples, who inhabited the island of Corsica, lived to a great age because they constantly used honey as food. For Diophanes also, who wrote books on agriculture, says that those who have delighted in eating honey become long-lived. And indeed in old age itself it is best to feed very much on bread and honey; for not only, as he asserts, does it help longevity, but it also keeps all the senses healthy and intact. So likewise wisdom is most healthful and cures all diseases of the soul, and often of the body, and makes people long-lived, indeed eternal.

Eighth, honey is genuine, pure, and not at all adulterated, and therefore golden and fragrant; whence that line of Virgil: "Fragrant honeys are redolent of thyme." So likewise wisdom is genuine and candid, free from all deceit and simulation. St. James attributes these eight qualities, in the same order in which I have just reviewed them, to wisdom, chapter III, 17: "But the wisdom that is from above," he says, "is first indeed pure, then peaceful, modest, persuadable, consenting to what is good, full of mercy and good fruits, not judging, without simulation." See what was said there. "A bee," says Varro, On Agriculture, chapter XVI, "is minimally harmful, because by picking at no one's work does it make it worse: nor is it lazy, so that it does not resist anyone who tries to disturb its work." And soon after, having called bees the birds of the Muses: "Nor are they themselves idle (lazy, inactive), nor do they not hate the idle; and so, pursuing them, they drive out the drones."

Ninth, bees are terrified by nothing more and put to flight than by smoke placed beneath them: so wisdom hates ostentation and the smoke of vainglory, and flees from boasters and the glory-seeking. Hence Scripture often compares wisdom to honey, as Psalm CXVIII, 103: "How sweet are Your words to my palate! More than honey to my mouth." And Psalm XVIII: "The judgments of God" are said to be "sweeter than honey and the honeycomb." Deborah also the prophetess, Judges IV, 4, is interpreted in Hebrew as "bee," as Adamantius, namely Origen, says. And all the Prophets, says Pierius, Hieroglyphics 26, chapter XIV, are comprehended under the name of the bee, and their honeycombs are those oracles which they committed to writing. And this is that good honey which we are commanded to eat. For whoever embraces those oracles by divine meditation, and is nourished and refreshed by the written discourses of our seers, carries out that divine commandment by which it was prescribed: "Eat honey, my son," and he immediately experiences in fact that it is good. Moreover what was foretold of Christ our Savior: "He shall eat honey" — honey here Adamantius declares signifies our conversations about virtue. For whenever we discourse earnestly about abstaining from pleasures, taming wickedness, justice, and prudence, God is most gladly nourished by the sweetness of such discourse, and ever thirsting seeks these liquors; but if we offer Him bitter cups of wickedness, faintheartedness, crimes, and foolishness, offended He refuses to taste, and averts Himself from it as from hateful gall.

Tenth, bees with great labor, effort, and industry weave honeycombs and make honey: so with great labor, diligence, and industry must wisdom be acquired. But let the wise ponder that saying of Pindar: "Olympic victors spend the rest of their life in a land flowing with honey," namely in heaven, where happiness is and abundance of all good things. For just as Christ "tasted honeycombs after gall," as Tertullian says, so too will Christians His followers taste the same.

Eleventh, the best honey is gathered from thyme and similar fragrant herbs. Whence the best honey is Hyblaean, so called from Hybla, a city and mountain of Sicily, which abounds in fragrant thyme, from which bees fed upon it produce the best honey. "From the fig tree," says Varro, book III, On Agriculture, chapter XVI, "honey is unpleasant; from the clover good; from thyme the best." So wisdom is gathered from the outstanding sayings of the Fathers, Doctors, and especially the authors of Sacred Scripture. For the fame of their wisdom and sanctity breathes a most sweet sense and fragrance of learning and piety into the eyes and minds of readers or hearers. Hear Dioscorides, book II, chapter CI: "First place belongs to honey from the region of Attica, especially from Hymettus, then from the Cyclades islands, and from Sicily the kind called Hyblaean. More esteemed is the sweeter, and the sharp more fragrant, yellowish, not moist, heavy and not at all fluid, which because of this same viscosity does not easily break, and when drawn springs back to the fingers. Honey has the power of cleansing, opens the mouths of veins, draws out humors, for which reason it is most conveniently poured into foul ulcers and cavities." So likewise that wisdom is more esteemed which has γλυκόπικρον, that is a sweetness that is not insipid and dull, but mixed with sharpness and whetted with pungency, and which spreads its fragrance far and wide, and is weighty and solid, so as to draw out and cleanse the humors of vices from the mind.

Twelfth, honey if taken pure bloats the stomach; but mixed with other things it dries up phlegm, purges the belly, nourishes, warms, and strengthens the stomach for digesting food, as the physicians and Hippocrates teach, book II, On Diet: in the same way wisdom alone puffs up; but mixed with charity and virtues, it dries and sharpens the cold phlegm, that is, the phlegmatic and sluggish torpor, purges the filth of the soul, nourishes the spirit, kindles it with divine warmth, and strengthens the mind to digest any adversities, according to that saying of Nazianzen: "Patience is the digestion of troubles." And patience is wisdom, or a great part of wisdom. Again, honey poured into wounds heals them, resists corruption, so much so that it keeps even corpses whole lest they rot. Hence the Egyptians of old embalmed the bodies of the dead with honey, and thus preserved them uncorrupted for many years. In a similar way wisdom heals all pains, sorrows, and passions of the soul, resists the corruption of concupiscence, and preserves this body which we carry about like a corpse, lest it rot from gluttony, lust, or another vice, and finally in the resurrection it will make even the corruptible body incorruptible, immortal, and glorious.

AND THE HONEYCOMB MOST SWEET TO YOUR PALATE. — In Hebrew: and the honeycomb sweet upon your palate. The honeycomb is properly the house of bees, and its cells, so called from "cherishing" (fovendo), because in these they cherish their young, according to that line of Virgil, Georgics IV:

First they lay the foundations for the combs, then hang The clinging wax.

Again, honeycombs contain honey, and therefore, being full of honey, are not infrequently eaten whole together with the honey. Whence Pliny: "He gave a morsel of bread and a honeycomb," that is a piece of the bees' work full of honey. So Christ after the resurrection ate a honeycomb offered by the Apostles, Luke XXIV, 42.

Therefore the honeycomb here signifies that wisdom is honeyed and most sweet like a honeycomb: first, because true wisdom is heavenly and divine, and therefore the most pleasant food of the soul; for the food of the mind is truth, especially heavenly and divine truth. Whence St. Augustine, book I, Against the Academics, chapter III, teaches that happiness consists in the investigation of truth: for what does the soul more strongly desire than truth? Also purity, charity, freedom from passions, peace of conscience, and sanctity, which wisdom brings. "Honey," says St. Augustine on Psalm LXXX, "is wisdom, holding the primacy of sweetness in the foods of the heart."

Second, because wisdom by its wise reasonings, counsels, and considerations, seasons and sweetens all things, however harsh and adverse, which daily befall the wise man in this life. Thus Bede: "It is most easily clear," he says, "why the teaching of wisdom is compared to honey, because obviously just as honey lends sweetness to foods, so this teaching lends sweetness to all other learning."

Third, because God, the author of wisdom, mingles with it heavenly consolations, which He frequently pours into the minds of the wise, that is of the saints, which surpass all honey in sweetness, according to that saying of St. Bernard: "My Jesus is honey in the mouth, melody in the ear, jubilation in the heart." Having experienced these, our Blessed Xavier exclaimed: "It is enough, Lord, it is enough; for an earthly heart cannot contain such an abundance of heavenly consolations. Either take them away, or transfer me to You in paradise, where with an enlarged heart I may drink in the sea of Your joys, which You have prepared for Your elect from eternity." And the Psalmist, Psalm XXX, 20: "How great is the multitude of Your sweetness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You!" And: "They shall be inebriated with the richness of Your house, and You shall give them to drink from the torrent of Your pleasure," Psalm XXXV, 9.

Symbolically, Bede takes honey to mean the literal sense of Sacred Scripture; the honeycomb, the allegorical: "This," he says, "is the difference between the two significations, that honey, which is ready at hand for eating, intimates the moral surface of the letter; but the honeycomb, in which honey is pressed out of wax, figuratively indicates allegorical speech, so that when the veil of the letter is drawn aside, the sweetness of the spiritual sense is perceived with some labor or delay." He drew this distinction between honeycomb and honey from Augustine on Psalm CXVIII, on those words: How sweet are Your words to my palate, more than honey and the honeycomb to my mouth! For thus he says, "Open teaching of wisdom is like honey; but that which is expressed from more hidden mysteries, as from waxen cells by the mouth of one speaking as if chewing, is like the honeycomb." Likewise Pseudo-Augustine, sermon 14, On the Words of the Lord, which is by the priest Eradius: "When we are able to carve out from the divine works that are read the understanding of some mystical signification, we as it were produce honey from the hidden cells of the honeycombs." Conversely, the Author of the Greek Catena takes the honeycomb to mean the literal sense, and honey the allegory; for the latter is enclosed in the literal sense as honey in the honeycomb. By honey, he says, he designates allegory, by the honeycomb history; for in the former as in a certain cell a loftier hidden sense lies concealed; by the palate, the vital powers of the soul. He eats honey who derives use and help from the divine Scriptures; but he who draws doctrine from those things from which the holy Prophets and Apostles drew, he eats the honeycomb. And indeed to eat honey is for anyone who wills; but to eat the honeycomb of honey, that is only for one of a pure and clean heart. Moreover the sense or taste of wisdom is nothing other than the very teachings and decrees of wisdom.

Again, our Alvarez de Paz, book IV, On the Dignity of Perfection, part III, chapter XXXVIII, takes honey and the honeycomb to mean the holy examples of virtues. The life of our fathers, he says, is honey, because its memory is most sweet, and its savor or imitation most delightful. This is set before us at the table of Religion, when our mind is instructed by the examples of the perfect, is kindled by the admonitions of Prelates, and is invited by the reading of rules to follow and imitate them. Let us eat this honey, because it is truly good, and health-giving to our heart, because it is most sweet, and most delightful to the palate of contemplation. Let us eat it, I say, and follow the life of our fathers, which in the hour of death will give us a sure hope of salvation, which will by no means deceive us, but will lead us to the possession of that which we hope for.

WHICH WHEN YOU HAVE FOUND IT, YOU WILL HAVE HOPE IN THE END, AND YOUR HOPE WILL NOT PERISH. — He alludes to banquets, in which at the last course honeyed confections are brought in and eaten, such as honey cakes and honeycombs, and at the same time it was customary in ancient times to conclude meals with wise conversations and discussions, as I said on Ecclesiasticus chapter XXXII, 4. Again he alludes to honey, which turns sour with age, as if to say: Honey with age loses its sweetness and turns to sourness; but wisdom always retains its sweetness, indeed the older it is, the sweeter it becomes. For to pass over other things, in the last things, namely in old age and death, it gives a sure hope of obtaining happiness; and nothing sweeter, nothing more joyful can befall the soul than this hope. Whence the Septuagint translates: if you have found this honey, your end (or departure) will be good, and your hope will not deceive you.

Our Salazar suggests two other apt expositions. The first is: Honey indeed preserves life, to such a degree that many with the help of honey have reached a great old age, still vigorous and robust. Therefore Solomon says: "Which when you have found, you will have hope in the end," that is, you will reach even white hairs, not indeed feeble and weak, but strengthened and confirmed by hope. Whence some of the Hebrews translate thus: you will have hope in old age. The second: Honey and honeyed things, as I have just noted, were customarily served at the end of a banquet. Therefore Solomon by these words urges that the study of wisdom should never be interrupted, but should also be applied in old age like honey at the close of a banquet. What then? "And you will have in the end," or "in old age, hope;" or, as the Chaldean translated: the last things will come better than the first, that is, just as in a banquet sweeter and more healthful dishes are brought in at the end: so also learning and wisdom must be cultivated in old age; for thus it will happen that the closing of your life will be sweeter and healthier, full indeed of hope of future goods.

15 and 16. DO NOT LIE IN WAIT, AND SEEK WICKEDNESS IN THE HOUSE OF THE JUST, NOR LAY WASTE HIS REST. FOR SEVEN TIMES THE JUST MAN WILL FALL, AND WILL RISE AGAIN; BUT THE WICKED WILL FALL INTO EVIL.

Our translator reads רֶשַׁע (rescha), that is "wickedness"; but with different vowel points others read רָשָׁע (rascha), that is "wickedly"; whence they translate: do not lie in wait, O wicked one, for the dwelling of the just, nor lay waste (Pagninus: plunder; Cajetan: despoil) his couch or bed: for the just man, even if he falls seven times, will nevertheless rise again; but the wicked fall into evil; the Chaldean: do not lie in wait, O wicked one, for the dwelling of the just, nor cast down the house of his habitation; the Syriac: nor plunder.

The fall of the just man is twofold: the first into punishment or calamity, the second into fault; whence a twofold sense arises here.

The first concerning the evil of punishment, as if to say: Do not lie in wait, O wicked one, for the house of the just, nor lay waste his bed, to seize his wife or children, or his repose, that is his peace, to disturb his tranquility, because God protects him: for even if He permits him to fall seven times, that is frequently, into certain calamities, nevertheless He causes him from them

he immediately rises again stronger, as happened to holy Job. "But the wicked fall into evil" headlong, so as to lie in it and remain without hope of rising and emerging. Thus Vatablus: The just man, he says, is frequently exposed to danger, and escapes peril, according to Psalm XXXIII: "Many are the tribulations of the just, and from all these the Lord will deliver them." But the wicked usually collapse at the very first danger. So also Isidore Clarius, Jansenius, and Salazar, and even St. Augustine, book XI, On the City of God, chapter XXXI: "The number seven," he says, "is often used for the whole, as it is written: Seven times the just man will fall, and will rise again; however often he may fall, he will not perish. Which he wished to be understood not of iniquities, but of tribulations leading to humility."

This is what is said in Job V, 19: "In six tribulations He will deliver you, and in the seventh evil will not touch you."

Splendidly Nazianzen, oration 27: "There is," he says, "a certain tree in fables, which when cut down grows green, and fights against the iron, and if one must speak of a new thing in a new way, lives by death, and sprouts from being cut, and grows when consumed. You have the fable, freely inventing whatever it pleases. But to me something of this kind clearly seems to be the philosopher; for he flourishes amid torments, and considers the troubles of life as a harvest of virtue, and in adversities exults and glories; preparing himself in such a way that he is bent neither by the arms of justice on the right nor on the left, but in diverse circumstances always remains the same and like himself, and thus is found more approved like gold in the furnace." And below, describing the invincible and unconquerable spirit of the just man: "Nothing," he says, "is stronger than philosophy, nothing more unconquerable; everything will yield before the philosopher gives in, etc. To sum up, these two cannot be seized and overcome: God and an Angel; the third is the philosopher, in matter free from matter, in the body uncircumscribed, on earth heavenly, in passions impassible, easily conceding himself conquered in all things except greatness of soul, and by the very fact that he allows himself to be conquered, conquering those who seem to be superior to him."

The Hebrew text favors this exposition. The Vulgate, even though it may seem to disagree, can nevertheless also be brought back to this, if you explain it thus: Do not lie in wait for the just man, even when afflicted and tribulated, so as to try to drag him into impiety, nor disturb the peace and tranquility of his conscience; because, even if he falls seven times, that is frequently, into tribulations, yet he is not cast down in spirit by them, so as to be moved from justice by even a nail's breadth, but stands constant and immovable in it, and therefore by this constancy of his disperses all tribulations, and like a diamond deflects and repels the blows of hammers, indeed from them he rises again more noble, spirited, and joyful, as happened to the three youths in the Babylonian furnace, Daniel III. The Septuagint hints at this sense, when they translate: do not bring the wicked to the pastures of the just (St. Jerome in Micah: in the tabernacle; St. Cyprian, book III, Testimonies: in the dwelling of the just: namely he reads נְוֵה, that is dwelling, for נָוֶה, that is pastures; both are signified by the Hebrew neve; Aquila and Theodotion: in the beauty of the just), nor be deceived by the food of the belly: for seven times the just man will fall and will rise again; but the wicked will be weakened in evils. Moreover the Author of the Greek Catena and Cassian, Conferences XIV, chapter XVII, explain the Septuagint thus, as if to say: The pastures of the just are the more secret discourses about virtue and perfection; these are not to be applied, that is, explained to the wicked, lest we cast pearls before swine.

Mystically, the rest or bed of the just man is called the tranquility of conscience and mind: for in this he sweetly rests as in a bed, and therefore here he forbids this to be disturbed.

Second, plainly and simply according to the Vulgate version, take these words as referring to the fall of the just man into fault, as if to say: Do not lie in wait for the just man, so as to strive by calumny to find some grave wickedness in his house, and thus disturb his rest and peace: because the just man, who namely constantly adheres to justice, repels all wickedness far from himself; for even if he falls into some light and venial faults seven times, that is frequently, yet these do not take away his justice, nor impute wickedness to him, and from these he soon rises again through repentance. But the wicked fall into mortal sins, from which they cannot rise by their own strength, unless they are anticipated by a special grace of God, and raised to repentance. Again they repeat them, and roll themselves in them like pigs in mud and as it were bury themselves; wherefore it is more difficult for them to rise from these to grace than from death to life. And St. Gregory, book VI on 1 Kings, chapter XV: "Of the fall of the just it is written: Seven times a day the just man falls and rises. The fall of the just is certainly in a way their state, because sometimes they are permitted to fall, so that they may always be able to stand more firmly; they are permitted to stumble into evils, lest they lose the supreme gifts of virtues through pride. These indeed, even if they sometimes do not fulfill the words of the Lord, do not depart far from the Lord, because they are abandoned for a time so that they may be held forever, and they go astray a little, but afterward they come to their senses."

Note: their fall is in a way their state: because the just, rising immediately from their fall, establish themselves more firmly in the state of grace. Whence in the fall of the just that saying of St. Chrysostom is fulfilled, homily 12 on 1 Corinthians: "If sin takes lodging in your soul, let it be a guest, not a resident;" because the just immediately expel sin, and return to the state of grace, so that they seem not so much to have fallen as to have slightly inclined; for when admonished they immediately repent and come to their senses, even if the fall was grave and deadly, such as was St. Peter's denial of Christ, and David's when he killed Uriah and corrupted Bathsheba, who at the first voice and rebuke of Nathan exclaimed: "I have sinned."

The just man falling therefore is like a tree felled by a storm, which therefore sinks deeper roots into the earth

"for he is bound by the chains of his own sins."

The Ordinary Gloss and Bede, on James III, and St. Thomas, Question VII, On Evil, art. 2, ad 13.

Note: Some read: "Seven times in a day the just man falls." So reads the Author of the Greek Catena, Cassian, Conference XXII, ch. 13, and some manuscript codices; from which some conclude that the just man cannot ordinarily restrain himself for a single day without falling into some venial sin, indeed into seven, that is, many. But the phrase "in a day" must be deleted: for it is not in the Hebrew, nor in the Septuagint and Roman Vulgate and the other printed editions. Hence St. Augustine, book II On the Merits of Sins, ch. 11, and epistle 95, at the end, and Francisco Suarez, vol. III On Grace, book IX, ch. 8, teach that the just, especially the more cautious and those zealous for purity of conscience, can for some time be free from all venial sin — though Suarez denies that this time is long. Dominic Soto asserts that the just man can abstain from venial sin for one day, others say for three or four hours. See Suarez at the same place, no. 27.

Again, that certain very perfect just persons, who are wholly devoted to purity and holiness, can thenceforth live their entire life without fully voluntary and deliberate venial sin, is taught by Suarez at the same place, no. 25, Alvarez de Paz, vol. III, On the Extermination of Evil, book I, p. 1, ch. 9, pp. 60 and 61, and Clement of Alexandria, book I of the Pedagogue, ch. 11, and the Apostles seem to have done this after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. Of St. Mary of Oignies, Cardinal Jacques de Vitry writes in her Life, ch. 6: "She so guarded herself from the slightest venial faults that frequently for fifteen days she could not find a single disordered thought in her heart." And St. Chrysostom, homily 20 on Matthew, on the words "Thy will be done": "For there is nothing," he says, "that the dwelling-place of earthly things can prevent men from attaining to the perfection of heavenly virtues. For it is indeed possible that those still living in the region of the earth may accomplish all things as if they were already dwelling in heaven." Certainly we read of Abbot Pambo and many other Anchorites that for many years they never spoke a single idle word; yet they could still admit an idle and vain thought into their mind. For it is more difficult to restrain the heart than the tongue.

Symbolically, Cassian enumerates seven falls of the just man, Conference XXII, ch. 13. Moreover, he says, that the just are not immune from fault, Scripture clearly declares, saying: "Seven times in a day the just man falls, and rises again." For what else is falling but sinning? And yet though he is said to fall seven times, he is nonetheless declared just, nor does the fall of human frailty prejudice his justice: because there is a great difference between the fall of a holy man and that of a sinner. For it is one thing to commit mortal sin, and another to be overtaken by a thought that is not without sin, or to offend through error of ignorance or forgetfulness, or through the ease of idle speech, or for a moment in the theory of faith it puts down roots, and therefore immediately sprouts again and grows back. "For when cupidity has been uprooted," as St. Augustine says, "it quickly receives the plant of charity." Hence St. Bernard, sermon 1 on the Canticle: "Therefore we must watch," he says, "and watch at every hour, because we do not know at what hour the spirit will come, or again depart. The spirit goes and returns, and he who stands while the spirit sustains him, must necessarily fall when it departs; but he shall not be dashed to pieces, because the Lord again puts His hand beneath him. And He does not cease to alternate these turns in those who are spiritual, or rather whom He providently intends to make spiritual, visiting at dawn and suddenly testing. Finally the just man falls seven times, and rises seven times, if indeed he falls in the day, so that he may see himself falling, and know that he has fallen, and desire to rise, so that he may seek the hand of the one helping him, and say: Lord, in Thy will Thou didst give strength to my beauty; Thou didst turn Thy face from me, and I was troubled."

Wherefore from this passage, that the just are not impeccable, but sometimes sin, and hence the distinction of sin into venial and mortal (for the just fall into venial sin while retaining justice, the unjust into mortal sin — which Jovinian, Pelagius, Wycliffe, Calvin, and Luther denied) — the Orthodox Doctors rightly conclude, such as Cassian, Conference XXII, ch. 11; Bellarmine, book On the Loss of Grace, ch. 5, and others: for venial sin is compatible with the justice of the just man, while mortal sin cannot coexist with it. For the just man remaining just falls seven times into venial sin and rises from it. I know that St. Jerome, epistle 16 to Rusticus, understood this passage of a grave fall, when he says: "But he does not lose the name of just, who always rises through penance." Nevertheless it is commonly understood of light faults, and therefore of the just man remaining just, and this is more consistent with the context. For the Wise Man had said: "Do not lie in wait and seek wickedness in the house of the just man, nor lay waste his rest;" and he adds: "For seven times he falls," where the particle "for" indicates the connection and cause of the preceding statement. Hence the meaning is: You will not find wickedness in the just man, because although he falls seven times in a day, they are light offenses, from which through his justice he easily rises. Hence Augustine, book XI On the Trinity, ch. 31, thus explains: "As often as the just man shall fall, he shall not perish." Which would not be true if it were speaking of a fall by which justice is lost; and therefore he adds: that it should be understood not of iniquities (that is, mortal sins), but of tribulations leading to humility. Which I judge should be understood so that under these tribulations the occasions of sinning venially are also included, both because these humble the just man more than external tribulations, and also because the Wise Man there distinguishes the falls of the just from wickedness; therefore also from the fall of the wicked person collapsing into evil; therefore he speaks of a fall which, though it is a fault, is nevertheless not wickedness or grave sin by which the one who falls collapses into evil. And so the Ordinary Gloss and Bede, on James III, and St. Thomas, Question VII, On Evil, art. 2, ad 13, explain it. to hesitate about something, or to be struck by a certain subtle tickling of vainglory, or by the necessity of nature to recede somewhat from the highest perfection. For these are the seven kinds of falls, in which a holy man, though he sometimes falls, yet does not cease to be just, which, although they seem light and small, nevertheless make it impossible for him to be without sin. Thus far Cassian.

Finally some, though few, take the fall of the just man as a lethal fall into mortal sin. Hence St. Jerome, epistle to Rusticus: "Seven times," he says, "the just man falls and rises. If he falls, how is he just? If just, how does he fall? But he does not lose the name of just, who always rises through penance: and not only to the one who sins seven times, but seventy times seven, if he turns to penance, sins are forgiven. To whom more is forgiven, he loves more. The harlot washes the feet of the Savior with her tears, and as a type of the Church gathered from the Gentiles she merits to hear: Thy sins are forgiven thee. The justice of the Pharisee perishes through pride, and the humility of the Publican is saved through confession." Therefore the just man, even if he sometimes falls into grave sin, nevertheless quickly rises, and it is not so much that the fall succeeds the resurrection, as that the resurrection succeeds the fall; wherefore on account of the solicitude and speed of rising, the name of just seems not so much to be lost as to be hidden for a moment. So in David, such splendor of holiness was not so much obscured by sin as illuminated by penance, and, as Theodoret says, Question XXV on II Kings: "It made the admirable glory of the king more splendid;" and, as St. Ambrose says, Apology 1 for David, ch. 2: "The fall brought no impediment, but accumulated incentives of speed, and he arose more eager to run." St. Chrysostom has similar things, homily 77 to the People. Again St. Ambrose, Apology 2 for David, ch. 3: "If David," he says, "was weak, are you strong? If Solomon fell, can you be the first of the saints? Therefore if the just erred, they erred as men, but they acknowledged their sin as just men."

17 and 18. When thine enemy shall fall, do not rejoice, and in his ruin let not thy heart exult, lest perhaps the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He turn away His wrath from him.

The Chaldean: and when he shall fall into evil, let not thy heart exult. Lest perhaps the Lord see it, and it displease Him, and He take away His wrath from him. The Septuagint: if thine enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, and in his being tripped up do not exalt yourself: for the Lord will see, and it will not please Him, and He will turn His indignation from him.

The first verse is clear: for it forbids joy at the calamity of an enemy as contrary to charity, by which we must love all men, even enemies, for God's sake, and wish them good, and avert evils from them; wherefore he who rejoices at the fall of his brother, though an enemy, and insults him over the damage sustained, is like the devil, who desires no one to attain salvation, says the Author of the Greek Catena. For he speaks of the joy of private and personal vengeance, not of public vengeance: for it is permitted to rejoice over public vengeance (as Blessed Antiochus teaches, homily 58), since it is an act of justice; hence he says, "thine enemy," not God's or the Church's. So when Pharaoh and their Egyptian enemies were drowned in the Red Sea, Moses and the Hebrews rejoiced and sang a victory hymn to God, Exodus 15. Deborah and Barak did the same when Sisera, the enemy of the Jews, was slain, Judges 5. Moses and Joshua did the same when Amalec was slain, Exodus ch. 17, 15; the Maccabees when Nicanor was slain, Judith when Holofernes was slain, David when the Philistines, Ammonites, Syrians, and other enemies were subdued, II Kings 22:1ff. Namely: "The just shall rejoice when he shall see the vengeance; he shall wash his hands in the blood of the sinner," Psalm 58:11. Plutarch supports Solomon, in his book On the Advantage to Be Derived from Enemies, where among other things he records this, that the reproaches of enemies warn us of our own vices, so that we may wash them away; hence, he says, Antisthenes rightly said that "he who needs to be saved needs either upright friends or most vehement enemies, since the former turn sinners from vice by admonishing them, and the latter by accusing them." But since in our age friendship has a very feeble voice for free reproofs, being talkative in flattering and mute in correcting, we must hear the truth from enemies: for just as Telephus, lacking a domestic remedy, offered his wound to be healed by the enemy's spear, so those whom a benevolent corrector has failed must hear the speech of an enemy who presses the fault, not considering the spirit of the one cursing, but the matter itself. Someone who wanted to kill Jason of Thessaly opened his abscess with a sword, and when it burst, brought health to the man: so often an insult inflicted on us by an angry enemy has healed a hidden or neglected disease of the soul.

The latter verse gives the reason for the former, but a difficult and obscure one; for it seems to conflict with charity, if you say to someone: Do not rejoice at the evil of your enemy, lest God take away His wrath from him, since charity dictates that we should wish God to take away His wrath from him, though he be an enemy. For the wrath of God pressing upon an enemy is his great evil, which therefore charity does not wish for but turns away from and prays against: for charity embraces enemies and friends alike in the same bosom of love.

First, Bede responds — that "His" refers not to God, but to the enemy, as if to say: Do not rejoice at the evil of your enemy, lest God take away from him his wrath, namely that which your enemy conceived against you, and by which he is angry at you as his adversary — that is, lest God take away from him his enmity and hatred of you, and convert it into friendship and charity, so that he may now love you as a friend whom he formerly hated as an enemy. For then you will grieve and be ashamed that you previously exulted at his evil, inasmuch as you now have him as a reconciled friend, for whom you wish every good. To this pertains the saying of Bias: "Love as though you will one day hate; hate as though you will one day love." For the latter part pertains here, and teaches that hatred must be moderated by the hope of entering or renewing friendship. The former part, however, Cicero criticizes, in his book On Friendship, and Aristotle in the Rhetoric. For friendship ought to be stable and perpetual, so that it never turns into hatred and ceases.

Second, Cajetan says: Solomon directs this commandment to the imperfect, and in order to induce them to restrain themselves from the sin of joy at an enemy's evil, he proposes to them the danger of their own harm, so that if not from love of virtue, at least from love of their own good they may abstain from such a sin: for he declares to them that such joy is seen by God, and displeases God, as being a sin; and perhaps God on account of this your sin will cease punishing your enemy, because your joy is to add affliction to the afflicted, and from this two evils will befall you: one of confusion, because your joy will be confounded when God's wrath against your enemy ceases; the other, the strength of the enemy, because when God's wrath upon him ceases, your enemy will recover his strength. Therefore the reason adduced is not against charity, but so that the imperfect man, by considering his own good, may avoid this sin: for the withdrawal of divine wrath from the enemy is adduced as a reason not insofar as it is good for the enemy, but insofar as it would be bad for you. For the enemy, now restored to his strength by God, will resist you more strongly, and attack you more vigorously than before. This is the harm you will reap from your perverse joy at his calamity. So says Cajetan.

Third, more aptly and fully, Solomon here restrains joy at an enemy's evil: first, by saying that this displeases God, which is an enormous punishment; second, that God will take away from the enemy His wrath, that is, the punishment and calamity which He angrily inflicted on him for his sins, and will restore him to his integrity and prosperity. In this matter there are two harms to the opposing party, namely the one who rejoices at the enemy's disaster: the first is that God will chastise the enemy's joy with sadness and grief. For the envious man will grieve and mourn over his enemy's prosperity as much as he previously rejoiced over his affliction and unhappiness, and all the more because he will think that God is chastising his envy and envious joy with this grief; hence he will say: Would that I had previously chastised on my own this evil joy of mine! For then I would rejoice, both because I would have done it voluntarily, and because I would have elicited an act of charity; but now that God chastises this perverse joy of mine, He chastises me against my will, and chastises my sin, namely hatred and envy, for my demerits; moreover He chastises me with grief at the contrary prosperity which He forces me to see daily in my enemy, and to waste away with envy and pain, all of which are a great cross and punishment for the one who rejoiced, so that he is tormented far more by the prosperity of his enemy than he was previously gladdened by his adversity.

Fourth, and most fully: when he says, "Lest perhaps the Lord take away His wrath from him," he tacitly implies, "and transfer it to you." Hence the Hebrew has: lest perhaps the Lord cause His wrath to return, namely to you. For God is accustomed to punish the envious by retaliation, so that the evil they wished upon the enemy, and over which they rejoiced, falls back upon themselves, indeed is turned back from the enemy upon them — which wonderfully torments the envious. So it was a great cross for Haman that he himself mounted the gallows he had prepared for Mordecai, who brought it about, and was hanged on it. This is what the Psalmist imprecates against the Edomites, Psalm 136: "Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem, who say: Raze it, raze it, even to the foundation thereof," as if to say: Turn back upon the Edomites our enemies, O Lord, the destruction of Jerusalem inflicted by the Chaldeans, for they exulted over it and insulted us when we were captives. And indeed God turned it back upon them in reality; for the Chaldeans laid waste the Edomites in the same manner as the Jews. And Obadiah to the Edomites, verse 12: "You shall not magnify," he says, "your mouth in the day of distress," that is, you shall not insult the Hebrews reduced to distress by the Chaldeans. He adds the reason: "For as you have done, so shall it be done to you;" for whoever insults the wretched reaps retaliation. Many similar things occur in Lamentations and the Prophets.

Truly Tertullian, book II Against Marcion, ch. 18: "Nothing is more bitter than to suffer the very thing you have done to others," especially if the punishment of the enemy is transferred to you, so that while you grieve he exults, indeed insults you in your affliction, just as you insulted him. We read and have seen such things frequently done. Well-known is the story of Sapricius, who when being led to martyrdom, and Nicephorus his enemy met him and asked to be reconciled, he rejected the petitioner, and therefore abandoned by God, denied the faith at death, and lost the palm of martyrdom, which God transferred to Nicephorus, as Metaphrastes narrates, and after him Surius, on February 9. This reason is given by Lyra, Vatablus, Jansenius; and even Bede, who applies it to spiritual harms: "Do not rejoice," he says, "at the fall of your enemy, lest perhaps the Lord, casting down your pride, which without doubt displeases Him, in this order humble you, so that while you fall into sin, he, coming to his senses, may be healed," as happened to St. Nicephorus and Sapricius. And Cassian, Conference V, ch. 15: "If your enemy falls," he says, "do not congratulate yourself; and in his being tripped up do not exalt yourself, lest the Lord see and it not please Him, and He turn His wrath from him — that is, lest seeing the elation of your heart, He depart from attacking him, and you, being abandoned by Him, begin again to be vexed by the passion which you had previously overcome by God's grace. For the Prophet would not have prayed saying: Do not deliver, O Lord, the soul that confesses to Thee to beasts, Psalm 73, unless he had known that on account of the inflation of the heart some are delivered again to the very vices they had conquered, so that they may be humbled."

Noteworthy is the statement of St. Chrysostom, homily 24 on Matthew: "The greater the envy with which you labor," he says, "the greater the goods you offer to the one you envy. For God, who sees all things, when He sees the innocent beset by injustice, exalts him all the more and makes him illustrious, but casts down the attacker; for if He does not allow those who rejoice at the misfortunes of their enemies to go unpunished (for He says, do not rejoice at the fall of your enemies, lest God see and it displease Him), He will surely deliver to far greater punishments those by whom the innocent are harassed through envy. Let us therefore slay this pestilent beast."

There is also the fact that, as Isidore of Pelusium says, book III, epistle 181 to Eutonios: "These two things ought to encourage patience with insults: first, that nothing equally torments those who inflict insult as the patience of those who are insulted; second, that in no way can we equally avenge ourselves upon them as by cultivating virtue." He proves this by the authority of a wise man who, "when asked by someone by what means he might avenge himself upon an enemy, replied: If you yourself prove to be an upright and honest man. Therefore he who cultivates virtue and patience inflicts deadly wounds upon his enemies," etc. Wherefore Fr. James Lainez, the second General Superior of our Society, held that "the best way of refuting slanders is constancy in right actions." Fr. Peter Canisius held and practiced the same, as Fr. Sacchinus reports in book II of his Life.

19 and 20. Do not contend with the worst, nor emulate the wicked: for the wicked have no hope of the future, and the lamp of the wicked shall be extinguished.

In Hebrew: with evil or malignant men. He alludes to, indeed cites, the words of his father David, Psalm 36:1: "Do not be envious of the malignant, nor zealous of those who work iniquity;" for there in the Hebrew are the same words as here, especially אל התחר (al titchar), which the Septuagint translates as "do not be envious"; St. Jerome and Aquila, "do not contend"; Symmachus, "do not strive"; Theodotion, "do not be provoked"; properly al titchar means do not be angry, do not be indignant, do not flare up. The genuine meaning therefore is, as if to say: Do not be angry, do not be indignant at evil and malicious men, nor emulate them, that is, do not be moved by a zeal of envy against the wicked, so as to envy them their prosperity, and on that account torment and wound yourself. It could secondly be explained thus: Do not be moved by zeal and love of the wicked, so as to imitate them in hope of similar prosperity, and affect their life, and follow their wicked ways. So the Chaldean, St. Cyril, Hesychius on Psalm 36; for the Chaldean there as well as here translates: do not imitate the worst; the Syriac: do not envy the wicked.

He gives the reason: "for the wicked shall not have hope of the future," as if to say: The wicked do not expect after this life another happy one in heaven, but a miserable one in hell; wherefore they are more deserving of commiseration than of anger, emulation, and envy. Our Translator and Aquila translate: do not contend with the worst or malicious; Symmachus: do not strive; because from anger and indignation follows contention: for if you are indignant with the malicious, you will easily contend and quarrel with them, especially if harmed by them: for the malicious are maleficent, because either they hurl insults at those they meet, or actually injure them, whence one harmed by them easily contracts contention and quarrel with them. Therefore Solomon here advises him neither to be angry with the malicious nor to contend with them, but rather to suffer and ignore their taunts and light injuries in silence, so as to preserve himself in peace, and remit the cause to God as judge, and commend his own innocence, and console himself by thinking that the reign of the wicked will be brief, since they have no hope of the future, as do the pious and innocent who are harmed by them. Yet he does not forbid the innocent person, seriously harmed by the wicked in reputation or property, from contending with them in court, to recover the reputation or property taken from him; for otherwise the wicked would insolently abuse the upright with impunity, and the upright would be deprived of all their goods at the pleasure of the wicked. So Hugo, Salazar, and others.

To this pertains the Arabic proverb: "Do not shoot your arrows at an iron idol," that is, do not cast words at a hard and obstinate man, such as the worst are, so as to quarrel and brawl with them, where both to conquer is disgraceful, and to be conquered more disgraceful still. For just as an arrow shot at an iron idol, bouncing back, wounds the shooter himself: so the obstinate and malicious are not harmed by the complaints and reproaches of the upright, but rather turn them back upon them.

Jansenius explains differently: Solomon speaks, he says, of the contention by which a person contends and disputes within his own soul, seeing the prosperity of the wicked — the kind of debate and dispute the Prophet expresses within himself, Psalm 72:2ff. Therefore the exposition of Lyra is irrelevant, which runs thus: Do not contend with the worst, that is, the incorrigible, by a word of correction, because this is useless; but a judge ought to contend with such people by punishments, so that they may be restrained from evil and others terrified: for it is anger and contention that are treated here, not correction.

Furthermore let us add here the versions and expositions of others, which nevertheless come to the same thing: first, R. Solomon and Aben-Ezra translate: do not mingle with, and do not enter into alliance with the wicked, so as to studiously imitate their actions; second, R. Levi: do not engage in quarrels with the depraved, lest you be removed from their midst; third, Cajetan: do not become entangled with the wicked; fourth, Pagninus: do not have dealings with the malicious; fifth, the Septuagint: do not rejoice in evildoers, or, as the Author of the Greek Catena translates: beware lest you flatter evildoers, or emulate sinners; sixth, the Chaldean: do not imitate the worst.

For the wicked have no hope of the future. — In Hebrew: there shall be no posterity for the wicked, which first, the Septuagint explains thus: for there shall be no descendants for the wicked, as if to say: Do not envy the wicked their prosperity, because God will soon cut it off, not only as to themselves, but also as to their posterity, so that He may soon destroy all their sons and grandsons, and entirely abolish their stock, family, and name, which is an enormous punishment. For a king, when he punishes a criminal, leaves his children untouched: but God takes away the children along with the fathers, so that they leave no heirs after them. He alludes to Psalm 36:38: "Together the remnants of the wicked shall perish." And verse 28: "The unjust shall be punished, and the seed of the wicked shall perish."

Second, Pagninus and Cajetan translate: for there shall be no end for the wicked, as if to say: Do not be angry at and envy the wicked, because they are to be deprived of their end for which they were created, namely deprived of the kingdom of God. Or, as if to say: In the wicked there are two things, namely good and evil: the good is temporal prosperity, which like a lamp is quickly extinguished; the evil is eternal punishment and hell, which has no end but endures forever. As if to say: Do not envy the wicked their temporal happiness, because eternal punishment awaits them.

Third, Vatablus: for nothing will ultimately remain for the wicked, as if to say: All the happiness, riches, and glory of the wicked quickly pass away, so that nothing remains of them, but all things vanish like smoke or a dream, according to Psalm 75:6: "They have slept their sleep, and all the men of riches have found nothing in their hands."

Fourth, the Chaldean: the last things shall not be good for the worst; the Syriac: because the lost shall not have a good end, as if to say: A good death, a good judgment, a good lot — namely heavenly happiness and glory — shall not befall the wicked. And Baynus: There shall be no reward for the wicked, because he had no merit, but many demerits, on account of which many punishments and torments in hell await him. Therefore do not demand vengeance from the evildoer who harmed you, because God will demand it, and for the temporal will inflict the perpetual, for the light the grave, for the earthly the infernal and fiery.

Finally St. Thomas, II-II, Question 18, art. 2 and 3, teaches that neither the Blessed nor the damned have hope: not the Blessed, because hope is the expectation of a future good; but the Blessed have beatitude as present, not future. "For what a man sees, why does he hope?" Romans 8:24. Not the damned, because they cannot apprehend beatitude as possible for them; for they are certain that their damnation will be eternal. Therefore only and all wayfarers can hope, because they can apprehend beatitude as a future and possible good. In the wicked, however, hope is languid, and gradually fails and dies, so that they finally fall into despair, as Solomon says here.

And the lamp (Septuagint, lampteer, that is, torch, flame) of the wicked shall be extinguished. — "Lamp," that is, the glory, prosperity, posterity of the wicked is extinguished by death, and is turned into eternal infamy, misery, and oblivion, as I said at length in ch. 13, verse 9, and ch. 20, verse 20. He alludes to Job, ch. 18, verse 5: "Shall not the light of the wicked be extinguished, nor the flame of his fire shine? The light shall grow dark in his tabernacle; and the lamp that is over him shall be extinguished."

Mystically, the Author of the Greek Catena: The lamp, he says, that is, all their doctrine and fame, is fleeting, and quickly vanishes like smoke.

21 and 22. Fear the Lord, my son, and the king; and do not mingle with detractors: for their destruction shall suddenly arise, and who knows the ruin of both?

The Syriac: and reign — for to serve God is to reign. And do not mingle with detractors. For "detractors" the Hebrew has שונים (shonim), that is, those who change, repeat, alter, vary, which various interpreters explain in various ways.

First, the Septuagint, reading for shonim with a different vowel pointing שנים (shenaim), that is, "two," or certainly shonim, that is, "various, diverse," taking it for shenaim, that is, "two" (for two is the first plurality, namely those who first depart from unity: for the binary number is the first number of multitude), translate: and with two do not mingle yourself, that is, be disobedient to neither of them (namely neither to God nor to the king). Second, others translate: and with those who act otherwise, who namely do not fear God and the king, do not mingle yourself. And so some copies of the Vulgate edition have it. Third, Pagninus: and with those who repeat iniquity do not mingle yourself. Fourth, the Chaldean: and with fools do not mingle yourself: for "the fool changes like the moon," Sirach ch. 27, verse 12. Fifth, Isidore Clarius: and with those who vary do not mingle yourself; Cajetan: with changers; Aben-Ezra: with the various and inconstant. Sixth, Vatablus: and with those who are zealous for novelties do not mingle yourself. Seventh, R. Solomon translates the Hebrew shonim as "duplicators," as if to say: "Do not mingle yourself with those who affirm two gods and two powers (two deities)." Eighth, R. Levi translates shonim as "changers," as if to say: "Do not associate with those who change the precepts of God and the king, that is, who overturn the laws of both, and render things contrary to them." Ninth, most excellently our Translator renders the Hebrew shonim, that is, changers, repeaters, alterers, as "detractors"; for detractors are accustomed to divulge the secret words and deeds of others, to change and alter them, that is, to narrate them otherwise than they were done, and to interpret them in a worse sense. Hence detractors are called in Hebrew shonim, that is, changers, alterers.

Furthermore, by detractors he chiefly means those who detract from kings and princes. For against these, being conspicuous and imposing taxes and other burdens, people are most accustomed to rail: for thus this hemistich coheres with the preceding: "Fear the Lord, my son, and the king." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Fear, that is, worship, revere, obey, love God as the supreme lord, governor, judge, and avenger of all things; and then revere, obey, and love the king or prince as the vicar of God on earth, and therefore do not mingle with those who detract from either God or the king, especially since, as Vatablus translates, they are zealous for revolution, wanting to depose the king from his kingdom and place another on the throne; and, as Aben-Ezra says, they revolve various counsels in their minds and contrive many things for the ruin of the king and the kingdom.

Therefore this maxim signifies, first, the order and degree of fear and reverence, namely that above all and everything God is to be supremely feared; then, in second place and at a far lower degree, the king is to be feared: for the king, being a man, is infinitely distant from God. Hence second, the king is to be obeyed when he does not command things contrary to God; for if he does so, he must be told: "We ought to obey God rather than men," Acts 5:29. Hence R. Solomon explains thus: "Revere also the king, who consists of the composition of body and blood, unless when he would call you away from the fear of God; for the fear of God is always to be set before all things." And R. Levi: "Pursue God with fear, and diligently observe His precepts and law; revere the king also, keep his statutes, and do not disregard them; but let the royal fear follow the divine, and let not the fear of the king oppose the divine; for the king is not to be feared in those things that oppose the divine Majesty."

For, as St. Augustine says, sermon 6 On the Words of the Lord: "The king threatens prison, God threatens hell." And Tertullian, Apology, ch. 36: "Let the emperor subdue heaven, let him lead heaven captive in his triumph, let him send sentinels to heaven, let him impose taxes on heaven; he certainly cannot. Therefore he is great, because he is less than heaven: for he himself belongs to Him whose heaven is, and every creature. The Emperor comes from whence also the man comes, before being Emperor. His power comes from whence his spirit comes," etc.

Third, it signifies that the king is to be obeyed for God's sake: for God commanded that the king be obeyed, and thus God instituted royal power, so that through it, fittingly adapted to the condition of men, He might rule and govern the whole kingdom, according to Romans 13:1: "There is no power except from God; and those that exist are ordained by God; therefore whoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God." And St. Peter, epistle I, ch. 2, verse 13: "Be subject therefore to every human creature for God's sake; whether to the king, as excelling; or to governors, as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of the good," and shortly after: "Fear God, honor the king."

For their destruction shall suddenly arise; and who knows the ruin of both? — That is, when, how, and how great it will be. The Chaldean: for their destruction shall suddenly come, and who knows the calamity of both? The Septuagint: for suddenly they shall take vengeance on the wicked, but who knows the punishments of both? The Syriac: and who knows the limit of their years? For the Hebrew שני (shene) means both "both" and "years." The meaning is clear. For kings are accustomed to take immediate and severe notice of detractors and rebels and their accomplices, as those who plot against them and disturb the public peace, as I have already said. We have witnessed many examples of this in our age. Hence "both" refers to the detractor and his accomplice, who mingles with the detractor. For those rebels who detract from the king are as guilty of death as those who listen to them, mingle with them, and comply. Or "both," namely of God and the king, as if to say: who knows the ruin, that is, the punishment to be inflicted by God and the king? taking "ruin" actively. The Hebrew is פיד (pid), that is, disaster, destruction, certain and inevitable ruin, from which no deliverance or redemption is obtained. So Baynus, Jansenius, Aben-Ezra. Hence the Author of the Greek Catena translates from the Septuagint thus: For suddenly God and the king exact vengeance and punishment from wicked men; but who understands the manner and method of the punishments of both?

Others who extend this maxim to all detractors explain it thus, as if to say: For both, that is, both the detractor and his listener, grave ruin is imminent: for each sins gravely, and therefore is to be gravely punished, either by a superior or by God. When therefore a detractor begins to detract, candidly and freely tell him: When you praise something good about my brother, I gladly listen; but if you wish to blurt out evil things, I do not listen, but depart. Let us be zealous for ourselves, let us weep for our own sins, let us heal our own infirmities; but the words and deeds of others, which do not pertain to us, let us leave alone. Allegorically, the ruin of both, that is, of those who derogate from Christ who is King of kings, "and of the people deceived by them, or of heresiarchs who tear the faith, and of the hearers who listen to them," will be grave destruction, says Bede.

After this maxim the Vatican Septuagint appends another, namely: "A son who keeps the word shall be outside of destruction; and receiving it he has received it;" which our Translator places at ch. 29, last verse, where I shall explain it. Then they add another which is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in our Translator, nor in the Complutensian and Royal editions; and it is this: "Let nothing false be said from the mouth of the king, and let nothing false proceed from his tongue; the tongue of the king is a sword, and not one of flesh: whoever is handed over shall be crushed. For if his fury is aroused, he consumes men with their sinews, and devours the bones of men, and burns like a flame, so that they are unfit as food for the chicks of eagles." Which can be explained as connected to the preceding verse, as if to say: The detractor and rebel against the king shall be driven by him to ruin and death, as I have said; but now I turn my speech to you, O kings, and solemnly admonish you to carefully examine the case of such persons and the like, lest anything false proceed from your mouth, whereby, following the false information of slanderers, in precipitous anger you falsely and unjustly condemn some innocent person: for the sentence of your mouth is inescapable, so that no one can resist or escape it; because your tongue is like a sword, to hand over to death whomever it wills. Therefore your tongue is not so much of flesh as of iron or lightning: for whoever is handed over by it to death shall certainly be crushed and destroyed. Therefore the fury of the king when aroused is like lightning, which consumes men together with their sinews, and leaving the flesh, being soft, untouched, devours the bones, being hard and resistant, that is, shatters and incinerates them, like a sulphurous flame, so that they are not fit as food for the chicks of eagles. For eagles, especially vultures, feed on and crave the corpses of men, unless they have been struck by lightning: for lightning infects the bodies it blasts with a foul smell and taste, so that neither eagles nor other carnivorous birds or beasts wish to taste them, as Albert the Great and the natural philosophers report.

It is a metaphor by which he signifies that the fury of the king rages so against the fortunes, homes, and lives of those, even nobles and princes, with whom he is angry, that like lightning it blasts and destroys them, and leaves nothing to be inherited by the children or relatives of the slain, who are noble and generous like the chicks of eagles, but allows them to waste away in misery and infamy. The following statements support this interpretation, which likewise pertain to judges and princes, that they should judge from equity, not from anger or passion. For he says:

These things also I say to the wise. Concerning respect of persons I have said more at ch. 18, verse 5; James 2:1; Romans 2:11, and I shall say more at ch. 28:27.

of such persons. For upon these, as traitors, seditious, and guilty of lese-majesty, sudden destruction is imminent: for this rebellion cannot long remain hidden; therefore kings, when they discover it, punish all those who are privy to it with a cruel death.

"His face," he says, "certainly cannot stand before the face of God." And Giles the Deacon, On the Government of Princes: "Be not reflective like a mirror, but opaque, O prince," as if to say: Do not, like a mirror, admit into your mind the distorted faces of friends or powerful people: but be opaque so as to exclude the image of all, and thus judge sincerely from equity as if with closed eyes.

23. These things also belong to the wise: To have respect of persons in judgment is not good.

The Chaldean: these things also I say to the wise; the Septuagint: these things moreover I say to you who are wise: To recognize and respect the face in judgment is not good, as if to say: These things also which I add pertain to the wise, namely to judges and princes, whose duty it is to wisely govern their subjects, administer justice, and manage the commonwealth. Vatablus, however, translates: these things also belong to the wise, as if here the proverbs of Solomon end, and the following ones, which belong to other wise men — such as Ithiel, Agur, Uchal, Lemuel, about whom see chapters 30 and 31 — are appended to them. For this is as it were a banquet of wisdom, about which see ch. 9:1, in which the wise contribute their aphorisms and sayings of wisdom in common by turns, as happens in dialogues.

To have respect of persons in judgment. — In Hebrew: to recognize a face, that is, to have regard for persons and the rank of each one, is not good, that is, it is very bad: for it disturbs all justice and the entire commonwealth. It is a litotes: for less is said, but more is meant. Truly St. Bernard, book I On Consideration: "He who recognizes a face in judgment," he says, "certainly shall not be able to stand before the face of God."

24 and 25. Those who say to the wicked, "You are just," — the peoples shall curse them, and the tribes shall detest them. Those who rebuke him shall be praised, and a blessing shall come upon them.

In Hebrew: a blessing of good, that is, they shall be heaped with a great and excellent blessing which will bring them immense goods. Properly these words pertain to the wise, that is, judges and princes, about whom see verse 23. So teach the Rabbis and Latin interpreters, as if to say: Judges and princes who in judgment respect persons, so as to favor the rich over the poor, the friend over the enemy, and therefore pervert justice, so as to declare the wicked pious and just — the peoples shall curse these. It could also be translated: the people shall pierce them with swords (for the Hebrew נקב nakab properly means to pierce); for not rarely does the populace, indignant at a judge who renders unjust sentences, rise up against him and stab him to death. So Baynus.

But those who rebuke the wicked for their wickedness, to either correct or punish them as an example to others, these shall be praised both by God and by the people; hence in Hebrew it says: for those who reprove or chastise, it shall be sweet, or beautiful and pleasant, both God, as Pagninus and Baynus supply: hence Aben-Ezra: Those who rebuke the wicked, he says, shall be bathed in divine pleasure and sweetness, so that those who from justice have been severe against the guilty may receive the nectar of divine sweetness and mercy; and the mouth of the peoples, says Cajetan, as if to say: Judges who chastise the wicked shall be pleasing to the peoples, and shall be praised by them, and celebrated with beautiful commendations of justice by all, as by a common consent and sweet harmony of all orders: and a blessing shall come upon them, both of God and of the people, namely a happy prayer and acclamation of those saying: Long live our judge and prince, who so justly chastises the wicked and rewards the pious!

See what was said at ch. 17:15, on the words: "He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the just, both are abominable before God."

The Chaldean translates: but for those who correct it shall be pleasant, as if to say: Just judges who correct and chastise the wicked shall experience the sweetness and delight both of divine and human praise already mentioned, and of justice: for justice is a most beautiful and sweet thing, inasmuch as it preserves and protects the good and honor of the commonwealth in peace. Therefore princes, while they exercise justice and punish the guilty, experience from it a wonderful delight. Hence David exultantly said: "I have done judgment and justice," Psalm 118. Therefore when dying he told his son Solomon to punish the guilty men — Shimei and others — whom he himself had spared, III Kings 2:5.

The Septuagint translates: those who rebuke the wicked shall appear better, that is, they shall be considered better than others by the people, says the Author of the Greek Catena. Or they shall grow in goodness, namely in justice and fortitude, through the acts of justice which they courageously exercise fearing no one; or they shall be promoted to better, that is, more worthy degrees of honors and offices.

Judges and princes are accustomed to fear that, if they severely chastise the wicked, they will be ill spoken of among the people, and create danger for themselves, lest they be killed by the friends or relatives of the guilty person they have condemned. But Solomon here teaches the contrary, as if he were saying: Fear no one, O judge, but vigorously perform your duty: God, the patron of justice, will not only protect you and your life, but will also win for you the praise and favor of the people, and raise you to greater dignities; if you do otherwise, you will incur the wrath of God, whence you will become the hatred and mockery of God and men, and be stripped of your dignity, fortune, and life; for judges are under the special providence of God, inasmuch as in their hands lies justice and right, and consequently the salvation of the whole commonwealth.

This maxim can secondly be extended generally to all, as having been said against flatterers who excuse, gloss over, and justify the vices of others, especially of princes, as if to say: Flatterers who say to a wicked prince, "You are just," and proclaim all his unjustly done deeds to be just — the peoples shall curse these. But those who freely rebuke the vices of princes shall be praised by the peoples and blessed by God and men: for the people are accustomed to detest those who foster the vices of princes by flattery; but to love and honor those who rebuke them, and by rebuking either remove or diminish them. Hence Diogenes the Cynic, who freely barked at the vices of kings, was held in honor among the people. Wherefore Alexander the Great and other princes honored Diogenes, so as to gain for themselves the name of integrity and the favor of the people. Therefore the Syriac translates: the poor shall be filled with joy.

Wherefore Pliny aptly compares the flatterer to a hyena, book VII, ch. 2: "The hyena," he says, "imitates the human voice, and learns the name of someone, whom it then lures out and tears apart: so certain people beguile with obsequiousness, until they drag them to ruin." The same, ch. 30: "What oil is to flies, ants, and nearly all other insects," he says, "such is flattery to foolish princes. For smeared with oil, those insects die: these are dragged to destruction by the fawning and obsequiousness of flatterers; they themselves drag the commonwealth." The same, book VIII, 24: "Cerastes serpents do not breed in cypress trees because of the bitterness, nor in boxwood because of the hardness: so the plague of flattery flees from severe and stern dispositions, and targets soft and easy ones." The same, book XVIII, ch. 27: "Just as the heliotrope plant always looks toward the direction where the sun is, and when it sets closes its flower: so certain people comply with every nod of the king, and into whatever they see him inclined, they rush as well." I have said more on this matter at Sirach 37:1.

26. He who gives right answers shall kiss the lips.

Properly the word "shall kiss" actively pertains to the one who gives right answers, in that he kisses the lips of those who ask and listen. Some, however, refer "shall kiss" to the listener and questioner, as though he kisses the lips of the one giving right answers. Hence they translate: they shall kiss, in the plural, so that the Hebrew "shall kiss" is taken distributively for "each one shall kiss," that is, many shall kiss. So the Chaldean: They shall kiss, he says, the lips of those who answer right words. So also the Septuagint. Theodotion, however, encompassing both: kataphileesetai, he says, that is, he shall give or receive kisses with his lips, who utters right words. For it is a reciprocal verb, signifying both action and passion: for he who gives a kiss to another receives the same from the other; and he who receives, gives: for a kiss is the kiss of both the kisser and the kissed. Add: the Septuagint and Chaldean for po yissak, that is, "shall kiss," seem to have read ישקו (yissaku), that is, "they shall kiss."

Among the ancients the kiss was manifold: first, a sign of common benevolence, by which friends were accustomed to kiss friends; second, of singular benevolence, by which a father kissed his son, teachers their students, and students their teachers. Hence Psalm 2:12, for what the Septuagint translated as "embrace discipline," the Hebrew and St. Jerome have "kiss the Son," because the kiss was a symbol of discipline and discipleship; so Judas, as a disciple following common custom, kissed Christ when he betrayed Him with a kiss. Third, of obedience and honor, by which subjects kiss the hand of the king: but princes and intimate friends kiss his mouth and lips. Thus Xenophon teaches, books I and V of the Education of Cyrus, that the kings of Persia honored their nobles and princes with a kiss: so David kissed Barzillai, his dearest friend, to honor him above others: so also Darius kissed Zerubbabel, III Esdras 4:47. Fourth, of adoration, by which we kiss the altars, relics, and images of God and the Saints.

Again the word "right" signifies, first, just; second, true; third, gentle and pleasant; fourth, apt and as if set face to face, such as are answers that directly and equally respond to the questions, and as it were come as matching counterparts to fill them, just as a semicircle fills the semicircle fitted to it, and thus fully and equally satisfy them. For this is what the Hebrew נוכח (nocach) signifies. From these four meanings arise four senses.

First, many connect these words with the preceding, so that they pertain to the upright and just judgments of judges and princes. Hence the Septuagint adds the word "moreover"; for thus they translate: moreover the lips shall kiss those who answer with good words; and Vatablus: he who answers with just words shall kiss the lips. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The prince or judge who in judgment without respect of persons gives right, that is just, answers, rendering an equitable and just sentence, will win for himself the love and goodwill of the people, as if he were sweetly kissing their lips. It is a catachresis; for "to kiss" is taken for "to win over, to earn favor, to bind to oneself"; for just words meet the words of litigants like a kiss meeting a kiss; for justice and a just sentence and decision is like a kiss that matches and reconciles all suits, causes, and controversies; therefore while it resolves and reconciles them, it seems to kiss them. So Bede: "A kiss," he says, "is a sign of peace and love; therefore he who answers rightly shall kiss the lips, because whoever, neglecting respect of persons, follows only the words of justice — he may seem harsh and severe even to the foolish; yet he will find many prudent people with whom to have peace, and many who embrace his words with love. Often too he will later receive as friends and associates those whom he had endured as opponents of his just assertions, once they have turned to better things." So also the Gloss, Hugo, and others.

Hence conversely the people will be so well disposed toward a judge who renders just decisions, as if they were kissing his lips, says Aben-Ezra: for it is fitting that all should kiss such a man; for the kiss, as I have said, was a symbol both of discipleship and of obedience. Hence Genesis ch. 41:40, for what the Vulgate has, "at the command of your mouth all the people shall obey," the Hebrew has, "upon your mouth all the people shall kiss." If therefore you restrict this maxim to judges and princes, the meaning will be, as if to say: A judge and prince who answers aptly, judging and discerning, so wins over and binds to himself his subjects and others, as if he were kissing their lips with his own. Conversely, subjects so revere and love them that they strive to kiss their hand and to be obedient in all things; indeed kings too so esteem them that they hold them in love and delight, and as such admit them to the kiss of the lips and promote them to greater dignities, since they know the people are so devoted to them as to kiss their hands and obey in all things; therefore through them they keep the whole people in duty, and more tightly bind them to themselves through so many subordinate kisses of reverence and obedience.

But if you take this maxim generally as it sounds, you rightly apply it to any prudent and truthful man, and especially to counselors, teachers, confessors, etc. For these, when they respond aptly and fittingly to penitents, especially the doubtful, anxious, or scrupulous, who question them about matters of conscience, remove every doubt, every anxiety, every scruple from them, and pacify, calm, and gladden the conscience, as if they were imprinting upon it a kiss of peace, and joining lips to lips by kissing, indeed uniting them. Similar to this is the maxim in the next chapter, verse 11: "Golden apples on silver beds — such is he who speaks a word in due season."

Such was Christ, of whom the crowd said: "Never has man spoken thus." And St. Peter: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life," John 6:69. Such was St. Peter, St. Paul, and the other Apostles. Such was St. Athanasius, St. Anthony, St. Basil, St. Jerome, St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, St. Xavier, to whom therefore those who were zealous for truth, virtue, and salvation flocked from every side, from every nation, state, sex, and condition, and entrusted their children to them to be formed in wisdom and virtue. Therefore they kissed not only their lips, but their hands, feet, and footsteps, according to that prophecy of Isaiah, ch. 49:23: "Kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and queens thy nursing mothers; with their face bowed down to the earth they shall adore thee, and they shall lick the dust of thy feet," as if to say: Thee, O Church and teacher of the Church, all shall sweetly embrace and kiss. Therefore they rendered them a fourfold kiss, and still render such to them: first, of love and benevolence; second, of discipleship, by which as disciples they kissed their masters out of reverence; third, of obedience, by which they obeyed their words exactly as if they were heavenly oracles; fourth, of adoration and veneration — not of latria but of dulia — by which we kiss the garments, images, and relics of the Saints. Hence the kiss is a symbol of humility and subjection. Hence if you look at the etymology, it is a diminutive from os (mouth); for osculum is said as if a small mouth or oscillum; for in kissing we narrow and diminish our mouth, and as it were make a kiss from the mouth. Furthermore, when a teacher gives a kiss to a student, he seems by kissing to hand over to him his own mouth and heart, and to pour into him the wisdom, eloquence, grace, affection, and love of his own mouth. Hence the bride, requesting this kiss of the bridegroom, says, Canticle 1:1: "Let Him kiss me with the kiss of His mouth;" where see St. Bernard.

Finally, a kiss given from the lips or labra was called "labratum" — which is the kind given when the people, about to salute a prince, would bring their hand to their lips, kiss it, and then reverently touch the purple garment or knees of the prince. On this see Cujas, book XI of Observations, ch. 27. Again, with the hand brought to the mouth, they would as it were adore the gods through a kiss, as is evident from Job ch. 31:27. Hence Lipsius derives the etymology of adoration, book II of the Electa, ch. 6, as though to adore is to reverently bring the hand to the mouth.

Second, Lyra takes "right" to mean "true," as if to say: He shall kiss the lips, that is, he shall restore peace — the sign of which is a kiss — who gives right, that is, true answers; for he who answers evasively, fleeing the truth, does not restore peace but rather destroys it. Vatablus, however: He who is truthful, he says, is held in such esteem that he is not only admitted to the kiss of the hand, but received into close friendship. For just as mothers instill food chewed in their mouth into the mouth of a little child: so a teacher pours wisdom digested in his own mouth and lips into the mouth and ears of his students. A counselor does the same when giving advice to the doubtful and perplexed.

Third, others take "right" to mean gracious, gentle, pleasant. Hence the Septuagint translates: good words, as if to say: Even if a judge condemns a defendant, yet if he softens the condemnation with gentle words, saying that he is sorry that he is compelled to condemn him based on the allegations and proofs presented, and that otherwise he is prepared to favor and assist him in all things, he will soften the harsh sentence of condemnation, and will seem to kiss the defendant, and embrace him with a kiss of peace, and bind him to himself. The same may be said of a superior, a teacher, and anyone else who is compelled to reprehend and chastise a subject or student: for if he seasons the chastisement with gentle words, he will wipe away all its bitterness, and will seem to kiss the one chastised, as if he had mixed gall with honey. The same may be said of anyone else who gives a pleasant and gracious answer to one who questions him about anything: for he seems to kiss the questioners, and in turn to receive a kiss from them, as if to say: Such a person will be pleasing to all; and will be in the delights and loves of all, so that each one desires to converse with him, and as it were to kiss his lips so gracious. Hence St. Chrysostom, in his homily On Gentleness: "The gentle person," he says, "is pleasing and lovable to those who see him, pleasing also to those who know him only by name. Nor will you easily find anyone who, hearing a gentle person praised, does not desire to see and kiss him, and does not count it among his gains to be able to enjoy his friendship."

Fourth, directly and properly, take "right" to mean apt, fitting, answering the question exactly and precisely — answers that are not only just, true, and pleasant, but also so suited and conformed to the question that they exhaust its difficulty, fully satisfy it, and fill the mind of the questioner. For this is what the Hebrew nocach signifies, as I have already said: for a fitting response squares with the question just as lip fits lip, and kiss fits kiss. Therefore he who answers fittingly so earns the favor and soothes the questioner with his lips that he seems to kiss him. Hence the Tigurina version translates: if someone answers aptly, it is as if he kissed with his lips. Therefore all will seek his friendship, conversation, counsel, and teaching, and obey him; indeed they will desire to become his disciples, and as such to kiss his hand, as that of their teacher, says R. Solomon.

27. Prepare thy work outside, and diligently cultivate thy field, and afterward build thy house.

"Work" is to be understood as the work of agriculture, as is clear from the Hebrew, which reads thus: prepare your work outside, and urgently press it in your field, and afterward you shall build your house. Aben-Ezra takes the last "and" as meaning "or," as if to say: Or, if you have no work outside, build your house. But others more correctly transpose the "and" by metathesis, as if to say: "And afterward you shall build," that is, it will be permitted to build, "your house." Hence the Chaldean: prepare your work outside, and establish it for yourself in the field, and afterward build yourself a house. So also the Septuagint.

For agriculture was formerly in the common use of all, even of nobles and princes, being the most innocent art, as St. Augustine says, and the most profitable. Under it, however, as the chief species, understand every other work of craft or any other art, as well as commerce. Aristophanes in his Peace brilliantly celebrates agriculture thus:

"O faithful nurse of peace grateful to all men, Generous, bountiful provider, Daughter and sister! He called her all these; But what is your name? Agriculture."

I have said more about it at Genesis 2:15 and Genesis 9:20. For "diligently cultivate" the Hebrew is עתדה (atteda), that is, press on, urge, apply yourself, act and cultivate urgently. R. Solomon translates it as "he-goats," as if to say: Cultivate the work of the field, then place he-goats and flocks in the field, and build a house, that is, take a wife; but he errs: for עתודים (attudim) means he-goats, not atteda.

The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Before all things, procure for yourself the expenses necessary both for living and for building, if you wish to build, by practicing your work, that is, your art, your trade — which was commonly agriculture in former times, and to which later succeeded various mechanical arts and commerce; and then build your house. Hence the Syriac translates: prepare in the field, and afterward build. This maxim therefore teaches economic prudence, namely that one must first labor to acquire resources before building a house, according to that saying of Christ, Luke 14:28: "For which of you, wishing to build a tower, does not first sit down and calculate the costs that are necessary, whether he has enough to complete it? Lest, after he has laid the foundation and is unable to finish, all who see begin to mock him, saying: This man began to build and was not able to finish."

Against this some sin, especially religious, who rashly build large monasteries, trusting in the alms of the faithful, when they have no revenues with which to build, indeed with which to live. For this is a lack of prudence, which teaches that the more necessary things must be procured first, and then those which pertain to splendor: it is backwards if it is done otherwise; from which it happens that they are frequently forced either to contract enormous debts (which are often left to posterity to pay with great burden and damage to discipline), or to abandon the work begun with disgrace and loss; for the zeal for building diverts the alms of the faithful. For the faithful, especially merchants, say: This construction indicates that you are wealthy and do not need alms; for no prudent person would undertake such a building unless he were rich. Therefore our Holy Father Urban VIII recently severely forbade this same thing to religious.

Therefore Solomon here urges that above all else the field must be diligently cultivated, according to the custom of that ancient age: for in return for cultivation it will give a harvest and fruits; hence that precept of agriculture: "Praise large fields, but cultivate a small one." For a small field diligently cultivated will yield more grain than a large one cursorily worked. Hence Pliny, book XVIII, ch. 3: "The ancients," he says, "judged it better to sow less and plow better. I see that Virgil was of the same opinion. And those who confess the truth say that large estates ruined Italy, and indeed the provinces too." To this pertains the story or fable of the father who, when dying, told his sons that he had buried a great quantity of gold in the field; they should therefore dig it up after his death. The sons did so and dug up the whole field, but no gold was found, because none had been buried. But the field, worked by that labor, yielded an enormous harvest. Then the eldest brother, understanding the matter, turned to the others: "This indeed," he said, "is the treasure which our diligent father left us when dying — our labor and agriculture, O brothers."

Second, under this symbol Solomon aims at something higher, as if to say: Prepare, that is, first procure for yourself work, that is, the art of working by which to support yourself and your own, and then build a house, that is, establish a family by marrying a wife, having children, etc.; for he who does the contrary — marrying a wife and establishing a family before he knows the art of supporting them — is imprudent, and exposes himself and his own to the dangers of hunger and many hardships.

The Septuagint translates: prepare at your going out (or for your going out) your works, and prepare in the field, and follow after me, and you shall build your house, as if to say — St. Jerome comments on Zephaniah ch. 3: Rise at first light to begin working and cultivating the field; and so prepare, that is, send ahead your works toward the future building of the house which you plan in your mind. As if to say: Early in the morning, that is, from your earliest youth, begin to labor, so that you may procure for yourself the necessities of life, and then, having procured the necessary funds, build your house if you wish. He therefore commands from a tender age to become accustomed to labor, and to shake off idleness and sloth, so that by laboring one may learn an art — whether of farming, or building, or whatever other — by which to provide for oneself sustenance and other necessities for one's entire life.

Solomon adds: "And follow after me," as if to say: Imitate me, who from youth began to labor, when I took up the reins of so laborious and difficult a kingdom as a young man of twelve years, as St. Ignatius holds, or as others say, twenty years.

The Author of the Greek Catena translates from the Septuagint and explains thus: prepare your works for your departure, and cultivate the field, and follow me, and you shall restore your house. He says these words seem to point here: do all things as one about to die; whether therefore you cultivate a field, cultivate it as a mortal; whether you are happy, be happy as a mortal. And if you wish to order your life rightly, set me as your lawgiver, follow behind me — that is, whatever I have decreed by law or otherwise commanded, faithfully carry out. Moreover, if you have looked ahead to the state of future things, you will rightly govern the present. And so through justice and virtues and diligent actions, which are your house, follow me: so in the Catena. So also St. Cyril, book III on John, ch. 27.

More fully, St. Epiphanius holds that death and resurrection are noted here: Prepare, he says, your works for your departure, that is, for death; prepare yourself for the field, because the laying down of the body is like a field, on account of burial and the departure from life. Hence, showing the resurrection, he says: "And you shall restore your house," since your body's house, cast down into the field, will be raised up again in the resurrection, according to that saying of Christ, John 2:19: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up;" so St. Epiphanius, book II Against Heresies, ch. 71.

R. Solomon wrongly takes "work" to mean Sacred Scripture, "field" to mean the opinions of the Doctors, and "house" to mean the Talmud: for in Solomon's time there was no Talmud, but it was written after Christ, indeed against Christ, by perfidious Jews. It is better to explain thus, as if to say: Before you begin to build a house through the preaching of the word of God, prepare your work through the study of Sacred Scripture. For, as St. Basil says in the Ethics, Rule 26, ch. 1: "Whatever we either say or do must be confirmed by the testimony of the divine Scriptures, for the confirmation of the faith of the good and the confusion of the wicked."

Tropologically, St. Gregory, book X of the Moralia, ch. 11: "For what is it," he says, "to diligently cultivate the field outside with the work prepared, except to cultivate our action for the fruit of retribution, having uprooted the thorns of iniquity? And what is it to return to building the house after the field has been cultivated, except that generally from good works we learn how great a purity of life we may construct in our thought? For nearly all good works proceed from thought, but there are some insights of thought that are born from action. For just as work is taken from the mind, so in turn the mind is instructed by work. The mind indeed, grasping the beginnings of divine love, commands good things to be done; but after the things commanded have begun to be done, it learns through its own exercises how little it had seen when it had begun to command good things. Therefore let the field be cultivated outside, so that the house may afterward be built; because generally from exterior work we see how great a subtlety of rectitude we hold in the mind."

Bede, the Gloss, and Hugo have transcribed the same from St. Gregory here; Hugo also takes the field to mean the body, and the house to mean the conscience; Jansenius, however, takes the field to mean the active life, and the house the contemplative life, as if to say: First exercise yourself in the active life by serving your neighbors in constant labors, and through them prepare yourself for the contemplative life, in which you may rest as in a house. For just as the labors of youth prepare the wealth in which you may rest in old age: so likewise Martha prepares the way for Magdalene.

28. Be not a witness without cause against thy neighbor; nor entice anyone with thy lips.

The Tigurina: do not testify rashly against your neighbor; for you will persuade with your lips. For "entice" the Hebrew is התה (pitta), which the Chaldean translates: do not deceive; the Syriac: do not detain by blandishments; R. Solomon: do not lead your friend astray by your speech.

First, Bede, Hugo, Lyra, and Jansenius hold that two opposite vices are forbidden here, namely calumny and flattery, as if to say: Do not bear false witness through calumny against your neighbor; nor conversely entice anyone by flattering, so as to deceive him with excessive blandishments and drive him to ruin. This meaning is easy and obvious, and the charm and force of the sentence sufficiently consists in the antithesis of calumny and flattery, as if to say: Just as calumny is harmful, so also is flattery, and sometimes more so; therefore do not flatter one, and be calumnious and injurious to another: for each is a vice and a wickedness. The only thing that stands against this exposition is that in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin it does not say "false witness" but "witness without cause" or "in vain," that is, one who rashly testifies without reason, even if he testifies the truth. However, the Septuagint and Syriac favor it, for they explain "without cause" as "falsely": Do not be a false witness, he says, against your fellow citizen, nor spread yourself with your lips, so as to speak false testimony against him with a broad, flat, and brazen mouth. If, however, you absolutely wish to explain the Vulgate of two different persons, say that two opposite vices are noted and forbidden here, namely hostility or enmity, and flattery, as if to say: Do not without cause, that is, without reason, not being summoned, testify against someone because he is hateful to you, or to support your friend who disputes against him; nor again entice someone with vain words, promises, or praises, flattering and deceiving him, and leading him into fraud. For it seems that here the discussion is more about testimony given not so much in court as outside of it, among associates or others, for whatever reason.

Second, Baynus translates thus: do not be a false witness on behalf of your friend against your neighbor; nor entice him with your lips, that is, do not, in order to entice, that is, flatter and favor your friend, bear false testimony in his favor against a third party with whom your friend is in dispute. But the phrase "on behalf of your friend" is not in the text.

Third, Vatablus, as if to say: Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor, nor entice and allure a third party so that he may approve and confirm this false testimony of yours; for this is a double crime of falsehood. So also Aben-Ezra, as if to say: do not testify falsely, nor allure another to do the same.

Fourth, the Rabbis and Pagninus translate "entice" as "crush," as if to say: Do not bear false testimony against your neighbor, nor crush and destroy him by your falsehood. But the Hebrew pitta does not mean to crush, but to allure, entice, seduce, deceive, persuade; פתח (patach) on the other hand means to break, to crush; הפתיתה (haphitita), however, which is the form here in the Hebrew, derives from pitta, not from patach; perhaps St. Jerome read הפתיתה (hiphitita); for this is properly the hiphil form from pata or pitta.

Fifth, Cajetan, as if to say: Do not offer yourself as a witness against your neighbor without cause, that is, not called, not summoned, driven by no necessity, in order to gratify your hatred, envy, and malevolence which you have conceived against him; for even though you speak the truth, you still sin by hatred and spite, and you are not so much a witness as an accuser. Hence the Chaldean translates: do not be a witness accusing your neighbor. Thus far Cajetan is correct, but the following hemistich does not fit this interpretation.

Sixth, therefore, more coherently and genuinely from the Hebrew, translate and explain it so that both hemistichs pertain to one and the same person: Do not be a witness chinnam, that is, without cause or in vain, against your neighbor, and you will entice with your lips, as if to say: Do not, without cause, that is, without reason, and not under compulsion, in order to indulge your passion and desire, secretly and covertly testify against your brother, and accuse him before others, while flattering the same person or another with vain words, and pretending to be his friend and supporter; for this is fraud, hypocrisy, and deceit.

To this sense, which the Hebrew indicates, you may easily accommodate the Vulgate, if you refer "anyone" to the neighbor who preceded, so that one and the same person is indicated, as if to say: Do not be a witness without cause against your neighbor, nor entice the same person with your lips, so that while openly flattering you deceive him, and secretly testify against him, as liars and the shameless are accustomed to do. And Pagninus: do not be a lying witness. So also the Septuagint, ch. 1, verses 11 and 17, translate the Hebrew chinnam as "unjustly."

This exposition is strongly supported by what follows: "Do not say: As he has done to me, so will I do to him; I will render to each one according to his work," as if to say: Do not say: Without cause and of my own accord I have testified against him and revealed his fault, or confirmed by my assertion the fault already revealed, because he himself on another occasion voluntarily testified against me and stood as a witness against me and betrayed my fall, or confirmed the betrayal. Again, I enticed and deceived the same or another with vain words, because he himself on another occasion similarly enticed and deceived me: for I give each one retaliation, and render like for like — to the slanderer and evildoer I show myself a slanderer and evildoer; to the benevolent and beneficent I return benevolence and beneficence.

29. Do not say: As he has done to me, so will I do to him; I will render to each one according to his work. so that I may detract from the one who detracts from me, entice and defraud the one who entices and defrauds me, in the manner I have just explained. The Septuagint: Do not say: As he has treated me, so will I treat him; I will repay him for the injuries he has done me. This tendency to render like for like by retaliation is deeply innate in man — to be beneficent to the beneficent, and to show oneself a slanderer and evildoer to slanderers and evildoers: hence the same is innate in brute animals, such as dogs, horses, oxen, and even lions and serpents. Solomon here corrects and chastises this tendency: for though in good and beneficence it is good, in evil and maleficence it is bad; for it is not permitted to do evil to anyone, not even an enemy. For this is the spirit of revenge and vengeance, opposed to charity. Moreover, maleficence is in itself evil and perverse, both in the one inflicting and in the one returning the evil. For if someone has exercised maleficence, that is, wickedness, against me, I certainly act wrongly if I imitate this wickedness of his and transfer it to myself, and I am not so much maleficent to him as to myself; for I bind my soul with the guilt of a grave crime, namely of hatred and maleficence, and render it liable to hell.

St. Augustine brilliantly says, sermon 41 On the Words of the Lord according to Matthew: "When they disdain to be humbled, they want to be avenged, as if another's punishment could benefit anyone; the one injured and suffering wrong wants to be avenged, seeks a remedy for himself from another's punishment, and acquires a great torment." For, as the same Augustine says: "You think it something great if you avenge yourself on your enemy; but if you want to avenge yourself on your enemy, turn to anger itself, for that is your enemy, which kills your soul." Therefore, as the same says elsewhere, God must be prayed to that He slay not the enemy, but the enmity; for this is holy vengeance.

You will say: Moses permits, indeed sanctions, vengeance, Exodus 21:24, saying: "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand," etc. How then does Solomon forbid it here? The answer is: Moses does not sanction private vengeance, but public, which is done by a judge, so that he himself may restrain the injuries of the insolent by the punishment of retaliation — but not to give anyone the power to render retaliation, namely to gouge out the eyes of the one who gouged out eyes in the same manner, to mutilate the mutilator, etc. But Solomon forbids vengeance done by private authority. Again, Solomon cuts away the lust for vengeance, Moses sanctions the retaliation of punishment; for this is the measure and limit that justice dictates. Furthermore, holy vengeance must be done with a spirit of love, not of revenge, as St. Augustine teaches on Psalm 101, so that justice may be coupled with charity, and charity may be the sister of justice. See what was said on Exodus 21:24, and Sirach 28:1ff., and St. Augustine, book Against Adimantus, ch. 17.

30, 31 and 32. I passed by the field of the slothful man, and by the vineyard of the foolish man: and behold, nettles had filled it all, and thorns had covered its surface, and the stone wall was broken down. When I had seen this, I laid it to my heart, and by the example I learned discipline.

For "foolish" the Hebrew has "lacking heart"; the Chaldean: lacking intelligence, and behold the whole grove had sprung up. The Syriac: a hedge of stones.

Grammatically and on the surface of the letter, these words are to be taken as they sound, concerning the slothful man's negligence, losses, and poverty. For he alludes to and pursues what he said in verse 27: "Diligently cultivate your field," and by antithesis shows into how great miseries one throws himself who cultivates and works it negligently. And this in two ways: first, because he sets before the eyes what he learned from experience, namely that the goods of the slothful man go to ruin through his own negligence and carelessness, so that one who saw his field filled with nettles — because it was left by him uncultivated, or because he neglected to sow good seed in it, or after sowing to clear it of weeds — also saw his vineyard exposed to the invasion and plundering of all; the stone wall previously heaped up for the vineyard's protection being destroyed, so that what could have brought forth good fruits produced nothing but bad ones, or none at all. Second, because from what he saw, he prudently reflects within himself and predicts the poverty imminent upon the slothful: "When I had seen it," he says, "I laid it to my heart, and by his example I learned discipline" — namely this which follows, so as to rebuke sloth and sting its carelessness, saying to it: "How long, O sluggard, will you sleep?" etc. So Jansenius, Baynus, Cajetan, Vatablus, and others.

Now beneath this surface of the letter and its grammatical sense, Solomon signifies something higher parabolically: namely, through temporal sloth he describes spiritual sloth, and its damages and harms, as if to say: Just as passing on foot through the field of the sluggard, I saw its squalor from lack of cultivation: so with the eyes of the mind passing through and surveying the life, soul, and conscience (for this is each person's field and estate given, indeed leased, to him by God for cultivation) of a lazy person who neglects to cultivate it — I found it not only empty of virtues and the fruits of good works, but also filled with nettles, thistles, and thorns of every vice, and exposed to the assaults and temptations of demons, the flesh, and the world, because its wall or hedge has been broken down. This hedge is inwardly grace and self-guardianship, outwardly the protection of God and the Angels: for when both hedges are thrown down, the soul, like a vineyard with its hedge torn down, lies open to the assaults of beasts and enemies — that is, of temptations and demons — who devour and demolish it from the roots; so that it falls into extreme barrenness and destitution of all things, and in death it is overwhelmed by the total lack of merits, and therefore is suddenly and inevitably banished to hell, where, thirsting in the flames like the rich man at the feast, it cannot find even a drop of water to cool its tongue. So essentially St. Gregory, book 39 of the Moralia, ch. 20: "To pass through the field of the slothful man and through the vineyard of the fool," he says, "is to observe the life of any negligent person and consider his works, which nettles and thorns fill, because in the hearts of the negligent itching earthly desires and the prickings of vices sprout, because it is written: Every idle person is in desires. The stone wall was broken down, that is, the discipline of the fathers had dissolved from his heart, and therefore immediately he added: When I had seen this, I laid it to my heart, and by the example I learned discipline." So also Bede, the Gloss, and others.

The former is the cultivation — or rather the neglect of cultivation — of the field and vineyard, namely of one's own conscience; the latter is of another's field and vineyard, namely the Church, college, or community over which someone presides as Bishop, Pastor, Abbot, Prior, Rector, etc., to which therefore you may aptly apply this parable, as if to say: Surveying with the eyes of the body or mind the Church or community of a slothful pastor or rector, I saw it teeming with the thorns of scandals, errors, and crimes, and its hedge broken down, that is, its discipline and enforcement of laws dissolved: wherefore demons, heretics, and wicked men break into it with impunity, and lay it waste, and contaminate it, indeed fill it, with their heresies and crimes as with weeds.

When I had seen this, I laid it to my heart, and by the example I learned discipline. — As if to say: Seeing this, I laid it deep in my heart, and from his example I resolved to be wise, so that I would not only vigorously purge my own soul, but also cultivate with every zeal those entrusted to me. Cato truly says: "Fools," he says, "greatly benefit the wise, because from their example the wise learn to be wise; but the prudent bring nothing to fools, because fools do not notice the right deeds of the prudent." Here note that this too is a literal sense, as is clear from the Septuagint, who expressly translate: the imprudent man is like a field, and the man lacking sense is like a vineyard. If you leave him alone, he will become desolate, and will grow entirely wild — on which more shortly. For in parables there is a twofold literal sense: the first is grammatical, signified by the very surface of the letter and the parable, which here is about the field and vineyard and its lazy cultivator. The second and more important is parabolic, which signifies the thing figured by the parable, which here is the lazy cultivator of the soul or of the Church; for the lazy cultivator of the field or vineyard signifies and figures him. So Isaiah, ch. 14:12, parabolically represents the fall of the king of Babylon through the fall of Lucifer: "How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, who didst rise in the morning?" And Ezekiel, ch. 28:14, figures the beauty and ruin of the king of Tyre through the beauty and fall of the Cherub: "Thou," he says, "the spreading and protecting Cherub, and I set thee on the holy mountain of God, thou didst walk in the midst of the stones of fire," etc. See what was said on both passages.

Furthermore, the lazy cultivator of the field or vineyard aptly signifies the lazy cultivator of the soul or the Church, first, because, as Philo says, in his book On the Planting of Noah: "Let us see how in man, the lesser world, the most wise maker God planted certain trees: first in our body, as in a good field, He prepared trenches for the senses, into which He set each one as a gentle and useful vine; hearing in the ears, sight in the eyes, smell in the nostrils, and each of the rest in its proper place. The prophetic Psalmist attests to this my opinion, who in his hymns speaks thus: He who planted the ear, shall He not hear?"

Second, because, as St. Bernard says, sermon 63 on the Canticle: "For man, the vineyard is his life; and the good vineyard is that of the just man, indeed the good vineyard is the just man himself, for whom virtue is the vine, action the branch, wine the testimony of conscience, the tongue the winepress of expression. Finally, our glory is this, he says, the testimony of our conscience. You see that in the wise man nothing is idle. Speech, thought, conversation, and whatever else comes from him — is it not all God's agriculture, God's building, and the vineyard of the Lord of hosts?" And shortly before, citing this maxim of Solomon: "You hear," he says, "the wise man mocking the fool, because the goods of nature and gifts of grace which perhaps he had received through the washing of regeneration — that first vineyard of his which God planted, and not man — he reduced to a non-vineyard by neglect. Finally there cannot be a vineyard where there is no life. For what the fool lives, I would judge to be death rather than life. How can there be life with barrenness? A tree dried up and turned to barrenness — is it not judged dead? And the branches are dead. And He killed their vines with hail, He says, showing that private lives condemned to barrenness are thus: so the fool, by the very fact that he lives uselessly, is a living dead man. Therefore it belongs to the wise man alone to have, or rather to be, a vineyard, for he has life. He is a fruitful tree in the house of God, and through this a living tree; since indeed wisdom itself, by which he is called and is wise, is the tree of life to those who lay hold of her."

Third, just as an uncultivated vineyard not only brings forth thorns and nettles, but also becomes entirely overgrown: so likewise an uncultivated soul becomes a thicket and a dreadful forest; therefore, lest this happen, it must be constantly cultivated and pruned.

Fourth, just as a cultivated field produces more harvest than it received seed: so also the soul, cultivated by the grace of God, ought to produce more fruits of virtue and merit than it initially received: otherwise it is unfruitful and ungrateful to its Creator, just as he is ungrateful and boorish who returns to his benefactor exactly as much as he received; for he turns the benefactor into a seller of the benefit. Therefore he who wishes to be grateful to his benefactor should return more than he received. Hear Seneca, epistle 81: "He is ungrateful who returns a benefit without interest." And after some intervening remarks: "He who gives benefits to a fool loses them. A wild rusticity cannot return the seed entrusted to it" — as if to say: The boor is ungrateful, indeed he is a field growing wild, which does not return with interest the seed sown in it, but devours and wastes it.

Fifth, just as an uncultivated field and vineyard tends toward the utmost barrenness and desolation, so also does a lazy and torpid soul. Hear St. Bernard excellently recounting its damages and ruin, sermon 63 on the Canticle: "This cold," he says, "if once it pervades a soul — a soul indeed (as is customary) drowsing from the carelessness of the spirit — and then with no one (God forbid) restraining it, if it reaches the interior, descends into the bowels of the heart and the bosom of the mind, shakes the affections, occupies the paths of counsel, disturbs the light of judgment, leads away the freedom of the spirit; soon (as is wont to happen in the body of those with fever) a certain rigidity of soul sets in, vigor slackens, the languor of strength is feigned, the horror of austerity is stretched, the fear of poverty harasses, the soul contracts, grace is withdrawn, the length of life is drawn out, reason is put to sleep, the spirit is extinguished, the fervor of the novice cools, fastidious tepidity grows heavy, fraternal charity grows cold, pleasure entices, security deceives, custom calls back. What more? The law is dissembled, right is abdicated, what is holy is proscribed, the fear of the Lord is abandoned; finally the hands of shamelessness are given, and that reckless, that shameful, that most base leap, full of ignominy and confusion, is presumed — from the height into the abyss, from the pavement into the dung heap, from the throne into the sewer, from heaven into the mud, from the cloister into the world, from paradise into hell."

Furthermore the Septuagint translates thus: the imprudent man is like a field, and the man lacking sense is like a vineyard. If you leave him alone, he will become desolate, and will grow entirely wild, will be abandoned; and the stones of his hedge will be dug up. Or, as the Author of the Greek Catena puts it more clearly: "The foolish man is like a field suited for cultivation, and the man void of understanding is like a vineyard; if you leave it uncultivated, it will gradually become wild, and plainly grow into a forest, and finally be utterly abandoned, and the stones of its wall will be dug up."

Hence St. Ambrose, citing this maxim from the Septuagint and explaining it concerning gratitude, book I of the Offices, ch. 31: "We must imitate in this also," he says, "the nature of the earth, which is accustomed to return the seed it received with a multiplication greater in number than it received. Therefore it is written for you: An insipid man is like a farm, and a man lacking sense is like a vineyard; if you leave him, he will become desolate," etc. (Ambrose uses the Septuagint translation); "therefore as agriculture, so also is the wise man, and as one who has been lent, let him return the seeds received with a greater measure. The earth therefore either sprouts spontaneous fruits, or pours back and returns what was entrusted with a more abundant heap."

The Septuagint continues: Afterward (the Vatican reads: at last) I too did penance, and looked to choose discipline. Hence some hold that through this entire parable the slothful man is urged to repentance, that he may wash away his sloth through penance and conceive a new and effective resolution of diligence. So the Author of the Greek Catena: "Observe," he says, "the consistent and fitting order of the discourse; for unless he had done penance, he would not have chosen discipline. For no one chooses discipline before he is pricked with remorse over the things he has wickedly committed. Therefore the scope of the present matter tends toward penance," as if to say: I, seeing the damages of the slothful man and of sloth in the uncultivated field and vineyard, reflecting and turning to my own soul, tepid and torpid in virtues — since God had given it to me so that I might vigorously cultivate it as God's field — I began to repent and be pricked with remorse, and I resolved in my mind to choose discipline, namely the diligent study and exercise of virtues.

From these words St. Cyril, catechesis 2, and St. Jerome, on Ezekiel ch. 43, probably hold that Solomon after his fall into idolatry did penance and was saved: "Solomon sinned," says St. Jerome, "although he afterward did penance," writing the Proverbs, in which he says: "At last I did penance." Hence also ch. 30:2, as a penitent he says: "I am the most foolish of men, and the wisdom of men is not with me." The same St. Jerome, at the beginning of his Commentary on Ecclesiastes, asserts that the Hebrews teach that Ecclesiastes is the book of Solomon doing penance; hence having experienced all the pleasures of this world, he exclaims: "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity." See Pineda, book VIII On the Affairs of Solomon, ch. 1, sect. 6. This argument would have greater force if it were certain that Proverbs and Ecclesiastes were written by Solomon after his fall, not before.

33 and 34. A little, I say, you will sleep, a little you will slumber, a little you will fold your hands to rest; and poverty will come upon you like a runner, and want like an armed man.

The Chaldean: a little you will apply your hands to your breast, to sleep. The Hebrew and Chaldean: like a man bearing a shield, that is, armed with a large shield, and therefore one who cannot be conquered or repelled; the Septuagint: I nap a little, I sleep a little, a little I stroke my breast with my hands. And if you continue to do these things, I said within myself: Your poverty will come swiftly, and your want like a nimble runner.

There is a twofold exposition here, says Jansenius. Some hold that Solomon here teaches what one must do to escape poverty, namely that one should sleep little — that is, be content with little sleep and little rest; for if one does this, even if some poverty and want should arrive, it will not cling to him, but like a runner and an armed man who hastens to advance to the battle line, it will quickly pass through, and his diligence will easily overcome it. Others more correctly understand that the Wise Man here indicates by what means one falls into poverty which he cannot escape or overcome; namely, by the fact that one indulges in a little sleep now, again a little, and again a little: a little here and a little there, and thus by sleeping a little many times, one sleeps much, although one says one sleeps little — that is, one is everywhere and always idle, and weaves delays, pretending various causes for one's idleness. For by sleep, slumber, and the folding of lazy hands he designates idleness. Through this cessation and idleness, therefore, it happens that poverty arrives, as a runner suddenly and unexpectedly appears, and the same poverty like an armed man so overwhelms the person that he cannot escape it, but is utterly consumed by it. "For hunger," says Hesiod, "is the inseparable companion of the idle man."

Furthermore, these two verses are repeated here: for they are found word for word at ch. 6, verses 10 and 11, where I explained them; therefore I shall not add one jot here. These then are the sharp goads with which Solomon prods the sluggard, to shake off his sloth and become accustomed to labor; for by diligent and continual labor, a field however thorny and overgrown is purged and restored to its cultivation, seed, and harvest. Well-known is the example of the old man in the Lives of the Fathers, to whom, when a certain person complained that he was overwhelmed with vices and therefore despaired of eradicating them, the old man ordered him to purge along with him a certain garden overgrown with thistles and thorns. Therefore, daily putting their hand to the work, they gradually uprooted all of them, and within a few days completely purged the garden. Then the old man, turning to the young man: "Do likewise," he said, "O son, in the field of your soul; every day cut out and uproot some vice, and constantly urge and continue this, and thus you will gradually pull out everything, and restore your soul to its pristine purity."

In this chapter the Vatican Septuagint greatly alters the order and transposes many verses. For after verse 22, they interpose nearly the entire chapter 30, as is evident to anyone who looks, which is a sign that these maxims of Solomon were originally scattered, and were collected and arranged in various orders by various editors. The Syriac and Arabic do the same, following the Septuagint as is their custom.

How long, O sluggard, will you sleep? How long will you rise from slumber? — These words are found in many codices, but the Roman and Hebrew editions delete them; therefore they seem to have been transcribed from ch. 6, verse 10, and the word "I say" which follows sufficiently indicates this: "A little, I say;" for otherwise it should have been placed before, and one should have said: "How long, I say, will you sleep, O sluggard?" arrive, it will not cling to him, but like a runner and an armed man who hastens to advance to the battle line, it will quickly pass through, and he will easily overcome it by his diligence.