Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
Chapter 15 showed that true wisdom consists in the worship of the true God, and foolishness in the worship of idols. Chapter 16 proved this by the example of the Egyptians, for whom God turned the waters into blood; and of the Hebrews, whom God, as His worshippers, gave water from the rock to drink in their thirst, and in their hunger fed with quails and heavenly manna: now he continues and demonstrates the same thing through another plague of Egypt, namely that of darkness, which in order was the ninth, in which the Hebrews enjoyed clear light, while the Egyptians dwelling in dense darkness were tormented by various specters and fears. He therefore vividly depicts the Egyptian darkness and the terrors of an evil conscience.
Vulgate Text: Wisdom 17:1-5
1. For great are Your judgments, O Lord, and Your words are indescribable: on this account undisciplined souls went astray. 2. For while the wicked believe they can dominate the holy nation: bound by the chains of darkness and of a long night, shut in under their roofs, they lay as fugitives from the eternal Providence. 3. And while they think they can hide in obscure sins, they were scattered under the dark veil of oblivion, trembling horribly, and disturbed with exceeding amazement. 4. For neither did the cave that held them guard them without fear: since a descending noise disturbed them, and sad figures appearing to them caused them dread. 5. And indeed no force of fire could provide them light, nor could the bright flames of the stars illuminate that dreadful night.
1. 1. FOR GREAT ARE YOUR JUDGMENTS, O LORD, AND YOUR WORDS ARE INDESCRIBABLE: ON THIS ACCOUNT UNDISCIPLINED SOULS WENT ASTRAY; — in Greek, for great are Your judgments, and difficult to narrate: therefore unskilled souls were led into error, as if to say: Your judgments, O Lord, by which You heaped good things upon Your faithful Hebrews, such as quails and manna, but afflicted the unfaithful Egyptians with evils, such as bloody waters, are profound and mysterious, and therefore indescribable are Your words, that is, Your aforementioned works, which You accomplished by Your words alone, namely merely by commanding, and therefore unskilled souls, such as those of the Egyptians, while they proudly wish to scrutinize and comprehend them, were led into error: for they supposed that these things happened either by chance, or by nature, or by fate, not by the free providence and vengeance of God, and therefore they opposed God, and did not wish to release the Hebrews, as He commanded; wherefore they imprudently fell into graver punishments inflicted by Him, namely of darkness: that this is the meaning is clear from what follows.
2. 2. FOR WHILE THE WICKED BELIEVE THEY CAN DOMINATE THE HOLY NATION, BOUND BY THE CHAINS OF DARKNESS AND OF A LONG NIGHT, SHUT IN UNDER THEIR ROOFS, THEY LAY AS FUGITIVES FROM THE ETERNAL PROVIDENCE. — He describes a new plague of Egypt, which was one of the densest darkness, as if to say: While the wicked Egyptians believed they could, against God's will, dominate the holy nation, that is, the people of God, dedicated to His worship, namely the Hebrews, bound as by chains with nocturnal darkness, shut in under the roofs of their houses, as if exiles and strangers from God's providence, they lay as though bound and imprisoned: whence Lucifer, writing for St. Athanasius, reads: bound by the chains of darkness, and fettered by a long night. For this darkness was horrible and so dense that it seemed palpable, and this for three days; whence then no one saw his brother; nor did anyone move from his place where he was: but wherever the children of Israel dwelt, there was light, Exodus 10:22, where I treated these darknesses at length: therefore I will not repeat here what was said there. Philo adds, in Book I of the Life of Moses, that the Egyptians during this three-day darkness were so stricken that they could neither speak, nor hear, nor eat, but tortured by hunger in silence could think of nothing but the darkness: so those who dwell under the Antarctic pole have continuous night from the vernal equinox to the autumnal equinox, that is, from the 21st of March to the 23rd of September, as Pliny testifies, Book II, chapter 7; Solinus, chapters 20 and 22; St. Isidore, Book I of the Origins, chapter 6; Olaus Magnus in the History of the North: our Clavius demonstrates this visually on the Sphere.
Shut in under their roofs (the Septuagint and Philo have under their beds, as if during this whole three-day period the Egyptians did not dare to rise from their beds: for those who are afraid consider themselves safest in their beds), FUGITIVES FROM THE ETERNAL PROVIDENCE; — in Greek, φυγάδες τῆς αἰωνίου προνοίας, that is, exiles from the eternal providence; Vatablus, fugitives from eternal providence. First, our Lorinus explains it thus, as if to say: The Egyptians, when they thought they could flee God's providence and vengeance, by it as it were
they were seized as fugitive criminals and slaves, bound as by chains of darkness, as though thrust into a prison. Second, Jansenius, as if to say: The Egyptians in the darkness lay as fugitives, that is, abandoned and exiled from the providence of God, which perpetually illuminates people through the sun: so also a Castro: Fugitives, he says, that is, expelled and driven away from God's providence, which visits people each day with the brightness of the sun, which they lacked for that whole three-day period. Third, Peter Nannius, as if to say: The Egyptians in the darkness were fugitives, that is, ignorant of and lacking in the eternal providence, and banished from the knowledge of it, inasmuch as they thought poorly of its eyes and gaze: for they denied the divinity, providence, and vengeance of the true God; whence explaining he adds, "while they think they can hide in obscure sins:" all these things are fitting and appropriate to this passage. Hence tropologically Cantacuzenus: Fugitives, he says, from the eternal providence are those who despise the commandments of God, who has eternal providence over all things.
THEY LAY: — so the Roman and Greek texts; therefore some incorrectly read "they pleased"; others "they hid," in interpreting which St. Bonaventure, Hugh, Lyranus, and Dionysius labor in vain.
3. 3. AND WHILE THEY THINK THEY CAN HIDE IN OBSCURE (in Greek, ἀφανέσιν, that is, hidden) SINS, THEY WERE SCATTERED UNDER THE DARK VEIL OF OBLIVION, TREMBLING HORRIBLY, AND DISTURBED WITH EXCEEDING AMAZEMENT. — In Greek, καὶ ἐνθαυμασίᾳ ἐκταρασσόμενοι, that is, and disturbed by phantasms or specters. The meaning is, as if to say: Because the Egyptians perpetrated many crimes in darkness, such as sacrifices to demons, says Cantacuzenus, about which see chapter 14:23, hence fittingly they were punished with the densest darkness, as if God were saying to them: You are creatures of darkness, you are light-shunners, you seek darkness, receive the darkness you loved: you flee the light, therefore let the light also flee from you. He calls the Egyptian darkness the dark veil of λήθη, that is, of oblivion, because it veiled the Egyptians and their eyes, so that they could not see each other, and stricken with fear they forgot even their parents, children, wives, and brothers, since each one was anxious and worried about his own safety; indeed they remained scattered and separated from each other for the whole three days of darkness, Exodus 10:23. Again, this darkness veiled the Egyptians so that they were not looked upon by God through the rays of the sun, inasmuch as they had the eyes of their mind veiled, as if by blindness, with ignorance of God and His providence. He notes therefore here a threefold veil: first, the veil of God, by which God veiled His sun, so that it would not look upon the Egyptians, or be seen by them; second, that of the Egyptians, who had their eyes veiled with darkness; third, that of sin, by which the Egyptians, not believing in God's providence and sinning with impunity, veiled the eyes of their soul with unbelief and crimes.
Moreover, Peter Nannius takes τὸ λήθης as a proper noun, signifying the river Lethe of the underworld, which is said to induce forgetfulness of all things upon those who descend to it, whence he translates: Under the dark covering of Lethe, because in the following verse 13, the Sage asserts that that night emerged from Hades, that is, from the depths of the underworld, as if that darkness were truly the shadow of death, and were woven from the mists of Lethe; whence from the Greek λήθη the Latins derive lethum, that is, death, in which there is the greatest darkness and forgetfulness of all things, both active and passive: for the dying forget all things, and in turn are consigned to oblivion by all. Nannius therefore judges that the Sage is here alluding to the river Lethe, which the poets reported to exist among the underworld, whose waters if anyone tasted, he would immediately forget all past things; hence λήθη, that is, it takes its name from forgetfulness. This fable was given a place because for the dying, forgetfulness of all things arose. It is established, however, that the river Lethe exists in Africa near the far point of the Syrtes, and washes the city of Berenice; but among all there is a tradition that it bursts forth in those places from a flood of the underworld; whence Lucan, Book IX:
Beside which the silent river Lethe glides, Drawing forgetfulness (as fame tells) from infernal springs.
Thus the meaning will be, as if to say: The Egyptians were so wrapped and blinded by this Cimmerian darkness that, having forgotten all things, they seemed to have drunk forgetfulness itself from the Lethean river of the underworld; whence Abulensis on Exodus chapter 10 says that the Egyptians, surrounded by the greatest darkness, with their soul, memory, and imagination disturbed, could not remember where food was, nor where drink, nor where the table, or a seat, or anything similar.
THEY WERE SCATTERED, TREMBLING HORRIBLY, AND DISTURBED WITH EXCEEDING AMAZEMENT. — They were scattered, not because the Egyptians were wandering about seeking light, for in their terror "no one moved from the place in which he was," Exodus 10:23; but they were scattered, that is, they remained disjoined and separated from one another, so that no one could approach, help, or console another, nor in turn receive help or consolation from him in such great fear: for "no one saw his brother," Exodus 10:23. Trembling horribly, both on account of the darkness and on account of the specters, about which presently: for on account of both they were so fearful and dismayed that they did not know where to turn, indeed they did not dare to speak or even open their mouths, nor could they think about food, drink, clothing, or any other thing: so Abulensis on Exodus 10, Question 2. And disturbed with exceeding amazement: in Greek it is ἐν φάσμασιν, that is, disturbed by apparitions, visions, phantoms, phantasms, specters, by which they were so stricken that they thought they would be killed by them if they moved from their place, and dreaded and expected the worst at every moment; whence with exceeding amazement, as our translator renders it, that is, disturbed with unusual stupor and consternation, they seemed thunderstruck and out of their minds. What these specters were he explains in what follows. Moreover, these specters were partly produced by fear and the consciousness of their crimes, for this, equally as fear, presents sad and ve-
hement and strong imaginations before the mind, so much so that the terrified person seems to hear them with his ears and see them with his eyes; partly God was sending these things upon them through angels or demons.
4. 4. FOR NEITHER DID THE CAVE THAT HELD THEM GUARD THEM WITHOUT FEAR: SINCE A DESCENDING NOISE DISTURBED THEM, AND SAD FIGURES APPEARING TO THEM CAUSED THEM DREAD; — Vatablus: for neither did the hiding place in which they were contained make them secure, but a noise striking them with terror resounded around them, and ghastly apparitions with sad aspect were presented to them; others: sad specters with sorrowful countenances appeared. For "cave," in Greek it is μυχός, that is, a hiding place, recess, inner chamber, the innermost part of a house or place, such as a bedroom and bed, in which Philo and the Septuagint teach that the thunderstruck Egyptians lay, Exodus 10:23. Add that any hidden and dark place is called a cave by catachresis, because a cave, on account of its hollows and caverns, is supremely hidden and dark; whence that line of the Poet: He hid them in dark caves, that is, obscure and deep: for deep things are dark, and dark things seem to be black and murky. It is metalepsis; therefore the Egyptians did not flee to caves properly so called, as St. Bonaventure would have it, since no one dared to move from his place, as is said in Exodus 10. With a similar figure, in verse 3, he called these bedrooms and places of the Egyptians a prison, on account of the darkness and terror: add that at the beginning of the darkness, as it gradually removed and increased the light, some fled out of fear to caverns and caves, and there were more stricken by terrifying sounds and specters because of the horror of the place: so a Castro.
SINCE A DESCENDING NOISE DISTURBED THEM. — τοῦτο, ἦχοι δὶ καταβράσσοντες αὐτοὺς περιεκόμπουν, that is, but sounds disturbing them resounded around them, or with violence and crashing (such as water produces rushing impetuously from opened and broken floodgates) they made a din against them, or sounds falling with vehemence and striking were crashing around them, that is, crashes like thunder resounded around them and instilled terror: for it seemed to them that thunder was striking them from on high, and that God was hurling thunderbolts upon their heads.
AND SAD FIGURES APPEARING TO THEM. — In Greek, φάσματα, that is, visions, apparitions, specters, ghosts with sad and downcast countenances, grim and fierce, were presented to them, which phantasms, or phantasmata, greatly increased the terror of the Egyptian darkness: for although this darkness was most dense, so as to impede all vision, nevertheless fire occasionally flashed within it, as follows in verse 7, by whose light the specters could be seen by the Egyptians. Moreover, these figures and specters were not only imaginary, as Dionysius and St. Bonaventure would have it, who judges that demons and deceased humans were presented to the imagination of the Egyptians; but also real, which were perceived with bodily eyes, not only at night in dreams, but also by day while awake —
as Abulensis teaches, Exodus 10, who judges that this darkness is called horrible on account of the horrible visions of shades and ghosts. Again, these specters seem to have been those of Hebrew infants whom the Egyptians had unjustly drowned in the Nile; also of grown youths and men whom they had killed with excessive labors, scourges, and injuries; likewise of demons whom they had worshipped in their idols under various masks and forms, such as Apis in the form of a calf, Anubis in the form of a dog, Ammon in the form of a ram, etc.; justly therefore they were punished with ghosts, who by killing infants thought their souls passed into shades and specters, and by venerating the masks of demons worshipped them. Moreover, these ghosts are often fashioned by angels or demons, but sometimes they are the very souls of the deceased existing in purgatory or hell, which are permitted by God to go forth and appear to the living, for their admonition or chastisement, as I said at chapter 2, verse 1, on the words: "There is none who is known to have returned from the underworld." Finally, shades and spirits that appear are especially wont to be those of persons who were tyrants, violent, oppressors of the poor, impious toward their parents, or cruelly slain; or miserably deceived and seduced into fraud, as has been discovered from many examples: see our Delrio in Magic, and Thyraeus in Visions.
Note, here the Sage supplies many things which Moses was silent about in Exodus: for first, Moses makes no mention of these ghosts. Second, in verse 16, the Sage says that fire flashing amid the darkness dazzled and struck the Egyptians, about which there is complete silence in Exodus. Third, for example, he says that the hisses of serpents and the noises and roaring of beasts (about which Moses has nothing) wonderfully terrified the Egyptians, already fearful in the dense darkness, especially since they were ignorant of the cause of these things, as the Greek text has in verse 12. Whence by catachresis he calls this darkness a chain in verses 2 and 18, for they were so terrified by it that no one dared to move from his place, just as if he had been bound with a chain: for fear so stupefies humans and animals that they cannot move, but as though stunned and thunderstruck they remain immobile, because in fear the heat and animal spirits, which are the cause of motion, withdraw from the brain to the heart, to strengthen and fortify it as their seat: therefore the brain can scarcely use them for motion and sensation. Moreover, the consolation and joy was greater for the Hebrews, because at the same time they were living in the brightest light, as is said in verse 13.
5. 5. AND INDEED NO FORCE OF FIRE COULD PROVIDE THEM LIGHT, NOR COULD THE BRIGHT FLAMES OF THE STARS ILLUMINATE THAT DREADFUL NIGHT; — in Greek στυγνήν, that is, sad, troublesome, sorrowful, hateful, terrible, both on account of the density of the darkness and its continuation for three days, and on account of the horrible specters mingling with the darkness: Aben Ezra and Cajetan on Exodus chapter 10 understand by fire the heavenly light of the sun and stars, about which follows, as if to say: They could not give light to the Egyptians —
the sun, moon, and stars could not; yet at home candles and lamps provided them light, by which they could eat, drink, work, and walk; but this is forced and strained. Therefore fire should be understood properly, as the other interpreters understand it, as if to say: The darkness was so dense for the Egyptians that no torches, no tapers, no lamps, no fires by their own force, in Greek βίᾳ, that is, violence (for the force of fire is violent, and it violently illuminates and inflames all things) could dispel or illuminate them, both because God was withdrawing from them His concurrence, which is necessary for acting and illuminating; and because, as Philo says in Book I of the Life of Moses, "the fire which we use daily, its brightness was either extinguished by the disturbed air, or was overcome by the extremely dense darkness, so that with their eyes intact, they lacked the supremely necessary sense of sight, as if they had been blinded." Note here that all terrestrial light is mixed with fire, indeed it proceeds from it as its endowment and property: therefore the light of a candle, lamp, torch, etc., is truly a bright or shining fire: many think the same about the celestial light of the sun and stars, as I said at Ecclesiasticus 43:3; whence the Sage here calls the bright flames of the stars.
NOR COULD THE STARS — as if to say: Just as no terrestrial fire, so no celestial light could give light to the Egyptians, for the reasons already stated; whence for "nor could they," in Greek it is οὔτε ὑπέμενον, that is, they did not endure, they did not dare, namely to resist God and to undertake so arduous a task as to presume to dispel such dense darkness brought by Him: for a creature does not dare, nor is it able, to resist and struggle against the Creator. Whence Philo: "On a clear day, he says, darkness was suddenly poured forth, with continuous and dense clouds covering the sky, and with the rays of the stars blocked by excessive compression, so that day differed nothing from nocturnal darkness: for so great was the horror, that is, the density of the murky air, that it did not admit the light of the stars on account of the dreadful thickness." Justly the Egyptians were deprived of all celestial light, who were striving to extinguish the light of divine knowledge in Moses and the Hebrews, as chapter 18:4 teaches. Allegorically these Egyptian darknesses were a living image and indeed a prelude of the darkness of hell, says Hugh; tropologically they signified the blindness of a mind obstinate in evil, says Origen on Exodus 10:23, which neither the fire of God's benefits, nor the furnace of hell, nor the flames of sermons, nor the stars of inspirations can scatter or illuminate. For "bright flames," in Greek it is ἔλλαμπροι φλόγες, that is, splendid, brilliant, illustrious flames; thus he calls the rays of the sun and stars, because they have the appearance and the power of illuminating and warming like flames, whence Plato and his followers judged the stars truly to be fires, whom the Poet followed: You, he says, eternal fires (that is, stars), and inviolable deity, I call to witness.
6. 6. BUT THERE APPEARED TO THEM A SUDDEN FIRE FULL OF FEAR: AND STRUCK WITH TERROR AT THAT FACE WHICH WAS NOT SEEN, THEY JUDGED WHAT WAS SEEN TO BE WORSE: — so the Greek and Roman texts; therefore many incorrectly read the end negatively, "which were not seen": the meaning is, as if to say: When no terrestrial fire nor any light of the stars could give light to the Egyptians that would bring them pleasure and the ability to eat, walk, and work, God nevertheless sent upon them flashing fires like lightning, not for pleasure but for terror, namely so that they might see and behold the horrible specters, which He Himself was sending, by the light of this fire. Whence "struck with terror at that face which was not seen," namely fully and perfectly (the darkness impeding this) "face," that is, of the specters, "they judged what was seen to be worse," as if to say: Since these specters showed themselves and their faces to the Egyptians only imperfectly and as it were only half-revealed, they judged these specters which they saw to be worse in themselves than they appeared to the eyes; for they supposed that some worse things, which they did not see, lay hidden, as it were concealed beneath those things which they did see. Horror and fear caused this, for fear always apprehends, dreads, and forebodes worse things than they actually are, as can be seen in the fearful and in those with hydrophobia, who, abounding in cold phlegm, fear shadows, indeed all safe things —
For "but there appeared to them a sudden fire," in Greek it is, διαφαίνετο δ'αὐτοῖς μόνον αὐτομάτη πυρά, that is, but there appeared to them only a spontaneous pyre: where individual words have emphasis, and introduce a new cause of terror: for first, διαφαίνετο, that is, it appeared, it shone through, it flashed intermittently, it gleamed through, signifies that this fire flashed incidentally and in passing amid the darkness, like a flash and a lightning bolt, and immediately disappeared, and after a short while suddenly and unexpectedly flashed again, and thus by this display and disappearance of itself instilled continuous terror in the Egyptians: for lightning and thunderbolts wonderfully strike people with terror. Again, this fire appeared not from afar like lightning, but from nearby, so that it almost blew upon the eyes of the Egyptians and nearly burned them. Second, the word "only" notes that the Egyptians alone saw these things, not the Hebrews; again, that the Egyptians saw nothing except lightning with specters, while as for the rest there was the densest darkness, all of which things joined together increased the terror: for we also shudder more at lightning in darkness than in light. Third, τὸ αὐτομάτη signifies that this flash was fortuitous, spontaneous, accidental, unforeseen, without a prior cause or impulse; and unforeseen evils terrify more, for anticipated missiles strike less. Fourth, πυρά signifies that this fire was immense, so much so that it constituted a pyre, that is, a huge heap of blazing fires, which threatened them with a conflagration of all things: for this pyre was like lightning, and was therefore nothing other
than massed thunderbolts, it seemed; whence they rightly feared lest they be struck and killed by these thunderbolts, just as Simeon Stylites, a man of wondrous prayer, was struck by lightning, as John Moschus testifies in the Spiritual Meadow, chapter 57.
AND STRUCK WITH TERROR AT THAT FACE WHICH WAS NOT SEEN, THEY JUDGED WHAT WAS SEEN TO BE WORSE. — For "face," in Greek it is ὄψεως, that is, of the vision, namely of the thing seen, such as the fire that was seen, and the faces or specters which were seen through the fire; whence the Greek literally has: terrified indeed at that vision which was not seen (that is, fully and perfectly) they judged worse things were those that were perceived, as if to say: The Egyptians were more terrified by the fact that they saw the fire and specters not fully, but under an obscure face and surface; whence they thought them worse and more horrible than they really were, because they imagined that behind what they saw, other greater things were hidden, which did not present themselves to be seen, from which they feared that the gravest harm, indeed death and destruction, was threatening them; but most of all they feared that the ghosts and specters would attack and kill them.
Whence Cantacuzenus explains that they so shuddered at the fire revealing these specters that they preferred to be in dense darkness rather than in a light so fearful and horrible with so many specters. Note the phrase "of that face which was not seen": for shades and specters are wont to have a shadowy, dark, obscure face, and often one covered with a garment or veil like mourners; indeed sometimes they exhibit themselves to be seen only through a thin shadow, and even without a shadow, or face and form, they present themselves to be heard only by movement, noise, or voice, so that they are not seen but only heard, as the shade of Samuel presented itself to be seen by the witch of Endor, but only to be heard by Saul, 1 Kings 28:14.
7. 7. AND THE MOCKERIES OF MAGICAL ART WERE SET FORTH, AND A SHAMEFUL REBUKE OF THE GLORY OF WISDOM; — in Greek, μαγείας δὲ κατέπαιπτα ἐπαίγματα τέχνης, that is, but the mockeries of the art of magic lay prostrate, or more significantly were set forth, as if to say: First, not only were the magical arts of Pharaoh's magicians for averting the darkness and the other plagues inflicted on Egypt by God through Moses prostrate, that is, weak and powerless to avert them, but they were also set forth and exposed to derision, and turned into a laughingstock. For God mocked the magic of the Egyptians with this terror of darkness and these specters of the darkness, which the magicians could not drive away from themselves or from others by all their art and with the help of demons; wherefore Pharaoh himself and the other Egyptians rebuked and mocked the magicians as impotent and deceitful, as Josephus testifies, Book II of Antiquities, chapter 5, or according to another division chapter 13, and the magicians themselves along with the other Egyptians, displaying in these darknesses and specters a trepidation and terror which they could not conceal or hide, made themselves ridiculous to anyone watching, inasmuch as they had proudly boasted that they would scatter all the wondrous works of Moses through their magic, like spider webs: so the Sage explains himself —
when he adds: "For those who promised to drive fears from a languishing soul, these themselves, full of fear, were languishing amid derision." Wherefore this passage properly does not treat of the third plague of Egypt, which was of gnats, although some would have it so, in which the defeated magicians, since they could not produce them like Moses, were forced to confess their weakness and exclaimed, Exodus 7:19: "This is the finger of God;" but here it treats of the new plague of darkness and specters, which wonderfully struck terror not only into the Egyptians but even more into the magicians themselves, and thus showed them together with their magic to be ridiculous, and proposed them to all as deserving of hisses of laughter and derision. Therefore from this passage it is established that Pharaoh's magicians, although defeated by Moses at the third sign of the gnats, nevertheless did not cease to resist Moses, and therefore in this new plague of darkness, when they wished to scatter it through magic but could not, they exhibited themselves as ridiculous to all, in which matter they paid the penalty for their magic: so Cantacuzenus. To this Vatablus adds, translating: meanwhile the mockeries of magical art lay prostrate with a shameful calumny through the boasting of wisdom; and Jansenius, who explains it thus, as if to say: Those illusions of the magicians, by which in performing the same wonders that Moses performed, they deceived Pharaoh and the other Egyptians against Moses, now lay prostrate, that is, they succumbed defeated and could not resist Moses: the Greek texts signify this: This meaning is true, but it does not adequately exhaust the depth of Scripture, which further asserts that the arts of the magicians along with the magicians themselves turned to derision and mockery.
Second, our a Castro aptly explains it thus, as if to say: The mockeries were set forth, that is, deceptions, illusions, and tricks were present: for ghosts and specters mocked and dazzled the eyes of the magicians and Egyptians, so that they thought they saw horrible things which in reality were not seen; therefore by these mockeries the eyes of the magicians were held captive by the empty and false appearance of things, and this as a fitting punishment of retribution, namely that those who had deluded others with their impostures should be mocked by these specters, and the tricksters themselves should be dazzled by tricks. Holcot digresses here, lecture 189, to show that those devoted to the magical arts are mocked, not only by God, angels, and men, but even by their own demons.
AND A SHAMEFUL REBUKE OF THE GLORY OF WISDOM, that is, a shameful "rebuke," or refutation of the "glory," that is, boasting of "wisdom," that is, about wisdom, repeat: was set forth, as if to say: The magicians boasted and bragged that they were more powerful than Moses and the God of the Hebrews: for they kept saying that they knew magic, that is, an art more secret and wondrous than what Moses knew; but God through Moses corrected and refuted this vain and proud boasting of the magicians with their disgrace and shame, since He struck such terror into them through the darkness and specters that they grew pale and trembled, from which they could not free or extricate themselves by all their magical art: therefore to their own harm they learned that all
their magic availed nothing against the power of God, nor could their arts remove the punishment with which they were oppressed. That this is the meaning is clear from the Greek, which has, καὶ τῆς ἐπὶ ὀφρονήσει ἀλαζονείας ἔλεγχος ἐπισμεριέρος, which the Complutensians translate: and of the boasting in prudence a shameful rebuke; the Vatican text: and of the boasting about wisdom (Jansenius: about prudence) there was a rebuke with shame; clearly Clarius: and of arrogant boasting a rebuke with shame: for "where there is pride, there will also be disgrace; but where there is humility, there also is wisdom," Proverbs 11:2. For "rebuke," in Greek it is ἔλεγχος, that is, a pressing refutation, a convincing argument, a demonstration showing the fault and falsehood: for the dread and trembling of the magicians visibly refuted them, and showed their weakness and deceit to all.
8. 8. FOR THOSE WHO PROMISED TO DRIVE FEARS AND DISTURBANCES FROM A LANGUISHING SOUL, THESE THEMSELVES, FULL OF FEAR, WERE LANGUISHING AMID DERISION; — in Greek: these were languishing with ridiculous fear; others: these were ridiculously afflicted with the same malady of fear; Vatablus: they likewise labored under ridiculous dread; less correctly Cantacuzenus translates: they labored under ridiculous reverence, or rather religious awe (for εὐλάβεια signifies this), as if to say: The magicians, to conceal their weakness, said they were prohibited by the reverence and command of their gods from opposing Moses: for to say this was ridiculous, since Moses, a worshipper of the one true God, was challenging the Egyptians with all their gods to contest, and was assailing and conquering them through so many plagues.
The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The magicians who promised to thoroughly drive away the darkness with its specters, and the fears born from them, were themselves stricken by those same fears, so that trembling, anxious, pale, and shaking, they did not know where to turn. He calls it a ridiculous fear because they feared shadows and specters of things that did not truly exist nor really were there, just as children are stricken with the empty fear of shadows, according to Psalm 52:6: "There they trembled with fear, where there was no fear."
9. 9. FOR EVEN IF NOTHING FROM THE MONSTERS DISTURBED THEM, SHAKEN BY THE PASSING OF ANIMALS AND THE HISSING OF SERPENTS, THEY WERE PERISHING WITH TREMBLING: AND THEY REFUSED TO LOOK AT THE AIR, WHICH NO ONE COULD BY ANY MEANS ESCAPE. — For "nothing from the monsters," our translator with the Royal edition reads οὐδέν παράδοξον, that is, nothing monstrous; but the Complutensians and Vatican text read οὐδέν παράζαζον, that is, nothing turbulent or terrifying; whence they translate: even if nothing terrifying had terrified them: the meaning comes to the same thing, as if to say: Even if in reality there was nothing monstrous or terrifying that would strike terror into the Egyptians, nevertheless when in the darkness they heard voices and sounds of animals passing by to seek fodder, and especially of serpents hissing in the hunger and darkness, trembling they were nearly fainting; to such a degree that they did not want or dare to look even at the unavoidable air, which indeed no one can avoid, but they shrank from it as if full of monsters and specters and horrible, wishing
to be hidden and shut up in caves: for those who are stricken with fear flee from seeing and being seen, and therefore dread and shrink from looking at the sky, the air, and the earth with their eyes. It is metonymy and catachresis: for the air, being most subtle, cannot properly be seen or perceived; nevertheless the timid are said to shun the sight of it, both because they do not wish to see the things that visibly occur in the air, such as specters and monsters; and because they wish to avoid the very air, and seek corners and hiding places in which they might withdraw and conceal themselves from the terrifying things that occur in the air.
10. 10. FOR SINCE WICKEDNESS IS TIMID, IT GIVES TESTIMONY OF CONDEMNATION. — St. Gregory, Book 27 of the Moralia, chapter 18, reads "to condemnation"; the Complutensians and Vatican text: "condemned"; others: "it was given for the condemnation of all"; others, for μαρτυρεῖ, that is, "gives testimony," reading μάρτυρι, that is, "by a witness," translate: "condemned by its own witness": for the Greek adds ἰδίως, or ἰδίῳ, that is, "properly" or "by its own," which the Vulgate lacks. All these come to the same thing, and signify that wickedness, that is, a depraved and criminal conscience, is timid and fearful, and fears the vengeance and punishments of its crimes, even where there are none, because it itself recognizes, and testifies to itself that it is guilty and liable to condemnation: and therefore deserves the punishments which it fears and dreads. Therefore the wicked conscience itself, as witness and judge, condemns the person: for by a silent confession and mute voice it cries out, and declares to the guilty: You have perpetrated such and so many crimes, therefore you also deserve such great punishments, which without doubt God will inflict upon you, and perhaps now in this darkness and these terrors He has determined to inflict; hence the Syriac translates: because their malice testifies against them, and condemns them, because they have done evil; the Arabic: because evil is the property of fraud, which testifies against him and judges him.
Akin to this maxim are these: "The guilty fears punishment, the innocent not even misfortune. Neither does a thorn harm the good, nor a mouse the wicked. A bad beginning has a bad end. The guilty is never acquitted when he himself is judge." Morally, learn here how great is the force of conscience, inasmuch as it makes a person blessed or wretched. Hear St. Ambrose, Book I of Duties: "The blessedness of individuals, he says, is not to be estimated according to forensic abundance, but according to the inner conscience, which discerns the merits of the innocent and the wicked, the true and incorrupt arbiter of punishments and rewards;" and more fully St. Chrysostom, Homily 2 on the Epistle to the Romans: "Tranquility and joy of mind, he says, neither the greatness of authority, nor an abundance of money, nor the inflation of power, nor bodily strength, nor the expense of the table, nor the adornment of clothing, nor anything else of human affairs is accustomed to bring, except a good conscience, which certainly whoever possesses it pure, even if he is ragged, even if he struggles with hunger, is nevertheless more tranquil and more blessed than those who live amid delights." Wherefore the author of Sermon 10 to the Brothers in the Desert, attributed to St. Augus-
tine, rightly exclaims: "O holy conscience, you are still on earth, yet you dwell in heaven! Rejoice, O holy soul, adorned with a holy conscience, rejoice in heavenly and eternal glory." Do you want examples? Take them. St. Augustine, Book to Secundinus Marachos, chapter 1: "Think, he says, about Augustine whatever you please, so long as my conscience alone does not accuse me in the eyes of God;" St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Oration 27: "In all matters, he says, I have reason in the place of a counselor, and the justifications of God, by which I am frequently convicted even when no one accuses me, and again absolved when many condemn me;" St. Bernard, to Eugenius: "What, he says, is more tranquil and secure on earth than a good conscience? It does not fear the loss of possessions, nor insults of words, nor tortures of the body, which is raised up more by death itself than cast down;" finally St. Job, chapter 16:20, exults in the testimony of a good conscience amid so many afflictions: "Behold, he says, my witness is in heaven, and my advocate is on high."
FOR A DISTURBED CONSCIENCE ALWAYS PRESUMES CRUEL THINGS (in Greek χαλεπά, that is, grievous, troublesome, cruel, difficult, harsh, bitter, hard, and dire): — some codices add: for the worst things often anticipate one when the conscience is rebuking; but the Roman and Greek texts delete this, for it seems to be another version, or certainly an explanation of the sentence already stated; the Arabic translates: and he (the impious one) always receives difficult and perverse things. "Presumes," namely the timid wickedness which preceded, for it is disturbed and terrified by its own conscience: for "conscience" here is in the ablative case: in Greek it is, συνεχομένη τῇ συνειδήσει, that is, contained within conscience, or lurking in conscience, or joined to conscience, whose voice and testimony the wickedness and wicked person, ever crying out to itself, cannot escape. Others read ἐμπεριπίν, as if to say: Malice presumes cruel things which suit and fit an evil conscience; others more forcefully read συναγχομένη τῇ συνειδήσει, that is, wickedness strangled, compressed, or squeezed by conscience, just as a prisoner is strangled by a noose while being choked and suffocated: for in a similar way conscience constricts, distresses, and strangles wickedness and the wicked person: for ἄγχω means the same as to strangle, to squeeze, to restrain by binding the throat, to drag with neck twisted into chains, to choke, to distress, to constrict the jaws or throat. Following this, our translator rendered it: disturbed by conscience, as if to say: Wickedness and the wicked person, everywhere fearful, always fears that the punishments for his crimes are threatening, because he is constricted by the terrors of conscience, which convicts him of his wickedness and condemns him to punishment: for conscience, as if an executioner, constricts, compresses, narrows, strangles, and suffocates wickedness and the wicked person, as though a defendant, with a thousand fears, anguishes, sorrows, and suspicions as with nooses. For "presumes," in Greek it is προσείληφε, that is, takes on, takes to itself, applies to itself as to a defendant, represents to itself, also joins and augments, so that it suspects the evils pressing in to be greater than they really are. Our translator seems to have read προείληφε, that is, presumes, anticipates, forestalls, foresees,
foreknows, foresees, anticipates in mind and thought the punishment before it is actually inflicted and falls upon one: for, as Plutarch says in the book On Tranquility of Mind, "from a criminal conscience there is implanted in the soul something like an ulcer in the body, inasmuch as it leaves behind a repentance that perpetually lacerates and torments the soul;" and in the book On the Delay of Divine Vengeance: "Malice, he says, carries with it a constant pain that continually torments and afflicts it: for just as every criminal who is to be nailed to the final punishment carries his own cross in his body, so wickedness constructs its own punishment from itself," etc.
Morally, how timid and fearful an evil conscience is, Job vividly describes in chapter 15:11, saying: "The sound of terror is always in his ears; and when there is peace, he always suspects ambushes. He does not believe he can return from darkness to light, looking around on every side for the sword;" and Solomon, Proverbs 28:1: "The wicked flees when no one pursues;" and St. Cyril, Book 11 on John, chapter 32: "The sting of conscience is a great thing, which when we do something wrong, torments us with immense fear, even when no one is present." St. Ambrose indeed in Book I of Duties, chapter 12: "The sinner, he says, though he abounds outwardly and overflows with delights and is fragrant with perfumes, spends his life in bitterness of soul. The life of a criminal is like a dream: he opened his eyes, his rest has passed, his pleasure has vanished, although even what appears to be the rest of the impious while they live is in hell; for while living they descend into hell. You see the banquet of the sinner? Question his conscience: does it not stink worse than all tombs? You observe his joy, the abundance of his wealth? Look within at the sores and welts of his soul, and the sadness of his heart." Elsewhere: "Nothing is so supremely painful as when anyone, placed under the captivity of sin, remembers from where he has fallen: so grave is the guilt of conscience that without a judge it punishes itself, and desires to veil itself, yet before God it is naked." Most elegantly St. Chrysostom, Homily 1 on Lazarus, thus speaks about the conscience of the rich man: "Unfold for me his conscience, and you will see within a grave tumult of sins, perpetual fear, storm, turmoil: you will see, as it were, the mind that had been negligent having ascended to the royal throne of conscience, and sitting there like some judge, employing thoughts in place of executioners, suspending on the rack, scraping the sides of the conscience with claws, vehemently crying out for the crimes committed, when no one knows, except that God alone can see these things." Illustrating the matter with an example, he continues: "For he who commits adultery, even if he is a thousand times rich, even if he has no accuser, nevertheless does not cease to accuse himself within, and the pleasure indeed is temporary, but the pain is perpetual, fear and trembling everywhere, suspicion and anxiety: he dreads corners, fears shadows themselves, his own —
servants, both those who know and those who don't, that very woman whom he corrupted, and the man whom he insulted; he walks about carrying a bitter accuser, his conscience, since he has been condemned by his own judgment, nor can he breathe even for a brief moment. The same things are suffered by those who practice robbery, and those who gain profit by fraud, and busybodies, and in short all who live in sins." Moreover St. Augustine on Psalm 45: "Among all the tribulations, he says, of the human soul there is no greater tribulation than the consciousness of sins;" the same on Psalm 36, discourse 2: "Whoever, he says, is evil, is badly off with himself, he must necessarily be tormented, he is his own torment: for his own punishment is what his conscience torments. He may flee from his enemy where he can, but from himself, where will he flee?" Finally Seneca, though a pagan: "A good conscience, he says, wishes to come forth and be seen; it fears the very darkness of wickedness. The first and greatest punishment of sinners is to have sinned, and no crime goes unpunished, since the punishment for crime lies in the crime itself. It is characteristic of the guilty to tremble." These are his words, Epistle 27.
Examples are in Adam and Eve, who after sinning, hearing the voice of God walking through paradise, hid themselves in fear, Genesis 3: in Cain, who after killing Abel, his conscience pressing him: "Anyone, he said, who finds me will kill me," Genesis 4:14: in the brothers of Joseph, who were harshly treated by him, Genesis 42:21: "Rightly, he said, we suffer these things, because we sinned against our brother." See Seneca in Orestes, whose furies he vividly depicts, and Cicero in the Pro Roscio Amerino, where he vividly paints the furies of criminals and crimes, and describes their flames and torches. On the other hand, 1 John 4:18, "love (which probity and a good conscience produce) casts out fear;" and Proverbs 28:1: "The wicked flees when no one pursues: but the just is as confident as a lion without terror," see what was said there: for, as St. Gregory says, Book 12 of the Moralia, chapter 21, "nothing is happier than a simple heart, because since it shows innocence toward others, there is nothing that it fears suffering from others, for it has as a kind of fortress its own simplicity; nor does it suspect it will suffer what it does not remember having done, whence it is well said by Solomon: In the fear of the Lord is the confidence of strength; who also says again: A secure mind is like a perpetual feast. For the very tranquility of security is like a continuous refreshment."
St. Ambrose truly says in Psalm 39: "What, he says, is a sweeter fruit than purity of heart? What food is more delightful than that on which the mind well conscious of itself, the mind of an innocent person, feasts?" Hence that passage, Proverbs 15:15: "A secure mind is like a perpetual feast;" see what was said there; nothing therefore is more timid than a sinner, nothing bolder than a just person: the causes are three. The first is that concupiscence and the passions of the soul, which create sins, soften and effeminate the spirit; while victory over those same passions, which is achieved through virtue, makes the spirit strong and manly. The second is that the conscience's
stings perpetually lance, gnaw, and eat away the vigor of the sinner's mind; but for the just person, the very virtue which he exercises, and the probity of his conscience, add courage. The third is that the sinner is abandoned by the grace of God, while the just person flourishes with the same; but the grace of God is omnipotent, for through it all things can be accomplished, however arduous, while without it nothing good can be achieved; whence the just person is magnanimous and confident, but the sinner is pusillanimous and timid like a mouse.
11. 11. FOR FEAR IS NOTHING BUT (some codices here insert: an aid to presumption; Vatablus: an aid to rashness; but the Roman and Greek texts delete these) THE BETRAYAL OF THE THOUGHT OF RESOURCES. — The word "of thought" in the Vulgate can refer to "betrayal," as if to say: Fear is nothing other than the betrayal and ruin of thought and mind, which, if it were free from fear, could devise many resources by which to repel the thing it fears; but now, full of fear, it cannot provide them. The Greek, however, refers "of thought" to "of resources," for thus it has: for fear is nothing else than the betrayal of the resources that proceed from thought or reason; but the meaning comes to the same: for fear therefore betrays and destroys its own resources and remedies because it destroys and removes from a person thought and reason, so that he cannot devise these resources: for fear removes and binds the mind, movement, memory, and tongue. Whence the fearful become powerless of mind, immobile, forgetful, speechless, so that they can neither understand, nor move, nor remember, nor speak, but become as if stupefied in body and soul. Aristotle gives the cause in Problems, section 27, that in fear the spirits and heat flee to strengthen the heart; whence the extremities grow cold and stiff; hence pallor in the face, trembling in the hands and lips, numbness in the head and feet, cold in the skin, stiffness in the tongue.
He proves what he said — that wickedness is timid, and therefore always presumes cruel things — from the cause of this matter, which is that fear so apprehends and dreads the evil it fears that it as if conquered succumbs to it and surrenders itself: therefore it cannot think about devising resources and remedies against it, but is as it were their betrayer and destroyer. It is a metaphor taken from timid soldiers besieged in a fortress, who out of fear betray and surrender the fortress to the besieging enemy: for in a similar way fear so weakens, constrains, and binds the fortress of reason and mind, which could devise various ways and means of escaping the feared evil, that it betrays and delivers it to the enemy, namely the feared evil and despair, whereby it augurs the worst possible things are threatening, and persuades itself that they are impossible to avoid. For fear ought to be subject to reason and mind, and allow itself to be governed and moderated by it; therefore it deceives the loyalty owed to it, indeed it betrays it, while it removes counsel and confidence from it, and makes it powerless, fearful, anxious, and despairing: therefore this betrayal by fear is in reality nothing other than
a lack of counsel, and a failure and desertion of thoughts, namely that a person through the trepidation and turmoil of fear is so carried away that he is betrayed, that is, deserted by the thoughts of means and resources by which he could escape the evil he fears. Whence some translate from the Greek: fear is nothing but a failure or despair of devising counsel: for thus timid soldiers, when they desert their leader, betray and deliver him to the enemy; hence also "to betray" in Latin sometimes means the same as to cast away, to desert, to dismiss, to repel: for "prodere" means the same as "porro dare," that is, to throw out, to push forward, to exclude, says Servius; whence Virgil, Aeneid I: With our ships (unspeakable!) lost, through the wrath of one, We are betrayed, and far separated from the Italian shores. "We are betrayed" therefore means the same as "we are separated": that this is also the meaning here is clear from verse 14, where he says: "Their souls failed through betrayal," in Greek, προδοσίᾳ, that is, through betrayal.
Morally, learn here how great an evil fear is, inasmuch as it betrays and destroys a person; whence "in battle the greatest danger always belongs to those who are most afraid," boldness is regarded as a wall, says Sallust, On the Conspiracy of Catiline. "Whatever is added to support is corrupted by the fear of those fleeing," says Caesar, On the Civil War. "Usually in the greatest danger, fear does not accept mercy," says the same, Book 7. "Such is the nature of great fears, that they believe what happens to be worse," says Tacitus, Annals, Book 15: "In dangers to the republic, those who fear individually will be overwhelmed by fear rather than overcome by courage," says Julius Capitolinus, on Maximus and Balbinus. "Fear, driving the mind to astonishment, does not allow it to discern more useful courses," says Procopius, On the Persian War, Book 2. "Mountain peaks take on the appearance of enemies for a mind once oppressed by fear," says G. Pachymeres, History, Book 4. "The timid and cowardly hasten through fear to desperation," says Tacitus, History, Book 2. "He who is born such as to fear all things, even if a mouse makes a noise, is to be considered timid with a certain cowardice like that of beasts, as one who would fear a mousetrap through the force of his malady," says Aristotle, Ethics, Book 3, chapter 7. "Without presence of mind, skill avails nothing against danger: for fear shakes out the memory, and skill is lost when the spirit is enfeebled," says Thucydides, Book 2. "The timidity of rulers is the greatest cause of slaughter: confidence in oneself renders them calm and gentle, and free from suspicions. Likewise among beasts, those which are most alien to taming are timid and frightened by every noise: but the noble ones do not scorn such gentle handling, because through confidence in themselves they more easily entrust themselves to others," says the same in Artaxerxes. "Hesitant and fearful skill is by no means accustomed to daring anything distinguished," says Procopius, On the Gothic War, Book 2. "Timidity is the corruption of legitimate judgment about things to be feared and things not to be feared,
or ignorance of terrible, not-terrible, and neutral things," says Hierocles, Book On Justice. For the fearful fear lesser evils, but do not apprehend or fear greater ones, and so while fleeing the lesser they fall into the greater. Thus the sinner, fearing to lose wealth, reputation, and life, perjures himself and perpetrates crimes, by which he loses heaven and eternal happiness; but the wise and steadfast person fears what is to be feared, does not fear what is not to be feared; and he fears what is to be feared in the manner and with the moderation that is proper and right reason dictates. Otherwise Lyranus: betrayal, he says, here means the same as display and manifestation: for fear, causing pallor in the face, betrays, that is, manifests the thought of help, because it signifies that the fearful person desires help and is thinking about it; but this is rather cold: moreover the Syriac goes another way: what, he says, is fear, except the consummation of malice, and the helper of thoughts that is within? More closely, the Arabic: because fear, he says, is nothing other than the dread of torments on account of thought. Mystically Hugh: The impious person, he says, fearing does not think about the help of God, for if he thought about this he would certainly say, Psalm 55:12: "In God I have hoped, I will not fear what man may do to me;" and Psalm 5:1: "Hoping in the Lord I shall not be weakened."
12. 12. AND WHEN FROM WITHIN THE EXPECTATION IS LESS, IT RECKONS A GREATER IGNORANCE OF ITS CAUSE, FROM WHICH IT PROVIDES TORMENT. — "From which," namely wickedness or malice, produces and presents punishment to itself, as the fruit and wages deserved by guilt: for "ignorance," others read by diastole: "in knowledge," that is, on account of knowledge; others, "conscience"; others, "power": those who read "in knowledge" give this not inapt meaning, as if to say: When in fear the internal expectation of an evil outcome is less in itself, nevertheless the anxious mind estimates it as greater, because it knows and anxiously considers the cause from which it provides torment to itself, that is, it is tormented, it dreads, it is distressed, and from it conjectures the worst outcomes, and worse than what will actually happen, and fabricates them for itself. But the correct reading is with systole, "ignorance": for in Greek it is ἄγνοιαν, that is, ignorance: the meaning is, as if to say: Because fear is the betrayal and failure of devising help against the feared evil, therefore when within the mind of the fearful person the expectation of help is less, it happens that the feared evil is more greatly apprehended, especially when its cause is not known and is ignored: for ignorance of the cause increases fear and makes it greater, for the timid person fears that in the cause, which he does not have sufficiently understood, many worst and most troublesome effects may be hidden, which he himself will have to face.
Whence St. Chrysostom, in the Homily on the Patience of Job, teaches that ignorance of the cause that brings punishment greatly increases the calamity: so in this passage the Egyptians were ignorant of the cause of the darkness, the specters, the bellowing of animals, and the hissing of serpents, and therefore, thinking that worse things were hidden therein, they feared that much graver and harsher things were threatening them; hence the Vatican text translates: they reckon a greater ignorance (that is, unawareness) of the cause that provides torment.
that is, ignorance) of the cause providing torment. It could also be rendered in the ablative: they think the ignorance greater when the cause provides torment, as if to say: When the expectation of escaping the feared evil is less, then the one who fears thinks the ignorance to be greater, that is, he suspects the unknown evil to be greater, which he fears will come and befall him, while the cause itself torments him: for he therefore fears more an unknown threatening evil, because the cause of anguish resides within him, and he fears and forebodes that in a similar way it will be the cause of many more evils unknown to him: for a timid mind can suspect nothing but sad things which increase fear. Therefore the Egyptians, placed in the densest darkness, and stricken by horrible specters and intermittently flashing fires, could think of nothing but fatal, ominous, threatening, and horrible things; whence Josephus adds: "With that fear threatening, he says, lest perhaps he be completely swallowed up by that darkness:" perhaps they also dreaded the ancient chaos, and some confusion and dissolution of the world, as if the world were about to perish and return to its primeval chaos: for they knew that God was most hostile to them, and therefore from Him they fearfully expected all the thunderbolts of wrath and curses. Vatablus incorrectly reads ἄγνείαν for ἄγνοιαν, from ἀγνός, which signifies one incorrupt by gifts, who cannot be moved from justice by any means, and therefore implacable; whence he translates: when the slight hope residing within reckons more the torment of the cause, moving its implacability, or imagines a more powerful implacability: for all codices read ἄγνοιαν, not ἄγνείαν; nor does ἄγνεια signify implacability in Greek, but purity and holiness.
THE EXPECTATION IS LESS — of resources, so interpreters generally, although Nannius, Clarius, and Jansenius take the lesser expectation to be of future evil: for, they say, for "less," in Greek it is ἥττων, that is, the expectation or hope in the timid and fearful is inferior, conquered, and oppressed through desperation: in Greek there is an elegant paronomasia: Fear, he says, is μαρτυρία, that is, the betrayal of resources, and therefore in it the προσδοκία, that is, the expectation and hope of escaping, is less.
OF THE CAUSE FROM WHICH IT PROVIDES TORMENT, — which, namely, provides torment to the timid person, as the Greek has, or on account of which the timid person torments and tortures himself: the cause providing torment to the impious and timid is threefold. The first is one's own guilt, namely the multitude, gravity, and magnitude of crimes, which the impious person does not sufficiently perceive, but fears to be greater than he himself knows: furthermore, it is a greater torment to suffer on account of guilt than to suffer on account of justice and innocence: for to suffer and be killed for the latter is the honor and glory of martyrdom. The second is that which chastises and punishes the impious, just as here darkness and specters tortured the Egyptians, whose force, number, and extent they could not perceive. The third is the wrath and vengeance of God, which is much less perceived by the impious: therefore they always fear that God's wrath, not content with the punishment already inflicted, may inflict other and graver ones. Moreover the Syriac here goes in a completely different direction: for it translates: and what is less than it (the fear) he hides, and it is more excellent than what is unknown, which words are obscure and need an Oedipus to interpret.
13 and 14. BUT THOSE WHO SLEPT THE SAME SLEEP THROUGH THAT TRULY POWERLESS NIGHT, COMING UPON THEM FROM THE LOWEST AND THE MOST PROFOUND DEPTHS, WERE SOMETIMES TORMENTED BY FEAR OF MONSTERS, SOMETIMES THEIR SOULS FAILED THROUGH BETRAYAL: FOR A SUDDEN AND UNEXPECTED FEAR HAD COME UPON THEM; — in Greek: but those sleeping the same sleep through that truly powerless night, and coming from the caves of the powerless underworld, were now driven by phantasmal monsters, now dissolved in soul through failure: for a sudden and unexpected fear had come upon them. He calls the "powerless night" the three-day and densest darkness of Egypt, which made it continuous and three-day-long night for the Egyptians; but why is it called "powerless"? First, Jansenius: Powerless, he says, passively, that is, unable to be endured, intolerable: powerless, therefore, supply: to endure. Second, the night is called powerless actively, meaning it cannot be overcome and illuminated, that is, irresistible; or again passively, a powerless night, that is, weak and conquered, which could not overcome and dispel the darkness through the rays of the sun, but was plainly conquered by them. Third, the night is called powerless, that is, feeble and infirm, metonymically from its effect, says a Castro, because it rendered the Egyptians powerless and weak for any human work, either impeded by the fog of darkness or weakened by fear like those who, fettered by sleep, accomplish nothing, for therefore he said the Egyptians slept the same sleep through that whole night: for the same reason he calls the underworld or hell "powerless," because it renders its inmates powerless and feeble for any work. Fourth, and more forcefully, the night is called powerless, that is, excessively powerful, excessive, immoderate, which by its force was bringing upon all of Egypt the densest and insurmountable darkness, and which was most powerfully and forcefully tormenting the Egyptians through darkness, phantoms, specters, hunger, thirst, fear, and anguish, and gave them no rest or sleep, as other nights do. Finally, fifth, the night is called powerless, says Cantacuzenus, because it seemed to have arisen from the deepest caves of the powerless underworld, which cannot impose any limit on the evils with which it afflicts those it holds within itself, nor moderate or temper its torments, but torments all with a kind of blind fury: and so that powerless night was rightly thought to be the daughter of the powerless underworld: for Orcus is the name given to the darkness of the netherworld, and to hell itself, and its chief, Lucifer, who pities no one, according to that line of Horace, Book III of the Odes: A victim of Orcus, who pities none.
are liquefied, dissolved, and flow away. "Through betrayal" — For "powerless" (impotens) means the same as "excessively powerful," says Donatus: thus an immoderate ruler, or a tyrant, is called "powerless" (impotens), that is, excessively powerful and domineering; whence Quintilian: "The Decemvirs, he says, whose authority was immoderate, are called impotent lords by Livy;" and Cicero, Philippics V: "He was calling to the city from Brundisium, he says, a most impotent man, burning with hatred, hostile in spirit toward all citizens with his army, Antony;" and again: impotent, irascible, insulting, proud.
Thus love, spirit, and joy are called "impotent" (impotens), and the movements of the soul are called impotent, that is, overpowering, which a person cannot restrain, but rather they, being powerful, dominate the person, and drive and compel him ardently, as with spurs, to pursue what they desire. Therefore some too coldly interpret the "powerless night" as meaning empty: because, they say, there was no real darkness, since in all the rest of the world it was day, and the Hebrews had clear light; but the Egyptians, blinded by God, seemed to see darkness: for this is false, for the darkness was real, pure, and extreme, as I showed at Exodus 10:21 and 22.
AND FROM THE LOWEST AND THE MOST PROFOUND (that is, deepest) DEPTHS COMING UPON THEM, — in Greek: and coming from the caves of the powerless underworld, as if to say: This night and darkness was supreme and quasi-infernal. Note, Scripture, just as it assigns light to heaven, so assigns darkness to hell, both because hell is the region and mother of darkness, just as heaven is of light, much as a region is called rich in gold, silver, etc.; and because these Egyptian darknesses were produced by the demons, the rulers of hell, through the thickening of the air and vapors drawn up from the depths of the earth. The chief cause of the darkness, however, was God, withdrawing His concurrence from the sun and light, so that it would not scatter its light upon the Egyptians. With a similar phrase we say that Etna, Vesuvius, Hekla, and other fire-spewing mountains are the mouth, door, and windows of hell: so Virgil depicts the underworld, Aeneid VI, saying: This is the place of shades, of sleep, and drowsy night.
SLEEPING THE SAME SLEEP, etc., because although the Egyptians were awake and trembling in the darkness, nevertheless like sleepers, thunderstruck and stupefied, they were idle from all work, and were disturbed by vain dreams, monsters — in Greek, phantasms — visions, and specters; this was therefore like the same sleepless sleep for all: again, the same, that is, similar to the powerless night, was the powerless sleep of all. An unexpected, that is, unanticipated, unforeseen, unlooked-for, fear had come upon and burst upon the Egyptians. They were failing, in Greek παρελύοντο, that is, they were being dissolved, and becoming as it were paralyzed, more in soul than in body: for from παραλύω comes paralysis, that is, the dissolution of nerves, limbs, and strength, which like wax
in verse 11 above our translator rendered, that is, by failure, abandonment, desperation, as if to say: The Egyptians from terror were as it were failing in spirit, and were suffering a fainting of the mind: less correctly some take "betrayal" to mean the separation of the soul from the body, that is, death, and others take it as punishment.
15. 15. THEN IF ANY ONE OF THEM HAD FALLEN, HE WAS KEPT SHUT UP IN PRISON WITHOUT IRON, as if to say: In such great darkness, if any Egyptian falling had collapsed into a pit or onto the ground, out of terror and stupor he neither wished nor was able to rise or lift himself up, but remained in it as if shut up in a prison, and this without iron, that is, without iron chains and fetters, for fear like a chain bound and fettered them: in Greek it is ἀσίδηρος εἱρκτήν, that is, shut up in an iron-free (lacking iron) prison: so Lyranus, Orosius, and others generally. This meaning is required by what the Vulgate has conditionally: "If any one of them had fallen," for which the Greek has: if whoever was there falling or collapsing, namely into those straits of darkness, specters, and terrors, he was held confined in them as if in a prison, so that he could not extricate himself from them or move from his place, but remained immobile in them, whence follows:
16. 16. FOR IF ANY FARMER, OR SHEPHERD, OR FIELD (in Greek, in the desert, that is, a solitary place, such as a field, meadow, or forest) LABORER WAS OVERTAKEN (by the darkness), HE ENDURED AN INESCAPABLE (that is, unavoidable, which no one could flee, much less drive away: whence Hugh reads "inescapable") NECESSITY — of enduring this most horrible darkness, and on account of it of remaining in the field and being idle, not working, but being terrified: for no one dared or was able to move from his place or return home, being situated in the densest darkness, and as it were imprisoned.
17 and 18. FOR ALL WERE BOUND BY ONE CHAIN OF DARKNESS. WHETHER A WHISTLING WIND, OR AMONG THE THICK BRANCHES OF TREES A SWEET SOUND OF BIRDS, OR THE FORCE OF WATER RUNNING TOO MUCH, OR THE LOUD CRASH OF FALLING ROCKS, OR THE UNSEEN RUNNING OF PLAYING ANIMALS, OR THE STRONG VOICE OF BELLOWING BEASTS, OR AN ECHO RESOUNDING FROM THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS, THESE THINGS MADE THEM FAINT WITH FEAR.
In Greek: for all were bound by one chain of darkness. Whether a whistling breeze, or among the thick branches a sweet and melodious sound of birds, or the murmur of the force of flowing water, or the loud crash of falling rocks, or the unseen course of leaping animals, or the voice of the most monstrous howling beasts, or the echo reverberating from mountain caverns — all struck them with terror unto fainting. He explains the necessity already mentioned, and calls it a chain of darkness, because by its horror, fear, and anguish the Egyptians were so stricken that they became as if thunderstruck, stupefied, and immobile, just as if they had been bound by chains in a prison: the prior cause was that fear
causes cold; indeed, as Aristotle says in Rhetoric II, 13: "Fear is a certain coldness; and cold constrains and as it were binds a person, so that he cannot move from his place." Whence Plautus in the Amphitruo: I am afraid, he says, I am wholly numb: Now where on earth I am, I know not, Wretched me, I cannot stir for fear. And in the Truculentus: Neither alive nor dead am I, nor do I know what to do now, Nor how to leave here, nor how to approach this man, I know not, I am numb with fear.
of horses, the trumpeting of elephants, the grunting of pigs, the roaring of lions; all of which here by the word "bellowing" he understands synecdochically (whence Vatablus translates "roaring"), namely any and all voices and roars of any animals: for all animals were stricken by this great and prolonged darkness, because they were impeded by it from seeking prey and food, whence from hunger and thirst they bellowed horribly, and with growling stomachs they roared: therefore, the Egyptians, trembling at so many and such great roarings, were nearly fainting. For he who fears is stricken, and so trembles, shudders, grows pale, his spirit flees, his limbs shake with fear: which situation causes that he who is here conquered by fear, is there abandoned by confidence, and not only fails in strength, but is also deprived of hope, since one who fears all things excessively must necessarily be deprived of hope also: for fear involves a breaking of the spirit, and as it were a flight, and so not only things and dangers, but even uncertain and vain rumors, and the shadow of a rose, as the saying goes, often terrify the fearful.
AN ECHO RESOUNDING FROM THE HIGHEST MOUNTAINS. — "Highest" means deepest: for in Greek it is ἐκ κοιλότητος, that is, from the hollowness of mountains: for an echo occurs when a voice, bounced back from caverns, returns to itself, and as if answering itself, repeats and reiterates what it said, so that to the uneducated and those unfamiliar with the phenomenon, there seems to be a man hidden in the caverns, answering and repeating the voice: therefore they are amazed and stricken.
An echo therefore occurs when air, and thereby sound, striking against a smooth and hollow body, rebounds like a ball bounced back: for on account of this rebound a resounding sound occurs, or a resonating one, as our translator aptly renders it: for the rebounding air gives back reciprocal voices, that is, ones similar to the first; whence Evodius, Book IV of Epigrams, calls the echo the imitator of speech, the dregs of the voice, the tail of the word. "Echo" is a Greek word, ἠχώ, that is, sound, echo, resonance, from ἠχέω, that is, I sound, I resound, I clang; whence Ovid, Metamorphoses Book III, describing the poetic Echo as a nymph, gives this riddle about her, in which he simultaneously suggests that through the echo deer are stricken with fear and driven into nets by hunters: for thus he sings: She sees him driving trembling deer into his nets, The vocal Nymph, who learned neither to be silent when spoken to, Nor to speak first herself — resounding Echo.
Ausonius indeed, a familiar of the Emperor Theodosius, gives this riddle about Echo: I am the daughter of air and tongue, the mother of empty Evidence, who carry a voice without a mind: Bringing back the last notes from a dying end, Playfully I follow others' words with my own. In your ears I dwell, at the windows, I am Echo, But if you wish to paint my likeness, paint a sound.
A whistling wind, — namely a breeze or gentle air softly rustling, or the breath and hiss of a breathing animal: refer all these things to the end, verse 18: "They made them faint with fear:" for the fearful in darkness fear all safe things, and as it were faint in spirit and are struck senseless by them. Hear Seneca, Epistle 13: "We are tormented both by the future and the past; many of our blessings harm us; the torment of fear brings back memory, foresight anticipates: no one is wretched only by present things, etc. More things are those that frighten us than those that press upon us, and more often we labor more in imagination. We quickly agree with our opinion, and so we turn our backs, like those whom dust stirred up by the flight of cattle drove from their camp, or whom some rumor spread without an author has frightened: I know not how, but empty things disturb us. For true things have their measure. It is probable that some evil will happen, but it is not immediately true: how many unexpected things have come! How many expected things have never appeared!"
A sweet sound of birds, — that is, the concert of birds, especially nightingales and blackbirds, which sing most sweetly at the beginning of spring, namely around Passover, when the Hebrews went out of Egypt, and shortly before this plague of darkness occurred: for by it and the other plagues Pharaoh and the Egyptians were compelled to let the Hebrews go: for to the fearful and sad all things seem unpleasant, and all melodies seem mournful and funereal.
THE STRONG VOICE OF BELLOWING BEASTS. — For "bellowing," in Greek it is ὠρυομένων, that is, howling, which properly belongs to wolves, just as lowing belongs to oxen, neighing
Therefore the uneducated and the impious, conscious of their sins, fear the echo, as if it were a secret voice sent from a cavern by an angel, or a sentence sent by a divine being against their crime
Mystically, the chain of crimes is woven from seven capital vices as from seven rings, of which one draws another and is linked to it: for gluttony draws lust, lust draws anger, anger draws envy, envy draws pride, pride draws avarice, avarice draws sloth: so Hugh. Or, as St. Bonaventure says: The suggestion of the devil begets the delight of thought, delight begets consent, consent begets the perpetration of the deed, this begets repetition and evil habit, habit begets shameless glorying and boasting in sin. For it is called a "chain" (catena) because it holds by grasping itself, since in it one ring grasps and holds another ring.
to be chastised: for as Statius says, Thebaid III: Anxieties keep watch within the mind, and exercise The punishment of committed crime; then fear, The worst prophet in doubtful times, turns over many things.
19 and 20. FOR THE WHOLE WORLD WAS ILLUMINATED WITH BRIGHT LIGHT, AND WAS OCCUPIED WITH UNIMPEDED WORKS. BUT UPON THEM ALONE WAS LAID A HEAVY NIGHT, AN IMAGE OF THE DARKNESS THAT WAS TO COME UPON THEM. BUT THEY WERE TO THEMSELVES MORE GRIEVOUS THAN THE DARKNESS, — as if to say: The whole rest of the world shone with the bright light of the sun, while in Egypt alone there was the densest darkness; indeed, in Egypt itself, among the Hebrews there was splendid light, as chapter 18:1 will say. Likewise the seventh plague, which was of hail, and the fifth, which was of pestilence, and all the others touched only the Egyptians, but no Hebrews, as is clear from Exodus 9:4 and 26: Philo and Josephus testify to the same. For "bright," in Greek it is λαμπρῷ, that is, splendid, shining, brilliant. From what has been said it is clear that Jansenius incorrectly infers from "the whole world" that all of Egypt too was illuminated with sunlight, but that the Egyptians did not see it because their eyes were blinded: for from the whole world he immediately excepts the Egyptians, saying: "But upon them alone was laid a heavy night." Add that this darkness was palpable, as is said in Exodus 10:21; therefore it did not consist in the eyes of the Egyptians, nor solely in the withdrawal of God's concurrence, by which He withdrew His cooperation from the light for illuminating the Egyptians, but in addition there was a thick fog, vapor, and cloud brought by God, as I said on Exodus 10:22.
AND WAS OCCUPIED WITH UNIMPEDED WORKS, — that is, was detained, was occupied, as if to say: The inhabitants of the whole world were living in light, and happily occupying and engaging themselves in their duties and works: for there was nothing to impede their works, while the darkness impeded the Egyptians so that they could do no work; whence Vatablus translates: and was busy with unimpeded works, as if to say: All the rest were in light, and therefore active; the Egyptians alone were in darkness, and therefore idle.
AN IMAGE OF THE DARKNESS THAT WAS TO COME UPON THEM, — both in death and the grave, and more so in hell and Gehenna; therefore that long and dark night of Egypt was a shadow and image of the death that threatened them in Gehenna. So Job, chapter 10, verse 22, calls the grave "a land of darkness, covered with the fog of death, a land of misery and shadows, where the shadow of death dwells and no order, but everlasting horror inhabits."
BUT THEY WERE TO THEMSELVES MORE GRIEVOUS THAN THE DARKNESS, — on account of the consciousness of their sins, and hence the disturbance, blindness, fear, and anguish of their minds: for there is no greater torment than the gnawing and remorse of a guilty conscience: therefore the Egyptians labored under a double darkness, namely of the body and of the mind, but the latter was far graver than the former, and tormented them more. The Sage here notes threefold, indeed fourfold darkness: the first is of the eyes; the second of the mind and of sin; the third of death; the fourth of Gehenna: the first deprives of the light of the sun; the second deprives of the grace of God; the third deprives of life; the fourth deprives of the vision of God. Moreover, the darkness of sin is the cause of the other three darknesses; see therefore how dark, horrible, and dreadful sin is: for just as on account of the darkness, to the Egyptians the light seemed dark, the moon moonless, the heavens blind, the sun sunless, so to sinners God, heaven, angels, virtue, wisdom, and all good things seem obscure, dark, foul, and horrible: wherefore St. Augustine on Psalm 45: "Among all tribulations, he says, of the human soul there is no greater tribulation than the consciousness of sins;" and St. Ambrose, Book I of Duties, chapter 12, asserts that "even what seems to be the rest of the impious, even while they live, is in hell, for while living they descend into hell;" and St. Bernard, Sermon 4 on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin: "Hell indeed, he says, and a prison for the soul, is a guilty conscience." This is what God threatens to the impious, Leviticus 26:36: "I will send fear into their hearts: the sound of a flying leaf shall terrify them: and they shall flee as from a sword: they shall flee when no one pursues:" where I gathered more on this subject.
Therefore the Hebrews, worshippers of God, were children of light, while the Egyptians, idolaters, were children of darkness.
Add that for the Hebrews, exulting on account of this disparity, this light was the greatest, just as when they were freed from death through Esther, chapter 8, verse 16, "a new light seemed to rise for them, joy, honor, and dancing:" see what was said on Exodus 10:23.