Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He who despises correction will quickly perish; in the multitude of the just the people rejoice, under the wicked they groan; a just king raises up the land, a greedy man destroys it; the flatterer spreads a net; the just man knows the cause of the poor; pestilent men scatter the city, the wise preserve it; there is no rest for one who contends with a fool; the fool pours out his whole spirit, the wise man reserves it; the ministers of a prince who delights in lies are wicked; of the poor man and the creditor God is the illuminator; the throne of a just king is eternal; the rod bestows wisdom; the just shall see the ruin of the wicked; instruct your son and he will refresh you; when prophecy fails the people are scattered; a servant is not instructed by words; the talkative man is more foolish than the fool; a servant treated delicately becomes obstinate; anger multiplies sins; humiliation follows the proud, and glory the humble; he who shares with a thief hates his own soul; he who fears man will fall, he who hopes in the Lord will be raised up; the judgment of God is more to be feared than that of the powerful; the pious abominate the wicked, and the wicked the pious.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 29:1-27
1. A man who, being often reproved, hardens his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. 2. When the just are multiplied, the people shall rejoice: when the wicked shall bear rule, the people shall mourn. 3. A man who loves wisdom makes his father glad: but he who feeds harlots shall squander his substance. 4. A just king raises up the land, but a greedy man shall destroy it. 5. A man who speaks to his friend with flattering and feigned words spreads a net for his steps. 6. A snare shall entangle the sinning wicked man: and the just shall praise and rejoice. 7. The just man knows the cause of the poor: the wicked man has no understanding. 8. Pestilent men scatter the city: but the wise turn away wrath. 9. If a wise man contends with a fool, whether he be angry or laugh, he shall find no rest. 10. Bloodthirsty men hate the simple: but the just seek his soul. 11. A fool utters all his mind: but a wise man keeps it in till afterwards. 12. A prince who willingly heeds lying words, all his ministers are wicked. 13. The poor man and the creditor have met one another: the Lord is the enlightener of them both. 14. The king who judges the poor in truth, his throne shall be established forever. 15. The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to his own will brings shame to his mother. 16. When the wicked are multiplied, transgressions shall be multiplied: and the just shall see their ruin. 17. Instruct your son, and he shall refresh you, and shall give delight to your soul. 18. When prophecy shall fail, the people shall be scattered: but he who keeps the law is blessed. 19. A servant cannot be instructed by words: because he understands what you say, and disdains to answer. 20. Have you seen a man hasty in his words? There is more hope of a fool than of his correction. 21. He who from childhood delicately nourishes his servant, shall afterwards find him stubborn. 22. A wrathful man stirs up strife: and he who is easily provoked shall be more inclined to sin. 23. Humiliation shall follow the proud: and glory shall uphold the humble in spirit. 24. He who is a partner with a thief hates his own soul: he hears the adjuration and does not disclose it. 25. He who fears man shall quickly fall: he who trusts in the Lord shall be lifted up. 26. Many seek the face of the ruler: but the judgment of each one comes from the Lord. 27. The just abominate the wicked man: and the wicked abominate those who are in the right way. A son who keeps the word shall be beyond perdition.
1. A MAN WHO, BEING OFTEN REPROVED, HARDENS HIS NECK, SHALL SUDDENLY BE DESTROYED, AND THAT WITHOUT REMEDY.
The Chaldean renders: a man who does not receive correction and hardens his neck will quickly be crushed (the Syriac: will suddenly be overthrown), and there will be no medicine for him. In Hebrew: a man of reproofs hardening his neck shall suddenly be crushed, and no healing — that is, no remedy — meaning he shall be crushed incurably, irreparably, and irremediably, beyond any remedy, as Aben-Ezra, R. Levi, and R. Solomon say.
The question is asked: who is the "man of reproofs"? Some Rabbis take it actively, as if to say: "A man reproving" other offenders. Hence the Septuagint translates it as elegchon, that is, "correcting," as the Complutensians render it: Better, they say, is a man who corrects gently than a man of stiff neck. For, as the author of the Greek Catena explains: "He who corrects rightly heals; but he who, because of the hardness of his own neck, reviles, does not so much heal as irritate, and by the shame he rashly inflicts, renders those he rebukes shameless." This gentle mode of correction is prescribed by the Apostle, Galatians 6:1: "Brethren, he says, if a man be overtaken in any fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering yourself, lest you also be tempted." See what was said there.
And St. Gregory, Part II of the Pastoral Rule, chapter 10, and St. Chrysostom, homily 30 on the Epistle to the Hebrews: "Do you not see, he says, how physicians, when they cauterize or cut someone, perform the work of healing with such gentleness; much more must one who corrects act so as to be gentle and mild," so as to coat and sweeten the bitterness of so bitter a pill with the sugar of gentleness.
But the Rabbis explain it thus: A man who reproves while hardening his neck — as if to say: If he who reproves others to subject them to law and discipline himself shakes off the yoke with a stiff neck, and does the very things he rebukes in others, he shall suddenly be crushed, and there shall be no healing — that is, he shall fall into some calamity by which he is utterly crushed, so that he cannot be healed or restored.
But all the rest take "man of reproofs" passively, as meaning a man who is reproved, as Pagninus translates. So too the Chaldean, and indeed the Septuagint; for their elegchon is not a participle from the verb elegcho, meaning "correcting" or "reproving," but is a plural noun from the singular elegchos, that is, correction, reproof. Hence Vatablus, following the Septuagint, translates: better is a man of corrections — that is, one frequently corrected, who allows himself to be corrected, who receives corrections calmly — than a man of stiff neck; for suddenly, while he burns, there is no remedy. It is a metaphor from oxen and bulls, which, fierce with stiff neck, shake off the yoke, as if to say: He who is frequently reproved for his vices, whether by man through words, or by God through scourges and blows, or through interior inspirations, and yet, like a bull, hardens his neck to persist in his vices and obstinately reject reproofs — upon him sudden destruction shall come, and healing shall not follow him: because either he will be slain by enemies in a quarrel, or he will fall into some grave crime for which he will be punished with death by God or by a judge. The example is in Pharaoh, who, reproved ten times by Moses to let go the Hebrews whom he was tyrannically oppressing, when he hardened his neck and stubbornly resisted Moses and God, God broke his neck, drowning him with all his men in the Red Sea, Exodus 14. Likewise Ophni and Phinehas, living luxuriously and often reproved by their father Eli, when they nevertheless persevered in wickedness, were both suddenly killed in battle on a single day, 1 Kings 4:11. Well known is the slaying and condemnation of Udo, Archbishop of Magdeburg, because when reproved by God — "Udo, Udo, cease from your play, you have played enough, Udo" — he nevertheless persisted in his luxury.
Thus we often see children who spurn the admonitions and reproofs of their parents gradually sliding into crimes, and finally committing theft, murder, or some similar crime for which they are punished with death by a judge. The a priori reasons are: first, that such persons, as I said, harden themselves in wickedness, so that they slide step by step from lesser to greater, until at last they commit something monstrous punishable by death; second, that this punishment is merited by the contempt of correction and the stiff neck of the one corrected. For this, since it does not allow itself to be bent by gentle correction but proudly and stubbornly struggles against it, must be crushed with a hammer or cut away with iron; the third is the just judgment of God, by which He avenges the neglect of His correction and grace, as well as obstinacy in evil, so that He allows such a person to rush into destruction, both of body and of soul.
Moreover, this destruction is both temporal — namely death — and eternal — namely damnation in hell; for often such a person is overtaken by temporal death, and not infrequently by eternal death, from which he cannot be recalled: "For in hell there is no redemption." And justly so: because the one corrected was unwilling to foresee and escape destruction, it justly comes upon him unexpectedly; and because, when he could have been healed, he did not accept the salutary medicine, when he wishes to be healed, he shall not obtain health.
Baynus, however, takes this destruction in a mystical and spiritual sense, by which the soul slips into an enormous sin so that it does not rise from it, but dies and is damned in it, as if to say: The obstinate man who trusts in his own opinion and prudence, and clings tenaciously to his own desires so as to reject all admonitions, will at last fall into mortal sin, by which he will be shattered irreparably, just as a glass or earthen vessel dashed against a rock shatters into the tiniest fragments so that it cannot be restored. And indeed we see this happen among secular clerics and Religious who spurn the reproofs of their Superiors, so that at last they slide into grave crimes, and indeed sometimes apostatize from their Order, and even from the faith and the Church, becoming heretics and ministers of heresy, of whom this age has produced many.
You may ask why the Septuagint translates: "better is a man of corrections than a man of stiff neck" — for indeed "better" is not found in the Hebrew, Chaldean, or Vulgate. I answer: the Septuagint, for macsi, that is, "hardening," read with a different vowel pointing and dagesh, mickesse, that is, "exceedingly hard." Thus the literal translation from the Hebrew would be: a man of corrections more than one hard of neck — "more than" meaning "is better than" — that is, better is he than one who is hard of neck, as if to say: Better is he who allows himself to be corrected than he who with a stiff neck resists correction. They add the reason: For suddenly, while he burns, there is no remedy — as if to say: Often the one who is admonished and reproved will burn with impatience, anger, quarreling, and obstinacy, and will wish to excuse his crimes and defend them as if they were virtues. Therefore at that point no hope of his cure remains, for he does not accept the medicine, namely correction. Such are the Jews, who refuse to hear those who reproach their faithlessness, but with deaf ears like asps stubbornly persist in Judaism, and are therefore incurable. Such too were the Pharisees who resisted the reproofs of Christ and attributed the works of the Holy Spirit to the devil, whose sin was therefore against the Holy Spirit, which is not forgiven either in this age or in the age to come, Matthew 12:32.
2. WHEN THE JUST ARE MULTIPLIED, THE PEOPLE SHALL REJOICE (the Syriac: the people are multiplied, both in number, in wealth, and in virtue): WHEN THE WICKED SHALL BEAR RULE, THE PEOPLE SHALL MOURN.
"In the multiplication": in Hebrew birboth, that is, "in the multiplying" — meaning in the magnifying and exalting of the just, when namely the just have dominion, and consequently their subjects, by their example and command (for this is the multiplication of the just), devote themselves to justice, and so the just are multiplied. For it is contrasted with the rule of the wicked. For the Hebrew rab and rabbi, that is, "many," pertains not only to quantity and number but also to quality and power, and means the same as great, powerful, prince; hence rabbim is used for nobles and princes, Isaiah 41 and Job chapter 16. Clearly therefore Pagninus translates: when the just have ruled, etc.; the Chaldean: in the multitude of the just, etc.; the Septuagint: when the just are praised, the peoples will rejoice; but when the wicked rule, men groan; Aquila: in the multiplication of the just.
Therefore this maxim harmonizes with, and is virtually the same as, that of chapter 28:12: "In the exaltation of the just there is great glory; when the wicked reign, men are ruined." Hence R. Solomon says: "Great glory is the multiplication of the just." It signifies therefore how great a good for the people and the commonwealth is an upright prince, and how great an evil a wicked one; and consequently how much the electors must take care to choose an upright one, and how much the one elected must strive to excel in uprightness. For thus he will win the people's goodwill, obedience, and reverence, so that they obey him in all things cheerfully and gladly. But if on the contrary he is wicked, he will draw upon himself the people's hatred, disobedience, and contempt, so that they obey him reluctantly and under compulsion, and indeed strive to deprive him of his rule, or even of his life.
The first reason is that an upright prince treats the people kindly, does not burden them with taxes, but strives to consult their interests more than his own. Why then should not the people rejoice under such a ruler? But a wicked one treats the people harshly, presses them with burdens, and drains them to enrich and exalt himself. Why then should not the people groan under him, and, as Cajetan translates, sigh and yearn for a more merciful ruler? The second reason is that an upright prince makes his subjects likewise upright, so that the just are multiplied and justice and virtue reign, from which follow supreme peace, concord, and love among the citizens, so that the city seems to be happy and blessed like paradise. Conversely, a wicked prince makes his subjects wicked, so that all are everywhere impious and wickedness and vices reign, from which discord, quarrels, and seditions arise, so that it seems to be a circle — the court or vestibule of hell. The third is that God often blesses and heaps every good upon the subjects on account of an upright prince, but curses and afflicts them on account of a wicked one; so R. Levi. Hence the Prophets extol the birth and kingdom of Christ, because under Him justice, peace, and happiness will reign, and the peoples will exult in it. The Psalmist graphically depicts this exultation and jubilation in Psalm 71:7: "In his days, he says, justice shall arise, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away," etc. Whence verse 17: "And in him, he says, all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed, all nations shall magnify him." And Isaiah, chapter 35:1: "The desert and the trackless land, he says, shall rejoice, and the wilderness shall exult and bloom like the lily. It shall bud forth and blossom, and shall rejoice with joy and praise: the glory of Lebanon is given to it, the beauty of Carmel and Sharon," etc.
Thus under pious Emperors, Pontiffs, and Prelates there was a common joy of the people, and as it were a triumphant exultation of the whole world — as under Constantine, Theodosius, Charlemagne; under Popes Sylvester, Leo, and Gregory the Great; under St. Augustine, St. Jerome, Basil, and Chrysostom; under St. Benedict, Romuald, Bernard, Dominic, Francis, and Ignatius. For, as the Wise Man says, chapter 6:26: "A multitude of the wise is the health of the whole world." And Rufinus, in his Preface to the Lives of the Fathers: "Who doubts that the world stands by the prayers of the Saints?" Then therefore they said with rejoicing, with the Psalmist, Psalm 64:12: "You shall bless the crown of the year of Your goodness, the beautiful places of the wilderness shall grow fat, and the hills shall be girded with joy."
Hear what St. Athanasius writes about St. Anthony and the multiplication of his Religious: "There were, he says, on the mountain as it were tabernacles full of divine choirs of those singing psalms, reading, and praying, who seemed to inhabit a certain boundless region and a town separated from worldly society. Who then, beholding the army of monks, who, seeing that manly assembly of concord in which there was no one doing harm, no detraction, but a multitude of those fasting and a rivalry of good offices — who would not immediately break forth into this cry? How beautiful are your houses, O Jacob, your tabernacles, O Israel! Like shading groves, like a paradise above the rivers, like tabernacles which the Lord has pitched, like cedars of Lebanon beside the waters," Numbers 24. For subjects follow their ruler, children their father, disciples their teacher, soldiers their commander.
Moreover, how consonant this is with nature, and flowing as it were from its very principles, Seneca declares in Epistle 90: "It is nature's way, he says, to subject the inferior to the superior. Over many herds the largest or strongest bodies preside. No degenerate bull leads the cattle, but one who surpasses the other males in size and muscle. The most excellent elephant leads the herd. Among men the best is at the top; and therefore the supreme happiness belonged to those nations among whom no one could be more powerful unless he were better. For he has as much power as he wishes who thinks he cannot do anything except what he ought."
3. A MAN WHO LOVES WISDOM MAKES HIS FATHER GLAD: BUT HE WHO FEEDS (in Hebrew, "pastures") HARLOTS SHALL SQUANDER HIS SUBSTANCE.
The Chaldean: who clings to (the Syriac: who associates with) a harlot. The wisdom of the young consists especially in continence and temperance, which moderates the brutish pleasures of gluttony and lust to which youth is swept by the fervor of nature and blood. Hence St. Jerome says to Eustochium: "Youth, he says, and wine are a double fire of pleasure." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: A wise young man who devotes himself to continence and chastity — he by his uprightness brings great joy to his father, because with a chaste body and mind he also preserves his patrimony chaste and intact. On the contrary, a foolish young man who indulges his belly and lust squanders and dissipates both his own and his father's wealth with harlots, and thus afflicts himself with poverty and his father with sorrow. For harlots drain even the most ample fortunes and know a thousand arts by which they milk money from their lovers, or rather extort it; and lust is blind and prodigal, whence young men driven by it pour out everything upon harlots. The example is in the Prodigal Son, who consumed all his goods by living luxuriously with them, and having been reduced to extreme hunger, was forced to become a swineherd and feed pigs, Luke 15. Of whom Chrysologus elegantly says: "What had been put together under the father's management, are dissipated by the prodigal son. He dies to virtues who grows in vices; he is buried to reputation, perishes to glory, who remains in baseness and grows in infamy." Moreover, the prodigal son is rightly contrasted with the wise man, because the prodigal is foolish and similar to a madman; hence, as to such a person, Roman Law assigns a guardian in the law His qui in ea, Cause 12, section 1. Hence the Emperor Tiberius, as Dio testifies, book 57, assigned a guardian to a certain luxurious and prodigal senator, as if he were a ward, or indeed insane and mad. And in the law Si adolescens, book 12, law 17, title 1, it is decreed that he who lends money to a luxurious young man has no right to recover it, because he knowingly and willingly gave it to a prodigal youth who was most certainly going to lose it. See what Solomon said about the arts and damages of harlots in chapter 7:6 and following.
4. A JUST KING RAISES UP THE LAND, A GREEDY MAN SHALL DESTROY IT.
In Hebrew: a king by judgment makes the land stand firm, and a man of offerings tears it down. The Chaldean: a king by judgment makes the land stable; the wicked man scatters it. The Septuagint: a just king raises up a province, but an unjust man destroys it. Vatablus: by judgment a king makes his dominion firm; but he who extorts tribute destroys it.
For "greedy man" the Hebrew has ish terumot, that is, "a man of elevations" — that is, of offerings. For everywhere in Scripture terumah is called a gift or offering, which was offered to God through the priest with uplifted hands. You ask, then, who is this "man of terumot," that is, of elevations? First, R. Solomon translates: a man of haughtiness — that is, a proud man who does not fear being called to judgment by anyone; hence he judges according to his whim and arrogance, and thus perverts judgment. He indeed destroys the commonwealth. Second, others say: A man of elevations or offerings is a prince or judge who plunders sacred things and claims for himself the offerings made to God. He indeed overthrows the Church, and consequently the commonwealth, for religion and piety are the foundation of the commonwealth, so that if you remove them, it must necessarily collapse. Not a few are of this sort, who seize the lands and estates of the Church and apply ecclesiastical revenues to their own treasury, whom God punishes by retaliation: those who seize Church property lose their own secular possessions, as happened to Henry VIII, King of England. What R. Solomon writes is relevant here: "The Rabbis, he says, pronounced that a judge, if he is like a king who needs neither to make friends for himself nor to receive proffered gifts, by this means makes the land firm; but if he is like a priest wandering through the threshing floors to beg for first-fruits, he plunders and ruins it."
Third, Aben-Ezra translates ish terumot as "a man of exactions," who demands tribute. It is established that the tribute which a prince collects from the people is a sixth part of an ephah, as if to say: When a king acts justly, he makes the land firm and stable; but one who takes greater tribute than what has been established by a fixed order and measure demolishes it. So too Vatablus. Fourth, the Septuagint and the Syriac translate: an unjust man, who violates equity and laws. Aquila and Theodotion: aner aphairematon, that is, a man of subtractions or offerings, who takes away what belongs to others, or covets and seizes what has been offered. Fifth, Baynus translates: a man of gifts. A king, he says, created by just judgment — that is, legitimately elected — namely one who has come to the kingdom by good deeds or virtues or legitimate succession — this one will establish it, that is, will reign long over the people. But a man of gifts, who has been raised to the principate through largesse and bribes, will destroy the land — that is, will pillage the people of the land.
Sixth and most aptly, the "man of terumot," that is, of offerings, is a man of gifts — one who does not give but solicits and receives gifts — namely, a greedy man, as our translator renders it, and therefore an unjust man, as the Septuagint translates, and a man of subtractions, that is, one who takes from his subjects their gifts and goods, as Aquila and Theodotion translate, as if to say: A king who judges justly and administers the kingdom justly will make it stable, wealthy, happy, and prosperous. But one who receives bribes, by which, once appeased, he lets crimes go unpunished, permits evils to be done, oppresses good men, acquits the guilty, and unjustly condemns the innocent — and again, one who confers offices and magistracies not on the worthy but on the unworthy who offer gifts — this one will surely destroy the commonwealth and the people of the land subject to him. For such a ruler will, first, burden and flay his subjects, to recover in triple or even tenfold the bribes he gave for the principate (as greedy men are accustomed to give them, so that they may grow rich from it), as the Emperor Justinian says. Second, such a ruler will treat his subjects harshly and unworthily, as if they were slaves purchased by the price of his bribes. Third, by this means a way is opened for good and prudent men, who cannot or will not give bribes, to be excluded from offices, while wicked and foolish men, but rich ones, obtain them through bribes.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote a notable little work on this subject to the Duchess of Brabant, where he clearly dissuades her from putting magistracies up for auction and selling them. Note that the Hebrew iaamid, meaning "makes to stand," establishes, stabilizes the land, alludes to the center of the earth and compares the king — or rather the king's justice — to it, as if to say: A just king stabilizes the land like a center, or rather through justice as through a center. For just as the center, according to Aristotle in book 1 of De Caelo, confers a triple benefit on the earth and all bodies that tend toward it — namely unity, preservation, and rest — so too the king, through the justice which he administers equally to all, unites all in the same bond, preserves them in concord by removing seditions, and grants rest from wars and enemies, which he drives away from them. Conversely, a greedy man — that is, a tyrant, unworthy of the name of king, who should be called a private man rather than a king — who sells justice for bribes, tears his subjects away from their center as it were and makes them eccentric, and instead of unity brings discord and schisms, instead of preservation ruin and destruction, instead of rest seditions and tumults. Hence our Salazar says: Just as bodies separated from their center do not rest but by their own force strive toward further places, so too citizens who have fallen under a tyrannical prince endure incredible violence, and thus do not long persist in obedience to him, but restless and fickle, think of and desire another ruler. Again, just as bodies displaced from the center are wont to be corrupted by their contraries, so too empires that have fallen to tyrannical princes, attacked by external enemies, are more easily overturned and destroyed.
That this is the nature and property of tyranny is taught by Plato, Plutarch, and Aristotle, book 5 of the Politics, chapter 10. Therefore Agapetus the Deacon, in his Admonition to the Emperor Justinian, repeatedly commends to him justice and beneficence toward his subjects: "It is surely the role of the sun, he says, to illuminate the world with its rays; but the virtue of a prince is to have mercy on the needy. Moreover, the emperor who is pious is brighter than the sun, for the sun yields to the succeeding night, but the pious emperor grants and indulges nothing to the rapacity of the wicked, but by the light of truth convicts the hidden works of iniquity." And Plutarch in his Moralia: "As God, he says, has placed in heaven the sun as the most beautiful and delightful image of Himself, so in the state He has placed the prince, who by prudence, justice, and kindness represents Himself to all." Sextus the Pythagorean in his Sentences, number 15: "A wise man, he says, and a despiser of money is like God." And number 33: "Let the world revere your life; admit nothing that would bring you reproach." Another saying: "The theology of Christians posits three preeminent attributes in God: supreme power, supreme wisdom, supreme goodness. You must fulfill this threefold ideal with all your strength. For power without goodness is mere tyranny; without wisdom, it is ruin, not a kingdom. First, then, strive, since fortune has given you power, to acquire for yourself the greatest possible force of wisdom, so that you alone may best perceive what is to be desired and what is to be avoided. Finally, strive to be of the greatest possible benefit to all, for that is the mark of goodness. And let your power serve this above all, that you may be able to do as much good as you desire — indeed, that you may wish to do more than you can. And the more power you have to harm, the less you should wish to do so."
5. A MAN WHO SPEAKS TO HIS FRIEND WITH FLATTERING AND FEIGNED WORDS SPREADS A NET FOR HIS STEPS.
So the Roman and other printed editions; but manuscripts read "his own" [suis] instead of "his" [ejus], and so R. Levi, Aben-Ezra, and the Septuagint translate it. For the Hebrew affixed pronoun is both reflexive and absolute, so that it can be rendered either "his own" or "his."
Our Vulgate version, therefore, which has "his" [ejus], signifies that flattery should be guarded against both by the one flattered and by the friend who flatters, as if to say: He who flatters a friend with bland speeches composed for adulation is not a friend but a flatterer and an enemy; because whether knowingly or unknowingly, whether simply or fraudulently, he spreads a net and snare for the morals and actions of the one he flatters. For he makes him proud and think himself greater than he really is, and regard and practice as virtues the vices which the flatterer excuses or praises. The metaphor is from hunters who ensnare birds and wild beasts with a spread net: for just as birds and beasts are caught and killed by this snare, so the souls of the foolish are caught and killed by flattery. So Plutarch, in his treatise On the Difference between a Flatterer and a Friend: "The flatterer, he says, draws and casts into a snare by imitation." And shortly after: "He does not delay the wild beast, but drives the hunter himself into the toils and surrounds him with the encirclement." See more there. Seneca, Natural Questions, book 4, in the Preface: "Do not expose your flank to flatterers, for they are skilled at capturing their superiors (behold the art by which they drag the very hunters to the nets). Believe me, you will be caught if you deliver yourself to their treachery." And Plato in the Gorgias:
The flatterer, he says, has no care for what is best, but always ensnares the unwary mind with what is sweetest, as if with a hook, and deceives to such an extent, etc. Such is man's self-love that, even if he knows the flatterer is flattering, and imprudently saying what is false, and lying splendidly, he nevertheless delights in it, and is caressed and pleased by the false praises sung of him. Seneca says gravely, in Epistle 59: "We are quickly pleased with ourselves if we find someone who calls us good men, who calls us prudent, who calls us holy; we acknowledge it. Nor are we content with moderate praise: whatever flattery has shamelessly heaped upon us, we seize as if it were a debt owed us. We agree with those who affirm that we are the best and wisest, knowing that they often lie." No less truly and gravely, in On Tranquility, chapter 10: "Who has dared to tell himself the truth? Who, placed among flocks of those praising and flattering him, has not nevertheless flattered himself the most?" Therefore the fact that we are led astray by the deception of flatterers flows from our own error and our own self-flattery. "Self-love (says Plutarch) makes each person, being his own first and greatest flatterer, readily admit an external one whom he thinks and wishes to be a witness and corroborator agreeing with him." Hence Diogenes wisely says, according to Dio, Oration 3
On Kingship: "Of all vices, he says, you would find flattery the most disgraceful, for it corrupts that which is most honorable and just in life — namely praise — so that it no longer seems credible or true; or (which is the worst of all) it assigns the rewards of virtue to vice. And so those who make virtue lose its credibility do far worse than those who counterfeit money." And further on: "He who praises a poor man as if he were rich is himself a liar, but to the one praised he is reproaching his poverty."
The Chaldean agrees with the Vulgate and translates: a man who is divided (for the Hebrew chalac means both to flatter or adulate, and to divide) from his companion — he spreads a net for his steps — as if to say: He who through quarrel, anger, or hatred separates himself from a friend, plots a snare for him — that is, fraud and deceit — to deceive and supplant him. The Hebrew reads: a man who soothes or flatters his companion — he spreads a net for his steps — as if to say: He uses smooth words and flatters his neighbor so that through these flatteries he may deceive him, or obtain from him something advantageous to himself but burdensome and disadvantageous to the giver. It warns therefore that flatteries and smooth-talkers are to be avoided, because they almost always intend to deceive or to extort something; we experience this every day. Flatteries then are the sweet and honeyed snares of the imprudent. Hence Cato in his Distichs, following Solomon, admonishes thus: Do not too readily approve men with flattering speech: The pipe sings sweetly while the fowler deceives the bird.
And further on: Remember to beware of flattering and lisping words: Simplicity is the form of truth; fraud, of feigned speech. The maxim of the Syrians and Arabs is relevant here, Century 1, number 97: "When you hear someone speaking well of you regarding something that is not in you, do not believe it (do not secretly rejoice): for he will also speak ill of you regarding something that is not in you." Hence to soften speeches, or to flatter, in Scripture is the same as to deceive, as: "His words were made softer than oil, and yet they are darts," Psalm 54:22. So Delilah seduced Samson by her flatteries and led him to death, Judges chapter 14:15. Similar are Proverbs 2:16, and chapter 6:28, and chapter 23:31, and chapter 7:23.
In like manner, those who treacherously serve poison to an enemy offer it in sweet and delicate wines, and in gilded cups. Hence Juvenal: No aconite is drunk from earthen vessels: Fear it then when you take cups set with gems, And Setian wine glows in the broad gold. For once upon a time Setian wines (from the town of Setia, not far from Rome) were the most exquisite, and Augustus Caesar used to drink them. Now that the site of the town has changed, these delights of its wines have changed and perished.
But the Vatican Septuagint, which has "his own" [suis], translates thus: he who prepares a net before the face of his friend, wraps it around his own feet. This sentence is more forceful and warns the cunning and fraudulent who set traps for others and contrive deceits, to abstain from them, because these frauds will recoil upon their own heads, as if to say: He who plots evil against his friend through treachery will himself be ensnared and caught by the same, as if by his own net — according to that saying of chapter 28:10: "He who deceives the just into an evil way shall himself fall into his own destruction, and the simple shall possess his goods"; and chapter 26:27: "He who digs a pit shall fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it shall return upon him." For this is the just judgment of God and the just punishment of retaliation, that the deceitful are ensnared by the very deceits they have stretched for others, as I said there, according to Psalm 34:8: "Let the snare which he knows not come upon him; and let the trap which he has hidden catch him, and let him fall into the very snare."
Moreover, the Complutensian and Royal Septuagint have: He who is prepared before the face of his friend will cast a net about him with his own feet. But this reading is obscure and involved, and differs from the Hebrew, Chaldean, Vulgate, and indeed from the Vatican Septuagint and the author of the Greek Catena, who all omit "him" [ei]. Perhaps because the Hebrew pronoun, as I said, can be rendered both "his" and "his own," someone added "his" or "him" in the margin of the Septuagint to indicate both renderings, and this later crept into the text.
6. A SNARE SHALL ENTANGLE THE SINNING WICKED MAN: AND THE JUST SHALL PRAISE AND REJOICE.
In Hebrew: in the transgression of a man there is an evil snare, and the just man shall proclaim praises and rejoice. Cajetan: and the just man shall sing and rejoice. The Chaldean: an evil man is caught in his sin, etc. The Septuagint: for the sinning man there is a great snare, but the just man shall be in joy and gladness. Aquila: in the sin of an unjust man there is an offense. Symmachus: in injustice of a man there is an evil scandal.
"Offense" and "scandal" can here be taken both actively — as if to say: the wicked man by his wickedness offends and scandalizes his neighbors — and passively — as if to say: the wicked man in his wickedness shall be offended, scandalized, and caught, just as a mouse is caught and tripped by the bait in a trap (for from this the word "scandal" is derived, as I have said elsewhere). And this latter sense is more conformable to the Hebrew, Chaldean, Vulgate, and Septuagint. Hence Pagninus translates: because of the transgression of a man, an evil snare shall come upon him; but the just man shall praise and rejoice. Vatablus: for the wicked man his own transgression is a snare; but the just man exults and rejoices.
You may ask: who is here called the sinning and wicked man who is ensnared by his own sin and wickedness? First, Baynus understands the fraudulent and deceitful man, of whom the preceding verse speaks, to which he connects this verse, as if to say: The net spread by the flatterer will not impede anyone's steps, but his own iniquities catch the wicked man, and he is bound by the ropes of his own words. Or more forcefully: when the cunning and deceitful man prepares a net for another, he casts a snare upon himself, by which he is strangled and suffocated; for deceits recoil upon the deceitful man and suffocate him.
Second, Aben-Ezra understands the rebel, for rebellion in Hebrew is called pescha, that is, transgression. For rebels are accustomed to be caught in their rebellion and punished with death by the prince. Third, R. Levi understands the scandalous man who strives to entice others into his crimes, according to the saying: "Woe to the wicked, woe to the neighbor of the wicked." For such a person, as a plague of the commonwealth, is accustomed to be punished and destroyed by death on account of this scandal, just as we see heretics who proselytize — who solicit others to their heresies — being punished. Of these God says, Jeremiah chapter 5:26: "Among my people are found wicked men lying in wait like fowlers, setting snares and traps to catch men; as a cage full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit."
Fourth, our Salazar understands the despairing man; for his despair is a snare for him — that is, a most grave and incurable sin that kills and suffocates him, just as we see despairing people often suffocating themselves with a noose or drowning themselves. Despair therefore first strangles the soul, then the body. Conversely, the just man, raised up by hope, leaps for joy and bursts forth into praises of God. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The sinner guilty of the greatest crimes is often brought by his own conscience to despair, and compelled to place his neck in a noose, condemned by his own judgment. So Judas the traitor, stung by the conscience of his committed crime, cast a noose upon himself. This is an apt but inadequate and partial explanation. For despair is only one part and species of sin, which, as it contains various other species, so it weaves for itself various snares besides despair.
Fifth, therefore, fully and adequately take "sinning" here to mean anyone who sins, namely with grave and enormous sin, who is injurious, malicious, and harmful to others. For in Hebrew he is called ra (evil), and the injury is denoted by pescha, that is, transgression. This maxim therefore teaches that sin is like bait, toward which, as birds, mice, and wild beasts fly, they are caught and tangled in a nearby net or snare. For in a similar way sin has its own bait and allurement — namely the pleasure of gluttony, lust, ambition, revenge, etc. — but along with it, sin pierces the sinner with the hook of guilt, holds and catches him, according to Wisdom 14:11: "The creatures of God are turned to hatred, and to temptation to the souls of men, and to a snare for the feet of the unwise."
This hook is the guilt of sin, by which the sinner binds himself to the devil and makes himself liable to the wrath of God and guilty of hell. Whence there follows perpetual grief and anguish of conscience, infamy, the punishment of the judge, and a thousand afflictions sent upon the sinner either by God or by men. This is what Isaiah, following Solomon, says in chapter 5:18: "Woe, he says, to those who draw iniquity with cords of vanity, and sin as if with the rope of a cart." And Job chapter 18:9: "The sole of his foot, he says, shall be held in a snare... a pitfall for him is hidden in the ground, and a trap for him upon the path." And Solomon's father David: "The cords of hell, he says, surrounded me; the snares of death overtook me," 2 Kings 22:6. See what was said at verse 22, on the words: "His own iniquities catch the wicked man," etc.
THE JUST SHALL PRAISE AND REJOICE. — In Hebrew: he shall shout for joy and be glad — both because he rejoices that crimes and criminals are punished out of zeal for justice; and because he sees himself freed from both; and finally because, joyful in justice, he has a joyful conscience, and in security awaits joys and rewards both present and eternal from God. Cajetan: he shall sing and rejoice, as an allusion to Isaiah 35:8, according to the Septuagint: In the parched land there shall be a fountain of water; there shall be the joy of birds. And Cyril, alluding to these words: "The fountain of living water, he says, is Christ the Savior; in Him there is a gathering and joy of birds. By 'birds' he means those who fly above earthly things, who use the freedom of the spirit, who are exalted because of virtue, and who mind the things that are above."
Truly and piously St. Augustine says in his Sentences, number 90: "No one, he says, can be defrauded of his delights to whom Christ is his joy. For that is an eternal exultation which rejoices in the eternal Good.
And number 113: "For a Christian the cause of rightly rejoicing is not the present age but the future one. And temporal things must be used in such a way that they do not hinder eternal ones, so that on the road where pilgrims walk, what leads to the homeland is what pleases." I said more about this joy of the just at chapter 15:15, on the words: "A secure mind is like a perpetual feast."
7. THE JUST MAN KNOWS THE CAUSE OF THE POOR: THE WICKED MAN HAS NO UNDERSTANDING.
For "cause" the Hebrew has din, that is, judgment — meaning the lawsuit and forensic cause that is debated in court. Hence it is evident that this chiefly concerns the judge and advocates, as if to say: A just judge and advocate take to heart and care for, and therefore diligently investigate, the legal causes of the poor, so that they may know, defend, and decide their justice and equity from the root and foundations. But an unjust and wicked judge or advocate does not care about the lawsuits of the poor, because he hopes for little profit from them, and therefore does not investigate their reasons and foundations — indeed, he affects ignorance of them, lest he be forced to stand for them against the rich and powerful, whose gifts and favor he courts. Isaiah rebukes such people, chapter 1:23: "They do not judge the orphan, he says, and the cause of the widow does not come before them."
Contrary to what the Prophet prescribes, Psalm 81:3: "Judge the needy and the orphan, justify the humble and the poor." Hence in Hebrew it is lo iabin, that is, "he does not discern" — namely ben, that is, between the just and the unjust, between the lawsuit of the rich and the poor, between the general law and the particular case; but he wraps everyone up in one general law and sentence, and thus often unjustly condemns the poor who should be exempted. Such a just man was St. Job, who said, chapter 29:16: "I was a father to the poor, and the case I did not know, I investigated most diligently."
Such was St. Louis IX, King of France, who, fearing that the cases of the poor would be negligently heard by judges, himself heard, discerned, and adjudicated them every week. The same was done by St. Ivo, who entirely devoted himself gratis to the defense of the poor, and was therefore enrolled among the Saints as the patron of the poor. For this reason, in many universities those about to receive the degree of Doctor or Licentiate in law, and advocates of the courts, swear that they will handle the cases of the poor without charge. Indeed, in Rome advocates are designated at public expense to handle the lawsuits of the poor without charge. The saying of Democritus quoted by Antonius in the Melissa, Part 2, chapter 7, is relevant here: "The best judge is one who understands quickly and judges slowly; for the former belongs to benevolence, the latter to careful diligence." Theodoric the king says splendidly, in Cassiodorus, book 3 of the Variae, chapter 20: "Among the glorious cares of the state, he says, which with God's help we revolve in perpetual reflection, our heart's concern is the relief of the humble against the power of the proud."
And Pliny in his Panegyric of Trajan: "A king is one whose imperial majesty is the guardian of safety." And another: "God gives a prince who acts in His stead toward the whole human race." What David sang of Solomon as a type of Christ, who was the model of kings and princes, is relevant here, Psalm 71:12: "For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty, and the poor man who had no helper."
Moreover, the Septuagint translates: the just man knows how to judge for the poor, but the wicked man has no understanding. The Complutensians: does not consider the cause. The Royal edition: does not understand judgment. And they add: And the poor man does not have a discerning mind, or shrewdness, as the author of the Greek Catena translates. These words are not in the Hebrew, Chaldean, or Vulgate; therefore they were either added paraphrastically by the Septuagint, or certainly appended from another version. For if, instead of ruscha, that is, "wicked," you read by apocope ras (as I noted above that the Septuagint read elsewhere), meaning "poor," and add the rest that follows to it, this meaning emerges: "The poor man does not understand knowledge" — that is, the poor man has no discerning mind — as if to say: Therefore the just judge or advocate investigates the rights of the poor man, because the poor man by himself is either simple, slow, or foolish, or ignorant, or unaware of the law. Therefore the judge pities him all the more and takes greater care of the poor man's case, diligently studying it to investigate and protect his equity. This is what David sang of Solomon as a type of Christ, who was the model of kings and princes, Psalm 71:12: "For he shall deliver the poor from the mighty, and the poor man who had no helper."
8. PESTILENT MEN SCATTER THE CITY: BUT THE WISE TURN AWAY WRATH.
In Hebrew: men of mockery (that is, mockers; the Syriac: scoffers, who deride all things human and divine, and therefore are pestilent) blow upon or puff at the city; but the wise cause the nose — that is, anger and wrath — to turn back. For "scatter" the Hebrew is iapichu, that is, "they blow"; the Chaldean: they speak falsehood. For commonly those who lie are said to "blow," since just as by blowing we stir up wind, so by lying we blow forth nothing but vanity and falsehood. Symmachus: they set on fire. The Septuagint: they burned up. Others: they cause to fluctuate. Vatablus and Pagninus: they ensnare, as iapichu alludes to pach, that is, a snare.
First, Aben-Ezra explains it thus, as if to say: God, on account of the mockers, prepares snares for the citizens, in which they may be entangled; but the wise, because of the prudence with which they excel, appease the divine wrath and avoid the snares. Second, R. Levi says: The mockers sow quarrels and dissensions by which the city is destroyed; but the wise strive to bring about peace, and utterly soothe the anger and heat with which one person burns against another. And Vatablus: The scoffers, he says, are the ruin of the city, but the wise turn away the anger stirred up by the jesters. Third, the Hebrews who translate iapichu as "blow" or "puff" or "cause to fluctuate" consider it a metaphor from the wind, as if to say: Just as strong winds, especially contrary ones, when they clash with each other, fell trees, overturn towers, tear apart cities, dash ships at sea and shatter them, and raise high waves to the stars; so likewise tumultuous and seditious men stir up quarrels, schisms, and seditions, by which the whole city is dashed and shaken. But the wise by their prudence and calm settle these waves and commotions, and restore the citizens to peace and the city to integrity.
Fourth, the Septuagint, Symmachus, and others who translate iapichu as "set on fire" or "inflame" consider the metaphor to be drawn either from the bellows or from the blasts of winds, as if to say: Just as fire is kindled by blowing with a bellows, which, creeping along, may burn an entire pile of wood, or even a forest or house, a street, a city; so likewise whisperers who sow enmities, discords, and quarrels are like bellows and fans that kindle angers and quarrels among citizens, so that the whole city seethes with brawls and descends into fights and killings. But the wise compress these bellows, suppress the malice, and restore peace to the city. Fifth, our translator renders iapichu as "scatter" — that is, blow away — the metaphor being taken from chaff and straw, as if to say: Just as the winnower of wheat by winnowing blows away and scatters the chaff so that it vanishes into the thin air; so likewise whisperers and seditious men with their whisperings and tumults agitate and winnow the fickle and mobile crowd, stirring up seditions by which the rich are despoiled, the upright are harmed, the powerful are driven out, and thus the citizens perish and vanish. But the wise by their wisdom and gravity pacify these tumults and reconcile the common people with the senate, and so restore concord and tranquility to the city — as Menenius Agrippa once did at Rome, who reconciled the common people, dissenting from and withdrawing to the Aventine Hill from the senate (because, stirred up by whisperers, they complained of being oppressed by the senate), by means of the fable of the belly and the members, which I recounted at 1 Corinthians 12:23, thus reconciling them with the senate and restoring peace to the city.
Epictetus says splendidly, as quoted by Stobaeus, Sermon 43: "Just as torches raised in a harbor, kindled with a great flame from a few bits of kindling, bring much aid to ships wandering through the sea; so too distinguished men in a city in peril, themselves content with few things, bestow great benefits upon the citizens." An example is the wise woman of Tekoa, who freed the city of Abel, threatened by the rebel Sheba, from rebellion by her wisdom, and averted the war of Joab and David, 2 Kings 20. Moses and Aaron also often turned away the wrath of God from Israel, as did Phinehas by killing the pestilent worshipers of Baal-Peor who were fornicating with the Midianite women who had provoked it, Numbers 25.
9. IF A WISE MAN CONTENDS WITH A FOOL, WHETHER HE BE ANGRY OR LAUGH, HE SHALL FIND NO REST.
In Hebrew: a wise man entering judgment with a foolish man — he will be angry and laugh, and there is no rest. The Chaldean: a wise man contending with a foolish man, whether he be angry or laugh, will not be crushed. The Septuagint: a wise man shall judge nations, but a worthless man who grows angry is mocked and does not frighten. The Syriac: he does not take it ill, or does not grow indignant.
First, R. Solomon takes the wise man to be God, who contends with the foolish — that is, the wicked — continually without rest. Second, Baynus says, as if: The fool is incorrigible, for he rejects the admonitions of others either by laughing or by growing angry; therefore he must be subdued and corrected not by words but by the rod and the lash. Third and most aptly, the phrase "whether he be angry or laugh" should be referred to the wise man who corrects, not to the fool who is corrected. The meaning therefore is, says Jansenius, as if to say: If it happens that a wise man disputes with a foolish man — that is, a wicked person — whether in court or outside of court, whether the wise man grows angry or laughs — that is, whether he acts seriously or in jest, whether he shows his just indignation with serious words, or by laughing declares that he despises the other's wickedness, whether he deals with him harshly or gently and kindly — he will not find rest, meaning he will not easily be freed from him and will not easily satisfy him so as to have quiet from his attacks.
The proverb teaches that the fool and the wicked man is implacable and incorrigible; therefore the wise must prudently avoid contentions with him. The example is in the Pharisees, with whom Christ, though contending, could never obtain rest from them, whether He assailed them harshly or strove to satisfy them gently. For fools, like dull and stupid beasts, allow themselves to be turned neither to wisdom nor virtue by the blandishments of words or by threats and blows of the lash. But the wise, as those who excel in mind and judgment, are stirred to virtue by both. The saying of Sextus the Pythagorean is relevant here: "Neither speech is to be sought in fish, nor virtue in unskilled men." And that of Crates: "Fools are like gimlets, in that unless compelled by bonds and necessity they do not perform their duty." And the saying: "A Phrygian is only corrected by blows."
Moreover, the Septuagint translates: a wise man shall judge nations, but a worthless man who grows angry is mocked and does not frighten — as if to say: A wise man easily rules peoples, both because he is prudent and moderate, and because he goes before his subjects by his own example, who therefore follow him and willingly obey. But a wicked and base man obtains nothing from his subjects; rather, even if he grows angry at their disobedience, he is mocked by them, and does not frighten by threatening — he is lightly regarded and despised; both because he burdens his subjects with laws, taxes, and impositions; and because he is imprudent; and because he gives his subjects scandal and the example of a wicked life, commanding what is right while living dissolute. Hence the author of the Greek Catena clearly translates the Septuagint: A wise man rightly judges the people; but a wicked man, inflamed with anger, makes himself a laughingstock, and strikes no one with fear. Learn from this that uprightness is of the greatest value for governance and for obtaining obedience from subjects; for this is obtained by the reputation for prudence and virtue, as well as by the example of one's life. Hence Plutarch in his Moralia compares the prince with law and justice: "Of so many and so great goods and gifts which the gods bestow, he says, there is no fruit or right use without law, justice, and a prince. Justice is the end of law; law is the work of the prince; and the prince is the image of God administering all things." Hence Cato used to say that the worst prince is one who cannot command himself, so as to subject himself to reason, law, and virtue; for by what reasoning can such a person subject others to himself and to the law?
10. BLOODTHIRSTY MEN HATE THE SIMPLE: BUT THE JUST SEEK HIS SOUL.
For "simple" the Hebrew has tam, that is, upright, spotless, incorrupt. The Syriac: innocent. The Septuagint: hosion, that is, holy. This especially designates the just man who champions and vindicates justice, who sharply reproves unjust plunderers and murderers, and if he holds a magistracy, prosecutes them and punishes them with death. For murderers hate him as the destroyer of their life.
The meaning is, as if to say: Bloodthirsty men and murderers hate the innocent man who is devoted to virtue, both because he is contrary to their morals and silently condemns them by his life; for since they delight in a criminal life, they therefore hate virtue and those endowed with virtue. Hence the Chaldean translates: men who shed blood hate simplicity, but the upright seek it — both because they covet his goods, and therefore plot against the life of one exposed, as it were, as prey to them.
But the just seek his soul — they strive to preserve his life, since it is most useful to them and to the whole commonwealth on account of his example, counsel, prayers, and merits before God. Finally, because, as I said, assassins hate men of integrity who defend the laws and prosecute the unjust, especially murderers; therefore they pursue them with the most bitter hatred as their judges and executioners. Note: the phrase "they seek his soul" is explained in various ways. First, the Zurich Bible translates: the upright have his life at heart. Second, the Syriac: the upright love him — namely, they love to associate and converse with him, so that by his wise and holy soul they may be instructed, guided, and sanctified, and receive counsel, consolation, and help. Third, Vatablus: the upright seek his will — that is, they strive to comply with him in all things. For "soul" often metonymically signifies the desires and counsels of the soul. Hence R. Solomon says: "This expression, he says, signifies love and good will, and has the same force as David's words to Abiathar," 1 Kings 22:23: "If anyone seeks my soul, he will seek yours too — that is, whoever confers benefits on me will confer them on you too." But the meaning of that passage is different, for "soul" there signifies life. Fourth, R. Levi: The just, he says, seek their own soul — that is, to fulfill the holy desires of their soul — as if to say: They attempt in every way to carry out what they desire. Fifth, Aben-Ezra, Salazar, and Baynus, as if to say: The soul — that is, the life — of the just man, snatched away by murderers, the upright and equitable judges will seek out and avenge, and will not permit murderers to run free with impunity, shedding the blood of good men, as if to say: This especially pertains to just judges, that just as they investigate and defend the cases of the poor lest they be oppressed by the rich, so too when a simple man — that is, an innocent, just, and upright man — has been killed, they should investigate and punish the authors of the murder, to avenge the blood of the innocent. In this sense it is said in Psalm 9, verse 5: "There is no one who seeks (that is, avenges) my soul." And Ezekiel 3:20: "His blood I will require from your hand"; and often elsewhere. For since the simple and innocent are modest and patient and do not avenge their own injuries, it is fitting that just judges do so, that satisfaction may be made for justice violated, both human and divine, through the punishment of the guilty. Hence Phocylides: "The wicked, he says, justly slain, are sacrifices to Jupiter." Of these interpretations the most genuine are the first and the last. You may connect both thus, as if to say: Assassins hate the man of integrity who stands firmly for the justice that they violate, and therefore they conspire against his life, just as the Pharisees conspired against the life of Christ. Hence their cry in Wisdom 2:12: "Let us beset the just man, because he is useless to us and contrary to our works, and he reproaches us with transgressions of the law, etc. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death." But the just, especially judges and magistrates, conversely conspire to protect the life of the man of integrity, and if his life has been snatched from him by murderers, to avenge it and punish by retaliation, even if his death must be atoned for and expiated by the slaying of many who were the authors or helpers of his death.
This maxim is most true regarding upright and diligent governors and magistrates who prosecute assassins: for assassins hate them worse than dogs and snakes, and seek to kill them. But the just, especially judges and governors, surround such men to protect their lives; and if they are killed, they vigorously punish those guilty of the murder. Thus the Gittites and six hundred bodyguards protected the life of the innocent David, who was pursuing bandits, and would have killed Saul who plotted against him, had David not prevented it, 1 Kings 24:5.
11. A FOOL UTTERS ALL HIS MIND: BUT A WISE MAN KEEPS IT IN TILL AFTERWARDS.
Note: "Spirit" in Scripture signifies many things: first, the mind and thoughts of the soul; second, wisdom; third, the desires and passions of the soul; fourth, the secrets of the mind; fifth, the spirit and the powers and impulses of the soul. According to this fivefold meaning of "spirit," a fivefold interpretation arises.
First, then, R. Solomon, taking "spirit" as the mind, explains it thus: When a fool pours out his entire mind, the wise man comes along, refutes him, restrains him, and silences him with his responses. Second, Aben-Ezra, taking "spirit" as wisdom, and achor, meaning "afterward" or "behind," as the heart of man (which comes after the pronunciation of the lips), explains it thus, as if to say: The fool brings forth all the spirits of knowledge and publicizes them to others, according to the saying: "In the heart of the prudent wisdom rests, and in the heart of the fool it is made known." But the wise man contains and restrains the spirit of knowledge in his heart, which comes after the organs of pronunciation, and does not broadcast it to fools, as that saying testifies: "In the heart of the prudent wisdom rests." Third, R. Levi, taking "spirit" as desires and passions, explains it thus: The fool pours himself out into his desires and gives himself headlong to them; but the wise man restrains and checks them with reason. Therefore he who is wise hides and controls them. St. Ephrem truly says in his sermon to those practicing piety and good works: "He is truly a divine philosopher, he says, who at all times resists his evil desires; for he who flatters himself with the mere name of wisdom is truly foolish and stupid, because he allows himself to be disturbed and tormented by such small passions."
Fourth, Cajetan and Baynus, taking "spirit" as a secret, interpret it thus, as if to say: There is no greater proof of stupidity than being unable to keep a secret. To immediately blurt out everything one has conceived in his mind is the height of foolishness. Therefore the wise man suppresses it and stores it in his mind, according to chapter 17:27: "A man of learning is a man of precious spirit," and chapter 25:28: "He who can restrain his spirit in speaking."
Fifth, the Chaldean takes "spirit" as anger and fury, for angry people blow spirits and fumes from their nostrils. Hence he translates: the fool pours out all his fury, but the wise man wisely suppresses it. And Vatablus: the fool pours out all his anger, but the wise man afterwards calms it. This can be taken in two ways: first, of the fool's anger, as if to say: The fool, quarreling and flaring up, blurts out whatever his bile suggests, and the wise man, by giving a reasonable response, calms him so that he puts aside his bile and becomes mild. Second, of the anger of the wise man himself, as if to say: The fool cannot restrain his anger, but the wise man suppresses it by prudent silence and reflection. Hence Symmachus translates: at the end he softens it. The Septuagint concurs, translating "spirit" as thumon, which St. Jerome and following him Cassian render as "anger." Hear Cassian, Conferences 16, chapter 27: "The fool pours out all his anger, but the wise man dispenses it in parts — that is, the fool is inflamed with the disturbance of wrath for the sake of vengeance; but the wise man gradually diminishes and expels it by the maturity of counsel and moderation. Similar is what the Apostle says: 'Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath' — that is, by no means rush to vengeance under the compulsion of wrath. But 'give place to wrath,' that is, let not your hearts be so constricted by the narrow straits of impatience and pusillanimity that they cannot endure the violent storm of commotion when it breaks upon them; but be enlarged in your hearts, receiving the adverse waves of wrath in those extended bosom-folds of charity, which bears all things, endures all things; and thus the mind enlarged by the breadth of long-suffering and patience, may have within it salutary recesses of counsel, into which the most foul smoke of wrath, once received and as it were diffused, may immediately vanish." And a little further on: "For this is the nature of wrath, that when delayed it languishes and dies, but when expressed it burns more and more." Therefore Solomon teaches here that an effective remedy for anger is to delay the vengeance, harsh words, quarrels, etc., to which anger spurs us, so that they may be considered more maturely; for anger is like a flame which, once it has boiled over, immediately dies down and subsides. Therefore the best remedy for anger is delay, especially because through it reason awakens and prudently considers many things that repress the tumults of anger, plucking them apart and dissipating them bit by bit; for this is to trick anger, and by tricking and eluding it, to weaken it. The philosophers also taught this. Aristotle: "For anger to be digested, he says, time is needed, nor does any healthier remedy present itself." Athenodorus gave this admonition to Augustus Caesar as a golden necklace: "Whenever you are angry, say nothing and do nothing until you have recited the twenty-four letters of the alphabet." St. Ambrose gave a similar instruction to the Emperor Theodosius, when in sudden anger he had ordered the Thessalonians, who had thrown down his statue, to be killed. Seneca, book 2 of On Anger, chapter 26: "The greatest remedy for anger, he says, is delay; do not ask anger at the outset to pardon, but to judge. It will cease if it waits; and do not try to remove it all at once: its first impulses are violent; the whole will be conquered while it is picked apart piece by piece." The same author, book 3, chapter 12: "No one delays himself; yet the greatest remedy for anger is postponement, so that its first heat may cool, and the cloud that oppresses the mind may either settle or become less dense. Some of the things that were carrying you headlong, an hour — not just a day — will soften; some will vanish entirely." Gregory of Nazianzus says splendidly in his Iambics: "Patience, he says, is the digestion of troubles." This sense fits well with the Chaldean version, Vatablus, and the Septuagint, but less well with the Vulgate, which has: but the wise man defers and reserves for later — for anger is not to be kept in reserve by deferring it, but utterly extinguished.
Moreover, St. Gregory, Part 3 of the Pastoral Rule, admonition 10, takes "spirit" as impatience, which he says is reserved for later — namely, deferred to God's last judgment: "Let the impatient hear, he says, what is said again through Solomon: The fool pours out all his spirit, but the wise man defers and reserves for later. For, driven by impatience, the whole spirit is poured forth outwardly, which disturbance expels the more quickly because no inner discipline of wisdom contains it. But the wise man defers and reserves for later; for when injured he does not desire to avenge himself in the present, because even while enduring he wishes to be spared; yet he is not unaware that all things will be justly avenged at the last judgment."
Sixth and most aptly, the Septuagint translates the Hebrew ruach, that is, "spirit," as thumon — that is, the mind, and the force of the mind, its energy, efficacy, impulse, fervor, heat, which stimulates and drives a man to express or execute too hastily what he has conceived in his mind, as if to say: The fool brings forth all the forces, impulses, and heat of his mind, so that he keeps nothing for himself but pours himself out entirely and exhausts himself. But the wise man retains and represses the forces and impulses of his mind, and, as some translate from the Hebrew, drives them backward, so that he does not exhaust himself entirely but keeps some things for himself, which he may afterwards bring forth and dispense in parts, as the Septuagint translates. The fool, he says,
Cajetan says, the fool is driven by impulse, while the wise man represses the impulse and moderates it with the bridle of reason. Thus we see fools pour out all their knowledge at once and in a single burst, and then fall silent like infants. Likewise in action they bring forth all their industry and strength at once and in a single effort, and then immediately grow torpid and dull like people who are stupefied. By contrast, the wise dispense what they know gradually at intervals, so that material for speaking and teaching always remains for them. Likewise in action they are moderate and temper their strength, exerting it successively in portions, with the result that they are able to work for a long time and increase their industry and strength through working. Hence you may translate from the Hebrew: but the wise man promotes it for later — namely, his spirit; for the Hebrew scabach has contrary meanings, namely to promote and to restrain, likewise to praise and to glorify. Hence with Cajetan you may translate: but the wise man will hereafter praise or glorify it — that is, he will make his spirit and mind praiseworthy and glorious, by gradually bringing forth its forces so that he can always work. And so he increases and sharpens its virtue and energy through continuous activity and constant exercise. For nature advances by working and gradually polishes and perfects its work; grace does the same. Hence in trees it first produces leaves, then flowers, then fruit, and gradually forms, increases, and ripens them. Conversely, when a tree or vine runs wild and pours itself entirely into foliage, it keeps no sap for itself to devote to flowers and fruit; therefore it is barren and unfruitful. The same happens if it runs wild in fruit for one year and exhausts all its strength: it soon becomes barren and withers. The same happens with water and milk, which when placed in a pot over fire boils up from the heat, pours itself out almost entirely so as to extinguish the fire, and then immediately subsides completely and settles. Just like these are the fervor of beginners, who suddenly boil up but soon subside. Daily examples of this saying are found among beginners who start on the path of virtue, and especially among novices in Religious Orders who, with overeager fervor, exhaust their heads and bodies with excessive fasts, penances, and prayers, and consume all their strength, with the result that they grow languid in body and weary and wasted in spirit, their vigor collapses, and they fall into illness and become weak, feeble, torpid, and unfit for everything. Hence St. Basil wisely admonishes them to moderation in his treatise On Virginity.
12. THE PRINCE WHO WILLINGLY LISTENS TO LYING WORDS HAS ALL HIS MINISTERS WICKED.
First, Baynus takes this as referring to the lies of flatterers, as if to say: The prince who feeds on the flatteries of sycophants has wicked ministers; for the sycophants who praise the prince's vices as though they were virtues through flattery are wicked, with the result that the prince becomes vicious and a tyrant and oppresses the commonwealth.
Second, others take this as referring to the person against whom the prince is angry or offended, and therefore the prince willingly hears false accusations and charges against him in order to destroy him. For when subjects know this, they strive to please the prince and fabricate many falsehoods against that person, in order to win the prince's favor at the cost of an innocent man's harm and the ruin of the commonwealth. But this sense is too narrow.
Third, then, adequately and aptly, take "lying" here in its full and plain sense — not as a jest, nor as an officious lie, but as a pernicious lie, one that inflicts grave injury and harm on others either in their goods, their reputation, or their life; such as when someone seriously slanders another, or calumniates him, or falsely accuses him of a crime for which he should be punished with disgrace, fined, imprisoned, or deprived of life. For the prince who willingly listens to calumnies and false accusations causes his ministers to seek out and fabricate such things in order to please him, with the result that the innocent are oppressed and justice is trampled and overturned. That this is the meaning is clear from the Septuagint, which translates: when the king listens to an unjust word, all his subjects are unjust. In Hebrew: the ruler who pays attention to words of falsehood has all his servants wicked. For as Ecclesiasticus 10:2 says: "As the judge of the people is, so also are his ministers; and as the ruler of the city is, such also are its inhabitants." See what was said there. Hence in the courts of wicked princes, we see the ministers conform themselves to them in wickedness, and indeed strive to be even worse than they are.
Note: For "wicked," the Hebrew is reschaim, that is, restless, turbulent, seditious — namely, not so much settlers as stirrers-up and inciters of lawsuits, liars, eager not so much for truth as for imposture, greedy and avaricious. For this reason, indeed, "in the place of judgment" there is not only a wicked judge, but the benches of the courts are full of the most iniquitous sycophants, criminal informers, wicked ministers, babblers who are more wordy than truthful, and advocates who plead the cause not so much of truth as of their own profit. In short, the forum is full of avarice and calumny, as Isaiah 59:4 lamented: "There is no one who calls upon justice;" for justice is an exile, absent from its own place; rather they implore the present assistance of wickedness and iniquity. Or: "There is no one who calls justly," who summons another justly to court. This is what Ecclesiastes 3:16 deplores as a great crime and sacrilege: "I saw under the sun, in the place of judgment, wickedness, and in the place of justice, iniquity" — so that wickedness and injustice occupy the throne of justice and reign and rule there as queen; that is, so that Lucifer occupies the throne of God and Antichrist occupies the throne of Christ, as I shall say more fully there. See what was said at chapter 17:7 on the words: "Eloquent words do not befit a fool, nor lying lips a prince."
Agapetus the Deacon splendidly admonishes the Emperor Justinian, in numbers 41 and 42: "Take up the duty of judging, inclining with an equal scale toward friends and enemies alike, neither favoring those who think well of you out of goodwill, nor opposing the ill-disposed because of enmity; for it is equally absurd both to grant a suit to one who asks unjustly, even if he is a friend, and to inflict injury on a just man, even if he is an enemy; for the evil is similar in both cases, although it is found in contrary circumstances." Hence he concludes: "Judges of cases ought to listen with attentive minds. For the discovery of justice is difficult to grasp, and it easily tends to escape those who are not sufficiently attentive. But if, setting aside the eloquence of the speakers and disregarding the plausibility of what is said, they penetrate to the deepest profundity of intentions, then at last they will draw out what is sought from them, and they will be innocent of a double offense — neither betraying what is honorable themselves, nor allowing others to commit it."
13. THE POOR MAN AND THE CREDITOR MET ONE ANOTHER: THE LORD IS THE ENLIGHTENER OF BOTH.
We heard this maxim at chapter 22:2, except that there instead of "enlightener" it has "maker"; but both amount to the same thing. For the "enlightener" is the creator and provider, who bestows upon both the use of light and life, preserves, directs, prospers, and blesses them; for light is a symbol of life, joy, grace, happiness, and every good. Hence in Hebrew it reads: The Lord illuminates the eyes of both — namely, so that they may enjoy the use of this light, according to Job 3:20: "Why is light given to the wretched?" and chapter 38:15: "From the wicked their light shall be taken away," that is, their life; and often elsewhere. "Enlightener" therefore means the same as patron, guardian, and most beneficent provider; or, as Baynus says, nourisher, as if to say: The Lord nourishes and feeds both, according to what Jonathan said when, fainting from hunger and tasting honey, he exclaimed: "My eyes have been enlightened" (I Samuel 14) — that is, I have been fed and refreshed, so that my eyes, dimmed by hunger through the failure of the visual spirits, now refreshed by honey were brightened and cheered.
For "creditor" the Hebrew is ish tecachim; this word occurs only here, hence it is uncertain what it properly means. The Rabbis, Pagninus, Baynus, Cajetan, and others generally translate it as "man of oppressions," or "of frauds," or "of usuries" (for these are the greatest frauds, because under the pretense of lending money they exact multiplied profit). Such a man in the active sense is a money-lender, as the Septuagint translates, and a creditor, as our Translator renders it. But Cajetan and Aben-Ezra take it passively, so that it means the same as a crushed man, one who has suffered fraud, afflicted, and, as the Syriac has it, stricken with grief. This man is joined to the poor man, because the afflicted is accustomed to be associated with the afflicted, so that they may mutually console one another through hope in God and invocation of Him; for God is the enlightener — that is, the consoler, provider, and cheerer — of both the desolate and those blinded, as it were, by affliction.
Others, following the Chaldean, deriving tecachim from toch, meaning "middle," translate it as "man of middling things" — that is, a man of moderate fortune, or a man of frauds; for tach, meaning "middle" or "interior," among the Hebrews sometimes denotes fraud, because it is hidden and contrived in the middle, that is, in the breast and heart. R. Levi translates "perplexed man"; for God enlightens the eyes of such a man when, by illuminating his mind, He dissolves his perplexities and scruples. Others translate "intermediary man" or "mediator" — namely, for doing mercy. Greater credence should be given to our Translator, who renders it "creditor," and to the Septuagint, who translate "money-lender," and to others who translate "man of usuries." For the rich are often usurers and lend at interest to the poor; hence he who is here called creditor and money-lender is called "the rich man" in chapter 22:2.
Mystically, Baynus says: God, he says, enlightens the eyes of the poor man when by the light of His grace He shows him how great a good and how great a gift of God poverty is, so that by bearing it patiently he may merit eternal riches. And He enlightens the eyes of the creditor when He shows him how great a gift is beneficence, by which the poor man is aided. So this maxim admonishes the poor to patience, creditors and the rich to beneficence, and both to hope in God and trust, that they may resign themselves to divine Providence. For this is what the word "enlightener" signifies. Hence the Septuagint translates: when the money-lender and the debtor come together, the Lord makes an episkopen — that is, an inspection or visitation — of both; that is, He inspects and visits both, provides and looks after the necessities of both.
Mystically, again, the poor man is the subject, who needs instruction and owes reverence and obedience; while the creditor is the Prelate, who dispenses doctrine and entrusts and commits it to the subject. The Lord is the enlightener of both: for He enlightens the latter so that he may teach rightly, and the former so that through the mouth of the latter he may see and understand what is pleasing to God.
14. THE KING WHO JUDGES THE POOR IN TRUTH, HIS THRONE SHALL BE ESTABLISHED FOREVER.
Under "the poor" understand also the rich; for he who judges the poor in truth, says Cajetan, will much more judge the rich in the same way. For the poor are usually oppressed by the rich, since the rich have influence and power with princes and judges, and corrupt them with gifts so that they pronounce sentence in their favor against the poor. Therefore the king who does not fear the power of the rich, nor regards gifts, but declares justice for the poor man in truth and pronounces a fair sentence in his favor — his throne shall be established forever, that is, for his whole life, so that as long as he lives and judges in truth he may possess a perpetual kingdom. Hence Aquila translates "for the future"; Theodotion, "for the age." Again, "forever" because his kingdom will be passed on to his posterity through many generations, as the kingdom of David was passed on until the destruction of the nation by the Chaldeans. Furthermore, "forever" because the perpetual fame and glory of his reign, so just and equitable, will endure among posterity. Finaland "forever" he will reign with Christ, the King of kings, in heaven. Baynus shrewdly observes: Divine Wisdom, he says, always proceeds by far different paths than human wisdom; for in human affairs men attain kingship through the wealth and power of the rich, through favor and friendship, and the crown is usually secured and retained by arms and fortifications. But against all this, this plainly heavenly wisdom of Solomon teaches that the throne can be most lastingly established by defending the poor; because he who patronizes the poor in a certain way performs the role of God, the Best and Greatest, on earth. For the Lord claims for Himself the special defense of the poor, according to the verse: "To You the poor man has been entrusted; You will be the helper of the orphan" (Psalm 9).
Moreover, the Septuagint, for laad, meaning "in perpetuity," reading it with a different vowel point as laed, translate "as a witness" or "for testimony": The seat of the Prince, they say, who judges the poor in truth, shall be established as a testimony — so that subjects, in order to confirm the truth proclaimed by him, may cite the king as a witness, and the king's word as an infallible oracle, just as in testimony of the truth we have asserted, we cite God as a witness by swearing, saying: I call God to witness that I speak the truth. Again, his seat shall be established as a testimony — so that his throne may be regarded as, and be, an infallible testimony of truth, and so that the king judging and defining something from his throne may seem to be not so much himself speaking, judging, and defining, as truth itself speaking, judging, and defining through him.
Morally, learn here how much truth and truthfulness, especially of equity and justice, ought to be at the heart and concern of a king. First, because a king is the vicar of God and as it were a vice-god on earth; but God is the very first, uncreated, and essential Truth. Hence St. Dionysius, quoted by Antonius in the Melissa, Part 1, chapter 21: "Truth, he says, is God, inasmuch as He is one, not many, by nature. For the true is one, but falsehood is manifold. For Christ also says, in John 14: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life.'" In the same place Evagrius says: "To be silent about the truth is to bury gold." Hence by God's command Moses inscribed on the Breastplate of the High Priest: "Doctrine and truth" (Exodus 28:30). And Pythagoras said that these two things were given to men by God as by far the most beautiful: to embrace truth and to devote oneself to good deeds; and he added that "both can be compared with the works of the immortal gods." So Aelian, book 12 of Various History: "When asked what men do that is like God, he responded: When they practice truth." So Stobaeus, sermon 9.
Second, because truth and the true administration of justice are the foundation and pillar of the commonwealth. For from this springs the concord of citizens among themselves, peace, equity, probity, and sanctity. Hence the chief judge among the Egyptians wore a sapphire hanging from his neck, on which was inscribed "Truth." Hear Aelian, book 14 of Various History: "It was necessary that the most just and sincere of all men should be the one who wore about his neck an image made from a sapphire gem, which was called Truth. But I would want the judge not so much to carry truth sculpted or expressed in stone, as to have it implanted and fixed in his mind and soul." Diodorus also mentions this matter, book 2, chapter 1, writing of the vestibule of Simandius, king of the Egyptians: "Thirty wooden statues of judges were placed there, and in the middle the chief judge, from whose neck Truth hung suspended, and whose eyes were half-closed, with a pile of books surrounding him." And Diodorus adds: "These images signified that judges ought to be men of integrity and that the chief magistrate should look only to truth."
Third, because truthfulness wins for the king the love and reverence of his subjects, while deceit brings hatred and contempt. Hence Pliny in his Panegyric to Trajan: "Never, he says, was a prince deceived except one who first deceived others himself." Alphonsus, king of Aragon, is said to have always had this saying on his lips: "A single word of a princely man ought to be worth as much for trustworthiness as the sworn oath of private citizens." For although truth should be the concern of all, it should especially be the chief ornament of princes. Panormitanus, book 1 of the Deeds of Alphonsus.
Aeschines, in his speech against Timarchus, used to say that "truth is so powerful a thing that it easily surpasses all human thoughts." So Stobaeus, sermon 9. Demosthenes, when asked "what likeness to God men possess," responded: "To do good and to love truth." So Maximus, sermon 8. Well known is that proposition of Zorobabel to King Darius: "Wine is strong, the king is stronger, women are stronger still, but truth is the strongest of all; for it conquers above all these things" (3 Esdras 3:10).
Therefore Plato gravely errs, not only against faith but also against statesmanship, when in book 5 of the Republic he writes: "Those who govern ought to use frequent lying and fraud for the benefit of their subjects." Plato's words are these: "The magistrate ought to be equipped with manifold lying and various deception, which he may misuse for the benefit of his subjects; and we have said that all things of this kind are useful, like medicine." And Pliny, in book 12 of the Letters, saying: "To deceive according to the customs of the times is prudence." And that man quoted by Plutarch in the Apophthegms, asserting: "Boys should be outwitted by dice, but men by oaths." These are the impious, ignorant, and shameless axioms of atheists and Machiavellians, which Solomon, the teacher of statecraft and prince of statesmen, refutes everywhere here, and which the Church likewise condemns — indeed, every well-constituted commonwealth condemns them. See St. Augustine, in the book Against Lying, where he teaches that it is never lawful to lie under any circumstances. And in epistle 8: "It is not lawful to lie, he says, not even for the praise of God."
15. THE ROD AND REPROOF GIVE WISDOM: BUT THE CHILD WHO IS LEFT TO HIS OWN WILL BRINGS SHAME UPON HIS MOTHER.
Understand "wisdom" here as practical or ethical wisdom, namely the ordering of morals,
16. When the wicked are multiplied, crimes shall be multiplied: and the just shall see their ruin.
The Septuagint, for יראו iiru, that is "they shall see," reading with different vowel points יראו iireu, that is "they shall fear," from ירא iare, that is "he feared," translate: but the just become fearful at their fall; or, as the Author of the Greek Catena has it, the just are dismayed at their ruin, that is, the just are struck and restrained by the gravity of the punishment of the wicked, lest they think of imitating their crimes.
This maxim is akin to that of verse 2: "When the just are multiplied, the people shall rejoice; when the wicked seize power, the people shall groan." And to that of verse 6: "A snare shall entangle the sinful wicked man; and the just shall praise and rejoice." And to that of chapter 28, verse 12: "In the exultation of the just there is great glory; when the wicked reign, men are ruined." An example is 1 Maccabees 1:55, where through Antiochus the wicked were multiplied in Judea, and crimes are said to have been multiplied, but their ruin together with Antiochus was swift and horrible, as is clear from 2 Maccabees chapter 9.
17. Instruct your son, and he shall refresh (in Hebrew, he shall give rest to) you, and he shall give delights to your soul.
Note: The word "instruct," in Hebrew יסר iasser, that is, correct, chastise, instruct, properly pertains to the chastisement of desires and the formation of character; yet it can also be referred to arts and sciences: for a son instructed by his father and sent to schools, if he becomes learned and wise, first, is a great consolation and refreshment to his father, so that in him, as in the staff of his old age, indeed as in the center and fulfillment of his wishes, he may peacefully rest; second, he is among the delights of his soul, that is, the highest and deepest delights, which penetrate to the inmost parts of the soul and fill and flood it with delicious pleasure and wonderful enjoyments; third, he is a great ornament to him, as the Septuagint translates, because through a learned and educated son, who on account of his knowledge becomes a doctor, bishop, senator, prefect, governor, etc., the father is honored, praised, and adorned in the commonwealth, and through his son his name and fame are celebrated for many years, and in time endures for many ages. See the comments on Sirach 30:1 and following, where almost the same thought is expressed, indeed many others to the same effect.
To this point belongs the proverb of the Arabs, Century 2, number 66: "Branches, when you straighten them, are set right; but a beam does not become flexible when you try to straighten it," that is, a tender age can be bent and directed, but a hardened one cannot be corrected. This is what the French say: An old tree is hard to straighten.
The Septuagint: Instruct your son, and he shall give you rest; and he shall give adornment to your soul. Note: The word "instruct," in Hebrew יסר iasser, that is, correct, chastise, instruct, properly pertains to the chastisement of desires and the formation of character; honor, virtue. The Septuagint: blows and corrections give wisdom; but a child who goes astray confounds his parents; Aquila and Symmachus: a youth who is let loose; the Chaldean: a child who does not accept correction. Under "mother" understand also "father." Hence the Syriac translates: a child who is not chastised puts his father to shame; yet it names the mother before the father, because the education and upbringing of children pertains to the mother: therefore if she neglects it and lets her son follow his own will, she will be put to shame by him. Just as Ishmael, says R. Solomon, put Hagar his mother to shame, when, tormenting Isaac, he was expelled from the house by Sarah and Abraham at God's command together with his mother, and afflicted her with great disgrace, as well as misery and sorrow, Genesis 16.
To this belongs the proverb of the Arabs: "Jesting (playing) takes away reverence." The Italians say: Boldness of a master, the hat of a fool. The Arabs continue: "Do not play with a nobleman, lest he become angry with you, nor with a lowly person, lest he presume upon you," that is, lest he take advantage of you. This maxim signifies that a boy is like a young colt, wanton, frisky, and obedient to his own fancy and desire; therefore just as a colt is tamed by the bridle, spur, and whip, so that he may serve his master: so a boy must be tamed and formed by correction and chastisement, namely by words and blows, so that he may learn to obey not his desire but reason and instruction; otherwise, like an untamed colt, he will become insolent, obstinate, and will cast himself headlong into every crime and disgrace, and will drag his father and mother along with him. Thus R. Levi: By stripes, he says, and correction a boy is cultivated in wisdom: for thus he is formed in honorable ways; but if he lacks these, no path will remain for obtaining wisdom: and a boy who is left to his own will lacks both proper instruction and wisdom, and therefore is a reproach to his mother on account of his wickedness; especially since the blame for the same wickedness is usually cast upon her, with everyone affirming that it was caused by her, who did not properly instill good principles in the boy from his tender years. So says he.
Following Solomon, Plutarch, in his book On Listening, teaches that a boy must be chastised and formed just as a young horse is chastised and formed, so that he may be tractable, flexible, and convenient for his rider.
And wisely Seneca admonishes, in book 2 of On Anger: "It will be very beneficial, he says, to train boys from the start in a wholesome manner; but the governance is difficult, because we must take care that we neither nourish anger in them nor blunt their natural disposition." And after some further remarks he concludes: "So then he must be governed between the two extremes, so that now we use the reins, now the spurs."
Indeed, parents who are too severe dull, blunt, and harden the nature and disposition of children by excessive chastisement, and make them stubborn and obstinate; but those who are too mild and indulgent, of whom there are many, hand over that same nature to their desires, corrupt and ruin it. I said more about the education and chastisement of children at chapter 10, verse 1, and chapter 23, verse 13, and more fully at Sirach 30:1 and following.
18. When prophecy shall fail, the people shall be scattered: but he that keeps the law, blessed is he.
You ask, what is this prophecy? First, the Rabbis take it literally in the strict sense. For this is what the Hebrew חזון chazon signifies, that is, vision: hence the Prophets were called חזים chozim, that is, seers, because they saw and foresaw from afar things future and hidden with the keen and God-illuminated eye of the mind. But the ancient Prophets, such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, etc., were not only true Prophets, but also teachers and preachers sent by God to the people, to chastise their idolatry and crimes, and to bring them back to zeal for the faith and the law, by threatening and preaching captivity and other punishments to be inflicted by God, and by setting before them liberty, peace, and other rewards promised and revealed by God, if they kept the law. Therefore the failure of prophecy is rightly opposed here to the law and the study and observance of the law, as if to say: When the Prophets have failed, who would correct, teach, and restrain the people going after idols and vices, by threatening future punishments and promising future rewards revealed to them by God, then the people, unbridled, will wander off into idolatry and their own desires, and will be scattered into various errors and crimes, on account of which they will be led away into the Assyrian, Babylonian, Roman, etc., captivity. But when there are Prophets and holy men, whose admonitions and example the people, or any private individual, obediently follows and keeps the law, then they will be happy and blessed, because they will escape the punishments threatened by God against transgressors of the law, and will obtain the rewards promised to its observers.
The course of events confirms this meaning. For when the Israelites under Kings Hosea and Zedekiah despised the Prophets, who were threatening Assyrian and Babylonian captivity, going after idols and crimes, then they were led into the same captivity, and were dispersed through Assyria and Babylon. But as long as they listened to the same Prophets under David, Solomon, and the rest, for so long they remained safe, prosperous, and happy in Judea. So say R. Solomon, R. Levi, Aben-Ezra and others. Thus under Eli the priest and ruler, when prophecy failed because of the wickedness of his sons, the people were scattered and delivered to the Philistines, 1 Samuel chapter 2 and following. Hence God then raised up Samuel, who would restore the people to God and peace: because "the word of God was precious (that is, rare) in those days, there was no manifest vision," 1 Samuel 3:1. This is what God threatens through Isaiah, chapter 29, verse 9: "Be astonished, and wonder; waver, and stagger; be drunk, and not with wine; totter, and not with drunkenness. For the Lord has poured out upon you the spirit of slumber; He shall close your eyes, the prophets, and your rulers who see visions, He shall cover. And the vision of all shall be to you as the words of a sealed book, which when they have given to one who knows letters, they shall say: Read this; and he shall answer: I cannot; for it is sealed. And the book shall be given to one who does not know letters, and it shall be said to him: Read; and he shall answer: I do not know letters," which He explains by adding: "For the wisdom of his wise men shall perish, and the understanding of his prudent men shall be hidden." For this reason the prophet Elijah was called by Elisha "the chariot of Israel, and its driver," because he as a chariot carried, protected, and drove the people through the study of the law to happiness and every good, 2 Kings 2:12.
Second, Bede, Hugo, Cajetan, Baynus, Vatablus, and Jansenius understand by prophecy the interpretation of Sacred Scripture. So also Francisco Suarez, treatise On Faith, disputation 8, section 3, number 5; for prophecy has a broad scope, and embraces the interpretation of Sacred Scripture, sacred doctrine, preaching, psalmody, etc., as I discussed at 1 Corinthians 14:10. The meaning therefore is, as Bede says: "When priestly learning has ceased, the discipline of the divine law, by which the people ought to have attained the rewards of blessedness, will immediately be dissolved." It signifies therefore, says Jansenius, that the people will be scattered when they refuse to accept prophecy, that is, the oracles of the Prophets, and in their place the sacred doctrine of preachers, so that the failure of prophecy means that it is no longer admitted or received; for when this happens, then it is necessary that the people be scattered, that is, dispersed into various errors and sects, and separated from true religion and piety. "But he who keeps the law (namely, the people), is blessed," as if to say: Blessed therefore and happy is that people which has regard for the law of God and strives to observe it.
Second, as if to say: When, as a consequence of men's sins deserving it, it has come about through divine vengeance that prophecy and sacred doctrine fail and are withdrawn from men, certainly then it will go badly for that people: they will be scattered and torn apart into various errors, sects, vices, and dissensions. For this is the greatest of God's punishments, and the seedbed of many evils in the commonwealth, that He withdraws the sincere announcement of His will. Hence through Amos chapter 8, He threatens to send a famine upon the land, not of bread, but of hearing the word of God.
Third, our Salazar understands by prophecy, as well as by law, true religion and the true worship of God, as if to say: If there is lacking in the people prophecy, that is, religion and the worship of the true God, immediately peace is dissolved and the populace is cut into factions, and the commonwealth falls. "Religion alone," says Philo in his Life of Moses, "binds the minds of citizens, and strengthens their associations and partnerships." Seneca, in Epistle 95: "The first bond of military service," he says, "is religion." Livy, book 5: "All things turn out well for those who worship the gods, and adversely for those who despise them." Pliny, book 14: "Life is sustained by religion." Cicero, in the third action against Verres: "All men are moved by religion." These are the words of "that light of learning" — for so Pliny calls Cicero, book 17, chapter 5. Flavius Vopiscus, book 2: "The Roman republic," he says, "stood through the rule of many by means of religion. But he who keeps the law will be blessed," that is, the people who observe true religion will be most fortunate, as the Hebrews were as long as they sincerely worshipped the true God, as St. Augustine testifies, in book 3 of the City of God, chapter 34.
All these explanations tend to the same point.
Mystically, some explain it thus, as if to say: When prophecy has failed, that is, when the oracles of the Prophets have been fulfilled through the birth and death of Christ, the Jewish people shall be scattered, because with Judea laid waste by Titus they shall be dispersed throughout the whole world. For prophecy that concerns the future fails when it is fulfilled and passes into the present or past, according to Daniel 9:24: "That vision and prophecy may be fulfilled, and the Holy of Holies may be anointed."
19. A servant cannot be instructed by words, because he understands what you say, and scorns to respond.
He therefore means a servant who has a servile disposition, so that he does nothing unless driven by blows and stripes. Hence the name "servile fear" arose, which does nothing from love of good, but everything from fear of evil, namely from dread of punishment. For a servant who loves his master and obeys him out of love is not so much a slave as a free man and freedman. Hence the slave in Euripides' Helen says: "I do not have the name of a free man, but I have the spirit." And the one in Sophocles: "Even if, he says, the body is a slave, the mind is nevertheless free." Such a one should accordingly be treated kindly by his master, as Sirach chapter 33 teaches; for when in verse 28 he had said: "For a malicious servant, torture and fetters," of a well-disposed one he adds, verse 31: "If you have a faithful servant, let him be to you as your own soul; treat him as a brother." See the comments there. Some servants therefore have a servile character, and are dull and stupid: these must be taught as much as their capacity allows; others have a servile will, namely a hard, obstinate, rebellious one, whose stubbornness, disobedience, and rebellion must accordingly be beaten down with blows. To this belongs the adage: "A Phrygian is corrected by blows," customarily said of barbarians and people of servile character, who are not made better by shame or admonitions, but by beatings, whereas a generous spirit, as Seneca says, is more rightly led than dragged. For Phrygia provided many slaves. Hence the proverb: "A Phrygian slave." To this also pertains that saying in Macrobius in the Saturnalia: "As many slaves, so many enemies," both because formerly vanquished and captured enemies were consigned to slavery — whence they were called mancipia, as if "taken by hand," and this is the first origin of slavery and slaves; and because "Jupiter has taken away half the mind from slaves," as Homer says, Odyssey 5, and from him Plato in book 6 of the Laws: "For, he says, the servile mind has nothing whole or sound. For a wise man should trust nothing to such people; since the most learned Poet says: Jupiter deprives of half their mind All men whom the lot of slavery has ever seized. Also because, just as true love is the nursling of liberty, so mere fear is the follower of servitude: for whoever fears, hates. Hence there seems to be a certain innate hatred implanted in servants against their masters. Hence Euripides in his Alcmaeon: "Whoever, he says, trusts a slave, seems very foolish indeed."
Therefore Philo wisely gives this admonition to servants in his book Who Is the Heir of Divine Things? "It is, he says, the greatest praise of a servant to scorn nothing of his master's commands, but to strive diligently and industriously, even beyond his strength, to carry out all things according to his master's wishes. Servants ought also to listen rather than to speak, to whom indeed it is said: Be silent and listen — a most beautiful precept." Hence, as the same author says: "No one is so mad as the slave who, being a slave, opposes his master;" for he provokes him against himself, and so brings upon himself nothing but reproaches and stripes. See the admonitions that St. Paul gives to servants on this matter, Ephesians 6:5; Colossians 3:22; and St. Peter, 1 Epistle 2:18.
Symbolically, St. Augustine, in Epistles 48 and 50, by "servant" understands a heretic, who has enslaved and bound himself to his own fancy and heresy. Hence from this maxim he proves that heretics, since they refuse to yield to words and arguments, must be compelled by punishments to resume the Orthodox faith, which they perfidiously abandoned. For he says thus in Epistle 50: "Some put before us, he says, the saying of a secular author (Terence in the Brothers) who said: I believe it is better to retain children by a sense of shame and generosity than by fear. This is indeed true, but just as those whom love directs are better, so those whom fear corrects are more numerous. For, to answer them from the very author they cite, they also read in him: You, unless compelled by punishment, do not know how to act rightly. Moreover, divine Scripture said, on account of those better ones: Fear is not in charity, but perfect charity casts out fear. And on account of these lesser ones, who are more numerous, it says: A stubborn servant will not be corrected by words; for even if he understands, he will not obey. When it said that he is not corrected by words, it did not command him to be killed, but tacitly indicated by what means he ought to be corrected. Otherwise it would not say: He will not be corrected by words, but would simply say: He will not be corrected."
Again Bede says: "A servant, he says, is any sinner who indeed understands rightly, but scorns to respond in the work of truth without the discipline of the whip. Of such the Truth says: The servant who knows the will of his master, and does not do it, shall deservedly be beaten with many stripes," Luke 12.
20. Have you seen a man swift in speech? Folly is more to be hoped for than his correction.
Second and more properly, "a man swift in speech" is one who seems to himself to be wiser than others, and therefore hastily interposes and sets before others his own judgment on any proposed matter; consequently he does not wait for others' opinions, nor sufficiently examines and considers the matter, but rushes to judgment: whence it happens that he often wants to say and teach things he has not learned and does not know, and then wants to defend them, and does not allow himself to be corrected. Therefore nothing is to be expected from such a person, except that he will more and more betray his folly by speaking, indeed will utter many digressions, absurdities, falsehoods, and follies, and become more foolish. For this maxim is the same as that of chapter 26, verse 12: "Have you seen a man wise in his own eyes? The fool shall have more hope than he." For there the cause is indicated, namely that he seems wise to himself; but here the effect is noted, namely that he is swift in speech, and therefore foolish and incorrigible. Such a one St. James admonishes saying, chapter 1, verse 19: "Let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak;" and Sirach chapter 4, verse 34: "Do not be hasty in your tongue;" and chapter 19, verse 28: "He who is silent is himself prudent;" and chapter 20, verse 5: "There is one who is silent and is found wise; and there is one who is hateful, being bold in speech."
Gregory of Nazianzus writes that he detested this vice, in his first Apologetical Oration: "Having deliberated these things with ourselves, he says — not the worst counselors perhaps, certainly well-meaning ones — we judged it better, when we did not know the things that should be said and done, to learn them, rather than to teach them without knowing. For it goes admirably for the one to whom a mature speech comes even in deep old age, and has such force that it can still be of assistance to the soul which is fresh in piety." He adds the reason: "For certainly to undertake to teach others before being sufficiently taught oneself seems to be the mark of very foolish or very rash men; of the foolish indeed, if they do not even recognize their own ignorance; of the rash, if, though aware of it, they are nevertheless not afraid to undertake this task."
Hear Abbot Nesteros in Cassian, Conference 14, chapter 9: "Be therefore in all things swift to hear, but slow to speak, lest there fall upon you what is noted by Solomon: If you see a man swift in his words, know that the fool has more hope than he. And do not presume to teach anyone by words what you have not first done by deed. For our Lord taught us that we ought to hold this order also by His own examples, of whom it is thus said: The things that Jesus began to do and to teach. Take care therefore lest, rushing to teach before acting, you be counted among those of whom the Lord speaks to the disciples in the Gospel: What they tell you, observe and do; but do not act according to their works: for they say, and do not do."
FOLLY IS MORE TO BE HOPED FOR THAN HIS CORRECTION. — First, some explain it thus, as if to say: His folly is more to be hoped for, that is, feared and expected — namely that he will become more foolish — than that being corrected he will reform himself. Thus "to hope" is taken for "to fear" by catachresis in Virgil, Aeneid 1: If you scorn the human race and mortal arms, At least expect gods who remember right and wrong. Where Servius says: Expect, he says, that is, fear, by misuse of the word. The same in Aeneid book 4: If I could have hoped for such great sorrow: for sorrow is not hoped for, but feared; for we hope for good things, but fear sad and adverse ones.
Second, others say: From a man who is swift to speak, if he should need to admonish or correct someone, a foolish rather than a true and useful correction is to be hoped for and expected, namely that he will flatter rather than correct, or exasperate rather than amend offenders. For in such a profusion and speed of words he heedlessly mixes in many things that flatter or exasperate.
Third, others say: More is to be hoped from folly than from the correction of one who is swift to speak, that is, folly will accomplish more in correcting than loquacity will, namely a fool more than a chatterbox. For if a fool blurts out something ineptly, it is pardoned, because he is a fool; if he says something aptly, it is received with applause: but for a loquacious person who is wise, nothing is pardoned.
Fourth and genuinely, correction is to be taken passively, not actively, as if to say: Folly offers greater hope of correction for itself than does swiftness in speaking, namely loquacity: folly itself in foolish men exhibits greater hope that it will allow itself to be corrected, and to be reformed through correction, than does the correction and reformation of one who is swift to speak. That is, a fool will more easily be corrected and reformed than one who is swift to speak. The reason is that a fool does not know he is a fool, hence when his folly is shown to him he will condemn it and embrace the wisdom offered by a wise man. So R. Levi: A fool, he says, when his stupidity is pointed out, takes counsel in his affairs; but the hasty man consults no one, since he seems to himself to be more than sufficiently wise. This man therefore listens to no one, but scorns all compared to himself, as though he were the eighth, nay the first, of the wise men: for he thinks he is wiser than all, and therefore is incorrigible. So also the Author of the Greek Catena: "For the swift and hasty man, he says, posits to be what is not, and therefore is alien from the hope of what is. But of the fool there is hope that he will someday put aside his folly, namely when he has been taught the truth."
That this is the meaning is clear first from the Hebrew, which reads thus: there is hope for the fool rather than for him; the Chaldean: better is the hope for a fool than for him; the Syriac: know that a fool is better off than he; the Septuagint: recognize that a fool has more hope. Second, from chapter 26, verse 12, where this maxim is expressed thus: "Have you seen a man wise in his own eyes? The fool shall have more hope than he." Third, because handwritten codices, Rabanus, and Bede read stultitiae in the genitive instead of stultitia, in this manner: "There is more hope for folly's correction than for his," that is, you may more easily hope for the correction of a fool's folly than for that of one who is swift to speak: which reading is certainly plain, and plainly corresponds to the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, and Septuagint. Hence Isidorus Clarius emended this maxim thus: "There is more hope for folly than for his correction;" so Jansenius, and Franciscus Lucas in his Notes here, number 189.
St. Gregory suggests a fitting remedy for verbosity and swiftness in speaking, in book 8 of the Moralia, chapter 2, namely the balance of reason and forethought, so that we may weigh what we intend to say, lest if we neglect this, our hearers weigh and reject it. "He who speaks, he says, awaits the judgment of the listener on his words, and is subjected, as it were, to the judgment of the one by whom he is heard. Whoever therefore fears to be disapproved in what he says, must first examine what he says, so that between the heart and the tongue a fair and discerning arbiter may sit, carefully weighing whether the heart offers right words, which the tongue, usefully receiving them, may bring to the judgment of the hearers." And shortly after he writes thus: "If in what proceeds from you through the course of speech you do not wish to be reproached, hold within the balance of justice, so that what is said outwardly may please by the weight of truth, as much as this is inwardly weighed by the scale of discernment," as if to say: Be yourself the weigher of your own words, lest if you blurt out something unrehearsed and ill-composed, a prudent hearer become their weigher, and, weighing them exactly on the balance of judgment, may reject, ridicule, and condemn them as trifling, insipid, and foolish. I have said more about this balance at Sirach 28:29, and chapter 19 at the last verse, and at the beginning of chapter 23. Aptly Plutarch, in his book On Listening, compares those who are headlong in speech to women in childbirth who miscarry, who bring forth the fetus before its time, and therefore it is imperfect, deficient, weak, and scarcely viable: for so the precipitation of speech is not so much the birth and production of discourse, as its miscarriage; and therefore it pours out, indeed blurts out, things that are mutilated, gaping, trifling, and inept. Likewise to hens that lay eggs too hastily: for these lay wind-eggs, that is, empty and sterile ones. For so verbosity is empty and sterile, and brings no fruit to either speaker or hearer.
21. He who delicately nourishes his servant from childhood, shall afterwards find him to be stubborn.
This maxim therefore signifies, says Jansenius, that he who is too familiar with his servant and too indulgent, nourishing him with delicacies of food, adorning him with splendor of clothing, and allowing him leisure, will afterwards find him to be more rebellious in return for the benefits bestowed; and so the proverb intimates that heads of households should carefully watch that they deal with their servants from the beginning in such a way as to have them as useful and obedient as possible. The proverb also indicates that those who are of ignoble condition and spirit cannot bear prosperous fortune, and abuse it for arrogance and pride. This can be seen in the Jewish people, who being of servile condition, after being freed from Egyptian slavery, after many and great benefits with which they were favored from the time of their departure from Egypt, became contumacious and rebellious, according to the prophecy of Moses in his canticle: "The beloved grew fat and kicked; he grew fat, he grew thick, he spread wide, he forsook God who made him, and departed from God his Savior," Deuteronomy 32:15.
Following Solomon, Sirach, chapter 33, verse 25, thus ordains concerning servants: "Fodder, and a rod, and a burden for the ass; bread, and discipline, and work for the servant;" where I have said more on this matter. Moreover, Plato, in dialogue 6 of the Laws, teaches that servants should be treated more harshly, lest they become soft: "All address to servants, he says, should in a certain way be a command, nor should any jesting be had with them; which many foolishly do, and by nourishing them more delicately, make the way more difficult both for themselves in commanding and for them in obeying."
The Septuagint for מנון manon seems to have read מאנ maon, that is, sorrow, as if to say: He will be a source of sorrow to his master, just as Benjamin, born while his mother was dying, was therefore called Benon or Benoni, that is, son of sorrow. The Septuagint therefore translate thus: he who pampers his boy will be deceitful; and at last he will grieve over himself. Just as the prodigal son grieved, when after consuming his goods in delicacies and luxuries, he was forced to beg and feed swine, Luke 15. And the Chaldean: he who indulges in delicacies from boyhood will become a slave, and in the end will be overthrown; the Syriac: in the end he will groan; Symmachus: and at last there will be murmuring. To this pertains what Celsus writes, book 4: "The falling sickness, he says, is wont to befall boys from a delicate upbringing." Finally, the Septuagint perhaps took manon as if compounded from מן man, that is, a portion, or manna, and און on, that is, sorrow, as if to say: He who nourishes himself delicately, at last his portion and lot will be sorrow, that is, he will fall into diseases, want, troubles, and other sorrows. Or: his manna, that is, his sweet delights will become sorrow, that is, will be turned into sorrows; for the letter aleph which is in און on, being quiescent, is often elided and omitted.
Tropologically, the servant of the soul is the body: whoever therefore nourishes it delicately will find it stubborn and rebellious toward himself, so that, addicted to its own pleasures, it will not comply with the soul for praying, meditating, and performing the other works of penance and arduous virtues; but rather will want to dominate the soul and drag it to its own delicacies. Let therefore the cultivator of his soul, free and master, say with the Philosopher: "I was born for greater things than to make myself a slave of my body;" and: "Great care of the body is great neglect of virtue." Crates, according to Maximus, Sermon 27, having caught sight of a young athletic man made corpulent by wine, meat, and exercise, said: "O wretch, cease to fortify a prison against yourself." In the same place Diogenes says: "In those houses where there is a great abundance of food, there are usually many mice and cats: so those bodies which take in much food tend to contract more diseases." In the same place St. Basil says: "The belly, he says, is a treacherous merchant (in Greek synallaktes, that is, an exchanger, who contracts, bargains, or trades goods with another), a storehouse that preserves nothing: retaining the harm of many things placed before it, but not preserving the things themselves."
Again St. Basil, cited by Antonius in the Melissa, Part 2, chapter 39: "When the body, he says, is well nourished and weighed down with much flesh, the mind must necessarily be weak and feeble for its proper functions; on the contrary, when the soul is well and is raised to its full stature by the exercise of good things, it follows that the condition of the body wastes away;" as it wasted away in St. Basil himself, who, worn out by prayers, studies, and fasts, seemed to have nothing in his body but skin and bones. St. Basil continues: "The strength of Satan, says Job, chapter 40, is situated in his loins, and his power in the navel of his belly." In the same place St. Chrysostom says: "Frugality, he says, is food, and pleasure, and health; but excess begets harm, disgust, and disease." And wisely Gregory of Nazianzus thus reasons with his own body, Oration 16: "In what manner I am joined to it I indeed do not know, nor how I am at once the image of God and wallowing in mud. When it enjoys good health, it provokes me to war; and when it is pressed by war, it afflicts me with grief. I love it as a fellow servant, yet hate and shun it as an enemy. I flee from it as a chain, yet reverence it as something inseparable from me; if I strive to weaken and exhaust it, I no longer have a partner and helper to use for the noblest undertakings; but if, on the other hand, I deal gently with it as with a partner and helper, no way occurs to me by which I might escape the attack of its rebellion, and not fall from God; weighed down with fetters, either dragging me to earth or holding me in it. It is a flattering enemy and a treacherous friend. O wondrous union and estrangement! What I fear, I embrace; what I love, I dread. Before I have waged war, I return to friendship; before I enjoy peace, I am at odds with it." Whoever therefore is wise, let him tame his flesh with fasts and hair-shirts, and imitate St. Paul saying: "I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, after preaching to others, I myself should be found worthless," 1 Corinthians 9:27.
22. An angry man provokes quarrels: and he who is easily indignant shall be more prone to sinning.
The first hemistich we heard at chapter 15, verse 18; the second says the same as the first, but repeats and amplifies it in different words, namely that the indignant man is inclined to rush into many sins of the heart, of the mouth, and of deed: of the heart, namely into internal murmurings, fits of anger, impatiences, thoughts of revenge, etc.; of the mouth, namely into shouts, quarrels, insults, litigations, curses; of deed, namely into fights, robberies, murders, etc. This is what St. James says in chapter 1, verse 20: "The anger of man does not work the justice of God," but every injustice and iniquity of the devil, who burns entirely with anger and inflames all to anger. Hence Gregory of Nazianzus in his Poem on Anger: I am angry, he says, at anger, a demon hidden within. For an angry man seems to be a demon incarnate: for he rages, cries out, raves, fights, etc., as if he were not a man, but a demon. For, as St. Ephrem says in his treatise On Virtues and Vices, in the section On Anger: "From anger the mind is disturbed, the senses are weakened, and thoughts of revenge gush forth like a river."
Moreover, the Septuagint translates: an angry man digs up sin, where the word "digs up" has great force and emphasis. For just as a digger who digs up the earth to uncover a treasure or hidden thing, digs deep and excavates much earth by digging, until he reaches the treasure: so likewise the angry man deeply ponders and scrutinizes both the gravity of the injury done to him and the heavy and fitting vengeance for it: therefore he digs up, as it were, from an angry heart many movements of anger, pride, and envy, and devises many plans and methods of revenge, until he arrives at a suitable and fitting mode of vengeance in which he can rest. Again, the angry man digs up an insult or injury once inflicted upon him, and buried and submerged by long forgetfulness, and repeating it again and again in memory, he stirs up and sharpens the desire for revenge by that recollection: indeed, giving way to anger, he is accustomed to renew by digging up, as it were, even other offenses and crimes of any kind already consigned to oblivion, and to cast them in the face and reproach the one with whom he is angry. So say Salazar, Baynus, Jansenius, and others. Hence the Belgians, Germans, and other nations use this phrase of "digging up" in anger, when they say that an angry man digs up and unearths old injuries long since buried by forgetfulness.
23. The proud man is followed by humiliation (not voluntary humility that is a virtue, but involuntary and forced, which is a punishment, namely abasement, depression, contempt), and he who is humble in spirit shall be received by glory.
For "shall receive" the Hebrew is תמך iitmach, that is, he shall sustain, he shall support, as if to say: The humble man even when he is pressed down shall be sustained, lest he be despoiled of honor; or he who is lowly in spirit shall be sustained by divine glory, says Aben-Ezra. Glory therefore receives the humble, that is, takes them upward and carries them aloft, elevates them to high degrees of honor, and having elevated them, keeps them there, lest they slip downward by some accident.
Hence R. Solomon says: He who is submissive in spirit, he says, approaches glory most closely, and will always cherish it, or rather will be cherished by it. It is a personification: for glory is here introduced as a person, namely as a judge of contests, assigning to the humble who bravely contend in the contest of humility its own honor and laurel, indeed its own rank and place, namely, that they may be raised to the lofty degree and throne of glory, and may sit there together with it. For glory and humility are equal companions and attendants, and conversely ignominy and pride. Hence pride is here introduced as a judge or executioner, humbling and casting down the proud. Just as an eagle therefore nourishes its young, receives and lifts them up on high, and there holds and sustains them lest they fall: so likewise glory receives the humble on its wings and shoulders, and elevates them on high, and there supports and strengthens them, lest any mishap bring them low.
To this the true Solomon, Christ the Lord, alluded saying: "Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled; and he who humbles himself shall be exalted," Luke 14:11. Nothing is truer in theory than this saying, yet nothing more difficult in practice. We know, indeed we believe, all of us who are faithful, Solomon and Christ when they assert that the true and secure way to glory is humility, and the way to ignominy is pride; and yet we strive to attain glory by proudly displaying and magnifying ourselves and our accomplishments, and to humble and depress our rivals, so as to heap ignominy upon them: whereas according to this maxim of Solomon and Christ, by this means we bring upon ourselves ignominy through pride, while gaining the glory of humility, often in this life, always in the life to come. How great is this error, how great the delusion of the children of Adam! says St. Bernard.
Finally, this maxim agrees with that of chapter 16, verse 18: "Pride goes before destruction, and the spirit is exalted before a fall;" and chapter 18, verse 12: "Before it is broken, the heart of man is exalted; and before he is glorified, he is humbled." See the comments at both places. The reason is the just judgment of God, who by a fitting and proportionate retribution punishes the proud with abasement and ignominy, but rewards the humble with exaltation and glory.
The Septuagint translates: the Lord strengthens with glory those who are humble in spirit, namely by keeping them in humility, lest they become proud through glory, and so they may achieve both; but that the more glorious they become, the more humble they also become, as those who consider themselves unworthy of glory and worthy of confusion, and ascribe all their virtue and glory to God alone and God's grace. The Chaldean translates: and he who is submissive shall divide glory, that is, he receives such abundant glory that he can share it with others, indeed wishes and desires to do so. For the nature of the proud is to keep all glory for themselves alone, indeed to seize others' glory and attribute it to themselves: but the nature of the humble is to yield their glory to others, to share and divide it with others, and to admit others as partners in their glory and make them sharers in it. The Syriac: for the lowly, humility multiplies honors, as if to say: Humility alone begets many honors: for one is honored by God, by the Angels, by all men, and this not with one but with manifold honor, both temporal and eternal. Again, the humble person, just as he multiplies acts of humility, so through them he increases and multiplies glory for himself: for nothing is so glorious as to do noble deeds and to think humbly of oneself; for this is the proper object of glory. Therefore the more noble things the humble man does, the more humbly he thinks of himself, and the more worthy of praise and glory he makes himself.
Note: The first author of this axiom, that God humbles the proud and exalts the humble, was holy Job, chapter 22, verse 29, saying: "He who has been humbled shall be in glory; and he who has lowered his eyes (for the humble lower their eyes from lowliness of spirit), he himself shall be saved." The same is confirmed here by Solomon, and by Christ in Luke 18:14, and by the Blessed Virgin singing in her Magnificat: "He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble." These four wisest of men, therefore, have asserted this maxim, so that by their testimony all human incredulity and distrust may yield and be convinced. Therefore glory will receive the humble in spirit into its lodging, indeed its throne, especially when God will place him among the Angels, indeed the Seraphim (among whom the most humble St. Francis was placed), and will make him illustrious and glorious in heaven and earth and the whole world, even in hell. For pride and humility are like two scales of a balance: if pride ascends and grows, the man decreases and descends; but if humility descends and abases itself, the man ascends to great dignity. Let the first leaders and standard-bearers of each serve as examples: St. Michael and Lucifer. For Lucifer, arrogantly saying: "I will ascend into heaven, etc., I will be like the Most High," Isaiah 14:13, soon heard, verse 15: "But you shall be dragged down to hell, into the depths of the pit;" while Michael, most humbly saying מי כאל mi cael, that is, Who is like God? — occupied the primacy among the Angels and the throne of Lucifer. Let the humble, who fight under the banner of St. Michael, expect the same lot as their leaders; and the proud, who fight under the standards of Lucifer. "For he is king over all the children of pride," Job 41:25.
A striking example is suggested by the present day, November 26, on which we recall the memory of St. Peter, Patriarch and Martyr of Alexandria, who by his singular humility and charity merited, first, the honor and love of the entire people, so that they would have fought against the governor's army to free him from prison, had he not himself, as Bishop, suggested a way to carry out the death sentence passed against him without the people's knowledge. Second, he merited martyrdom, when Christ appeared to him and foretold it to him, and at the same time revealed the coming heresy of Arius. Third, that at his death a voice was heard from heaven: "Peter the first of the Apostles, Peter the last of the Martyrs" among the Bishops of Alexandria. Fourth, as long as he lived as Patriarch, out of humility he never wished to sit in the patriarchal throne in church, but only on its footstool, saying that he was unworthy of the throne in which St. Mark and so many holy Patriarchs had sat. Hence he merited that his body after death was placed by the faithful on the same throne: thus he sat on the throne as Martyr, who had not sat on it as Bishop. How many and how great are his glories here! For I omit those which he received in heaven.
24. He who shares with a thief hates his own soul: he hears the adjuration and does not reveal it.
Interpreters everywhere simply and plainly take this maxim as referring to the accomplice of a thief, who is a sharer in the theft. For there are some so dull or so blinded by greed that they think, or want to think and persuade themselves, that stealing is indeed a sin; but that once an object has been taken by theft, it can be appropriated by them without sin, since it is already outside the owner's power: indeed that it is better for it to be possessed by themselves who are innocent, than by the harmful thief who unjustly seized it. Solomon here overthrows this error, and teaches that the accomplice who shares in the theft is as guilty as the thief who commits the theft. The reason is that he cooperates with the thief and the theft. The same applies to any other crime; for whoever participates in a crime cooperates with the crime and the criminal, and therefore himself commits the crime and is criminal. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: He who shares with a thief the thing taken by him through theft hates his own soul, because for a small temporal gain he stains his soul with the sin of theft, and makes it guilty of hell, and moreover renders it liable to infamy and the temporal punishment to be inflicted by a judge.
Now there are various ways in which one can share with a thief: namely, first, if a master sends a servant or son to steal, so as to enrich himself; second, if he has a partnership with a thief for stealing: for in some places and cities there is a guild of thieves, just as there is of merchants, in which just as merchants divide profits, so thieves divide their spoils with their associates; third, if he provides the thief with a hideout, namely a lodging to which he may turn aside, so that he may steal safely; fourth, if he sells and disposes of the thing taken by the thief, in order to make money.
HE HEARS THE ADJURATION AND DOES NOT REVEAL IT. — This is another reason why one who shares with a thief hates his own soul: because namely he violates justice and public judgment, and is often perjured. For he hears the judge adjuring him legitimately and juridically to reveal the thief and his associates and accomplices, and yet does not reveal them, lest he betray himself. A judge adjures in two ways: first, when he compels the one he summons to swear that he does not know who stole the thing, or who his associates are. Hence the Chaldean translates: an oath is administered to him, and he does not confess; and the Septuagint: but if, when an oath has been proposed, they have not declared, fearing and revering the men themselves, they shall be overthrown. Second, when he compels and constrains the accused, e.g. the thief and his associates, to tell the truth — namely whether they stole the thing or divided it among themselves — by the dread of violating religion, or of incurring the vengeance or curse of God, under an invocation of the divine name: for this is properly what it means to adjure someone. Therefore the accused, legitimately adjured by a judge, is bound to tell the truth. Hence Tobit, chapter 9, verse 5, says to Raphael: "You see how Raguel adjured me? I cannot despise his adjuration." So Caiaphas adjured Christ, saying: "I adjure You by the living God, that You tell us if You are the Christ the Son of God." Hence Christ, not so much from fear of the judge, since He was not subject to him, but from reverence for the divine name by which He was adjured, immediately answered that He was the Christ, Matthew 26:63. Similar was the adjuration of the adulteress in the Old Law, Numbers 5:19. Therefore Pagninus and Vatablus translate less correctly and weakly: he hears the curse, and does not reveal it, as if to say: "He who is a partaker of theft is spoken ill of by men who curse him, and does not dare to complain that he is spoken ill of."
Second, some take the one who shares with a thief to mean a witness; hence they translate from the Hebrew thus: he who shares with a thief, hating his own soul; shall hear an adjuration, and shall not declare it, as if to say: A witness adjured by a judge to betray a thief, if he does not reveal him but conceals and hides him, is considered to share with the thief and to hate his own soul, both because he wounds his soul with grave perjury, and because he is the cause that the theft is not prevented and the owner's property is not restored: either of which is sufficient for him to be called a partner in the theft itself, and to be considered as dividing with the thief, and being a participant in the stolen goods. The Vulgate translation could also be applied here, if you supply some things, in this manner: "He who shares with a thief hates his own soul." And such is the witness who hears the judge "adjuring" him to betray the thief, and yet "does not reveal him." But this interpretation supplies many things not in the text. Therefore the former meaning, as simpler and plainer, also seems more genuine, nor does it therefore lack weight or force, but has its own use and gravity, as is clear from what has been said. Hence David, the father of Solomon, reproving that same accomplice in theft, says: "If you saw a thief, you ran with him," Psalm 49:18.
25. He who fears a man shall quickly fall: he who hopes in the Lord shall be lifted up.
Aben-Ezra explains in three ways: first, as if to say: "The Lord will lift up the one who hopes in Him from the one who strikes fear;" second, as if to say: "The Lord will strike him with fear and entangle him in the snares which he had set for ensnaring the poor;" third, as if to say: "The evils which he feared will seize one who is anxious with fear and does not place his hope in God." R. Levi, as if to say: The fearful man will fall into the hands of a wicked man, who, perceiving his fear, will bring him harm and destruction. But "fear of man" here is to be taken not actively, namely as a man fearing and dreading something, but passively, namely as a man being feared and dreaded; hence our translator renders it: he who fears a man, and so do the Septuagint. He speaks of an excessive and disordered fear, by which one fears a man so much that from dread of him he abandons the law of God and sins, and prefers to offend God rather than man. For he who thus fears a man shall fall into grave evils of body and soul, from which he shall be freed who fears God more than man and places his hope in God. Vatablus translates forcefully from the Hebrew: the dread of man casts a snare (upon the fearful); but he who trusts in the Lord shall be exalted. To be exalted is to be preserved as in a citadel and a lofty place. It is a metaphor taken from soldiers who, when an enemy threatens, retreat to high places, as to a safe refuge and asylum; for such is God to those who hope in Him and flee to Him from the men they fear. Hence David often calls God משגב misgab, that is, a height, an exaltation, an elevated place inaccessible to enemies, a fortification too high to be scaled or taken; a refuge in time of persecution or war, as Psalm 17:3: "The Lord is my firmament, and my refuge, and my deliverer;" and verse 17: "He sent from on high, and took me, etc., He delivered me from my strongest enemies." For God preserves those who hope in Him, and drives away from them all fear of men, and completely dispels the evils that could be feared from them or from anywhere else: as He drove away from David the evils and the death that Saul repeatedly plotted against him.
The antithesis required him to say: "He who fears the Lord;" but he preferred to say: "He who hopes in the Lord," because hope is always joined to fear; and hope raising man toward God is more pleasing to God than fear pressing him down. Similarly, instead of "he who fears a man," he could have said: "He who hopes in man shall quickly fall": for these two affections, namely hope and fear, are inseparable companions, and one is born from the other; for the hope of acquiring some good from someone begets the fear of offending him, lest one be deprived of the good hoped for from him.
Dread therefore is a snare to the man who is afraid, which binds, ensnares, and virtually strangles him, both because it causes him to offend God, and to ensnare and kill his own soul with the snare of this dread; both because he does not acquire the favor of the man whom he fears too much, but often incurs his indignation, and by the just judgment of God falls into the very evil which he strives to avoid through human fear; and because he strikes against other grave losses of body and soul, which like snares entangle and suffocate him, and especially because he ties around himself the snare of eternal damnation and hell.
There is one who explains it thus, as if to say: Whoever ambitiously hunts for the favor of men, and servilely fears to displease them, is very much like one who has inserted his neck in a noose, because he hangs perpetually suspended, as long as he depends on the will of men, on fear, and on the desire to please; but to hang in this way is the same as being suspended, and being virtually strangled continually; for he who fears watches all the nods, gestures, words, and actions of the one he fears, and if he sees them more severe than usual, he is distressed, trembles, and is tormented; therefore as many anxieties, fears, dreads, and tremblings as he has in a day, so many snares he has, which constrict and virtually strangle not the throat of the body, but of the soul. Therefore dread and fear are fittingly compared to a snare; for just as a snare constricts the neck, so dread constricts and chokes the soul, so as to cut off its voice, breath, motion, and life. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 52:6: "They did not call upon God; there they trembled with fear, where there was no fear," as if to say: They feared what should not be feared, they dreaded men in whom there is nothing that could cause a just fear; "for God has scattered the bones of those who please men: they are confounded, because God has despised them." Behold the threefold great ruin that the desire to please men brings forth: namely the breaking of all bones, confusion, and God's rejection or reprobation, says St. Bernard (or whoever the author is; for the style suggests it is not St. Bernard's) in his Sermon on Human Misery.
26. Many seek the face of the ruler: and the judgment of each one comes from the Lord.
You ask, what is the judgment of each one, which comes from the Lord? First, "judgment" among the Hebrews often means the same as lot, condition, state, or fortune. Hence Vatablus translates: from the Lord proceeds the lot of each one, or the fortune and condition, as if to say: Many and great men, says Aben-Ezra, seek the face, that is, the favor and goodwill of a prince, so that by him they may be raised to positions, dignities, offices, and riches; but from the Lord depends each one's lot, state, and office, since it belongs to Him to measure out to each one his rank and honor, his dignity and lowliness, his riches and poverty, as if to say: Therefore the face, that is, the favor and goodwill of God, should be sought rather than that of a prince. For God is the ruler of the world, the arbiter of men, the steward of the universe, the distributor of offices, the allotter of conditions, the dispenser of riches, who measures out and dispenses to each his share of riches, honors, and offices, as He Himself pleases. God also directs the hearts of kings and princes, so that they distribute to each the same measure which pleases Him. This is what the Psalmist acknowledges and prays, Psalm 30:16: "My lots are in Your hands," as if to say: The state, chances, events, and vicissitudes of my affairs — such as riches and poverty, servitude and sovereignty, health and sickness, honor and abasement, peace and war, says Theodoret — these, I say, and whatever other lots, states, and conditions depend not on fortune, not on princes, but on Your providence, O Lord; they are governed and dispensed by it; hence from it I seek and await my lot.
This meaning is very fitting and genuine, and connects this maxim with the preceding one, indeed gives its reason, as if to say: Therefore those who fear men shall fall; but those who fear and hope in the Lord shall be exalted, because it belongs not to men, but to God, to distribute to each one his lot, whether good or bad and miserable. But God loves those who hope in Him, and therefore dispenses a good lot to them, and lifts them up and exalts them. But those who, setting Him aside, fear men and hope in them, He hates, and therefore assigns them a miserable lot, so that they fall into many troubles. Note: To seek the face of a prince or of God is to court and pursue the goodwill of a prince or of God. In this sense the Psalmist says, Psalm 26:8: "Your face, O Lord, will I seek;" and Psalm 104:4: "Seek His face always," and often elsewhere. For the favor and goodwill of anyone appears and shines forth in his serene and benevolent face and countenance.
Second, "judgment" is called what is fair and just, as the Septuagint translates, as if to say: Many seek the right and justice of their case and lawsuit from a prince, and therefore win over his face, that is, his goodwill, so that in judgment he may properly weigh the matter and adjudicate it in their favor; but they do not realize that judgment, that is, the administration of justice, and the sentence of the judge and prince, depends on God more than on the prince. Therefore, whoever is wise should implore it from God, to whom the judge's authority pertains, since the prince is directed by God, and accommodates his mind to what God suggests, according to that saying of chapter 21, verse 1: "The heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord: He inclines it wherever He wills." So say R. Levi, R. Solomon, and Jansenius, who explains it thus: Many strive to please princes, who are only judges of certain people and in certain cases; but much more should the face, that is, the favor of the Lord, be sought, inasmuch as by Him all and each are to be judged, and He will also examine the judgments of judges, and if they are unjust, will reverse them, and will restore their right to those unjustly condemned. Salazar also agrees, taking "to seek the face" as meaning to court and hunt for someone's favor and goodwill through gifts, namely to win over or purchase a judge or prince with gifts, according to Psalm 44:13: "And the daughters of Tyre shall entreat your face with gifts," as if to say: Even though princes and magistrates, swayed by gifts, render an unjust sentence, the matter is not therefore settled and the case finished; for there still remains that last judgment, to which both the prince and the one who corrupted him with gifts must submit, so that they may be absolved or condemned according to right. And this is the most severe and incorruptible tribunal of God Himself, which no one can escape.
Third, by "judgment" some understand the last judgment of God, as if to say: Many fear the judgments of men and judges, and therefore hunt for their favor: but these are of small moment; of the greatest moment, however, is the last judgment, which God will render concerning the soul of each, and its merits or demerits, to adjudge it to heaven or hell for all eternity, about which nevertheless men think and care little, as if to say: What madness it is to fear the trivial judgments of men, and not to dread the judgment of God, on which our eternal salvation or misery depends, and therefore not to seek His favor through good works! O vanity! O stupidity of men! O demented minds!
This meaning is heartfelt, pious, and profound. For the last judgment of God is called "judgment" par excellence, first, because it will be the final and supreme one, from which there is no appeal; second, because it is the most sincere and equitable: for in it God will search Jerusalem with lamps; third, because it is the most effective and absolutely inevitable: for immediately He will consign the good to heaven, the wicked to hell; fourth, because it is the longest, immeasurable, and eternal: for it will endure as long as God endures, for ever and ever. Who therefore will not fear You and Your judgment, O King of the ages, in whose hand is the life and death, the election and reprobation, the salvation and perdition, the happiness and unhappiness of each one for all eternity? "Fear therefore the Lord, all nations, tribes, tongues, and peoples, small and great, and give Him honor, because the hour of His judgment has come, and adore Him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of waters," Apocalypse 14:7.
27. The just abominate the wicked man: and the wicked abominate those who are on the right path.
Solomon concludes his parables with this maxim, by which, like St. Augustine, he establishes two cities opposed to each other, one of God, the other of the devil; one of the just, the other of the wicked, between which there is perpetual strife and war. The just therefore abominate and pursue the wicked, and conversely the wicked pursue the just, both on account of the dissimilarity and opposition of their ways, and because the just strive to spread the kingdom of uprightness. Therefore, lest uprightness succumb, conquered by wickedness, it must always stand in arms, and strive not only to repel but also to expel the soldiers of wickedness; for between the two there is mortal hatred and discord. The just therefore do not hate the wicked, but their wickedness; the wicked, however, hate the just as well as justice and piety. Hence the Syriac translates: the wicked abominate righteous paths. This is the irreconcilable war of the pious and the impious, a war without truce. "For what participation has justice with injustice? or what fellowship has light with darkness? and what agreement has Christ with Belial?" 2 Corinthians 6:14. Hence let each one discern whether he is just or wicked. For if he abominates the wicked and wickedness, he is just; but if he persecutes the pious and piety, he is wicked. Let each one see therefore of which kingdom he is a citizen, that of piety or impiety, of God or of the devil.
He adds the fruit and end, that the terminus of the kingdom of impiety is perdition, but of piety, deliverance from perdition. A similar maxim to this we heard at chapter 21, verse 8: "The perverse way of a man, he says, is alien; but he who is clean, his work is right."
The son who keeps the word shall be beyond perdition.
Therefore this maxim is like the crown and conclusion of the Parables of Solomon, signifying their fruit and reward, so that with this exclamation, as it were, he may conclude his work and commend it to all, as if to say: Whoever shall keep these words of my parables in his mind, that is, my admonitions, doctrines, and precepts, so as to practice them in deed and to arrange and direct all his actions according to them, shall escape the perdition prepared in hell for the wicked who transgress them, and shall attain the everlasting felicity and glory decreed from eternity for the pious who keep the law of God (which I have embraced in these parables). Therefore, as dear to each one as is his soul and the eternal salvation of his soul, so dear let these words and precepts of mine be: for these point out the straight way to heaven, to perennial salvation and happiness, according to that saying of chapter 12, verse 28: "In the path of justice is life; but the devious way leads to death."
St. Augustine cites this maxim in his book On Lying, addressed to Consentius, chapter 18, and adds several things which largely agree with what the Vatican Septuagint has at chapter 24, verse 22. For Augustine has it thus: "The son who receives the word shall be far from perdition; and receiving it, he shall receive it for himself, and nothing false shall proceed from his mouth." For which the Vatican text at chapter 24, verse 22, has: let nothing false be said from the mouth of the king, and let nothing false go forth from his tongue: and they add further things concerning the king, whose meaning I gave at chapter 14, verse 22. But St. Augustine, omitting "let nothing false be said from the mouth of the king," attached what follows, namely "let nothing false go forth from his tongue," or as he reads it, "goes forth" or "proceeds," to the son who receives the word, as if these things were said not to the king but to anyone, in order to commend the pursuit of truth and the hatred of lying, namely to prove that it is never lawful to lie: hence by "the word" he understands Christ, who is Truth. Of Him therefore he explains it thus: "Perhaps one should understand nothing else by what is stated, 'The son who receives the word,' than the Word of God, which is Truth. Therefore the son who receives Truth shall be far from perdition, and this refers to what was said: You shall destroy all who speak lies. And what follows, 'And receiving it, he receives it for himself,' what else does this suggest but what the Apostle says: Let each one prove his own work, and then he shall have glory in himself, and not in another? For he who receives the word, that is, truth, not for himself but to please men, does not keep it when he sees that lies can please them. But he who receives it for himself, nothing false proceeds from his mouth, because even when lying pleases men, he who received truth for himself — not because it pleased them but because it pleased God — will not lie. And so there is no reason to say here: He shall indeed destroy all who speak lies."
Therefore St. Augustine's meaning is that the Word of God is Christ who is Truth, and consequently that he who keeps Christ likewise keeps truth, so as to be truthful both in speech and in deed; and therefore such a person is as far from perdition as Christ is far from it, He who is Jesus, that is, Savior, and salvation and life itself, according to what Christ says to the Jews, John 6:40: "And this is the will of My Father who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day;" and chapter 8, verse 24: "If you do not believe that I am He, you shall die in your sin;" and verse 51: "If anyone keeps My word, he shall never see death;" and chapter 17, verse 3: "And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." This meaning is sublime, but mystical rather than literal.