Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Wisdom gives signs and effects, for he says it shines in the countenance, in moderate words, in the keeping of oaths and the law, and in the observance of opportunity: for wisdom excels and accomplishes these things. Then, in verse 9, he enumerates certain kinds of vanity, especially that the impious are treated as the pious. Finally, in verse 15, he praises the moderate life that enjoys its own resources, and banishes from itself anxious cares and curiosities of scrutinizing all things.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiastes 8:1-17
1. The wisdom of a man shines in his countenance, and the Most Powerful will change his face. 2. I observe the mouth of the king, and the precepts of the oath of God. 3. Do not hasten to depart from his face, nor persist in an evil work: because whatever he wills, he will do: 4. and his word is full of power: nor can anyone say to him: Why do you act thus? 5. He who keeps the commandment will experience nothing evil. The heart of the wise man understands the time and the answer,
6. For every matter there is a time, and opportunity, and great is man's affliction: 7. because he is ignorant of the past, and can know the future by no messenger. 8. It is not in man's power to restrain the spirit, nor does he have power over the day of death, nor is he permitted to rest when war presses upon him, nor will impiety save the impious. 9. All these things I considered, and I gave my heart to all the works that are done under the sun. Sometimes a man dominates another man to his own harm. 10. I saw the impious buried: who even while they still lived, were in the holy place, and were praised in the city as if for just works; but this also is vanity. 11. For because sentence against the wicked is not pronounced quickly, the sons of men perpetrate evils without any fear. 12. Yet because the sinner does evil a hundred times, and is sustained through patience, I have known that it will be well with those who fear God, who reverence His face. 13. Let it not be well with the impious, nor let his days be prolonged, but let those who do not fear the face of the Lord pass away like a shadow. 14. There is also another vanity that occurs upon the earth: there are just men to whom evils come as if they had done the works of the impious; and there are impious men who are as secure as if they had the deeds of the just; but this too I judge to be most vain. 15. Therefore I praised joy, because there was no good for man under the sun, except that he should eat and drink and be glad: and this alone he should carry with him from his labor, in the days of his life, which God gave him under the sun. 16. And I applied my heart to know wisdom, and to understand the distraction that occurs on earth: there is a man who day and night takes no sleep to his eyes. 17. And I understood that of all the works of God man can find no reason for those things that are done under the sun: and the more he labors to seek, the less he finds: even if the wise man says he knows, he will not be able to discover it.
Verse 1: THE WISDOM OF MAN SHINES IN HIS COUNTENANCE.
Vatablus explains it of the serenity and cheerfulness of the countenance; Cajetan of majesty and authority; Clarius of grace, from which a countenance is usually called gracious and pleasant; Olympiodorus takes it of the countenance of the soul, not of the body, as if to say: The wise man has the face of his soul conspicuous with great light, illuminated namely by the radiance of divine wisdom: but this is mystical. St. Jerome, connecting this maxim with the last words of the preceding chapter, reads it thus and explains it plainly and clearly: "Who is like the wise man? and who has known the solution of the word? The wisdom of man will illuminate his countenance, and the mighty one his face, etc. Above he had taught that a good man is difficult to find, and coming against this he had raised the question: that good men were created by God, but of their own accord fell into sin. Now he enumerates, as if about to glory in it, what good God gave to man, namely wisdom, and the reason of providence, to know the hidden mysteries of God, and to enter into the secret thoughts of His heart. But obliquely he speaks of himself, that no one was so wise as he, and no one so made the solutions of problems, and his wisdom was praised by the whole people, which not only lay hidden within, but also shone forth on the surface of his body and in the mirror of his countenance, and beyond all men he painted the prudence of his mind in his face."
Furthermore, wisdom shines in the countenance in three ways: first, because, as St. Jerome and Albinus say, the soul impresses itself and its passions and affections upon the body, especially upon the countenance through a natural sympathy, by which the form adapts and adjusts matter, that is, the soul adapts the body to itself. Therefore the wise soul reveals, indeed shapes and paints wisdom in the countenance, just as a seal shapes and stamps its figure in wax. This is evident from physiognomy. Hence Aristotle in his Physiognomics catalogues the physiognomic signs of wisdom and foolishness, of virtues and vices, which shine forth in the countenance and the whole body. Therefore Thuanus translates:
Indeed a gleaming splendor flashes on the rosy brow of the wise man, And ferocity and frowning depart from his countenance.
The countenance therefore is a living image, indeed a mirror and likeness of the soul, as the common opinion of the wise holds. Understand that this commonly happens, but not always; for, as the Comedian says: "Many mortals have an ingenuous face, but the mind within is found to be ignoble."
Second and more importantly, because wisdom, that is prudence and virtue, composes and shapes not only the soul but also the body, especially the countenance, to all honesty and comeliness, and causes gravity, modesty, courtesy, uprightness, piety to shine forth in it, namely serenity on the brow, modesty on the cheeks, candor in the eyes, prudence in the mouth and grace, in the whole countenance cheerfulness and joy, mixed with a prudent and holy maturity. Hence in Hebrew it is: the wisdom of man will illuminate his countenance; the Chaldean: the wisdom of the wise man illustrates the splendor of his face among the just. So also the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, and others. Arias:
Wisdom floods the face of man with light, And changes his anger and proud countenance, And removes his haughtiness, and renders him modest.
And another: For a grave face is the image of a wise soul: if namely it is mature, courteous, placid, and even-tempered. For the companion of wisdom is humanity and modesty.
Again, wisdom shines in the face of the wise man, because it makes him lovable to all, according to that passage Job 29:24: "The light of my countenance did not fall to the ground." For light is a symbol of majesty and a cause of veneration. Thus Esther said to Ahasuerus, chapter 15, verse 16: "I saw you, lord, like an angel of God, and my heart was troubled with fear of your glory. For you are very wonderful, lord, and your face is full of graces." Furthermore, "he sat upon the throne of his kingdom, clothed in royal garments, and gleaming with gold and precious stones, and he was terrible in aspect," ibid. verse 9. Thus the Jews saw the face of St. Stephen as that of an angel, Acts 6:15. Wisdom therefore joined to sanctity is like the sun pouring forth its radiance upon the countenance; hence "its light is inextinguishable," Wisdom 7:10.
Third, because the Holy Spirit, dwelling in the soul through grace and illuminating it, pours forth its light, indeed His own light, into the countenance and body, just as the light of a lamp shines through glass and horn; and just as the light of glory makes not only the minds but also the bodies of the blessed radiant and glorious. Add to this: the Holy Spirit often breathes a special brightness and splendor of countenance upon outstanding men in whose minds He dwells as in narrow temples: thus in the countenance of Christ the splendor of His divinity shone forth, as St. Jerome attests, whose rays He breathed upon St. Peter, St. James, and St. John in the Transfiguration; in the countenance of St. Anthony the splendor of sanctity shone forth, as St. Athanasius attests. Thus Blessed Philip Neri and other wise and holy men asserted that they saw the face of St. Ignatius, founder of the Society of Jesus, radiant and resplendent. Thus God speaking with Moses on Sinai affixed horns, that is rays of light, to him, Exodus 34:30. Thus the face of the Blessed Virgin was an image of uprightness, a norm and pattern of virtue, as St. Ambrose attests. Whence it follows: "And (that is, because) the Most Powerful will change his face." And Psalm 66:2: "May God illuminate His countenance upon us." For just as the sun illuminates creatures, so God illuminates holy men with His light. See what was said on Proverbs 17:24, concerning those words: "In the face of the prudent man wisdom shines." And Proverbs 27:19, concerning those words: "As faces shine back in water, so the hearts of men are manifest to the prudent."
AND THE MOST POWERFUL WILL CHANGE HIS FACE.
First, as if to say: A prince or tyrant, or some other powerful person, will bend the constancy and face of the wise and holy man, either by threats or rewards, so that he deflects from wisdom and uprightness to foolishness and wickedness. Again, if a wise man serves a prince and hangs upon his countenance and nod, he must often change his face along with him, just as a shadow changes and varies its shape when the body is moved; therefore if he is wise, he should not give himself over to an earthly prince, but to the heavenly one, with whom there is no shadow of change, James chapter 1, verse 17; which Wisdom admonishes when she adds: "I observe the mouth of the king."
Second and genuinely, by the Most Powerful understand God. He gives the reason why wisdom shines in the countenance of the wise man: because, namely, God transforms it and breathes His own wisdom and light into it, especially in prayer and conversation with God the Father of lights, just as in the same way He breathed His rays upon the face of Moses. Thus the countenance of St. Dominic from prolonged prayer breathed forth love; that of St. Francis, contempt of the world and Christ crucified; that of St. Catherine of Siena, devotion and compunction, so that by her countenance alone she pierced those who beheld her with compunction, and inflamed them to piety and love of God. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: God the Most Powerful usually changes the face of the wise man, so that shamelessness, obstinacy, sadness, ferocity, savagery, and whatever other evil affection was previously in it, is changed to what is good, namely to modesty, decency, chastity, joy, piety, etc.; so that he who previously had a grim, fierce, threatening, wandering, lascivious countenance by nature, or through habit and vice, now by the gift of wisdom has the same countenance cheerful, serene, placid, steady, chaste, holy. Thus God after prayer changed the sad face of Hannah the mother of Samuel, so that thenceforth she remained always with an even, joyful, and cheerful face, 1 Samuel 1:18; and the face of Esther, pale from fear of Ahasuerus, Esther 15:10; and of Daniel, chapter 7, verse 28. Furthermore, St. Bonaventure teaches that God changes the exterior face by changing the interior one, that is, the higher part of the soul or reason that is capable of God. Otherwise Emmanuel Sa, as if to say: God sometimes so changes and casts down the wise man that he does not appear to be wise.
Morally, Hugo the Cardinal says: God changes him who is evil so that he becomes good; who is ugly, so that he becomes beautiful; who is weak, so that he becomes strong; who is a wayfarer through grace, so that he becomes a comprehensor through glory, according to the fourfold state of beginners, those making progress, the perfect, and those who have arrived. Dionysius, however, as if to say: The wise man by God's gift will change his face toward his subjects, and according to the demands of his subjects and circumstances will now put on an angry expression, now a mild one, now a sad one, just as Christ did when He cast the buyers out of the temple, when He appeared to Mary Magdalene as a gardener, and to the disciples going to Emmaus as a stranger.
Anagogically, Lyranus says: God will change the mortal face in the resurrection into an immortal and glorious one.
Our translator read עז az, that is "powerful," by antonomasia, that is "the Most Powerful," namely God; but with a different vowel pointing they read עז oz, that is power, strength, vigor, hardness, impudence: for one who is hard of face or forehead is called impudent by the Hebrews. Whence
First, Cajetan translates: and the strength of his countenance will be changed, which he explains thus, as if to say: No ruler, no matter how wise, is so wise that he does not sometimes act foolishly, allowing himself to be corrupted by gifts, entreaties, or some other thing, so that he afflicts his subjects, etc.; and thus his countenance also, that is his authority, is changed and lost among them. Hence the Chaldean translates: and the impudent of face, his ways are changed from good to evil. Thus Catiline breathed impudence and cruelty from his countenance, even when already slain. "Even dead, Catiline," says Sallust, "retained the face he had when alive."
Second, Clarius translates: and the impudence (Vatablus: hardness) of his face will be changed, because when wisdom has taken possession of a man, it drives away impudence from his mind and brow. And Titelmannus thus translates and explains: the wisdom of man will make his countenance shine, and will change the strength, that is the impudence or cruelty, ferocity and barbarity of his face; Campensis: it drives away cruelty.
Third, Vatablus, as if to say: Wisdom will change the strength and arrogance and impudence of a man's face, because it will cause him to seem vile, abject, and despised in his own eyes, although he is highly esteemed by others.
Fourth, the Septuagint, reading ישנא iescunne with sin, that is "will be hated," not ישנא iescunne with shin, that is "will be changed," translate ἀναιδής, that is "impudent" (the Vatican reading has "imprudent," and impudence is imprudence, namely foolishness) will be hated for his countenance; the Syriac: he whose face is bold will become odious; the Arabic: he who has no shame disgraces his own face, as if to say: In the countenance of the wise man modesty and wisdom shine; in the countenance of the impudent man, folly; and therefore the former will be loved and honored, the latter hated and despised. Hence, as Olympiodorus explains, he will be punished by his own face, when namely the impudent man, exalting himself with contentious speeches and sophistical quibbles, being refuted, will pay the penalty for his impudence. Thaumaturgus: the sign of wisdom appears from a man's countenance, just as shameless malice, as soon as someone is seen, will reveal that he is worthy to have it dwell in him. St. Jerome in his Commentary: the wicked man will be hated for his face: wickedness is boldness and impudence.
Verse 2: I OBSERVE THE MOUTH OF THE KING, AND THE PRECEPTS OF THE OATH OF GOD.
The Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic translate in the imperative: observe the mouth of the king, because for שמר scomer, that is "I observe," they read with a different vowel pointing שמר scemor, that is "observe." Hence they judged it should be translated from the Hebrew thus: I, namely advise or command, observe the mouth of the king. This verse depends on the preceding one, and is drawn forth as a practical conclusion, as if to say: Because God is most powerful and transforms the face of the wise man with the light of His own mouth and face, and breathes His own wisdom, virtue, and splendor into it, for this reason: I, Wisdom, or I, the wise man, observe the mouth and face of God my king, both so that I may conform my mouth and face to His, being illuminated by His mouth and face; hence David frequently prays in the Psalms that God would "illuminate His countenance upon us," because "in His light we shall see light:" for just as he who walks in the sun is illuminated by the sun's light, so he who dwells with God is suffused with divine light; and so that from His divine mouth I may receive the commands and precepts of wisdom, with which I may imbue, illuminate, and sanctify my mind and countenance, and which I may put into practice, so that by laboring here I may follow my God through grace, and in heaven attain Him by comprehending through glory.
Furthermore, the word "I" refers either to wisdom, which is the subject of the whole discourse, or to Solomon, who here represents in himself the type of wisdom and of the wise man, which amounts to the same thing, as is clear from the words of St. Jerome cited at the beginning of verse 1. For Solomon often, just like Sirach, introduces wisdom itself speaking through prosopopoeia, for the sake of elegance and emphasis.
Therefore first and genuinely, by "king" understand God, who is the King of kings. For Solomon had no king on earth superior to himself whose mouth and commands he would observe. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: I, Wisdom, walk carefully with God my king and diligently observe Him; and I command those devoted to me, namely the wise and holy, to observe exactly his mouth, that is, the law flowing from God's mouth, and the precepts of God's oath, which He Himself confirmed with an oath, to testify that this was His innermost will, namely that men should keep His precepts most diligently, and which we in turn promised by solemn profession, as by an oath, to observe in circumcision or baptism, and as it were swore to keep.
Note: The word "I observe" signifies a zealous and exact devotion to investigating and fulfilling the divine will and law, so that we trace in detail what, how much, how, and with what circumstances God commands this or that to be done, and fulfill all things and each thing exactly. Thus servants observe the mouth of the king, that is, his every command and word, indeed his every gesture and nod and wink of his eyes, and when they have perceived what he wants, they do not so much walk as run and fly to carry it out.
Mystically, St. Bonaventure says: The Mouth of the Father is Christ (just as Christ's mouth is the doctor and preacher), whose slightest words, indeed gestures and nods, we ought to studiously hear, store in our mind, meditate upon, and carry out in deed. For, as Christ says: "Blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." Thus the Blessed
Virgin "kept all these words, pondering them in her heart," Luke 2:19. Thus everyone ought to observe the mouth of the Lord, so that at the slightest sign of the divine will he would shape and compose his whole self. This is "to walk carefully with God," which God uniquely requires of us, as Micah 6:8 teaches; and therefore it is fitting to say constantly with Samuel: "Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening;" and with Paul: "Lord, what do you wish me to do?" and with the Psalmist: "My heart is ready, O God, my heart is ready."
Second, by "king," with Olympiodorus and others, can be understood any king, prince, and magistrate, who has received from God the office, right, and authority of governing, as if to say: I, Wisdom, observe, and I teach those devoted to me to observe the mouth, that is, the laws and commands of kings and magistrates, who govern the commonwealth as God's vicars. For subjects promised and swore to obey them at their inauguration. Therefore it is right that they obey and comply with them according to the oaths they took, according to Proverbs 24:21: "Fear the Lord, my son, and the king," because the Lord commanded you to obey the king. Hence the Septuagint and Arabic translate: keep the mouth of the king; the Syriac: preserve; the Chaldean: guard your mouth regarding the sentence of the king; the Tigurina: I indeed advise you to observe the mouth of the king, especially because of the oath of God; because, as Vatablus says, we pledged fidelity to the king by oath. Others: it is mine to observe the precept of the king. Furthermore, some disjoin the first hemistich from the second adversatively, as if to say: Observe the mouth, that is, the precepts of the king, but rather observe the oaths by which you are bound to God; so that, if the king commands something contrary to God, you may say: "We must obey God rather than men." Hence Campensis: let him observe what the king has commanded, and fulfill whatever he has sworn with God called as witness. And Thaumaturgus: the words of the king must be attended to with great diligence, but an oath by the name of God must be avoided by all means.
Third, some restrict this maxim and attribute it to the familiars and counselors of kings and princes, as if Solomon here urges upon them fidelity and silence, lest they divulge their secret counsels, as they promised them by oath, as if each of them were introduced here as speaking, saying: I keep secret the mouth, that is, the secrets I have heard from the mouth of my king. Hence St. Jerome judges that Solomon here speaks in the person of any wise man who obeys laws and kings. For this is the knot and sinew of governing and conducting affairs well: that counsels be kept secret. The Persians knew this, of whom Ammianus writes, book 21: "No one," he says, "is privy to counsels except the silent and faithful nobles, among whom even the divinity of silence is worshipped," as if to say: They observe and honor silence so religiously, as if it were their only divinity; hence they were called silentiaries, and truly were such. To this pertains the saying of Raphael, Tobit 12:7: "It is good to hide the secret of a king." To this also pertains the exposition of Olympiodorus: "To keep the mouth of the king," he says, "is to hide divine mysteries in silence, and not to explain them to unworthy and profane hearers." The same writer explains it tropologically thus: It is good that we do not seek to walk outside the mouth and face of God, but perform all our works so that we reverence God as a present judge and inspector.
AND THE PRECEPTS (Hebrew: word; St. Jerome: speech) OF THE OATH OF GOD:
repeat: I observe. Otherwise St. Jerome in his Commentary, and Symmachus, who connect these words with what follows: do not hasten. Hence the Arabic: Do not hasten, he says, in an oath in memory of God; Symmachus: to transgress the oath of God, as if to say: Do not hasten and be rash about an oath, because an oath is inscribed in God's memory as well as yours, and is kept as if engraved, so that if you transgress it, you will find God as your avenger. Our translator, however, and the Septuagint and Arabic call the words or precepts the oath of God, namely those by which God as it were bound you by oath, that is, most strictly and most severely constrained you, threatening eternal punishments and promising the heavenly kingdom, and also with the covenant and the blood of the covenant, Exodus 24:8; and which you pledged and as it were swore to keep when you came to His religion and Church. Hence the Fathers call the profession of faith that is made in baptism a pledge, oath, and vow, and with these they vigorously press the faithful to keep God's precepts. It is a catachresis similar to that of Psalm 118:106: "I have sworn (that is, I have firmly resolved, proposed, promised; whence it follows), and have determined to keep the judgments of Your justice."
Hear St. Chrysostom, in his homily on that passage of Wisdom: The souls of the just are in the hand of God: "Wherefore you, O Christian, are a delicate soldier, if you think you can conquer without a fight, triumph without a contest. Put forth your strength, fight bravely, struggle fiercely in battle. Consider the covenant, attend to the condition, know the warfare; the covenant which you pledged, the condition on which you entered, the warfare to which you gave your name," through the military sacrament, namely through baptism, and the profession of the Christian life in the Church Militant, to which you are enrolled as a soldier and athlete of Christ. Tertullian, in his book On the Crown of the Soldier, chapter 3: "In the Church," he says, "under the hand of the bishop we declare that we renounce the devil and his pomp and his angels," as if to say: By the military oath in baptism we renounced the devil and enlisted ourselves under Christ, as His sworn soldiers. St. Basil, Exhortation to Baptism: "Generals give a token to those serving under them, etc.: unless the Angel recognizes the mark upon you, how will he fight for you, or defend you from enemies?" Augustine, book 4, On the Creed, to Catechumens, chapter 1: "You have professed," he says, "to renounce him (the devil), in which profession you said, not to men, but to God and His angels as witnesses: I renounce. To renounce not only with words, but also with conduct; not only with the sound of the tongue, but also with the action of life; not only with sounding lips, but with deeds that proclaim!"
Know that you have undertaken a contest with a cunning, ancient, and crafty enemy; let him not find his works in you after your renunciation, let him not rightfully drag you back into his servitude. For you are caught and exposed, O Christian, when you do one thing and profess another; faithful in name, you demonstrate something else in deed, not keeping the faith of your promise: now entering the Church to pour forth prayers, and shortly after shamelessly shouting in the theaters with actors. What have you to do with the pomps of the devil which you have renounced?" Victor of Utica narrates, in book 3 of the Vandal History, that two Christian brothers were hanged by the Arian Vandals, with heavy stones attached to their feet; and when one of them asked to be taken down and given a reprieve, the other, fearing he would deny the faith, cried out: "Do not, do not, brother, we did not swear thus to Christ. I will accuse you when we come before His terrible throne, because upon His body and blood we swore that we would suffer for one another for His sake." Whence the former, strengthened, steadfastly declared: "Apply whatever tortures you wish, and press Christians with cruel punishments. What my brother is going to do, I also will do."
Verse 3: DO NOT HASTEN TO DEPART FROM HIS FACE, NOR PERSIST IN AN EVIL WORK: BECAUSE WHATEVER HE WILLS, HE WILL DO.
The words "do not hasten" the Arabic, Olympiodorus, and others connect with the preceding, as if to say: Do not hasten in the oath of God, that is, do not be rash in swearing; for thus you will expose yourself to the danger of perjury.
Better, our translator, the Septuagint, Syriac, and others generally connect these words with what follows, as if to say: Keep the oaths, that is, the precepts of God, to which you bound yourself to God with the greatest reverence by solemn profession in circumcision or baptism, as by an oath: wherefore, if any temptation, adversity, or persecution assails you, do not hasten, in Hebrew אתבהל al tebahel, that is, do not tremble, do not be shaken, do not rush headlong to depart from His face, as if you could flee from His sight, says Campensis, as Cain fled from Him, Genesis 4:16, but did not escape; nor persist; Campensis: do not stubbornly persist in an evil work, so that against God's law you persist in some crime to which concupiscence, companions, or enemies drive you by enticements or threats, shaking off the fear of God's majesty and vengeance; because even if He defers it for a time, nevertheless in His own time He will do whatever He wills, and will punish those who rebel against Him and are guilty, and will punish them with present and eternal death.
For "in an evil work," the Hebrew, Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic have "in an evil word," which can properly be understood of sins of the mouth and tongue, such as murmuring, detraction, opposition. Hence Thaumaturgus understands it of blasphemy; for he translates thus: concerning the words of God, even though those commanding may impose something burdensome, one ought to obey, and to beware of all blasphemy against God. For although He inflicts something upon you, it is not for you to reproach or contradict the decrees of the monarch or king.
Furthermore, the Chaldean translates: and in the time of a man's anger do not cease to pray before him, but quickly go into his presence and pray, and seek mercy from him so that nothing evil may come; because the Lord of the whole world has done whatever He willed, that is, as Costus translates more clearly: so that nothing sorrowful may happen; for He Himself, the Lord of the whole world, can do all things according to the judgment of His mind.
Second, all these things from verse 2 to verse 9 can be understood not only of God, but also of a king or magistrate, as if to say: Do not oppose the king and his decrees, so as to speak against them or resist them, because the king is powerful, and whatever he wills he will do, so that he may punish and deprive you, his adversary, of goods, citizenship, freedom, or life. So Vatablus, Campensis, Cajetan, and others. Furthermore, Cajetan explains the words "do not hasten," as if to say: Do not too quickly approach the king's presence, or lightly depart from him, lest by this lightness and impropriety you offend the king; but even if you have spoken something against him, do not persist in his domain, but quickly remove yourself from it, lest he seize and punish you. David de Pomis, however, as if to say: Do not hasten to approach the king, or to depart from him; do not too frequently present yourself before his face, nor too rarely. For, as Plutarch says: "One must deal with a king as with fire," so that you neither approach too close, lest you be burned, nor stay too far away, lest you not be warmed by him, that is, lest you not feel his love, favor, and benefits. Sidonius Apollinaris also, book 3 of his Letters, compares kings to flames: "which," he says, "just as they illuminate things placed a little distance from them, so they burn those brought too close." Thus Alexander killed Clitus who was too familiar, Tiberius killed Sejanus, Nero killed Seneca. Furthermore, Vatablus explains it thus: If you have departed from the king, immediately return to his favor, lest you be forced to remain in an evil work, since the king has the power to do whatever he wills. Others explain it, as if to say: Do not disdainfully, arrogantly, and with philosophical haughtiness withdraw from the king, refusing to approach him even when summoned by him, as if superior and wiser than he, and loftier than the king and the whole world, as Diogenes disdained Alexander the Great. Seneca, epistle 103: "For many," he says, "philosophy insolently and contumaciously displayed has been a cause of danger. Let it strip vices from you, not reproach others with them; let it not shrink from public customs, nor act so that whatever it does not do, it seems to condemn; one may be wise without ostentation, without envy." See Plutarch, in the book entitled: That a Philosopher Should Converse with Princes. Finally, our Pineda judges that these words pertain to the familiars and counselors of kings and princes, so that Solomon here suggests to them two salutary admonitions: first, that in giving counsel to the king they should not precipitate their opinion, but after deliberation, pronounce it maturely. For, as Livy says, book 22: "All things are clear and certain to one who does not hurry; haste is improvident and blind;" and book 31: "Nothing is so hostile to counsels of great moment as speed." Second, that they should not be obstinate in their opinion, nor self-willed, but if they see better counsels given by others, they should approve them and change their opinion. For thus they show themselves devoted not to their own honor, but to the advantage of the king and the commonwealth, which is the proper praise of a senator and counselor.
Verse 4: AND HIS WORD IS FULL OF POWER: NOR CAN ANYONE SAY TO HIM: WHY DO YOU ACT THUS?
In Hebrew: in what the word of the king is, in that is power, as if to say: The word and command of the king is armed with power, and is indeed power itself, so that like a thunderbolt it immediately carries out what he has commanded, and his word is a deed: hence Seleucus was surnamed Ceraunius, that is "the Thunderbolt." Hence Thaumaturgus:
For whatever he commands, at the commander's Word, or even sooner, deeds will follow the voice.
Others translate: according to the word of the king is power, as if to say: The measure of the king's word or command is power: he can do as much as he has spoken and commanded; he is worth as much as he wills. Hear Esdras, book 3, chapter 4, verse 3: "The king surpasses all, and has dominion over them: and whatever he says to them, they do. And if he sends them against warriors, they go, and they demolish mountains, and walls, and towers. They slay and are slain, and they do not transgress the king's words: and if he alone says: Kill, they kill," etc. And Plutarch, To an Uneducated Prince: "Wickedness," he says, "having obtained a swift course from power, drives all motions of the mind into actions. But just as lightning, though it bursts forth after thunder, is yet seen before it, so in empires punishments outrun accusations, unless reason, restrained by gravity, checks and restrains power."
Do you want examples of the ambitious power of kings? Take these: Cyrus, crossing the river Gyndes by ship, because one of his horses had perished, blazing with anger at the river, diverted it into 360 channels to destroy it, as Seneca narrates at length, book 3, On Anger, chapter 21. More impotent was Xerxes, who loaded the Hellespont with insults because a storm had broken his bridges, ordered three hundred lashes to be inflicted upon it, and even fetters to be cast upon it, as Herodotus attests, book 7. More modest and wiser was Canute, king of England, who sitting on the seashore and commanding the sea, said: "Wave, I command you not to touch my feet," but being drenched by the sea that did not obey, he taught his Englishmen that not he, but Christ alone was king, whom the winds and sea obey. Therefore at Winchester in the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul he placed the royal crown upon the crucifix of Christ, and would not endure to be crowned with it thereafter, as Polydore Vergil attests, book 7 of his History, near the end. More foolish was Pharaoh, saying: "The river (the Nile) is mine, and I made myself," Ezekiel 29:3; and the king of Tyre, saying: "I am God, and I sit in the seat of God in the heart of the sea," Ezekiel 28:2; and the king of Babylon, saying: "I will ascend to heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, etc., I will be like the Most High," Isaiah 14:13. Are not these voices of kings subjecting even the elements and heavens to their own power insane?
Verse 5: HE WHO KEEPS THE COMMANDMENT WILL EXPERIENCE NOTHING EVIL.
The Hebrew: he will not know, namely by experience and sense, an evil word, that is an evil thing, namely the anger of the king and the penalty of the law; the Arabic: an unclean word. Otherwise Olympiodorus and St. Ambrose on Psalm 41, as if to say: The just man does not "know evil," namely of fault, so as to do it, approve it, receive it with any consent, or transfer it to himself by any association. Hence learn the power and fruit of obedience, namely that it makes the obedient person immune from all evil and virtually inviolable, so much so that even if a king or superior, hostile to him, wishes to constrain him with rigid and strict commands, the obedient person nevertheless, undertaking all things, overcomes and transcends them with great virtue of soul, praise, and merit, and therefore God makes all things easy, useful, and honorable for him, even those things which seem devised to oppress him; for to the obedient, as to "those who love God, all things work together for good," Romans 8. St. Ephrem teaches the same thing excellently, volume 2, exhortation 16, On the Superior and Obedience; and St. Chrysostom, homily 84 on John; and Dorotheus, doctrine 5. Therefore, although he may suffer either common or private and personal hardships of life, he does not consider them punishments, but exercises of virtue, increases of merit, and examples for those who observe or come after: wherefore, with Paul he takes pleasure, indeed glories in weaknesses and tribulations, Romans 8:28; 2 Corinthians 12:5. Therefore the obedient and just man looks upon God who scourges him as a father; who corrects him, as a friend; who chastises him, as a teacher; who offers him bitter things, as a physician, and says with St. Augustine: "Burn here, cut here, so that You may spare in the future."
THE HEART OF THE WISE MAN UNDERSTANDS THE TIME AND THE ANSWER.
The Hebrew: time and judgment, that is, as the Septuagint and Arabic explain by hendiadys, the time of judgment. "Judgment" signifies many things in Scripture: for in the judgment of judges many things are done, which the word "judgment" sometimes signifies all together, sometimes one of them singly by synecdoche; hence it sometimes signifies the interrogation and accusation, the defense and answer; sometimes the sentence of judgment, sometimes the punishment inflicted by it. Again, because a forensic judgment is established, determined, certain, and fixed, hence "judgment" by catachresis signifies a fixed and certain thing, also a custom, law, convention, norm, rule, status, condition, office, function, ministry. Now
First, Thaumaturgus explains this of the day of judgment, which the wise man keeps before his mind in all his actions. Hence he translates: indeed the wise man always has before his eyes the just judgment that will come in its own time, and foreknows that all the works of human life await retribution from above. It is reported of St. Jerome that he said: "Whether I eat, or drink, or keep vigil, or sleep, or do anything else, that trumpet always resounds in my ears: Arise, you dead, come to judgment." Certainly he who is wise does the same thing, and thus "disposes his words (and all his actions) in judgment," that is, justly, lawfully, and exactly with mature judgment, so that on the day of judgment he may have something to answer the Judge on his behalf. So also Olympiodorus, Hugo, Lyranus, Titelmannus, and others.
Second, others refer these words to the counselor of a king, as if to say: If the king commands something illicit, a wise man knows what he ought to prudently answer the king, so that he neither admits anything illicit, nor incurs the king's anger, as the three youths did when ordered to worship the golden statue, Daniel 3; and Daniel himself, chapter 6, when a law was passed that no one should worship God for thirty days, except the king. Cajetan on the contrary refers these words to the king, whom the wise man knows to be watching for the time and judgment, that is, the opportunity to judge against the one he is determined to punish, as Solomon watched for the time to punish Shimei and Adonijah, 1 Kings chapter 2, verses 22 and 42. But this sense is discordant with the Vulgate which translates "answer."
Third and genuinely, as if to say: The wise man obeys the precept of both God and of the king and magistrate so exactly, observing all its circumstances of place, time, manner, persons, etc., that there is nothing in him that can be criticized; but if anyone blames him in any matter, he immediately has what he can rightfully answer, and by which he can defend and demonstrate his obedience, so much so that if he is called to judgment, he can render a just account of his deed before judges. Hence our translator sagaciously translates "judgment" as "answer." Thus St. Jerome: "He has commanded," he says, "that the royal command, that is of Christ, be kept, and to know what, and why, and at what time He commands," so that namely we observe with exact judgment all the circumstances, details, and nods of the one commanding, lest even the smallest opportunity slip by in which we do not fully carry out His will, but that when He calls, or even beckons, we immediately present ourselves and answer with Samuel: "Here I am;" and with St. Augustine: "Give what You command, and command what You will."
Therefore the wise man understands and observes "the time and the judgment," because when called, questioned, or commanded by God or the king to answer, say, or do something, he answers, says, and does everything at the right time, and with mature judgment, that is, with great reason, prudence, and circumspection. Or more plainly, which however amounts to the same thing, the wise man observes the time and the judgment, that is, the time of judgment, as the Septuagint translates, that is, the just, suitable, apt, opportune time for answering, speaking, or acting. Hence our translator, for the Hebrew משפט misphat, that is "judgment," which he here translates as "answer," in the following verse translates as "opportunity." These three things therefore, namely judgment, answer, and opportunity, signify the same thing in this place, namely the just and opportune time for answering.
Finally, our Pineda judges that here the form and ideal of the perfect obedient person is noted, so that to understand the judgment means the same as to hasten with the desire, readiness, and consideration of a zealous soul, so as to anticipate the time of the command and of obedience, and to await it eagerly, and as far as is in him, to call for it, hasten it, bring it forward, and finally, before he receives commands, to silently consider within himself, if this or that difficult and hard thing be commanded, with what face, with what spirit, with what answer he will receive it, and to often form that answer in his mind, and have it most ready: "Behold, here I am, send me;" for, as St. Bernard says: "The true obedient man prepares his ears for hearing, his tongue for speaking, his hands for working, his feet for the journey; and thus he collects his whole self within himself, so that he may carry out the command of the one commanding." So he himself, in his sermon On Obedience.
Morally, St. Bonaventure says: The wise man observes the time of doing good, so that he may aptly answer the one who asks and is ignorant, as Hugo notes, whether by teaching, or counseling, or obeying, or patiently receiving God's scourges, and correcting his ways, or humbly confessing to accusations and charges, or giving thanks for God's benefits, or cooperating with God's inspiration, and advancing to better things.
Again, and properly, learn here that the wise man observes the time, that is, the opportunity of doing good, and of fulfilling what has been commanded, and therefore that a great part of wisdom and prudence consists in seizing the opportunity for conducting affairs well; for when it presents itself, the matter is easily and happily accomplished; but when it is absent, the matter is attempted in vain with great difficulty, and nothing is advanced, but everything turns out unsuccessfully. Hence he infers that great account must be taken of the time of this life, inasmuch as it is brief, and once elapsed is irrevocable, and upon it depends each person's entire eternity, and that either most blessed or most wretched.
Louis of Blois narrates, book 4, Spiritual Graces, chapter 4, concerning St. Mechtild, that she heard from the Saints appearing to her: "Ah, how happy you are who still live on earth, and how many merits you can earn! because if a man knew how much he could merit in a single day, as soon as he awoke from sleep, his heart would be so expanded with joy because that day had dawned, in which he could live for God and by God's grace increase his merit to God's praise, that all day long for everything he would have to do or suffer, he would be rendered more cheerful and stronger. For he who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly; and he who sows in blessings will also reap from blessings. For their works will follow them."
St. Bernard to Scholars: "Let none of you," he says, "think little of the time that is consumed in idle words. The irrevocable word flies, the irremediable time flies, and the foolish man does not notice what he is losing; it is permitted to chat, they say, until the hour passes. O until the hour passes, which the mercy of the Creator grants you for doing penance, for obtaining pardon, for acquiring grace, for meriting glory, the mercy of the Creator grants! until the time passes in which you ought to have propitiated the divine mercy, hastened to the angelic society, sighed for the lost inheritance, stirred up the weakened will, wept for committed iniquity." And again: "Nothing is more precious than time, and alas! today nothing is found more worthless. The day of salvation has passed, and no one reflects: no one complains that a day has perished for him and will never return; but just as a hair from the head, so not a moment will be lost from time." Do you want the sentiments and maxims of the pagans about the value and brevity of time? Take Virgil, Georgics 3:
And meanwhile time flies, flies irrevocably.
The same, Aeneid 10:
Its own day stands appointed for each, brief and irreparable Is the time of life for all.
Ovid, Metamorphoses 10:
Age glides secretly, and fleeting time deceives.
And:
Nothing is swifter than the years.
And again:
The years go like flowing water: Youth must be used, for age slips by with swift foot.
Seneca in Hippolytus:
The fickle hour flies on uncertain wings.
Seneca, book 1, epistle 1: "The greatest part of life," he says, "slips away for those who act badly, a great part for those who do nothing, the whole life for those who do something other than what they should. Who will you show me who places any value on time? who values a day? who understands that he dies daily? Do therefore, my Lucilius, what you write that you are doing: embrace all hours. All things are foreign to us, time alone is ours. Nature has placed us in possession of this one thing, fleeting and slippery, from which anyone who wishes is expelled; and so great is the folly of mortals that they allow things which are the least and cheapest, certainly replaceable, to be charged to them when they have obtained them; but no one considers that he owes anything who has received time; yet this is the one thing that not even a grateful man can repay." Marcus Varro judged that no loss was heavier, especially for the one who knows, than that of time. Bias, according to Laertius, book 1, chapter 6, used to say that the time of life should be feared as though we are going to live both long and briefly, according to that saying of St. Jerome: "Live as if you were always about to die; study as if you were always going to live." Democritus said that the most precious expenditure was time. Zeno said that nothing was more lacking to men than time, says Laertius, book 7, chapter 1; and yet many squander it on dice, games, and jests, as if they had an abundance of it. Theophrastus always had on his lips: "No expense is more precious than time." Simonides, when asked how long he had lived, said: "A short time indeed, but many years," says Stobaeus, in his discourse.
Thus Barlaam, in Damascenus's History, chapter 18, when asked by Josaphat the king's son how many years of life he had, answered 45; for although I am 70 years old, I have served God in monastic life for only 45 of them; and I count only that time as life: for what is spent in vanity and idleness is the time of death, not of life. Another: "Just as a river cannot be stopped, neither can time. Just as wave perpetually drives wave, so day pushes day." Just as no one notices storks arriving, but having arrived; no one notices them departing, but having departed, because they do both by night and in secret: so no one notices youth departing, but having departed, and we do not feel old age arriving, but having arrived: just as those who are carried by ship advance gradually without feeling it. There is an old adage: Know the time. And: "When it rains, one must grind."
Opportunity is hairy in front, bald behind.
The Egyptians depicted a serpent for the annual cycle: because, as St. Cyril says, it stretches out in length, and is coiled in many spirals, which are the many series of days and years, and it creeps forward silently making no noise. The serpent hid its tail, because all times are uncertain to us. For the present, since it is unstable and passes most swiftly, is scarcely perceived; the past we cannot behold; the future much less, because it does not yet exist, and its end is utterly unknown. So Pierius, book 14, page 130. Nemesianus, eclogue 3:
...we grow old, time flees.
"All time departs, time seizes, use is in a narrow space." More about the value and care of time I said on chapter 3, verse 1, and Ephesians 5:16.
Verse 6: FOR EVERY MATTER (Hebrew: will, that is, a thing willed) THERE IS A TIME AND OPPORTUNITY (Symmachus: a time of advantage and a manner; Hebrew, Syriac, Arabic, and Septuagint: time and judgment); AND GREAT IS MAN'S AFFLICTION.
He gives the reason why the heart of the wise man understands and observes the time, because namely he knows that each thing has its own time and opportunity; and therefore he seizes each thing at its opportune time. St. Jerome, however, judges that here the wise or just man is taught to recognize that God disposes all things for his own and others' benefit, even though he cannot know what will happen to him; therefore whatever befalls the just man, he receives it with an even, indeed willing spirit, as ordained and sent to him by God. Therefore he embraces God's judgments, and from everything seizes the opportunity of doing good and meriting from God.
AND GREAT IS MAN'S AFFLICTION.
Theodotion and the Arabic, reading דעת daath, that is "knowledge," for רעת raath, that is "affliction," translate: because the knowledge of man is great upon him; which Olympiodorus refers to the multitude of things to be known: "Since wisdom itself is immense," he says, "it presses down and overwhelms man. For if he wishes to know all things, rushing upon him with a vast mass, it oppresses his mind and suffocates it."
The same author then explains it concerning the ignorance of the time, place, and manner: when, namely, where, and how the last judgment is to be carried out. But the Septuagint, Syriac, Arabic, Chaldean, and the rest with our translator read raath, that is "affliction"; Vatablus: unhappiness; Clarius: various and most dangerous evils, not so much of fault, as Cajetan holds, as of hardship and punishment. It signifies that each time, and likewise each thing to be dealt with, has its own vanity and affliction: for this is what he strives to prove throughout the whole book. Furthermore, the vanity and affliction proper to time is that which he adds: "Because he is ignorant of the past and the future," as if to say: In all things, places, and times there is great affliction, especially in handling and dispatching arduous affairs; but nevertheless the wise man by his wisdom foresees it, and avoids or overcomes it.
Properly and precisely, Hugo of St. Victor explains the affliction as the difficulty of finding a fitting answer by which an angry king, whose will, whether just or unjust, the wise counselor has opposed, might be pacified. Others explain the affliction as the torment of fear and punishment that assails the disobedient person who has transgressed the precepts of God or the king. The Chaldean refers it to the day of judgment; for thus he has from the version of Costus: the change of every thing is both good and bad, and indeed by a just sentence the whole world will be judged, at which time vengeance has been appointed by the Lord over the whole world for the various sins of men who wonderfully please themselves in their evil deeds. More clearly, Campensis: God has established a time according to His will, in which He will judge all things, and before it arrives, we are exposed to various and dangerous evils.
This meaning is very apt, both because the Hebrew is משפט mispath, that is "judgment"; and because in this sense everything is excellently connected, and everything flows from verse 2, according to the Septuagint: observe the mouth of the king, etc. Because whatever He wills He will do, and His word is full of power, as if to say: Observe God's precepts, because He Himself on the day of judgment will demand an exact account of them from you; because He is most powerful, He will sharply punish you, indeed condemn you to Gehenna, and He will do this whenever it pleases Him: for He alone is the lord of life and death: therefore when He wills, He will hasten your death in order to judge and condemn you: for this reason the mention of power over death is introduced in verse 8.
Verse 7: BECAUSE HE IS IGNORANT OF THE PAST, AND CAN KNOW THE FUTURE BY NO MESSENGER.
"Great," says Jerome, "is the affliction for the human race, as the Poet says: The mind of men knows not the fate and lot that awaits them. One thing is hoped for, another happens; from one place the enemy is expected, and by another's javelin one is wounded." Any past and future things can be understood here; but properly those are signified which pertain to giving a fitting answer to God or the king, which I discussed at verse 5, and to the affairs that fall to a man to be prudently dispatched at the opportune time: for although a man may know some past things, yet they are few and often not pertinent to the matter, because there are far more things of which he is ignorant, especially those that pertain to his affairs. Dionysius understands it of the past patience of the saints, as well as the punishments exacted from the impious.
For the past, in Hebrew there is a future tense, and thus the Septuagint translates: Because, they say, there is no one who knows what will be: for as it will be, who will announce it to them? The Arabic: because no one is found who knows what is to be avoided; for who will remind him of a matter as it was yesterday? The Chaldean of Costus: no one has ever been able to know what end will befall him. For when the Lord has so decreed as to demand his punishment, who will make him aware? The Syriac, however, translates in the past tense: because there is no one who knows for what purpose he was made, and what will happen after him, who will show him? Therefore the Syriac, just like our translator, for שיהיה sceiia, that is "what will be," seems to have read שהיה scehaia, that is "what was," or "what has happened and is past"; or rather from the text and the connection of the sentence he sagaciously conjectured that the first term is opposed to the latter, and therefore the first should be translated by the past tense (as if the ו includes a conversive vav, which turns the future into the past), and the latter properly by the future. So then, translating word for word from the Hebrew: for he himself does not know what has happened, because what will be, who will announce it to him? And thus the meaning coheres well, as if to say: Great affliction weighs upon the wise man to give a fitting answer to God, or to the king who questions or examines him, and to perform all actions and things fittingly and opportunely, and to dispatch prudently at their proper time the affairs that fall to him, because he is ignorant of past things which could teach him what needs to be done, and equally of future things, namely what the outcome of his action or counsel will be. For prudence consists in the memory of the past, the consideration of the present, and the foresight of the future: and therefore the heart of the wise man can understand the time, that is, the differences of time, namely what is past and what is future.
Verse 8: IT IS NOT IN MAN'S POWER TO RESTRAIN THE SPIRIT, NOR HAS HE POWER OVER THE DAY OF DEATH, NOR IS HE PERMITTED TO REST WHEN WAR PRESSES, NOR WILL IMPIETY SAVE THE IMPIOUS.
The Hebrew and Septuagint: no man has power over the spirit to restrain the spirit, and there is no power over the day of death, and there is no discharge in the day of battle, and impiety will not save its master; the Septuagint: him who belongs to it, supply: who is and is called impious; the Arabic: him who partakes of it; the Tigurina: its associates. It is easy to connect this maxim with what precedes: for it can be referred to the phrase "great affliction." For the greatest affliction of man is death, which is described here; or to the word "future": for the future place, day, and manner of death are unknown, so Thaumaturgus; or to the phrase "for every matter there is a time and judgment," as the Hebrew has, as if to say: Just as the time of judgment has been determined by God, in which He Himself will demand an account of deeds from everyone, so also the time of death has been determined, which no one can stop or prolong; or to the phrase "observe the mouth of the king," verse 1, as the Septuagint has, as if to say: Observe the precepts of God and of the king or prince; because He Himself, if you violate them, has over you the right of death and life which you cannot resist: therefore strive to please Him in all things, and whatever you can do, do it, so that at the hour of death, summoned by God, you may joyfully and confidently depart to Him.
Somewhat differently, St. Jerome, as if to say: "There is no need to grieve if we cannot know the future, and are often oppressed by more powerful wicked men, since death ends all things, and the proud and powerful man who has plundered everything cannot retain his soul when it is snatched away." Differently also Cajetan, who judges that here by a triple simile it is shown how useless his impiety is to a man, as if to say: Just as no one can restrain the blast of the wind, nor avoid the day of death, nor in battle, while actually fighting, substitute another for himself: so neither can impiety avail to free the impious man.
TO RESTRAIN THE SPIRIT.
You will ask: what is this spirit? First, Olympiodorus and Cajetan by "spirit" understand the wind, as if to say: Just as no one can restrain the wind, so neither can anyone prevent or ward off death, as follows. For death is compared with wind in efficacy, because no one can resist either.
Second, Thaumaturgus understands an angel, namely the one presiding over death, who usually wrenches the soul from the dying man: "Nor is anyone," he says, "so strong that he can prevent the angel from wrenching his soul and separating it from the body." This angel presiding over death is called in Hebrew אבדון, in Greek Apollyon, in Latin the Exterminator, Revelation chapter 9, verse 11.
Third, Dionysius understands the soul and the movements and impulses of the soul, which a man cannot repress in others, especially those more powerful, and often not even in himself. For who can moderate, or bridle and restrain all the wanderings of the mind, desires, fluctuations, impulses, passions, especially the more violent and ardent ones, such as anger and indignation? Hence Campensis translates: no one is so powerful that he can contain his own spirit, according to Proverbs 27:4: "And who can bear the rush of one who is provoked?"
Fourth, Olympiodorus understands the gifts and impulses of the Holy Spirit; for although we can prevent them from going into act, according to that passage: "The spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets," 1 Corinthians 14:32: nevertheless we cannot prevent them from being sent to us, so that we feel them, even if we do not consent. Add that the impulses of the Holy Spirit are so abundant and powerful that to resist them and not to consent is extremely difficult and almost impossible, such as were those sent to St. Paul in his conversion, to St. Mary Magdalene, and to St. Matthew, and to similar persons. Hence Idacius against Varimadus understands the Holy Spirit, whom no one can prevent from accomplishing what He intends. Whence St. Jerome says: "The Spirit, who governs all things, cannot be prevented by any man from breathing, nor can anyone impose laws upon Him."
Fifth and most aptly, by "spirit" understand the soul and vital breath, which no one can restrain and shut up within a man so that it does not leave the body and the man dies, whence he explains by adding: "Nor has he power over the day of death." Thus St. Jerome says: "It is not in our power to prevent our soul from being taken from us, and to restrain the spirit departing at the Lord's command. It avails nothing to close one's mouth and retain the fleeing life; and when destruction, the enemy and foe of our life, has arrived, we cannot receive a truce. Nor will kings who once laid waste everything in the world with their impiety be able to raise their hands against death: but they shall be dissolved into ashes and earth." And the Chaldean: There is no lord who has dominion over the spirit of breathing (the vital spirit by which we breathe), so as to prevent the breath of life from departing from the human body; nor is there dominion over the day of death, so as to free one's neighbor, nor does it help in war, nor does impiety deliver the one who possesses it on the day of the great judgment: for God alone has power over body and soul, and the right of death and life, according to that passage: "The Lord kills and gives life, He brings down to the grave and raises up," 1 Samuel 2:6; and therefore He has "the keys of death and of hell," Revelation 1:18. Whence Daniel, predicting from God the death of King Belshazzar, chapter 5, says: "The God who has your breath in His hand, and all your ways, you have not glorified;" for God at His pleasure "takes away the spirit of princes," Psalm 75:13.
NOR HAS HE POWER OVER THE DAY OF DEATH.
The Hebrew: there is no power over the day of death; St. Jerome, in his Commentary: there is no powerful one, that is, no one having power, as our translator renders it; which you may explain in two ways: First, as if to say: There is no ruler, prince, or magistrate who can command death. Thus the Chaldean: There is no emperor, he says, on the day of death, so as to rescue anyone's servant. For a magistrate commands his subjects as he wishes; but there is no magistrate who can command death to touch this or that person.
Second, as if to say: "There is no powerful one, that is, no king or prince, who can free himself from death." Thus St. Jerome: "Nor will kings," he says, "who once laid waste everything in the world with their impiety, be able to raise their hands against death." Furthermore, Thaumaturgus by "power" understands not strength but arts: "Nor," he says, "is any art and cunning found that can repel the time of death and, as it were, remove it by an exception."
NOR IS HE PERMITTED TO REST WHEN WAR PRESSES.
In Hebrew and Greek: nor is there (Hebrew משלחת mislachat, Greek ἀποστολή, sending, sending in, submission, or discharge) in battle, which various authors explain in various ways.
First, Cajetan, as if to say: In the battle line while the fight is on, no one can place and substitute another in his place, so that he himself may escape unharmed: so neither in the hour of death is it permitted to substitute a servant or a son for oneself, so as to escape unharmed; but one is compelled to undergo the agony of death oneself.
Second, the Chaldean translates: neither do weapons of war help in battle; Symmachus: it is not possible to draw up a battle line in war; the Tigurina: nor does one have the discharge of missiles in war; Olympiodorus, with whom Pollux and Budaeus agree, translates the Greek ἀποστολήν as: there is no sailing, or fleet in the day of battle, as if to say: For the dying person no soldiers are present, no fleets, no weapons are available with which he might ward off and repel invading death, as if it were an enemy.
Third, the Syriac: there is no liberation in the day of battle; another: there is no discharge in war; Thaumaturgus: in the midst of battle, he says, all flight is seen to be cut off for those who are captured; but it is necessary to fall and die.
Fourth, the Arabic: nor will he find a letter on the day of battle, as if to say: No one will receive letters of dismissal that would make him immune from death, so that death, seeing them, would set him free. For the Arabic, following the Septuagint in its usual manner, took ἀποστολή for letters of dismissal, as jurists understand it, concerning which see Alciatus, On the Signification of Things and Words, unless you say the Arabic read ἐπιστολή, that is, "letter," for ἀποστολή. All these tend to the same point, namely: grammatically, in the bark of the letter, it is signified that subjects, when summoned to war by the king, cannot evade it, but must fight in battle and expose themselves to the danger of death, and indeed often fall and die, because there is no place of escape.
But parabolically (for this is a parable) by this it is signified that no one can avoid the agony of death, or substitute another in his place, for example a servant or a son, and offer him as a hostage or prey to death for himself, but must undergo this obligation in person. Hence Campensis translates: nor is there any hope of escaping from that battle which we must enter against death. For this is a fierce battle that must be undertaken by each person at his appointed time, because in it one must contend not only with death, but also with the devil, indeed with all the demons: for then the supreme matter is at stake, and the contest is about eternity, about heaven and hell; hence the fighting on both sides is most fierce.
Thaumaturgus alluded to this when he translated "spirit" as the angel presiding over death. Hear St. Chrysostom, homily 54, on Matthew chapter 5: "What shall we do," he says, "when the threatening angels, and the virtues and powers that tear the soul from the body, invade us?" And St. Ephrem, sermon On the Vanity of the World, volume 3: "When," he says, "the Lord's troops and attendants have arrived, when the admirable armies have invaded and seized us, when the divine messengers and emissaries have commanded the soul to migrate from the body," etc. St. Gregory has similar things, homily 39 on the Gospels; St. Basil, on Psalm 33; Cyril of Alexandria, oration On the Departure of the Soul, and others.
Of this battle, indeed duel, with the demons commenced in the agony of death, St. Gregory presents a famous example in Chrysaorius, Dialogues 4, chapter 38. Hence St. Martin, dying and seeing the devil, said: "What are you doing standing here, bloody beast? You will find nothing deadly in me."
NOR WILL IMPIETY SAVE THE IMPIOUS.
Vatablus: defiance, that is, bold and insolent resistance; Aben-Ezra: agitation, as if to say: Bold men by their defiance here sometimes evade the judgment and sentence of death, but before God they will be able to do no such thing. For He Himself will lay low and rout all defiance. Let the impious man therefore agitate himself as he will, turn himself in all directions, he will nevertheless not escape death. Vatablus: impious cunning avails nothing against the Lord. Lyranus understands magical arts and superstitions by which the impious desire to remove death, or at least prolong life, but in vain. St. Bonaventure by "impiety" understands hypocrisy; Moringus: tyranny, pride, and arrogance, which so far from warding off death, rather summon it, and bring it upon tyrants and the proud: for those who torment and kill others are hated by all, and are tormented and killed by those whom they have injured. Osorius understands wickedness established by wealth, by which the impious think they can escape death, but in vain.
Therefore all these things signify that death, which God, or the king and prince, inflicts on the disobedient and those who transgress His precepts, has ample power and dominion over men, from which no one can exempt and withdraw himself by any force, stubbornness, art, deceit, prayer, or bribe. Death therefore is like an invincible king and monarch of the world, conquering all things and subjugating them to itself, according to Job 18:14: "Let destruction tread upon him like a king;" and Revelation 6:8: "And behold a pale horse: and he who sat upon him, his name was Death, and hell followed him, and power was given to him over the four parts of the earth to kill with the sword, with famine, and with death." From these things Solomon leaves to be concluded what he proposed at the beginning in verse 2, according to the Septuagint: "Observe the mouth of the king, and the precepts of the oath of God, etc.: because whatever He wills, He will do, and His word is full of power." There is therefore no other power over death except that of God and the king. For the following passages down to this point are derived from and depend on that.
Furthermore, impiety taken generally is any great iniquity; but properly it is infidelity and violation of the divine majesty. Hence St. Gregory, Moralia 25, chapter 10: "Sacred Scripture," he says, "properly calls the impious unfaithful. For by this distinction sinners are distinguished from the impious, because while every impious person is a sinner, not every sinner is impious. For even one who is pious in faith can be called a sinner. Hence John says: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. But one is properly called impious who is separated from the piety of religion. For of such the Prophet says: The impious shall not rise in judgment."
Verse 9: ALL THESE THINGS I CONSIDERED, AND I GAVE MY HEART TO ALL THE WORKS THAT ARE DONE UNDER THE SUN. SOMETIMES A MAN DOMINATES ANOTHER MAN TO HIS OWN HARM.
Solomon repeatedly affirms that he considered and scrutinized all things under the sun, in order to uncover the vanity and affliction of all things, and to point it out to all, and especially the vanity of the impious, especially the vanity of princes, as if to say: I saw impious princes buried with great pomp of funeral and mausoleum, who, while they lived, partly on account of their royal splendor and power, partly on account of a pretense of sanctity, because they frequented Jerusalem the holy city, and the holy place, namely the temple and the assembly of priests, scribes, doctors of the law, and religious men; partly on account of the flattery of friends and sycophants, were held and venerated by the rude and ignorant populace, who are captivated by such outward signs, as if they were upright and holy men, not only in life but even after death; but this too is vanity: for what does it profit a king or prince to be honored by the people, if he is hateful to God on account of his wickedness? What good is it for the body to be entombed in a golden mausoleum, if the soul burns in the flames of hell? What benefit is it to be praised by men on earth, if one is reproached in heaven by all the angels and saints, and assailed with every insult by demons in hell? Truly does that saying go: "Alexander is praised where he is not, but is tormented where he is." The name of the rich glutton was celebrated by his brothers in the palace, but his soul was being burned by demons in the underworld; what good then did praise do him, since it only increased his torment? Hence the Chaldean renders it: and in truth I saw sinners who were buried and removed from the world, from the holy place where the just dwell, and they went away to be burned in hell, and were consigned to oblivion among the inhabitants of the city; and behold, as they did, so it was done to them. This also is vanity. Add: Time at last uncovers the hypocrisy of the impious, and then that most empty shadow and mask of sanctity vanishes, and the truth is seen, and the true fiction of their pretense, and their true iniquity and impiety, which brings upon them greater, indeed eternal disgrace and infamy; those therefore who previously praised and honored them, whether through error, or fear, or flattery, afterward, once the hypocrisy is detected, attack and execrate them all the more bitterly.
Moreover, the Hebrew codices vary here on account of the similarity between the letters het and kaf: for some read ישתבחו iistabbechu, that is, they were praised, or they praised themselves, and took care to have themselves praised by parasites. Others read ישתכחו iistakchechu, that is, they were consigned to oblivion. In the former way reads our Translator [the Vulgate], the Septuagint, the Arabic, and St. Gregory, XXXII Moral. x or xi. In the latter way reads the Chaldean, the Syriac, the Zurich Bible, Clarius, Cajetan, Pagninus, and more recent authors, partly Hebrew, partly Latin. Hence some, such as Clarius, Cajetan, Campensis, and Vatablus, think there is an antithesis here; for the former verse pertains to the impious, the latter to the pious, as if to say: I saw the impious glorified in life, and after death honorably buried, and praised by posterity as if they were saints; conversely, I saw consigned to oblivion those who did what was right and holy.
SOMETIMES A MAN DOMINATES ANOTHER MAN TO HIS OWN HARM. — "His own" understand either reflexively of the one who dominates, or absolutely, namely of the man over whom the ruler exercises dominion to do him evil, say the Complutensians; to his own ruin, says the Zurich Bible; so as to afflict him with loss and trouble, says Olympiodorus. So also Thaumaturgus, the Chaldean, and St. Jerome, as if to say: From time to time those who are in charge are tyrants or excessively harsh, who afflict their subjects, impoverish them, and vex them in a thousand ways, and therefore in turn are afflicted and vexed by those subjects or by others, and indeed by God Himself, and are not rarely deposed or killed, as happened to Pharaoh, Sennacherib, Antiochus, Herod, Holofernes, Rehoboam, and many others. And by this reasoning he demonstrates what he said in the preceding verse: "Neither shall impiety save the impious man," because tyranny does not save but destroys tyrants. This maxim depends on the words I considered and saw, namely among other vanities of the world also this one, that "sometimes a man dominates another man to his own harm."
This is clear from the Hebrew, the Chaldean, Aquila, the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Arabic, Vatablus, Pagninus, and others. Aquila and the Syriac render it: I considered the time when man dominated man. Pagninus and others clearly: all this I saw, drawing my heart to every work that is done under the sun at that time when man exercises dominion over man to his own harm: for since in verse 2 he said, "I observe the mouth of the king," and extolled the king, he now shows that in kingship too there is great vanity, trouble, and danger. Hence Thaumaturgus renders it: I am therefore astonished whenever I see how many and how great are the harms men devise against their neighbor. The dominion of Adam over men and animals before the fall was full, gentle, useful both to the one commanding and to those being commanded: but after the fall, when concupiscence entered into both, it began to be burdensome, difficult, and teeming with a thousand cares and dangers for both. This is the just punishment for man's sin, so that he who would not obey God should find his subjects also troublesome, difficult, and rebellious; especially when he himself is imperious and cruel or severe toward them. Truly the Tragedian says:
He who cruelly wields the scepter with harsh rule, Fears those who fear him: dread returns upon its author.
And Claudian thus depicts the tyrant:
He wearies the living with terror, he is heir to the dying. A ravisher of virgins, an obscene adulterer in marriage chambers. No rest: when plunder ceases, lust arises, etc.
Verse 10: I SAW THE WICKED BURIED: WHO EVEN WHILE THEY WERE STILL ALIVE, WERE IN THE HOLY PLACE, AND WERE PRAISED IN THE CITY AS IF FOR THE WORKS OF THE JUST; BUT THIS ALSO IS VANITY.
He continues to describe the vanity of impiety and of the impious, especially of princes, as if to say: I saw impious princes buried with great pomp of funeral and mausoleum... they performed; but this also is vanity, because the vain and false praise of men does not profit the impious, nor does the forgetfulness of men harm the pious: for "the just shall be in everlasting memory (and glory)" before God and all the citizens of heaven. Hence Pagninus translates: and then I saw the wicked buried, and those who came after them, and walked in the holy place, shall be consigned to oblivion in the city in which they did what was right; but this also is vanity. But that the whole maxim pertains to the impious alone is clear from the Septuagint, the Syriac, the Chaldean, and the Arabic; especially since the more recent authors, who take it as referring to both the pious and the impious, do not agree among themselves, but each one forges his own individual version different from the others, which our Lorinus laboriously catalogs here. The entire maxim therefore signifies the vanity of the pretense and hypocrisy of the impious.
Furthermore, this general maxim pertains indeed to all hypocrites and the impious, but more especially to the powerful and princes, whether secular or ecclesiastical, namely bishops and prelates, to whom St. Jerome refers it: "For no one, he says, dares to accuse a superior, and therefore, as if they were saints and blessed, and walking in the commandments of the Lord, they heap sins upon sins. It is difficult to bring an accusation against a bishop: for if he sins, he is not believed; if he is convicted, he is not punished." Hence he says: "They were in the holy place," that is, they occupied a sacred rank or holy office, for example they were priests, religious, bishops, etc. Isaiah alludes to this, chapter 26, verse 10: "In the land of the saints, he says, he did iniquitous things, and (therefore) he shall not see the glory of the Lord." See what was said there, and hear Olympiodorus: Because men are often scandalized and think it unjust that the same people should be impious who are also powerful and fortunate, therefore, he says, I contemplated this matter more deeply, and I saw at last the final ruin of the impious, namely when they die not only in body but also in soul. For what he says in this place about being led into tombs, he means punishments and torments. And for those who are led into these tombs, their power availed them nothing, nor the fact that they were once considered just and holy, nor the fact that they performed sacred ministries and duties in the temple of God.
The Preacher therefore teaches us by no means to be scandalized on account of the fact that in human life we see an enormous discrepancy of conditions and states, since on the contrary we ought rather to look to the retribution which is in the world to come. This is what the Psalmist says in Psalm 10:3: "The sinner is praised in the desires of his soul, and the wicked man is blessed." And Zechariah 11:17: "O shepherd, and idol." This finally is the abomination of desolation standing in the holy place, Matthew 24:15. So Hugo. Sulpitius writes in the Life of St. Martin, chapter 8, that he, when he saw a certain deceased person being venerated by the people at the altar as a martyr, whose neither name, nor life, nor reliable memory existed, prayed to God that He would reveal who it was, or of what merit the one buried there was. "Then, turning to the left, he says, he saw standing near a sordid, fierce shade; he commanded it to speak its name and its merit; it declared its name, confessed its crime, that it had been a robber struck down for its crimes, celebrated through the error of the common people, that it had nothing in common with the martyrs, since glory retained them, but punishment retained it." What good did this vain and erroneous worship of the people do that man, except that when his crime was revealed, public infamy was created for him, and the honor of a martyr was turned into the disgrace of a robber?
Verse 11: FOR BECAUSE SENTENCE IS NOT PRONOUNCED QUICKLY AGAINST THE WICKED, THE SONS OF MEN PERPETRATE EVIL WITHOUT ANY FEAR.
The Hebrew, Chaldean, and Septuagint render it: therefore the heart of the sons of men is full, or filled in them to do evil; Aquila renders it tolmosi, that is, they dare; the Zurich Bible: the heart of men is full of boldness; Symmachus: with intrepid heart the sons of men do evil.
For 'sentence' the Hebrew has pithegam, which the Septuagint translate as contradiction; the Arabic as insult; the Syriac as vengeance; Thaumaturgus renders this verse and the following thus: because divine providence does not strike everyone immediately, on account of the equanimity with which it tolerates the wicked and does not at once punish offenses, therefore the impious man thinks it makes no difference if he sins frequently and gravely, trusting that he will escape unharmed; but he does not understand that even after a long time evil will not remain unpunished. The greatest good therefore is to worship God piously. Olympiodorus says: because there are none who diligently and vehemently oppose, and restrain evildoers with sharp rebuke, etc. This sentence and contradiction can therefore be understood not only of God, but also of men, especially of judges and magistrates, who often overlook sins and do not punish them.
Olympiodorus and others connect this maxim, omitting the word 'etenim' (for indeed), which does not clearly appear in the Hebrew, with what preceded it, "and this is vanity," as if to say: This also which I am about to state is vanity, namely, that through long impunity men boldly perpetrate evils; because by increasing their sins through this, they increase their punishments, and by abusing the long-suffering of God, they more sharply provoke His wrath and vengeance, and stir up a more burning fury against themselves. But our Translator more aptly punctuates and adds the word 'etenim.' For this maxim gives the reason why the impious dominate in their impiety, are praised and celebrated: namely because God permits them to go unpunished for a time, so that fearing neither God nor men, they boldly and with impunity do whatever they please, prey upon the pious, accumulate wealth, and indulge in lust and gluttony: hence it happens that they are praised and honored by men as fortunate and blessed. And this is one way among many by which God is said to blind and harden sinners, just as a mother who is too indulgent to her son, and does not punish him when he sins, is the occasion for the son to commit worse things, and finally to commit a crime for which he is beheaded or hanged. Thus the sun with its heat hardens the mud. So teaches St. Augustine, sermon 58 On the Seasons, and St. Basil, in his oration That God Is Not the Author of Evils.
Moreover, how unjust and foolish it is to abuse God's patience for the purpose of sinning, St. Leo teaches forcefully in sermon 4 of Lent: "Some, he says, abuse the patience of God, and those who are not free in conscience become secure from long impunity, since punishment is delayed so that correction may have time," not so that there may be greater license for sinning. "Let no one therefore be so slow to embrace the mercy of our God, because he does not receive what he deserved: for not everything that is deferred is taken away; nor has he escaped condemnation who has not sought pardon;" and Tertullian, in his book On Repentance, chapter 7: "Far be it, he says, that anyone should interpret it as though the door still stands open for him to sin, because it stands open for repentance, and should make from the abundance of heavenly clemency a license for human recklessness. Let no one become worse because God is better, sinning as often as he is forgiven. For what is more unworthy than to draw from divine mercy an argument for provoking divine justice? And because God willingly receives penitents, to deliberately wish to become sinners?" And St. Ambrose, book II On Repentance, chapter 9: "When the hope of performing penance is set before them, he says, they think that license for sinning has been extended to them. Let penance be a remedy for sin, not an incentive for the sinner. For medicine is necessary for the wound, not a wound for the medicine: because on account of the wound medicine is sought, not on account of the medicine is a wound desired," as if to say: Who ever inflicted a great wound on his own head to test the virtue of a balm? Who ever fearlessly drank poison to prove the power of an antidote? He would be mad who did this. So plainly he must be considered mad who sins in order to flee to divine mercy, or who is led to sin by the abundance of divine mercy.
The same lesson about the harm and damage of impunity and delayed punishment was learned from Solomon and felt by Plato and the other philosophers. Plato in his book On the Republic teaches throughout that the governance of the state is maintained by punishment and reward, and that if you remove these and grant impunity, all laws and rights are violated and the state is overthrown. Aristotle teaches the same, Ethics X, last chapter, and in the Politics. Plutarch, On the Delay of Divine Vengeance: "From the impunity of criminals, he says, the credibility of divine providence is undermined." Cicero, in the speech For Sextius: "Unbridled fury, he says, is nourished by prolonged impunity." And in the speech For Milo: "Who does not know that the greatest enticement to sin is the hope of impunity?" And in book III of On Duties: "How rare would it be to find someone who, with impunity and the ignorance of all set before him, could refrain from injury?" For the common mass of men is driven more by punishment and reward than by love of virtue, so that if the former cease, the latter grows weak. Polybius, book I, near the end: "If you grant pardon, he says, or impunity, if you win over a wicked man by kindness, he will consider it all deceit and fraud, and will become far more faithless toward his benefactor." Cato held that nothing is more dangerous than impunity, which always invites to worse things: for the example of unpunished injuries threatens injury to all. For if it were permitted to harm with impunity, no one would be safe from the violence of the wicked; therefore he teaches that magistrates who grant impunity to criminals ought to be stoned to death, as being most harmful to the state. So Plutarch in the Apophthegms. Fronto, the consul under the Emperor Nerva, used to say that he rules badly who grants nothing to anyone, but far worse is the ruler under whom the greatest license is permitted to everyone. For it is inhuman if a prince grants nothing to his friends, but it is most pernicious for them to be allowed whatever they please. So Dionysius on Nerva.
Moreover, God delays the punishment of sinners in order to show His long-suffering and clemency, by which He invites sinners to repentance, as some, recognizing it, actually repent and change their lives: but the rest, abusing God's patience, treasure up for themselves "wrath on the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God," as the Apostle says, Romans 2:5; and Job chapter 24:23: "God gave him, he says, a place for repentance, and he abuses it in pride." He who does this is wicked, and often reprobate and a son of perdition and of hell; and therefore when he has come into the depths of sins, he denies God's providence and divine punishment; and if any evil is afterward inflicted upon him, he considers it chance, not a punishment for sin sent by God. See Plutarch's book On the Delay of Divine Vengeance.
Morally, learn here that to punish the wicked is a great good for the state; but not to punish them is a great evil: therefore magistrates, upon whom the care of the state rests, are bound by their office to punish them. But God, who is bound to no one, but has deeper reasons of His providence, for just causes often delays punishment, and compensates for the slowness of the penalty with its severity, according to Sirach 5:2 and following: "Do not follow the desire of your heart in your strength, and do not say: How was I able? or who will subject me on account of my deeds? For God will surely avenge. Do not say: I sinned, and what sad thing happened to me? For the Most High is a patient rewarder. Do not be without fear regarding a forgiven sin (even though you have not yet paid the penalty), and do not add sin upon sin." Hence St. Peter, II Epistle, chapter 3:2, calls such people "scoffers, walking according to their own lusts, saying: Where is the promise or His coming?" To whom he himself responds in verse 9: "The Lord does not delay His promise as some think: but He acts patiently on your account, not wishing any to perish, but all to return to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come as a thief," etc. And Malachi, chapter 2:3, brings forth the impious saying: "Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please Him: or at any rate, where is the God of judgment?" To which you may respond that God awaits the opportune and appointed time of vengeance, in which according to the magnitude of the offense He will inflict the weight of punishment, either in this life, or certainly on the day of judgment, according to Revelation 14:15 and following: "Put in your sickle and reap, for the hour to reap has come, because the harvest of the earth is ripe; and (without delay) he put his sickle to the earth, and the earth was reaped." And again: "Put in your sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth: for its grapes are ripe. And (at once) the Angel put his sharp sickle to the earth, and gathered the vintage of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God."
An illustrious example is found in St. Ephrem, in the sermon entitled: Confession and Reproof of Himself, where he narrates about himself, that when as a young man on account of the license of the impious and on account of impunity had doubted divine providence, was instructed by a marvelous vision and experience, and finally heard an angel saying: "Repent of your iniquity, and know for certain that there is one Eye that passes through all things." I have narrated the whole matter more fully on Genesis 42:21.
Verse 12: YET BECAUSE A SINNER DOES EVIL A HUNDRED TIMES AND IS SUSTAINED THROUGH PATIENCE, I KNOW THAT IT WILL BE WELL WITH THOSE WHO FEAR GOD, WHO REVERENCE HIS FACE.
This is a Hebrew hysterologia [inverted word order], for the words should be transposed and arranged thus: Yet because the sinner does evil a hundred times, and is sustained through patience, I know that it will be well with those who fear God, who reverence His face. — Campensis renders it: who reverence God, as if to say: If God is so patient and kind toward sinners, that He tolerates them for a long time and waits for them to repent, how much more clement and kind will He be toward those who fear Him, whether the innocent, who have not sinned gravely; or the penitent, who grieve over the crimes they have committed, and studiously guard against committing future ones! This is one among many ends and fruits of divine impunity and long-suffering toward the impious, namely that from it the pious may measure how great a clemency and beneficence they ought to hope for and expect from Him. So St. Jerome, Albinus, Lyranus, Bonaventure, Hugo, and others. Solomon borrowed this from his father David, who says in Psalm 30:20: "How great is the multitude of Your sweetness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You."
Secondly and more precisely, our Pineda explains it as if to say: God overlooks the sins of the impious, but immediately punishes those of the pious; yet do not infer from this that the lot of the impious is better than that of the pious, both because it is a great benefit of God to punish the light faults of the pious, lest they creep into graver ones; and because the pious, like noble horses that have strayed from the path, tremble at a light stroke of God's whip and return to the way of virtue, while the impious, like stubborn mules, kick back against the whip: and therefore God will reward this docility, reverence, and obedience of the pious with great gifts of grace. Hear the Author of 2 Maccabees 6:13: "For indeed, not to allow sinners to act according to their will for a long time, but to apply punishments immediately, is a sign of great beneficence. For the Lord does not wait patiently, as He does with other nations, so that He may punish them in the fullness of their sins when the day of judgment comes: so also He has determined regarding us, that when our sins have reached their end, He may then at last take vengeance on us, for which reason He never removes His mercy from us: but correcting us in adversity, He does not abandon His people."
Finally, our Mendoza, on 1 Kings chapter 4, verse 3, holds that the word 'attamen' (yet) marks an antithesis between the pious and the impious, namely that just as in the preceding verse the impious are said to abuse the long-suffering patience of God and to pour themselves out into sinning, so in this verse the pious are said to use it rightly and to be called back from sinning, as if to say: The sons of men, that is sinners, perpetrate evil without fear, because sentence is not pronounced quickly against them. Yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, who reverence His face, from the fact that the sinner does evil a hundred times and is sustained through patience, as if they were crowned by God with a certain special care and benevolence; who worship, fear, and reverence Him, not because He is Lord, Judge, and Avenger, but because He is patient, long-suffering, and merciful, and seeing human crimes yet they do not experience divine punishments. This is the disposition of good people, that from this divine long-suffering, by which God waits for sinners to repent, and overlooks the sins of men for the sake of repentance, they are all the more stirred up to love and fear God.
A HUNDRED TIMES — that is, very often; for a definite number is used for an indefinite one. The Translator correctly renders it with the Syriac: for the Hebrews have מאת meath, that is, a hundred times. The Septuagint read מעת meeth, that is, from time, whence they translate: he who sinned, does evil from then, that is from his youth, says Olympiodorus; and the Arabic: he who had sinned had already done evil from that time. Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodoret read מת meth, that is, he died: for the middle aleph in מאת meath, since it is a quiescent letter, is often omitted; whence they translate: the sinning wicked man died, a long life having been granted to him, as if to say: The sinner died in the habit of sin, strengthened by long use with age; for he who repeats sins, through a long life does not become better but worse, and develops a callus of sin, and thus puts on almost a necessity of sinning, so that he dies in very many sins, and is condemned to enormous torments in hell.
IS SUSTAINED THROUGH PATIENCE. — In Hebrew מאריך לו maarich lo, that is, He prolongs for him, namely both His patience — God, that is: whence Symmachus translates, long-suffering having been granted to him; and the sinner's life, age, and space for repentance; or He distances from him, namely punishment, while He extends and defers it over a long time. "The patience of God is proclaimed, not in this, that He suffers some evil, but that He waits for the wicked to be converted," says St. Augustine, in his book On Patience. Meanwhile He uses their malice to punish and purge the light sins of the pious, and to exercise their patience, and to increase their merits and crown. The Septuagint translate: from then and from their length, as if to say: The sinner from then, that is from of old, namely from boyhood, soon from birth, where he began to use reason, began to sin, and thence by long habit turned his sins as it were into nature; for, as St. Gregory says: "A sin which is not erased through repentance, by its own weight draws to another." Therefore to the extent that God prolongs His patience and the sinner's life, to that extent the sinner himself prolongs his guilt and impenitence.
IT WILL BE WELL WITH THOSE WHO FEAR — both in this life, and more especially in the future life. Hence the Chaldean translates: and at the time when the sinner does evil for a hundred years before the face of the Lord, time is given to him to be converted. It is manifest to me in the Holy Spirit, and I know that it will be well in the world to come with those who fear God, who fear before His face, and do His will. Moreover, Olympiodorus takes 'good' to mean good thoughts and works, which God inspires in those who fear Him: "For, he says, since they live in the sight of God, and are careful in all their actions and thoughts, as if God the Judge sees all things, God becomes for them the cause of all good works and conceptions." Thaumaturgus interprets it as referring to the very fear of God: "That, he says, most excellent good is to be endowed with the pious fear of God."
More simply, take 'good' as meaning happy and pleasant, as if to say: Granted that God punishes the light errors of the pious, yet soon afterward He will console them with a far happier and more pleasant lot, either on earth or in heaven, according to Sirach 1:29: "The patient man will endure for a time, and afterward there will be a return of joy." When therefore you are punished and afflicted by God, receive this affliction as a pledge and earnest of approaching happiness, and of consolation near to you. For whom God punishes, He soon comforts and soothes, just as a mother caresses her child after a punishment; indeed, Christ "tasted honeycombs after gall," says Tertullian; for after winter comes summer, after night comes day, after war comes peace, after battle comes victory, after clouds comes the sun, after storm comes serenity. This is what Isaiah promises to the just in chapter 3:10, saying: "Say to the just man that it is well, for he shall eat the fruit of his doings. Woe to the impious unto evil: for the retribution of his hands shall be done to him." Whence Solomon adds concerning the same:
Verse 13: LET IT NOT BE WELL WITH THE IMPIOUS, NOR LET HIS DAYS BE PROLONGED, BUT LET THOSE WHO DO NOT FEAR THE FACE OF THE LORD PASS AWAY LIKE A SHADOW.
[the face of the Lord] present and beholding all things, so that they walk before Him with great reverence, fear and trembling, says Olympiodorus; the Hebrew has: it will not be well; but the Hebrews often use the future for the imperative or optative, whence our Translator aptly renders it: let it not be well, namely that he be sustained by God and awaited for repentance, says Hugo, because he does not use God's patience for repentance, but abuses it for greater iniquity and guilt.
WELL. — Understand this as meaning both the prolongation of life, so St. Jerome and Cajetan; and the goods of the body such as health, strength, wealth, prosperity, children, a large household, so Lyranus and Dionysius; and the goods of the soul, such as the manifold grace of God in this life, and glory in the future life: so Thaumaturgus, Bonaventure, Hugo.
In sum, 'well' here signifies whatever is happy, pleasant, and prosperous. This is a fitting punishment of the impious, namely that they be deprived of every good, who freely and impiously turned themselves away from the supreme Good and the source of all good, namely from God; just as one who shuts the window against the sun deserves to be deprived of its light and to dwell in darkness.
You will ask, how does the wise man here pray for evil, and as it were curse the impious, when this seems to be against or beyond charity? I have discussed this matter at length in the Prophets; now briefly. The answer is first, that these curses are not so much imprecations as predictions and proclamations of future punishments, decreed for the impious by God. "Let it not be" therefore means "it will not be" well with the impious, as the Hebrew, Chaldean, Syriac, Arabic, and others have it. So St. Jerome, Thaumaturgus, and Olympiodorus, and by this reasoning this maxim is rightly connected to the preceding one, as if to say: I knew that those who fear God receive great goods; but those who do not fear Him receive evils.
Secondly, to pray that the impious be deprived of temporal goods, so that through such deprivation he may return to his senses and change his life, or at least sin less, since he can no longer abuse for luxury, pride, gluttony, and lust the goods of which he has been deprived, is not against but according to charity. For thus the Psalmist prays against the impious: "Fill their faces with shame, and they shall seek Your name, O Lord," Psalm 82:17. Thus today we see many converted to God through poverty, illness, and adversity, who had grown insolent in wealth, health, and prosperous affairs, and abused them for every crime. Therefore to pray for illness or poverty for such people is good and salutary.
Thirdly, properly speaking, the Prophets and Apostles, from zeal for justice and divine honor, pray for evil against the impious who persevere and die in impiety, that is, they desire that they, as criminals guilty of injured divine Majesty, be punished with punishments both temporal and eternal, so that by this means justice may be satisfied, and the guilty may be punished, and so that the honor which they took from God by sinning, they may restore by suffering the punishments they deserve. For the saints conform themselves in all things to the divine will which is already certain and fixed concerning the punishment of the impious. Since therefore God wills, and has fixedly decreed to punish and condemn the impious, the saints also will the same, especially when they themselves are heralds and ministers, indeed the mouth of God, through whom God promulgates His laws and threatens present and eternal punishments upon transgressors, as were the Prophets and Solomon here, who having said that the impious abuse the long-suffering of God in order to sin longer and more gravely, burning with holy zeal for justice against this abuse of theirs, prays and desires, saying: "Let it not be well with the impious, nor let his days be prolonged," since he abuses them for sinning, and for offending God all the more, who prolongs his days for repentance.
So the saints, sitting alongside Christ on the day of judgment, will thunder the sentence of damnation against the impious, Matthew chapter 24, verse 31 and following.
NOR LET HIS DAYS BE PROLONGED — so that he may sin less, and offend God less, and so that snatched away at once by death, he may receive the torments he deserves, says St. Jerome; because they will be handed over to eternal punishments, says Olympiodorus. Moreover the Chaldean says: Nor will there be, he says, length for him in the world to come, and in this present world the days of his life will be cut short, they will flee and be cut down like a shadow.
BUT LET THEM PASS AWAY LIKE A SHADOW. — The Hebrew: he will not prolong his days, just as the shadow does not prolong its days, but passes away before evening. The Septuagint, reading beth (in) instead of kaf (like), translate: in a shadow; the sense is, as if to say: first, just as a shadow, when the day and the sun depart, vanishes at evening; so too let the impious quickly pass away and vanish, so that they do not reach the evening of life, namely old age. Secondly, just as the shadow departs when the body, of which it is the shadow, departs: so too they themselves, when life and time depart — which are the shadow of eternity and of the blessed life — depart equally with it. Thirdly, just as nothing is thinner than a shadow, nothing more vain, nothing more fleeting: so too is life, especially that of the impious. I have said more on this matter above, and on Isaiah chapter 38:8 and following, where I discussed the shadow of Hezekiah growing miraculously on the sundial of Ahaz. Olympiodorus gives the fitting reason: "The sinner, he says, will not be long in life, because he did not reckon the whole time of his life, however long it was, to be a shadow, but with anxious care he strove to acquire for himself things that are fleeting and temporary, as though they were lasting forever. Or understand it another way: although the sinner in this present life seems to be protected and defended by the patience of God (as by a shadow), rather than punished, yet shortly afterward he will be handed over to eternal punishments." But this latter interpretation is mystical. Cajetan adds: Just as a shadow is not a body, but a thin likeness of a body: so the impious man is not so much a man as an empty likeness and shadow of a man, because he has only the empty appearance of a man, not the reality, since he does not live as a man endowed with reason, but as a beast lacking reason. But this is more subtle than solid. Holy Scripture often compares the present life to a shadow, because it truly is such, if compared to the true and eternal life, toward which the bride in the Song of Songs 2:16 sighs: "My beloved is mine, she says, and I am his, who feeds among the lilies until the day breathes and the shadows decline."
Here is relevant the saying of Ausonius in the Tombs of Heroes, number 17: "We are dust and shadow;" and that of Pindar in the Pythian Odes, hymn 8: "Men are the dream of a shadow." Finally hear St. Jerome expounding the Septuagint version: "He will not prolong days in the shadow, that is the days of his life, which are as a shadow for the living; for it is not those who live a long time who prolong their days, but those who make them great by the greatness of their good works. Whence also Jacob, as if confessing himself a sinner, says: Few and evil are my days; just as also confessing in the Psalm: My days, he says, have declined like a shadow, and I have withered like grass. Not that he sought a long life in the present (in which everything we live is brief, and is shadow and image, for man walks about in an image), but that he feared for the future, lest the length of his life, where life is real, be shortened."
Verse 14: THERE IS ALSO ANOTHER VANITY WHICH IS DONE UPON THE EARTH: THERE ARE JUST MEN TO WHOM EVIL THINGS HAPPEN, AS THOUGH THEY HAD DONE THE WORKS OF THE IMPIOUS; AND THERE ARE IMPIOUS MEN WHO ARE SO SECURE, AS THOUGH THEY HAD THE DEEDS OF THE JUST; BUT THIS ALSO I JUDGE MOST VAIN.
The word 'this' refers either to the security of the impious alone: for this is most vain and deceptive; or to the alternation of the lot of the just and the impious, namely that what is owed to the impious befalls the just, and what is owed to the just befalls the impious. The word 'another' is not in the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Syriac, or the Arabic, but is understood. For the Preacher here successively catalogs one vanity after another. Moreover, this vanity is similar to that of verse 10. It is nonetheless different from it, in that there he only said that the impious are praised as if they were pious; but here he adds that all manner of goods and prosperity befall the impious, while evils and adversity befall the pious.
Hence he says: "There are just men to whom evil things happen, as though they had done the works of the impious." Hebrew: there are just men upon whom it has reached as if it were the work of the impious; and there are impious men upon whom it has reached, as if it were the work of the just, as if to say: There are just men whom the lot of adversity touches, or reaches, which the impious deserve; and there are impious men whom the lot of prosperity touches, which the just deserve and are worthy of. The Septuagint: there is a vanity which has been done upon the earth, because there are just men, because there comes upon them as it were the deed of the impious: and there are impious men, because there comes to them as it were the deed of the just. Campensis: evils befall the just, which it was fitting for the impious to bear. Moreover, some think these words are spoken not in the person of Solomon, but of the ignorant and impious. So Thaumaturgus, Lyranus, and Olympiodorus, whom hear: "Now the Preacher introduces the character of one who slips from scandal into error, and says: I saw the just in this life seized by those evils which were rather owed to the impious, such as sickness, poverty, or some other difficult circumstance coming upon them. And on the contrary, he says, I saw that what was owed to the pious came to the impious: therefore such a foolish man, as one who has become a scorner of divine providence, says: this also is vanity. But the wise man, foreseeing the outcomes of events, and clearly knowing what is repaid to each according to their desert, understands that God by no means permits these things to happen by chance, but so that the just may be crowned with a greater reward, and the impious tormented with a graver punishment. And notably he says here that he saw this vanity upon the earth, since in heaven there is nothing vain." But others more rightly hold that these words, like the rest, are spoken in the person of the wise man, as the words on their face indicate.
You will ask, in what sense is it vanity that evils befall the pious and goods the impious? First, Symmachus translates 'vanity' as aporon, that is, difficult to understand; St. Jerome properly renders it as doubtful, perplexing, controversial, according to that saying of David: "It is labor before me, until I understand in their last end," Psalm 72:16, as if to say: It is vain to wish to scrutinize the judgments of God by which He afflicts the pious and prospers the impious, because these judgments are difficult to understand, indeed inscrutable. Secondly, Thaumaturgus explains the vanity as a grave and pernicious error, because the impious man is treated as the pious; and the pious as the impious: for from this the ignorant take occasion either to accuse God's providence, or to abandon righteousness and embrace impiety. So we call a supreme vanity a lying and deceptive error. Thirdly, Hugo takes vanity partly as misfortune, because, he says, nothing is more unfortunate than the good fortune of sinners; partly as something fortuitous, because as if by fortuitous chance, goods come to the impious and evils to the pious. Fourthly, others take 'vain' as meaning troublesome and harsh: whence Campensis translates: certainly this is exceedingly troublesome. Lyranus concurs: It is vain, he says, because it is irrational. Fifthly, St. Jerome takes vanity as the inconstancy of human affairs: for they are vanities which are carried along by varied fortune. Sixthly, St. Bonaventure says it is vain when evils befall both the good and the evil, because it is unworthy on account of the evil: but more vain when goods befall both the good and the evil, because it is equally unjust and unworthy; therefore Habakkuk bore this so indignantly that he seemed to accuse God, when he said: "Why do You look upon those who do iniquitous things, and are silent while the impious man devours the one more just than himself?" Habakkuk 1:3 and 13. Seventhly, Pineda says: This is vain, he says, because in such events there is nothing permanent, nothing solid, to which we can fix our soul: therefore everyone must strive for stable and eternal goods. All these things are true and fitting for this passage: but the vanity here is above all the iniquity of the thing, and the unjust lot of distribution. For it seems unjust that evils be given to the pious and goods to the impious, since the pious deserve goods and the impious deserve evils, if you consider the matter in itself, and in the perception of the ignorant and unlearned, who through this are often driven to cultivate, follow, and embrace impiety over piety: but if you consider God's providence, this is not unjust but prudent and holy, on account of the most equitable reasons which He Himself has, and especially two.
The first reason is that the impious, for the small amount of good they do, receive the goods of this life in place of their reward, while otherwise they will pay the most grievous penalties for their evil deeds in hell: but the pious, for the small amount of evil they do, are punished and purged by the hardships of this life, so that once purified, on account of the many good works they have performed, they may be blessed in heaven; or if they are entirely pure, having been tested by adversity, they may receive a more splendid crown of patience in heaven, as happened to holy Job. On this matter see St. Augustine, The City of God, book V, chapters 15 and 16, where he compares the heavenly happiness of the blessed, and he prefers it to the earthly happiness of the Romans.
The second reason is so that God may teach us that all things which are in this world, whether adverse or prosperous, are vain, that is empty and deceptive, since adverse things befall the pious, and prosperous things the impious, that is the unworthy; but that true goods are only in heaven, and true evils only in hell, according to that saying of the wise man: "No good except the eternal, no evil except the eternal." Thus the blessed martyr Dionysia, amidst the blows of rods and blood flowing over her whole body, encouraged her only little son, who was trembling, to share in martyrdom with this voice: "That punishment is to be feared which never ends; that life is to be desired which is always possessed." Strengthened by this, the boy bravely underwent martyrdom, as Victor of Utica reports, in book III on the Vandals. Hence the Preacher tacitly leaves to be concluded that the wise man should despise both the prosperity and the adversity of this life; but should pursue heavenly goods, and supremely guard against the evils of hell.
Hence it is not to be wondered at if prosperous things befall the impious, and adverse things the pious, because God does this in order to show how both are vain, that is small, meager, brief, and transient: therefore the pious should not grieve about this, but rather rejoice, because from this, as from a certain sign of divine predestination, they recognize that a most happy lot has been prepared for them in heaven. So the Chaldean says: "I saw, he says, in the Holy Spirit, that the evil which befalls the just in this world is not on account of their sins, but to remove from them a light fault, so that their reward may be complete in the world to come; and that which befalls sinners is not because of their merit, but to repay them the reward of the light merit which they earned, so that they may consume their reward in this world, and lose their portion in the world to come." And the Midrash, that is, the Gloss of the Hebrews here: "Happy are the just, it says, to whom things happen according to the deeds of the impious, because a most ample reward and glory is stored up for them. On the contrary, woe to the impious to whom things happen according to the deeds of the pious, because they are raised up so that they may fall more heavily." And St. Jerome: "Among the other vanities, he says, which are carried along by varied fortune in the world, I also discovered this, that those things frequently befall the just which ought to have befallen the impious; and the impious live so happily in this world that you would think them to be the most righteous. The Gospel example of the rich man clothed in purple and the poor man Lazarus teaches this." St. Jerome adds: "The Hebrews interpret the just to whom evils befall, and the impious to whom the works of the just happen, as the sons of Aaron and Manasseh, because the former perished while sacrificing, and the latter, after such great evils and captivity, was restored to his kingdom." But the Hebrews err: for the sons of Aaron acted unjustly when, intoxicated, they offered to God the incense of strange fire contrary to the Lord's command, Leviticus 10. Manasseh likewise, repenting in prison, merited the grace of God, and therefore, being justified, was restored to his kingdom. Wisely Philo, in his book On the Confusion of Tongues: "A notable, he says, punishment and vengeance for impiety is for God to look the other way, and even to indulge sinners, and not only grant them impunity, but also great and long-lasting prosperity." For this makes them as though drunk and out of their minds, so that they rush headlong into their own ruin, and bring their own destruction upon themselves. Conversely, the pious and wise man in adversity as in prosperity remains the same, sober, modest, tranquil, and therefore great. "Just as a dwarf, says Seneca, even if he stands on a mountain, is still small; a colossus even in a well is great: so the wise man, in whatever fortune, is great in his own goods, while the fool is lowly even in the greatest fortune. Just as the equipment of the stage, because it was given on loan, is returned at once and without complaint: so whatever magnificent thing befalls us in life, whether it is reclaimed by fortune later or soon, we will return it with equanimity, if we use such things as if on loan." The same author: "Just as hail striking rooftops bounces off with a great crash indeed, but with no harm: so the assaults of fortune can do nothing against the wise man."
AND THERE ARE IMPIOUS MEN WHO ARE SO SECURE. — "Secure," that is, prosperous, abounding in all things and happy, as St. Jerome explains: for prosperity makes men secure; for a great part of happiness is to be secure in the good by which you think yourself blessed; whence security is opposed to care and anxiety, and a person is called secure who is without care, as if apart from or separated from care. For he contrasts the pious with the impious, in that unhappy and adverse things befall the former, while happy and prosperous things befall the latter. This is clear from the Hebrew, the Septuagint, the Syriac, and the rest. But this is a false and fictitious happiness and security; for, "when they shall say peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them," 1 Thessalonians 5:3. Excellently St. Gregory, book IX of the Morals, chapter 27: "The saints, he says, are so uncertain that they trust; and they so trust that nevertheless they do not grow torpid from security." Their hope therefore is mixed with fear: hope makes them magnanimous and cheerful, fear makes them humble and solicitous. See the same St. Gregory, book XXIV of the Morals, chapter 12:7, and book VI, epistle 92 to Gregoria, the chambermaid of the Empress, who was clinging to a revelation that her sins had been forgiven; to whom St. Gregory responds that this desire is useless and harmful, because the uncertainty of forgiveness keeps alive in us the zeal for penance and good works. See also St. Augustine, On Correction and Grace, chapter 13, and on Psalm 147: Terror, he says, gives birth to security; for just as premature security drives one into terrors, so ordered solicitude gives birth to security.
BUT THIS ALSO I JUDGE MOST VAIN. — The Hebrew: and this also is vanity, namely par excellence, that is, vanity of vanities, that is, the supreme and greatest vanity, for the reasons which I gave a little earlier.
Morally, learn here how vain and how harmful prosperity is for the impious. Hear Eusebius of Emesa, in his homily On Saints Epiphodius and Alexander: "In this world, with wickedness prevailing, with iniquity dominating, the poor man is afflicted, the rich man is multiplied. Do you call this man powerful, who is strong for his own death, for whom the deceptive shadow of present gains gathers up the causes of eternal evils? Who would call blessed a hand strong against its own throat? Who would reasonably praise one rushing swiftly toward steep precipices? Who would marvel at the ascent of one whom he foresees will fall from the summit? It is the same as if you marveled at someone operating through impious and wicked means, through riches and wealth, as if you saw someone mixing poisons for himself in a gilded and jeweled cup." He then adds: "Do you call that man happy, who, faithless, obscene, greedy and bloodthirsty, because he spurns the ways of the Lord, is permitted to go his own ways, offended by the straits of the right hand and delighted by the breadth of the left, is wrapped in shameful deeds, stained with crimes, contaminated with plunder, and amid all this thinks himself most blessed; all the more unhappy in this, that he does not understand he is unhappy. What can the medicine of heavenly commandments do for such people, which heals only those who are willing? Therefore lazy for the care of salvation, eager for the warfare of death and captivity, as was said; they exult in the worst things, and rejoice in their own perdition: like those who, drinking the deadly juices of herbs by chance, are said to perish with laughter." Seneca, epistle 39: "It is the mark of a great soul, he says, to despise great things, and to prefer moderate things to excessive ones: for the former are useful and life-giving; but the latter, because they overflow, do harm. Thus excessive abundance lays flat the harvest; thus branches are broken by their load; thus excessive fruitfulness does not reach maturity. The same thing happens to souls, which immoderate prosperity breaks, by which they are turned not only to the injury of others, but also to their own." Pliny, book XVI, chapter 35: "Ivy, he says, kills trees by its embrace; so prosperous fortune, while it flatters, strangles and destroys." The proverb-writer: "Trees, he says, usually die immediately if they have been unusually fruitful: so fortune, when unusually kind and favorable, very often signals that destruction is imminent. Just as it not infrequently happens that from a perfectly clear sky a fierce storm suddenly arises, so upon the most prosperous and happy circumstances the gravest upheaval of affairs often falls."
Verse 15: I THEREFORE PRAISED JOY, BECAUSE THERE WAS NO GOOD FOR MAN UNDER THE SUN, EXCEPT TO EAT, AND DRINK, AND BE GLAD: AND THAT HE SHOULD CARRY THIS ALONE WITH HIM FROM HIS LABOR, IN THE DAYS OF HIS LIFE, WHICH GOD HAS GIVEN HIM UNDER THE SUN.
Many hold that these words are spoken not in the person of the wise man, but of the foolish pleasure-seeker, who, wearied by the confusion of human affairs, because goods befall the impious and evils the pious, gave himself over to pleasure, as Solomon finally did. So Lyranus, Hugo, Titelmannus, Cajetan, and even Thaumaturgus, whom hear, embracing in a few words everything from this verse to the end of the chapter: "I once thought that the highest good consisted in food and drink, and that the one most pleasing to God was he who throughout his whole life enjoyed these things as much as possible, and refreshed himself; and I admired that joy alone, and indeed thought of nothing else, lest either by night or by day from that pursuit, invented for human luxury,
I should withdraw myself. Finally from these things I discovered this one thing, that no one of this sort, by any means, however much he labors, will attain to the good which is truly good." But more correctly St. Jerome, whom the Chaldean, Olympiodorus, the Gloss, the Hebrew, Hugo, and the rest follow, holds that Solomon is speaking here continuously from his own perspective. For he says the same thing here that he said in chapter 2, verse 12, and chapter 5, verse 17. Namely, he here praises the use of wealth and pleasures, but a moderate, frugal, and honest use. Hear the Chaldean: "And I praised the joy of the law, because there is no good for man in this world under the sun, except only to eat, and drink, and rejoice from his labor, and for his portion, which has been given to him from heaven; and not to extend his hand in robberies and violence; and this will lead him to peace in the world to come, and he will receive a perfect reward for his labor, with which he labored in integrity all the days of his life, which the Lord gave him in the world under the sun."
AND THIS ALONE HE SHOULD CARRY WITH HIM. — The word 'carry away' signifies that we are not properly and fully the owners of the goods of this life, but merely users of them, so that we use them as things belonging to others and on loan for our life, about to resign them in death to others and to God Himself, who is the true Owner. The Hebrew: and this at least adheres to him; the Septuagint: and it itself will accompany him; Campensis: for this a man will receive as his own; the Arabic: and this will depart with him. Otherwise the Syriac: And he himself, it says, wears himself out in his labor. It seems that he, instead of ילוננו illuennu, that is, it will adhere or be joined to him, read ילאנו iilennu, that is, he will labor or be wearied for himself, from the root לאה laa, that is, he labored.
Verse 16: AND I APPLIED MY HEART TO KNOW WISDOM, AND TO UNDERSTAND THE DISTRACTION WHICH IS ON THE EARTH: THERE IS A MAN WHO DAY AND NIGHT TAKES NO SLEEP IN HIS EYES.
By wisdom the Chaldean understands the study of the law; Thaumaturgus, the study of seeking and pursuing more and new pleasures; Olympiodorus, the study of natural sciences; St. Jerome, the study of investigating divine judgments, for example why God afflicts the just and prospers the impious: why He chooses this one and neglects that one. More broadly, take wisdom as the study of investigating all things created by God: for Solomon investigated these, both to know the nature, qualities, and causes of each; and to see whether any thing could give peace, satisfaction, and happiness to the human soul. Hence, explaining further, he adds: "And I understood that of all the works of God man can find no reason." All these things have been explained at the end of the chapter in chapter 1, verse 17, and chapter 2, verses 7 and 12. For Solomon repeats the alternating movements and surges of his soul, by which he investigated all things, in order to find rest and satisfaction of soul; and since he found it in none, but only pure vanity in each, hence wearied of one thing he transferred himself to another and yet another, and especially from joy and pleasures to the study of wisdom, as being more noble and elevated; but at once he testifies that in this too he found the stings of vanity and troubles, and thorns.
DISTRACTION. — Some read 'dissension,' and explain it as referring to the various opinions and views of the wise conflicting with each other. Others, like Lyranus, Hugo, and the Interlinear Gloss, read 'distinction,' and explain it as the difference between good and evil, the wise and the foolish, the prosperity of the impious and the adversity of the pious, and the diverse degrees, conditions, and customs of men.
But the correct reading, with the Roman edition, is 'distraction'; for in Hebrew it is ענין inian, that is, occupation, distraction, solicitude, affliction, about which I spoke at chapter 1, verse 13: "This worst (that is, most troublesome) occupation God gave to the sons of men to be occupied with it," while some are constantly engaged in gathering wealth, others in cultivating estates, others in erecting buildings, others in pursuing honors, others in vain sciences, etc., so much so that they rest neither by day nor by night, nor take sleep. Hence he adds:
THERE IS A MAN WHO DAY AND NIGHT TAKES NO SLEEP — that is, he takes very little and practically none. This is a hyperbole; for men cannot live without sleep, as if to say: He sleeps little, indeed he is always anxious, because he is entirely intent on his occupation, namely his profit, his honor, his knowledge, his art, his office, etc. Hence Demosthenes used to say that he consumed more oil in nocturnal study than wine during the day. Aristotle, while sleeping, held a bronze ball in his hand, so that when it slipped from his sleeping hand and fell into a basin placed below, the noise would awaken him, and thus he would return wakeful to his nighttime studies. So his biography reports. Some Christians and religious did the same. Famous in the East was the monastery of the Acoemetae, that is, the sleepless ones, who kept vigil through the night in prayer and meditation, and sang psalms continuously day and night, in a threefold order and schedule, with the monks divided into three groups, and succeeding one another in a triple rotation. First, this monastery of the Acoemetae was erected at Constantinople, under Pope Leo I, in the year of the Lord 459; they were also called Studites, from Studius, a man of consular rank, who erected such a monastery, as Nicephorus witnesses, book 15, chapter 23. Among them St. John Calybites lived the monastic life. So Baronius, in the year of the Lord 459. A similar monastery of the Acoemetae was that of St. Columban and St. Gall, and many more in Germany, France, and Ireland: for these are not vain but holy vigils of religious, indeed the heavenly watches of earthly angels singing psalms and doing service to God.
Verse 17: AND I UNDERSTOOD THAT OF ALL THE WORKS OF GOD MAN CAN FIND NO REASON, OF THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE DONE UNDER THE SUN: AND THE MORE HE LABORS TO SEEK, THE LESS HE FINDS: EVEN IF THE WISE MAN SAYS HE KNOWS, HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DISCOVER IT.
By the works of God understand both those of His omnipotence and magnificence, as the Chaldean translates; and more especially those of His providence regarding men, as I said at the beginning of the preceding verse, following St. Jerome, whom Albinus, Lyranus, Hugo, and others follow.
EVEN IF THE WISE MAN SAYS HE KNOWS, HE WILL NOT BE ABLE TO DISCOVER IT. — This can be rendered more clearly from the Hebrew: if even the wisest man should determine (that is, resolve within himself) to labor so as to know, he will not be able to discover it. So Vatablus and Campensis: Indeed the wise man himself, he says, if he tries to know, will labor in vain. We have already heard this maxim in chapter 3, verse 11; therefore I will not repeat here what was said there. Here is relevant the old fable which our Pontanus recounts, volume III of the Progymnasmata, part 1, chapter 40: The dog was railing against its own tail, because it was idle and lazy, and let itself be dragged by the rest of the body, and did not show the way like the eyes, nor receive commands like the ears, nor pursue the enemy like the feet, nor fight like the teeth, but was like a useless appendage to the rear part of the body. The tail replied: And yet I, though useless as you slander me, drive away flies, play with my master, cover the shameful parts, and am an ornament to the whole body. The moral: nothing has been made by God except wisely and providently, although men in many matters do not see it. A rare example of this maxim is found in the squaring of the circle, over which the minds of mathematicians have tormented themselves for so many centuries and have not wrested out the truth, so much so that it seems to be a fixed cross for them.
For the squaring of the circle mechanically, that is, the practical method of producing a square which is equal to a circle, or whose capacity is equal to the capacity of any circle, Archimedes discovered and handed down in his book On the Measurement of the Circle, theorem 1, page 128, in the Paris edition. And it is this: Take the periphery, or circumference, of the circle, and extend it from a curve into a straight line, or make a straight line equal to the circumference of the circle, and at its end attach at right angles a straight line equal to the radius of the circle, and finally connect the extremity of each of the two lines just mentioned with a transverse straight line, and you will have a triangle which is equal to the circle. Moreover, that a square equal to any triangle can be described is mathematically certain, and Euclid demonstrates the method of doing this, book I, proposition 42, and book II, proposition 14, and book IX, proposition 33. See Clavius there: therefore in this way a square equal to the circle is produced. Hence mechanicians easily, by measuring the straight line against the circumference of the circle according to this method, construct triangles and squares which are equal to the circle. But to demonstrate the same thing mathematically, as Euclid demonstrates his propositions, that is, to provide a mathematical proof which demonstrates the method of finding a line which is equal to the circumference of the circle, neither Archimedes, nor Euclid, nor anyone else has found thus far, even though very many have sweated over it for very many years. The squaring of the circle is therefore known practically and mechanically; but its mathematical proof and demonstration remains unknown.