Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Solomon recounts the counsels given to him by his mother about avoiding wine and women, and about pursuing beneficence and justice. Then, from verse 10, in gratitude and praise of his mother, he depicts and celebrates the strong and industrious woman, and in her his mother and her qualities.
Vulgate Text: Proverbs 31:1-31
1. The words of King Lemuel. The vision with which his mother instructed him. 2. What, my beloved? What, beloved of my womb? What, beloved of my vows? 3. Do not give your substance to women, nor your riches to the destruction of kings. 4. Do not give wine to kings, O Lemuel, do not give wine to kings: because there is no secret where drunkenness reigns, 5. and lest they drink and forget judgments, and change the cause of the children of the poor. 6. Give strong drink to those who mourn, and wine to those who are bitter in spirit: 7. let them drink and forget their want, and remember their sorrow no more. 8. Open your mouth for the mute, and for the causes of all the children who pass by: 9. open your mouth, decree what is just, and judge the needy and the poor. 10. Who shall find a strong woman? Her value is from far away and from the uttermost boundaries. 11. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he shall have no need of spoils. 12. She will render him good, and not evil, all the days of her life. 13. She has sought wool and flax, and has worked with the counsel of her hands. 14. She is like the ship of a merchant, bringing her bread from afar. 15. And she rose at night, and gave food to her household, and provisions to her handmaids. 16. She considered a field and bought it: from the fruit of her hands she planted a vineyard. 17. She girded her loins with strength, and strengthened her arm. 18. She tasted and saw that her trading is good: her lamp shall not be extinguished at night. 19. She put her hand to strong things, and her fingers took hold of the spindle. 20. She opened her hand to the needy, and stretched out her palms to the poor. 21. She shall not fear for her house from the cold of snow: for all her household are clothed in double garments.
22. She made herself a coverlet of tapestry: fine linen and purple is her clothing. 23. Her husband is noble at the gates, when he sits among the senators of the land. 24. She made linen garments and sold them, and delivered a girdle to the Canaanite. 25. Strength and beauty are her clothing, and she shall laugh on the last day. 26. She opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of kindness is on her tongue. 27. She watched over the ways of her household, and did not eat the bread of idleness. 28. Her children rose up and declared her most blessed; her husband, and he praised her. 29. Many daughters have gathered riches: you have surpassed them all. 30. Charm is deceptive, and beauty is vain; the woman who fears the Lord, she shall be praised. 31. Give her of the fruit of her hands: and let her works praise her at the gates.
Verse 1: The Words of King Lemuel. The Vision with Which His Mother Instructed Him
1. The words of King Lemuel. — Just as Solomon in the preceding chapter, in this symposium of wisdom as it were, introduces Agur speaking for the sake of elegance, and yet in Agur it is Solomon himself who speaks, so here he introduces Lemuel as the interlocutor, and yet in Lemuel no one other than Solomon speaks. So Plato in his dialogues introduces Protagoras, Socrates, Cratylus, and others as speakers, and yet in them no one other than Plato himself speaks. So today many write books and dialogues in which they introduce Philotheus, Philotimus, and other real or fictitious persons as speakers, so that from their significance or analogy they may indicate the argument and scope of the book, and thus more pleasantly influence the minds of readers.
Therefore "the words of Lemuel," that is, of Solomon; so all the Hebrews, Greeks, and Latins say, for no other king among the Hebrews or foreigners is found who was called Lemuel. Theodotion translates it as the words of Rebuel, because the letter lamed is sometimes interchanged with or corrupted into the letter resh.
You ask, why is Solomon called Lemuel? I answer: There are various analogies and reasons, on account of the various etymologies of Lemuel. First, Baynus thinks Lemuel is the same as lemo el, that is, "to whom God belongs"; R. Solomon however judges Lemuel to be the same as לאל leel, that is, "of God" or "to God": for Solomon was, as it were, God's own possession, indeed His son, whence he was a type of Christ to be born from him. Hence of both it is said by God: "I will be to him a father, and he shall be to Me a son," 2 Kings 7:14. Again, Solomon from boyhood was devoted, dedicated, and consecrated to God; whence by Nathan he was called Jedidiah, that is, "beloved of the Lord, because the Lord loved him," 2 Kings 12:25. So King Melchizedek, Genesis 14, is called priest of leel elion, that is, of God Most High, namely consecrated to Almighty God; for el signifies God who is powerful by essence and omnipotence, so that from Him all power, strength, and might of men, angels, and all creatures emanates like a ray from the sun; so that by this name every creature is most strictly bound to God, to love Him, worship Him, give thanks, invoke Him, and serve Him with all the powers of body and mind.
Secondly, the Syriac, abbreviating Lemuel, translates it as Muel, just as the French, abbreviating the name Emmanuel, say Noel: whence they call the birthday of Christ Noel. "The words of Muel, the King-Prophet," says the Syriac. Now Muel is said as if from מאל meel, that is, "from God," namely elected, elevated, and consecrated king, the most powerful, richest, and wisest of all kings. "The words of Lemuel" therefore means the words of him who was created king by God. So R. Levi.
Thirdly, others think "Lemuel" is said as if from למוד אל lemud el, that is, "taught by God," with the harder letter daleth being elided for the sake of euphony: for Solomon received wisdom infused by God, which he here brings forth. Whence the Septuagint, reading דברי debarai, that is, "my words," instead of דברי dibre, that is, "words," translate: My words have proceeded from God, which I learned from my mother as an oracle. So the Author of the Greek Catena.
Fourthly, Lemuel or Lamoel, as he is called in verse 4, can be said as if from לעמו אל lemmo el, that is, "God is with him": whence afterwards his Son Christ, who succeeded him in the kingdom of Israel, that is, of the Church of the faithful, was called Emmanuel, that is, "God with us," Isaiah 7; so Aben-Ezra. Thus Solomon in the preceding chapter, verse 1, was called Ithiel, that is, "he with whom God is." So Bede, Lyra, and others. Hence the name Lemuel alludes to what Nathan the prophet said to David: "As the Lord was with my lord the king, so may He be with Solomon," 3 Kings 1:37; and to the Angel's word to Gideon: "The Lord is with you, O mightiest of men," Judges 6:12. This etymology, as well as the one first mentioned, is very plausible.
Fifthly, others think Lemuel is composed of אם em and אל el, as if to say, "He whose mother was God"; for God loved, instructed, and elevated Solomon, as a mother.
Sixthly, Jansenius thinks Lemuel is derived from Solomon, and means "God is with him" or "God is with him." Whence Aquila translates it as the words of Lammun, that is, Solomon. For the first letter S was omitted, and the name of God, el, was added; and it can be seen that his mother gave him this name after she saw that God was with him: since this name is placed among the words of the mother, who having previously called him Solomon, now with some letters omitted and others added, called him Lemuel. Moreover, the words appended are said to be the words of Lemuel, although it immediately says they are the words of his mother, either because they were written down by him, or because they pertained to him, as having been spoken by the mother particularly to him.
Finally, Lemuel alludes to Samuel. For just as Samuel was said to have been "asked" and "obtained" "from God" by his barren mother Anna, 1 Kings 1:20, so Solomon was called Lemuel, as if given by God and dedicated to God. Again, Salonius translates Lemuel as "God is in him," because Solomon was a type of Christ, in whom "the fullness of divinity dwelt bodily," Colossians 2:9. Hugo thinks that Solomon, as an infant or small child, was called Lemuel by his mother, who loved him uniquely, from the endearments of love, with a nickname, just as children are affectionately addressed by their mothers with a slight change of their proper name to another similar one. Aben-Ezra thinks the name Lemuel was given to Solomon by his mother along with these counsels after the death of his father David, when the entire care of her son fell upon her, to form him for the kingdom: for she gives precepts of governing, and therefore these seem to have been given by the mother not to Solomon as a small child, but to one who was older and about to reign soon.
The vision with which his mother instructed him. — For "vision" the Hebrew has משא massa, that is, "burden"; Aquila has "weight"; Symmachus, "assumption"; St. Ambrose, writing to virgins, has "admonition"; the Chaldean, "prophecy and correction, with which his mother instructed him."
The Hebrews, whom Arboreus and Dionysius follow, report that these things were said by Bathsheba his mother to Solomon by way of correction, because on the first day of his wedding with the daughter of Pharaoh (on which day they say the temple was also dedicated), having indulged too generously in feasting and wine, he spent the entire night sleeplessly listening to organs and other musical instruments; from which the next day he slept until the fourth hour of the day, with the result that until the fourth hour, contrary to custom, the offering of the perpetual sacrifice, which by law ought to have been offered at the first hour of the morning, was rejected and delayed, because he had the keys of the temple placed under his pillow. Whence his mother, lovingly but sharply, rebuked him as a son, saying: "What, my beloved?" etc., as if to say: Why do you, O my son, so indulge your pleasures that you postpone divine services? But these things smack of fable and seem to be Jewish fantasies.
You ask why this instruction and admonition of Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, to her son is called a "vision," that is, a prophecy. I answer: Various authors give various reasons. The first is that it is true and certain, and as weighty and pious as a prophecy, so that it is a catachresis. So Vatablus. The second is that Bathsheba, seeing Solomon's temperament, character, and inclinations prone to gluttony and lust, would conjecture what actually came to pass, namely that Solomon would be a womanizer, a drunkard, and a voluptuary, and therefore she corrects these vices of his, whose signs she already perceived. For conjecturers are called diviners, and we sometimes call conjecturing "divining" or "prophesying," because the conjecture does the same as a prophet, namely touching upon and predicting what is true, although the prophet does this from divine revelation, the conjecturer from shrewdness and natural signs. The third reason is that Bathsheba received these things from Nathan, who was truly a Prophet: for Nathan seems to have suggested these things to the mother, so that she might instill them in Solomon. So Cajetan.
The fourth reason is that mothers and fathers are, as it were, God's vicars to their children, and, as Plato says in Book 12 of the Laws, "images of God," indeed certain earthly gods; therefore their counsels and advice must be received by children with such reverence and observance as if they were oracles of God, as the Septuagint translates. And so Solomon here testifies that he received these things from his mother. So Baynus.
The fifth reason, which is the proper and genuine one, is that Bathsheba dictated these things to Solomon at the instigation of the Holy Spirit: for, inspired by Him, she spoke and taught Solomon these things as a prophetess. This is clear from the fact that these counsels of hers are part of Proverbs, that is, of Sacred Scripture, and therefore must be believed with divine faith as words of God and of the Holy Spirit, and this not only insofar as they are reported by Solomon, but also insofar as they were spoken by the mother. For Solomon records in this his sacred and canonical book of Proverbs not his own words but his mother's, and he calls them a vision, that is, a doctrine received by revelation from God, namely an oracle of God. For the Holy Spirit moved the mind and mouth of Bathsheba to speak these things, because He foresaw Solomon's fall into women and wine, and therefore wished to forestall it by forewarning. Thus all the sacred writers are called Prophets, and any part of Sacred Scripture, even historical and ethical, is called "prophecy" by St. Peter, Epistle II, chapter 1:20, that is, a revelation of hidden things, or an oracle of God. For, as Philo says in his book On Rewards and Punishments: "A prophet is an interpreter of God dictating oracles." Baynus, Jansenius, Pineda, and others add that Bathsheba was truly and properly a prophetess, and from divine revelation foresaw Solomon's ruin, and therefore so earnestly forewarns her son about it here. See Pineda, Book I On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 4, numbers 8 and following, where he shows that Bathsheba repented after the adultery with David, and was a virtuous and God-fearing woman, and therefore is called a handmaid of God: "God," says Solomon in Wisdom 9:5, "of my fathers, since I am Your servant, and the son of Your handmaid." Moreover, Bathsheba here counsels Solomon about four things most necessary for him: first, that he should beware of women; second, that he should beware of wine, both himself and all his nobles; third, that he should be clement and generous to the afflicted; fourth, that he should defend justice, especially that of the poor.
Mystically, Bede by the mother understands the grace of God, which inwardly taught this wisdom to Solomon, so that he in turn might teach the same to others. The Author of the Greek Catena by the mother understands wisdom, as if wisdom itself were here instructing Solomon as a son.
Verse 2: What, My Beloved? What, Beloved of My Womb? What, Beloved of My Vows?
2. What, my beloved? What, beloved of my womb? What, beloved of my vows? — In Hebrew: What, my son? What, son of my womb? What, son of my vows? The Chaldean: What woe, my son, woe, son of my womb, woe, son of my vows? As if to say: A great woe, that is, a great sorrow, a great destruction both present and eternal threatens you, O my son, if you follow wine and women, toward which I see you are inclined. The Septuagint: What, my son, will you keep? What? The words of God; O firstborn, I say to you, my son: what, son of my belly? What, son of my prayers? The Syriac: Woe, my son. The word "what" is repeated three times for pathos, so that the mother may indicate the intensity of her love to her son, and earnestly commend and impress these teachings upon him. Some word must be supplied here, for something is needed, which various authors supply in various ways. Among the Hebrews, including R. Levi, some think this was the mother's response, who, asked by her son after his father's death to ask something of him, replied: What, my son? And what, son of my womb, whom I did not merely raise, as the daughter of Pharaoh raised Moses, but whom I bore? What shall I ask, except that you not give your strength to women? Others think the mother used these words toward her son only when she saw him taking many wives, especially foreign ones; but since she proposes this admonition and correction of the mother to us as a prophecy, we better understand that Solomon was instructed by these words while still a boy by his mother, as one divining what he would become with regard to the love of women. "What, my son? And what, son of my womb?" Something must be supplied: What, my son, are you thinking, or what disposition do you have toward me who carried you in my womb, who made vows for you? Others thus: "What, my son? What, son of my womb?" supply: are you doing, you who multiply wives for yourself and are so given over to the love of women? Others thus: "What, my son," supply: shall I ask of you? What, I say, shall I ask, I who carried you in my womb, I who nourished and raised you? It pleases me more that these questions should be referred to what follows, so that the meaning is: What, my son, and what, son of my womb, shall I chiefly admonish you of, out of the great love with which I regard you? What shall I ask or require you to do? Nothing else, surely, than what I add: "Do not give your substance to women," etc.
Whence the Author of the Greek Catena, following the Septuagint, clearly translates thus: What, my son, what indeed will you keep, except the words of God? What, O firstborn son (for I address you), what, son of my womb? What, son of my vows, what else shall I warn you of than not to give your riches to women?
What, my beloved? — For "beloved" the Hebrew has בר bar, which first, the Septuagint translates as "son"; for bar in Chaldean means "son." Secondly, bar (whence beri) is derived from the Hebrew ברר barar, that is, "clean, pure, chosen, beloved"; whence they translate: What, my clean, pure, chosen, beloved one? As if to say: You, Solomon, are still innocent, pure, and clean; what therefore shall I commend to you other than that you remain such through sobriety and chastity? Beware therefore lest you defile yourself with women, so as to lose your boyhood purity and innocence, and exchange it for lust and fornication. Again, you are beloved and chosen by God as king of Israel; see therefore that you love Him with spiritual love, and beware of the contrary love, namely the carnal love of women. The Septuagint translates: What, my firstborn son? For Solomon was the firstborn of David from Bathsheba, who bore David several other sons after Solomon, as our Pineda shows, Book I On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 8. Again, "firstborn," that is, adorned in beauty, comeliness, wisdom, and all other qualities, and elevated according to my vows to such eminence, and therefore beloved above the rest. So the Author of the Greek Catena.
What, beloved of my womb? — Mothers are accustomed, in order to show their children the tenderness of their love and thereby urge them to obey, to recall the pains, discomforts, fears, and dangers that they endured for them during the nine months when they carried them in their womb. So the mother of the Maccabees: "My son," she says, "have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, and gave you milk for three years, and nourished you, and brought you to this age," 2 Maccabees 7:27. Again, our Pineda, Book I On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 6, thinks that by "womb" not only conception and birth are denoted, but also nursing, as if to say: I conceived and bore you in my womb; I also continually carried you in my bosom as at my breast and belly, nursed you, cherished you, and did not give you to others to nurse, as some noble and dainty mothers do; but I myself from my own vitals, with my own blood, that is, my own milk, nourished you, so that you in your entirety are wholly mine, and possess no substance, flesh, or blood except mine; therefore it is fitting that you likewise make these counsels of mine your own, and deeply inscribe them in your mind.
What, beloved of my vows? — "Vows" here can be taken first as desires, as if to say: O most longed-for son, whom I desired with all my wishes and longings, whose good I desire and wish for with all the marrow of my soul. So Vatablus and Jansenius. Secondly, Baynus and Cajetan: O son sought with so many vows and desires, so many sighs and tears asked from God, so that you are less the son of my desires than of my womb, inasmuch as I brought you forth more with my soul than with my body! Hear therefore these final counsels and wishes of mine, who am so solicitous for your salvation. Thirdly, Bede reads: "What, O chosen one of my vows?" As if to say: O son chosen and already elevated to the kingdom, which I desired and procured for you with all my vows! Fourthly, "of my vows," namely for whom I offered many prayers and vows to God, that according to God's promises you might be born happily, more happily raised, and most happily reign. For before his birth God had promised David a son from Bathsheba, whose name was to be Solomon, and had destined for him a kingdom, riches, glory, and all good things, as is clear from 2 Kings 7. Bathsheba therefore prayed and offered vows that God might fulfill and complete these promises concerning Solomon. Fifthly, some think Bathsheba was barren, and therefore through prayers and vows obtained from God by miracle her fertility and the birth of Solomon. So Rupert on Matthew chapter 2: "Sacred Scripture records," he says, "that seven mothers were barren: Sarah and Rebecca, Rachel and the woman who bore Samson, Anna the mother of Samuel, Bathsheba who was the mother of Solomon, and Elizabeth who bore the Forerunner of the Lord; those who were born of these women were great, and in many respects (as has been said) exhibited certain admirable likenesses of the Lord about to be born from virginity, which is naturally barren and does not bear, namely Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Samson, Samuel, Solomon, and John." But our Pineda rightly refutes this in the place cited, chapter 7. For from Scripture it is clear that Bathsheba immediately conceived offspring from David's adultery; therefore she was naturally fertile; for who would say that God granted fertility by miracle to an adulteress who was barren, in the very act of adultery? For thus God would have seemed to approve of adultery and to cooperate in it. What is said, therefore, that she was "purified from uncleanness" means that she was purified from the stains of menstruation, from which women after childbirth are purified by both the Old and the Evangelical law. Sixthly, Pineda himself, whom Salazar follows, thinks that when Bathsheba saw that the child she had conceived from David's adultery was immediately struck dead by God, she was stricken with fear and greatly dreaded that the second son, namely Solomon, might be struck with a similar death, and therefore anxiously offered prayers and vows for his life; for which reason, they say, she calls him the son of her vows, that is, one whom she had not only borne from her womb, but whom she was in a certain way bringing forth day by day through vows and prayers. To this pertains the reading of the Septuagint, which has: What, son of my prayers? And so Solomon is called the son of prayers, either because his mother obtained him from God by prayers, or because after he was brought into the world his mother preserved him from premature death by her prayers, or because his mother obtained for him by her prayers a kingdom, wisdom, and good character. Therefore one may affirm that prayer, together with Bathsheba, was the mother of Solomon, or even his godmother: for so in his Homily on Anna and Samuel, St. Chrysostom asserts that prayer served as godmother to Anna in begetting, nourishing, and raising Samuel.
Verse 3: Do Not Give Your Substance to Women, nor Your Riches to the Destruction of Kings
3. Do not give your substance to women, nor your riches to the destruction of kings. — In Hebrew: Do not give your strength to women, and your ways to the destruction of kings. The Chaldean: Do not give your strength to women, and your ways to the daughters of kings. The Septuagint Vatican: Do not give your substance to women, and your mind and your life to a late change of counsel. The Complutensian and the Royal editions as well as Theodotion: to repentance. For "substance" the Hebrew has חילך chelecha, that is, "your strength" or "your virtue"; Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion have "your riches": for in these the rich place their strength; the Septuagint has "your wealth."
Therefore first, by "substance" understand riches, as if to say: Do not squander your wealth, O Solomon, on women; for a harlot is an abyss and whirlpool that swallows and devours riches however great and royal. Secondly, "do not give your substance," that is, your strength, flesh, and blood to women: for lust and fornication drain the vigor, spirits, and blood of the body, and emaciate and consume it; indeed they infect and destroy it with venereal disease and many maladies, as I said in chapter 5, verses 9 and following.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: Do not, O my son, by the contagion of powerful women, destroy and extinguish the most upright strength of the king and the most ample resources of your kingdom. Bathsheba was a true prophetess; for by true presentiment she divined Solomon's fall and ruin through women. Moreover, for "riches" the Hebrew and Chaldean have: "your ways to the destruction of kings." First and genuinely: Do not enter those ways, that is, do not undertake those actions by which kings are accustomed to be weakened, destroyed, and ruined; these actions are fornications, revels, drunkenness, squandering of wealth and strength on harlots and women. For these strip from kings the strength of mind and body, judgment, prudence, health, and empty the treasury, so that they do not have the funds necessary for defending the state, and become impoverished, slothful, base, unwarlike, and contemptible, which is the certain ruin of kings and kingdoms, when kings given to pleasures neglect the kingdom and consume its wealth in their own luxuries and extravagances. Whence the Chaldean translates: Do not give your ways to the daughters of kings, so as to join yourself in carnal love with the daughters of princes, especially of the neighboring Canaanite kings, which was forbidden by the law of God, as indeed, forgetful of this maternal counsel, Solomon joined himself to them with grave guilt and punishment, 3 Kings 11:1.
The Syriac: Do not give your ways to the foods of kings. Therefore she forbids gluttony and lust, to which kings are accustomed to give themselves, who abuse their royal wealth for luxury and license of the flesh. For this second hemistich depends on the first: "Do not give your substance to women," and hammers it home and amplifies it by showing its effects and damages, namely that women destroy the wealth, reputation, dignity, strength, and life of kings. So the Hebrews, Bede, Jansenius, Baynus, and others. Examples are found in David, Samson, Sardanapalus, Hercules, and Solomon himself: for from these men women took away wisdom, holiness, strength, vigor, and every honor; indeed they made them effeminate, and betrayed them to enemies and destroyed them.
Secondly, others say: Do not, O Solomon, squander your wealth and strength on women, lest by your example you ruin and destroy kings, and your nobles and counselors above all, so that they likewise squander their possessions on harlots. For the example of a king is powerful: his subjects and nobles are accustomed to observe and imitate it.
Thirdly, others think this is a different and new counsel from the preceding one, about cultivating peace with neighbors, as if to say: Do not, O Lemuel, wage war against neighboring kings to overthrow them and seize their kingdoms for yourself: for this is proud and unjust; but rather cultivate peace and friendship, so that you may reign quietly and for a long time, and be in reality, as in name, Solomon, that is, "the Peaceful One." For this wise counsel of peace Bathsheba gave to Solomon, lest he throw both himself and neighboring kings and peoples into the hardships and losses of war. And Solomon, following this, made his kingdom peaceful, prosperous, and fortunate.
Moreover, the Septuagint translates: Do not give your mind and your life to a late change of counsel, or, as the Author of the Greek Catena has: Do not devote your mind and life to a pursuit of which you will afterwards repent, which will happen if you squander your wealth and strength on women, as was said above. By what reasoning this version agrees with the Hebrew is not entirely clear. Some adapt it thus: The Septuagint, they say, translated from the Hebrew "to the destruction of kings," that is, to the deletion and obliteration of kings, as if to say: Do not enter those ways and manners of living which compel kings to turn the pen, that is, to change their decisions and counsels, as a metaphor from those who are compelled to erase and delete with the reversed stylus what they once wrote on tablets. Others think the Septuagint rendered the Hebrew, as is their custom, not word for word but paraphrastically as to the sense: for elsewhere they not rarely act more as paraphrasers than interpreters. The truer explanation is that the Septuagint understood by מלכין melachin, that is, "kings," the word "counsel," as if to say: to the destruction of counsel, that is, to a late change of counsel. Whence they immediately add: Do all things with counsel -- on which more shortly. Rupert writes that these mothers "exhibited certain likenesses of the Lord about to be born from virginity, which is naturally barren and does not bear, namely Isaac and Jacob, Joseph and Samson, Samuel, Solomon, and John." But our Pineda rightly refutes this in the place cited, chapter 7. For from Scripture it is clear that Bathsheba immediately conceived offspring from David's adultery; therefore she was naturally fertile; for who would say that God granted fertility by miracle to a barren adulteress in the very act of adultery? For thus God would have seemed to approve of adultery and cooperate in it. What is said, therefore, that she was "purified from uncleanness" means that she was purified from the stains of menstruation, from which women after childbirth are purified by both the Old and the Evangelical law. Sixthly, Pineda himself, whom Salazar follows, thinks that when Bathsheba saw that the child she had conceived from David's adultery was immediately struck dead by God, she was stricken with fear and greatly dreaded lest the second son, namely Solomon, be struck with a similar death, and therefore anxiously offered prayers and vows for his life.
Verse 4: Do Not, O Lemuel, Do Not Give Wine to Kings
For "no secret" the Hebrew has לרוזנים lerozenim, that is, "do not give strong drink to princes." For the Hebrew אין is equivalent to אין en, that is, "not," says Aben-Ezra and others. Our translator seems to have read in the Hebrew ולא velo rozenim, that is, "because there are no keepers of secrets" where drunkenness reigns; whence he translates: "there is no secret where drunkenness reigns." For rozenim signifies secretaries and investigators of secrets, as is clear from Isaiah 40:21. So Jansenius.
You ask why the Septuagint translates "Do not give wine to kings" as "Do all things with counsel." For the Hebrew melachim means "kings," not "counsel." I answer: The Hebrew melachim, that is, "kings," also signifies "counsel," and מלך melach, that is, "to reign," also signifies "to counsel," because to truly reign is to counsel the commonwealth, that is, to govern the republic with counsel and prudence. Whence a king is the same as a counselor and prudent governor, as I showed at length in Daniel 4:24, according to the saying of St. Basil in Antonius's Melissa, Part II, chapter 1: "It is proper to a king to look after those over whom he presides. A kingdom is a lawful administration." And this is plainly what the Septuagint signifies here and in Ecclesiastes 2:12 when for melachim, that is, "kings," they translate "counsel"; therefore for אל al, that is, "not," they read אל el, that is, "to, with." Whence they fittingly translate: Do all things with counsel, and drink wine with counsel, that is, soberly, sparingly, and moderately, as much as the health of mind and body requires, as if to say: Beware, O my son, King Solomon, of women as well as of drunkenness, because both take away counsel and mature deliberation and prudence, which are especially required in a king for wise governance, according to Hosea 4:11: "Fornication, and wine, and drunkenness take away the heart," as I showed at length there. And for this reason the sins and faults of kings are greater than those of common people, because they impede sound counsel, which is supremely necessary for kings to rule rightly, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, Question 149, article 4 in the body. Whence the Author of the Greek Catena thus explains the Septuagint, as if to say: Rather command wine and gluttony than submit to their command; for if you do this, you will not easily fall from the honorable course that nature or reason dictates. Rather occupy yourself with the wine of the true vine, that is, with the interpretation of the divine Scriptures and the contemplation of things established by nature, and apply yourself to them with great judgment and deliberation of mind.
Hence the meaning of the Vulgate version is clear: "Do not give wine to kings, O Lemuel;" which words at first glance seem not to forbid wine to Solomon, but to command that Solomon forbid wine to other kings. But this meaning is far-fetched, indeed absurd. For in Judea there was only one king, Solomon; among the neighboring Gentiles, there were indeed several kings, but Solomon could not forbid wine to them. Hence some think the mother here suggests to Solomon that he should not permit wine to kings, that is, to his prefects, judges, and counselors, so that being sober they may give sound counsel, keep secrets, and wisely administer the state. But since the mother here instructs Solomon, and directs the other counsels to him personally, there is no doubt that she directs this one also to him. The meaning therefore is: Do not give wine to kings, that is, to yourself, O my son Solomon, who are a king, and to your royal counselors (who are also called melachim, that is, kings; for to reign is to counsel the commonwealth, as I said a little above), namely in great quantity, so that they become tipsy, bibulous, or drunk: for wine taken in moderation sharpens ingenuity, counsel, and wisdom for governing rightly. This is a euphemism: for the mother speaks to Solomon festively and decorously, for the sake of honor, not in the second person but in the third person, in the manner of the ancient Hebrews, which today the Germans follow more than other nations, who, when speaking to honored men, do not say in the second person: Sir, do this or that; but in the third person: May the Lord do this or that. For it is odious and boorish to address someone with "you" (tuizare), and to say: You, O king or prince, abstain from wine.
That this is the meaning is clear from the Hebrew, from which they generally translate: "It is not for kings, O Lemuel, it is not for kings to drink wine," that is, it is not for you, O Solomon, who are a king, to indulge in wine, but to devote yourself to wisdom and to the wise governance of Israel. Whence also what our translator adds in the plural: "Lest they drink and forget judgments," the Hebrew expresses in the singular: "Lest he drink and forget the statute," that is, lest you, O king my son Solomon, drink and forget the statute, namely the precept, and divine or human law.
O Lemuel — Here Bathsheba tacitly gives another reason why Solomon and other kings ought to abstain from drinking, namely that they are Lemuels, that is, vicars of God on earth, with whom and in whom God is present, and commands and governs. But God, wholly exempt from the flesh, being pure spirit, abhors drunkards and the intoxicated. For drunkenness makes men angry and furious like demons. Whence St. Augustine, Sermon 24, calls it "a flattering demon"; St. Chrysostom, Homily 1 to the People: "A drunkard," he says, "is a voluntary demon." Again St. Basil, Homily 16 on Gluttony and Drunkenness: "Drunkenness," he says, "does not receive the Lord, it drives away the Holy Spirit; for as smoke drives away bees, so gluttony drives away the gifts of the Holy Spirit."
Plato learned the same from Solomon, who in Book 3 of the Republic says: "Therefore we have said that all must abstain from drunkenness; but especially the guardian is not permitted to become so weighed down by drunkenness that he does not know where on earth he is. For it would be ridiculous for the guardian to need a guardian." He calls the prince a guardian, because it is the prince's duty, like a guardian, to be vigilant and to protect subjects from enemies and other evils. And Solon, who gave this law to the Athenians: "If a prince is caught drunk, let him be punished with death." Likewise Alexander ab Alexandro, Book 3, chapter 11, reports that among the Indians it was similarly decreed by law that a concubine or any other woman who killed a drunken king would be rewarded with the privilege of marrying his successor. An example is in Alexander the Great, who in his drunkenness killed Clitus, his dearest and most faithful friend; of whom St. Augustine in his Exhortation to Sacred Virgins says: "Countless men indeed, who long refused the yoke of domination, were reduced by drunkenness to the power of another: Alexander, the conqueror of all, was conquered by wine."
This meaning is clear from the Hebrew, where the mother forbids wine not only to Solomon but to any king, when she says: It is not for kings, it is not for kings (the repetition is for weight and emphasis) to drink wine. Furthermore, another reason different from this, why the counselors of princes also should abstain from
Because there is no secret where drunkenness reigns. — This is the first expressed reason why Bathsheba forbids wine to Solomon and kings, namely that drunkenness reveals their secret counsels, from which tumults, seditions, and wars are stirred up. "For what lies hidden in the mind of the sober man floats on the lips of the drunk." Wherefore, alluding to this passage of Solomon, St. Augustine in his homily to sacred virgins says: "The drunkard," he says, "lies on his back with downcast face, and with no one compelling him except the wine, he lays bare the secrets of his heart and brings into the open the secrets entrusted to him by friends." Weigh that phrase: "With no one compelling except the wine," as if to say: Wine does not so much impel the drunkard to betray a secret as compel him.
Indeed, "a mirror of form is bronze, but of the soul it is wine," says Aeschines in Maximus, Sermon 30. For this reason some princes are accustomed to intoxicate those whom they suspect, so that they may fish out and extort from them, while drunk, their secret plans. For, as Plato says in the Symposium: "Wine is truthful both with youth and without youth." Hence the Poet's saying: "Wrung by wine and wrath." For men are in a certain way tortured by wine and anger, and when drunk and angry they sometimes reveal the secrets entrusted to them. So Horace sings, Ode 21, Book 3: "You apply a gentle torment to wits That are usually hard; you of the wise The cares, and the secret counsel Reveal with merry Lyaeus."
And rightly Plato, in Book 1 of the Laws, says that no torture is less costly, less harmful, and less dangerous than wine for testing men's feelings and characters. Fittingly again Horace writes to the Pisones: "Kings are said to press with large cups, And rack with unmixed wine, him whom they labor to examine." Whence ωμηστής Διόνυσος, that is, "cruel Bacchus," was so called by the Greeks, not so much because living men were once sacrificed to him, but because he tortures those who have devoted themselves to him, that is, drunkards. And Διόνυσος was said as if from τον νοῦν νύσσων, that is, "striking, pricking, piercing, wounding the mind." Anacharsis at the Symposium in Plato lay down sleeping in such a way that he pressed with his left hand what nature affixed to the body for procreation, and with his right hand pressed his mouth, because he thought the tongue of a man who has drunk well needs a stronger rein. Wherefore the ancients made the magpie sacred to Bacchus and dedicated it to him, as Natalis Comes attests, Book 1 of the Mythology, chapter 11. For the magpie is garrulous and reports whatever it has heard. The drunkard does the same, whence Horace: "Senseless drunkenness reveals the secret." For: "In wine there is truth."
Wisely Seneca, Epistle 84, says: "Just as wine casks themselves are burst by must, and all that lies at the bottom is hurled to the top by the force of the heat, so when wine boils up, whatever lies hidden at the bottom is brought forth and exposed. Those laden with wine, just as they cannot contain food when the wine overflows, so neither can they contain a secret; what is their own and what belongs to others, they pour out equally." Excellently Ambrose, contemplating this same power of wine, said in his book On Elijah and Fasting, chapter 17: "Many use wine as a rack, and those from whom tortures do not extract the voice of betrayal, they test by drinking, so that they may betray the state of the fatherland, the safety of citizens, and the counsels of their own defense. Who among the cups has concealed what he wished to keep hidden?" If you seek examples of this, well known is that of M. Crassus. For he, as Dio records in Book 51, waging war against the Dacians and Bastarnae, admitted their ambassadors and entertained them with a rather lavish banquet; and they, full of wine, laid bare all their plans. So also the emperor Bonosus would make barbarian ambassadors drunk by plying them with wine, and would extort whatever he wished, as Flavius Vopiscus says. For drunkards know how to hide no secret; indeed, even those who reveal secrets are to be considered drunk: for it is the mark of a drunkard and a fool to open his secret, especially to a stranger.
Do not give wine to kings, O Lemuel, do not give wine to kings. — He repeats "to kings" for weight and emphasis, as if to say: Kings must be kept from drunkenness entirely and by all means, both because it is plainly shameful and disgraceful if a king, whose role is to govern the kingdom, is drunk and governed by wine, and because it belongs to kings to do all things with reason, judgment, and counsel, as the Septuagint translates. They ought therefore to be sober, not drunk and incapable of reason and counsel.
The Septuagint gives another reason why kings should abstain from wine when it translates: The powerful are wrathful, and let them not drink wine. For wine kindles anger and bile, and drives the wrathful into fury. Whence Plato, Book 8 of the Republic: "A drunken man," he says, "bears a tyrannical spirit; indeed, even mad and beside himself, he presumes to command not only men but even gods, and hopes that he will accomplish it." And he adds the reason, that drunkenness sharpens passions and angers, which beget tyranny and madness. Truly Eratosthenes in Stobaeus, Sermon 18 on Incontinence: "Wine," he says, "has a force equal to fire when it enters a man, whom it disturbs as the North or South wind disturbs the Libyan sea, and thus it brings forth what lies hidden in the recesses of the mind, and shakes the entire soul." Tullius Cimber was a drunkard, and therefore irascible and impatient of any yoke or master; therefore he conspired with accomplices to murder Julius Caesar, saying: "Shall I endure anyone, when I cannot endure wine?" as Seneca reports, Epistle 84.
Verse 5: And Lest They Drink and Forget Judgments
5. And lest they drink and forget judgments, and change the cause of the children of the poor. — In Hebrew: Lest he drink and forget the statute (of law and justice) and change the judgment of the children of affliction. The mother speaks to Solomon in the plural and in the third person for the sake of honor, as I said, as if to say: Lest you, drinking wine with your counselors, become tipsy, and through tipsiness forget law and justice, and thus alter and pervert the causes of the poor. Whence clearly the Chaldean translates: Lest you drink and pervert your reasoning, and change the judgments of all the children of the poor. The Septuagint: Lest they forget wisdom and be unable to judge the weak rightly; or, as the Author of the Greek Catena: Lest they crush the weak and feeble. The Syriac: Beware of kings, or: Lest you drink and forget investigation, and forget the judgment of the children of the poor.
The physical cause is that drunkenness lulls the mind to sleep, indeed submerges and buries it in wine, so that a man is now deprived of reason, and is not so much a man as a brute; therefore forgetfulness of wisdom, law, justice, cases, and all things seizes him. For his brain is disturbed by the fumes of wine, which cloud, confuse, and mix up the images of the imagination, so that he imagines false things for true and seems to himself to see them. The moral cause is that drunkenness makes a man light, petulant, subject to anger and love, so that with reason now asleep, to please a friend and drinking companion, he promises and does many things that are contrary to law and honor.
Wherefore St. Chrysostom in Antonius's Melissa, Part I, chapter 30, says: "For those who live in drunkenness and luxury, the day is turned into nocturnal darkness, not because the sun is extinguished, but because their mind is darkened by drunkenness. Drunkenness is the alienation of right reason, and delirium, and the loss of health as regards the soul. Wine drunk immoderately is the fuel of luxury, the supply of pleasures, the plague of youth, the poison of the soul, the extinction of reason, the alienation of virtue." In the same place Clement says: "Every drunkard is inferior to wrath and empty of mind." In the same place St. Basil says: "Wine, given by God to the temperate as a gift for the consolation of weakness, has now become for the licentious an instrument of luxury. That fire which is born in the flesh from wine becomes the fuel of the fiery darts of the enemy: for wine submerges reason and mind; but passions and pleasures it kindles, as oil kindles a flame." And shortly after: "Drunkenness is a demon voluntarily admitted through pleasure into souls. Drunkenness is the mother of malice, the assailant of virtue; it makes the strong timid, the modest wanton; it ignores justice, abolishes prudence. For just as water is opposed to fire, so the excess of wine opposes a sober mind extinguishes it. The sleep of drunkards is heavy, deep, and close to suffocation, indeed truly close to death; and their wakefulness has even less awareness than their sleep. For life to them is a dream: though they have no tunic and nothing to eat for tomorrow, they nevertheless reign and command armies in their very drunkenness, and build cities and distribute money." The same author, in his Homily on Fasting: "Drunkenness," he says, "just as it brings a sleep akin to death, so it has a wakefulness that is forgetful, resembling sleep."
Wherefore God forbids priests wine under penalty of death while they perform the sacred rites, Leviticus chapter 10:9: "You and your sons shall not drink wine or anything that can intoxicate when you enter the tabernacle of the testimony, lest you die: for it is an everlasting precept throughout your generations; and that you may have knowledge to discern between holy and profane, between unclean and clean, and may teach the children of Israel all my ordinances which I have spoken to them." And for this reason Nadab and Abihu, because while drunk they offered profane fire instead of sacred fire, were burned by that same fire, as I showed there.
Verses 6 and 7: Give Strong Drink to Those Who Mourn, and Wine to Those Who Are Bitter in Spirit
6 and 7. Give strong drink to those who mourn, and wine to those who are bitter in spirit: let them drink and forget their want (the Chaldean: the loss of their garments), and remember their sorrow (the Septuagint: their labors; Symmachus: their troubles) no more — for as long, namely, as the wine or the power of wine is in them, says Galatinus, Book 5 on the Secrets of the Faith, chapter 7, where he proves with many examples that the word "more" or "beyond" does not always signify eternal or long duration, but sometimes a brief time. The Septuagint: Give an intoxicant to those who are in sorrows, and wine to drink to those who are in pain. In the Hebrew there is a beautiful wordplay between שכר sechar, that is, strong drink or wine, and לא יזכר lo yizchar, that is, "let him not remember," as if to say: Sechar, that is, strong drink, takes away זכר zechar, that is, the memory of pains and anguish.
First, for "those who mourn" the Hebrew has לאובד leobed, that is, "to the perishing," that is, to one condemned to death, say the Hebrews and Arboreus; for to these wine is customarily given so that they may mitigate their sorrows and gather strength of mind and body to endure the punishment, according to Amos 2:8: "And they drank the wine of the condemned in the house of their God." So the Jews gave Christ, when He was to be crucified, wine mixed with myrrh to endure the torment of the cross, Mark 15:23. Whence Vatablus translates: Give wine to the condemned, etc., that they may not remember their calamity. The Syriac: That they may not remember injustice and calamity. Namely, Bathsheba dissuades Solomon and judges from wine, with an argument drawn from contraries, as if to say: Wine belongs to the accused and those who are to be punished with death for their crimes; therefore it is unbecoming and unworthy that judges, who punish them with death, should take the place of the accused and drink wine. Hear Galatinus from the book of the Sanhedrin, Book 8 on the Secrets of the Faith, chapter 19: "R. Rasda said that one going out to be killed was given to drink the powder of incense in a cup of wine, so that his senses might be separated from him, as it is said in Proverbs 31: Give strong drink to the lost, and wine to those who are bitter in spirit. And there were in Jerusalem honorable women who voluntarily provided these things."
Secondly, others by "those who mourn" understand those who grieve, namely those who mourn the death of a father, brother, sister, or wife: for to these wine is customarily given to drive away or mitigate their sorrow. Whence Jeremiah, chapter 16, reckons among the extreme calamities of the Hebrews that they were deprived of wine to temper their mourning: "And they shall not give them," he says, "the cup to drink for consolation over their father and mother." So our Jerome Prado on Ezekiel, chapter 44. Thirdly and genuinely, understand here any mourners whatsoever, with St. Chrysostom and others generally. For these are called "perishing" in Hebrew because they are consumed and waste away with grief, so that they seem almost to perish, says R. Levi. For to this end God after the flood taught Noah the method of making wine from grapes, so that He might temper with the cheerfulness of wine the sorrow of Noah and his sons over the flood brought upon the world and the destruction of all things, Genesis 9:20. For wine induces forgetfulness of sorrows, refreshes the imagination, and cheers the mind. Nor is there great danger of drunkenness for mourners, because grief resists drunkenness. Whence Hippocrates and physicians teach that the sad and melancholic are overcome and intoxicated by wine with difficulty, but that this easily happens to the sanguine and those given to joy.
Our Vilalpando on Ezekiel chapter 27, verse 15, page 19, letter D, thinks that שכר sechar, that is, intoxicating strong drink, and drunkenness itself, alludes to אשכר escar, that is, "gift, price, bribe," as if here princes and judges are forbidden to accept bribes, because bribes intoxicate them like wine, so that they forget the law and pervert it; wine then here is taken for a bribe that deranges like wine, by catachresis. But from the preceding and following context it is clear that all these things refer to drunkenness, not to the acceptance of bribes.
Hear St. Chrysostom, Homily 29 on Genesis, who, explaining Genesis 9:20: "And Noah, a man of the soil, began to cultivate the earth, and planted a vineyard, and drinking wine (too liberally) became drunk," assigns the reason: "Because," he says, "he was seized by a great sadness, and wished to devise consolation for himself from it, just as a certain wise man says: Give wine to those who are in sadness, and strong drink to those who are in pain, showing that no remedy for sadness is so effective as the use of wine; let not intemperance waste such a benefit. And that this just man was in sadness and grief, seeing himself in such solitude, and the bodies of those men cast before his eyes, and a common tomb made for men and beasts, who would deny? For the custom of the Prophets and the just is not to grieve only for those who are near to them, but also for all others." The same St. Chrysostom, in his Homily on Chastity and Sobriety: "Wine in moderation," he says, "restores a weak stomach, repairs failing strength, warms one who is cold, heals when poured on wounds, and when combined with antidotes and various medicines, works health; it removes sadness, destroys the languors of the soul, pours in joy, and makes banqueters mix honorable conversation; but taken a little too much, it is in a certain way turned into poison." And after some remarks: "A rustic saying, but a sound one: The medicine of wine, taken beyond measure, is recognized to be poison."
Following Solomon as usual, Sirach says: "Wine was created for joy, and not for drunkenness from the beginning. It is the gladness of the soul and of the heart, wine drunk in moderation," Sirach 31:35. See what was said there. Alcaeus, the Greek lyric poet, thus sings of wine: "For wine, because it induces forgetfulness of pains, the son of Semele and Jupiter Gave to mortals. Pour and mix the wine, Adding two parts of unmixed wine to one measure of water," so that there are two parts of wine in the cup and one third water. The same poet: "Plant no other tree before the vine." From which Horace: "Plant no tree, Varus, before the sacred vine." Xenophon in the Symposium: "Wine thus lulls sorrows to sleep, as mandrake does a man; but it rouses good will, no differently than oil does a flame." Epictetus in Maximus, Sermon 30: "Cicadas," he says, "are melodious, while snails are mute; yet these enjoy moisture, while those enjoy heat: these are drawn out by the dew, and come forth into it, while the burning sun rouses the others, and they sing in it. And so if you wish to be both a musician and a man apt in every respect, when in drinking parties the spirit has been irrigated with wine, do not allow it to go further and be contaminated; but when in assemblies the spirit has been kindled by reason, then let it both divine and chant oracles of justice." For this reason the discoverer of wine was called Liber, either because he gives license and liberty of speech, or because he liberates from cares, says Seneca in his book On Tranquility of Mind, on which see Jacob Pontanus, Book 2 of the Progymnasmata. Whence Horace, Ode 7, Book 1: "O brave men," he says, "who have often endured Greater hardships with me: now drive away cares with wine."
And Ovid: "Wines prepare the spirits and make them apt for warmth: Care flees, washed away by much unmixed wine. Then laughter comes, then the poor man takes up horns: Then sorrow and cares and the wrinkle of the brow depart." And Plato, Book 1 of the Laws: "Wine," he says, "once drunk immediately renders a man happier and more cheerful than he was." Socrates in Xenophon's Symposium: "That we should drink, men, also greatly pleases me. For truly wine, irrigating the spirits, lulls cares to sleep, no differently than mandrake does men." Panyasis in Athenaeus, Book 2: "Wine itself is food equal to fire for mortals, A medicine for every ill, a medicine for sorrows, The greatest part of joy and splendor in these things."
Finally, St. Augustine, in To Virgins, chapter 1: "Wine," he says, "removes sadness, destroys all languors of the soul, pours in joy, and makes banqueters mingle honorable conversation." Nor was Luther ignorant of this, the firebrand of heresies of our age, who, as Cochlaeus reports, since he suffered sharp and constant scruples of conscience on account of the renewed faith and the invented heresy, in order to lull or extinguish them with wine, drank deeply and caroused vigorously every day, so that he seemed always bibulous and tipsy; and to the followers of his perfidy, who were tormented by similar scruples of conscience, he suggested the same remedy, namely that they should drown their scruples in wine, but in vain: for when they awoke from drunkenness and were now sober, the scruples revived more vigorously, and the biting anguish of mind bit and tortured them more sharply; for a bad conscience and constantly gnawing perfidy neither wine nor any thing of this world can cure, but only true faith and repentance.
Tropologically, Abbot Nesteros in Cassian, Conference 14, 17, from the Septuagint: "Give pitter, that is," he says, "drunkenness (that is, an intoxicant, as the Vatican translates, namely intoxicating strong drink), to those who are in sadness, etc., that is, to those who are weighed down with grief and sadness on account of repentance for their past actions, pour out abundantly the joy of spiritual knowledge like wine that gladdens the heart of man, and revive them with the intoxication of the saving word, lest those who are of such a kind, by persistent grief and lethal despair, be swallowed up by too great a sadness."
Verse 8: Open Your Mouth for the Mute
8. Open your mouth for the mute, and for the causes of all the children who pass by. — Vatablus: Defend the silent one in his cause. Others: Speak for the mute. Aben-Ezra: For him who cannot speak, you speak. Therefore "mute" is the name for one who, summoned before a tribunal, either does not dare to defend his right out of shame, or does not know how out of inexperience. Such are foreigners, orphans, peasants, and widows, who from אלם illem, that is, "mute" or "bound," meaning one whose tongue is bound so he cannot speak, are called אלמנות almanoth, because they are bound or mute, unable to repel the injuries done to them or to defend their right through arguments and laws. For to these the judge and prince must be a patron, and speak for them, and defend their rights against the powerful and eloquent, as did St. Ivo, advocate of the poor, St. Louis, King of France, and St. Job: "The ear that heard me," he says, "called me blessed, and the eye that saw me bore witness to me, because I delivered the poor who cried out, and the orphan who had no helper. The blessing of the one about to perish came upon me, and I consoled the heart of the widow, etc. I was an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and the cause that I did not know I investigated most diligently. I crushed the jaws of the wicked and tore the prey from his teeth," Job 29:11. So interpreters generally.
Therefore some less genuinely take "mute" to mean a taciturn person who keeps a secret, as if to say: Reveal your secrets to no one except a mute, that is, a silent person who does not blurt out a secret, but silently stores and preserves it in his mind: for a silent person seems tongueless and mute. But this passage does not deal with keeping secrets, but with protecting the wretched who do not know how to protect themselves. Whence the Chaldean translates: Open your mouth for those who do not pervert judgment, that is, who have a right which they cannot explain and prove.
The Septuagint takes "mute" to mean the word of God: "Open," they say, "your mouth to the word of God, and judge all soundly and with integrity," as if to say: The word of God written in Sacred Scripture is tongueless, lifeless, and as it were mute, because the judicial laws and rights are contained in the written pages and tablets of Sacred Scripture, and cannot speak or defend themselves. Therefore it is your task, O king and judge, to animate them and make them vocal, so that with your mouth you may proclaim, promulgate, and defend them, and from them pronounce a just sentence, condemning and punishing the guilty, absolving and rewarding the innocent. The king and judge therefore is the mouth of the word of God, as well as of law and justice, which he makes vocal, sonorous, and formidable, as if giving voice to what was mute. Others take it differently: for they think the Septuagint translated the dative "for the mute" as the nominative "mute," namely: Open your mouth as a mute man, that is, you must utter not your own words, O king, but God's: therefore do not speak from your own head, but mute and silent, await from God whatever you are to say; and then at last speak the words dictated by God: for you exercise God's power and act as His deputy, in His name you declare the law and judge causes; therefore speak as befits God, whose place you hold: use the words of God, that is, pronounce sentence with such integrity and justice as if God Himself were pronouncing sentence from His throne; for God speaks through the judge as through His own mouth, and declares a just judgment. But the former interpretation, as it is fuller, so it is also more genuine.
And for the causes of all the children who pass by. — Less correctly the Zurich translation renders: Open your mouth for the mute, in the judgment of all those who appeal, namely to your tribunal and judgment. For the Hebrew has בני חלוף bene chaloph, that is, "children of change" or "passing." Which first, Pagninus translates as: of all the children of the world; for these are in perpetual change and continually pass and tend toward death. Every man therefore is a child of change, because he passes from life to death, from death to immortality. Whence Vatablus translates: in the cause of all the children of destruction, that is, of death, as if to say: Be fair to all; judge all with equity; fear no one, even if he be powerful, rich, and a prince: because all are mortal and will shortly die, according to that saying: "We all die, and like waters flow into the earth which do not return," 2 Kings 14:14; and that: "In the morning let him pass like grass, in the morning let him flower and pass, in the evening let him fall, harden, and wither," Psalm 89:6; and that of Job 14:1: "Man born of woman, living a short time, etc., flees like a shadow and never remains in the same state."
Secondly, the Chaldean translates: Judge the causes of the perverse; for these are the children of change, because they pervert the laws and turn and convert them into injuries. Thirdly, others by the children of change understand those whose fortune has changed, so that from prosperity and wealth they have been cast into adversity and poverty: for the lot of these is more wretched than the lot of those who were never happy or wealthy, and therefore is more to be pitied and relieved. To this R. Solomon adds: "Those who pass by," he says, are peoples whose help has passed away and become worthless. Fourthly, others by the children of exchange understand the accused, who exchange life for death, as if to say: See, O Solomon, O king, O judge, that you do not hastily condemn anyone to death; for from death there is no exchange and return to life, but once killed he remains killed forever; therefore see that you do not rashly condemn anyone without hearing his case: for thus you will easily condemn the innocent and the just. So Aben-Ezra: "Bene chaloph," he says, "are those adjudged to death for a capital crime; therefore take care that their case is properly and diligently examined."
Fifthly, properly and genuinely, the children of change or passage are called foreigners. For since they are absent from their homeland and among strangers, they have no acquaintance or patron, do not know the laws of the place, are despised by the natives, and can easily be oppressed or circumvented by the wicked. It is therefore the prince's duty to take up their patronage, and to protect and promote them as his own. This explains what was said: "Open your mouth for the mute." For foreigners abroad are, as it were, tongueless and mute, especially because they often do not understand the language of the place or know how to express themselves.
Mystically, St. Jerome (or rather Rabanus) on Lamentations chapter 1, at the words: O all you who pass by the way: "Hence," he says, "it is said through Solomon: Open your mouth for the mute, and for the causes of all the children who pass by; for mute are called those who do not resist by contradicting the words of preachers, who are also passers-by, because they disdain to direct the intention of their mind toward the love of the present life." Differently Bede: "To open one's mouth for the mute," he says, "is to preach the word of faith to the people of the nations, who previously knew not how to utter divine words."
Memmius, Book 2, Satire 5: "To draw the pleasant forgetfulness of an anxious life," that is, says Lambinus: "To drink, or swallow the forgetfulness of cares." And Anacreon: "When I drink wine, my cares sleep."
And Homer, Iliad 6, 261: "For a weary man, wine greatly increases strength." Wine increases greatly the strength of a weary man.
Open your mouth for the mute, for those who cannot defend themselves in judgment, in the cause, or for the cause of all the children of oppression: chalaph also means "to rush upon."
Verse 9: Open Your Mouth, Decree What Is Just, and Judge the Needy and the Poor
9. Open your mouth, decree what is just, and judge the needy and the poor. — In Hebrew: Open your mouth and judge with justice, and give judgment for the afflicted and the destitute. The Chaldean: And render justice to the poor and to those suffering injury. The Septuagint: And judge the poor and the weak. Ancient codices add: And vindicate the needy and the poor. Which words were added by someone by way of a gloss. For "judge" means the same as "vindicate the needy and the poor" from the violence and oppression of the rich: for it is the king's duty to protect the rights of the poor against the power of the rich, since they cannot defend themselves against them. You therefore, O Lemuel, with whom God is, exercise on earth the role of God, of whom the Psalmist says: "To You the poor man is entrusted; You will be a helper to the orphan." Excellently St. Chrysostom in Antonius's Melissa, Part 2, chapter 6: "A prince," he says, "is not recognized by his costly robe or belt, nor by the herald's voice, but in this: that he restores what has fallen, corrects what has been badly established, punishes the unjust, and does not suffer the right to be taken away by the more powerful." And Epictetus: "Nothing is more becoming to one who presides than that he neither proudly despise anyone nor unworthily admire anyone, but preside over all equally."
The Second Part of the Chapter and the Last of the Book
Thus far we have heard the counsels of Bathsheba given to her son Solomon: now Solomon repays the favor to his mother, and on the occasion of his mother graphically depicts and celebrates the strong woman, that is, the distinguished mother of a household, and in her his own mother. Just as Christ, having received the testimony from St. John the Baptist that He was the Messiah and the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world, repaid John in kind, giving him these praises: "What did you go out into the desert to see? etc. A prophet? Yes I tell you, and more than a prophet. For this is he of whom it is written: Behold I send My angel before Your face, who shall prepare Your way before You. Amen I say to you, there has not risen among those born of women one greater than John the Baptist," Matthew 11:7. So Vatablus, Baynus, Aben-Ezra, Jansenius, and others.
Others think these words also belong to Bathsheba, as if she, after warning Solomon about avoiding women, now teaches him what kind of wife he should seek, and how many and how great qualities she should possess. So Cajetan. But the former view that I stated is truer.
Moreover, for the sake of elegance, these verses are alphabetical: for the first begins with the first letter aleph, the second with the second letter beth, and so on through 22 verses, which begin with as many Hebrew letters in alphabetical order. The same is done in the Lamentations of Jeremiah, where I assigned the reason, and in some Psalms, such as 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 118, 145. St. Jerome, writing to Paula of the city of Rome, thinks that all these to the end of the chapter were written in iambic tetrameter: but what the system, number, feet, and measure of this meter formerly was among the Hebrews, we now do not know.
Allegorically, Solomon here depicts the Church, which is the wife of Christ, the true Solomon, and the mother of the household of all the faithful. So the Author of the Imperfect Work in Chrysostom, Homily 23 on Matthew, St. Gregory, Moralia 33, chapter 22, or according to another edition, 16. Bede, Salonius, the Gloss, Arboreus, Baynus, and others; indeed St. Ambrose at the end of Volume 2 of the Roman edition copiously applies this entire chapter to the Church; but this commentary is almost word for word identical with Sermon 43 of St. Augustine On Various Topics, and smells more of the style of St. Augustine, and is attributed to St. Augustine by Possidius and Bede on Romans 8, and by the Louvain scholars who first published these sermons of St. Augustine as new. In the text, however, St. Ambrose often translates and reads these verses of Solomon differently from St. Augustine. Again, St. Ambrose is more copious and has more than St. Augustine.
Therefore St. Epiphanius fittingly addresses Christians in his Ancoratus: "O you orthodox and children of the Church, children of truth, children of that wise and most strong woman, whose glory is in Solomon who says: Who shall find a strong woman? Proverbs 31. As if she were rare, indeed rather unique, by the strong woman he means the Church of God, your mother, than which nothing is stronger, since she dies through each persecution that is stirred up, for the name of her husband." So says Epiphanius. Tropologically, it depicts the holy soul dedicated to heroic virtues, and particularly the Blessed Virgin, to whom St. Bernard applies these things, Sermon 9 among the shorter ones, and more fully Sermon 2 on the Missus est; likewise the Author of the Greek Catena. Symbolically, the strong woman is wisdom, and likewise Sacred Scripture, to which Lyra adapts these things from R. Solomon.
Again, the strong woman is heroic virtue, or the perfection of virtue. So R. Levi. Hear our Pineda, Book 2 On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 4, number 10: Solomon is warned by his mother, he says, not to take a wife from the land of Canaan, when she says: "Do not give your substance to women (that is, to Canaanite women, profane doctrines, pleasures, false religion) and your ways to the destruction of kings;" but devote yourself to wisdom, which enlarges kings. She therefore urges that "he take a strong woman from the uttermost boundaries and from afar:" she is wisdom. Hence she describes her qualities in an alphabetical poem, so that the very elements of writing may be joined with the study of wisdom, and that the boy may be accustomed to wisdom and piety from the very alphabet tablet.
For others, din is a verb, with the same meaning, namely: judge the needy and the poor, as the Vulgate has.
Albert the Great wrote an enormous book on the strong woman, in which he copiously examines each word of the chapter, and draws from it discourses and moral reflections, by which he supplies ample material for sermons.
Verse 10: Who Shall Find a Strong Woman?
10. Who shall find a strong woman? (as if to say: To find one is not impossible, but difficult, because few such women exist, and she is like a rare bird on earth) Far away and from the uttermost boundaries is her value. — Marcus Antonius Abagarus, from very ancient Bibles written 800 years ago in the Armenian language and script, reads: Who shall find a woman of sound mind? She is more precious than precious stones. For "woman" the Hebrew has אשת esceth, that is, "woman" or "wife": for it is clear that a married woman and mother of a household is the subject here from what follows: "The heart of her husband trusts in her," etc. For "strong" the Hebrew has חיל chail, that is, of strength, virtue, industriousness. Whence first, some translate: a woman of wealth; for riches are the strength and fortitude of the rich, Proverbs 18:11. So Aben-Ezra, who translates: a woman who acquires wealth, as if to say: "Who could find a woman who makes money and acquires strength by the wisdom with which she is endowed?"
Secondly, others translate: a woman of the army, that is, a strong and military woman; whence he adds of her: "And she shall not lack spoils," as if to say: By her strength she will bring back ample spoils from the enemy, like the Amazons of old who by handling arms became most warlike, of whom Valerius says in Book 5 of the Argonautica: "Such as the Amazon Mavortia saw"; Mavortia, that is, warlike or born of Mars, as they themselves boasted. And Virgil, Aeneid 1: "She leads the ranks of Amazons with crescent shields, Penthesilea raging." So Lycurgus, the lawgiver of Sparta, trained the bodies of maidens who might contend in virtue with men, indeed surpass them. The Chaldean: a good woman. Vatablus: a masculine woman. Others properly and genuinely: an industrious, hardworking, heroic woman, namely a heroine. Others: a woman furnished with every virtue. Baynus: a woman bold in managing affairs. For women are usually faint-hearted and timid; whence "mulier" (woman) is said as if from "mollier" (softer). "Therefore a strong woman," says Jerome Osorius, "is called one who surpasses feminine weakness: for the sex of women is generally weak and soft, and the crowd of etymologists everywhere teaches that 'woman' is derived from softness; therefore the female who has conquered her womanly, that is, soft and feeble nature, and has risen above her condition, is called a strong woman, or a woman of virtue." For the Hebrew chail denotes industriousness, diligence, vigor of both mind and body, which consists in labor and exercise, and strives with pain, and as it were gives birth (for the root חול chol means to give birth and to strive with pain) to heroic deeds and actions. A woman of chail, therefore, that is, of virtue and industriousness, is one who is diligent in working, magnanimous in suffering, discreet and wise in governing, gentle in consoling, industrious in trading, solicitous in providing, who nourishes, comforts, enriches, and blesses her husband; who raises her children strictly in the law and fear of God, who keeps servants and handmaids in their duty and in harmony, who prudently manages her house and family, provides for it in food and clothing, and enriches it. Such was Salome, the mother of the seven Maccabees, 2 Maccabees 7. Such was St. Felicitas, such St. Symphorosa, who trained their seven sons for martyrdom. Such was Nonna, the mother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, of whom he himself at his father's funeral said: "I have heard the divine Scripture saying: Who shall find a strong woman? In this opinion even outsiders concur; for their saying is that no better thing can befall a man than a virtuous wife, nor conversely a worse thing than a wicked one worse." Moreover, he defines the virtuous wife as one who is pious toward God and industrious and diligent toward her family, and he praises the mother on both counts: for it is difficult to combine both, since piety requires quiet and leisure, while diligence requires solicitude and activity.
Far away and from the uttermost boundaries is her value. — Our translator perhaps read the Hebrew as מפננים mippinanim, that is, "from the corners," that is, from the uttermost boundaries (for פנה pinna signifies a corner and an end) is her value. Others with different vowel points read מפננים mippeninim, that is, "more than pearls" or "more than gems" is her value. The Septuagint: She who is such is more precious than precious stones. The Chaldean: More precious than the finest stones. Others: More precious than rubies or carbuncles. Vatablus: Whoever has obtained a woman endowed with virtue has a merchandise more precious than gems sought from afar.
Thirdly, the Septuagint better translates γυναῖκα ἀνδρείαν, that is, "a manly woman," that is, a virago. He exercised them in running, wrestling, and the throwing of the discus and javelin. When asked, he gave this reason: "So that in a strong body the fetus, putting down strong roots, may grow beautifully, and the women themselves, strengthened in body from childbearing, may easily sustain and overcome the pains of birth and the labors of marriage and the household, and so that if necessity demands, they may fight and do battle for themselves, their children, and their country." Hence Gorgo, the wife of Leonidas, to someone who said: "You Laconian women alone rule your husbands," replied: "For we alone give birth to real men." So Plutarch in his Life of Lycurgus and in the Laconian Apophthegms. Our age has seen and sees women similar to the Amazons and Laconian women. Certainly a harder and more rigorous education of daughters makes them robust, spirited, industrious, and noble, as daily experience teaches.
"The Sauromatae obey their wives as masters in all things: they do not give a maiden in marriage until she has killed an enemy," says Nicolaus, On the Customs of Nations.
First, some explain it thus, as if to say: A strong woman is so rare and precious a thing that she must be sought in the uttermost boundaries of the earth, and summoned and called from there. So the Queen of Sheba is said "to have come from the ends of the earth," that is, from a distant region to Solomon, to hear his wisdom, 3 Kings 10:1 and Matthew 12:42.
Secondly, more plainly and genuinely, as if to say: A strong woman, that is, an industrious and diligent one, is a rare thing of rare value, as are usually those things that are brought from the uttermost lands of India: for her value is so great that it must be compared with the most precious gems and pearls that are brought from the most remote parts of the world. Whence those who read the Hebrew as mippeninim translate: far beyond pearls is her value, that is, she far surpasses the value of pearls or gems. Or, what amounts to the same thing: The value of a strong woman is so great, dear, and rare that it must be sought from the uttermost boundaries of the earth; for nothing, however precious, in our land equals the value of a strong woman; but from far away must be sought what can be compared and equated with her in value. That is, a strong woman is a most precious thing, whose value can scarcely be estimated and is even harder to find, because it surpasses the value of gold and silver, and contends with the value of gems, indeed surpasses and transcends even that.
He alludes to the ancient custom of purchasing wives. For formerly husbands purchased wives by paying a price to their parents, as Hosea, chapter 3, verse 2, bought a wife for himself for fifteen pieces of silver. See what was said there. And Jacob purchased Rachel by serving her father Laban for seven years, Genesis 29:27. The meaning therefore is: If you wish to buy a diligent and manly wife according to custom by paying a fair price, spare no expense, because such a woman surpasses all price. Hence the Septuagint translates: She who is such is more precious than precious stones. The Hebrew: More precious than pearls. What and how great the value of pearls is, and of the saints who are represented by them, especially of the Blessed Virgin, through many analogies of both, I showed at Revelation 21:21. The Syriac: More precious than the most precious gems, whose value has no equal.
Allegorically, St. Ambrose on this chapter of Proverbs, at the end of Volume 2, takes the strong woman as the Church, her husband as Christ, and her children as the Martyrs: "The fortitude of the woman," he says, "befits the day of the Martyrs; for if she herself were not strong, her pledges would have failed in suffering." And St. Augustine, Sermon 217 on the Seasons: "Who shall find a strong woman? When he says 'Who shall find,' one must understand the difficulty of finding, not the impossibility. This strong woman is the Church. How is she not strong, who from the beginning of the world is wearied by so many tribulations, and yet is not conquered? Who shall find a strong woman? Who else but Christ? But He did not find her strong; rather, by finding her He made her strong. For in order to find her,
He left ninety-nine in the mountains, and sought the one that had strayed, and placing it on His shoulders, brought it back to its own fold." And more fully, Sermon 218: "Who shall find a strong woman? It is difficult to find her, and difficult not to know her. Is she not the city on a mountain that cannot be hidden? Why then was it said: Who shall find her? when it should have been said: Who shall not find her? But you see the city set on a mountain; but in order to be placed on a mountain, she was found: for she is that sheep which had been lost." And after some intervening remarks: "And after He found her, He not only snatched her from the thorns of her sins, but also adorned her with precious stones. Therefore it is said of her: She is more precious than precious stones." He concludes by identifying her precious stones, as a woman's adornment: "There are in the Church precious stones, and there always have been, namely the learned, abounding in knowledge and eloquence and every instruction of the law. These stones are truly precious: of their number was Cyprian, of their number was Ambrose, and others like them. Some of their number went astray from the adornment of this woman." St. Ambrose has almost the same things word for word in the place already cited; therefore they seem to have been copied from one into the other.
More luminously and more movingly Bede, who takes the value of the strong woman, that is, of the Church, to be Christ, who redeemed her with the price of His blood: and this price was from afar, because it came from heaven. He then adds: "Although it can also rightly be understood that the price of the holy Church was placed far away, because the incarnation of the Word of God, His life among men, His passion and resurrection were far removed from the condition of our nature; since He was born when He willed and of what mother He willed, and lived without sin in the world, and departed from the world when He willed and by what death He willed, and held the time of His resurrection and ascension in His own power, and other such things, in which He is as far from us as heaven is distant from earth."
Tropologically, the strong woman, indeed the most heroic of all heroines, and the prince and queen of martyrs, is the Blessed Virgin, who, as St. Bernard says, Sermon 9 among the shorter ones: "Was so strong that she crushed the head of that serpent to whom the Lord had said: I will place enmities between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed: she shall crush your head." Wherefore Blessed Mary is the pearl that surpasses all price: for she is worth more than all angels and men and the entire world, and, as St. Augustine says: "She herself is the price of her own adornment." She is rightly called a pearl (unio), because to herself and her flesh, and consequently to the entire human race, she united and joined the Son of God, and together with Him the entire Most Holy Trinity, in perpetuity. The same St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on the Missus est: "To whom," he says, "was this victory (of the crushed serpent) reserved if not to Mary? What other woman indeed was Solomon seeking, when he said: Who shall find a strong woman? For the Wise Man knew the weakness of this sex, the fragile body, the unstable mind: yet because he had read that God had promised, and saw that it was fitting that He who had conquered through a woman should be conquered through a woman, he said with great wonder: Who shall find a strong woman? Which is to say: If thus from the hand of a woman hangs both our salvation and the restoration of innocence and victory over the enemy, it is absolutely necessary that one be provided who is strong and capable of so great a work. But who shall find a strong woman? But lest they think he asked this in despair, he adds prophetically: Far away and from the uttermost boundaries is her value, that is, not cheap, not small, not ordinary, nor indeed from the earth, but from heaven; and not from the heaven nearest to earth is the value of this strong woman, but from the highest heaven is her going forth."
Again, the strong woman is the holy and religious soul, especially one who joins action with contemplation. For the active life is like a handmaid, the contemplative life is like a beautiful and delicate daughter; but both together are like the strong woman, the wife of Christ, for she embraces Him with the embrace of contemplation, and by her teaching, preaching, and action begets, raises, and governs many children for Him. Such a woman is rare and difficult to find. Her clothing is the strength of patience and the beauty of justice: strength protects beauty, and beauty adorns strength. See our Alvaro de Paz, Book 2 On the Spiritual Life, Part 2, chapter 19.
Verse 11: The Heart of Her Husband Trusts in Her
11. The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he shall have no need of spoils. — "Trusts," that is, the heart of the husband rests securely in his industrious wife, because he is certain not only of her chastity, but also of her fidelity and diligence. To her therefore he resigns the cares and anxieties of his heart about providing for the family; to her he safely entrusts and commits his wealth, his secrets, and all his affairs whether past or pending. For great is the cross and anxiety of a husband if he has a wife suspect in fidelity, or lazy or improvident: for then the entire care of the household falls on the husband, and not only of the household, but of the wife herself; for the husband fears that the wife may squander his property, or consume it in feasting with friends or lovers, or secretly distribute it to her own relatives, or dissipate it through careless neglect. Therefore he watches her actions with a thousand eyes, as it were, like Argus, so that he can scarcely do anything else, nor has he the heart to undertake anything great. From all these burdens the prudent and industrious wife frees the husband, and thus brings him confidence, peace, security, and unspeakable joy.
And he shall not lack spoils — namely the husband, not the wife. For the Hebrew יחסר iechsar is of the masculine gender, and therefore refers to the husband, not the wife. However, it can refer to both if you translate literally from the Hebrew: and spoil shall not be lacking, namely to both husband and wife. The Chaldean: And he shall not be despoiled, nor shall he be in want. Now,
First, some take "spoils" to mean provisions and food necessary for feeding the family. Whence the Syriac translates: And he shall not lack dates. For on dates, which are the fruit of the palm, the Syrians, Indians, and Egyptians live, inasmuch as they have an abundance of palm trees, which supply them with food and clothing. Whence St. Paul the first Hermit, St. Anthony, St. Macarius, and other anchorites in the Thebaid lived for many years on dates, of which they took only a few per day.
Secondly, others take "spoils" as wealth and goods of any kind. Whence R. Solomon translates: And he shall not lack goods. Vatablus: He shall not want for household property. The Zurich translation: His property does not decrease. Aben-Ezra: The husband's mind trusts in her, because she manages the household property manage well; therefore he shall never want for the furnishings that she prepares. Thirdly, our Salazar takes "spoil" to mean a checkered garment, which is named from "scutum" (shield), because it is marked with the patterns of shields. And shields are customarily spoils of war, as if to say: A diligent wife does not need a checkered garment and necklaces, but can be taken by the husband naked and without a dowry, both because her own industry and diligence is a sufficient dowry, and because she herself is masculine in spirit, and therefore despises and scorns those feminine adornments as womanish and cheap, which vain and world-loving women so eagerly pursue, being as they are destitute of the true ornaments of prudence and virtue; and she places all her care in wisdom, virtue, and diligence.
Fourthly, Jansenius takes "spoils" in their proper sense, as if to say: The husband of this diligent wife will not need to go to the camp and become a soldier to capture the spoils of enemies, so as to support and enrich himself from them: because a diligent wife will supply him with abundance of wealth, so that he need not seek it from the spoils of enemies at such great cost and danger to himself. Fifthly, Luis de Leon, in his treatise On the Strong Woman, takes "spoils" to mean trade and merchandise, because not rarely merchants amass their merchandise and wealth from spoils, that is, from usury, fraud, and unjust contracts by which they despoil others, as if to say: This fortunate husband, to whom a diligent and solicitous wife has fallen, placing his hope for increasing the family property in her, will consider it sufficient to cultivate his fields and gather the fruits that the earth spontaneously produces; and he will not think it necessary for himself to engage in business and trade in order to earn greater profits.
Sixthly, more plainly and fully: The heart of her husband trusts in her, that she by her own industry will abundantly provide herself and her family with necessities, so that he will have no need of spoils; but in place of spoils won by arms, his harvests and wealth will be won by her labor and energy. He names "spoils" first because he continues the metaphor of the strong woman, in Hebrew חיל chail, that is, military and warlike, whose spoils come from her hands, not from enemies: for with her own hands she snatches great profits like spoils. Secondly, because the earliest wealth of the Hebrews was amassed from spoils with which they despoiled Egypt, Exodus 12:36, and the Canaanites, when through Joshua they conquered them and occupied Canaan. Hence by catachresis the Hebrews call any wealth "spoil" or "prey," as is clear from verse 13. So also today the Arabs, Tartars, Cossacks, and many others live by plunder, and all their wealth consists of spoils. Thirdly, the word "spoils" denotes both the virtue of the woman and the abundance of wealth, as if to say: The strong woman by her own valor and wisdom will procure for her husband and herself the things necessary for the family, with no less industry and no less virtue than if she had carried off spoils from conquered enemies; therefore she will abound in all things, just as if she had brought back rich spoils from the enemy: for when cities are captured, great and varied household goods fall to the victors, which are called spoils. So Baynus. Hence the Septuagint: And she shall never lack good or honorable spoils, where the Author of the Greek Catena says: Her income and fruits are called honorable spoils, to distinguish them from bad ones, such as those that are unjustly acquired.
Allegorically, the heart of God and of Christ trusts in the Church, which He has espoused to Himself, because through His grace and gifts He makes her strong and stable, so that against all the attacks of the devil and the wicked she perseveres faithful and holy to the end of the world, indeed for eternity. So St. Ambrose, Book 6 on Luke, after the beginning: "Her husband trusts in her," he says. "Let us see what she does for her husband, what her work is, what her devotion, why Christ trusts in her. A good wife clothes her husband. Let our faith clothe Jesus with His body, let it clothe His flesh with the glory of His divinity; just as she made double garments for her husband, to honor Him in the present and in the future age. No ordinary woman is she, whose weaving is of such a kind, whom her husband finds not plucking the soft threads of wool, but handling the precious tasks of virtue, who raises her hands in the nights and directs her work by the scale, and examines the weight of her conduct, and also knows how to keep measure in her deeds, weaving in the weft of glorious labor." He adds as the reason: love and the expectation of the bridegroom, namely Christ. Whence he says: "Anxious for when her husband returns, worried and sighing, and now desiring to be with her husband, saying: My husband delays in coming, I myself will hasten to Him; I will meet Him face to face, when He begins to come in His glory. Come, Lord Jesus, that You may find Your bride undefiled, not adulterated, who has not violated Your house, nor neglected Your commandments. Let her say to You:
I have found Him whom my soul loves; let Him bring you into the house of wine (for wine gladdens the heart of man); let her be inebriated with the Spirit; let her recognize the mystery, let her speak the sacrament." Again, St. Augustine, Sermon 45 On Various Topics (found among the new ones published by the Louvain scholars), which is found word for word in St. Ambrose, on this passage of Proverbs at the end of Volume 2 of the Roman or Sixtine edition: "Plainly He trusts," he says, "and He has taught us also to trust. For He has commended the Church to the ends of the earth, through all nations, and from sea to sea. If she did not persevere to the end, the heart of her husband would certainly not trust in her." And after some remarks: "This woman does not lack spoils, not because she does not seek them, but because she abounds in many. On every side she despoils the world, on every side she snatches trophies from the devil. Therefore she says to her husband, as it is written in the Psalm: I rejoice at Your words like one who finds abundant spoils. How shall she lack spoils, who on every side snatches, on every side draws, on every side acquires, on every side works good things?"
So also Bede, who adds the reason: For He knows, he says, the spirit of grace which He gave; He knows the power of the charity which He poured into her heart. Whence it is said to her by the Bridegroom in the Song of Songs 8:6: "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm: for love is as strong as death, jealousy as hard as hell."
The same words are said tropologically by the same Bridegroom to every faithful and holy soul, who has fixed her whole mind, her whole love and affection on Christ as her Bridegroom. Whence St. Giles, companion of St. Francis, when asked "what is the way to holiness," answered: "One to One, one to One," that is, let one soul be given to one God, wholly and entirely, in her full extent; thus she will become holy, indeed heavenly and divine, so that God may trust and rest in her as in His temple, and in turn she may most lovingly trust and rest in God and Christ as her Bridegroom; as above all others we read that St. Agnes did in her Life found in Ambrose, Sermon 90, and Book 1 On Virgins. For the holy soul, perfectly loving God and Christ, pours and transfuses herself entirely into love of Him: therefore she thinks of nothing else but Him, whom she contemplates and loves in all things; nor does she love anything else in them except Him, whence she loves Him equally in all things, both adverse and prosperous: because she finds her Christ as much on Mount Calvary as on Mount Tabor. Just as on Mount Calvary she loves not the cross but Christ crucified, so on Tabor she loves not glory but Christ glorified: for to Him she says: "My Beloved is mine, and I am His."
Again, the strong woman is the Blessed Virgin, in whom her husband, namely St. Joseph, after clearly perceiving her extraordinary holiness, and learning of the conception by the Holy Spirit from the angel's revelation, plainly trusted and rested. Hence eminent theologians assert that Joseph, as soon as he entered into marriage with the Blessed Virgin, out of reverence for so great a virgin and Mother of God, was freed from all the fuel and sensation of lust, so that he did not even feel its first stirrings. So think John Eck, in his Sermon on St. Joseph; James of Christopolis on the Magnificat; Gerson, in his Sermon on the Nativity of the Virgin; and others. Moreover, Joseph himself certainly felt that very thing, namely that he was free from these foul impulses; and he noticed that this had happened to him not before, but from the time of his marriage to the Blessed Virgin: he therefore revered her as a divine virgin, and placed all his hope and trust, after God, in her. Again, the Holy Spirit was, as it were, the husband of the Blessed Virgin, because He worked in her the conception of Christ, and did in her what in other women a husband does. Whence when the Blessed Virgin responded to the angel announcing Christ's incarnation: "How shall this be done, since I know not man?" the angel met her and assigned the Holy Spirit as the husband, saying: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you," so that He in His entire fullness might descend into you, and thus trust in you, that is, dwell in you confidently and securely, communicate all His gifts to you, entrust and commit Himself and all that is His to you; indeed, confidently place and deposit in you the Word with the entire Godhead as a Person, indeed as a divine deposit. Whence St. Lawrence Justinian, treating of the marriage of the Blessed Virgin, says that the Holy Spirit and Joseph divided their duties between themselves, so that the care and custody of the Virgin's body pertained to Joseph, while the Holy Spirit took upon Himself the care and custody of her soul. Finally, the heart of the Holy Spirit trusts in her because He appointed her as advocate of sinners, through whom He acquires very many spoils from those who are saved from their sins by her help; of which thing there are innumerable examples: whence she is called "the hope of sinners and the trust of the wretched."
Verse 12: She Will Render Him Good, and Not Evil, All the Days of Her Life
12. She will render (namely to her husband, as is clear from the Hebrew הו which is masculine) good, and not evil, all the days of her life — namely during which the woman herself lives, as is clear from the Hebrew, as if to say: Not for a few days, months, or years, but constantly throughout her whole life the industrious wife will render good to her husband, and not evil.
First, Aben-Ezra explains it thus: The industrious wife repays her husband with good things, because the husband places his hope in her and trusts in her, and she never deals badly with him. To this Baynus adds: The wife, in return for the trust by which the husband has bound her to himself, will render him fidelity, not treachery, so that she may repay him with good, not with evil, which argues a sincere and generous disposition in the wife, and is a sign of her magnanimity, in that she does not allow herself to be outdone in love, but repays love with love and surpasses services with services. Secondly, Vatablus: The manly wife always brings joy to her husband, because she ensures that he constantly rejoices on account of the good things she continually procures for him; for "good" often means joyful or pleasant, just as "evil" means sad and troublesome; as when it is said: "Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brothers to dwell in unity!" And: "Sufficient for the day is its own evil," that is, its own affliction and sadness, Matthew 6:34.
Thirdly, others say: The virtuous wife will not squander her husband's wealth, but will accumulate and increase it, and she will do this so as to repay good with good, by which Solomon signifies that the husband ought to be so benevolent and beneficent toward his wife, and by his benevolence and beneficence provoke and, as it were, compel her to render and repay the same to him, which is certainly wise counsel: for this is the best way of establishing peace and harmony between spouses, if they compete with each other in acts of service. Let the husband therefore anticipate his wife with kindnesses, and let the wife repay the same, indeed greater ones: "For the magnet of love is love"; and: "If you wish to be loved, love." For no weapon is more powerful for winning love than love.
Fourthly, Jansenius takes "good" in any sense, as if to say: The strong woman will render her husband good, and not evil: that is, according to the trust that the husband has in her, this woman will render her husband good, and that without any admixture of evil; and not for a short time, but all the days of her life; therefore even after the husband's death, if she happens to survive him, she will not forget him, but will always remain piously disposed toward him. The good that the wife renders to her husband is peace of mind, and through it gladness of heart, length of life, the management and preservation of household affairs, etc. So also Sirach says, chapter 26:1: "Blessed is the husband of a good wife: for the number of his years is double. A strong wife gladdens her husband, and will fill the years of his life in peace." And verse 16: "The grace of a diligent wife will delight her husband, and will fatten his bones; her discipline is a gift of God."
Fifthly, more precisely and narrowly, our Salazar applies this to a wife who has been given a severe, morose, and harsh husband, as if to say: Even though a bitter husband rebukes, criticizes, and rages at a noble wife, she is nevertheless so gentle and magnanimous that she endures all things, and returns good and placid words for evil and bitter ones; and thus she conquers the husband's harshness, so that from wrathful he becomes mild and gentle, as Blessed Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, by her gentleness tamed the anger of her husband Patricius, as St. Augustine reports in Book 9 of the Confessions. On this subject St. Basil, Homily 7 on the Hexaemeron, offers a beautiful example of the viper, which when it mates with the moray eel first vomits out its venom, and proposes it for spouses to imitate: "The viper," he says, "vomits its poison out of reverence for the nuptial union: will you not lay aside your hardness, your savagery, your cruelty out of reverence for the marital bond?"
Therefore this is the heroic degree of meekness, patience, and magnanimity, by which a wife repays her husband good for evil, soft words for harsh, humility for pride, gentleness for anger. Indeed, it is the mark of a man to return good for good; of a saint and an angel to return good for evil; conversely, of a pagan to return evil for evil; of a barbarian and a demon to return evil for good. All these senses are contrasting; but the first is the plainest, the fourth the fullest, the fifth the most precise and profound.
Moreover, R. Levi takes "she will render" or "repay" improperly for "she will give" or "bestow," in the way that Scripture sometimes takes "to repay" for "to give," ἀντίδωρον for δώρῳ, namely the compound for the simple, without any consideration of merit or recompense. Whence he explains: The industrious wife wins over her husband by her kindnesses, in that she entirely submits and devotes herself to his service and obedience, and never shirks servitude. Hence also the Septuagint Complutensian translates: For she works good for her husband, and not evil, all her life. The Vatican: For she works good things for her husband in all her life, as if to say: A lazy, or morose and quarrelsome wife, troubles her husband and drives him to evil, namely to anger, sadness, and despair; but a diligent wife who loves her husband cooperates with him in every good, because she consoles and encourages him in adversity, gives him heart in difficulties, and suggests sound counsel in perplexities. Therefore, just as oxen pulling the same yoke console, encourage, and strengthen each other, so that they easily pull a cart laden with grain which neither could pull alone, so a wife yoked in the same yoke of matrimony (whence she is also called a "yokefellow"), and joined with her husband, alleviates his labors and sorrows by sharing in them and consoling him, indeed takes them upon herself, so that with their combined strength they easily bear and overcome all things, and thus pull the yoke of marriage with equal hearts and steps, cheerful and glad. St. Augustine, Sermon 45 On Various Topics, reads: She works good for her husband and not evil. And the Syriac: She did him good. And the Author of the Greek Catena: All her life she procures good for her husband, and not evil, as if to say: To win her husband's favor, she always does good, never evil; this is the sign of a good character and of virtue. For it is the proper maxim of the faithful and the saints, which they carry before them as premeditated in all their actions: "Do good to all, evil to none; earn the goodwill of all; retain all friends by benevolence; reconcile enemies by your services and make them friends." Christ Himself taught this same thing by word and example, who wished vengeance on no one, however hostile, much less inflicted it, but offered His doctrine and grace to all. Whence St. Luke says of Him, Acts 10:38: "He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, because God was with Him." For God does good to all, evil to none, and therefore He is and is called God, because "He makes His sun to rise on the good and the evil, and sends rain on the just and the unjust," Matthew 5:45.
Allegorically, the Church and the holy soul render good to their Bridegroom Christ, and not evil, because she devotes herself to good works and avoids evil in order to please Him, and therefore strives to heap good upon good, so that by them she may daily increase with great growth both her own grace and the glory of Christ. So St. Ambrose on Proverbs chapter 31, at the end of Volume 2: "Hence this woman," he says, "because she despoils the world and seizes the nations, works good all her life; but not for herself, rather for her husband: as one who no longer lives for herself, but for Him who died for all and rose again. For her husband, therefore, she works good; she serves Him, is devoted to Him, loves Him, always strives to please Him. She does not adorn herself, neither for her own nor for others' eyes; she does not seek to please men; she does not seek her own interests: she works all things for her husband." To this Bede adds: "For the soul renders good to Christ when, having received from Him the gifts of life, she responds by living rightly; when those things which she herself was able to know or do with His help, she strives to communicate also to others."
Again, this woman is the Blessed Virgin, who repaid all good to her spouse Joseph, because he was the guardian of her virginity in marriage. Hear St. Bernard, Sermon on St. Joseph: "Moreover, because all that belongs to the wife belongs to the husband, I believe that the most Blessed Virgin most generously bestowed upon Joseph the entire treasure of her heart, which he was able to receive." And after some remarks: "How many exhortations, consolations, promises, illuminations, and revelations of eternal goods do you think Joseph received in his passing from his most holy spouse Mary?" For this reason the Blessed Virgin cooperated with Joseph toward every virtue, grace, and glory, as St. Bernard continues to explain: "How," he says, "can a discerning mind think that He would unite to the mind of so great a Virgin any soul that was not most similar to her in the practice of virtues? Whence I believe Joseph was most pure in virginity, most profound in humility, most ardent in charity, most lofty in contemplation," etc.
Verse 13: She Has Sought Wool and Flax
13. She has sought wool and flax, and has worked with the counsel of her hands. — In Hebrew: She sought wool and flax, and worked according to the will of her hands. Others: In the good pleasure of her hands. The Chaldean: And she worked according to the will of her hands. The Septuagint: Spinning wool and flax, she made what is useful with her hands. The Syriac: She sought linen or a tunic; her hand worked whatever she pleased. The meaning is clear, as if to say: She devoted herself to woolwork; whence she did not wait until her husband bought or thrust wool and flax upon her, but of her own accord she sought both, so as to make from them woolen and linen garments with which to decently clothe her husband, children, and household. This is what he adds: "And she worked with the counsel of her hands," that is, her hands worked according to her will, so that her hands were as ready for work as her will, as if the will and readiness to work had been implanted in the very hands. It is a hypallage. So Aben-Ezra: She worked, he says, by the will of the hands, as if the faculty of willing were in the hands; just as conversely in the hands of the sluggard there is an unwillingness, so to speak, of working. And Vatablus: In the good pleasure, he says, of her hands, because she takes pleasure in and delights in the work of her hands. The Zurich translation: She works with pleasure with her hands; for in order that work may be easy, fruitful, and constant, the will must be present.
Secondly, Emmanuel translates: She carried out her will with her hands, that is, whatever she wished, she fashioned from wool and flax. So great was her dexterity in working with flax and wool that the will did not follow the material, but the material followed the will and the hand, so that whatever she wished, immediately through the dexterity of her hands it was brought to light and accomplished.
Thirdly, our translator renders it "with counsel," that is, with the industry, skill, and dexterity of her hands, as if to say: She possesses a remarkable industry of hands as well as of mind, for spinning, weaving, and fashioning any textile work superbly and most dexterously. For art, that is, the habit and dexterity of spinning, weaving, crafting, etc., consists both in the mind directing the hands to the work, and in the hands themselves working, which from constant practice have acquired the habit and facility of working. So of Bezalel, the architect of the tabernacle, God says in Exodus 31:2: "I have filled him with the spirit of God, with wisdom, and understanding, and knowledge in every work, to devise whatever can be skillfully made."
Again, "with counsel," that is, with prudence and prudent choice, as if to say: She prudently works with her hands not on trifling and useless things, but on serious and useful ones that contribute to the clothing of her household. Whence the Septuagint translates: And she made what is useful with her hands. For many trifling and frivolous women make trifling and curious things that are useless, indeed alluring and harmful. But this prudent woman works on nothing except useful, wholesome, and holy things. This is her counsel, this is her wisdom and prudence.
Hence Plato in the Symposium, following Solomon, made Poros, that is, the god of wealth, the son of Metis, that is, of counsel: for by counsel riches are acquired. Alluring are veils and cloths so fine that through them the shape and nakedness of the body show through, which St. Jerome accordingly censures, Epistle 7 to Laeta, on the education of a daughter, saying: "Let her despise the fabrics of silk, the fleeces of the Chinese, and gold stretching into threads: let her prepare such garments as ward off the cold, not those by which clothed bodies are laid bare."
Morally, let women here learn to accustom themselves and their daughters to flax-working and wool-working: for this is the proper work of women, so that they seem to have been born and fashioned by nature for this purpose, and it has a twofold end and benefit: first, to flee idleness; second, to guard honor and chastity. For while they attend to their work, they flee from lovers and cannot give them attention. Wherefore from every age this occupation with wool and flax has been the pursuit of industrious women, even of princesses and queens. Anna, the wife of Tobit, is praised because she went daily to the weaver's work, Tobit chapter 2. St. Jerome, instructing the virgin Demetrias, says: "Always have wool in your hands, either draw out the threads of the warp with your thumb, or let the spindle be turned in its socket to twist the woof." And elsewhere to Laeta, on the education of a daughter: "Let her also learn to make wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her lap, to turn the spindle, and to draw the threads with her thumb."
From the ancient Roman custom, the name "thalassio" was frequently shouted at weddings, so that by this wedding cry the new brides might be provoked and exhorted to work and woolcraft, as Varro, Juba, and Plutarch (both in the Life of Romulus and in the Roman Questions, chapter 29) and Festus Pompeius have reported. For θαλάσσιον means woolcraft, says Plutarch, whence the Latin thalassio. This word they frequently chanted to the bride, and Varro attests that it was a sign of woolcraft, namely that the ancients called the wool-basket (quasillum), a vessel suited for wool-working, a thalassio. Hence Thalassio among the Romans was Hymenaeus, that is, the god of virginity, says Servius: for the guardian of virginity is woolcraft. Moreover, brides (as Varro writes, and Plutarch in the last place cited by me, and Pliny Book 8, chapter 48) brought with them a distaff and spindle into the house of the bridegroom, and crowned and garlanded the doorway of the men with wool: by this nuptial ceremony also indicating that woolcraft was to be practiced after the wedding in the husband's house. Likewise among the same Romans, a new bride used to sit on a fleece of wool, by which she testified that she would perform the duty of woolcraft for her husband, as Pompeius himself reports.
Indeed the Romans themselves fastened a distaff, wool, and spindle at the bronze statue of Caia Caecilia, situated in the temple of Marcus Ancus, as sure memorials of her modesty and industry. The authorities are Marcus Varro and Pliny in the place already cited, and Plutarch in the Problems, the said chapter 29. She is, moreover, as the same Pompeius writes, the woman who before she came to Rome was called Tanaquil, the wife of Tarquinius Priscus, king of the Romans, who was of such great probity that brides frequently used the name Caia as a good omen, and they affirm that she was a supreme woolworker. Caius Titus Probus also mentions this matter in his Epitome of the 10 Books of Valerius Maximus, if the title of his book is not misleading; where he also says furthermore that it was established that a new bride, questioned before the door of the husband as to what her name was, should say that she was Caia. Not much later, Collatinus her husband and the young Tarquinii found Lucretia late at night devoted to wool, sitting among her working handmaids in the middle of the house; this Livy wished to be taken as a sign of her probity, a little before the end of Book 1 from the founding of the City, and Pliny, or whoever is the author of the book On Famous Men, in the entries on Tarquinius and Collatinus; and Servius on that passage of Virgil, Book 8 of the Aeneid: "And Tarquin driven out." But Ovid also, reviewing the same story, Book 2 of the Fasti, says: "Then with quick step Lucretia is sought; before her couch were baskets and soft wool: By scanty lamplight her handmaids drew their allotted threads." Theano the Pythagorean, wife of Brotinus of Crotona (as Plotinus held) or of Pythagoras himself (as Theocritus preferred), when asked what quality she would most commend in a wife, answered with that saying of Homer: "Weaving at her loom and (keeping) my (that is, her husband's) for it is Agamemnon who is speaking) preparing the bed." So Athenaeus of Naucratis, and Stobaeus, Sermon 72. In the same Homer, Book IV, both in the Odyssey and the Iliad, Helen practices wool-working; and in Book V of the same Odyssey, Mercury finds the nymph Calypso, daughter of Atlas, weaving; and in Book VI, Nausicaa, her daughter, finds Arete, wife of King Alcinous, sitting at the hearth and spinning purple yarn with her handmaids. Herodotus in Calliope records that Xerxes, king of kings, was presented by his wife Amestris with a cloak that she herself had woven. Curtius also, in Book V, records that Alexander ordered Macedonian garments sent to him from Macedonia, together with those who had made them, to be given to Sisygambis, mother of Darius, and he directed that she be informed that, if the garments pleased her, she should accustom her granddaughters to making them. When tears welling up at these words betrayed her spirit of disdain for the gift (since Persian women receive no greater insult than to be told to put their hands to wool), Alexander, learning of this, came to her and said: "Mother, this garment that I am wearing you see is not only the gift but also the handiwork of my sisters; our customs deceived me. I beg you, do not take my ignorance as an insult." In Terence's Andria, these are the words of the old man Simo to his freedman Sosia: First she was living chastely, frugally, and austerely, Seeking her livelihood by wool and loom.
The poets assert that even the goddesses themselves handled linen and wool. Ovid narrates in Book VI of the Metamorphoses that Arachne, daughter of Idmon, because she dared to challenge the goddess Pallas in weaving, was defeated by her and transformed into a spider, which still preserves its ancient art of web-making; hence in Greek the spider is called arachne. I have said that the spindle is the glory of women, for it is the disgrace of men. Hence David cursed the murderer Joab: "Let there not fail from the house of Joab... one that holds the spindle" (2 Samuel 3:29), as if to say: Let the descendants of Joab be effeminate, reduced to the lowly and womanly occupation of spinning, and forced to earn their living by it. So it was a reproach and ruin for Sardanapalus that Artabanus, his general, found him spinning purple among his concubines; for he deprived him of his kingdom and life. Hence Claudian thus mocks Eutropius, the eunuch who was tutor of the Emperor Arcadius and therefore ruler of the empire: Why do you, most shameful one, thrust yourself into wars, Or attempt the Pallas of the savage field? You can cling to the other pursuits of Minerva, You can endure looms, not weapons; you can know threads, You, skillful at urging sluggish girls to their work, And wrapping snowy wool around the mistress's spindles.
For this reason, that imperious Juno of the Emperor Justinian threatened Narses, who was braver than many men, that she would consign him to the women's quarters with spindles and wool-baskets; this disgrace the valiant man bitterly avenged, to the great calamity of the Roman Empire. A great example that before she could finish weaving it. Finally, Virgil, in Book VII of the Aeneid, thus depicts the chaste and virtuous woman: She who endures life by the distaff and slender art of Minerva, Stirs the buried ashes and wakes the sleeping fires; Adding night to her work, and by lamplight keeps Her maidens at their long task of spinning, that she may guard Her husband's chaste bed and be able to raise her little children. These and more examples are found in Tiraquellus, Law 10 on Marriage, number 38 and following.
Moreover, Charlemagne, when asked why he kept his daughters occupied with wool-working, gave two reasons: first, so they would avoid idleness; second, so that, if they were reduced to poverty by an adverse turn of fortune, they could provide their livelihood by this work. So Einhard relates. In this work, Saint Elizabeth excelled, the daughter of Andrew, King of Hungary, who, having been unjustly stripped of her castles and possessions by her relatives, worked wool and linen with her hands, so as to support herself from the wages of her labor and to clothe the poor, whose handmaid she was, as a mother would. Thus, born of the most noble lineage, she made herself ignoble in the world's eyes so as to be ennobled in heaven, receiving ashes in place of a crown, a hairshirt in place of a breast-band, and a spindle of wool and linen in place of a scepter. And so she merited, with her gaze fixed on heaven, to see God's Son Jesus inclining toward her with the heavens opened, and to hear Him among other consoling words saying: "If you wish to be with Me, I will be with you, and I will in no way be separated from you." So her Life records.
To this purpose serves that passage of Ovid to Leander: Drawing out twisted threads from the turning spindle, We beguile the slow delays by feminine art. And Claudian in the epigram he composed about the horse of the Emperor Honorius, speaking of Queen Serena, wife of Stilicho: And let a sash bind your middle, varied with flowers Of many colors, wrought by the chaste hands of Serena. Suetonius records that Augustus Caesar so trained his daughter and granddaughters that they became accustomed to wool-working. And Einhard, his Chancellor, writes that Charlemagne did the same, in his Life. Elsewhere likewise Plutarch himself attests that Augustus wore no other clothing than that made at home, by his wife, sister, daughter, and granddaughters. Plutarch, on the testimony of Bibulus, affirms that Brutus, when about to go to war, sent back his wife Porcia, who was importuning him, to the distaff and loom, using the verses that Homer assigns to Hector addressing Andromache, in Iliad XXII, where he narrates that she, while weaving at the loom, heard laments and cries from the tower at the death of her husband. Well known is the chaste heroine Penelope, wife of Ulysses, who, in her husband's absence, being sought by suitors because of her beauty, to deceive them said she would marry none of them until she had finished the web she had begun; and so by day she wove the web, but by night she unraveled the same, so that no one those who are in authority should rashly loosen their tongue against their subjects.
Allegorically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 217 On the Seasons: The strong woman, that is, the Church, he says, and the holy soul, works wool, that is, carnal and temporal things; and linen, that is, spiritual and eternal things; for both are necessary for the faithful in this life. But hear Saint Augustine: "What is wool, what is linen? Wool signifies something carnal, linen signifies something spiritual; because in the order of garments, the inner garments are linen, while the outer are woolen. Moreover, wool is born from the mating of animals, but linen is produced from the earth without carnal pleasure; indeed, it seems to bear the image of chastity. So much so that the priests of the Old Testament, by precept of the law, used linen undergarments as a sign of chastity. Therefore in wool something carnal, in linen something spiritual is signified. They are also placed as a commendation. For you find a man extending alms to the poor with his hand, yet not thinking of God therein, but desiring to please men: he has the woolen garment that can be seen, but he does not have the inner linen one. You find another saying to you: 'My conscience suffices me; I worship God, I adore God; what need have I to go to church, or to mingle visibly with Christians?' He wants to have linen without a tunic. This woman does not know or commend such things. This woman found wool and linen, and made something useful. Many find them, but do not make something useful with their hands. When you gladly listen, you find; when you live well, you make." Saint Ambrose has nearly the same words verbatim, on Proverbs 31, toward the end of volume II, and he adds: "To work in the flesh and not work in the spirit, although it may seem good, is not useful; but to work in the spirit and not work in the flesh belongs to the lazy, etc. Hold to spiritual things, and work carnal things spiritually."
Bede, however, by wool understands the works of simplicity and piety, and by linen the mortification of the flesh: for linen is prepared and, as it were, chastised by various processes of soaking, beating, combing, hackling, etc. "In wool," he says, "which is the covering of sheep, all the works of piety and simplicity that we bestow on our neighbors can be understood. In linen, which sprouts green from the earth but through long and manifold processing loses its native moisture and arrives at the grace of a new whiteness, the mortification of our flesh can be intimated: for when we purge away the inborn stains of vices through continence, we truly make it worthy for us to put on Christ, according to the Apostle's words: 'As many of you as have been baptized, have put on Christ.' The strong woman therefore seeks wool and linen, and has worked with the counsel of her hands, when the holy Church diligently inquires by what fruits of piety she may exercise herself, and how she may cleanse herself from carnal allurements. And both of these she does with most prudent counsel, that is, with a view solely to heavenly recompense."
Again, the work of wool and linen is most fittingly applied to the Blessed Virgin. First, plainly in the literal sense; for, as Epiphanius, Presbyter of Constantinople, says in the Life of the Blessed Virgin, "she was teachable and loved the threefold art, and labored not only in Sacred Scripture but also in wool and linen, silk and fine linen. Moreover, she surpassed in wisdom and understanding all the young women of that age, to the admiration of all, and she truly made those things whose use in the temple belonged to the priests." And Saint Anselm in his book On the Life of the Virgin: "The work of her hands," he says, "was of wool, linen, and silk." Hence also nuns in monasteries, following the example of the Blessed Virgin, spend a great part of the day in manual work, working wool and linen. Prudent confessors likewise counsel, indeed command, the same for virgins and devout women; for those who, leaving this aside, wish to give themselves entirely to prayer, reading, and contemplation, afflict and harm the brain, which in women is weak, and become fanciful, anxious, scrupulous, manic, proud, and delirious, as I have learned from much experience.
Second, allegorically: because, as Saint Epiphanius says in Book III Against Heresies, further from the beginning, explaining that passage of Job chapter 38, according to the Septuagint: 'Who gave women the wisdom of weaving, and the knowledge of embroidery?' "To Mary it was given," he says, "to bear for us the Lamb and the Sheep, and from the glory of that Lamb and Sheep, there was made for us as if from fleece, in wisdom through His power, the garment of incorruptibility." Third, tropologically: for, as Proclus, Bishop of Cyzicus, says in his work On the Nativity of Christ (found at the beginning of the Council of Ephesus), "she alone is the bridge through which God descended to man; she is the wondrous web of that marvelous economy, from which and in which, in some ineffable manner, the tunic of that admirable union was fashioned; the weaver of which was the Holy Spirit, the spinner the power overshadowing from on high, the wool the old and wine-stained skin of Adam, the weft the undefiled flesh of the Virgin, the shuttle the immense grace of Him who bore it, the artisan the Word entering through hearing." The weft is the cross-thread, and (as Sergius says) the thread that runs within the warp. The weft (trama) is so called, as Varro says, "because it passes through the embroiderer's garment." Instead of tranat, one should perhaps read trameat, that is, transmeat, or penetrates.
Fourth, anagogically: because wool represents the active life, fine linen the contemplative; the Blessed Virgin practiced both, and exercised them in an eminent degree, she who in every work perfectly combined Martha with Magdalene in a marvelous harmony.
Verse 14: She Is Like the Ships of the Merchant, Bringing Her Bread from Afar
In Hebrew, she was like a ship of a trader; from afar she will bring her bread. The Chaldean has: she was made like a ship of a merchant, whose food is brought from afar. The Vatican Septuagint: she was made like a ship engaged in trade from far away; and she gathers life. The Complutensian and Royal editions have: and she gathers riches. The Syriac: like a merchant's ship carrying merchandise from afar. A "huckster" (institor) is so called because he diligently presses on (instet) in accumulating wares and wealth, or because he persists (insistit) in his business, as Ulpian says. Hence he also goes around (circumit) houses and cities (and so in Hebrew he is called socher, that is, a circuiter or one who goes around), offering his wares to each, and pressing and insisting that they buy them. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: This industrious woman, in working wool and linen, is like merchant ships, because just as those ships carry cloth, fabrics, and other merchandise to distant parts of the world, and in return bring back other goods from those same places, by which merchants provide themselves with food and necessities — so also she from afar prepares her bread, that is, the sustenance necessary for her family, because in exchange for what she has worked with her hands, she also procures things brought from far away, and giving to foreigners the cloth she has made, she receives grain from them for food. Thus, although she stays at home and does not run to the farthest Indies with the merchants, yet like a ship bringing necessities from afar, she too, by sharing her goods with foreigners, brings her bread from afar.
The analogy between the ship and the diligent woman, then, consists in these points. First, just as a grain ship from Sicily or Egypt (which was formerly the granary of Italy) transports grain into Italy, so this woman brings bread, that is, every kind of food, into her house. Again, just as Indian ships carry spices, gold, silver, and other precious goods from India to Spain and Europe; and just as the Japanese ship annually brings provisions for the entire year from India to the Portuguese and the Religious living and evangelizing in Japan, so that if the ship is lost, all the Religious in Japan are imperiled as to their sustenance and life — so likewise this woman procures every kind of food and furnishing necessary for the household, so that upon her depends the sustenance and life of all who are in the house. Hence he compares her to a ship, not a cart, because a single ship carries more than a hundred, indeed a thousand carts. Second, just as a ship carries domestic goods to distant shores and sells them, then brings back other goods, and thus makes a double profit — for it profits from both — so likewise this woman sends and distributes her cloth and fabrics, which she and her household have woven, through ships and merchants to foreign regions where they are more valuable, and from there procures other goods with which to feed her family or to sell; and thus she makes a double or triple profit. Indeed, as Baynus notes, she surpasses ships in this: that she, remaining securely at home, accomplishes all this through merchants or servants and maids, while ships must traverse and wander through the most distant regions, and that with perpetual risk to themselves and their cargo, lest they suffer shipwreck or be captured by pirates.
Third, just as a ship never rests, not even at night when the sailors are sleeping, but always sails on and goes around and visits various regions, displaying its wares to each and pressing the natives to buy — so the industrious woman never rests, but while others sleep she keeps watch, always solicitous, overseeing everything, continually thinking how to provide for the house in all things; and therefore she constantly works and labors through the day and night, and is never wearied or exhausted by her work. Fourth, just as ships not for one or two years but as long as they last put to sea, carrying and conveying merchandise — so the diligent woman is consistent throughout her whole life, and always labors to care for and increase the family estate, and does not rest except in death, as though the voyage of her course is then finally completed. Fifth, just as ships bring rare and precious goods from the most remote regions, so that the Venetians, the people of Antwerp, the Genoese, and other coastal peoples who are devoted to navigation and trade have in their homes whatever wealth and delights they please, and whatever is distinguished or precious anywhere, because they arrange for everything to be brought to them by ships — so likewise the industrious woman furnishes the house not only with meat, wine, cloth, and fabrics of that region, but also procures from distant places what contributes not only to the family's necessity but also to its splendor. Sixth, this woman is compared not to one ship but to ships in the plural, as the Hebrew has — that is, to an entire fleet — which brings a vast abundance of goods, because she alone is the equal of many, and through herself and through her sons, servants, and maids she accomplishes more than many joined together in their families could achieve.
Allegorically and tropologically, all these things are easily applied to the Church and to the holy soul, merely changing the name of the woman to the name of the Church or the soul. For the Church, as a ship, brings every kind of sustenance to the faithful — namely the word of God, the examples of the Saints, sermons, exhortations, the Sacraments, and especially the Eucharist, which is the bread of life, bringing present and eternal life to those who eat it. Hear Bede: "A ship," he says, "journeying through the sea, so that having sold what it brought, it may carry back to home more precious goods: so indeed the holy Church, so every perfect soul rejoices to be loaded with the riches of virtues, by which it may purchase greater gifts of divine grace. For this is the best commerce: when, working the good that we can, we first receive this reward from the Lord, that we advance to doing ever greater things, and then receive everlasting life. The holy soul, therefore, has become like the ship of a merchant, which passes through the waves of the present age with longing, and hopes to receive eternal joys in heaven alone, and in order to attain them more abundantly, strives to do whatever it can instantly, and to bravely overcome whatever adversity it encounters."
Hear also the Author of the Unfinished Work on Saint Matthew, found among the writings of Saint Chrysostom: "She has become like a ship of distant commerce, that is, the Church, which with the Apostles as its sailors, the Lord as its helmsman, the Holy Spirit as its wind, travels everywhere with the word of preaching, carrying with it the great and inestimable price by which it purchased the entire human race, or rather the whole world, with the blood of Christ — concerning which the same Solomon, in chapter 30, verse 19, said that the track of a ship sailing the sea cannot be found, showing that the way of life of the Church is not earthly but heavenly, according to what the Apostle says: 'Our citizenship is in heaven'" (Philippians 3).
In the same way, apply the same things to the Blessed Virgin, who brought into the house, that is, into the Church, the life-giving bread, namely Christ the Lord, when she bore Him in Bethlehem, that is, in the house of bread. Hence Saint Gregory, Homily 8 on the Gospels: "Rightly," he says, "He is born in Bethlehem, that is, in the house of bread; for He Himself is the one who says: 'I am the living bread that came down from heaven'" (John 6). She therefore "from afar," that is, from heaven, carries her bread through the sea of this life. For "from afar" indicates the distance between the Word and human nature, which He hypostatically united to Himself in the womb of this blessed woman. And rightly she calls this bread her own, because she alone, without the agency of a man, conceived Him, whom she brought forth in Bethlehem through her virginal birth, as from a ship, for the benefit of all, that we might be fed by Him in the Eucharist. Again, she was a merchant's ship full of heavenly merchandise, namely every virtue and grace. Hence Damascene, Oration 1 On the Dormition of the Virgin: "She it is," he says, "who found the abyss of grace, and had kept safe the double vessel of virginity, and guarded the soul no less unharmed than the body."
Verse 15: And She Rose Up in the Night, and Gave Prey to Her Household, and Food to Her Maidens
In Hebrew: and she arose while it was still night, and gave prey to her house, and a portion to her maidens. For "prey" the Hebrew is tereph, which properly means the food of wild beasts, and is said of wild animals that hunt and prey upon smaller beasts and livestock, tearing and devouring them. From there it is transferred by catachresis to any food of animals and humans, especially that which is obtained by hunting, that is, by labor and toil. It is a metaphor from lions and wild beasts, all whose food is acquired by preying and is thus prey. For "food" the Hebrew is choq, that is, a measured portion, a fixed ration, something customary, from the root chaqaq, that is, to establish, prescribe, define. Hence it can refer both to a fixed portion of food and to a fixed task of work. Thus the Chaldean translates: she gave the work-portion to her maids; the Syriac: she gave work to her maidens; Theodotion: she gave the appointed task to her maidens; the Septuagint: she gave tasks to her maidens. Choq therefore signifies both the portion of work and the measure of food — that is, a defined portion and meal — that is, she establishes the bread and food appointed for each day, and therefore it signifies the regular or daily ration.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: This industrious and provident woman does not snore until broad daylight, but rises before dawn in the night, so that she may prepare and distribute food to servants and maids, sons and daughters, and all the other members of the household, and may divide the day's work and tasks among them, distributing and assigning to each their proper share — that is, so that they lose no daylight or time, but spend it all on work. Therefore to servants about to go to the fields to cultivate them, or to other work, very early in the morning, indeed while it is still night, she gives breakfast earlier, and at the same time assigns the food they are to take with them to the field and eat there, lest, if they return home for lunch, they lose even that little bit of time and steal it from the work. Likewise to her maids at dawn she distributes portions of wool, linen, and tasks, and assigns provisions, so that they may be ready for work and spend the whole day on it. These are the signs, indeed the acts, of great foresight, diligence, and industriousness in the mistress of the house.
Moreover, she calls this food "prey," first, because it is seized and snatched up in haste during the night. For she alludes to lions and wild beasts, which after digesting their evening meal, hungry again in the darkness and at dawn, go out to hunt and prey, to capture and devour other beasts and animals as prey. So Job 24:5 says: "Others go forth like wild donkeys in the desert to their work, rising early for prey (in Hebrew, 'rising at dawn for plunder'), they prepare bread for their children." Hence they are called evening wolves, that is, nocturnal ones, who prey by night, about which I have said much at Habakkuk 1:8 and Jeremiah 5:6. So likewise this lioness of a woman at earliest morning prepares this food for servants and maids to snatch up on the go, as it were, so that they may be ready and swift for their journey and work. Again, "prey" signifies that this food is obtained by the great industry and labor of the woman, and is assigned only as a wage for the notable labor of servants and maids. "For he who does not work, does not eat," says the Apostle. Hence, as Saint Ambrose says in his book On Abraham: "In the house of a wise person, no one is idle."
In ancient times, mothers on the Balearic Islands did not give food to their boys unless they had first knocked down the target set before them with a sling-cast, both to accustom them to labor and to train them in the art of shooting, in which they accordingly became so excellent that they could hit any target not with a missed but with a sure shot; indeed, they could strike a hair on someone's head without injuring the head. For this reason, their slingers in battle were formidable to the enemy.
Third, just as a lion and lioness do not eat the prey they have hunted alone, but tear it into portions and distribute it to their cubs — so this woman divides the food she has procured by her industry among servants and maids, but separately. Not in a mingled fashion; rather, first to the male servants she gives tereph, that is, game meat, namely coarser foods; then separately to the maids she gives lighter fare. Note here her propriety and zeal for modesty, in that she separates the maids from the male servants, so as to remove mutual glances, conversations, and other enticements to lust between them; and also her discretion, by which she assigns to each a suitable ration.
Fourth, for "and food to her maidens," the Septuagint, Chaldean, Syriac, and others translate: and the work-portion to her maids. For the Hebrew choq signifies both the measure of work and the measure of food — the work-portion serving, as it were, as a wage corresponding to the merit of their labor. By this he implies that this wise woman established the rule for her maids that they should not take their measured food or fixed ration until they had completed their assigned work tasks.
Morally, learn from this that the dowry of a mistress of the house is wakefulness, so that, as the saying goes, she should be the last to go to bed and the first, before the others and before dawn, to rise — in which matter she must transcend the natural disposition of women. For a woman by nature is phlegmatic, and therefore slow, sluggish, and drowsy, so much so that the comic poet says she was born from delay itself. For so says Pleusides in Plautus's Miles: A woman was surely born from delay itself; For any other delay, however great, seems lesser Than the one caused by a woman. And Terence in the Self-Tormentor: While they get ready, while they primp — it takes a year. It is otherwise with this manly woman, who is a virago, and surpasses not only women but even men in virtue and wakefulness. Hence in emblems, Vigilance is depicted as a matron and virago, holding a book in her right hand, a rod with a lighted lamp in her left; beside her stands a crane balancing on one foot, holding a stone, so that if by chance it falls asleep, it is roused and awakened by the crash and noise of the stone falling to the ground. of man, born for spiritual and heavenly things, is weighed down to earthly and carnal things, and becomes like the brutes. Hence that holy anchorite in the Lives of the Fathers, overcome with shame, wept when he took food, because at night he was forced to take the food of pigs and animals — he who by day fed on the food of angels.
Allegorically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 45 Among the Diverse Sermons, explains this of the Church as well as of the holy soul: "She rises from the nights," he says; "nights are tribulations; but for whom? She rises from the nights, that is, she advances in tribulations, etc. And she gave food to her household: in the nights she offered herself as an example to be imitated, and by doing, she taught what she said should be done." Bede adds: "Night," he says, "is devoted to rest, day to labor. So the Church and the holy soul, as it were, rests at night, when, having temporarily set aside external cares, it begins to attend to itself and to care for itself spiritually — whether by exercising itself more privately in sacred reading, or in prayers and tears, or in other such pursuits. But it rises in the night when, among those same faithful, it diligently girds itself to care also for its neighbors. This work of fraternal service it is accustomed to exercise in two ways: both by calling those who wandered outside to the grace of faith, and by not ceasing to rouse those already imbued with the Sacraments of faith to persist more earnestly in good works. Hence it is rightly said: 'She gave prey to her household, and food to her maidens.' For she gives prey to her household when those whom she has been able to rescue from the ancient enemy by teaching, she joins to the fellowship of those who preceded them in the faith; and she gives food to her maidens when she refreshes the humble who observe her commands with due reverence, lest they grow weary of their pious labor, by reminding them of the heavenly reward."
Moreover, apply all these things, with a change of name, to the Blessed Virgin, who at night, receiving from the Archangel the message of the Incarnation of the Word, and giving her consent, embodied the Word in herself, so that she might set Him forth as food for us in the Eucharist. Again, her grace and merits, which in the night of this life she accumulated in innumerable and almost immeasurable measure through acts of intense charity, humility, patience, and other virtues, she did not keep for herself alone but dispensed to the Church and all the faithful, and continues to dispense day by day. For, as Saint Bernard says, "from her fullness we have all received." Furthermore, she forestalls eminent Saints at night, that is, before their maturity, so that from childhood, indeed from the womb, they may begin to devote themselves to God and piety, as we read of Saint John the Baptist, Saint Nicholas, Saint Dominic, and others. Therefore she distributes to them at that time the tasks of virtues, so that as they gradually grow in age and merit they may weave and complete them.
Again, this wife gives food to her household at night, to indicate that the whole day should be given to labor and work, and night to necessary refreshment. So Saint Anthony, Saint Hilarion, and the other anchorites took their food not during the day but in the evening and at night, and this for two reasons. The first was so that they might spend the whole day on work, whether manual or mental — that is, on prayer, study, reading, and contemplation — and not be hindered from it by food; for a stomach loaded with food dulls the mind, so that it cannot use its acuteness and search into sublime things. The second was that they were ashamed, and considered it, as it were, unworthy for a man and servant of God to eat during the day and for the sun to see him eating. For the most lowly action of a human being is eating, inasmuch as in it the human mind
Verse 16: She Considered a Field and Bought It
In Hebrew: she thought about a field and acquired it. Aben-Ezra: she entertained the idea of buying a field. The Chaldean: she deliberated in counsel and acquired a field. Vatablus: she contemplates a field. The Tigurine: she consults about a field and buys it. The Septuagint: having considered a field she bought it, and from the fruits of her hands she purchased a possession. The Syriac: she considers agriculture. This verse can be taken in two ways. First, of a field separate from a vineyard, as if to say: This prudent and diligent woman, from the proceeds of the fabrics and cloths she produced, purchased both a field and a vineyard — that is, a field for the sowing and harvest of grain, and a vineyard for the vintage of grapes and wine — and thus she provided for the family with both food and drink, that is, with both bread and wine. Note the word "considered," as if to say: Not rashly, not by chance, but deliberately and with counsel she bought the field; for she first carefully examined the condition, convenience, and fertility of the field, as well as the low price at which it was offered to her; and so she purchased a fertile field at a good and low price. Likewise, in a similar manner she bought a vineyard and had vines planted in it, or else planted them in a part of the field already purchased that was suitable for vines. So we see in Lombardy, in the same field, vines interspersed with crops and trees, to great elegance and profit. For the same field bears grain, grapes, apples, and pears.
Second, it can be understood of a field converted into a vineyard, as if to say: She considered that a certain field was neglected by its owners because of its poor yield of grain and was little valued; and so she bought it at a low price and turned it into a vineyard — because upon examining it, she perceived its soil clods and recognized that it was better suited for vines than for crops, and more productive of grapes than grain. Thus from uncultivated she made it cultivated, from barren she made it fertile — which is indeed a remarkable instance of her industry and shrewdness. For grain requires thick and rich soil, but vines require thin and light soil. Hear Virgil, Georgics I: One kind of land favors grain, another Bacchus; The denser suits Ceres, the loosest suits the wine-god. More plainly and clearly, Theophrastus, Book II, chapter 25: "Meadow and sandy soil," he says, "is very suitable for vines, and in general, loose, light, and thin soil." Hear also Columella in his book On Trees, chapter 13: "In dry, lean, and arid places plant the vine that is naturally fruitful, vigorous, and rich in clusters; but if you plant vigorous vines in rich soil, they will run to leaf rather than fruit, and whatever fruit they bear, they will not bring to maturity." And in Book III, chapter 5, he says: "A nursery for vines should be made in moderate rather than rich soil."
Anagogically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 45 among the new Louvain sermons, understands by the field heaven and heavenly glory, which the Church and the faithful soul purchase and buy by the labor of their hands — that is, by working and accumulating many good works, especially of charity and patience. For she considers and foresees that "the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us." Allegorically, Bede understands by the field and vineyard the spread of the early Church: for the Church, founded by Christ in Judea, began to spread and plant itself through neighboring provinces and nations, and to cultivate them through the new fields and spiritual vineyards, and from them to gather a great harvest and vintage of faithful, virgins, martyrs, and confessors.
Apply all these things to the Blessed Virgin, who first planted a field and vineyard within herself, when she cultivated her body and soul with the continual practice of all virtues. Second, she planted and tended the field and vineyard of the early Church with her wisdom, foresight, merits, and example, and made it so fertile that it blossomed with every holiness and brought forth apostolic men, martyrs, and virgins — indeed, so that all the faithful lived a life not only Christian but also religious, in poverty, chastity, and obedience, as the Essenes did under Saint Mark at Alexandria and the Jerusalem Christians under Saint Peter, as is clear from Acts chapters 2, 3, and 4, where I said more on this. Again, through all the ages she has spread the field of the Church among nation after nation, and in them has planted the vineyards of holy and chosen congregations, especially of Religious Orders and Religious of various orders, who would intoxicate the Church with the wine of their devotion, chastity, and charity. Moreover, from her field and vineyard she brings forth for the faithful in the Eucharist "the grain of the elect and the wine that makes virgins blossom," as Zechariah says (9:17). Third, she cultivates each individual faithful person as a field and young vineyard in faith and holiness; for there is no believer or saint who does not owe his or her faith and holiness, whatever and however great it may be, to the Blessed Virgin, for she was appointed by Christ as the mother of the household, and therefore her children, whom she bears, nourishes, and advances for Christ, are all the faithful and the just.
Moreover, just as that wise woman by her shrewdness turns land suited for seed into a field, and land fruitful for grapes into a vineyard — so also the Blessed Virgin directs and advances each of the faithful toward that virtue, state, and perfection to which he or she is most inclined by nature and grace, and for which he or she appears most fit and suited. In this matter, let prelates, princes, superiors of Religious orders, and all who are in authority imitate her, by assigning their subjects to those duties for which they perceive them to be most capable and inclined by temperament and grace; for when grace works in harmony with nature, something great is produced; but if these two are at odds and grace is out of tune with nature, little progress is made, according to the saying: You will do and say nothing against the will of Minerva, that is, against nature. For who can perpetually struggle against nature, and row against the current, as it were, and constantly sail against contrary winds?
Verse 17: She Girded Her Loins with Strength, and Strengthened Her Arms
In Hebrew: she girded her loins with strength, and strengthened her arms for work. The Septuagint: girt strongly about her loins, she strengthened her arms for work. Aquila and Theodotion: she girded her motnaim with strength, that is, her shoulder, or flank, or back. For "strengthened," Symmachus translates ekratiosen, that is, she made firm. Aquila and Theodotion: ekarterosen, that is, she hardened and caused calluses to form. Vatablus: she strongly girded her loins. Aben-Ezra: she girded her loins as though she had armed herself with strength.
First, Saint Augustine, Sermon 43, Bede, Salonius, and Hugh understand by this girdle of the industrious woman mortification and chastity; for in the loins is the origin of seed and of lust, as physicians teach. To gird the loins with strength, therefore, is to firmly restrain and curb the desires of the flesh. Hence Bede: "A good work cannot be acceptable to the Lord unless one first simultaneously restrains from both flesh and mind the impulses of lust." So also Saint Gregory on Luke 12, "Let your loins be girded": "Then," he says, "we gird our loins, when we restrain the lust of the flesh through continence." Hence a belt or sash was anciently the insignia of virginity, which married women accordingly unfastened. But here this virago is praised properly not for chastity but for strength; concomitantly, however, for chastity, because just as lust exhausts and enervates the powers, so chastity strengthens and invigorates them, as experience teaches. Hence military camps (castra) of brave soldiers were named from chastity (castitas), or from the cutting off (castratio) of lust, as I have shown elsewhere. Chastity, therefore, makes this virago strong.
Second, and in the genuine sense, this alludes to the girdle by which women of valor and men, especially those about to set out on a journey, work, or fight, gird up their loins, so that what is naturally weak, soft, and loose in them they bind tight with a belt, strengthen, firm up, and invigorate. So likewise this virago girded herself with a belt, to gather strength and power, both so as to traverse and inspect the house, field, and vineyard with swift and vigorous step, and so as to undertake robust works with a robust body and mind. Therefore both by the girdle and through the girdle, she girds herself rather with fortitude itself; for this is her girdle, and like a soldier's military belt, with which she girds herself for heroic deeds as a soldier for battle, and sharpens her spirit and strength. It is signified, therefore, by this catachresis that this virago rouses and spurs her feminine and soft nature to manly vigor, both of mind and body, as if to say: She aroused and put on manly strength, manly courage — as did the mother of the seven Maccabees, "inserting a masculine spirit into her feminine thoughts," and bravely exhorting her sons to martyrdom (2 Maccabees 7:21). See what I said at length about the girdle of the Christian soldier at Ephesians 6:14.
AND SHE STRENGTHENED HER ARMS. — As if to say: She vigorously exerted her arms for the robust labors she performed; for by this exercise of strength, strength is increased. Hence Milo of Croton, the famous boxer, by carrying a calf in his arms daily, as the calf grew in age and size, gradually — with the strength of his arms growing in proportion through exercise — carried the same animal when it had become full-grown and a bull. To this purpose serves what Plato teaches in Book V of the Republic and Book VIII of the Laws, that women of valor should be enrolled in military service and therefore trained in the arena and in equestrian exercises; and in the Critias he asserts that such women once existed, who were raised to the rank of goddesses on account of their brave deeds. But Plato attributes too much to women when, in the same book of the Republic, he wants them to be common to all men for the greater unity of citizens — in which the wise man plainly raves.
Mystically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 45 Among the Diverse Sermons, or among the new ones published by the Louvain editors, applies these words to the Church and the holy soul: "Girded," he says, "strongly about her loins, she strengthened her arms; truly strong. See whether she is not a handmaid, how devoutly she serves, how readily! Lest the heaving folds of carnal desires impede her work, she girded her loins, so as to tread on nothing superfluous while she hastens to her task; for there the chastity of this woman, bound tight by the sash of the commandment, having strongly girded her loins, strengthened her arms so they would not fail."
Moreover, apply all these things to the Blessed Virgin, whose virginity and divine fortitude shone forth — both in the journeys, labors, poverty, and persecutions that she bravely endured from Herod and the Jews for the sake of the infant Christ; and in the constancy with which she stood by Christ crucified even to His death, and endured all the kinds of torments that Christ suffered by His Passion and she by her compassion; and in that at Pentecost, together with the Apostles, indeed before the Apostles, she was clothed with power from on high and received the Spirit in the fullest plenitude of fortitude, so that she, after Christ's death, might sustain all the sorrows of the Apostles, all the crosses of the faithful, and the entire weight of the Church — which indeed she actually accomplished. See what was said at chapter 8, verse 14, on the words: "Strength is mine." She was therefore, as it were, the Atlas of the early Church, as she is of the Church today.
Verse 18: She Tasted and Saw That Her Trading Is Good
In Hebrew: she tasted that her trading is good; it will not be extinguished, etc. The Septuagint: she tasted that it is good to work, and her lamp is not extinguished all night. Vatablus: perceiving that her work is fruitful, she works even at night. Aben-Ezra: by shrewd reasoning and counsel (for taam, meaning 'taste,' also signifies counsel and reason, because just as taste savors and distinguishes foods, so reason savors and distinguishes advantageous things from disadvantageous ones), she grasped and understood that devoting herself to trade was most profitable. Others translate taam: she calculated within herself the business accounts, that is, the expenses and profits, and saw, that is, concluded with certainty, that she was practicing a lucrative art. "She tasted," therefore means: she learned from experience, and by tasting itself clearly perceived how great and how sweet was the profit of her trade and her diligence in working wool and linen, especially when from these she purchased a field and vineyard, and from there tasted and drank wine. Therefore she spent almost the entire night at work by lamplight, and therefore did not allow it to be extinguished. "She tasted" signifies, first, the careful consideration and calculation of expenses and profits; second, frequent experience — that is, she repeatedly reaped and perceived great gain from her wool-working and linen-working; third, delight and satisfaction, for profit earned by labor, being one's own and the fruit of one's own industry, has a wonderful savor, and like sugar seasons the labors and makes them pleasant — whereas profit that comes without effort, for instance from an inheritance or a gift, being as it were foreign and extrinsic, affords little delight and is, so to speak, tasteless; for what costs much is rare and dear, while what comes of its own accord is little esteemed.
Moreover, that in ancient times industrious women with their girls and maids devoted themselves to wool-working and linen-working not only by day but also by night at lamplight is clear from what was said at verse 13. Hence Virgil, Georgics I: Not even the girls at their nocturnal spinning tasks Were unaware of winter. And Ovid, Book II of the Fasti, relates that Lucretia was found at night by the adulterer Tarquinius thus: From there Lucretia is sought with swift step, before whose bed Were baskets and soft wool. And again, in a letter, thus Penelope writes to Ulysses: Nor did the hanging loom weary my widowed hands As I sought to beguile the long night. Let pastors, prelates, and zealous men imitate this, so that with the shepherds of Bethlehem they may keep vigil over their flock; thus they will deserve, together with them, to be the first to see Christ being born, indeed rising again and coming for judgment. For this must be done either at earliest dawn or at night, according to the parable of the wise virgins who kept their lamps burning at night and waited for the bridegroom: "At midnight a cry was made: Behold the bridegroom comes, go out to meet him, etc., and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding" (Matthew 25:6).
For this reason the Church in ancient times celebrated vigils on the feasts of the Martyrs; for the faithful would keep watch through the night in prayer at the churches and tombs of the Martyrs. Hence the nocturns in the Ecclesiastical office, which even now very many Religious chant at night — in which they imitate Christ, who preached by day, but in the evening would withdraw to the mountains and spend the night in prayer. Hence the Author of the Greek Chain says mystically: By the lamp, understand a pure mind given to contemplation and adorned with spiritual gifts. Remarkable is what we read of Saint Genevieve in her Life. Since she was accustomed to keep vigil in prayer every Saturday night, and on one occasion was making her way at night to the basilica of Saint Denis, which she had built at her own expense, the candle that was lighting the way for her and her companions was extinguished; but as she prayed, it was immediately rekindled from heaven by angels. (The same happened to Saint Gudula, who was the daughter of Saint Amelberga, sister of Pippin, and is the patroness of Brussels, as her Life found in Surius at January 8 records.) Hence this verse is aptly inscribed beneath her image: "Her lamp shall not be extinguished in the night" — especially because she, by the splendor of her holiness, continual prayer, abstinence, and miracles, shone forth and continues to shine for all of Gaul, indeed for the whole world. And so Saint Simeon Stylites commended himself to her prayers by letter, and Saint Remigius, Clovis, Clotilde, and other Princes and Prelates held her in great honor and esteem — so much so that the Parisians continually venerate her as their patroness, because among other things she turned away Attila and the Huns, who were devastating the rest of Gaul, from their city by her prayers.
In ancient times in the East there was a monastery of the Acoemeti, that is, the Sleepless Ones, who kept perpetual vigil in the praises of God, as did Saint Simeon Stylites and Saint Daniel his disciple, and others. Indeed, "the life of the Saints is a vigil;" life is short, eternity is long. Therefore let us work good both by night and by day, so that we may accumulate merits and glory that will last for all eternity.
Following Solomon, Plato says: "No one who sleeps is worthy of anything." So Laertius reports, Book III. And Philip, King of Macedon, having fallen asleep once in camp, upon waking said: "I slept safely, for Antipater keeps watch" — signifying that it is not for kings to indulge in sleep, especially in war, unless they have a trusted captain of the watch. So Plutarch in his Apophthegms. Truly, Philo in Antonius's Melissa, Part I, chapter 22, says: "Sleep, like a tax collector, shares half of life with us." And Democritus, as quoted by Maximus, Sermon 29: "The temperate and the studious," he says, "never drowse, even if they extend their studies far into the night; for sleep does not drive them like some master, pressing down upon a neck subdued by wine and reduced to slavery, as though with insult. Rather, they remain free and upright; and when they seek sleep, they receive it with a pure mind, neither elated by prosperity nor cast down by any adversity — for a sober mind bears both equally and allows itself to be conquered by neither. And so it sleeps most sweetly, free from all pain, with sleep uninterrupted."
Symbolically, "it shall not be extinguished in the night" means: in adverse temptations and persecutions, the lamp of the virago — that is, her joy, reason, counsel, glory, posterity, and happiness — shall not be quenched; for the lamp is a symbol of all these things, as I explained at chapter 20, verse 27, and chapter 24, verse 20. Allegorically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 45 Among the Diverse Sermons: The lamp of the Church in the night, he says, is hope in the tribulation and sorrows of this life; for this hope illuminates, animates, and strengthens her, so that she persists steadfastly in virtue and good works, awaiting the light and day of blessed immortality. "So that in the darkness," he says, "we may not falter, but wait through patience; what we do not see, let us hope for. Therefore let our lamp burn all night long. And because He who speaks the word to us daily pours in oil, lest the lamp be extinguished, let us daily hear the word, receive the oil, and sustain our lamps burning, as the Lord teaches: 'And let your lamps be burning in your hands' (Luke 12). For thus we shall imitate the example of this strong woman."
Hear also Bede: "The Church tasted," he says, "and every perfect soul, that is, recognized with the deepest desire of the mind, that good is the trade of imperishable life, which, leaving behind temporal allurements, we earn eternally in heaven. She tasted, that is, she clearly learned, that it is good through the urgency of preaching to lead as many as possible to the way of truth, and therefore no darkness of tribulations, not even death itself, can extinguish the lamp of her devotion. For the lamp of those is extinguished at night, although it may seem to burn during the day, who, as the Lord says, believe for a time and fall away in the time of temptation." He then adds that by 'night' one can understand the quiet of prayer and contemplation, as if to say: "The lamp of the Church and the holy soul is not extinguished at night, because even when it rests from the business of action, it devotes itself more freely to the light of heavenly contemplation; and when it ceases from public works, it takes care to apply itself more ardently either to hearing sacred reading or to divine praises, following indeed the example of the industrious woman, who is accustomed not only to attend to necessary labors during the day, but also at night, frequently lighting her lamp, to carry on a similar care for the household."
Apply these things most fittingly to the Blessed Virgin. First, because she devoted herself to prayer and divine love and other good works both by night and by day, according to Song of Songs 5:2: "I sleep, and my heart watches." Hence Saint Bernard, Sermon 2 On the Assumption, contrasting her with the foolish virgins who, when the bridegroom came, lacked oil to light their lamps, says: "Not so that strong woman who crushed the serpent's head; for you have, after many words in her praise, that her lamp shall not be extinguished in the night. This is said as a rebuke to the foolish virgins, who, when the bridegroom comes at midnight, complain too late and say: 'Our lamps are going out.' Therefore the glorious Virgin went forth, whose most ardent lamp was a miracle of light even to the angels, so that they said: 'Who is she?' etc. For she shone more brightly than all others, she whom Christ Jesus, her Son, filled with the oil of grace beyond her companions," etc.
Second, because when Christ was dying on the cross, and the Apostles were losing confidence and despairing of His resurrection, in the Blessed Virgin alone the lamp remained — that is, the certain faith and hope of the resurrection, namely that He would rise on the third day as He had promised. And this the Church represents, says Amalarius in the Office of the Ecclesiastical Holy Week, when she extinguishes the twelve candles and keeps only one burning — signifying that in the twelve Apostles the faith and hope of Christ's resurrection had been obscured or extinguished, but in the Blessed Virgin it remained alive and radiant. Hence Saint Cyril, in his sermon Against Nestorius, calls her the inextinguishable lamp. The Mother of God, therefore, during the Lord's Passion — as in a night of tribulation and anguish, exceedingly dark for her because of her compassion for her Son — kept her faith solid and burning, as she sufficiently showed when she stood bravely by her Son nailed to the cross, and did not blush at His cross by hiding at home, but came forth openly in public, and in order to share more fully in Christ's sufferings, followed Him and stood beside His cross. But she did not go with the other women to anoint His body (for she believed with firm faith that He would rise on the third day), so that of this strong woman it was rightly said: "Her lamp shall not be extinguished in the night."
Third, because when she died, she immediately rose again, and both in body and soul was happily and gloriously assumed into heaven; and so death for her was not so much death as life. Her lamp, that is, her life, was not extinguished by death but was rather more brightly kindled. Hence Damascene, Oration 2 On the Assumption: "You alone," he says, "were left to us as consolation on earth, and it is blessed both to live while you live and to die when you die. But what shall we say about your dying? For death itself is life for you, and a more excellent life, incomparably surpassing this present life."
Fourth, because the Blessed Virgin, both while she lived and much more now in heaven, solicitous for the salvation of all the faithful and of all people, labors and keeps watch day and night, and causes each individual to watch over his or her own salvation. To this Saint Bernard applies the verse: "In her light they shall walk in the night." This means, he says, her favor and grace will serve me as torch and light to dispel the nocturnal darkness of this age. She therefore is like a lighthouse surrounded with lights, showing the port of salvation to the faithful who navigate in the night and sea of this world. Why not? Since Saint Paul says to each of the faithful, Philippians 2:13: "Among whom you shine like luminaries in the world."
Finally, Saint Bernard, Sermon 2 On Pentecost: "To her," he says, "as to the center, as to the Ark of God, as to the cause of things, as to the business of all ages, look both those who dwell in heaven and those in hell, both those who preceded us and we who are, and those who shall follow, and the children of children, and those who shall be born from them. Those in heaven, that they may be made whole; those in hell, that they may be freed; those who went before, that the Prophets may be found faithful; those who follow, that they may be glorified, etc. In you the angels found joy, the just found grace, sinners found pardon forever. Rightly do the eyes of all creation look upon you, because in you, and through you, and from you, the benign hand of the Almighty re-created whatever He had created." Note here that the Blessed Virgin is called the business of all ages: first, passively and objectively, because all ages tend toward her, so that all ages seem to be engaged in business, that is, to revolve, labor, and work perpetually in order to adorn and crown her; second, actively, because she herself is "the business," that is, the negotiatrix before God for the faithful of every age, and she does this with such care and zeal that she seems to be not so much a negotiatrix as the very business itself of each person; for she has the business of each one's salvation so much at heart, as if her own affair and business were at stake. Therefore, like the business itself, she never rests but negotiates intently and unceasingly.
Verse 19: She Put Her Hand to Strong Things, and Her Fingers Grasped the Spindle
The Septuagint: she stretched out her elbows to useful things, and her hands to the spindle — as if to say: She draws out the threads so steadily that she seems to have her hands fastened and bound to the spindle. For "strong things" the Hebrew is kiscor, which the Rabbis, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others commonly translate as distaff or whorl. The Chaldean: the whorl. By this can be understood either the stone ring that is inserted at the bottom of the spindle, both for weight, so that it may descend and drop, and so that by its roundness the spindle may spin more easily; or the spinning wheel, which, turned with one hand, winds around the spindle the threads that are spun with the other hand — which more respectable and wealthier women accordingly use, both for ease of spinning and to produce and accumulate many threads and yarns in a short time.
But our Vulgate better translates "strong things." For Symmachus, Aquila, and Theodotion translate andrika, that is, manly things; the Septuagint: useful things. For the Hebrew casar means to be right, to be fitting, to be suitable. Hence kiscor is rectitude, fitness, suitability, propriety, usefulness, and also the skill of doing rightly, which is true fortitude. It signifies, therefore, that this virago stretched out her hands to works that were fitting, proper, useful, skillful, and consequently strong. By these, understand in general any heroic feminine works, and in particular the work of wool-spinning and linen-weaving, which requires great industry and fortitude. Hence, explaining this further, he adds: "And her fingers grasped the spindle." For there is no work more fitting, more decent, more honorable, more worthy, more useful for women than spinning and weaving, as is clear from what was said at verse 13; for this requires notable talent and skill. This also is strong, both for the reasons already given and because it requires great constancy of body and mind, so that this virago steels both her mind and her arms to spin and weave continually, and devotes her whole life to this labor — indeed, keeping vigil through entire nights in it.
For this reason the poets made Pallas, or the goddess Minerva, the patroness at once of spinning and weaving, of warmaking, and of learning. To this same goddess, then, they attributed these three things — linen and wool, arms, and letters — because the industry of weaving produces women who are at once strong and learned in their own sphere, that is, according to their state and rank. Hence Exodus 35:25: "And the learned women also," it says, "who had spun hyacinth and purple," etc. Hence "the spindle," says Saint Isidore, Book XIX of the Etymologies, chapter 29, "is so called because through it is laid the foundation (fundatur) of what has been done; the distaff (colum), because in its length and roundness it is like a column." For a woman, then, the distaff and spindle are her weapons; they are likewise her book of wisdom, honor, and virtue.
Somewhat differently, but morally, Blessed Peter Damian explains it in Opuscule XV, chapter 1: "She put her hand," he says, "to strong things, and her fingers grasped the spindle — because the competent executor of this life so expands himself through greater works out of the fervor of desire, that he also prudently does not neglect the smallest things." Allegorically, Saint Augustine, Sermon 45 Among the Diverse Sermons, applying this to the Church and the faithful, teaches them to draw the spindle continually — that is, to devote themselves constantly to good works in the present so as to collect many merits like threads, and not to defer them to the future, since the future is uncertain and often does not come; and this because through this small present labor they hope with certainty to attain immense rewards in the age to come. "Carefully observe," he says, "the two instruments in wool-working: the distaff and the spindle. On the distaff the wool is wound, which, drawn out into thread, passes to the spindle. What is wound on the distaff is still on the left hand and not yet on the spindle; what is collected on the spindle has already passed. Let your work, then, be on the spindle, not on the distaff; for on the distaff is what you are going to do, on the spindle is what you have done. See, then, whether you have anything on the spindle; for there your arms are made firm, there will be your strong constancy, there you will say confidently to God: 'Give, because I gave; forgive, because I forgave; do, because I did.' What hangs on the distaff must be transferred to the spindle; but what is collected on the spindle must not be called back to the distaff. Therefore see what you do so that you have something on the spindle, so that you may strengthen your arms on the spindle — something that may console you, confirm you, and give you confidence in praying and hoping."
To represent this, the poets established the three Fates, who by spinning distribute to each person the days and lots of life like threads, so that together with the days of each one's life they draw out also his or her lots, that is, actions and sufferings; for life consists in action — to live is to move and to act. Hence one who is idle and does nothing seems rather dead than alive. Hence a poet depicts the three Fates thus: Clotho turns the spindle, Lachesis spins, and Atropos cuts. For, as Apuleius says: "The three Fates are three destinies in number, acting in accordance with time, if you refer their power to the likeness of time. For what is completed on the spindle has the appearance of past time; and what is being twisted in the fingers indicates the span of the present moment; and what has not yet been drawn from the distaff and worked by the care of the fingers seems to show the later events of the future and subsequent age." Lachesis is thought to be so named from 'lot,' because the Greek lagchano means 'to obtain by lot'; Atropos, because she cannot be turned back; Clotho, because she holds all things twisted and ordered together. For the Greek language itself reveals these names. Hence Martial, Book I: To no one has it been granted to move the three spinning maidens; They observe the day they have appointed. Again: The Fates in concord, with the firm decree of destiny, says Virgil, Eclogue 4.
Moreover, each person should work bekiscor, that is, in a fitting manner, each in uprightness and propriety, so that each works in a way appropriate to his or her person, vocation, and rank: namely, a king should work royally, a citizen civilly, a Religious person religiously, a priest as befits a priest, a soldier as befits a soldier, a senator as befits a senator, etc., and that perfectly and excellently; so each will play his or her role fittingly and remarkably. Again, by the spindle, which is straight and turns rightly, Hugh understands the rectitude of intention, which makes even indifferent works right and holy, so that the straighter and holier the intention, the more right and holy the work; for intention is, as it were, the form and soul of work. "The fingers of this hand," he says, "are all the elect, who grasp the spindle, that is, the rectitude of intention, by which they twist all works, like threads, into the circle of eternity. But here it should be noted that by the left hand temporal things are signified, and by the right, spiritual and eternal goods. Likewise by the distaff temporal life is signified, and by the spindle the intention of good work. The distaff is placed in the left hand, and from the spindle the wool or linen is twisted into the right — which is to spin rightly. This happens when temporal and human affairs are so conducted that through a good intention, as if drawn into thread, they pass into the condition of eternal and spiritual merit."
Moreover, the Author of the Greek Chain says: "The spindle is a pure mind, which continually weaves virtue upon virtue, and teaching upon teaching." Apply all these things, with a change of name, to the Blessed Virgin, who constantly practiced strong things — that is, works befitting her dignity: heroic works of charity, of love for enemies (such as the Jews who killed Christ), of patience, etc. — such as it was fitting for the Mother of Christ to perform. And she literally and physically drew the spindle continually to make fabrics for the temple and for Christ her Son; but spiritually, in every good work she had the spindle, that is, the most upright intention, as well as constant continuity, and a fitting connection and order among her works — so that the spindle represents these three things: uprightness, continuity, and connection or order of actions, beautifully linked and arranged among themselves. Therefore whenever an opportunity for doing good presented itself to her, she seized it, and from it, as from the distaff, she transmitted good works, like threads, by effective activity to the spindle — that is, to the accumulated store of her merits. Again, whenever a good desire was sent to her by God, she immediately drew from it, as from the distaff and linen, the threads of effective action. For us, many opportunities and good desires are inspired, but they cling like linen on the distaff, because we do not draw from them the threads of good actions; and meanwhile the threads of our life run toward their end. Therefore at death we shall find the spindle of our merits thin and slender, and we shall repent too late.
Anagogically, Bede understands by the distaff, which is in the right hand, eternal life; by the spindle, which is in the left, the present life. "Often," he says, "in Scripture the right hand signifies perpetual life, the left hand the present gifts of God — namely, abundance of things, peace of times, health of bodies, knowledge of the Scriptures, and the reception of heavenly Sacraments. When we have received these and similar goods from the bounty of the Lord, we carry them, as it were, like wool wound on the distaff in the left hand. But when for the love of heavenly things we begin to use them profitably, we then transfer the wool of the Immaculate Lamb from the distaff to the spindle, from the left to the right hand, because from the gifts of our Redeemer, from the examples of His works, we fashion for ourselves the robe of heavenly glory and the wedding garment of charity." And further on: "And rightly it is said 'grasped,' so that it may be more vividly commended with what zeal and what haste we ought to act in the uncertainty of this life for the certain rewards that await us with the Lord."
Tropologically, the Martyrs, Virgins, and Religious bear robust, manly, and martial spirits, and therefore put their hand to strong things. For what is stronger than to overcome beasts, fires, and crosses — indeed, to embrace them? What is stronger than to live in the flesh as though without flesh, like an angel? What is stronger than to conquer oneself, to consecrate oneself entirely to God, to invade and seize all virtues and all perfection, all the gifts and riches of earth and heaven?
Verse 20: She Opened Her Hand to the Needy
In Hebrew: she extended her hand to the afflicted, and she sent her hands to the needy. The Chaldean: she extended her hand to the destitute, and sent her arms to those suffering injustice. The Septuagint: she opened her hands to the poor and stretched out her palm to the needy. For "palm" the Greek is karpon, a word that means both fruit and the joint or juncture of the arm with the hand — which the Latins after the Greeks call carpus — and consequently palm. Hence Saint Augustine reads: And she extended her fruit to the needy. But that in this place it signifies palm, not fruit, is clear from the Hebrew, Chaldean, and Vulgate. For "extended" the Hebrew is paras, that is, she stretched, extended, expanded — a word that denotes the liberality of this virago, as if to say: The hand that other women, fearful lest they might someday be in want, are accustomed to keep curved and closed (for this is what the Hebrew caph signifies), this virago not only opened but generously spread out to everyone she met, and even extended to those far away — and she did this not only out of a desire to do good, but also for the benefit of herself and her family. For she knew that nothing increases a family's wealth like almsgiving, since God blesses it, and repays not merely equal for equal, but tenfold for one. See Saint Chrysostom's homily That Almsgiving Is the Most Profitable Art of All Arts.
The Septuagint translates: she extended her wrist to the poor, which some explain as follows: to the poor she gave not only a present alms but also pledged a future one, as though given by the clasp of the hand. For the ancients, as Clement of Alexandria attests, when binding themselves in a pledge and giving their word, were accustomed to hold the wrist of the other's hand and offer it to be pressed by the person to whom they were pledging, so that by this rite the bond of the pledged faith might be expressed. Saint Augustine reads "fruit" and explains it thus, as if to say: The fruit, namely the profit she collected and accumulated from the work of her hands, she did not keep for herself, nor spent only on feeding her family, but also distributed to the poor — by which is signified the immense work of this virago, and the profit of her work, as well as her spirit and beneficence, so that the latter matched and was equal in measure to the former.
Blessed Nonna, mother of Saint Gregory Nazianzus, exemplified this, of whom he himself writes in Oration 19: "These were the only riches she considered truly her own and safe from all theft — namely, to pour out her wealth for God and the poor, and especially for her relatives who had fallen from their fortunes as from a certain flower. To provide them only with what was necessary she considered not a removal of their misfortune but a mere reminder of it; but to help them more generously and lavishly — that, she judged, was the mark of solid honor and most perfect consolation." And Blessed Gorgonia, daughter of Blessed Nonna and sister of Saint Gregory Nazianzus, of whom he writes in Oration 11: "Who extended a more generous hand to the needy? Indeed, I would not hesitate to apply Job's own words to her: 'Her door was open to every traveler, nor did the stranger lie outside.' She was the eye of the blind, the foot of the lame, the mother of orphans. As for her kindness and mercy toward widows, what greater thing need be said than that she reaped this fruit — that she was never called a widow herself? Her home was a common lodging for relatives struggling with poverty. Her wealth was no less common to all the poor than each person's own possessions. She dispersed, she gave to the poor, and trusting in the firmness and supreme truth of the divine promise, she laid up much in the heavenly storehouses, and by often doing good to many, she welcomed Christ Himself."
Saint Paula was so lavish toward the poor that she exhausted the very great wealth she had, and dying, left enormous debts to be paid by her daughter, Saint Eustochium; indeed, what she had desired happened — that she was buried in a borrowed shroud. Saint Jerome is the witness in her Epitaph. Remarkable is what we read of Saint Oswald, King of England: his hand, because of the alms he had so generously distributed, remained incorrupt after death. Hear about him from Bede, Book III of the History of the English: "When on the holy day of Easter he had sat down to dinner with Bishop Aidan, and a silver dish filled with royal delicacies had been set on the table before him, and they were about to send their hands to bless the bread, suddenly his servant entered — the one to whom the care of receiving the poor had been delegated — and reported to the king that a very great multitude of the poor, arriving from every direction, was sitting in the streets, begging some alms from the king. The king immediately ordered the food set before him to be carried to the poor; and he also commanded the silver dish to be broken up and distributed among them in small pieces. Seeing this, the Bishop who was sitting beside him, delighted by such an act of piety, grasped his right hand and said: 'May this hand never grow old!' And so it came to pass according to the prayer of his blessing. For when the king was slain in battle and his hand with the arm was severed from the rest of the body, it happened that it has remained incorrupt to this day. Finally, in the royal city that is called by the name of the former queen Bebba, it is kept enclosed in a silver casket in the church of Saint Peter, and is venerated by all with fitting honor." In a similar way, the right hand of Saint Stephen, the first King and Apostle of the Hungarians, with which he had given generous alms, remained incorrupt after death, revealed by an angel and honored by the nobles of the kingdom with due veneration, as his Life records. He departed this life and passed to heaven in the year of the Lord 1038.
Allegorically, Bede says: "The Church opened her hand to the needy when she revealed the mysteries of the faith to those ignorant of them through workers of the truth. She stretched out her palms to the poor when she dispersed her preachers far and wide through the nations to instruct those in need of eternal salvation." Moreover, all these things are easily applied to the Blessed Virgin, whose almsgiving, mercy, and generosity the histories of all ages, all nations, every age and sex celebrate. Hence the whole Church daily calls upon her with these words and implores her aid with these praises: "Hail, Queen, Mother of Mercy; our life, sweetness, and hope, hail." For, as Saint Anselm says: "She cherishes charity and mercy in her arms as her nurslings." And Saint Bernard: "God willed that we should have nothing that did not pass through the hands of Mary." Hence Saint Bonaventure: "As the eyes," he says, "of a handmaid are on the hands of her mistress, so are our eyes on our Lady, until she has mercy on us."
Verse 21: She Shall Not Fear for Her Household from the Cold of Snow
For "double garments" the Hebrew is schanim, which the Chaldean, Pagninus, and others translate as scarlet. For thus the Chaldean has: the children of her house shall not fear from snow, because all her household are clothed in scarlet, that is, in scarlet garments — as if to say: All are clothed in precious garments; how much more in those necessary for warding off the cold! So Vatablus. But it seems unfitting that this virago would dress lowly maids devoted to working wool and linen, and servants assigned to cultivating the field and vineyard, in precious scarlet — especially since scarlet, although warm, is thin and fine, and therefore wards off the cold less well than a thick and lined garment. Therefore our Vulgate better translates "double garments"; for the Hebrew schanim descends from schana, meaning to change, repeat, double, whence schanim signifies something doubled or twofold. Or, if with other vowel points one reads schenaim, it means precisely "two" or "double." Hence the Septuagint, joining this with marbaddim, which follows in the next verse, translates dissas, that is, double or twofold. But the ancient codices of the Septuagint agree with the Vulgate; hence Cassian, Collation XIV, chapter 8, reads from the Septuagint: for all who are with her are clothed doubly.
By "double garments" some understand one lighter summer garment and another thicker and warmer winter garment; others, one worn and old garment and another new and woolly one. But properly, understand double garments as twofold and twin; or single garments, but lined. For in winter the wealthier are accustomed to multiply their garments and wear two garments, or at least one lined with furs or cloth, so that it is the equivalent of two for repelling the cold. Again, "double" can be taken to mean "multiple," for which meaning I have collected many examples elsewhere. For what is signified here is the provident care and generosity of the virago, by which she abundantly provides the house and household with ample furnishings, provisions, and clothing. For the honor and handsome clothing of the household are the honor of the virago herself. For, as Saint Chrysostom says: "An entire household is like an entire body, whose head is the husband and wife, while the rest of the household members (namely sons and daughters, servants and maids) compose the other limbs. Therefore he who allows his servants to be indecorously naked or dressed in worn-out and threadbare garments disgraces a good part of his own body."
Add that this is the gain of both the virago and the family. For when the household members have been provided by her with garments against the cold, they are warm and eager for work; and so they accomplish double the work they would if they were numb and sluggish from nakedness and cold. Let religious life, of which this woman is the type, hear this — and Abbots, Priors, and Superiors of Religious orders — and let them open their hands to the poor of Christ, their religious sons and daughters, who have made themselves poor for Christ's sake, and provide them with necessities with great charity, lest they be forced to beg from their parents or friends, or to procure these things from elsewhere, with loss to their poverty, reputation, and discipline.
Cyril illustrates this maxim with a notable fable of a tortoise and a mouse, packed with his typical parables, in Book I of the Moral Apologues, chapter 7, entitled "Always Travel with a Safe Burden." "A mouse," he says, "scurrying through the pantry with hasty steps, came upon a tortoise plodding along with slow pace. Foolishly mocking her dignified gravity, he said to her ironically: 'Why, sister, are you going at such rapid speed?' She, shaking her head and mocking her mocker, answered truthfully: 'I go thus because I am loaded with my armor.' Then the mouse said: 'It is foolish to carry such a burden everywhere.' But she replied: 'Rather, it is foolish not to perceive what you judge, and more foolish still to scamper about leaping and unarmed when not yet safe from enemies. For by nature's providence, entirely surrounded on all sides by the weight of my shell, I find in myself my house, wall, and shield when necessity presses, and I do not run about begging for help. But you, being light because you are unarmed — when an enemy meets you with furious claw, running stupidly this way and that seeking help, you perish if, suddenly overtaken by the hostile soldier, you do not find where to hide at once. Why then do you rejoice in your deadly lightness?'" He then confirms the same by the comparison of sailors, a horse, the sea, the earth, and straw, and says: "Observe, therefore, that the lightness of the winds often plunges the sailor into the deep; and a war-horse, unless weighted down, does not charge securely into the enemy's wedge; the wave of the sea in its fluctuating lightness always flows about, while the earth in its weight is at rest; light straw is restlessly tossed by the blast of the winds, while a pebble is made firm by its weight. Therefore, brother, let the pleasant storm of your lightness be yours; the dear tranquility of my weight is mine. It surely pleases me to have everywhere the sweet yoke of protection, and always to carry with me the light burden of safety." With these words she departed, and turned her mocker's laughter into mourning.
Now the Septuagint translates not literally but paraphrastically: "Her husband is not anxious about those in the house, wherever he may be staying (the snow blocking his return); for all who dwell with her are well clothed and properly provided for." So the Author of the Greek Chain. As if to say: The husband casts all concern for the household's food and clothing upon his wife, who is a virago. For he knows that she abundantly provides food and clothing for all, and first of all for himself as her husband. Hence the Septuagint adds: she made double garments for her husband.
Allegorically, Bede and from him the Gloss say: The Church and the faithful soul are clothed with a double garment — namely, first, with doctrine and virtue; second, with wisdom and patience; third, with grace and the goods of the present life, and the glory of the future; fourth, with faith and works; fifth, with the Sacraments and examples of Christ. Hear Bede: "They are clothed with double garments, because they have the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come: now in their temporal pilgrimage they are assisted by divine aid, lest they fail; assisted; then in the perpetual dwelling of their homeland, they are lifted up by the vision of divine grace, so that they may live happy forever. Likewise the members of her household are clothed with a double garment — one of work, the other of mind — having the coverings of faith and deeds, imbued with the Sacraments of their Redeemer and formed by His examples. For thus is fulfilled the Apostle's word: 'As many of you as were baptized in Christ have put on Christ.' Moreover, by the cold of snow can be understood eternal torments, which we read are a mixture of fire and cold, as it is said: 'There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.' For weeping of the eyes is usually produced by fire and smoke, while gnashing of teeth by cold. Hence also blessed Job, speaking of the eternal punishments of the reprobate: 'They shall pass from waters of snow to excessive heat' (Job 24:19). But from these the Church will not fear for her household, because whoever perish did not belong to her household and were not clothed with her spiritual garment, even though they seemed for a time to have been instructed in her mysteries." Hugh adds: "The double garment," he says, "is good work with a right intention, with which churchmen are clothed; but hypocrites have cloaks, that is, single garments without lining, because they do good works but not with a right intention." The same Hugh: "The double garment," he says, "is a winter and a summer one. By the winter garment I mean the virtues by which we are protected against the rain and hail of temptations and persecutions — such are patience, meekness, humility, and the like. By the summer garment I mean the virtues by which, in time of peace and tranquility, one devotes oneself to good works and contemplation — such are charity, piety, devotion, and wisdom."
Moreover, the Church and the faithful soul, against the cold of snow — that is, of sloth and torpor — are clothed with a double charity, namely of God and neighbor, which is therefore scarlet dyed twice, says Saint Gregory. Saint Ambrose, in Book II to Gratian, in the preface, understands the double garments as priestly vestments, as if this virago had imitated them, to set before her eyes their sacred meaning: "Good also," he says, "is she who displayed the weaving of the priestly garment — whether the Law or the Church — which made double garments for her husband, as it is written, one of work, the other of mind, weaving the coverings of faith and deeds. And so elsewhere, as we read, she first overlays gold, and then adds hyacinth and purple with scarlet and fine linen (Exodus 28). And again elsewhere, from hyacinth and the rest she first fashions little flowers, and then attaches gold, and the garb of the priest is one — so that, gleaming with the same colors, the diversity of grace and beauty may shine forth in the diversity of rank." The same Saint Ambrose, commenting on Proverbs 31, understands by the double garments the twofold faith in Christ: for we believe and confess Christ to be both God and man.
Finally, Saint Bernard, Book III of On Consideration, to Eugenius, understands by the double garments fortitude and beauty: fortitude in conscience, beauty in reputation. "The Lord reigned," he says, "He put on beauty; the Lord put on strength. You too, be strong in faith, beautiful in glory, and you will have proved yourself an imitator of God. Your strength is the confidence of a faithful conscience; your beauty, the splendor of a good reputation. So, I pray, put on strength; for the joy of the Lord is your strength. Moreover, He delights in your comeliness and beauty as in His own likeness. Put on the garments of your glory, clothe yourself with the double garments with which that strong woman was accustomed to clothe her household. Let there be no wavering weakness of little faith in your conscience, no blemish of bad repute in your fame; and you will be clothed with double garments, and the Bridegroom will rejoice over the bride — your soul — and your God will rejoice over you."
Symbolically, Cassian, Collation XIV, chapter 8, understands by the double garments the twofold sense of Sacred Scripture — namely the literal and the mystical — for with both the Church clothes and adorns herself.
All these things are easily applied to the Blessed Virgin; for she was clothed with a double garment and scarlet dyed twice — that is, with the burning charity of God and neighbor — according to Psalm 44: "All the glory of the daughter of the king is from within, clothed about with golden fringes in varieties" — that is, the variety of all virtues. For the garment of the inner person, namely the mind, is golden charity; while the garment of the outer person is modesty and continence, which embraces all other virtues. Again, she was endowed with the double garment of the active and contemplative life. Moreover, her charity was most precious — first, because the Holy Spirit, coming upon her, who by His essence, indeed by the very force of His procession, is uncreated love and charity, poured Himself entirely into that Virgin together with His gifts; second, because she, eliciting continuous and ardent acts of this love, increased it by immense increments; third, because she frequently, indeed almost continually, by a heroic act of charity devoted herself with her Son as a holocaust to God for the salvation of humanity unto death — an act whose value and merit were on every side immense and to us incomprehensible.
With this same garment she adorns those devoted to her, and this garment is again double, because she clothes and invests them with the virtues of both Christ and the Blessed Virgin, according to that saying of Saint Bonaventure in the Psalter: "Put on Mary, all you who love her; let her shine in your conduct, let her gleam in your actions."
Now, how the double garment — that is, the burning and continuous act of charity — excludes all the cold of snow, that is, of sin, I shall show at the end of the next verse. Moreover, just as Eve, as Saint Bernard says in his Sermon On the Praises of Saint Mary, "clothed the flesh of her children with the double cloak of her confusion — for from her hand our earth received the seed of a double evil: iniquity and guilt in the soul, calamity in the body" — so conversely the Blessed Virgin bestows on us the opposite double garment — namely, grace and glory, both of body and soul. This, therefore, is the shining double cloak that the glorious Virgin gives to her own. For this reason the Septuagint version fits her perfectly: "Her husband is not anxious about those who are in the house, wherever he may be staying; for all who are with her are clothed" — because Christ committed the administration of the Church and the faithful to the Blessed Virgin until the day of judgment, when He, after a long delay, will return to judge all, as Saint Germanus, Saint Bernard, Saint Bonaventure, and others teach.
Again, an ancient, pious, and learned Doctor teaches from this passage that those who in this life served the Blessed Virgin with special devotion will be gifted by her with a singular glory, as with a double garment, in heaven: "Just as," he says, "the servants of the king and queen in the royal court go forth adorned with certain garments and golden insignia, by which they are recognized as servants of the king or queen, and walk clothed in special purple — so in the heavenly court the servants of the Blessed Virgin will shine with a special adornment and glory, by which they are distinguished from others as servants of Mary, according to Proverbs, last chapter: 'All her household are clothed with double garments.'"
Finally, some understand by the double garments the doubled merit of each individual action of the Blessed Virgin. For Francisco Suarez, Part III, Question 37, Article 4, Disputation 18, Sections 2 and 4, holds that the Blessed Virgin merited continuously throughout her life and grew in grace — for she most frequently, indeed almost unceasingly, elicited the most intense acts of charity, and thus through merit doubled them, and that by continuous intensification and doubling. By which it came about that in the end she arrived at an immense accumulation of charity and merits. For he teaches that the Mother of God always acted in proportion to all the degrees of intensity of her habit of charity and grace, so that the pre-existing habit was fully exhausted in its whole power by the subsequent act. He proves this first by the example of the angels, who while they were wayfarers (in their state of probation) did the same thing: for they loved and honored God with the most intense and continual love, so that their actual love was commensurate with and equal to their habit, and exhausted it completely. But what has been granted to angels or to any creature cannot fittingly be denied to the Mother of God. Second, he proves the same by reason: because there was nothing in the Virgin to blunt the force of this habit — no distraction, no temptation, no concupiscence, no heaviness of body, which in us weaken and blunt our acts, so that no human being loves God as much as he or she could from the habit of charity possessed.
Let us suppose, then, that the Blessed Virgin in the first instant possessed a habit of charity and grace intense as a thousand (for a greater habit was infused in her than in the highest Seraphim), and that she elicited an act of charity of intensity one thousand. By that act she merited that the same number of degrees be added to her habit of charity, and that it be doubled. God therefore immediately doubled it, making it intense as two thousand. In the second instant of her operation, from this infused habit of two thousand, she elicited an equally intense act of two thousand. She therefore merited the same, namely two thousand degrees to be added to the habit of charity, so that it would be intense as four thousand. In the third operational instant, cooperating equally, she elicited an act intense as four thousand — and so merited an increase of another four thousand, so that she received a habit intense as eight thousand. And so, always matching the act to the habit, she continuously doubled it: so that in the fourth instant the habit would be intense as sixteen thousand, in the fifth as 32 thousand, in the sixth as 64 thousand, in the seventh as 128 thousand, in the eighth as 256 thousand, in the ninth as 512 thousand, in the tenth as 1,024 thousand, in the eleventh as 2,048 thousand, in the twelfth as 4,096 thousand — and so on in arithmetical (i.e., geometric) progression, in which a small number and value, after a few progressions, grows to an immense amount.
From this Suarez concludes that the Blessed Virgin, by her last act of charity, which she elicited at the moment of death, merited greater grace and glory than by all the acts of her entire preceding life. For in such a (geometric) progression, the last doubled number exceeds in magnitude all the preceding ones. This calculation is pious and probable, and possible for God; but it is not entirely certain — first, because it is uncertain whether throughout every individual operation of her entire life of 72 years the Blessed Virgin elicited such intense acts that they always matched and exhausted the habit: especially since Adam did not do this in the state of innocence, nor would the angels perhaps have done so for 72 years, if their state of journeying and meriting had lasted so long — for created power, being flexible and free, does not seem to sustain such prolonged and continuous attention, intention, and exertion, since it would be extreme and therefore violent, and no example of it exists. Second, because acts in a human being are not renewed so frequently, but the same acts in contemplatives tend to persist for several quarter-hours and hours. Third, because it is uncertain whether an act of intensity three merits an increase in the habit of three, especially so that this is given immediately in this life; for the merit of supernatural acts seems to correspond to the physical action of natural acts, and natural acts do not increase or double a habit unless they are more intense than it. God could certainly, by continuous and powerful impulses of grace, so arouse and strengthen the Virgin's will that she not only matched the habit by her act but even surpassed it, and that both by day and by night she continually elicited and doubled the most ardent acts. But whether He actually did this is not certainly clear. It is certain that God conferred on the Blessed Virgin many extraordinary privileges unknown to us, which befitted the Mother of God; but what precisely they were, of what kind and how great, He has revealed to no one as yet, and so various authors hold and conjecture various opinions.
Verse 22: She Made for Herself Embroidered Coverings
In Hebrew, for "embroidered covering" the word is marbaddim, which Aquila and Theodotion translate as bedspreads; Symmachus and Vatablus: tapestries; the Chaldean: she made coverings for herself; the Syriac: she made a bed (a bedspread) for herself. Less accurately, Pagninus: she made a necklace for herself. Our Vulgate therefore translates most aptly: an embroidered covering. For the root rabad means to spread, and by spreading to adorn; hence marbaddim signifies ornate and variegated coverings. For Varro, in On the Latin Language: "Whatever they spread beneath," he says, "is called a stragulum from 'to spread.'" Valla, Book VI, chapter 46: "A stragulum," he says, "is a kind of covering, or whatever is spread on a bed, a horse, or anything else — such as an altar, wall, pulpit, etc." Moreover, the ancients fashioned and adorned these coverings with various weaving, embroidery, and diverse patterns of figures, and therefore they were precious. Hence Tibullus, Book I, Elegies: For neither feathers then nor painted coverlets brought sleep. Among coverings are numbered Turkish and Belgian tapestries, skillfully carved or embroidered with various figures. Hence Isidore, Book XIX, chapter 26: "A stragulum," he says, "is a multicolored cloth, distinguished by the hand of the artisan with diverse variety. It is so called because it is suitable for spreading and for covering, of which Solomon says: 'She made for herself an embroidered covering.'" And chapter 7, verse 16: "I have woven my bed with cords, I have spread it with painted tapestries from Egypt," where in the Hebrew the same word rabad appears as here. An embroidered garment, therefore, is a garment variegated with diverse figures, colors, and threads through various weaving, embroidery, or cutting, etc.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: This virago not only spun and wove simple fabrics and cloths of linen and wool for the household, servants, and maids, but also elegantly fashioned precious coverings — tapestries, bedspreads, altar frontals, etc. — either by weaving or by embroidery in the Phrygian style, and with them furnished and adorned the house, as we see the houses of nobles and princes furnished and adorned with the same. "Fine linen and purple are her clothing" — as if to say: By her own industry she made garments of fine linen and purple for herself and likewise for her husband (as the Septuagint has) and children. In this she imitated the priestly vestments, for these were woven from fine linen and purple — to signify that her adornment was sacred and mystical. For just as the priest is adorned with these to please God, so she adorned herself with similar finery to please both God and her husband. For fine linen by its whiteness represents chastity, and purple by its flame-like color represents conjugal love. Hence in ancient times the veil with which brides were covered at weddings was white and purple, and was therefore called a flammeum ("flame-veil"), as Isidore and others attest. By fine linen, therefore, she displays and professes her chastity; by purple, her love.
Allegorically, apply these things to the Church. Hence Saint Ambrose, in his book On Tobias, chapter 20: "The garment of wisdom," he says, "is made from those garments which wisdom fashioned for herself from fine linen and purple — that is, the clothing of faith consists of the preaching of heavenly things and the passion of the Lord's blood. By fine linen heavenly things are figured, and by the appearance of purple the mystery of the sacred blood is declared, by which the heavenly kingdom is conferred." The same on Proverbs 31: "She made for herself garments of fine linen and purple. Of fine linen, on account of the bright confession of faith; of purple, on account of the glorious passion. When we pray, we acknowledge her fine linen; in the Martyrs, we praise her purple." Saint Augustine has the same words exactly, Sermon 45 Among the Diverse Sermons. Bede adds that by the embroidered covering he understands the various ornaments of the virtues — indeed, the ornaments of each individual virtue. For humility is adorned and, as it were, variegated by modesty, reverence, silence, etc.; charity is adorned by almsgiving, kindness, generosity, zeal, etc. — and so for the other virtues. Fine linen is chaste and pure conduct; purple is the shedding of blood for Christ and for piety. For the Church in peacetime has the white lilies, as it were the fine linen, of virgins; in wartime, the purple roses of the Martyrs.
Note here that the fine linen (byssus) of the ancients was the finest linen, from which precious fabrics — such as the Dutch and Cambrai linens of today — were made, as I showed at Exodus chapter 25, verse 4. Linen, because it is variously plucked, beaten, soaked, and hackled, signifies the mortification of the flesh, by which chastity must be preserved. Hear Bede: "Because fine linen," he says, "springs green from the earth, but through long and manifold processing, having lost its native moisture and greenness, is brought to the beauty of a white garment. Purple, however, is a royal garment. The Church is clothed in fine linen when the elect mortify their bodies and bring them into subjection; and in purple when they practice that same continence not for popular favor but to acquire the blessedness of the everlasting kingdom. But this habit of virtues in the present indeed seems contemptible to those who do not know; but in the future, what it truly was will be manifestly revealed. Hence beautifully in his Apocalypse, John reports that he heard the voices of the saints saying: 'Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready, and it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, shining and white. For the fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints.'"
All these things the Blessed Virgin possessed in an eminent degree. Her garment was fine linen, that is, a virginity more than angelic; and purple, that is, the most ardent charity. Her embroidered covering was the variety of holy inspirations and desires that both the angels of her imagination and God Himself continually poured into her mind, for the vigorous performance of all manner of heroic virtues, but especially for the constant, continuous, and burning love of God. For that this love existed in her, from the first instant of her conception, was continuous — indeed, ever growing, and by the merit of its own ongoing progression, if not equally doubled and redoubled, certainly greatly increasing — is taught by Francisco Suarez, Gabriel Vasquez, Barradius, Canisius, Salazar, and others. Moreover, since this act of love of God at the beginning of her conception was so intense in her that it surpassed all acts of divine love elicited by the highest angels, even the Cherubim and Seraphim at the term of their wayfaring — which were certainly most intense, for this was fitting for her who was destined by God and was soon to be the Mother of God — let one conclude from this continuous increase of divine love, to such an increase of charity, indeed a conflagration — and to such a summit of merits at the end of her life, namely in her 72nd year of age, that if in one pan of a two-armed balance were placed all the works and merits of all the Saints and angels, even of the Seraphim, and in the other pan those of the Blessed Virgin alone, hers would outweigh them. Again, let them conclude from this that the Blessed Virgin, although she was always of free will so that she could have sinned (though Saint Bonaventure, Richard, Marsilius, Almain, and others deny this power of sinning to the Virgin), for the sake of her greater merit never actually sinned, not even by the slightest venial sin, as the whole Church holds, with the Council of Trent as witness. Because God, by outwardly removing the occasions of sins and inwardly continually suggesting holy thoughts and desires to her mind, so securely and certainly directed and sharpened her faculties that she thought, desired, and performed only holy things. For He continually sent into her intellect so many pious illuminations, and into her will so many holy affections, that she abhorred all sin as she would the devil, and was continually swept along as by a torrent to the most fervent acts of all virtues, especially the love of God; and the powers of her head and mind were never relaxed or wearied in this ardor, but were rather increased and sharpened.
This is what Ecclesiasticus 24:41 says of her in the mystical sense: "I am like a channel of immense water from the river, I am like a branch of the river, and like an aqueduct I came forth from paradise." See what was said there. And Saint Augustine, whose words Bonaventure recites and follows in the Speculum, chapter 14: "Who," he says, "can doubt that the very bowels of Mary had been utterly transformed into the affection of charity, in which that very Charity who is God rested bodily for nine months?" As if to say: The Blessed Virgin seems to have been not so much imbued with charity as formed and animated by it, and thus to be charity itself — just as white-hot iron seems to be not so much iron as fire.
Damascene adds, in Oration 1 On the Nativity: "You have every holy thought conjoined with the benefit of the soul; on the contrary, every vain and soul-destroying thought you spit out before tasting it." Then, going through the actions of each of the senses: "Her eyes," he says, "are always toward the Lord, gazing upon the perennial and unapproachable light; her ears drink in the divine word and delight in the harp of the Spirit, etc. Her heart, pure and free from stain, seeing God who is free from all impurity, and always burning with desire for Him." He then adds that she surpasses the Cherubim in knowledge of God and the Seraphim in love, and that she was therefore represented to Moses by the bush that burned and was not consumed (Exodus 3).
Finally, Galatinus, in Book VII of On the Secrets of the Faith, from the ancient Rabbis — whom our Canisius cites and praises in Book I On the Blessed Virgin, chapter 13 — says: "Among other perfections, she was gifted with such a spirit of prophecy that if by chance she were about to see or hear anything unlawful or illicit, her ears and eyes would immediately close, so that her senses would were made to serve nothing but the divine will." The cause, therefore, of her immunity from all sin, even venial, in the Blessed Virgin was twofold. The first was the protection and constant assistance of God, which so governed her senses and mind as to prevent all illicit motions of concupiscence, even indeliberate and the very first stirrings, as happened in Adam before sin so long as he remained in the state of innocence. And this properly is the cause why in her the tinder of concupiscence was lulled to sleep, indeed extinguished — but it was not a sufficient cause for never sinning at all; for even with the tinder extinguished, she could have used her freedom for evil and sinned, as Adam did. The second, therefore, and adequate cause why she never sinned was the embroidered garment — that is, her most ardent charity and continuous love of God, which drove far from her all the cold of snow, that is, of any sin whatsoever. For just as continuous burning heat is opposed to snow and excludes it, so continuous love is opposed to sin and excludes it. I say continuous, because if the burning and love are interrupted, the warmth and love will be diminished, and tepidity will follow; and when cold creeps in, there will be snow — indeed, frost and the coldest ice.
Albert the Great teaches this here, at the preceding verse, assigning the physical cause of why snow is extremely cold and describing the manner of its generation from Aristotle, Book II of the Meteorology: "Snow," he says, "is generated from hot vapor violently raised to the middle region of the air — as is indicated by the fact that it falls in broad flakes like carded wool. This happens because the heat of the cloud is so great that the cold does not overcome it all at once but only part by part, not the whole in large portions, so as to be able to harden it entirely. Similarly, as to quality, it is intensely cold, because the rule is that the hotter something was, the colder it becomes when the heat is expelled. For the heat that was previously present opens the pores, so that cold enters abundantly and everywhere, and thus it takes on a great deal of cold. A sign of this is that hot water is more deeply constricted and frozen by cold than water that was cold throughout. As for its whiteness, it is white because it consists of pure moisture first dispersed by the heat of the cloud and then frozen by the cold. For the whiteness is caused by the cold itself and by the transparency and brightness of the moisture."
He then applies each of these points mystically to sin and sinners. In a similar way, morally, we see that those who were fervent and most ardent in religious life, zeal, and other virtues — if they let this fervor lapse — become tepid, and finally extremely torpid, cold, and rigid. Just as those who have become warm in a heated room, if they go out into the cold air, find that the cold entering through the pores opened by the heat makes them extremely cold. Indeed, they fall into the gravest crimes — as Lucifer, from the most ardent Seraphim, became the most foul demon; as Judas, from an Apostle, became the betrayer of Christ; as Luther, from a monk, teacher, and preacher, became an arch-heretic. Hence Saint Augustine says that he found none better than those who have advanced in monasteries, nor worse than those who have fallen away in monasteries.
But the Blessed Virgin, because she was continually ablaze with the seraphic fires of love, gave no place to cold or tepidity, but constantly burned more ardently. And so all sin, even the slightest, fled far from her, and every temptation — just as flies flee from a boiling and bubbling pot, as one of the Saints says. Especially because her eyes, mind, senses, and affections were fixed upon and absorbed in the incarnate Word, namely in Christ the Lord, her Son. For, as Saint Cyprian says in his treatise On the Nativity of Christ, "the presence of the little Child so occupied the eyes of those present, so illuminated their minds, so captivated their hearts, that in this supreme Good the united collection of all goods seemed to be gathered, and there was no need to wander about and beg for parts of what the omnipotent Infancy presented all at once in itself to the faithful." And after some further words: "The Holy Spirit possessed His house, and adorned the temple He had consecrated to Himself; He guarded His sanctuary, and the consolations of this kind honored the bridal chamber of holiness, and gladdened the blessed soul, and the reverence for so great an Indweller drove away the mockeries of concupiscence. The law of the flesh did not assail the law of the mind; no rebellion disturbed the peace of the spirit. The little Child nursing at the breast took pure nourishment, and the fountain of the sacred bosom poured clarified food into His most pure mouth. And certain sweetnesses that surpass human understanding imbued the mother's heart, and there was on both sides pure joy, as the pious and devout humility of the holy mother and the immense benignity of the Holy of Holies were merged in united affections."
Verse 23: Her Husband Is Illustrious in the Gates
In Hebrew: noda, that is, known, meaning illustrious, distinguished, in the gates is her husband, when he sits with the elders of the land — that is, with the princes, says Vatablus; for in ancient times the elders were the princes and judges of the region. The Chaldean: known in the provinces is her husband. The Syriac: among the cities her husband is famous. The Septuagint: her husband becomes conspicuous in the gates, whenever he sits in the assembly with the elder inhabitants of the land — that is, with the senators and judges; for these sat in judgment in the gates, so as to give easy access to themselves to strangers and country folk as well as citizens, as I have said elsewhere. Our Vulgate aptly and elegantly translates "known" as "noble," that is, excellent and illustrious; for nobilis is said as though noscibilis (knowable), because he is widely known for his dignity and virtue and recognized by all. Hence Cicero in his speech for Flaccus: "Other men," he says, "known among you, are noble among their own." And for Caelius: "Clodia," he says, "not only noble but also well-known." And Plautus in the Pseudolus: "With them I had neither place nor conversation; to them I was never noble" — that is, known.
He has praised the virago in herself; now he praises her through her husband, as if to say: She herself is noble by the nobility of her virtues and illustrious deeds; she is equally noble by the nobility of her husband — indeed, she herself honors and ennobles her husband. First, because by her labor and industry she honors, enriches, and distinguishes her husband and family; for the rich become noble and are elected to the senate. Second, because she so manages the household that she frees her husband from all domestic care, so that he can devote himself entirely to public affairs in the senate — which is the role of the distinguished and noble. For, as Plato says in the Meno: "It is the man's part to govern the state, the woman's to govern the family." Third, because she dresses him handsomely and splendidly in fine linen and purple, as was just said, so that in his noble attire he stands out illustriously among the senators — for noble clothing makes a person distinguished and prominent, especially in the eyes of the common people. Finally, because, as Rabbi Levi says, when her husband sits among the wise, he will be conspicuous for wisdom, since he has been exceptionally cultivated and trained for the acquisition of wisdom by his prudent wife. For she suggests to her husband resources as well as counsels, and transfers her own virtues, her honor, reputation, and renown to her husband, so that all honor and ennoble the husband on account of so celebrated a virago.
Blessed Nonna, mother of Saint Gregory Nazianzus and wife of Gregory the Elder, exemplified this. Of her, Nazianzus writes in Oration 19, at the funeral of his father: "This woman, given to him by God's bounty, was not only a helpmate but a leader and standard-bearer — guiding him by her own life and speech to every excellence, and in other matters judging it best to obey her husband as the laws of marriage required, but in matters of faith and piety not at all ashamed to show herself a teacher as well." And shortly after: "She held that the only true nobility consists in piety, and in understanding where we came from and where we are finally going." The holy mother was followed by her daughter Saint Gorgonia, sister of Saint Gregory Nazianzus, whom he adorns with these praises in Oration 11: "Gorgonia's homeland was the heavenly Jerusalem (she was therefore of the highest nobility, because heavenly) — that city, I say, which is not seen by the eyes but is understood by the mind and spirit, in which we exercise the rights of citizens and toward which we hasten with all speed, whose Citizen is Christ, and whose fellow-citizens are that great assembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and who around the great Founder of the city celebrate feast days through the contemplation of glory, and carry on the eternal dance. And her nobility was the preservation of the divine image and the imitation of the archetype, which reason and virtue bring about, and a pure desire that leads those who are truly devoted to heavenly things day by day more and more
Allegorically, the husband of the Church is Christ the Lord, who by the merit of His humility — by which He was judged and condemned by Pilate and crucified as a nobody, indeed as an infamous criminal — will appear noble, that is, illustrious, when as Judge He will sit gloriously on the throne of His majesty, with the Apostles as senators and assessors, to judge the world. So Saint Augustine, Bede, Salonius, and others. For the Apostles are the nobles, and those like them who prefer heavenly things to earthly; while the ignoble are the worldly, who prefer earth to heaven, mud to gold, human things to divine, temporal things to eternal — as Saint Gregory says, explaining these words of Solomon in Book XIX of the Morals, chapter 16.
The spouse of the Blessed Virgin, namely Saint Joseph, will also be noble in this assembly, because after the Blessed Virgin he is reckoned among the first of the saints; and so on the Day of Judgment he will sit among the Prophets and Apostles — indeed, he will appear illustrious and conspicuous among the first orders of the angels. Others understand by the Virgin's husband the Holy Spirit, who among the senators — that is, among the two other Persons of the Most Holy Trinity, namely the Father and the Son — is the noble third, indeed in all things equal and co-equal with Them. For He sat with Them in the Blessed Virgin when He wrought the Incarnation of the Word in her, according to Luke 1: "The Holy Spirit shall come upon you, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow you."
Verse 24: She Made Fine Linen and Sold It
The Chaldean, Vatablus, and Rabbi Solomon say: to the merchant. So also the Vatican, Complutensian, and Royal Septuagint. But in the Greek Chain the Septuagint reads: she wove fine linen garments and gave them to the Phoenicians; and girdles she sold to the Canaanites. And the Author adds: sindon is woven from linen. Pagninus: she made linen cloth and sold it, and delivered a girdle to the merchant. Vatablus: she wove linen, that is, fabric. For the Hebrew sadin, whence the Latin and Greek sindon, signifies linen and linen cloth, as our Vulgate translates at Isaiah 3:22 — but fine and precious linen. Hence the Septuagint at Isaiah 3:22 translates: byssus (fine linen); for the byssus of the ancients was the finest and whitest linen, as I said at verse 22. Perhaps sadin is derived from Sidon (the letter tsade, which is the initial in Sidon, being changed to the neighboring samech, which is the first letter in sadin) — the city of Phoenicia — because in it these finest linens were woven. Hence Martial, Book IV, Epigram 19: You will laugh at winds and rains, he says, covered with this gift; Nor will you be as safe in a Tyrian sindon. For Tyre was adjacent to Sidon. Although some think the sindon is called Tyrian because it was dyed with Tyrian murex, that is, purple, others hold that the sindon was so called because it was made in Tyre and Sidon. So Theodore Gaza in Book IV of Theophrastus's History of Plants, chapter 9: "Sindon," he says, "a garment of linen so called because this kind of clothing was first begun in the city of Sidon; for this reason it is called Tyrian by Martial, since Tyre and Sidon were neighboring cities." The Syriac agrees, translating sadin, that is, sindon, as "cotton garment" (xylina); for xylon is a small woolly shrub from which fabrics are made, of which Pliny, Book XIX, chapter 1, says: "The upper part of Egypt, bordering on Arabia, produces a shrub that some call gossipion, most xylon, and therefore the linens made from it are called xylina" — that is, cotton. See Ruellius, Book II, chapter 101.
Saint John the Evangelist supports this, in chapter 19, verse 40, where speaking of Joseph of Arimathea burying the body of Christ with his companions, he says: "They bound it in linen cloths" — that is, in linen cloths with spices. In place of this, Saint Matthew, chapter 27, verse 59, says: "Joseph wrapped it in a clean sindon." And that this sindon was of linen is clear, because it is still visible as such in Turin to this day and is honored with great veneration. Afterward, the Greeks and Latins transferred the word sindon to designate a certain kind of elegant garment, whereas properly the Hebrew sadin, and hence the Greek and Latin sindon, signifies linen cloth or a finer linen fabric. Hence she rightly sold it, because it was not fitting for her to wear it, since through such a fine fabric the nakedness of her body would appear — which was contrary to her exceptional modesty and chastity. Hence Clement of Alexandria, Book II of the Pedagogue, chapter 10, forbids sindons to chaste women: "For it is no longer a covering," he says, "this soft and delicate garment that cannot conceal the naked figure. For such a garment, falling upon the body, is pressed and applied to the body itself more softly, clinging like the form of the flesh, and so expresses the figure of the woman that the entire constitution of the body is manifest even to one not looking."
Moreover, a girdle or sash is common and customary among the Palestinians and other Eastern peoples, who use tunics instead of trousers and breastplates. For they bind and gird the loose, flowing tunic tight to the body with a sash, and therefore they were accustomed to embroider the sash — as a conspicuous ornamental band for the tunic — with needle-work, weaving into it lilies, flowers, and similar figures, partly in gold, partly in silver, partly in purple and fine linen. Hence Homer, describing the sash of Venus: "She loosed," he says, "from her breast a woven, embroidered sash." And soon after: And around your bosom gird the sash Woven with many colors. Hence a sash was called a balteus, as though bullateus; for a balteus was a girdle of leather adorned with bosses of gold, fine linen, purple, gems, etc. Hence Livy: "They had," he says, "gilded scabbards and gilded belts." And Virgil, Aeneid V: The other had an Amazonian quiver full of Thracian arrows, Which a belt clasps around with broad gold, And a buckle fastens with a polished gem.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: This virago by every art and means increased her own wealth and that of her family. Hence she sold the precious linens woven by herself and her household, each piece skillfully embroidered and elaborated with the needle, and delivered them for sale to the Canaanite, that is, to the merchant, and from this made great profits. For the Canaanites, because they lived near the sea, were especially devoted to trade. Hence in Scripture "Canaanite" is the same as "merchant," as is clear from Zechariah 14:21 and Isaiah 23:8, where the Hebrew for "merchant" is Canaanite. The same is clear from Tyre and the Tyrians, who were most addicted to trade and navigation for profit. For Tyre was the commercial center of Canaan, the capital of Phoenicia. So the Chaldean, Rabbi Solomon, Aben-Ezra, Rabbi Levi, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others generally. A notable example was again given by Blessed Nonna, mother of Saint Gregory Nazianzus, who fulfilled all the marks of the industrious woman. Of her Nazianzus writes in Oration 19: "Now while some women excel in the praise of increasing the family estate, and others in the glory of piety (for to achieve both is difficult), she surpassed all women in both respects — both in that she carried each to the highest point, and in that she alone embraced these two together. For she increased the household estate by her industry and skill, according to the laws laid down by Solomon for the strong woman, as if she knew nothing of cultivating piety; and again she devoted herself to God and divine things as if she were far removed from the management of domestic affairs. And neither was she hindered by the one from fulfilling the other; rather, she supported and confirmed each by the aid of the other."
The Armenian version in Abagar has: she made a girdle for her soul, and a sash or girdle for herself — as if to say: She made a girdle for both her spouse and herself, to signify that they were bound together by the mutual bond of marriage and conjugal love. The words of her spouse I shall cite shortly. Conversely, so that the order of words corresponds on both sides, by "strength" one might understand the byssus of the ancients, which was so strong that it resisted fire and remained unharmed in it like asbestos, as I said at Exodus 25:4; and by "beauty," purple, for this is marvelously beautiful.
Moreover, the Blessed Virgin "made fine linen and sold it" when by example and word she taught married women to submit to their husbands, to obey them, and to comply with them in all things. For the symbol of this is the sindon — namely, the linen veil that women wear on their heads — according to the Apostle's words: "A woman ought to have a covering, or authority, upon her head" (1 Corinthians 11:10), for this veil is the symbol that she is subject to the authority of her husband. See what was said there. For the Blessed Virgin submitted and obeyed Joseph most humbly, as Saint Ambrose teaches in his commentary on Luke chapter 1. Again, and more fittingly, the sindon is a symbol of purity and virginity, which she sells to virgins at the price of humility, abstinence, and prayers; for she is the standard-bearer of virgins and the patroness of virginity. The girdle, because it binds tight the loins where lust and concupiscence have their origin, is a symbol of mortification and penance; which the Blessed Virgin delivers to those who have fallen into lust and incontinence, so that they may exchange these for chastity and continence, and thus become Canaanites — that is, exchangers and traders — who trade one merchandise for another: concupiscence for penance, lust for continence.
Verse 25: Strength and Beauty Are Her Clothing
The Septuagint: she put on strength and dignity, and she will rejoice in the last days. The Syriac: she will exult on the last day. For "beauty" the Hebrew is hadar, meaning honor, beauty, propriety, loveliness, splendor, magnificence. The Septuagint translates: euprepeia, that is, beauty, comeliness, dignity, adornment. Saint Ambrose and Saint Augustine, to be cited shortly, understand by "strength" purple — for this is strong; and by "beauty" fine linen — for this is beautiful; so that the same is said here as in verse 22: "Fine linen and purple are her clothing." Conversely, so that the order of words corresponds on both sides, by "strength" one might understand the byssus of the ancients, which was so strong that it resisted fire and remained unharmed in it like asbestos, as I said at Exodus 25:4; and by "beauty," purple, for this is marvelously beautiful.
The interpreters explain this verse in three ways. First, some understand "strength" as internal and "beauty" as external; second, others understand both as internal; third, others understand both as external. First, then, Lyranus: "Strength," he says, "is constancy of mind; beauty is outward modesty and dignity." And Cajetan: "Strength," he says, "is the habit of fortitude, which holds the mean between rashness and timidity, and which clothes the mind of the virago, so that she appears outwardly in her actions brave, spirited, and fearless."
Thus Saint Cecilia ennobled her spouse Saint Valerian by making him a Christian, a saint, and an illustrious martyr. Thus Saint Clotilde ennobled Clovis, the first Christian king of the Franks, and Saint Pulcheria ennobled her brother Theodosius and her husband the Emperor Marcian, when they made them worshipers of God and pious men, and therefore victors over their enemies, powerful and glorious.
Allegorically, Saint Gregory, Book XXXIII of the Morals, chapter 16: "What," he says, "is signified by the linen of the sindon, if not the subtle weaving of holy preaching? — in which one rests gently, because the mind of the faithful is refreshed in it by heavenly hope. Hence animals were shown to Peter in a linen sheet, because the souls of sinners, mercifully gathered together, are held in the gentle rest of faith. The Church, therefore, made this sindon and sold it, because the faith she had woven by believing, she gave by speaking, and from unbelievers she received the way of life of a converted people. She also delivered a girdle to the Canaanite, because through the vigor of demonstrated righteousness she bound tight the loose works of paganism, so that what is commanded may be held by living it. 'Let your loins be girded.' By seeking, therefore, the Lord finds His preachers as handmaids; by exchanging, He makes them friends; by enriching them, He presents them as merchants." These words Bede and Salonius transcribed from Saint Gregory verbatim, according to their custom.
Moreover, the Blessed Virgin made fine linen and sold it when by example and word she taught married women to submit to their husbands, to obey them, and to comply with them in all things. For the symbol of this is the sindon — namely, the linen veil that women wear on their heads — according to the Apostle's words: "A woman ought to have a covering, or authority, upon her head" (1 Corinthians 11:10), for this veil is the symbol that she is subject to the authority of her husband. See what was said there. For the Blessed Virgin submitted and obeyed Joseph most humbly, as Saint Ambrose teaches in his commentary on Luke chapter 1. Again, and more fittingly, the sindon is a symbol of purity and virginity, which she sells to virgins at the price of humility, abstinence, and prayers; for she is the standard-bearer of virgins and the patroness of virginity. The girdle, because it binds tight the loins where lust and concupiscence have their origin, is a symbol of mortification and penance — which the Blessed Virgin delivers to those who have fallen into lust and incontinence, so that they may exchange these for chastity and continence, and thus become Canaanites, that is, exchangers and traders, who trade one merchandise for another: concupiscence for penance, lust for continence.
The interpreters explain this verse in three ways. First, some understand "strength" as internal and "beauty" as external; second, others understand both as internal; third, others understand both as external. First, then, Lyranus: "Strength," he says, "is constancy of mind; beauty is outward modesty and dignity." And Cajetan: "Strength," he says, "is the habit of fortitude, which holds the mean between rashness and timidity, which clothes the mind of the virago, so that she appears outwardly in her actions brave, spirited, and fearless." old age, with the ever-growing virtues of the soul her joy increases, and the gladness of a secure conscience. Little women who spend the flower of their age in pleasures, and delight in the curious adornment of the body, and please themselves with their beauty — when by the injury of time the flower of their age has withered, when their wrinkled face will not shine with any antimony or rouge, when they begin to be despised as old women; as their strength and beauty fail together they grieve, wretched now, destitute of the endowments both of body and soul: whereas the wise woman rejoices especially when the last day draws near, on which she knows she will receive the rewards of her labors.
This exposition is supported by the fact that in the Vatican Septuagint before this verse there is prefixed: "She opened her mouth attentively and lawfully, and set order upon her tongue," and there is subjoined: "She opened her mouth wisely and in conformity with the laws." These appear to be two interpretations of one and the same sentence. For in place of both, the Hebrew, the Vulgate, and the Complutensian Septuagint have only this one, which immediately follows: She opened her mouth to wisdom, and the law of clemency is on her tongue, that is, This strong and manly woman is equally graceful and agreeable both in acting and in speaking, and thus appears clothed with fortitude and beauty: for she speaks wisely, and therefore firmly and boldly; and mercifully, and therefore gracefully and pleasantly.
The Author of the Greek Catena also supports this, who joining this verse to the following one reads from the Septuagint thus: "She put on fortitude and beauty, and will be joyful and glad in the last days. She opens her mouth cautiously and in agreement with the law, and set order and measure upon her tongue;" and then explains it thus: "He seems in this place to expound the manly deeds of wisdom. For first she opens her mouth prudently and elegantly. Then she sets a fair and handsome order upon her tongue. Hence in works of mercy and other honorable actions she shows herself strong and manly. From which it follows at last that in the last days, when indeed she shall depart hence full of good works, she shall rejoice. For then her good and honorable actions will be made manifest and magnified before all, and will be rewarded with many and great prizes."
Learn here that modesty is the garment and purple of the virtues. For it proceeds and flows from the inner disposition of a soul endowed with virtues, and adorns it and displays it to others; and this is the garment of this woman of valor, which he describes by periphrasis, saying: "Fortitude and beauty are her clothing;" for manly modesty and gravity shining forth in all her gestures, words, and actions with grace and beauty, is her garment and most beautiful robe. Which therefore Tertullian, proposing for women to imitate and put on, in his book On the Apparel of Women, says: "It is not enough for Christian modesty and propriety merely to be, but also to appear so; for so great ought its fullness to be that it overflows from the soul into the outward bearing, and bursts forth from the conscience to the surface, so that it may be seen outwardly as its own furnishing." preserving the propriety and authority of modesty: for she bears before herself a becoming gravity, that is, This woman of valor is clothed inwardly with the virtue of fortitude, outwardly with becoming gravity. R. Levi adds: She put on, he says, garments of fortitude and beauty, because she restrains the desires of the body with strong continence, and orders her conduct beautifully and nobly, because she has entered upon the paths of the holy law.
Secondly, others by fortitude and beauty understand every virtue and probity of mind; for virtue (virtus) is named from strength (vis) and man (vir), whose property is manliness and fortitude, being, as it were, the action and work of a strong and vigorous man. Hence Cicero, Tusculan Disputations II, teaches that virtue properly signifies manly fortitude. "Virtue (virtus), he says, was named from man (vir); but the property most proper to a man is fortitude;" and in book V On the Ends: "Virtue, he says, is that power by which the thing whose virtue it is, is perfected;" and to Plancus, book X: "You have attained all the highest things with virtue as your guide and fortune as your companion;" and Virgil, book V of the Aeneid: Then shame kindled their strength, and conscious virtue.
The meaning therefore is, that is, This woman of valor did not put on fine linen, but sold it, because it was not fitting for her to be clothed in so delicate a garment, nor does she delight in outward adornment and the splendor of garments; but she seeks the inner clothing of manly and strong virtues, and by this adorns and clothes herself far more beautifully; for through this she becomes manly, so that she now seems to be not so much a woman as a woman of valor, indeed a man, according to what St. Peter admonishes and decrees, I Epistle, chapter III: "Whose adorning let it not be the outward plaiting of the hair, or the wearing of gold, or the putting on of garments; but the hidden man of the heart, in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is rich in the sight of God." St. Chrysostom teaches the same on Psalm XXIV, where he adds that women, even if they are ugly, can acquire for themselves this form and beauty of the virtues, and increase it immensely, whereas they often cannot increase outward beauty; moreover that outward adornment comes at great expense, but inward adornment is obtained by the will alone.
Thirdly, others better understand fortitude and beauty as outward, but flowing from the inward, that is, This woman of valor does not care for fine linens and costly garments, but clothes herself gravely, modestly and honestly, as befits a strong and manly woman: wherefore in all her gestures and actions there shines forth fortitude, that is, gravity, maturity, strength and vigor of a manly soul, and beauty, that is, the honesty, gracefulness and grace of her character; just as if her clothing were fortitude and beauty itself, says Aben-Ezra, which indicate and display the inner fortitude of the soul and the beauty of her virtues. Therefore she does not revel in bodily adornment, as other women who love the world; but she adorns herself with virtues, namely with fortitude and honesty, and rejoices to be adorned with the beauty of her whole life, more than with costly garments. And from this it comes, says Baynus, that she is always joyful, indeed, the longer she lives, even to the utmost
He then adds: "Come forth now, you who are equipped with the cosmetics and ornaments of the Apostles, taking whiteness from simplicity, redness from modesty, your eyes painted with bashfulness and your mouth with silence, inserting in your ears the words of God, fastening upon your necks the yoke of Christ; submit your heads to your husbands, and you will be sufficiently adorned; occupy your hands with wool, fix your feet at home, and they will please more than gold; clothe yourselves in the silk of probity, the linen of holiness, the purple of chastity: thus adorned, you will have God as your lover."
Allegorically, St. Gregory on Penitential Psalm IV says: The Church, he says, and the faithful soul is clothed with fortitude, so as to resist temptations; and with beauty, that is, the splendor of justice, so as to shine forth by works of justice. Again, fortitude designates a persevering mind, by which one fights against oneself; and beauty the luster of purity, by which one adorns oneself. Moreover, fortitude and beauty are said to be equal parts of one and the same garment: because he who forgets perseverance in self-denial is by no means adorned with the beauty of perfect virtue. Indeed, when a man who previously denied and mortified himself ceases from the practice of self-denial, he gradually declines from purity to impurity, and from great perfection to great imperfections. And he is like the statue seen in a dream by that proud king, which began in gold and ended in clay, Daniel II.
St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters, and more fully St. Ambrose on chapter XXXI of Proverbs, at the end of volume II, chapter X, says: "She put on fortitude and honor, honor as fine linen, fortitude as purple: because the strong woman rejoices in suffering, because she is honorable: Beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace. And she rejoiced in the last days. She rejoices in the last days, because in this world she is continually afflicted. Wherefore it is beautifully written: Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted, Matthew V. And the Lord said to His disciples: In the world you will have tribulation, John XVI; and: Your sorrow will be turned into joy, ibid. Without tribulation, whence would she have the purple garment? Hence to the Prophet who asks: Why are Your garments red, and Your apparel like that of one who treads the winepress? He answers: I have trodden the winepress alone," etc., Isaiah LXIII.
More fully Bede, and from him the Gloss says: "Fortitude, he says, to endure the wickedness of the perverse; beauty to exercise the grace of the virtues. Beauty, because she works justice; fortitude, because she suffers persecution for the sake of justice: and therefore she will laugh on the last day, that is, she will rejoice in the recompense of the heavenly kingdom, she who was sorrowful in the struggle of the present life. For it is the manner of Scripture to use laughter for joy, as also the Lord says: Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh, Luke VI. And blessed Job says: The mouth of the truthful shall be filled with laughter, Job VIII. A similar sentence indeed the Prophet set down concerning the Lord and Savior of this most valiant woman, saying: The Lord has reigned, He has put on beauty, the Lord has put on fortitude, Psalm XCII. For when He was preaching the Gospel of the kingdom, some were pleased, others displeased; some spoke well, others detracted, tore apart, bit, reviled. To those therefore to whom He was pleasing, He put on beauty: to those to whom He was displeasing, fortitude. Imitate therefore you also your Lord, so that you may be His garment; be with beauty toward those to whom your good works are pleasing, be strong against detractors."
Moreover all these things, and individually the three senses given at the beginning, it is easy to assign to the Blessed Virgin. For she, according to the first, excelled in the greatest constancy and fortitude of mind; inwardly and outwardly with equal modesty and grace in all her nods, actions, words, and gestures, according to that of Psalm XLIV: "All the glory of the king's daughter is from within, clothed about with golden fringes in variety." Secondly, according to the second, she excelled in every virtue and probity: for she had all virtues in heroic act, as befitted the Mother of God; see what was said at chapter VIII, 14, on those words: "Mine is fortitude." Thirdly, according to the third, the very appearance of her body was the image of her mind, the figure of her probity. "For a good house ought to be recognized from the very vestibule," says St. Ambrose, book II On Virginity.
Hear St. Bonaventure in the Mirror of the Blessed Virgin, lesson 2, from St. Bernard: "The visible enemies, he says, do not so fear the copious multitude of armies, as the powers of darkness fear the name of Mary, her patronage, her example; they melt and perish like wax before the fire, wherever they find frequent remembrance of this name, devout invocation, and zealous imitation." And St. Bernard, sermon 51, article 3, chapter II: "As a great fire drives away flies, so from the most ardent mind and most inflamed charity of the Virgin, demons were put to flight and driven away to such a degree that they did not dare even in the smallest measure to look upon her mind, nor to approach her from any great distance." And Richard of St. Victor, chapter XXVI on the Canticle: "The Virgin, he says, was terrible to the princes of darkness, so that they did not presume to approach her or to tempt her; for the flame of her charity deterred them, her prayers set them on fire, and the fervor of her devotion: they were astonished at one immune from sins."
AND SHE SHALL LAUGH ON THE LAST DAY. — First, some by the last day understand the Sabbath, that is, This woman of valor works strenuously through all the days of the week: whence on the last, namely on the Sabbath, according to the law she rests, and enjoys the profits gained, laughing and rejoicing.
Secondly, others understand winter, that is, She works in summer, whence she rests in winter, and like the ant lives sumptuously on the provisions prepared in summer. But these interpretations are cold.
Thirdly, better, Baynus, Jansenius and others by the last day understand the following age, and later times: for the Hebrew acharon, that is, last, signifies the following, future, and later time.
Fourthly, properly and precisely by the last day you may understand old age and the last times of life, that is, Lazy women, who in youth snored in idleness, are in need and grieve in old age. But this woman of valor, because she labored strenuously in youth, hence in old age abounds in wealth, and therefore laughs and exults. Finally, by the last day you may understand death, that is, This woman of valor has worked uprightly and strenuously at every good thing throughout her whole life: wherefore in death, with a good conscience and hoping for heavenly rewards, she will not be sad, but will laugh and exult, and will sing with St. Simeon and with St. Mary of Egypt that swan song: "Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace."
A literal example is found in St. Sabina, who was the companion of St. Pionius (as his ancient acts relate, which Baronius approves) in martyrdom, on the first day of February. For when Pionius said to the prefects: "Would that I could persuade you to become Christians!" they said with unrestrained laughter: But do not do that, lest we be burned alive. It is more grave and bitter, said Pionius, to be burned with eternal fire after death. And when Sabina was smiling, the temple keeper and his guards said: Are you laughing? So it pleases God, she said: for we are Christians: and those whose faith in Christ is firm and constant will laugh with perpetual laughter; and when they threatened her with a brothel, she replied: The holy God will take care of that.
St. Mechtild at death was three times assailed by demons, and three times wept; but three times defended by the holy Angels she three times laughed, and laughing and exulting like a victress and triumphatrix she gave her spirit back to God, as Engelhard testifies in her Life. So St. Gorgonia, as her brother St. Gregory Nazianzen testifies, oration 11, fell peacefully and joyfully asleep in the Lord, exulting: "In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and take my rest."
St. Gertrude near death saw in a vision that she was received into the bosom of Christ, and applied to His heart, and then in turn the holy Angels, Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Virgins approached, and each communicated to her their own gifts and graces in which they had excelled; and when she was surrounded and penetrated by these to her very marrow, Christ made her so like to Himself, as iron made white-hot becomes like fire. So her Life records, book IV, chapter XXXIV. How great therefore was her joy then, how great her laughter and jubilation!
St. Tharsilla, the aunt of St. Gregory, when dying saw St. Felix the Pontiff, her ancestor, who "showed her a dwelling of perpetual brightness, saying: Come, for in this dwelling of light I receive you;" and she, soon seized by a fever, reached her final day. When suddenly looking upward she saw Jesus coming, and with great earnestness began to cry out to those standing around, saying: Withdraw, withdraw, Jesus is coming. And as she gazed upon Him whom she saw, that holy soul departed from the body; and so great a fragrance of a wonderful odor was suddenly spread about, that the very sweetness showed to all that the Author of sweetness had come there," says St. Gregory, book IV of the Dialogues, chapter XVII. He records similar things in the same book I, chapter XIII, concerning Galla, the daughter of the consul Symmachus, and chapter XV concerning Romula, at whose death "two choirs of singers stood before her cell: the men sang the psalm melodies, and the women responded; and so that holy soul was released from the flesh, and as it was led to heaven, the higher the choirs of singers ascended, the more softly the psalmody began to be heard, until both the sound of the psalmody and the sweetness of the odor faded away in the distance," says St. Gregory.
St. Mary of Oignies when dying laughed, and exulting mocked death; for, as the eyewitness Cardinal Jacques de Vitry writes, book II of her Life, chapter XIII: "Smiling for the longest time with joy, she sang in a low voice: How beautiful You are, our King and Lord! After she had persisted for a long time in that joy, singing, laughing, and from time to time clapping her hands, at last coming to herself she said: I would tell wonderful things, if I dared." And below: "She sang Alleluia in a sweet voice; and nearly the whole of that night she was as one invited to a banquet, in jubilation and exultation; and shortly after, again singing Alleluia, on the vigil of St. John the Baptist (on which St. John the Evangelist is also believed to have departed from this world), around the ninth hour, at which Christ on the cross gave up His spirit to the Father, she also departed to the Lord, never losing the cheerfulness of her angelic countenance through any pain of death, in the year of the Lord 1213, at the age of 36." These are from the Cardinal's fuller account, from which I have excerpted a few things.
Much more did the Blessed Virgin in death, when she saw her Christ and was called by Him: "Come, my chosen one," depart joyfully and laughing from the body, and go to the Lord, as St. Ildefonsus says, sermon 3 On the Assumption; indeed weighty authors judge that she breathed forth her soul from excessive desire to see Christ, and from love and joy. Whence St. Damascene in oration 1 On the Dormition of the Virgin exclaims: "O miracle truly surpassing nature! O thing full of the highest admiration! Death, which was formerly an object of hatred and execration, is here commended and considered blessed: what formerly brought mourning and sorrow, tears and sadness, is now the cause of joy and glad celebration." And shortly after: "Wherefore, he says, death did not make you blessed, but you yourself adorned death, in that you took away its sadness, and made death to be full of joy." And in oration 2 on the same dormition he writes thus: "For as she gave birth before she was afflicted with any pain of childbirth, so also her departure from life was free from pain." Whence he concludes: "And therefore we shall by no means call your sacred departure death, but a sleep or a pilgrimage, or, to use a more fitting word, a presence with the Lord." The same is confirmed from the revelation of the Mother of God Herself made to St. Bridget, book VI of Revelations, chapter LXII: "I prepared, says the Mother of God, myself for the departure, going around all the places according to my custom, in which my Son had suffered; and when one day my soul was suspended in admiration of divine charity, then my soul in that very contemplation was filled with such exultation that it could scarcely contain itself, and in that very meditation my soul was released from the body."
Verse 26: She Opened Her Mouth to Wisdom
In the Hebrew, she opened her mouth in wisdom, and the law of piety is upon her tongue; the Chaldean and Theodotion, and the law of grace is on her tongue; the Vatican Septuagint, she opened her mouth attentively and lawfully, and set order upon her tongue: but the Complutensian, she opened her mouth wisely and legally: and her almsgiving is on her tongue; Vatablus, she speaks wisely, and is gracious. For clemency the Hebrew has chesed, that is, piety, grace, charity, benevolence, beneficence, gratitude, goodness, holiness.
He explains here what he said in the previous verse: "Fortitude and beauty are her clothing," namely that the gravity and becoming modesty of this woman of valor shines forth especially in her wise and merciful words. For women, because they are idle and curious, tend to be talkative and garrulous; and because they are of little brain compared to men, and are driven by passions, hence they blurt out and exclaim many things imprudently, sarcastically and impudently. This woman of valor does otherwise, for she has tamed and disciplined her mind as well as her tongue with wisdom and piety: with wisdom, so that she says nothing foolish; with piety, so that she says nothing injurious or harmful.
The word opened indicates that she keeps her mouth closed and sealed with silence, which she opens for nothing except with the key of wisdom. Again, the phrase opened to wisdom implies that wisdom dwells in her heart, and as it were animates, moves, governs and drives it, so that it seems that not so much the woman of valor as wisdom itself speaks through her mouth, and works through her hands. Thus St. Mechtild so rightly "kept silence that you would have thought her mute: but if she spoke, she did it with such grace that you would think you were conversing with an angel," says Engelhard in her Life, chapter V.
So St. Gertrude, pious and holy, gave to anyone counsels of salvation, and thus it seemed that not so much she herself as the Holy Spirit spoke through her mouth and tongue. Wherefore all hastened to her as to a heavenly oracle, and whenever anyone came and requested her help or counsel, before he could even state what matter he was requesting it for, the Holy Spirit suggested to her what she should reply, what counsel she should give and say. So her Life records. We read similar things about St. Catherine of Siena, whose words were so efficacious and ardent that no sinner could resist them, and no one departed from her without being made better.
Note that clemency is joined to wisdom, as effect to cause; for true wisdom moves a person to clemency and beneficence, that is, This woman of valor speaks wisely, and therefore mercifully; for wisdom for wisdom teaches her clemency and mercy, as being the virtue and endowment proper to God, and which makes men divine, and as it were gods, according to that saying of Nazianzen, oration 46: "Be a god to the afflicted."
This law of wisdom and clemency St. Jerome, or rather St. Paulinus, impresses upon Celantia the matron: "Let speech, he says, in all things be moderate and sparing, and such as to indicate the necessity rather than the desire of speaking. Let modesty adorn prudence: and what has always been preeminent in women, let modesty surpass all other virtues in you. But consider for a long time what should be said, lest you repent of having said something; let thought weigh your words, and let the balance of the mind regulate the function of the tongue. Whence Scripture says: Smelt your gold and silver, and make a balance for your words, and straight bridles for your mouth, and take heed lest you slip with your tongue," Sirach XXVIII, 29.
Then concerning the law of clemency he immediately adds: "Let no evil word proceed from your mouth, you who are commanded even to bless those who curse you, as the crown of benevolence. Be merciful, he says, modest, humble, not rendering evil for evil, nor curse for curse, but on the contrary blessing, I Peter III, 8. Let your tongue be utterly ignorant of lying and swearing, and let there be so great a love of truth in you, that whatever you have said, you consider it as sworn." And at last he concludes: "In every act therefore, and in every word, let a quiet and peaceful mind be maintained; and let the presence of God always come to your thoughts: let the mind be humble and gentle, and raised up against vices alone."
St. Monica, the mother of St. Augustine, had eminently learned this law of clemency, and by means of it she tamed the anger and wrath of her husband, and from a lion made a lamb, indeed from a pagan a Christian: moreover she taught the same law to other matrons, who following her teaching lived a happy life with their husbands in continual peace and love, as St. Augustine relates, book IX of the Confessions, chapter XXIX.
But above all matrons, men and angels, the Blessed Virgin kept and taught this law of wisdom and clemency, and still keeps and teaches it, who, as St. Ambrose says, in his book On Virginity: "She was humble of heart, grave in speech, prudent in mind, more sparing of speaking, more eager for reading." And St. Damascene, oration 1 On the Nativity: "Her speech, he says, was pleasant, proceeding from a gentle soul." And St. Bonaventure in the Mirror, chapter VIII: "Mary, he says, was most gentle in mildness, most patient against every adversity." Innumerable examples of her clemency toward sinners and the afflicted exist. Wherefore the Church in the hymn Hail Holy Queen thus greets and invokes her: "O merciful, O pious, O sweet Virgin Mary!" And in the hymn Hail Star of the Sea: "Singular Virgin, gentle above all, make us, freed from sins, gentle and chaste." And St. Bernard, in his sermon on that passage of Apocalypse XII: A great sign: "Nothing, he says, is austere in her, nothing terrible, she is entirely sweet, offering milk and wool." And presently: "Because if (as truly they are) you find all things pertaining to her more full of piety and grace, full of gentleness and mercy; give thanks to Him who provided such a mediatrix for you by His most kind compassion. St. Ildefonsus gives the reason, sermon 1 On the Assumption: "The Holy Spirit, he says, heated, made glow, and set ablaze the whole of Blessed Mary, as fire does iron, so that in her the flame of the Holy Spirit is seen, and nothing is felt except the fire of the love of God." For what does so great a love breathe forth except what is lovable, gentle, merciful? For just as light cannot be taken from the sun, so that it does not shine; nor heat from fire, so that it does not burn; so neither can clemency be taken from the Virgin Mother of God, so that she would not be merciful and pious, because she received innately, inviolably, and eternally together with the dignity of the Mother of God, the law of clemency by divine gift. This is said to be on her tongue, because in her continual supplications poured forth to God her Son, she demonstrates this admirable and maternal piety. Wherefore she herself invites all to her: "Come over to me, she says, all you who desire me, and be filled with my fruits; for my spirit is sweeter than honey, and my inheritance above honey and the honeycomb," Sirach XXIV, 26. See what was said there.
Allegorically, Bede attributes these things to the Church and the holy soul: "She opened her mouth to wisdom," he says, that is, "She opened her mouth for speaking only in order to teach wisdom, according to the Apostle: Let no evil speech proceed from your mouth; but if any good, for the edification of faith, that it may give grace to the hearers, Ephesians IV. Or certainly she opened the mouth of the heart to learn from wisdom itself the truth inwardly, which she might teach others outwardly. Both senses, because the Church did both, are aptly matched by what follows: And the law of clemency is on her tongue; namely, so that she would not immediately punish sinners after the manner of the Mosaic law, but mercifully call them to the remedies of penance. The example of this clemency she manifestly received from God Himself and our Savior, when the sinful woman was brought before Him: If anyone, He said, is without sin, let him be the first to cast a stone at her. And so He mercifully absolved her from the crime she had committed, on the condition of sinning no more."
Verse 27: She Has Considered the Paths of Her House
In the Hebrew, watching the ways of her house, and the bread of laziness she has not eaten; the Chaldean, the ways of her house are manifest; the Complutensian Septuagint, the ways of her house are narrow, and she has not eaten food in idleness; but the Vatican thus, the dwellings of her houses are closed (in Greek stegnai, that is, tight, shut off, enclosed, firm, solid), and the bread of the lazy she has not eaten; Symmachus, she considers the paths of her house; clearly Vatablus, she watches over the state of her house, and has not eaten the bread of disgrace (the Greek Scholiast, the bread of negligence; the Chaldean, the bread of laziness); R. Solomon, she observes diligently what things are needed for her household.
For considered the Hebrew has tsophia, that is, she has watched, looked through, uncovered, surveyed with open eyes. Hence tsophe is a watchman (thence the homeland of Samuel is called Ramathaim Sophim, that is, of the watchmen); mitspe is a watchtower: hence Mizpah was the name given to the city of the Levites, situated on a mountain as the watchtower of Israel. Moreover the root tsapha has a contrary signification: for as it commonly means to open by watching, so it also sometimes means to cover, close and conceal with applied plates, as is clear from Exodus XXXVI, 34. Hence the Septuagint translates: The ways of her house are closed or narrow and tight.
Here is noted the proper endowment and principal duty of the mother of a household, which is to watch, and as from a watchtower to survey and inspect the whole house and all the household, and to ward off from them slothfulness and everything harmful, and to promote diligence and everything good; for by the paths of the house understand both the doors, rooms, corners of the house: for she inspects all these, and watches and keeps guard lest anything harmful be brought into the house without her knowledge, or anything be carried off by theft; and the ways, that is, the actions of the household members, by metonymy, that is, This mother of the household takes diligent care of her house and family, watches, surveys and observes the actions and conduct of her household members — what, of what quality, and how much they do, whether they grow sluggish in idleness, whether they give themselves to quarrels, drunkenness, or lust; wherefore to properly exclude these things, she urges all to work and labor both by word, and even more by going before them with her example: thus "she has not eaten the bread of idleness (in Hebrew, the bread of carelessness or negligence);" but she sparingly takes bread seasoned and earned by many cares and labors, and distributes it to be eaten by others who labor. For to the lazy and idle she threatens that word of the Apostle: "He who does not work, let him not eat." The woman of valor therefore prudently punishes idleness and the idle with hunger; for hunger compels them to work. Famous among the Romans was that saying of Appius Claudius: "Work suits the Roman people better than leisure;" the same may be said to any of the faithful.
The a priori reason is that the care of the house properly falls upon the wife, as external business upon the husband, as I said at verse 21. This is what Aristotle says, book I On Household Management, chapter III: "Divine providence ordained the nature of each, namely of the man and of the woman, for society. For it made the one strong, the other weaker: the latter indeed more cautious from fear, the former more combative from fortitude; and the latter indeed to supply from outside what is necessary; the former to preserve the same within." More nobly St. Jerome, or rather St. Paulinus, instructs Celantia thus: "Govern and cherish your household so that you wish to seem more a mother to your people than a mistress, from whom demand respect by kindness rather than by severity. The service that comes from love is always more faithful and more welcome than that which comes from fear. But especially in venerable and immaculate marriage let the order of the Apostolic rule be maintained. Let the husband's authority be preserved above all, and let your whole house learn from you how much honor it owes him. By your obedience make him lord; by your humility make him great- the more you honor him, the more honor you yourself will gain. For the head, as the Apostle says, of the woman is the man, and a pious body is nowhere more adorned than from the dignity of the head."
Allegorically, let every Prelate diligently consider the Church, or the congregation committed to him. For upon consideration depends every good, upon lack of consideration every evil both of the Prelate and of the Church, as St. Bernard graphically teaches in the five books which he wrote splendidly On Consideration to Pope Eugene, where among other things, book I, near the end, he says thus: "And first indeed consideration purifies its own source, that is, the mind from which it arises; then it governs the affections, directs actions, corrects excesses, orders conduct, adorns and arranges life; lastly it confers the knowledge equally of divine and human things. This is what distinguishes confused things, compresses what gapes open, gathers what is scattered, searches out secrets, tracks down truth, examines probabilities, and exposes what is feigned and false. This is what preordains what is to be done; reconsiders what has been done, so that nothing remains in the mind either uncorrected, or needing correction. This is what in prosperity foresees adversity, in adversity as it were does not feel it: of which the one belongs to fortitude, the other to prudence." He then adds that all virtues depend upon it: "There also you may notice a most sweet harmony and interconnection of the virtues, and that one depends upon another; just as in this place you see that prudence is the mother of fortitude, and that any daring which prudence has not given birth to is not fortitude, but rashness. This also is that which, sitting as a kind of arbiter between pleasures and necessities, marks off the boundaries of each with fixed limits, assigning and granting to the latter what is enough, and taking away from the former what is too much, and thus from each forming a third virtue, which they call temperance. For consideration judges that he is intemperate who stubbornly takes away necessities just as much as he who indulges in superfluities. Temperance therefore does not consist solely in cutting off superfluities, but also in admitting necessities."
Tropologically St. Gregory, book XXXV of the Moralia, chapter XV, whose words Bede transcribes according to custom, and adds much more, by this consideration of the paths, that is, of actions, understands the examination of conscience, which is most useful for the purification and progress of the soul: "She considers, he says, the paths of her house, because she carefully investigates all the thoughts of her conscience. She has not eaten the bread of idleness, because what she had grasped by understanding from the sacred word, she shows by exhibiting it in works before the eyes of the eternal Judge. Likewise the house of the strong woman is the dwelling of the heavenly homeland. The paths of that house are the precepts of justice, by which one arrives at the mansion of eternal life. These paths indeed the soul considers well, when she both diligently examines by what actions she must arrive at the things above, and does not cease to carry out zealously what she has learned must be done." He continues then what follows, and explains each point individually: "She has not eaten the bread of idleness, when receiving the sacrifice of the Lord's body she strives to imitate in deed what she celebrates in the mystery, very anxious lest by eating the bread of the Lord unworthily, and drinking the chalice, she should eat and drink judgment to herself, but rather by suffering for Christ, and by shedding tears, and also by persisting in good works, she follows the examples of His sufferings as much as she can."
Apply these things to the Blessed Virgin, whose life was severe and rigorous in fasting, prayers, tears, persecutions, sorrows, and sufferings. Whence St. Bernard in his Meditations on the Hail Holy Queen: "O truly lovable life, he says, desirable life, delightful life! O life that nourishes your own with heavenly food! For whoever wishes to have you, let him afflict himself, reject delicacies, despise all that is dainty; and whoever has been more mortified will possess you more fully."
To this purpose is what St. Bridget relates, that the Blessed Virgin revealed to her that she had received no grace from God except through prior great labor, prayers and tears. And therefore she exhorts both herself and all the faithful to procure for themselves the gifts of grace by the same means; for there is no other way to grace than mortification and the cross.
Moreover the Septuagint translates, the dwellings of her house are tight-shut, that is, This woman of valor closes and shuts the granary, pantry, cupboard, etc., and keeps their key herself, so as to guard the provisions and furnishings, lest access to them be open either to thieves or to household members who would carry them off and squander them.
Morally, a diligent Prelate and Prince tightens discipline, and insists that all laws and ordinances be strictly observed, and thus causes the commonwealth to flourish: for "where there is rigor, there is vigor;" but the slothful one relaxes discipline and laws, and thus ruins the commonwealth. Emperor Charles V, upon entering any city, was accustomed to judge from three P's whether good government flourished in it, and whether the regime was good; for he considered whether there was a diligent pastor, praetor, and preceptor in it; for a diligent pastor severely maintains the discipline of the Church, a praetor that of the commonwealth, a preceptor that of the school, so that youth may be properly instructed and formed. And our Holy Father Ignatius judged from three things whether religion flourished in any monastery or college, namely he considered whether enclosure, cleanliness, and silence were exactly observed in it; for he said these three were certain signs of good discipline.
Symbolically the Author of the Greek Catena, applying these things to the Blessed Virgin, by her narrow or tight paths understands her virginity, and the virginal birth from a closed womb.
St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters, translates constrictae as: "The practices of her house are severe, and she has not eaten the food of the lazy: severe, I say, strong, strict; there is nowhere for laxity, she loves no dissolution; and she has deservedly acquired so much, because she has not eaten the food of the lazy," that is, This woman of valor severely maintains the order and discipline of her house, and therefore accustoms all not to soft leisure but to strict labor, and she herself goes before them by her example; wherefore she eats bread not lazily obtained, but worked for and earned by sweat. "This woman therefore," says St. Ambrose on this passage of Proverbs, "is laborious, watchful, solicitous, rising by night, anxious lest the lamp be extinguished, strong in tribulation, patient when promises have not yet been received, forming her fingers at the spindle, not eating the bread of the lazy; but after these labors what shall be hers? Her children arose, and were made rich. The Apostle said, I Corinthians XV: It is sown in dishonor, it shall rise in glory. Then her children shall be enriched; prepare therefore to receive the riches (the glorious endowments of the members) of the resurrection." Thus he reads from the Septuagint and thus he explains.
Verse 28: Her Children Rose Up, and Called Her Most Blessed
The Chaldean, they gave her blessedness. The Hebrew aschar in the piel form means both to bless or to proclaim blessed, and to enrich; for riches make the wealthy happy and blessed. Hence the Complutensian Septuagint translates, her children rose up, and were enriched; the Vatican however, but almsgiving raised up her children, and they were enriched; the Author of the Greek Catena, her almsgiving raised up her children, and they were enriched.
The Hebrew kam, that is, rose up, stood, often signifies not the posture of a body rising up or standing, but merely existence and presence, or the beginning and commencement of an action, that is, Her children arose, that is, this woman of valor is not barren, nor childless; but she has many distinguished children, who being present and seeing their mother so diligent, industrious and wealthy, began to celebrate her and proclaim her most blessed. However, in this place kam and kamu, that is, they rose up, can be taken properly, and this has emphasis. First, that is, The children, who had slept the whole night without care, peacefully and pleasantly, arose in the morning, says Aben-Ezra, and found that their mother while they slept had kept vigil through the night, had combed, spun and woven wool and flax, had prepared food for the servants and maids, and had beautifully and excellently arranged the affairs of the whole house for the coming day; indeed that by her industry both they and all the household members abounded in double garments and in all things; wherefore they proclaimed themselves and the household blessed and happy in such a mother, and their mother most blessed, as the one to whom all this praise, all the beauty and glory of the house is owed.
Secondly, "they arose," says Baynus, that is, her children grew up and increased, not only in age and bodily stature, but also in virtues which they had learned from their mother, and thence in honors, dignities and glory, by all of which they celebrated their mother before everyone not so much by word as by deed, and in reality proclaimed her most blessed, as one who had borne, nourished and made such blessed children; for the education of offspring customarily falls upon the mother; wherefore their goodness, dignity and glory is rightly attributed to the mother.
The husband also is said to praise and commend this woman not only by his voice, but also by his conduct, because the husband's affability, gentleness and sweetness of character toward his wife in great part looks to her, and depends upon her conduct.
Moreover the Complutensian Septuagint translates, her children rose up and were enriched, that is, The mother collects such great wealth that, when her children having married rose up, that is, departed from the maternal house to their own, she assigned them a rich dowry and inheritance, so that the children thus enriched by her proclaimed their mother most blessed, and raised her to heaven with praises. The Vatican Septuagint however has, but almsgiving raised up her children, that is, Timid women, and therefore avaricious, retain what is theirs, and do not give alms even to the poor who ask, lest they be impoverished by them; but this wise and magnanimous woman of valor generously gave alms to those who asked, as well as to those who did not ask: for she knew that through these she and hers would be blessed by God, and enriched with great increase. And so it happened in reality; for her almsgiving raised up, that is, elevated her children to great wealth and honors: for St. Chrysostom teaches that this is the fruit of almsgiving, in his homily That Almsgiving Is the Most Profitable of All Arts, and St. Basil in his homily On Rich Misers, St. John the Almsgiver, and others whom I cited above.
Tropologically the Author of the Greek Catena says: "No one, he says, limps or stumbles with her: for if she notices that any have fallen into some disgrace, immediately out of her own piety and clemency she raises them from the filth in which they lie, and enriches them with spiritual wealth. Wherefore her husband also praises and admires her."
Anagogically, the Saints who in this life sit mourning in ashes and the sackcloth of penance, will rise in heaven, indeed will rise again in the robe of glory, and there will proclaim blessed their mother the Church, now militant, then triumphant. Her husband, that is Christ, will likewise praise her when He sees her with so great a multitude of rich children in the resurrection of the dead, says St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters. And Bede: "The children of the Church arise, he says, and proclaim her most blessed, when elevated with heavenly goods they behold how great is the blessedness of that homeland whose partakers they deserved to be, and they celebrate her with due praise in the divine vision. Her husband praises her, when He rewards the goods which He Himself bestowed. And with what words He praises her is consequently shown when it is said: Many daughters have gathered riches, you have surpassed them all."
All these things you may easily apply to the Blessed Virgin. For Christ her Son proclaimed her most blessed, both by word, and by deed and conduct. For Christ drew His character and nature from the Blessed Virgin: wherefore the actions and conduct of Christ represented the actions and conduct of His mother, and the virtue, blessedness and glory of Christ represents the virtue, blessedness and glory of His mother. Whence she exclaimed in the Gospel: "Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts which You sucked." For all the praise of the Son returns to the mother; and, as Solomon says: "The glory of a father (and mother) is a wise son." Again St. John, whom Christ dying substituted for Himself and appointed as the son of the Blessed Virgin, proclaimed her blessed, when he expressed her extraordinary holiness by his own holiness. The same was done by St. Germanus, Damascene, Ildefonsus, Anselm, Bernard, Dominic, Francis, Ignatius, and innumerable others, who as most devoted sons of the Blessed Virgin celebrated and continue to celebrate her praises through themselves and their followers by words and deeds, and thence draw extraordinary gifts of grace from heaven. For, as St. Bonaventure says in the Psalter: "Happy is the man who is not satisfied in your praise; the light of God has risen in his heart, the Holy Spirit illuminates his understanding." Finally, all the faithful of all ages in the Church wonderfully love and glorify the Blessed Virgin. Hence there is scarcely any city that does not have a church dedicated in honor of the Virgin; no church that does not have a chapel, or altar, or image of the Blessed Virgin; no parish that does not daily sing to her the Hail Holy Queen, or similar hymns and praises; indeed the whole Church continually greets her: "Blessed are you among women, and (that is, because) blessed is the fruit of your womb." This is what she herself, foreseeing by the prophetic spirit, foretold: "All generations shall call me blessed." For, as Damascene says, oration On the Nativity: "The Virgin exceeds the bounds of all praises, nor, if all the tongues scattered throughout the whole world should unite into one, could they attain her praises by any speech." To be sure: You have as many endowments, O Virgin, as there are stars in the sky.
Again her husband, that is, the Holy Spirit, praised and continues to praise her, since He stirred up all the Prophets, Apostles and Saints to sing her praises. Hence He established everywhere Congregations and Religious Orders in honor of the Virgin, which would perpetually chant her Office and proclaim her praises, as among others the Order of Carmelites, Annunciatae and Servites does, who being wholly devoted to the worship and service of the Virgin, were called Servites, as it were servants of the Virgin.
Verse 29: Many Daughters Have Gathered Riches; You Have Surpassed Them All
In the Hebrew, many daughters have done chail, that is, virtue, strenuousness, fortitude, glory, wealth; and you have ascended above them all. Hence the Septuagint, embracing both meanings of chail, translates, many daughters acquired riches, many did virtue; but you excel, or are eminent and have surpassed them all, that is, excellently and eminently, or from afar, you have surpassed them all: it is a hendiadys. St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters, reads: Many daughters have done mighty things, but you have surpassed and risen above them all. It could also be translated, many daughters have raised an army, that is, a host of children, servants, and maidservants; "but you have surpassed them all," because you have borne many children, and acquired more servants and maidservants, so that from them you could assemble and equip an army, and be able to fight in battle against the enemy, as Abraham did, Genesis chapter XIV. The Armenian version found in M. Antonius Abagarus has: Many daughters have gathered magnificence, have acquired justice.
The meaning therefore is, that is, You by your strenuousness and heroic deeds have acquired for yourself strength, beauty, glory and wealth, as great as no other woman has; but in these things you surpass and exceed them all. This is the praise of the woman of valor, by which, as preceded, her husband praises her, says Bede, and her children proclaim her most blessed, by saying namely that she by her chail, that is, her vigor, worth, industry, strength, and wealth, far surpasses all other women. This was achieved by Blessed Gorgonia, the sister of St. Gregory Nazianzen, to whom he gives this eulogy, oration 11: "And though we may grant that there were some who contended with her in some one particular virtue, yet she certainly conquered them all in this, that she embraced all virtues in one. For she excelled in all things so that no one else even moderately in any single one; and she reached such a summit in each, that any single one alone would have abundantly sufficed for all." Whence reviewing certain things individually he exclaims: "O squalid body, and garment flourishing with virtue alone! O soul retaining a body almost without food, as if devoid of matter! O sleepless nights, and singing of psalms, and standing that did not cease from day to day! etc. O fountains of tears, which were sown in affliction, that they might reap in exultation! O nocturnal cry penetrating the clouds, and reaching through to God! O fervor of spirit from desire for prayer, fearing neither the dogs of the night, nor cold, nor rains, nor thunders, nor hail, nor darkness! O womanly nature, which on account of the common struggle for salvation surpassed the manly nature, and made it conspicuous that the distinction between male and female is of the body, not of the soul! O immense chastity after baptism, and a soul the bride of Christ in the pure bridal chamber of the body! O bitter taste, and Eve, the mother of our race as well as of sin, and the deceiving serpent, and death overcome by her continence! O the self-emptying of Christ, and the form of a servant, and His sufferings honored by mortification."
Symbolically, Lyranus takes this maxim: "You have surpassed them all," of Sacred Scripture, which contains more and more useful truths than all the writings of other authors. Hence St. Augustine on Psalm CXXX, explaining that passage of I Corinthians chapter XV, 10: I have labored more abundantly than all: "Paul, he says, labored more than all, because he wrote more copiously than all." For other Apostles did not write, others wrote neither as much, nor with such grace. Where therefore more is written, more is labored; as if the single labor of writing were so great that no other, however burdensome, would seem comparable with it.
Allegorically, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose and Bede take these things of the Church, which surpasses all daughters, that is, the Synagogue of the Jews, the schools of the Philosophers and the sects of all heretics (which are called daughters, because they confess the same baptism, the same God, but wrongly on account of heresy) who glory in their fasts, prayers, almsgiving, even in prophecies and miracles — far surpasses them in true faith, wisdom, virtue, grace and glory. "Many, says St. Ambrose, have done mighty things, many have spoken in tongues, known mysteries, cast out demons, distributed their goods to the poor, delivered their bodies to be burned; yet because they did not have charity, they were puffed up, and remained defrauded of praise and reward. But this woman abounds in both flower and fruit, because she is full of charity, which the Apostle declares to be the fruit of the Spirit to the Galatians, Galatians V. She is the cluster of the beloved vineyard, Canticle I; for from her proceed the perfections of the other virtues which the Apostle enumerates to the Galatians saying: The fruit of the spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, longsuffering, etc., Galatians V. But because in these daughters, who also did mighty things, charity was lacking, therefore it is said to them: Graces are deceitful and beauty is vain, because without charity they are as sounding brass, and as a tinkling cymbal, they are nothing, their virtues profit nothing. Therefore graces are deceitful. But this woman because she sought to understand, because she guarded understanding, is deservedly commended as wise."
Tropologically, apply these things to the heroic soul, such as that of St. Paul, St. Augustine, St. Athanasius, St. Dominic, St. Francis, St. Ignatius, etc., who by a more illustrious grace of God and by heroic works of the virtues surpassed the common virtues, grace and glory of other Saints. Therefore in this woman of valor is described the emblem of the heroic soul and virtue, to which it is easy to adapt each of the maxims from what has been said.
But the Fathers and Doctors singularly and excellently apply this maxim of Solomon to the Blessed Virgin thus. First, St. Bernardine, volume II of Sermons, sermon On the Blessed Virgin: "The most holy Virgin Mary, he says, who conceived, bore and nourished the Savior; who continually clung to His side, who as an inseparable companion was absent from hardly any journey, who more intently than all others watched over His word and His work, she alone — the Savior's remarkable works, the honeyed forms of His preaching, the unheard-of and most sharp utterances of divine severity against the world, and sin, and the infernal devil — because she was present at them for so long, saw more spiritually, heard more secretly, recognized more quickly, retained more eagerly, and to the Apostles and other disciples communicated more richly, reported more diligently, instilled more effectively, and transmitted more faithfully." He proves this from this maxim: "Hence it is that it is read of her in the Gospel: But Mary kept all these words, pondering them in her heart. was in a certain manner owed. The words of St. Bernardine are these: "If anyone, he says, considers to what a great mystery the final limit of the virginal consent was directed, he will clearly understand that all the dignity and perfection contained in what it is to be the Mother of God, both in mind and in flesh, is comprehended in that which indeed transcends in merit to infinity whatever can be thought or said under God made man. If therefore a limit so inestimable was proportionate to its merit, it is necessary that the meritorious perfection of this consent was equally proportionate to the perfection of its limit." From this principle he draws this conclusion: "From these things therefore it can be gathered that the Blessed Virgin in her consent to the conception of the Son of God merited more than all creatures, both Angels and men in all their acts, movements and thoughts: for all who merited could merit nothing else except, according to their various states and degrees, everlasting glory; but this Virgin in that admirable consent merited the total extinction of the fomes of sin, dominion and primacy over the whole world, the fullness of all graces, of all virtues, of all gifts, of all beatitudes, of all fruits of the Spirit, of all knowledge, the interpretations of tongues, the spirit of prophecy, the discernment of spirits, the working of miracles: she merited fruitfulness in virginity, the motherhood of the Son of God: she merited to be the star of the sea, the gate of heaven, and above all things to be called the queen of mercy, and to achieve the effect of such a name. Whence deservedly in the last chapter of Proverbs, Solomon says of the Blessed Virgin herself: Many daughters have gathered riches, you have surpassed them all."
Secondly, St. Bonaventure in the Mirror, chapter II: "For Mary, he says, God had prepared not only the greatness, but also the multitude of goods in heaven, so that no Angel, no Saint could be her equal in the multitude and gathering of heavenly goods, according to that: Many daughters have gathered riches, you alone have surpassed them all, Proverbs XXXI. If by these daughters we understand holy souls, or angelic intelligences, have you not surpassed the riches of all, since she is the first of Virgins, the mirror of Confessors, the rose of Martyrs, the register of Apostles, the oracle of Prophets, the daughter of Patriarchs, the queen of Angels? For what of the riches of all these was lacking? For St. Jerome says: If you look upon Mary more carefully, there is nothing of virtue, nothing of beauty, nothing of brightness and glory, that does not shine in her." The same, chapter VIII: "And because the Lord, he says, most rich is most richly with you, therefore you are most rich or most wealthy with Him; so that it may truly be said to you that word of Proverbs: Many daughters have gathered riches, you have surpassed them all. The daughter Agnes, the daughter Lucy, the daughter Cecilia, the daughter Agatha, the daughter Catherine, and many other daughters, and many other holy virgins, and many just souls gathered the riches of virtues and graces, the riches of merits and rewards; but Mary has surpassed them all most excellently in all riches."
And chapter X: "Mary, he says, has surpassed all the daughters, she has surpassed them in nature, she has surpassed them in grace, she has surpassed them in glory — all the daughters, that is, all souls, and all the angelic intelligences."
Thirdly, St. Bernardine, volume II of Sermons, sermon 51, article 3, chapter X, says that the Blessed Virgin, by that act of faith and obedience by which she assented to the Angel announcing the incarnation of Christ, and by assenting worthily disposed herself, and merited de congruo to be the Mother of God, merited more than all the Angels and Saints merited in all their acts, because namely (as Suarez explains, disputation 12, section IV) by that act she merited at least de congruo that dignity (the motherhood of God) to which a more excellent grace and glory however much they increase, cannot reach the hyperdulia owed to the Blessed Virgin, because this is of a higher order; wherefore it transcends all other dignities combined into one, as gold in dignity transcends all silver, and heaven transcends all elements and elementary bodies.
The a priori reason is that the Blessed Virgin is honored as the Mother of God: for this, since it is an immense dignity, far transcends all others; hence an honor and worship that transcends all others is owed to her. For the motherhood of God is an incomparable and incomprehensible dignity. For it is a kinship with God, and that the closest, highest and most intimate: wherefore through it the Blessed Virgin was elevated, made as it were of the divine order, so that she has the same God as her Son consubstantial with her in humanity, whom God the Father has as His only and consubstantial Son in divinity. Wherefore just as God the Father says to Him: "You are My Son, this day I have begotten You;" so the Blessed Virgin can say the same to the same. She therefore above all others is properly "mother, daughter, spouse of God," namely mother of God the Son, only-begotten daughter of God the Father, spouse of the Holy Spirit. What therefore, and how great, is it to be the Mother of God? It is to be the mother of the Creator, it is to be the mother of our Lord Jesus Christ, it is to be by motherhood in a certain manner superior to God, it is to bring forth and beget God, it is to give God her own substance, her own essence, her own body, her own flesh and blood; it is to have maternal right over God, as her own infant and offspring; it is to have God subject to her as a son, so that God calls her His mother, honors her as a mother, loves her as a mother, obeys her as a mother; again so that He adorns her with those endowments and graces which befit both the Mother of God and God the Son: for the honor of the son depends upon the honor of the mother. Wherefore just as it befits the mother of a king to be a queen worthy of such a son; so likewise it befits the Mother of God to be worthy of God. For just as it would be a disgrace for a king to have a mother unworthy of him, base and abject: so likewise it would be a disgrace if God had a mother unworthy of Himself, and not adorned with those endowments which befit God. Hence St. Bernard, astonished at the glory of the Mother of God, exclaims, homily 1 on the Missus est: "Wonder on both sides, miracle on both sides: that God obeys a woman, a humility without example; and that a woman commands God, a sublimity without peer."
The same is clear again from the fact that the dignity of the hypostatic union of humanity with God in Christ is plainly immense, which far surpasses all the dignities and excellencies of all creatures combined into one: for it makes this man, namely Jesus, to be God. And in this union the Blessed Virgin cooperated intimately and most closely, when she gave a body to the eternal Word from her own flesh, and clothed Him with her flesh. Her motherhood therefore comes closest to the incarnation of the Word. Whence just as nothing more excellent than this union, so neither than the motherhood of God, can be made even by God Himself, as St. Thomas teaches, I part, Question XXV, article 6, reply 4: "It must be said, he says, that the humanity of Christ from this that it is united to God, and created beatitude from this that it is the enjoyment of God, and the Blessed Virgin from this that she is the Mother of God, have a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is God; and in this respect nothing better can be made than them, just as nothing can be better than God." From which you may gather that, although the motherhood of God like the vision of God, is an endowment and dignity that is entitatively and absolutely finite, inasmuch as it is received in a created intellect and nature, which being limited and finite is not capable of an infinite gift; nevertheless objectively and relatively it is infinite, because namely each regards and tends toward an infinite object, which is God. Hence to be the Mother of God, in the moral estimation and concept of men, is considered to be an immense dignity: wherefore it is so called by St. Epiphanius, Anselm, Damascene and others; because it far transcends all other endowments and dignities given to any men and Angels, and is surpassed only by the hypostatic union communicated to Christ.
Fourthly, the Fathers teach that the Blessed Virgin far surpasses in grace and glory absolutely all holy men and Angels, even the Cherubim and Seraphim, and that no creature can be compared with her, inasmuch as she is surpassed by the Creator God alone. So St. Epiphanius in his oration On the Praises of the Virgin: "With God alone excepted, he says, you stand above all." St. Gregory, book I of the Books of Kings, chapter II: "A mountain was the most blessed Virgin, who transcended by the sublimity of her election all the height of every elect creature." St. Damascene, sermon On the Nativity of the Virgin: "Today, he says, the salvation of the world has begun; exult, you mountains, that is, you rational natures who rise to the summit of spiritual contemplation: for the most bright mountain of God is born, the mountain, I say, which surpasses every hill and mountain, that is, the sublimity of Angels and of men."
Fifthly, all agree that the Blessed Virgin, as in grace so also in dignity and honor, surpasses all Angels and men, because the whole Church honors these with dulia, but the Blessed Virgin with hyperdulia, which comes closest to the latria with which God is worshipped. Now combine together all the honors that are owed and paid to individual angels and men, they will all be of dulia, and will never reach,
Sixthly, from this root and foundation all the charisms and privileges of the Virgin Mother of God flow, among which weighty Doctors, such as Francisco Suarez, Salazar and others, hold this to be the case: that the Blessed Virgin by her grace and her merits surpasses all the grace and merits of all Angels and men, not only taken separately, but also united and collected into one sum, so that if all those things were placed in one pan of the scale, and in the other those of the Virgin alone, hers would outweigh them. Whence it follows that she is more pleasing, beloved and esteemed by God, than all men and Angels taken together: wherefore her prayers are worth more with God than the prayers of all men and Angels. For the Mother of God is worthier to be heard by God than all men and Angels together.
The a priori reason is the dignity of motherhood already assigned, which plainly seems to demand this preeminence as by its own right. In addition, just as a mother of a household, as such, is worthier than all her children, servants and maidservants taken together, as the mother, head and chief of the whole family: so also the Blessed Virgin, appointed by Christ as the mother of the household of His Church, must be worthier than all its children and faithful, even taken together. Whence St. Irenaeus says: "What is it, he says, that without the consent of Mary the mystery of the incarnation is not accomplished? Because God wills her to be the principle of all goods;" and St. Gregory, book I of the Books of Kings, chapter II: "A mountain was the most blessed Virgin, who transcended by the sublimity of her election all the height of every elect creature."
Moreover the Blessed Virgin, because she was made the Mother of God, is the queen of all Angels and men, so that all must submit themselves to her, and profess themselves her subjects, indeed her servants, and acknowledge her as their lady, princess, and queen by full right — indeed rejoice and desire to do so. Now the honor and dignity of a Queen surpasses all the dignities of Dukes, Barons, and Counts subject to her, even taken together, because it is transcendent and of a higher order, and equal to royal majesty. Therefore likewise the Blessed Virgin, because she is queen of heaven and earth, by this royal majesty surpasses all the dignities of all Angels and men, as her subjects, even united and combined into one.
Finally the Blessed Virgin, because she is the Mother of God, is called and truly is, by St. Anselm and the Fathers, the mediatrix of the whole Church and of all the faithful, because she cooperated most closely in the incarnation of the Word, and consequently in our redemption. Again through her as the mother of the household and mediatrix, God distributed to the Martyrs fortitude, to Virgins chastity, to Apostles zeal, to Confessors patience, to Anchorites austerity, to Religious humility, poverty, obedience; to married couples continence and conjugal fidelity, and to the rest of the faithful their endowments, virtues and graces, each according to their suitability and proper need. Wherefore she herself must possess all these more perfectly and eminently in herself: just as a universal cause, for example heaven, eminently contains in itself all the perfections of elementary bodies, which it causes and produces; wherefore just as heaven surpasses all earthly things, fire in its heat surpasses all heat produced by it, and just as the sun by its splendor conquers and obscures all the light of the air and the stars, as being produced by it: so likewise the grace, and consequently the glory, of the Blessed Virgin surpasses all the grace and glory of all the faithful. Again, just as the head, infusing sense, reason, motion and direction into the other members, far excels them all even taken together (for the head alone has more reason and wisdom than all the members taken together): so also the grace of the Blessed Virgin must surpass the grace of all others taken together, because it is the grace of the head, which therefore she received not for herself alone, but as head pours it forth into the other faithful according to each one's capacity.
Moreover, even though neither Christ merited grace and glory for the Angels, nor the Blessed Virgin obtained or distributed it to them, so that she cannot properly be called the mediatrix of the Angels: yet thus far she can be called their mediatrix, in that there is one Church in heaven of Angels and blessed men; wherefore since Christ and the Blessed Virgin brought it about that the ruins of the Angels, caused by the fall of the demons, were repaired through men, and one whole and complete, in every way perfect and blessed Church Triumphant was formed from both, hence it follows that Christ can be called the mediator of the Angels, and the Blessed Virgin their mediatrix, because she conferred a great good upon them, namely the restoration of their torn commonwealth and Church, and thence the mutual joys which wonderfully increase the accidental blessedness of the Angels. For the Angels rejoice wonderfully at the zeal and fruit of the Apostles, at the unconquered constancy of the Martyrs, at the angelic chastity of Virgins, etc., and they reckon their merits, triumphs, glory and rewards as their own through the communion of charity and the Church. For this communion causes what belongs to one Blessed person to belong also to another, so that each Blessed person enjoys and rejoices in the good of the other, just as if it were his own. Wherefore since all the Angels together could not merit and obtain this restoration of their ruin through men, but Christ accomplished it, and after and through Christ the Blessed Virgin, hence it follows that she avails more in grace with God, and has obtained more from Him, even than the Angels themselves, than all the Angels joined together could have obtained for themselves, and therefore that the Blessed Virgin in both grace and glory transcends and surpasses all the Angels taken together. Whence St. Anselm says that through the Blessed Virgin the whole world was raised up, and the whole nature of things was renewed. And Blessed Peter Damian, sermon On the Assumption, on that passage: Chosen as the sun: "Chosen, he says, but preeminently chosen as the sun, because just as the sun alone illuminates the world, so she alone with a more solid light enlightens both Angels and men." Finally St. Bernard: "Mary, he says, has opened the bosom of her mercy to all, so that all may receive from her fullness: the sinner pardon, the just person grace, the Angel joy, the whole Trinity glory."
Verse 30: Grace Is Deceitful, and Beauty Is Vain
In the Hebrew, a lie is grace, and vanity is beauty; the woman fearing (or fear, for the Hebrew jirath signifies both, that is, She who is the fear of the Lord, or who so fears the Lord that she seems to be fear itself) the Lord, she shall be praised; the Syriac, beauty lies, beauty is unfruitful, etc.; R. Solomon, a woman is not to be extolled with praises because she excels in form, since all these things are something empty and mere falsehood; but the woman who fears God, she alone is to be celebrated with praises. The same author by this woman mystically understands Sacred Scripture and the law of God. The Septuagint varies here; for the Vatican has: Graces are deceitful, and beauty is vain; for the intelligent woman is blessed: let her praise the fear of the Lord, which last words appear to be a double version of the same Hebrew sentence. The Complutensian and Royal, deceitful graces and vain beauty are not in you; and St. Ambrose, deceitful (St. Augustine, false) graces, and vain appearance; the prudent (St. Augustine, wise) woman is blessed: let her praise the fear of the Lord; and he explains mystically thus, that is, Virtues without charity are vain; for the filial fear of God is love and charity. The Author of the Greek Catena reads thus and explains mystically thus: deceitful graces, and vain beauty of women is not in you; the prudent woman is well spoken of among all. But let her praise and extol the fear of the Lord: "Many, he says, are the arts and disciplines of external wisdom, which allure and distract a person to themselves. But divine wisdom, adorned with that true and saving beauty, excels all. But let her praise the fear of the Lord, etc. The soul, he says, which has attained this wisdom, should not exalt itself, but fear and praise God, as the one who has been the author and parent of all knowledge for her."
Grace is a pleasing charm, or the comeliness and elegance, both of the body and of gestures and actions, by which a person so gracefully carries herself in bearing, gait, speech and action, that she wins the love of those who behold her, and is accepted and pleasing to them: thus well-educated women tend to be gracious in speaking and acting, and in every gesture and bearing. "Beauty is that good elegance in the composition of the members, having grace superimposed upon it like a flower," says St. Basil as cited by Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LX. Beauty consists in three things: first, in the proper quantity, quality and complexion of the body; secondly, in the fitting proportion of the members; thirdly, in the pleasing sweetness of color.
The meaning is, that is, Other women seek vain praise from their grace, and desire to be lauded for their beauty; but this woman of valor pursues true praise from the fear of God. For beauty is a vain endowment and a vain praise; but the true praise and the true endowment to be lauded is the fear of God, and therefore she above others will in reality be praised. For women are accustomed to place their glory in the grace of their manners and the beauty of their bodies, both natural and acquired, which they procure for themselves by painting their faces with rouge, white lead, and other pigments and cosmetics: likewise by clothing themselves in fine linen, necklaces, golden chains, pearls, bracelets, and other feminine finery. But all this grace is deceitful and vain, and is quickly taken away and vanishes. Wherefore this woman of valor places her glory not in grace and beauty, but in the fear of God, which remains forever and ever, and wins for her the grace and glory of God and the Angels, and eternal praise.
Secondly, that is, Bodily grace and beauty, which men and women so eagerly seek, is deceitful and vain; for true grace and beauty resides in virtue, which the fear of God brings: for that beauty adorns only the body; but this beauty of virtue adorns both the soul and the body, and therefore is more praised and celebrated by all than the former; for virtue alone is worthy of praise: whence by poets through metonymy virtue is customarily called praise. St. Gregory Nazianzen says admirably, as cited by Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LX: "Consider beauty, he says, to be the ornament of the soul." And St. Chrysostom: "Beauty resides not in the form of the body, but in character and modesty."
Note: Grace and beauty are called lying, false, deceitful and vain; or, as the Hebrew more forcefully has it, a lie or falsehood and vanity. First, because it is brief and fleeting, fugitive and evanescent: for it quickly perishes and vanishes through age, sickness, labor, or some other accident. It lies, therefore, in claiming to be something real and stable, when in truth it is shadowy and unstable. Whence the Poet: Beauty is a fragile good, and as the years increase It grows less, and is consumed by its own span.
Just as therefore sunbeams, passing through red glass, appear red when they are not truly so, but the glass falsely makes them appear red; and just as sepulchers, within full of stench, worms and corpses, outwardly falsely present themselves as beautiful, namely white and golden: so beautiful and adorned women, like harlots, by outward cosmetics falsely present themselves as beautiful, when inwardly they are full of filth, intolerable stenches, and diseases and the venereal plague which they breathe upon their lovers, so that truly a harlot is nothing other than a whitewashed sepulcher, and foul flesh shining through the skin in a broad expanse.
Secondly, because grace and beauty deceives, misleads and casts down the very women who are gracious and beautiful, because it makes them proud, peevish, and intemperate. Whence the saying: Haughtiness dwells in the beautiful, and pride follows form. For beautiful women desire to display their form to all, and thus provoke upon themselves the desires and temptations of all. Whence Ovid: Great is the strife between beauty and chastity, because beautiful women can scarcely be chaste: for young men and adulterers lay snares for their beauty. Hence the philosopher Aristippus, when consulted by someone whether he should marry, said no, and gave this reason: Either you will marry an ugly woman or a beautiful one; if ugly, you will have poinen, that is, punishment; if beautiful, you will have koinen, that is, one common to many. So Antonius in the Melissa, part II, chapter XXXIV. See St. Chrysostom, homily On Woman and Beauty, volume VI, and homily 20 on the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Wherefore we read in the Lives of the Saints that virgins and chaste women of valor asked God to remove from them this enticement of beauty, and to make them ugly, and obtained their request; some tore out their own eyes, cut off their noses, disfigured their faces with welts, in order to cut off the occasion of impure temptation. For, as Leucippus says according to Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LX: "Beauty wounds more sharply than a weapon, and flows through the eyes into the soul;" and an anonymous author in the same place: "Extraordinary beauty teems even with many crimes." Thus St. Ebba, Abbess of the monastery of Coldingham in England, in the year 870, when the Danes were invading England, in order to escape their lust, cut off her own nose and upper lip together with all the nuns: wherefore the enraged Danes burned her together with the monastery, and thus for their virginity they obtained the crown of martyrdom, as Baronius reports from Matthew of Westminster, volume X, at the year of Christ 870. Sophronius, or rather John Moschus in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter LX, relates that a virgin, sought by a young man on account of the beauty of her eyes, dug out her own eyes and sent them to the young man; at the sight of which he was stricken with compunction, abandoned the world, and became a most exemplary monk. The same was done by a certain nun, about whom Cardinal Jacques de Vitry writes, who being pursued by a prince on account of the beauty of her eyes, tore them out and on a plate sent to the prince: "Take, she said, the eyes you desired, only leave the eyes of my heart untouched and unharmed." This example, after Vitry, is recounted by Vincent of Beauvais in the Moral Mirror, book I, part III, distinction 96, and he testifies that it happened in England; and that the prince was Richard, King of England, who threatened to burn the monastery unless the nun so beautiful were given to him.
Thirdly, because grace and beauty deceives and drives mad the minds of men and young men, so that like madmen they insanely love them, and like unbridled horses neigh after mares, and thus with them they lose their chastity, health, virtue, conscience, reputation, and heaven, and become effeminate and unchaste, and bring upon themselves as well as upon the women they loved both present death and eternal death in hell. To this purpose is that saying of Theophrastus, which St. Jerome cites, book I Against Jovinian: "A beautiful woman, he says, is quickly loved; but what many love is guarded with difficulty: nothing is safe upon which the desires of a whole people sigh: one solicits by beauty, another by artifice, another by wit, another by generosity. What is attacked from every side is conquered in some way or at some time." And below: "Every guard, however cautious and prudent, is eluded."
Wherefore what is grace, what is beauty? Let the wise answer, both Fathers and Philosophers, whom Maximus cites, sermon 44; Antonius in the Melissa, part I, chapter LX; Stobaeus, part II, sermons 66 and 63, and Tiraquellus, law II of Marriage, number 10 and following: St. Jerome: "Beauty is the forgetfulness of reason;" Socrates: "Beauty is the tyranny of a short time," because the grace of form soon fades; the same: "The kisses of the beautiful are to be avoided like the bites of venomous animals;" Theophrastus: "Beauty is a silent deception," because it persuades without words; Euripides in the Helen: "Beauty is an unhappy thing;" Xenophon, book On Love: "Beauty is a fire which burns those who touch and inflames those who are far away. The cultivation of the soul is discipline, and a mind disposed to prudence;" Petrarch, book I On the Remedies of Both Fortunes: "Beauty is a veil over the eyes, a snare for the feet, birdlime for the wings, so that one cannot easily discern the truth, nor follow virtue, nor fly to the heights of the soul. It is a domestic enemy, a robber of peace, material for labor, a torment of lust." Proclus, book On the Soul, says: "Souls deceived because of their ignorance of true beauty admire bodily forms and perish for them." St. Chrysostom, epistle to the fallen Theodore: "Beauty, he says, is plaster applied to a tomb, that is, phlegm mixed with blood shining prettily through the skin." Strip away the skin, and you will see how putrid the flesh beneath is, what a dunghill is in the belly, what phlegm spurts through the mouth, nostrils, eyes, etc. I pass over abscesses, gangrenes, cancers, flatulence, stenches, and foulness.
Again Bion, according to Laertius, book IV, chapter VII: "Beauty, he says, is another's good," meaning that it is outside the person, which he can neither give himself nor protect once given. The goods of the soul are truly our own. Theocritus: "Beauty is an ivory misfortune," because though pleasing to the eye, it is the cause of many inconveniences. Carneades: "Beauty is a kingdom without a bodyguard," because the beautiful command whatever they wish without applying any force. Laertius reports these, book V, chapter 1, and Stobaeus, sermon 63. Isocrates said of those who have a beautiful body but a wicked soul, that they have an excellent ship but a bad helmsman; Aesop: "Do not look at my form, he says, but at my mind;" so Maximus, sermon 44. Another: "Beauty is the flower of youth, which withers in old age." As a rose blooms in the morning and fades in the evening. Behold the rosy face of a youth, and compare it with the wrinkles and grey hairs of old age. Seneca in the Hippolytus: The radiance that gleams on tender cheeks Is snatched away in a moment, and no day passes That does not carry off the spoils of a beautiful body. Beauty is a fleeting thing. Philo, book On Providence: "No one in his right mind, he says, could boast about the beauty of the body and hunt for praises, since it is extinguished in so short a time that it seems to have withered before it has even bloomed." Finally St. Gregory Nazianzen, oration 31: "Beauty, he says, is the sport of time and disease;" for, as Boetius says, book III of the Consolation, prose 8: "It can be destroyed by the little flame of a three-day fever."
Note: Solomon does not deny that beauty and grace are an adornment of the woman of valor, but only asserts that this is deceitful and perishable, whereas her true and solid adornment is wisdom and virtue, which the fear of the Lord begets. Moreover, the form of the body is often an index and specimen of the form of the soul. Wherefore Bartholomew Capranus, Archbishop of Milan, for that reason said that he had sought ministers who were outstanding in form: "Because ugly souls inhabit ugly bodies; but wickedness is rarely found in an excellent body," says Aeneas Sylvius, book II On the Deeds of Alphonsus: whence the saying: More pleasing is virtue coming from a beautiful body. And that of Ovid: Suffusing her beautiful face with a modest blush, which is the beauty of virgins. Bion: "Beauty, he says, adorns women, but strength adorns men;" Menander: "If good manners adorn the beauty of nature, one is captured with double love upon approach;" Plato: "A beautiful person delights all the senses;" Aristotle: "By beauty people are commended more than by any letter;" Plutarch: "The beauty of the body is the work of the soul, granting it the grace of form;" these and more in Stobaeus, sermon 65. Hence St. Augustine, book XV of the City of God, chapter XXII, asserts that beauty is a gift of God.
Therefore he condemns acquired beauty, which worldly women procure for themselves; but natural form he does not condemn, rather he teaches that it is deceitful and fleeting, and, if compared with the fear of God and virtue, must be ranked far below it, since virtue is the true and solid form and beauty of both soul and body, as St. Peter teaches, I Epistle, chapter III, 3 and following, where I said more on this subject, as well as on Isaiah III, near the end of the chapter.
Blessed Nonna, the mother of St. Gregory Nazianzen, knew this very well, about whom he himself writes thus, oration 19: "She is the one, he says, who while other women are accustomed to glory and be puffed up both on account of their native elegance of form and on account of what is feigned and acquired, she on the contrary recognized the one beauty which consists in guarding the soul and the divine image, or cleansing it as far as possible; but painted ornaments and those sought by art she cast away to theatrical little women."
Her wise daughter St. Gorgonia followed her wise mother, about whom he speaks thus, oration 11: "Gold artfully worked to extraordinary beauty did not adorn her, nor blond hair both showing and gleaming, nor knots and false arrangements of the hair, making of a precious head a stage with the utmost disgrace, nor the magnificence of flowing and transparent garments, nor the brilliance and charms of gems coloring the surrounding air and bathing forms in light, nor the arts and deceptions of painters, and the cheap beauty that costs little, and the earthly fashioner who works to the contrary end, covering God's creation with treacherous colors, and branding it with infamy through honor, and setting up the divine form as an idol for the wanton eyes of harlots, so that adulterous beauty might steal away the natural image which is preserved for God and the age to come. But though she was acquainted with many and varied external ornaments of women, she recognized none more excellent than her own character, and the splendor that lay hidden within. One blush alone pleased her, that which modesty brings; one whiteness alone, that which abstinence produces. For cosmetics and paints, and lifelike portraits, and the flowing charm of form, she left to theatrical and common women, for whom it is a shame and disgrace to blush."
THE WOMAN WHO FEARS GOD, SHE SHALL BE PRAISED — with the true and solid beauty of the soul, which consists in the fear of God and virtue; virtue therefore alone is praiseworthy, and is the true praise and glory of the woman of valor. The Septuagint translates, but let her praise the fear of the Lord, that is, Let other worldly and vain women praise their grace and beauty of cheeks, eyes, face, etc.; but let this wise woman of valor praise the fear of God, in which she has wisely placed all her glory and beauty. In this therefore let her glory, this let her celebrate, this let her proclaim to all more by deed than by word, so that they may learn to acquire it for themselves, and abandoning the vain care of bodily beauty, adorn themselves far more beautifully with it.
Wisely St. Bernard, sermon 1 On St. Victor: "Glory, he says, that is without virtue, comes assuredly undeserved, is sought too hastily, and is sung dangerously. Virtue is the step to glory, virtue is the mother of glory. Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain that she has not given birth to; she alone is the one to whom glory is owed by right, and is bestowed securely."
Here note: This woman of valor is of such wisdom, virtue, name and fame that she is not so much praised by the fear of God as she herself praises and commends it. For thus eminent women of valor and men by their word and example give weight, authority, beauty and praise to laws, rules and virtues, and they value, authorize and as it were canonize those same virtues which are otherwise neglected and little esteemed by the common people; thus Christ by His authority added weight, authorized, and as it were canonized poverty, humility, patience, the cross, martyrdom, whose dignity and value was unknown to men, indeed which were held in contempt as base and ignoble, when He Himself humbled and emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in a stable, laid in a manger, living a poor life, suffering insults, torments and the death of the cross, dying on the gallows. Whence all the Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors, Anchorites, Virgins, and Religious followed Him. Hence St. Bernard, sermon 1 on the Vigil of the Nativity, speaking of poverty: "On earth, he says, this kind abounds and superabounds, and man did not know its value. The Son of God therefore, desiring it, descended to choose it for Himself, and to make it precious for us also by His esteem. Adorn your bridal chamber, O Sion, but with humility, but with poverty." Thus the Blessed Virgin authorized virginity, humility and the other virtues, when she did not wish to be the Mother of God unless she remained a virgin; whence by making the vow of virginity she was the first to raise the standard which so many hosts of virgins afterward followed; thus Religious, Doctors and those eminent in rank authorize the discipline, obedience, poverty, and humble offices of their Order, when they themselves perform them, and shine before the younger members as an example of performing the same.
Allegorically St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters: "Grace is deceitful, he says, and the appearance of a woman is vain, because if I have not charity, I am nothing, etc. But she praises the fear of the Lord, and she herself is blessed; she praises that by which she is blessed. What does she praise? The fear of the Lord by which she was led to wisdom. For the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. But let her praise the fear of the Lord, she who is laborious with so many praises, patient among so many scandals, provident in waiting, strong in enduring, constant in persevering. When her labors are finished, give her of the fruit of her hands. What should you give? Come, blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."
Again apply this maxim to the Blessed Virgin, who was extraordinarily distinguished and beautiful in body, not with a feminine and alluring beauty, but with a grave, becoming, venerable and august beauty, such as the images of her painted by St. Luke display, which here we gaze upon and venerate. The same is evident from the excellent physiognomy of her members, which Nicephorus graphically depicts from Epiphanius the priest, book II of his History, chapter XXIII.
The first reason was that she, conceived by a miracle from aged and barren parents, was not so much the work of her parents as of God and the Holy Spirit. And the works of the Holy Spirit are perfect, beautiful, and excellent. So Albert the Great, according to Denis the Carthusian, book I On the Praises of the Virgin, chapter III: "Just as, he says, the body of Christ, which God supernaturally formed through Himself, is the most perfect and most beautiful in nature, as far as was possible according to the state of the way: so the body of the Virgin, immediately ordained for this purpose, was the most beautiful according to the state of the way, that nature working by itself can produce; therefore we say that, just as Christ was beautiful in form above the sons of men, so the Virgin was the most beautiful among the daughters of men, and that she possessed the highest and most perfect beauty that could exist in a mortal female body, according to the state of the way with nature operating." Thus Albert.
Denis himself in the same place, article 35: "From the sole, he says, of her foot to the crown of her head, there was absolutely nothing in the Virgin, neither in body nor in soul, that was unbecoming, blameworthy, or unseemly; rather the whole was formed most beautifully by divine wisdom, cut away from all superfluity, most fully and most beautifully wrought. For just as it befitted the humanity of Christ, on account of His personal union with God, to shine forth with every perfection of nature and grace at the pinnacle of excellence: so it was necessary for the person of His mother, after the humanity of her only-begotten Son, to be thus adorned in all things. Because after the hypostatic union with God, there is no other so close as the union of the Mother of God with God her Son." Thus Denis. The same author, article 36, considers that the face of the most holy Virgin was illuminated with a certain splendor, and that her flesh breathed forth a sweet fragrance.
The second reason, because she as mother formed the body of Christ, which was the most beautiful, according to that of Psalm XLIV: "Beautiful in form above the sons of men; grace is poured forth in Your lips." The beauty and comeliness of Christ therefore was derived from the beauty and comeliness of His mother: for children usually draw this more from their mother than from their father, inasmuch as they are formed in her womb from her flesh; wherefore children often tend to take after their mother more than their father, and to bear the features, manners and gestures of the mother more than the father, according to that saying: "Much beauty you may bear from the father, but more from the mother."
The third reason, because the inner beauty of her mind poured itself into the body of the Virgin, whereby it came about that her divine purity and luminous holiness shone forth in her face. St. Athanasius writes something similar about St. Anthony.
Moreover if so great was the beauty of the Blessed Virgin's body, how great was that of her soul and mind! Read the Song of Songs and you will see it; for in the Canticle she is described and depicted above all other faithful of the Church. Whence that passage of chapter IV, 7: "You are wholly beautiful, my beloved, and there is no blemish in you." The a priori reason is that she was the bridal chamber of the Word incarnate from her, and consequently of the whole Holy Trinity. What is more beautiful than the throne of God? For, as St. Augustine says, tract 32 on John: "As the soul makes beauty in the body, so God in the soul," and presently: "Therefore the beauty of the body is the soul, the beauty of the soul is God." Again the beauty of the soul consists in the splendor of all the virtues, and in the preeminence of divine grace: but the Blessed Virgin in grace and virtues far transcends all men and Angels. Nothing therefore of all that has been created in heaven and earth, was nobler than she, was more beautiful.
Receive now the opinions and sayings of the Fathers and Doctors concerning both forms of the Virgin's beauty. St. Gregory Nazianzen in the Tragedy, Christ Suffering, sings thus of her: Alas, among the chaste and most beautiful, And the venerable, the first — at once a virgin And a mother, Mary! And again in the person of the chorus: O Virgin who in the brilliance of your form surpass All others, noble maiden, who carrying God as an infant in your womb (as you relate), Bore in that same womb the greatest treasure.
St. Ephrem, in his oration On the Mother of God, calls her a most beautiful vessel, which bears the manna of heaven. Epiphanius, in his oration On the Praises of the Virgin, addresses her with these words: "You who, with God alone excepted, stand above all, you are more beautiful than the Cherubim and Seraphim themselves, and than all the angelic host." Andrew of Crete, in his oration On the Dormition of the Mother of God, adorns her with these praises: "Extraordinary beauty sculpted by God, a statue rightly described, an image of the living archetype." Gregory of Nicomedia, in his oration On the Presentation, addresses the Mother of God thus: "O most beautiful beauty of all beauties! O Mother of God, the supreme ornament of all beautiful things!"
Richard of St. Victor, chapter XXVI on the Canticle, gives to the Blessed Virgin angelic purity and an angelic countenance. St. Bonaventure in the Litanies thus calls and invokes her: "Holy Mary, most beautiful of women." The same in the Mirror: "Let us say, he says, that passage of Canticle V: What is your beloved among the beloved, O most beautiful of women? And behold she herself immediately responds saying: My beloved is white and ruddy, chosen out of thousands, He is the brightness of the eternal light. He is indeed white by His divinity, but ruddy by His humanity; white also in His manner of life, ruddy in His passion. Behold what a beautiful fruit: therefore Augustine rightly says of Him: Beautiful in the heavens, beautiful on earth, beautiful as the Word in the Father, beautiful as flesh and Word in the mother; and this most beautiful tree Mary not only has the most beautiful fruit of her womb, but also the most beautiful fruits of the mind; concerning which the Apostle writing to the Galatians, chapter V, says: The fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, longsuffering, gentleness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity."
The same is taught by St. Antoninus, part IV, title XV, chapter XI; Canisius, book I On the Blessed Virgin, chapter XIII; Suarez, volume II, on part III, disputation 2, section II; Barradius, book VI, chapter IX. Finally St. Bridget in the Angelic Sermon, chapter XIII: "Just as, she says, God and the Angels rejoiced in heaven at the beauty of the Virgin's soul, so also the most pleasing beauty of her body was useful and consoling on earth to all who desired to see her;" and in book V, after question 9, Christ the Lord individually praises each member of His mother, and mystically declares their beauty; and in book I, chapter LI, He is said to have spoken these words to His mother: "The Angels behold one another's beauty, and admire the beauty of all souls and of all bodies; but they see that the beauty of your soul is above all things that have been created, and that the honor of your body excels all men who have been created, and thus your beauty excels all Angels, and all things that have been created."
St. Ambrose adds, in his book On the Formation of the Virgin, chapter VII, speaking of the Mother of God: "So great, he says, was her grace, that she not only preserved in herself the grace of virginity, but also conferred the distinction of integrity upon those whom she visited; she visited John the Baptist, and not undeservedly he remained whole in body, whom for three months the Mother of the Lord anointed with a certain oil of her presence and the ointments of integrity." Alexander of Hales, part III of his Theology, Question IX, number 2, article 5: "The Blessed Virgin, he says, by her very appearance extinguished the motions of concupiscence." St. Thomas, in part III, distinction III, Question I, article 2, sub-question 1, reply 4: "The grace, he says, of sanctification in the Blessed Virgin not only suppressed in her illicit motions, but also had efficacy in others, so that, although she was beautiful, she could never be desired by anyone." Finally Rupert, book III on the Canticle, on that passage of chapter IV: How beautiful you are, my beloved! your eyes are as doves, observes that seven virtues of the Mother of God are signified in seven members of the body, on account of which she is praised by the Bridegroom, and is most justly reputed beautiful by Angels and men: "O admirable beauty, he says, which the most beautiful Author of beauty so admires and praises together! In seven praises He considered her eyes, hair, teeth, lips, cheeks, neck and breasts, and for each beloved feature He sang forth individual chapters of worthy praise: in the eyes simplicity is praised, in the hair the purity of your thoughts, in the teeth innocence, in the lips learning, in the cheeks modesty, in the neck humility, in your breasts the wonderful combination of fruitfulness and virginity."
Wherefore St. Dionysius the Areopagite, converted by Paul, and sent by him to the Blessed Virgin, was at the very sight of her filled with such sweetness, and seized with such admiration, from the more-than-mortal dignity which he perceived in the Virgin, that had he not been informed of the truth by his master Paul (for she herself wrote thus to him), he would undoubtedly have considered her a goddess, and would have adored her as one regarded as a goddess. So great was the opinion of the whole Church concerning the Blessed Virgin, so great the esteem conceived of her virtue, inasmuch as by the very countenance of the Mother of God she bore her dignity before her, and composed all who beheld her by her majesty, and in wonderful ways softened their inner feelings. There is circulated on this subject a letter of St. Dionysius to St. Paul, which our Christopher a Castro recites in his History of the Mother of God, chapter XIX, in which among other things he says thus: "I was led into the God-like presence of the most exalted Virgin, and so vast a divine splendor surrounded me externally, and more fully irradiated me internally; so great also was the overflowing fragrance of all perfumes upon me, that neither my wretched body nor spirit could sustain the emblems of so great and so total an eternal happiness. My heart failed, and my spirit failed, overwhelmed by so great a majesty of glory. I call to witness God, who was present in the Virgin: if your divine conceptions had not taught my mind, I would have believed her to be the true God, since no glory of the Blessed could seem greater than that happiness which I, unhappy as I am now, but then most happy, tasted."
Verse 31: Give Her of the Fruit of Her Hands
Aquila, her handiwork shall praise her in the gates; the Vatican Septuagint has lips instead of hands: Give, they say, to her of the fruit of her lips. But the Royal, the Complutensian, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine and the Author of the Greek Catena read from the Septuagint hands, not lips, and this appears to be the ancient and genuine Septuagint version. For it corresponds with the Hebrew and the Vulgate, and with Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion, who consistently translate hands; wherefore the Septuagint translated cheiron, that is, hands, which afterward appears to have been changed by scribes into cheileon, that is, lips.
The meaning therefore is, that is, Since this woman of valor, industrious with her hands, has produced such great wealth for herself and her family, she is now worthy to enjoy it. Give her therefore to drink the delicate wine which the vineyard she planted has produced: give her garments of fine linen and purple: clothe her in the fine cloth which she herself spun and wove with her own hands: prepare a sumptuous table for her from every kind of precious provision which she acquired by her own labor: let her enjoy the gold and silver furnishings with which she herself adorned her house by her industry. For it is written: "You shall eat the labors of your hands; blessed are you, and it shall be well with you," Psalm CXXVII, 2.
Secondly, Aben-Ezra says: Give, he says, namely praises to her, that is, praise her, according to that: "Give glory to the Lord your God," Jeremiah XIII, 16; and "Give glory to His praise," Psalm LXV, 2.
The meaning therefore is, that is, Give praise to her works, which she has wrought with her hands, indeed let her very works praise her in the gates, before the assembly of the magistrates and the whole people.
If with the Vatican Septuagint you read lips instead of hands, the meaning will be, that is, Give, that is, offer to her the fruit of her discourses, by which she instructed her household in the fear of God, prudence and probity: give her children, servants, maidservants, etc., well-mannered, upright, and industrious through her instruction, so that she may rejoice in them as in her fruits, and on their account praise and celebrate her. Again, seek and receive from her the gift of prayer, of speaking well, and of eloquence, says the Author of the Greek Catena. Or, that is, This woman of valor has not misused her lips for insults, quarrels, and brawling; but used them well for the praise of God and the benefit of her neighbors; she detracted from no one, but spoke honorably of all; she cursed no one, but blessed all. Therefore in like manner let no one speak ill of her, let all praise her, let all bless her, let no one dare to curse or to speak ill of her.
And let her works praise her in the gates, that is, Let others boast of the deeds, wealth and honors of their fathers and grandfathers, and praise themselves for them: this heroine brings forth her own achievements, not those of others, and from them makes herself praiseworthy. For since she is grave, modest and unassuming, she thinks modestly of herself, and does not boast of herself in words, but her industrious and magnificent works, even when she is silent, speak her praises; and this not only at home, so that she is praised by her household; but also in the gates, that is, publicly and in the public assembly of magistrates and judges, where wise and noble men admiring her heroic works celebrate her and raise her to heaven with praises: and this both for her praise and glory, and for the example of others, so that her praise may be a spur to virtue for the rest.
The Septuagint translates in the same sense: And let her husband be praised in the gates, that is, The judges and princes of the people, who according to ancient custom are accustomed to sit in the gates, praise and proclaim fortunate her husband, who obtained such a wife and woman of valor, who has heaped upon him and his whole family so many goods, riches, fame and glory.
Allegorically and anagogically, the Church and the holy soul will hear in the hour of death, and on the day of judgment from Christ the Judge, and from the holy Angels: "Give her of the fruit of her hands," namely, give her the reward and glory for the merit of the heroic works which she wrought with her hands. So Salonius says: "These, he says, are the words of Christ to be spoken to the Angels on the day of judgment: Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates," namely that in the gates of heaven her mighty deeds may be inscribed, which may perpetually present her eternal praise to all the inhabitants of heaven, so that they may perpetually praise and celebrate both her deeds and God in them. Her victories and trophies which she won over the world, the flesh, and the devil, let them be inscribed on the gates of paradise, as perpetual praises of her virtue and fortitude, and of the grace of God.
Indeed, just as Christ in heaven will preserve the sacred stigmata of His passion and wounds, so also the Saints there will display their welts and scars, as perpetual praises and proclamations both of God and of themselves. There the fiery gridiron will praise St. Lawrence, the arrows St. Sebastian, the cross St. Andrew, etc. For there each one will be praised not by words, but by blows; not by sayings, but by deeds; not by tongues, but by hands and works.
Think on this, O athlete of Christ, when you undertake a difficult task, when a hard temptation, persecution, death, or martyrdom strikes. Set before yourself the eternal praise and glory which, if you overcome it, you will attain; labor and pain will pass quickly, but their reward and glory will endure for all time: God, the Angels and all the heavenly inhabitants will praise you because you conquered yourself, because you trampled the world, because you overcame torments. "For our present momentary and light tribulation works for us an eternal weight of glory." Whence St. Gregory, book VI of the Moralia, chapter XV, whose title is: The Day of Judgment Is the Gate of the Kingdom. "Concerning these gates, he says, Solomon says again: Give her of the fruit of her hands, and let her works praise her in the gates. Then indeed the holy Church receives the fruit of her hands, when the recompense of her labor raises her to receive heavenly things. Then her works praise her in the gates, when to her members at the very entrance of the kingdom it is said: I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me to drink; I was a stranger, and you took Me in; naked, and you clothed Me, Matthew XXV. The children of this world therefore are puffed up before the gate, but shall be crushed at the gate: because the lovers of this world are proud in the present life, but at the very entrance of the kingdom are struck with eternal punishment." Bede adds: Give, he says, her a reward in heaven, because she strives to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, namely charity, joy, peace, kindness, modesty, continence, faith, patience.
Hear St. Ambrose on this passage of Proverbs, and St. Augustine, sermon 45 On Various Matters: "Her husband is praised in the gates. The harbor of our labors is to see God, to praise God. This John teaches in the Apocalypse, when the Blessed in the kingdom of heaven, inviting one another, say: Let us rejoice and exult, and give glory to God, Apocalypse XIX. There it will not be said: Work, clothe the servants, clothe yourself, adorn yourself with purple, give food to the maidservants, take care that the lamp not be extinguished, be anxious, rise by night, open your hand to the poor, draw thread from the distaff to the spindle: there will be no works of necessity, where there is no want; there will be no works of mercy, where there is no misery. For you do not break bread for the poor, where no one begs; you do not receive the stranger, where everyone rests in the homeland; you do not visit the sick, where all enjoy perpetual health; you do not clothe the naked, where all are clothed with eternal light; you do not bury the dead, where all live without end." He adds what the occupation in the blessed leisure of the Saints will be: "Yet by not doing these things you will not be idle. What then will you do? The Prophet teaches: That I may see the delight of the Lord, he says, the Virgin adored by Angels. Gabriel first greets her: Hail, full of grace." And below: "O Virgin bearing the miracle of an incomprehensible mystery, who preached the faith thrice desired to the world; Virgin made more sublime and superior to the very Cherubim and Seraphim, pleasing to Christ the King, held in honor by God as a worthy handmaid and mother." St. Bonaventure in the Canticle: "To you, he says, all Angels and Archangels, to you Thrones and Principalities faithfully serve; to you all the Powers and Virtues of heaven, and all the Dominations obey; to you all the Choirs, to you the Cherubim and Seraphim stand in attendance; to you all angelic creation proclaims with unceasing voice: Holy, holy, holy Mary, Mother of God, mother and Virgin." St. Bernardine of Siena, volume IV On the Nativity, chapter VI: "As many creatures, he says, serve the glorious Virgin Mary as serve the Trinity; for all creatures, whatever rank they hold among created things, whether spiritual like the Angels, or rational like men, or corporeal like the heavens and elements, whether damned or blessed; all things that are subjected to the divine command are subject to the glorious Virgin. For He who is the Son of God and of the Virgin serves His blessed mother on earth," according to that passage of Luke II: "He was subject to them." Let the Angelic Doctor close the ranks of the Saints, who in part I, Question XXV, article 3, reply 4, gives this golden tribute to the Blessed Virgin: "The Blessed Virgin, from the fact that she is the Mother of God, has a certain infinite dignity from the infinite good, which is God; and in this respect nothing can be made better than her."
All these things it is easy to apply to the Blessed Virgin, who receives the fruit and glory of her transcendent labors and sorrows above all Saints and Angels in heaven, and there on account of the heroic works of her humility, patience, charity, etc., is praised by the Angels and all the heavenly inhabitants. Hear St. John Damascene, oration 2 On the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin, speaking of her assumption into heaven: "On this day, he says, the Angels dance, the Archangels applaud, the Virtues celebrate together, the Principalities exult, the Powers rejoice, the Dominations indeed and the Thrones keep festival, the Cherubim lift her up with praises, the Seraphim honor her with glory: nor are they themselves less honored with glory, since they give glory to the parent of glory." And after a few things he asserts that all the Angels were present at the Dormition of the Virgin: "For however much, he says, they attend upon the supreme King, yet it was fitting that they accompany His mother, who is more excellent than all created things." The same, oration 1 On the Nativity, addressing St. Joachim and Anna: "You, he says, have brought forth a daughter superior to the Angels, and who now commands the Angels." St. Athanasius, sermon On the Mother of God: "All the hierarchies of Angels and of earthly beings, he says, proclaim you blessed, who are blessed in the heavens and proclaimed blessed on earth." And the blessings of each individual hierarchy, with which they celebrate her, St. Ephrem assigns in his sermon On the Praises of the Virgin: "Hail, he says, canticle of the Cherubim and Seraphim, and hymn of the Angels: hail, most illustrious ornament of the heavenly hierarchies." Sophronius, among the works of St. Jerome, On the Assumption of the Virgin: "She, he says, is called terrible as an army set in array, supported and surrounded by many ranks of Saints: for being made terrible by her virtues, like an army set in perfect order, supported on every side by the garrisons of the holy Angels, beautiful as the moon, indeed more beautiful than the moon, because now without any defect she gleams illuminated by heavenly splendors." St. Augustine, sermon 35 On the Saints: "If I call you heaven, he says, you are higher; if I call you the mother of nations, you surpass; if I call you the mistress of the Angels, in all things you prove yourself to be such." St. Epiphanius, sermon On the Praises of the Mother of God: "I behold, the beauty of the Lord, Psalm XXVI; you will see Him whom you desired, and you will praise Him unceasingly. This is the fruit you will receive. Then you will obtain that one thing which you asked for, saying: One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. Then death will be no more, nor mourning, nor pain. Then praise, exultation and joy will lay hold, and pain and sadness and groaning will flee, Isaiah XXXV. Then God will be all in all, I Corinthians XV. Then her husband will be praised in the gates: because blessed are they who dwell in Your house, O Lord, they will praise You forever and ever, Psalm LXXXIII, who live and reign forever. Amen."
St. Gregory Nazianzen in his Distichs: "Take perpetual care for eternal glory; for this present life daily deceives men."
Boethius, book II of the Consolation: "There can never be any comparison between the infinite and the finite. And so it comes about that the fame of however long a time, if it is considered alongside inexhaustible eternity, appears not small, but plainly nothing."
Habakkuk chapter III: "The hills of the world were bowed down by His eternal goings."
Sixtus the Philosopher in his Sentences: "Believe that immortal honors and punishments await you at the judgment."
"If we have lived eighty or a hundred years laboring in the work of God, we shall not reign for an equal time in the future, but for those years just mentioned, the kingdoms of all ages will be bestowed upon us." St. Anthony, according to Athanasius.
"No labor should seem hard, no time long, by which the glory of eternity is acquired."
The Angels according to Bede, book III of the History, chapter XIX: "You are casting the die for eternity; the cast is single and irrevocable; see therefore that for the throw you cast not mud, but heaven."
"Blessed are they who dwell in Your house, O Lord; they will praise You forever and ever." LIVE FOR ETERNITY. THE END.