Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues the same argument of God's goodness and clemency, namely how God did not immediately destroy the impious Canaanites, but moderately chastised them and invited them to repentance, so that by this example He might give hope of pardon to other sinners, and draw them to repentance and correction of their ways.
Vulgate Text: Wisdom 12:1-27
1. O how good and sweet is Your spirit, O Lord, in all things! 2. And therefore those who go astray, You correct by degrees: and concerning the things in which they sin, You admonish and address them, that having abandoned wickedness, they may believe in You, O Lord. 3. For those ancient inhabitants of Your holy land, whom You abhorred, 4. because they performed works hateful to You through sorceries, and unjust sacrifices, 5. and were merciless slayers of their own children, and devourers of human entrails, and consumers of blood from the midst of Your sacrament, 6. and authors, parents of helpless souls, You willed to destroy by the hands of our parents, 7. that they might receive a worthy pilgrimage of the children of God, that land which is dearer to You than all others. 8. But even these, as men, You spared, and sent wasps as forerunners of Your army, to exterminate them gradually. 9. Not because You were unable in war to subject the impious to the just, or to exterminate them at once by fierce beasts, or by a harsh word: 10. but judging by degrees You gave place for repentance, not being ignorant that their nation was wicked, and their malice natural, and that their way of thinking could not be changed forever. 11. For it was a cursed seed from the beginning: nor, fearing anyone, did You grant pardon to their sins. 12. For who will say to You: What have You done? or who will stand against Your judgment? or who will come into Your sight as an avenger of wicked men? or who will charge You, if the nations which You made have perished? 13. For there is no other God but You, who has care of all, that You may show that You do not judge unjustly. 14. Neither king nor tyrant will inquire of You concerning those whom You have destroyed. 15. Since therefore You are just, You dispose all things justly, and You consider it foreign to Your power to condemn even one who does not deserve to be punished. 16. For Your power is the beginning of justice: and because You are Lord of all, You cause Yourself to spare all. 17. For You show Your power when You are not believed to be perfect in power, and You convict the boldness of those who do not know You. 18. But You, master of power, judge with tranquility, and with great reverence You dispose us: for power is at hand to You, whenever You will. 19. But You have taught Your people by such works, that
it is right to be just and humane, and You have made Your children to be of good hope: because in judging You give place for repentance from sins. 20. For if You tormented the enemies of Your servants, and those deserving death, with such great care, giving them time and place through which they could change from wickedness; 21. with how much diligence did You judge Your children, to whose parents You gave oaths and covenants of good promises? 22. Therefore when You give us discipline, You scourge our enemies in manifold ways, that we may think upon Your goodness when judging, and when we are judged, we may hope for Your mercy. 23. Whence also to those who lived foolishly and unjustly in their life, through the things which they worshipped, You gave the greatest torments. 24. For they wandered longer in the way of error, esteeming as gods those things which are worthless among animals, living after the manner of senseless infants. 25. Therefore, as to senseless children, You gave judgment in mockery. 26. But those who were not corrected by mockeries and rebukes, experienced the worthy judgment of God. 27. For in those things in which they suffered, they were indignant; through these things which they thought were gods, when they were being destroyed by these very things, seeing Him whom they had once denied knowing, they acknowledged the true God: on account of which the end of their condemnation came upon them.
1. O HOW GOOD AND SWEET IS YOUR SPIRIT, O LORD, IN ALL THINGS! — Namely in creating, preserving, nourishing, and governing things; and especially in human beings, both in decreeing punishments and in assigning rewards of this life, and indeed of the future life: for God rewards the blessed in heaven beyond their merit, and torments the damned in hell less than their demerit, for they deserve to be tormented more. The Syriac reads: because Your good spirit is dwelling in all things; the Arabic: because Your good spirit is in all things; the Greek: for Your incorruptible spirit is in all things, namely preserving all things, even the impious, but in such a way that He is not corrupted by them, nor polluted. He is incorruptible therefore, both because He does not allow Himself to be overcome and corrupted by anger, nor by vengeance, nor by any other passion, but perpetually preserves His innate goodness and sweetness toward all, as our translator renders it: and because He does not destroy or corrupt the things He has made, even impious men, but preserves them, and invites them to repentance and salvation: and because He is not stained or corrupted by the crimes of men, whom He creates, nourishes, and preserves: and because He restores and renews through repentance things that are corrupted, and especially men ruined by sin. Understand the Spirit of God as common to the three Persons of the Holy Trinity, as if to say: O Lord, how in all things, even in the impious, You show Yourself sweet and benign from Your innate spirit of sweetness and benignity. For You are philopsychos, that is, a singular lover of souls, as he said a little before; and You are such in all things, because You breathe upon all and impel them toward good, You inspire piety in all, You rouse all to virtue, to repentance, and to hatred of vices. It can also be understood of the notional Spirit, namely the Holy Spirit, for to Him, as proceeding by love from the Father and the Son, goodness and sweetness are appropriated; whence from the fact that this Spirit is called incorruptible, St. Athanasius, in his epistle to Serapion, proves that the Holy Spirit is God.
Tropologically, Methodius in the Catena on Job, chapter 27, understands by the incorruptible spirit the uncorrupted conscience which God implants in each person, which makes us think rightly about God, even when He punishes sins, and accuse not His severity, but our own malice. This spirit of sweetness and goodness is connatural to God, and therefore commensurate with Him, infinite and immeasurable, and consequently to be worshipped with infinite honor, and to be loved in return with infinite love, if it were possible, and equally to be imitated. St. Leo beautifully says, sermon 10 On Lent: "If God is love, he says, charity should have no limit, because divinity can be enclosed by no boundary;" Blessed Lawrence Justinian, sermon On St. Andrew: "Love is a restless thing, not content with limits, not tolerating singularity, never sleeping, always working, manifested by the most evident signs in itself, which knows no partiality of persons, etc.;" for love transforms man into God: for, as St. Gregory of Nyssa says, oration On Children Who Die Prematurely: "Man was made by God to be a kind of living image of divine power." The Psalmist tasted these delights of divine sweetness, saying Psalm 30:20: "How great is the multitude of Your sweetness, O Lord, which You have hidden for those who fear You!" or the bride, when intoxicated with these things, exclaims Song of Songs 2:5: "Support me with flowers, surround me with apples, because I languish with love;" and St. Magdalene, when as a penitent and lover she poured forth the sweetest tears of compunction. The truly penitent and contrite feel the same: our St. Francis Xavier in the midst of persecutions, hardships, and labors in India, abounded in these so much that his heart could not contain them; whence these were his words: "Enough, Lord, enough."
St. Augustine had experienced this sweetness of the divine spirit, whence in his Soliloquies, chapter 22, he thus delights with Him: "My soul has refused to be consoled, that it might be deemed worthy of Your eternal consolations: for it is just that whoever chooses to be consoled in something else more than in You, should lose You. And I beseech You, supreme Truth, by Yourself, do not allow me to be consoled by any vain consolation rather than in You, but I ask that all things may become bitter to me, that You alone may appear sweet-
to my soul, You who are the inestimable sweetness through which all bitter things are made sweet. For Your sweetness sweetened the stones of the torrent for Stephen, Your sweetness made the gridiron sweet for Blessed Lawrence. For Your sweetness the Apostles went rejoicing from the presence of the council, because they were deemed worthy to suffer disgrace for Your name. Andrew went confident and joyful to the cross, because he was hastening to Your sweetness. For this Your sweetness so filled the very princes of the apostles, that for its sake one chose the gibbet of the cross, and the other did not fear to submit his head to the striking sword. For this same sweetness Bartholomew gave his own skin. For tasting this same sweetness the intrepid John drank the cup of poison. And when Peter tasted this, forgetful of all inferior things, he cried out as if intoxicated, saying, Matthew 17:4: 'Lord, it is good for us to be here, let us make here three tabernacles.' Whence he concludes: 'For this is that blessedness, O Lord our God, which we expect You to give us, for which, O Lord, we continually fight for You, for which we are put to death all the day long, that in Your life we may live for You.'"
Again, from this maxim learn the rule for the discernment of spirits, by which you may discern your own spirit and that of anyone else, whether it is good or evil. Do you wish to know by what spirit you are moved, especially in correcting and chastising? See whether what you do, you do sweetly or harshly; benignly or rigidly; gently or roughly; modestly or imperiously: if you find the former, know that it is the Spirit of God; if the latter, that it is the spirit of the world or of the devil: for the Holy Spirit produces in a person a sweetness and gentleness similar to Himself, both in speaking, admonishing, and commanding, as well as in acting and working; but the spirit of the world produces hardness and harshness, for the Holy Spirit is sweet, benign, gentle, modest; but the spirit of the world is hard, rigid, harsh, imperious: whence the Apostle, Galatians 6:1: "Brothers, he says, even if a man is overtaken in some fault, you who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness;" and St. Peter, 1 Epistle 3:4, describes the spirit of Christ thus, and requires it in Christians: "The hidden man of the heart, he says, in the incorruptibility of a quiet and modest spirit, which is precious in the sight of God:" see what was said in both places.
2. AND THEREFORE THOSE WHO GO ASTRAY, YOU CORRECT BY DEGREES (Hugo incorrectly reads 'by fathers,' as if to say, 'Those who stray from the teaching of the fathers') AND CONCERNING THE THINGS IN WHICH THEY SIN, YOU ADMONISH AND ADDRESS THEM (Lucifer, writing for St. Athanasius, reads: admonishing You address them, You gently chastise, so that You seem not so much to chastise as to admonish and sweetly address them, that is, to console them) THAT HAVING ABANDONED WICKEDNESS, THEY MAY BELIEVE IN YOU, O LORD. — 'Believe,' that is, acknowledge You, worship, love, revere, and obey You in all things: for whoever truly believes God to be God, and apprehends and esteems Him according to His dignity, as is fitting, such a one indeed reveres, loves, and worships Him: so St. Bonaventure, Lyranus, Hugo, and others: moreover differently
Dionysius says: "Those who err, he says, You correct by degrees," that is, by parts, since You do not remove them all at once, but only some part of them, which may serve as an example to the rest. Vatablus, instead of 'di ho,' that is 'therefore,' by diaeresis reads 'di hou,' that is 'through whom,' namely the spirit, as if to say: Through Your spirit You sweetly correct and admonish those who err and sin: Your sweet spirit is the cause and minister of the moderate punishment by which You gradually chastise the impious. The word 'address' denotes God's internal inspiration and speech, by which He Himself speaks in the souls of sinners, and brings to memory how many and how grave sins they have committed, which they themselves do not remember, and therefore that He can, and by justice ought, to punish them sharply and destroy them according to their deserts; but from clemency He prefers to chastise moderately, so that they may come to their senses and be saved: and that if they neglect to do this, greater, indeed eternal, punishments await them, and other similar salutary things He inspires, which may move them to repentance, such as a friend would suggest to a friend, to look after his welfare.
3 and 4. FOR THOSE ANCIENT INHABITANTS OF YOUR HOLY LAND, WHOM YOU ABHORRED. — The Greek reads misesas, that is, hating, or when You had hated: these words and what follows depend on the verb 'You willed to destroy,' verse 6. It signifies that the Canaanites, inhabitants of Palestine, were driven out and cut off by God through Joshua and the Hebrews on account of their enormous crimes.
BECAUSE THEY PERFORMED WORKS HATEFUL TO YOU THROUGH SORCERIES. — The Greek reads dia pharmakon, that is, through poisonings, by which understand both poisons properly so called, as if to say: the Canaanites killed people by poison, as certain barbarians among the Indians still do, and also incantations and sorceries, by which witches and magicians with the help of the devil enchant, ruin, and kill people, animals, crops, etc., as if to say: God destroyed the Canaanites because they were given to poisonings and sorceries, and were magicians and sorcerers: for these crimes are hateful to God above all others.
AND UNJUST SACRIFICES. — The Greek reads anosia, that is, unholy, not pious, but impious and wicked. It is a meiosis: such are those which are offered to the devil or to idols in insult to the true God, likewise those which are offered from human victims, as follows; or from obscene and impure things, such as were the sacrifices of Venus, Priapus, Bacchus, etc. First, for 'sacrifices' the Greek has mysta, which word, secondly, can signify initiations or sacred rites, by which someone was initiated, or initiates others, as if to say: the Canaanites were priests initiated into impious sacred rites, and initiating and consecrating others into the same.
5 and 6. And merciless slayers of their own children, and devourers of human entrails, and consumers of blood from the midst of Your sacrament, and authors, parents of helpless souls, You willed to destroy by the hands of our parents. — He continues to enumerate the crimes of the Canaanites, on account of which God destroyed them. The first is that they killed their own children without mercy, especially when they sacrificed them to idols. The second is that they ate human beings and human entrails; by 'entrails' understand not only
the intestines only, but all flesh, according to that saying of Virgil: 'And he placed the solid entrails of bulls upon the flames.' Whence among the ancients 'visceration' was the distribution of raw flesh, which used to be done at solemn feasts, or at the funeral of an eminent person; hence in book 8, Livy reports that a distribution of flesh was given to the people by M. Flavius at the funeral of his mother. And so the Canaanites sinned more shamefully in this, that they distributed flesh not of other animals, but of humans, and perhaps of their children, whom they sacrificed: what could be more savage and horrible? So says a Castro.
The third crime was that they consumed blood from the midst of Your sacrament, in Greek, 'in the midst of mystasia sou,' that is, with Your oath interposed, as if to say: when the Canaanites made treaties, and other contracts and agreements with an oath interposed, they ratified it by drinking human blood, as certain barbarians still do, just as Catiline once did in his conspiracy against his fatherland, namely Rome, as Cicero asserts in his Catilinarian Orations. Or rather, 'from the midst of the sacrament,' that is, sacrifice, to You, as if to say: when the Canaanites sacrificed human beings to God, who alone are Lord, and even their own children, they completed that sacrifice with a feast or banquet, in which they fed on the flesh and blood of the humans who had been offered and sacrificed: these things therefore they took from the midst of the sacrament, that is, the sacrifice, as the Brazilians still do; and it is very well known from Plutarch, Eusebius, Clement of Alexandria, Cyril, and others, that the ancient pagans sacrificed to Saturn, who devoured his own children, with human victims, indeed with their own children immolated; as also the fact that those who sacrificed ate of their sacrifices. Indeed that the Canaanites, and following their example the Hebrews, immolated their children to Moloch, is clear from 4 Kings 23:10, Psalm 105:37, Leviticus 18:21 and 27, where I treated this matter at length. The sense therefore is, as if to say: It was not enough for the Canaanites to slaughter their children through parricide, but they also wished to offer worship to God through their slaughter, and to placate and venerate Him through sacrilege, which was the supreme insult and blasphemy against God: for by this immolation they signified that these parricides pleased God, indeed that God wished to be worshipped through them, when this is properly the devil's domain, who feeds on and is worshipped by nothing but crimes.
The devouring of blood could also be understood not only of human blood, but of any sacrificed animal, such as of oxen, sheep, or goats: for to drink any blood is a mark and cause of cruelty; whence God forbade the Jews the eating of blood, and commanded that all blood be poured out and offered to Him alone; blood therefore was owed to God and was sacred, because the soul and life reside in the blood. Just as therefore the soul is, as it were, sacred to God, so also is blood: see what was said on Genesis 9:4, Leviticus 7:26, and Deuteronomy 12:23 and following.
Therefore 'from the midst of Your sacrament' could be explained as 'from the midst of Your sacred law,' as if to say: These devourers of blood sacrilegiously stole and drank the blood that was sacred and holy to You by Your law: wherefore in the Greek there is an elegant and forceful antithesis, thoinas haimatos, that is, a banquet or feast of blood: for thoine means this banquet from drinking, and in ancient times, because at feasts of the gods they were accustomed to drink wine more liberally, says Athenaeus, book 2, as if to say: In the thoine, that is, the sacred banquet, God's feast is made from wine: but that of the Canaanites was made from blood; it was therefore a banquet not of wine but of blood, and therefore bloody, horrible, and unworthy of and hateful to God.
Note that the Greek codices vary remarkably here: for first Jansenius reads mystas ekmysou theichomed sou, that is, 'initiates and priests of your abominable worship,' by which the Canaanites worshipped You with human victims and blood; or ekmysou, mystas te theias sou (as the Aldine edition has it), so that ekmysou is referred to haimatos, as if to say: They were devourers of abominable blood; then is added mystas te theias sou, that is, 'and they were also mystics,' that is, concealers and suppressors of Your true worship, which they had received from Noah, Abraham, and the other patriarchs, who had once worshipped the true God there with true religion. Second, Peter Nannius reads kai splanchnophagein anthropinon sarkon thoinan, that is, 'and they were accustomed to devour entrails,' namely feasts of human flesh; then kai haimatos ekmysoun, that is, 'and they lapped up blood;' next, mystas te thiasou, that is, 'and priests or flamens of the thiasus': now the thiasus is properly the chorus of Bacchantes, or Maenads, called thiasus from theia adein, that is, 'to sing divine things'; or from thein, that is, 'from running,' for they ran as if frenzied; hence thiazein and thoreuein, that is, 'to lead choruses, to dance, to leap'; whence Virgil, eclogue 5 on Bacchus: 'Daphnis established the introduction of thiasi to Bacchus.'
The thiasus was therefore a dance, a chorus, and a procession, which was performed for Bacchus in his sacrifice; likewise a sacred banquet and assembly of feasters; whence Clement of Alexandria, in his Protrepticus oration, calls the thiasus insane, namely the Bacchic thyrsus; hence the Romans in the Greek edition, in the Notes, observe that some read here ek mesou mystas thiasou, that is, 'initiates from the midst of the thiasus,' that is, the chorus of Bacchantes, and thus reads Cantacuzenus. Third, others instead of thiasou read theiasmon, that is, 'divine frenzy,' by which fanatics are driven, which Plato calls enthousiastmon; whence Vatablus reads mystas te theismon, and translates it, 'and priests of divine frenzy,' or 'fanatical priests': for theiazo means 'to be inspired by the divine,' and 'not to be in possession of oneself'; whence theismos means 'inspiration, divination, banquet.' Fourth, the Vatican codex corrected it to ek mesou mystatheias sou, as if to say: 'From the midst of your sacrament,' or 'of your divine mystery,' so that the word mystatheias is a neologism (for it is not found elsewhere, and the author of this book coins several other new words) and is compounded from mystas and theias, as if to say, 'divine mystery': thus the Vulgate translator seems to have read, unless you prefer that he-
himself read ek mesou mystothiiasmo sou, that is, 'from the midst of the mystical worship,' that is, sacrament or sacrifice to You. Wherefore it seems forced and far-fetched, what Lyranus, Hugo, a Castro, and some others think, that by 'sacrament' is understood the Holy Land, and it is called 'the middle' because it was situated in the middle climate of the habitable earth, as if to say: All these worshippers of idols You willed to destroy from the midst of Your sacrament, that is, from the midst of the land in which You established Your sacraments, Your mysteries, or Your worship, namely from the midst of Your worshippers: for it was not fitting that a pious people should dwell in the midst of so many impious ones, or that the true worship of God should be practiced among so many abominable sacred rites; whence the Complutensian and Royal texts transpose the words, and read thus: 'and devourers of blood, and authors, parents of helpless souls, You willed to destroy from the midst of Your sacrament,' that is, from the midst of the Holy Land. Equally unsatisfying is what our Lorinus suspects, that mysta seems elsewhere to stand for mystadas: and mystades, according to Phavorinus, means a college, society, or certain vow, and this is called a 'sacrament' by our translator, as if these sacrilegious Canaanites were from the midst of the sacrament, that is, of the sacred fellowship to God, that is, of the priests who had once rightly worshipped God, but had defected from them to idols and the gods of the nations, and their profane rites, priesthoods, and temples.
AND AUTHORS, PARENTS OF HELPLESS SOULS, YOU WILLED TO DESTROY. — 'Authors,' namely, of the slaughter and killing of their children: for he called them a little before 'slayers of their own children,' and this is what the Greek authentas signifies, which Gaza, Budaeus, and others translate as autocheira, that is, one who lays hands on himself or his own, and brings about death: for Euripides, Aeschylus, and other ancient authors used this word thus, but in a later age the word authentes was used for 'author,' indeed the name 'author' derives from it, although Servius on that passage of Aeneid book 12: 'I am the author of the daring,' derives 'author' from augeo; whence autoritas means power, authority; and authentikos, that is, 'authentically,' means the same as 'with authority,' or 'from a certain author.' For goneis, that is, 'parents,' Vatablus reads phoneis, that is, 'killers'; but all manuscripts have goneis; nevertheless it is true that among the Canaanites the goneis were phoneis, that is, the parents were the slayers of their children, and therefore not so much parents as destroyers. Again, for aboetheton Cantacuzenus reads apolytous, that is, 'released,' because they had broken the bonds of nature, he says, so that they seemed to cease being parents, whose children they were killing.
The sense is, as if to say: Among the Canaanites the very parents, who should have most protected their helpless children, that is, those whom no one else helped (for who would help children whom their own parents were sacrificing, who had supreme right and power over them?), by the law of nature, indeed by paternal right, and should have defended them from death, since even bears, leopards, and other beasts fight to the death to protect their cubs; these, I say, slaughtered and sacrificed those very children of theirs with their own hand: so say the Romans in their Notes, Jansenius, and Nannius, who instead of aboetheton, that is, 'of the helpless,' reads bouthytenton, that is, 'of those slaughtered like oxen or bulls.' He calls children 'souls' by synecdoche and metonymy, because little ones are tenderly loved by their parents, as if
they were their very little souls; and therefore those barbarians are more than brutish who kill them, especially when they are helpless and destitute of all assistance. One such was St. Francis Xavier, who rescued Bernard, the son of his Japanese host in Japan, from death when his poor father, because he could not feed him, had destined him for death; he nourished him, instructed him, and having admitted him into the Society of Jesus, sent him to Rome to St. Ignatius: thus indeed Bernard's father, because Xavier gave him life both of body and soul. But who will give us more Xaviers?
7. YOU WILLED TO DESTROY BY THE HANDS OF OUR PARENTS (by the hands of Joshua and the Judges, who carried this out), THAT THEY MIGHT RECEIVE A WORTHY PILGRIMAGE OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD, THAT LAND WHICH IS DEARER TO YOU THAN ALL OTHERS. — First, Lyranus, with a slight metathesis, that is, transposition of words, explains it thus, as if to say: Our fathers, namely Joshua and the Hebrews, drove out the Canaanites so that they themselves might occupy the place of those who were driven out, and receive the pilgrimage, in Greek apoikian, that is, colony, of the children, that is, servants and sons of God, namely Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, in the land of Canaan, which is dearer to You than all others, that is, most dear: for in it Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had lived as pilgrims; whence He promised the same land to their descendants, and therefore gave and delivered the same, with the Canaanites driven out, to the Hebrews through Joshua. Second, as if to say: Therefore You drove out the impious Canaanites, so that their land, that is, the territories and regions which were dearer to You than the rest, might receive a new and worthy pilgrimage, that is, a colony of pilgrims and sojourners, a colony, I say, of the children of God, that is, of the faithful and pious Israelites. This sense is required by the Greek, which has a singular verb: 'that it might worthily receive a colony of the children of God, because it is to You the most precious or most honored of all lands': thus Judea is called on account of God's election and blessing, because God had chosen it to build in it a temple in which He would dwell, as well as a Synagogue or assembly of the faithful people, by whom He would be legitimately worshipped with the rites and sacrifices He had sanctioned; finally because Christ was to be born, preach, and die in it, and thus redeem the human race, as well as the Blessed Virgin, the apostles, and the other first faithful; on account of which this land, so fruitful of so many holy persons and so many sacred mysteries, is rightly called holy. Therefore the interpretation of Hugo and others is irrelevant, who interpret 'perciperent' (receive) as 'intelligerent' (understand), as if to say: That the Canaanites as well as the Hebrews might understand that the Canaanites were unworthy of this land, as being impious and idolaters; but the Hebrews were worthy of it, as being pious and true worshippers of the true God.
8. But even these (the impious Canaanites) as men You spared (so that You would not immediately destroy and kill them through Joshua and the Hebrews, but first gently chastised them, as if admonishing them and calling them to repentance; and therefore) You sent wasps as forerunners of Your army, that they might gradually exter-
MINATE THEM, — as if to say: Against the Canaanites You sent in advance wasps and hornets before the arrival of Joshua and the Hebrews, both to give the Canaanites time for repentance, and so that, if they refused to repent, You might so weaken them that they could easily be conquered and killed by the succeeding Joshua and the Hebrews. God had promised Moses that He would send these wasps ahead, Exodus 23:28: see what was said there. Oleaster notes there that the Hebrew tsira, that is, wasp or hornet, is derived from tsara, that is, 'he was leprous,' because these wasps had a kinship with leprosy, either in color, or in smell, or rather because they were troublesome to lepers: and that they are flies with large, long bodies inhabiting deserts, of various color, similar to lepers, harmful to beasts of burden, and differing little from bees. Or rather, as others say, because they drive in a sharp sting, and so puncture the flesh that they make it resemble a leper's.
Hence in Latin they are also called crabrones (hornets), or cabrones, from caballus, that is, horse, says Isidore, book 12 of Etymologies, last chapter, because they are born from the putrid flesh of horses, just as bees are born from bulls and oxen, drones from mules, and wasps from asses; whence both wasps and hornets feed on flesh, as Aristotle and Pliny attest. Scaliger, however, in his Commentary on Varro, and from him Aldrovandus, prefer to derive craber and crabro from the Greek krazo, that is, 'I am slender,' as Ennius uses it, since slender creatures are so called among the ancient comic writers; hence hornets are called in Greek sphekes, because they have a slender body, contracted around the belly as if into a wedge.
Pliny adds, book 11, chapter 53, that hornets eat serpents and vipers, and therefore their bites are venomous. Add that they boil with anger and fury, and signify this with a seething buzz and hum, as if indignant and raging, and therefore they are most bold, agile, swift, persistent, and drive in a most pestilent sting: hence the adage: "Do not provoke hornets," for nine hornets are sufficient to kill a horse with their stings: hear Pliny, book 11, chapter 21: "Their sting is hardly ever without fever. Authorities say that a man is killed by twenty-seven stings." Finally, hornets are similar to wasps, but larger, winged, and armed with barbs: the French call them frelons, the Belgians horselen, the Italians calauroni, the Spanish tavarros, the Germans hornitz.
The Septuagint, and from them the Sage here, calls them sphekas; the Chaldean, Exodus 23:28, calls them small birds, which would attack the eyes of the Canaanites: for hornets, larger than bees, are similar to small birds. Moreover, that God sent hornets ahead against the Canaanites, Joshua attests saying, chapter 24, verse 12: "And I sent hornets before you, and I drove them out of their places," etc.
In a similar way, St. James of Nisibis drove Sapor, king of Persia, from the siege of Nisibis, by sending divinely upon his army an infinite multitude of gnats and midges, which flying into the eyes, ears, noses, and mouths of horses and men, drove them nearly to madness, and thus compelled them to flee, as Theodoret narrates in his Philothea, or History of the Fathers, chapter 1. See here again how God strikes down the pride and ferocity of men through vile and insignificant wasps and hornets. In Italy and other places, some mountains are uncultivated and uninhabitable because of the abundance and attacks of wasps. When Murad, king of the Turks, was besieging Belgrade, the townspeople, as Bonfinius attests, book 4, decade 3, among other things, also sent swarms of bees against the Turks, so that stung by their barbs they would be gravely distressed: indeed the general of Emperor Henry, besieged by Giselbert, king (I read duke) of Lorraine, repelled the charging cavalry by placing beehives in their path, and the horses, driven to madness by the stings, either threw their riders, as Vitichindus says in book 1 of the Deeds of the Saxons, or rendered them useless for fighting. In the year of salvation 1512, under the auspices of Emmanuel, king of Portugal, Lupus Barriga made an attack on the Mauritanian town of Xiamaticense, which they call Tornii, as Osorio reports in book 8 of The Deeds of Emmanuel; when the enemy saw themselves driven to their last extremity, they sent bee-
hives, innumerable ones with which they abounded, set afire from the walls; and the Portuguese, both scorched by the flames of the beehives and stung by the barbs of the bees, were forced to abandon the siege.
9. NOT BECAUSE YOU WERE UNABLE IN WAR TO SUBJECT THE IMPIOUS TO THE JUST, OR TO EXTERMINATE THEM AT ONCE BY FIERCE BEASTS, OR BY A HARSH WORD (Dionysius incorrectly reads 'by war'). — The Greek reads: not powerless in drawing up a battle line, or with a drawn-up battle line (Vatablus: in the fighting of battle) to deliver the impious into the hand or power of the just, or to abolish them at once by savage wild beasts, or by a severe word, as if to say: You sent wasps against the Canaanites, not because You could not hurl greater things against them: for You could have crushed them in battle, cast them before lions, leopards, and bears, indeed destroy and wipe them out by a single word, that is, by a nod and command. Pelicanus incorrectly translates 'word' as 'plague': for although the Hebrew dabar, that is, 'word,' if read with different vowel points as deber, means 'plague'; nevertheless the Greek logos signifies not plague, but only 'word'; and this book was originally written in Greek, not in Hebrew. Add that here is noted the ease of divine power, by which He could annihilate them not by plague, nor by beasts, nor by armies, but by a word alone. He says the same about the Egyptians chastised by God through frogs, gnats, and locusts, in the preceding chapter, verse 18.
10 and 11. BUT JUDGING BY DEGREES YOU GAVE PLACE FOR REPENTANCE, NOT BEING IGNORANT THAT THEIR NATION WAS WICKED, AND THEIR MALICE NATURAL, AND THAT THEIR WAY OF THINKING COULD NOT BE CHANGED FOREVER. FOR IT WAS A CURSED SEED FROM THE BEGINNING: NOR, FEARING ANYONE, DID YOU GRANT PARDON TO THE SINS OF THE WICKED, — as if to say: God could have destroyed all the impious Canaanites at once, but He did not wish to, so that by judging them by degrees, that is, by parts gradually (for this is the Greek kata brachy), that is, punishing and chastising them through wasps, He might give them place, occasion, and time for repentance. Moreover, so great was God's clemency that He did not allow Himself to be overcome by the wickedness of the Canaanites, so that although He knew they were so depraved by their innate perversity and perverted character, and had imbibed impious errors from their very origin, as if with their mother's milk, and moreover
had been nourished by domestic evil examples and instructions, but also on account of their long-standing habit of sinning, the disease was so confirmed in their souls that it could by no means be healed because of such great stubbornness; and finally they were so bound by a dreadful curse that they rejected all discipline: although, I say, He knew all these things well, nevertheless so great was God's benignity toward them that He was unwilling to exterminate them immediately, but chose to chastise them through wasps, and to inflict deserved punishments upon them by degrees, not because He feared anyone, or had regard for any person, in granting them pardon; but to show His immense clemency toward them, and to do on His part whatever was needed that could draw them to repentance.
THEIR NATION WAS WICKED. — The Greek has ponera genesis, that is, generation, origin, lineage, birth, parents and ancestors, and an upbringing and education similar to their generation: for the Canaanites were descendants of Ham and his son Canaan, like raven chicks of ravens, and impious children of impious parents; or 'generation' or 'nation' signifies the entire stock and race of the Canaanites, which was corrupted in its progenitors Ham and Canaan, and was continuously propagated in this corruption.
AND THEIR MALICE WAS NATURAL (the Greek has emphytos, that is, inborn, implanted, innate), — not because any nature created by God is evil, as the Manichaeans slanderously claimed, and recently the Lutheran Illyricus: but natural, both because human nature, depraved by original sin, is inclined and prone to it; and because they had imbibed it from their parents, and through long habit had, as it were, converted it into nature: so St. Augustine, book 2 On Marriage and Concupiscence, chapter 8, who from this text proves original sin against the Pelagians. Hence such people are said to be alienated from God, or to sin from the womb, and to go astray from birth, Psalm 57:4, because scarcely born they give themselves to crimes, from a depraved disposition, from the vicious upbringing of their parents, and from the constant habit of sinning: for habit is a second nature.
THEIR WAY OF THINKING COULD NOT BE CHANGED FOREVER. — That is, the Greek has hoti ouk allage, that is, that it would by no means be changed, nor could such deeply rooted, and as it were inborn wickedness be easily changed; yet absolutely it could be changed: for why otherwise would God have given them place for repentance, as He said in verse 10, if they could not be changed and repent? Heretics therefore have nothing here against free will, nor do those who think that the obstinate and hardened in evil lack sufficient help to soften their hearts and gradually convert, in support of their rigid position.
FOR IT WAS A CURSED SEED FROM THE BEGINNING, — not so much in Adam through original sin transmitted to all his descendants, as St. Augustine explains in the place already cited (for thus all men were cursed in Adam, whereas here only the Canaanites are called a cursed seed), but rather in their parents Ham and Canaan: for to these Noah, their father, mocked by them, pronounced a curse saying Genesis 9:25: "Cursed be Canaan (together with his father Ham, who mocked Noah his father when he was carelessly uncovered from his drunkenness), he shall be a servant of servants to his brothers:" by which curse he cursed not Ham alone, but also his son Canaan and the Canaanites to be born from him, who would imitate his impiety and crimes: see what was said on Genesis 9:25. This curse endures even now; whence we see that Ethiopians and Moors, whom people commonly call Blacks, who are descended from Ham, are for the most part slaves, and of duller intellect, and of a more base and servile condition compared to others.
NOR, FEARING ANYONE, DID YOU GRANT PARDON, — as if to say: Timid judges and princes are accustomed to pervert or suspend judgments, from fear that the condemned person, and his relatives and friends, might inflict a similar or greater harm on the one who condemned them; but God did not grant this impunity and delay of punishment to the Canaanites because He feared or respected anything, since He Himself is terrible and to be revered by all, according to that saying of Job 22:4: "Will He reprove you out of fear, and come with you into judgment?" For God is not like a man and a tyrant, who, as the Tragedian says: 'He fears those who fear him; dread returns upon its author.'
Again you may explain it thus, as if to say: You, O Lord, could not be induced by fear of anything to grant pardon to the Canaanites: therefore although You delayed the punishment to draw them to repentance, nevertheless when You saw them impenitent and obstinate, You fully and completely inflicted it upon them, and destroyed them utterly: this sense seems truer, for the following words require it:
12. FOR WHO WILL SAY TO YOU: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? OR WHO WILL STAND AGAINST YOUR JUDGMENT? OR WHO WILL COME INTO YOUR SIGHT AS AN AVENGER OF WICKED MEN? OR WHO WILL CHARGE YOU, IF THE NATIONS WHICH YOU MADE HAVE PERISHED. — He proves what he said: "Nor, fearing anyone, did You grant pardon to their sins," namely that God did not spare the Canaanites out of fear of anyone, but deferred the punishment for a time so that they might repent, and when they refused to do this, He destroyed them all through Joshua and the Hebrews: for this reason he assigns four causes and modes of fear by which timid judges are accustomed to pervert judgment and grant pardon to the guilty; and he removes all of these from God, to show that His judgment is right, strong, and incorruptible: because, as Holcot keenly observes, judges deviate from the rigor of justice either because of revocations by superior judges, or because of interposed appeals, or because of future inspections, or because of subsequent persecutions. God is the supreme judge, so that there is none who can review and revoke His sentences, or appeal to another, or invalidate His decrees, or threaten anything troublesome on account of the punishments He has inflicted upon the guilty.
FOR WHO WILL SAY TO YOU: WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? — As if someone superior to You would demand an account of what You have done? For You made all beings and all things, indeed from no-
thing You created: "Shall the clay say to its potter: What are you doing?" Isaiah 45:9: therefore all beings and all things must say with the same Isaiah, chapter 64, verse 8: "And now, O Lord, You are our Father, and we are clay: and You are our maker, and we are all the works of Your hands;" no one therefore is superior to You, but all must acknowledge themselves to be subject to You, and completely submit themselves.
WHO WILL STAND AGAINST YOUR JUDGMENT (in Greek: or who will resist, or oppose himself to Your judgment, by which You have condemned or destroyed the Canaanites, so as to dare to appeal from it to another judge)? OR WHO WILL COME INTO YOUR SIGHT AS AN AVENGER OF WICKED MEN? — The Greek places this clause after the following one, and expresses it thus: e tis eis katastasin soi eleusetai ekdikos kata adikon anthropon, that is, as the Roman edition has it, 'or who will come to stand against You as an avenger on behalf of unjust men?' Less correctly Vatablus: 'or who will intercede against You as an avenger of unjust men?' Better Jansenius: 'who will come against You in opposition and resistance, to take vengeance on You for the evils which You have inflicted upon the impious?' For the discussion here is not about a mediator or intercessor, but about an avenger, defender, and vindicator: for he is called ekdikos; whence also in Latin the tribunes of the plebs were called ecdici, who defended the cause of the people against the violence and injustice of the nobles with full right and power, as Cicero attests, book 13, epistle 56, and Budaeus in his Pandects; but no such ecdicus, no tribune of the plebs, can be given to the Canaanites and other impious people against God.
OR WHO WILL CHARGE YOU, IF THE NATIONS WHICH YOU MADE HAVE PERISHED? — The Greek has tis de enkalesei soi, that is, 'who indeed will accuse You, or bring a charge against You,' for having destroyed the Canaanites, of whom by right of Creator You are the full and supreme lord of life and death; and by right of Legislator You are the supreme judge and avenger of their very crimes: therefore if God wished to consign all the holy and blessed angels and men who are in heaven to the eternal torments of hell, He would do no injury or injustice to them or to others, because the Creator would be doing with His creatures what the potter does with his clay vessels. But this would not be in conformity with His goodness, equity, and clemency, which is supremely philanthropos and philopsychos, as he said in chapter 11, verse 21; indeed those torments could not properly have the character of punishment, nor would God be said to punish the blessed, but merely to torment and afflict them: for punishment cannot exist where there is no guilt. For punishment and guilt are correlative; whence punishment is the punishment of guilt, or its chastisement; conversely every guilt merits punishment: for every guilt deserves to be condignly punished and chastised according to its magnitude, and vice versa every punishment demands and presupposes a condign and proportionate guilt.
13. FOR THERE IS NO OTHER GOD BUT YOU, WHO HAS CARE OF ALL, THAT YOU MAY SHOW THAT YOU DO NOT JUDGE UNJUSTLY, — as if to say: For no one is superior to You who could call You to judgment: for such a superior would have to be another God, and one greater than You, which is impossible. The Greek reads: for there is no God besides You, who has care of all, to show that You have judged rightly. Note, when he says: "Who has care of all," he proves that there is no other God, from the fact that no other has care of all things: for this care belongs to God alone, for He alone has providence over all things: therefore providence, or divine power, belongs to the nature and essence of God and divinity; whence whoever takes providence away from God, takes away from Him also divinity; hence Vatablus translates: for there is no other God besides You, who has care of all, by which You demonstrate that You do not judge unjustly: for since God has supreme care and providence of all things, it is therefore impossible that He should judge unjustly, that is, that He should condemn and punish the innocent, but absolve and reward the guilty. Hence he leaves it to be concluded that God can be blamed or accused of injustice by no one for punishing and destroying the Canaanites and similar impious people, because He Himself has care of all, and is therefore the father and provider of all, as well as the most just judge and avenger.
14. NEITHER KING NOR TYRANT WILL INQUIRE OF YOU CONCERNING THOSE WHOM YOU HAVE DESTROYED. — The Greek signi-
fies more expressively, autophthalmesai, that is, to gaze from the opposite side, to set face against face, to fix the eyes intently upon another, in order to oppose him or bring a suit against him, as if angry and indignant at him, as litigants in a trial are accustomed to look at each other and at the judge with faces turned and glaring, as if to say: No king, whether legitimate or illegitimate and tyrannical, will dare to look You and Your judgment in the face, to oppose it and demand an account of why You have destroyed and continue to destroy the Canaanites and other impious people; whence Vatablus translates: neither king nor tyrant would dare raise eyes against You on behalf of those whom You have punished (for this is the meaning of epiblepsai).
15. Since therefore You are just, You dispose all things justly. — The Greek has dioikeis, that is, You rule, You govern; Vatablus: You govern. St. Thomas notes, Part 1, Question 21, article 1, that in God there is no commutative justice, because He cannot exchange anything with anyone that He Himself has not first given, according to that saying, Romans 11:35: "Who has first given to Him, and it shall be repaid to him?" but distributive justice: for, as St. Dionysius says, chapter 8, On the Divine Names: "It is necessary to see in this the true justice of God, that He gives to all their proper things, according to the dignity of each existing being, and preserves the nature of each in its own order and power:" likewise St. Thomas, I-II, Question 61, article 5: "The fortitude of God, he says, is His immutability; but the justice of God is the observance of the eternal law in His operations."
TO CONDEMN EVEN ONE WHO DOES NOT DESERVE TO BE PUNISHED, YOU CONSIDER FOREIGN TO YOUR POWER: — thus it should be corrected and read with the Roman and Greek texts; many codices therefore incorrectly have the opposite reading, and explain it variously. St. Gregory, book 3 of Moralia, chapter 2, mystically explains this of Christ, as if to say: Christ paid what He did not steal; and when the Father by punishing disposed all things rightly, and justified sinners whose losses from injustice Christ bore. Others explain it literally, as if to say: God sometimes punishes and condemns those who in the judgment of men seem just and not deserving of punishment, because He sees hidden sins in them that men do not see. Others say: God sometimes chastises those who have not merited it by their sins, in order to grant them greater grace and glory, as He did with St. Job: so Lyranus. Others prove from this text original sin, as if to say: God condemns and reprobates little children, who do not deserve to be punished for personal sins, which they have committed none, on account of original sin, which they contracted from Adam: the same concerning reprobate adults, from this passage and similar ones, think Durandus, Gregory, Marsilius, and others, whom Vasquez reviews and refutes, Part 1, disputation 95, article 7, numbers 33 and 37. These explain this passage thus, as if to say: God before all foresight of merits or demerits, reprobated those who are to be damned, that is, excluded them from His kingdom and heavenly glory. But these interpretations are not only harsh, but also irrelevant to this passage, indeed foreign and forced: for this entire passage commends the equity and clemency of God.
Far harsher, indeed plainly barbarous and tyrannical, is what Calvin strives to prove from this passage in book 3 of the Institutes, chapter 21 and following, namely that God before all foresight of sin positively destined those who are to be damned to the eternal punishments of hell: for this would be the work not of God, but of the devil. Far otherwise, and more worthy of God's immense goodness, St. Paul says, 1 Timothy 2:4: "God, he says, wills all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth:" he proves this from God and Christ, when he adds: "For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a redemption for all," as if to say: Christ was born and crucified for the redemption of all men; therefore He wills all to be saved, as far as His part is concerned. And St. Augustine, epistle 106, teaches that God does not reprobate or damn anyone before sin, for this would be unjust: hear him: "If this mass (of Adam's descendants) were so neutral that just as it merited nothing good, so also it merited nothing evil, it would not unreasonably seem to be injustice that vessels of dishonor should be made from it;" and below: "But if God is believed to damn anyone who is undeserving and guilty of no sin, He is not believed to be free from injustice."
Wherefore St. Augustine, book 83 Questions, Question 53, deleting the 'not,' reads thus: 'even one who deserves to be punished, when You condemn,' etc.; for thus the Louvain scholars restored the text in St. Augustine, though previously it had been read with 'not' added; but with the Roman and Greek texts, the opposite reading is plainly correct: 'to condemn even one who does not deserve to be punished, You consider foreign to Your power,' that is, to Your might, as the Greek has, or to Your strength, as if to say: Although You are most powerful, O Lord, and most mighty, nevertheless You do not use Your power to strike the innocent, indeed You consider striking them foreign and alien to Your strength: for Your strength and power is most equitable and most just, as well as most benign, and thus Your omnipotence is in reality the same as Your goodness and clemency: for many men, in order to appear powerful, harass the innocent, but this power is tyranny and great impotence of soul; but God's power is true power, because it is true equity and true justice. Whence the Council of Orange, canon 3: "He ascribes injustice to God, it says, who says that death, which is the punishment of sin, passes to us without sin (of Adam and original sin) which is the merit of death:" understand 'injustice' given the law and covenant of God already established with Adam, by which He promised him and his descendants, if they persevered in justice, grace, glory, and perpetual life; otherwise, absolutely by right of creation, God could have consigned Adam, even if he had not sinned and persisted in justice, together with all his descendants, to death, as I said in verse 12. Moreover, just as it is foreign to God's power to condemn the innocent, so it is also foreign to God's wisdom to be ignorant of the innocent; therefore whomever He Himself condemns, that person is certainly guilty: it is otherwise among men, where judges out of ignorance often force the innocent through torture to confess themselves guilty, and condemn the confessed; St. Augustine deplores this misery of human ignorance, book 19 of The City of God, chapter 6: "When it is inquired, he says, whether someone is guilty, he is tortured, and the innocent person suffers most certain punishments for an uncertain crime: not because he is discovered to have committed it, but because it is not known that he did not commit it; and through this the ignorance of the judge is very often the calamity of the innocent."
16. FOR YOUR POWER IS THE BEGINNING OF JUSTICE: AND BECAUSE YOU ARE LORD OF ALL, YOU CAUSE YOURSELF TO SPARE ALL; — thus also the Syriac; but the Arabic reads: and Your dominion effects in all things that You are merciful to all. For 'power' the Greek has ischys, that is, force, strength, fortitude; therefore Holcot, Hugo, and others incorrectly understand 'power' as piety and mercy; but Lyranus explains it, as if to say: God through His omnipotence justifies the wicked: for, as St. Augustine says, it is a greater work to justify the wicked than
to create heaven and earth; but this is not what is being discussed here: for he gives the reason why to condemn an innocent person who does not deserve to be punished is foreign to God's power and might, namely that in men and animals strength is often the beginning of injustice and tyranny, so that they oppress the weak and the poor; but in God strength is the beginning, indeed the sovereignty (for the Greek arche signifies both) of justice and clemency, as follows. The first reason is that in God power is joined and mixed with justice, equity, and clemency, so that one cannot exist without the other, but where one is, the other also
must also be present; whence one is, as it were, the beginning of the other, because it brings the other along with it; but in men, who have much cupidity and little strength and power, and are therefore greedy for dominion and extending the boundaries of their empire, power often excludes justice and clemency, and therefore is brutish and tyrannical, and for that reason impotent, weak, and short-lived.
Second, because power in our God, coinciding in this way, arises from the very divinity, which is most perfect and most holy, and supremely conformed to right reason, virtue, and the eternal law: therefore His power must also be such, and therefore most excellent, most ample, and most equitable, and the beginning and foundation of all justice. Add that in God power is supreme and immense, so that nothing can be added to it, except that He may show and communicate it to creatures through equity and beneficence: therefore He is its fountain, principle, and origin; God therefore is supremely beneficent, because He is supremely full, and supremely powerful, just as a river overflows and fertilizes the fields because it is supremely full and strong. The Sage gives this reason in the following verse.
Third, because true power is magnanimous and generous; and the magnanimous are equitable and clement, therefore supreme power is supremely equitable and clement, indeed it is supreme equity and clemency. This is what he adds: "And because You are Lord of all, You cause Yourself to spare all." As if to say: Your authority and supreme dominion over all impels You to spare all, and to be beneficent and clement to all, because, as the Interlinear Gloss says, "he who presides with power, becomes gentle by nature;" so that the greater he is, the more clement he is; which is the virtue of a good prince, namely to be both lord and father of his subjects, just as Christ said, Matthew 11:25: "I confess to You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth:" for the affection of a father restrains and tempers the power of a lord who could freely oppress; whence St. Augustine, book 5 of The City of God, chapter 12, praises the ancient Romans as lion-like, both in strength and in clemency, whose axiom was, as Virgil attests, Aeneid 6: 'To spare the conquered, and to crush the proud.'
See Seneca, book On Clemency, where he extols the words of Nero at the beginning of his reign, who when he was signing the death sentence of a condemned man, exclaimed: "Would that I did not know how to write." True power therefore must rest on justice to endure, according to that saying of Proverbs 16:12: "The throne is established by justice." Power therefore that lacks justice is impotence and quickly perishes, as is evident in tyrants: see what was said in the preceding chapter, verse 24, on those words: "You have mercy on all, because You can do all things."
Morally, let the combative and duelists learn from God, who because they excel in strength and the art of fighting, provoke anyone they meet to a duel, to measure their strength by equity and justice, lest they seem to be lions and tigers rather than men: for tigers measure their right by their strength. Wherefore by the just judgment of God, those who provoke to a duel often succumb in the duel and are conquered by weaker opponents. But those challenged to a duel should respond as Augustus Caesar responded to Antony who challenged him to one: "If Antony wishes to die, there are plenty enough ways to his destruction:" so Plutarch in his Life of Antony.
17. FOR YOU SHOW YOUR POWER (ischyn, that is, strength, might), YOU WHO ARE NOT BELIEVED TO BE PERFECT IN POWER (dynameos, that is, might), AND YOU CONVICT THE BOLDNESS OF THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW YOU, — as if to say: Your strength and might, O Lord, You show and exercise against those who do not believe that You are perfect in power, and that You are omnipotent, such as were the faithless and impious Sodomites, Egyptians, and Canaanites, who dared to provoke Your arm, and as it were challenge You to a duel; whence You convict, punish, and chastise their bold recklessness: for, as I said a little before, true fortitude is "to spare the conquered, and to crush the proud," so that they, compelled, may acknowledge, worship, and revere Your strength and omnipotent hand. Whence the Syriac and Arabic translate: and You, lord of all, have demonstrated Your powers, and they did not believe: only by the powers of Your perfection do You powerfully convict those whom You know.
AND YOU CONVICT THE BOLDNESS OF THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW YOU. — The Complutensian, Royal, and other codices have: 'and those who do not know You, in boldness You convict,' in Greek, exelenkheis, that is, You reprove, punish, chastise; Lyranus, Hugo, and others read 'into boldness You lead,' as if to say: The faithless, who do not know You, You allow to become bolder, and You confirm them in boldness, so that they boldly rush from one crime into another. But 'convict' means the same as 'correct and scourge,' as I have already said. The Greek has the opposite: 'and in those who know, You reprove boldness'; whence also St. Augustine, book 83 Questions, Question 53, reads: 'but in those who know, You convict boldness'; Vatablus: 'and You reprove those possessed of stubbornness'; the Syriac and Arabic: 'those whom You know, You powerfully reprove.' But in the Greek the negation me, that is 'not,' seems to have fallen out, which our translator reads, and therefore translates, 'who do not know You,' that is, 'are ignorant of You.' Both readings, however, can be reconciled: for the impious know God and God's power speculatively, but not practically, because they have not sufficiently experienced it, and therefore they do not fear or revere Him: wherefore God convicts their boldness, that is, sharply corrects and punishes them, so that they may learn to fear it, as the Apostle teaches concerning the philosophers, "who, though they knew God, did not glorify Him as God," Romans 1:21, where note that God is especially accustomed to rage against the bold and insolent, such as were Pharaoh, the Egyptians, and the Canaanites, to blunt and break their pride, insolence, and boldness, and make them humble, modest, and reverently subject to Him; whence some explain what is in the Greek, 'those who are bold,' as: 'those who are bold You correct and punish.'
18. BUT YOU, MASTER OF POWER, JUDGE WITH TRANQUILITY, AND WITH GREAT REVERENCE YOU DISPOSE US: FOR POWER IS AT HAND TO YOU, WHENEVER YOU WILL. — God is called the master of power, that is,
first, one who masters His own power, as Vatablus translates, and equally His spirit, and is the wisest moderator of His own wrath and zeal; whence the Greek has despozon ischyos, that is, 'mastering strength or power.' Second, by a Hebraism, as if to say: Most powerful and most mighty Master. St. Augustine in the place cited reads: 'but You, Lord of hosts,' that is, 'of armies,' who namely rule over angels, heavens, elements, and all creatures, and when You wish, lead them into battle against Your enemies: for under Your authority You hold all others' power, restraining it from exceeding its bounds, and loosening and releasing it at Your pleasure. The sense is, as if to say: Although sometimes You exercise Your power against those who do not believe in it, in order to show Yourself the master of power, that is, most powerful, nevertheless You do this not from the passion of anger, but with the tranquility of a mind devoted to justice, and therefore with great reverence, that is, moderation, as if reverencing us, You dispose and govern us, so that all may understand that You punish sinners not according to Your power and wrath, but according to equity and clemency, for if You punished them according to Your power, You would immediately destroy and annihilate them all: "for power is at hand (paresti, that is, is present) to You, whenever You will," so that whatever You will, You can do and accomplish in deed, for Your power is commensurate with Your will; and therefore it is as great as Your will is.
WITH TRANQUILITY (the Arabic: with simplicity) YOU JUDGE. — The Greek has en epieikeia, that is, with equity; with meekness and fairness, not with power or anger; with moderation and temperance, not with the rigor of justice, because when You punish sinners, You do not exert all Your strength, nor indulge Your anger, nor chastise crimes according to their gravity and desert; but You temper justice with clemency, and punish less than what is deserved, and therefore "with tranquility You judge," as our translator skillfully renders. Although therefore God is a zealot for justice, nevertheless this zeal, which in us brings perturbation, has in God the highest peace and tranquility because of His eminent holiness as well as His omnipotence: "for power is at hand to You, whenever You will."
AND WITH GREAT REVERENCE YOU DISPOSE US. — First, Dionysius understands 'reverence' not as that of men, but of God, as if to say: God governs magnificently, as befits His majesty, which is worthy of all reverence; second, Salvian, book 2 On Providence, understands it as reverence toward men, as if to say: God regards the summit of human dignity, and pursues it with honor and, as it were, reverence. But I say the Greek is meta polles pheidous, that is, 'with much sparingness,' with zeal for sparing, with economy, indulgence, pardon, and mercy You govern us, sparing both guilt and punishment, if not entirely, certainly for the most part, just as if You revered us. It is a catachresis: thus a parent, when chastising a tenderly beloved child, does so reverently and reluctantly; whence his hands tremble, and after the blows he draws them back and restrains them: so a tutor, who whips the king's son, the heir to the kingdom, does so with tranquility and reverence, so that the boy
may satisfy the duty imposed on him by the king his father: so also You, O Lord, punish us as it were reverently, because You regard us as Your children, and "with the rod of men" (in Hebrew beshevet anashim, that is, of the weak, the feeble, that is, with a feeble and gentle chastisement) You reprove us, and "with the stripes of the children of men," 2 Kings 7:14; and just as one who washes and cleans glass does so carefully, lest the glass strike against something and break, and just as a potter delicately handles and cleans clay vessels, lest he break them: so also God carefully rubs us with the salt of tribulation, to scrub off the filth, not to break the earthen vessel, as Cantacuzenus says. Hence the Syriac translates: and with all piety or benignity You govern us; the Arabic: with much piety You moderate us. 'Reverence' therefore, as our translator renders it, is piety, benignity, moderation, indulgence, as the Romans note in their annotations on the Greek version.
FOR POWER IS AT HAND TO YOU, WHENEVER YOU WILL; — the Arabic: and when You will, power is with You; the Syriac: if You will, strength is ready; Vatablus: namely, when You wish, power is at hand for You, as if to say: You do not punish crimes immediately, nor condignly according to their deserts, because You can do so when and how You wish: for when You will, no one will escape Your strength and hands. St. Bonaventure notes that power precedes the will, yet here conversely it is said, 'power is at hand to You, whenever You will,' because although power precedes in being, the will nevertheless precedes in acting, because it applies power to action: for to God it is as easy to be able as to will. Again, this omnipotence in God is the reason why, in the zeal of vengeance when He chastises crimes, He is not perturbed, but judges and punishes with tranquility: "for power is at hand to You, whenever You will," as if to say: Therefore You are not disturbed if some rise up against You or against Your people; but as far as is fitting, You calmly await the boldness of men; but when the time comes to resist, to bring remedy to Your people, and to punish the wicked, You resist and punish outwardly in such a way that You remain in the highest peace, and inwardly You are not agitated by any stirring of indignation, from which You are the farthest removed. A puppy barks at a lion, but the lion passes calmly by, because he fears absolutely no harm from it; but when necessary he raises his paw, and as if doing nothing, tears it apart: so all Your enemies and the enemies of Your servants are puppies of no moment, whom as if mocking them, You restrain without any perturbation: You look upon the earth, and make it tremble; You touch the mountains, and they smoke; and through Jeremiah You say: "Do they provoke Me to anger?" As if to say: No, "but themselves to the confusion of their own faces," Jeremiah 7:19: so our Alvarez de Paz, volume 3, contemplation 29, On the Peace of God.
Morally, let princes, judges, and superiors learn here from God the manner of ruling, judging, and punishing: for if God judges with tranquility and disposes us with great reverence, with how much more ought men, who are of the same nature and condition as their subjects and the accused, do the same? As the Sage adds: therefore those who from
indeed, raised to the highest degree of honor, grow insolent, and proudly and insolently use and abuse their power for the destruction of others, with the result that they bring upon themselves the hatred of all, and not infrequently ruin, indeed death. Let them hear Ausonius, Exhortation to Modesty: 'Treat fortune with reverence, whoever you are who have suddenly / risen from a humble station to wealth.'
St. Augustine beautifully depicts God as prince, judge, and avenger in book 1 of Confessions, chapter 4: "You love, and do not burn with passion; You are jealous, and are unconcerned; You repent, and do not grieve; You are angry, and are tranquil." Man therefore, since he is the image of God, ought to be also the imitation of God, so as to imitate His holiness, beneficence, and perfection, according to that saying of Matthew 5:48: "Be you perfect, as your heavenly Father also is perfect;" and that of Matthew 18:33: "You wicked servant, etc., should you not also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I also had mercy on you?" St. Augustine in his commentary on Psalm 102 introduces God speaking thus: "Sins do not please Me, but by long-suffering I seek right deeds. If I were to punish sinners, I would find no confessors."
The emperor Theodosius the Younger was wise in this, who when asked why he did not punish with the death penalty those who injured him, said: "Would that it were permitted to me to recall even the dead to life." The emperor Rudolph, when after a change of character he had been more clement to his subjects than at the beginning of his reign, and was rebuked for this, said: "I have sometimes regretted being severe and harsh, but never being gentle and merciful:" so Aeneas Sylvius, book 2 of the Commentary on the Deeds of Alfonso. Alfonso, king of Aragon, when he was once reproached for being too mild and gentle toward his people, since he sometimes even forgave those who had gravely offended him, said: "I prefer to save many by my clemency than to destroy a few by my severity: for clemency belongs to a man, but ferocity to beasts: therefore a prince should be easy to forgive in private injuries; but in those that harm the commonwealth, he should be severe, yet in such a way that he seems to pursue and punish not the person, but the crime itself;" so Panormitanus, book 2 of the Deeds of Alfonso, who also in book 3 records these his heavenly words: "By justice I am pleasing to the good, by clemency to the wicked: for nothing so bends the minds of adversaries as the reputation of gentleness and placability." Blessed Francis Borgia, Duke of Gandia and Viceroy of Catalonia, when his office compelled him to punish the guilty, would weep, and took pains that they might die piously; for the souls of those punished he arranged for thirty masses to be offered for each one: likewise, having become General of the Society of Jesus, he took upon himself a great part of the penalties of offenders, and bore them in the suffering of his own body.
Philosophers learned the same thing from Solomon, whose maxims Antonius reports in the Melissa, Plutarch in his Apophthegms, and others, such as that of Demonax: "One should not be angry at men, but at vices: for it is the nature of man to sin, but of God or of a man closest to God to correct sins;" of Antigonus, king of Macedonia: "Clemency can do more than violence." Cato the Elder admonished those who were powerful to use their power sparingly, so that they might always be able to use it, meaning that through clemency and courtesy power becomes lasting, through ferocity brief. When Caesar, having seized power, honorably restored the statues of Pompey that had been cast down, Cicero said: "Caesar, by restoring Pompey's statues, stabilizes his own," meaning that he did this not to honor Pompey, but to win favor among the citizens by a show of clemency, and by this means to consolidate his own reign. Plutarch in his Roman Apophthegms: The emperor Trajan, he says, when accused by his courtiers of excessive leniency, replied: "He wished to be such an emperor to private citizens, as he would wish an emperor to be toward himself as a private citizen." His successor Hadrian: "For princes, he said, in private offenses it should be enough to have been able to take vengeance." The emperor Alexander Severus, when his mother Mammaea and his wife Memmia, disapproving of his humanity and clemency, often said: "You have made your power softer and your empire more contemptible," replied: "But safer and more lasting:" so the Life of the Caesars.
A certain bronze-smith at Cumae killed Thyrraeus, the son of Pittacus, by striking him with an axe; the Cumaeans sent the murderer bound to Pittacus, so that he might take vengeance on him; but he, having learned the facts of the case, released the man, saying: "Forgiveness is better than regret," meaning that it is more useful to pardon than to remember an injury and avenge it. There are those who report that the murderer was released by Alcaeus, with this saying: "It is better to forgive than to punish:" so Laertius, book 1.
Moreover, the same peace and tranquility is to be employed not only in punishment, but in all actions, especially where many occupations distract and disturb a person's mind: for then wise and spiritual men, fixing all their hope on God, carry out all things in an orderly, quiet, and tranquil manner: hear St. Gregory, book 18 of Moralia, chapter 25, or according to another edition, chapter 29, for explaining that passage of Job 28: 'And the sea is not with me': "When occupations, he says, make noise from without, within the most peaceful quiet is held in love; and the noise of the tumult clamoring from without is managed from within by reason presiding as judge, and with tranquil governance it disposes those things around it that are less tranquil: for just as the vigor of the mind presides over restraining the movements of the flesh, so often the love of quiet well governs the tumults of occupation imposed from above, because outward cares, if they are not pursued with disordered love, can be administered not with a confused, but with an ordered mind."
19. BUT YOU HAVE TAUGHT YOUR PEOPLE BY SUCH WORKS, THAT IT IS RIGHT TO BE JUST AND HUMANE. AND YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CHILDREN TO BE OF GOOD HOPE: BECAUSE IN JUDGING YOU GIVE PLACE FOR REPENTANCE FROM SINS, — as if to say:
By this Your clemency toward the Egyptians and Canaanites, O Lord, You showed how You provoked them to repentance, and thus freed both the mind from malice and the body from plagues, and restored them to health: "with how much diligence" (in Greek, akribeias, that is, of solicitude, exact, exquisite consideration, attention, caution, care, and zeal; whence Vatablus translates 'solicitude'; others translate 'tenacity and sparingness,' for we call the tenacious and sparing 'solicitous' and 'attentive' to the matter) "did You judge," that is, rule, as Vatablus translates, govern, and also chastise sinners, punish) "Your children" — the faithful Hebrews — "to whose parents (Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob) You gave oaths and covenants of good promises," that is, You promised and made a pact with an oath, that You would give to their descendants the Promised Land flowing with milk and honey, and all Your blessing? That God did this is evident from the history of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy; whence Vatablus translates: with how much solicitude did You rule Your children, to whose fathers You confirmed good promises with oaths and covenants?
To the word 'attention,' the Vatican Greek adds deeseos, that is, 'of supplication,' and as some Latin codices read, 'of adjuration,' likewise 'of sparingness and needfulness,' as if God out of excessive clemency were in need of and lacked the punishments with which to afflict them: by which is figuratively signified that God avenged Himself on the Canaanites with such great attention as we have described, and with such great adjuration, asking from them and adjuring them, that unless they took counsel for themselves, they would finally perish; and with such great sparingness, moderation, and needfulness, as if God needed them, and therefore was unwilling to destroy them: which shows the supreme patience and clemency of our God. It is a catachresis and a charientism; hence that saying of the Apostle, 2 Corinthians 5:20: "Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us, we beseech you for Christ, be reconciled to God." See and be amazed at the condescension, humility, and clemency of our God, who, as if He had done the injury rather than received it, beseeches sinners to be willing to return to Him and to their own salvation.
22. THEREFORE WHEN YOU GIVE US DISCIPLINE, YOU SCOURGE OUR ENEMIES IN MANIFOLD WAYS, THAT WE MAY THINK UPON YOUR GOODNESS WHEN JUDGING: AND WHEN WE ARE JUDGED, WE MAY HOPE FOR YOUR MERCY, — as if to say: When You, O Lord, chastise sinners as Your children (for this is the meaning of paidion) with the rod of discipline, to correct them, then You scourge our enemies, such as were the Canaanites and the other idolatrous nations, with many and great punishments, so that we may consider and, judging, discern how great is Your goodness toward us, and Your severity toward our idolatrous enemies; and for this reason, when we again sin and are judged by You, that is, reproved and chastised, we may hope for similar clemency and mercy from You, and therefore humbly submit ourselves to You with a contrite heart, and constantly adhere to You, and not turn aside to idols and the gods of the nations: for if we do that, we will be scourged by You far more severely together with them.
For these things aim at this: to establish the worship of God and the hatred of idols and of the idolatrous nations in the Hebrews, who were inclined toward idols, as is evident from what follows.
IN MANIFOLD WAYS; — the Greek has eis myriadas, that is, 'in many thousands, in myriads': for myria are ten thousand; whence a myriad signifies an innumerable and, as it were, infinite multitude. You will say: how then did he above praise God's clemency in chastising the Canaanites with few and moderate plagues? I answer: at the beginning they were few and moderate to invite them to repentance; but when they, impenitent, hardened themselves in their crimes, God added plague upon plague without end until He crushed them.
THAT WE MAY THINK UPON YOUR GOODNESS WHEN JUDGING. — First, for 'we may think,' the Greek has merimnomen, that is, 'let us be solicitous,' namely lest we more gravely offend Your goodness, and fall from it, and thus instead of Your goodness incur Your wrath and severity together with the impious Canaanites; but judging with the just judgment of reason and truth, weighing and considering, let us firmly cling to it, so that when we are again judged, that is, punished by You for some offenses, we "may hope" (in Greek, 'may expect') for Your former mercy toward us, and running back to it with confidence, may obtain pardon for our offenses and grace by imploring it: this is the most genuine and simplest sense. Related is the exposition of Cantacuzenus, as if to say: And let us think when judging, that is, continually meditating on the goodness of God, let us judge ourselves, and prudently consider how many and how great are the good things we have received from God; and Dionysius, as if to say: That we may prudently discern our correction from the destruction of the reprobate; therefore the scourges of God generate hope in the pious, despair in the impious. Second, however, Nannius, Jansenius, Vatablus, a Castro, and others fittingly explain it thus, as if to say: Therefore You judge us lightly as children with the rod of discipline, that is, You punish and chastise us, so that we likewise, when judging, that is, when we exercise judgments and judge and chastise others, may be mindful of Your gentleness and goodness, and imitate it; and temper severity with gentleness, and not be rigid censors and judges of the accused, but benign correctors: for thus in turn, judged by You or by others, that is, assessed, reproved, punished, we will be able to hope for Your moderation and mercy toward us, according to that saying of Christ, Matthew chapter 7:1-2: "Judge not (severely and rigidly), and you shall not be judged: for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged, and with what measure you measure, it shall be measured back to you." To this St. Bonaventure, Lyranus, and Hugo agree, who consider that we are here admonished and taught that, when we judge and punish others, we should do so modestly, just as God has modestly punished us and continues to punish us, according to that saying of the Apostle, Ephesians 4:32: "But be kind to one another, merciful, forgiving one another, just as God also in Christ has forgiven you," that is, He once pardoned sins through the merits and grace of Christ.
IT IS RIGHT TO BE JUST AND HUMANE. — The word 'and' does not merely connect, but intensifies, and means 'also,' 'likewise': for the Greek has dei ton dikaion einai kai philanthropon, that is, 'it is fitting that one who is just should also be humane,' indeed a lover of humanity: for justice is humane; but what is inhumane and savage is rather cruelty and savagery than justice; hence the greatest right is the greatest injury. "Do not be excessively just," says Ecclesiastes, chapter 7, verse 17. "The Lord is merciful, and compassionate, and just," Psalm 111:4. "Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed," Psalm 84:11. Justice therefore must be mixed with benignity, so that it neither embitters subjects with excessive severity, nor dissolves discipline with excessive leniency and laxity, as St. Gregory teaches, book 20 of Moralia, chapter 8.
YOU HAVE MADE YOUR CHILDREN TO BE OF GOOD HOPE (to hope well); — the Greek has elpidas eneplesas, that is, 'You have made them to hope well,' because You give repentance in sins; Vatablus: 'You fill Your children with good hope, who grant place for repentance of sins': he calls the Hebrews 'children,' because they are faithful and true worshippers of God, and called to God's inheritance, namely to His grace and glory: "because in judging," that is, punishing, "You give place for repentance from sins," as if to say: You punish in such a way, indeed You punish for this reason, that You may move sinners to repentance: by which You give us great hope of pardon, so that if we sin, we may not despair of it, but repent, and confidently implore Your indulgence, so St. Bonaventure; or more simply, as if to say: When You judge, that is, pronounce sentence upon someone, and condemn him for his sins to a deserved punishment, You do not immediately carry it out and inflict the decreed punishment upon him, but long-suffering You defer it, so that the accused, indeed the condemned, may repent, and as a penitent and suppliant escape the punishment: so a Castro.
20 and 21. FOR IF YOU TORMENTED THE ENEMIES OF YOUR SERVANTS, AND THOSE DESERVING DEATH, WITH SUCH GREAT CARE, GIVING THEM TIME AND PLACE THROUGH WHICH THEY COULD CHANGE FROM WICKEDNESS: WITH HOW MUCH DILIGENCE DID YOU JUDGE YOUR CHILDREN, TO WHOSE PARENTS YOU GAVE OATHS AND COVENANTS OF GOOD PROMISES? — This is an argument from the lesser to the greater, or rather from the less probable to the more probable, as if to say: If the Canaanites, enemies of Your servants, namely the Hebrews, "deserving death," that is, liable to death, guilty of death, consigned to death, on account of their crimes and debts of guilt, You tormented with such great "care," in Greek, epexerge, that is, circumspection, caution, moderation, provident care, and attention, lest You exceed moderation in punishing, and inflicted moderate punishments upon them
and inflicted them gradually, punishments which would not so much harm as provoke to repentance, and thus they would be justified, shown mercy and beneficence; likewise You gave them hope of pardon, so that when they sinned, if they truly repented of their sins, You would again receive them into grace: for just as You offered this to the Canaanites, so much more do You offer it to Your servants and children, because You, O Lord, are the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation, 2 Corinthians 1:3.
23. WHENCE ALSO TO THOSE WHO LIVED FOOLISHLY AND UNJUSTLY IN THEIR LIFE, THROUGH THE THINGS WHICH THEY WORSHIPPED, YOU GAVE THE GREATEST TORMENTS; — the Greek reads: wherefore those who lived unjustly in the foolishness of life, through their own abominations You tormented, or tortured, that is, through abominable things, which they themselves worshipped as gods; Vatablus: wherefore also the unjust who passed their life in folly, through their very own impurities You tortured, as if to say: You sharply tortured the impious Canaanites through vile little creatures, namely wasps and hornets, which or similar to which they themselves had worshipped as gods, and thus You turned their own deities into punishments and thunderbolts against them. It is well known that in Scripture 'abominations' are used to refer to idols and idolatry, as things supremely abominable and detestable: for he returns to showing the atrocious punishments with which God afflicts idolaters on account of the crime of idolatry, which he accordingly magnifies and inveighs against at length in the following chapter: thus in chapter 2 (i.e. 11), verse 16, he said the Egyptians were punished through serpents, which they had worshipped as gods, so that they would know that "by those things through which one sins, through these same things one is tormented."
24. FOR THEY WANDERED LONGER IN THE WAY OF ERROR, ESTEEMING AS GODS THOSE THINGS WHICH ARE WORTHLESS AMONG ANIMALS, LIVING AFTER THE MANNER OF SENSELESS INFANTS; — the Greek has dysereis, that is, 'deceived, mocked after the manner of infants.' The Complutensian text incorrectly reads 'souls' instead of 'animals,' and others read 'hands,' as if to say: the Canaanites worshipped wooden idols carved by hand: for the Greek has zoois, that is, 'animals.' The sense is, as if to say: The Canaanites, wandering and straying through idols, progressed to such insanity that they worshipped "worthless animals" (in Greek, ton echthron atima, that is, 'vile things of enemies,' that is, things vile and infamous among enemies, both because they were hostile and because they were in themselves vile and foul) as deities, like the most infantile and stupid children, who play with spiders, wasps, bees, toads, and other vile and deadly creatures, and therefore are stung by them, and sometimes killed. For thus the Canaanites worshipped Beelzebub, that is, the fly-god (for he had the head of a fly), crocodiles, cats, baboons, and dogs, which bite, tear, kill, and devour men, and therefore he called them echthra, that is, 'hostile'; and atima, that is, 'vile, dishonorable, foul, infamous.'
Note that the Greek reads tes planes hodon makroteron eplanesthesan, that is, 'they wandered farther than the ways of error were,' that is, they wandered farther, going even beyond the very ways of error themselves, than it seemed possible for a man to wander. It is a hyperbole: thus Virgil says in Aeneid 6: 'Beyond the paths of the year and the sun, where sky-bearing Atlas / Turns the axis on his shoulder, fitted with burning stars.' Thus we call the very foolish 'more foolish than foolishness itself,' and the very wise 'wiser than wisdom itself,' by hyperbole: so Jansenius, a Castro, and others. But our translator, as well as Nannius, Vatablus, and others, by understanding the preposition kata or epi, more simply translates: 'they wandered longer in the way of error.'
25. THEREFORE, AS TO SENSELESS CHILDREN, JUDG-
MENT IN MOCKERY YOU GAVE. — The Greek reads: therefore, as to children lacking reason, You sent judgment, or punishment, as a mockery. In the Greek there is a beautiful paronomasia: for pais, that is, 'child,' is said as if from paizon, that is, 'playing': empaizo means 'I mock, I make sport of'; empaigmos (which is the word here in the Greek), 'mockery'; empaigma, 'the jest by which we make sport of someone,' as if to say: Because the Canaanites, like children, worshipped childish things and little beasts as gods, therefore You chastised and, as it were, made sport of them like children through those same things, namely through wasps and hornets, with punishments that were, as it were, childish and ridiculous, but sharp.
26. BUT THOSE WHO WERE NOT CORRECTED BY MOCKERIES AND REBUKES (that is, mockeries of rebuke, as the Greek has: it is a hendiadys) (in Greek, me nouthetethentes, that is, 'they were not admonished, they were not amended by this admonition') EXPERIENCED THE WORTHY JUDGMENT OF GOD. — The Greek reads 'they will experience,' that is, 'they experienced': for he speaks of the past Canaanites, as if to say: The Canaanites, who were not amended by the playful punishments of the wasps, suffered a harsh judgment, that is, punishment, when they were utterly cut off by Joshua and the Hebrews, and destroyed to the point of annihilation. For 'mockeries,' the Greek has paigniois: paignion means a plaything, a game, a jest, such as little birds, bees, flies, frogs, with which children play: for with these same ridiculous and childish trifles, God chastised the Egyptians and Canaanites. Against these he sets the worthy judgment of God, that is, the serious and grave punishment of death and extermination of the entire nation of the Canaanites, by which God showed the whole world His omnipotence in punishing, as well as His just anger and vengeance.
27. FOR IN THOSE THINGS IN WHICH THEY SUFFERED, THEY WERE INDIGNANT; THROUGH THESE THINGS WHICH THEY THOUGHT WERE GODS, WHEN THEY WERE BEING DESTROYED BY THESE VERY THINGS, SEEING HIM WHOM THEY HAD ONCE DENIED KNOWING, THEY ACKNOWLEDGED THE TRUE GOD: ON ACCOUNT OF WHICH THE END OF THEIR CONDEMNATION CAME UPON THEM, — as if to say: The Canaanites, while suffering the sharp stings of wasps and vile little creatures, were indignant that through those things which, or similar to which, they had worshipped as gods, they were being destroyed: therefore seeing and perceiving, that is, realizing, that the God of the Hebrews, whom they had once denied knowing, was inflicting these plagues upon them, they were forced to acknowledge Him as the true God, as is evident from Judith 5:20 and Joshua 2:9. But late, and unwillingly and under compulsion: wherefore it was just that they should be struck with the final disaster, therefore "the end of condemnation (that is, the final damnation, destruction, and extermination) came upon them," when namely they were utterly abolished by Joshua and the Hebrews through war. Others refer these things to the Egyptians, who were drowned by Moses in the Red Sea; but he treated of the Egyptians in chapter 11, while this chapter 12 treats of the Canaanites: so St. Bonaventure, Dionysius, and others.
Instead of 'patient' the Complutensian and Royal texts read 'impatient': both are true, for those who were patient in body became impatient in spirit; whence from the Complutensian text Jansenius clearly translates thus: for when in those things in which they were patient yet indignant, namely in those things which they thought were gods, when they were being punished through them, they perceived Him whom they had once denied knowing, then they acknowledged the true God: he means to signify Pharaoh and his people, who previously said: "I do not know the Lord, and I will not let Israel go," before God afflicted them with frogs and flies, which they worshipped as gods, not without their great indignation, who could hardly bear being afflicted by their own gods, and by such trivial things, and only then acknowledged the Lord, so as to say: "I have sinned: the Lord is just, and I and my people are impious. Pray to the Lord," etc. But I have already said that this passage properly treats of the Canaanites; if anyone, however, following Cantacuzenus, prefers to understand these words of both the Egyptians and the Canaanites by inclusion, I will not object: for in what follows he speaks of both groups together.
Instead of 'came,' many read 'will come,' namely on the day of judgment, "the end of condemnation" of the reprobate, who will be damned and cast down into hell; but the Greek has elthe, that is, 'came,' in the past tense: for he speaks of the past destruction of the Canaanites.