Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He teaches that the commonwealth is best governed by a prudent prince who in all things depends upon and subjects himself to God; whence from verse 7 to 23, he demonstrates by nine arguments how wicked and harmful pride is. Finally, from verse 23 to the end, he teaches that the true honor and glory of man consists, not in proud riches and dignities, but in the fear and obedience of God.
The nine reasons for guarding against pride are these. The first, verse 7, because pride is hateful to God and to men. The second, verse 8, because pride is the cause of injustice, rapine, insult, and deceit, on account of which God transfers the goods and kingdoms of nations. The third, verse 9, because man, however powerful and kingly, is by his nature most vile. Why then does earth and ashes feel proud? The fourth, verses 11 and 12, because all honor, as well as life, is brief and vain: for a king exists today, and tomorrow he will die. The fifth, verse 13, because man after death will be food for serpents and worms. The sixth, verse 14, because pride is apostasy from God. The seventh, verse 15, because the beginning of all sin is pride: whoever holds to it will be filled with curses. The eighth, verses 16 and following, because God overturns the thrones, riches, pomps, and memory of the proud; but raises up and establishes the humble. The ninth, verse 22, because pride is a creation, not of God, but of the devil.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 10:1-34
1. A wise judge will judge his people, and the government of a prudent man will be stable. 2. As the judge of the people is, so also are his ministers: and as the ruler of the city is, such also are the inhabitants thereof. 3. An unwise king will destroy his people; and cities will be inhabited through the prudence of the powerful. 4. In the hand of God is the power of the earth: and in due time He will raise up a useful ruler over it. 5. In the hand of God is the prosperity of man, and upon the person of the scribe He will impose His honor. 6. Remember not any injury done by your neighbor, and do nothing by works of injury. 7. Pride is hateful before God and men: and all iniquity of nations is execrable. 8. A kingdom is transferred from nation to nation on account of injustices, and injuries, and insults, and various deceits. 9. Nothing is more wicked than a miser. Why is earth and ashes proud? 10. Nothing is more unjust than to love money: for such a man has even his soul for sale, because in his life he has cast away his inmost parts. 11. All power is a brief life. A prolonged illness burdens the physician. 12. The physician cuts short a brief illness: so also a king exists today and tomorrow will die. 13. For when a man dies, he will inherit serpents, and beasts, and worms. 14. The beginning of the pride of man is to apostatize from God. 15. Because his heart has departed from Him who made him: because the beginning of all sin is pride: whoever holds to it will be filled with curses, and it will overthrow him in the end. 16. Therefore the Lord has dishonored the assemblies of the wicked, and has destroyed them even to the end. 17. God has destroyed the thrones of proud leaders, and has made the meek sit in their place. 18. God has dried up the roots of proud nations, and has planted the humble from among those same nations. 19. The Lord has overturned the lands of nations, and has destroyed them down to the foundation. 20. He has dried up some of them, and has scattered them, and has caused their memory to cease from the earth. 21. God has destroyed the memory of the proud, and has preserved the memory of the humble in understanding. 22. Pride was not created for men, nor wrath for the race of women. 23. That seed of men will be honored which fears God: but that seed will be dishonored which transgresses the commandments of the Lord. 24. In the midst of brethren their ruler is in honor: and those who fear the Lord will be in His eyes. 25. The glory of the rich, the honored, and the poor, is the fear of God. 26. Do not despise a just man who is poor, and do not magnify a sinful man who is rich. 27. The great man, and the judge, and the powerful man are in honor: and there is none greater than he who fears God. 28. Free men will serve a sensible servant: and a prudent and disciplined man will not murmur when corrected, and the ignorant will not be honored. 29. Do not exalt yourself in doing your work, and do not delay in a time of distress. 30. Better is he who works and abounds in all things, than he who boasts and lacks bread. 31. My son, in meekness preserve your soul, and give it honor according to its merit. 32. Who will justify him who sins against his own soul? And who will honor him who dishonors his own soul? 33. The poor man is glorified through his discipline and his fear: and there is a man who is honored on account of his wealth. 34. But he who is glorified in poverty, how much more in wealth? And he who is glorified in wealth, let him fear poverty.
First Part of the Chapter: Good Government of the Commonwealth Proceeds from the Prudence of the Prince, Who Acknowledges That He Has All Power from God
Verse 1: A Wise Judge Will Judge His People, and the Government of a Prudent Man Will Be Stable
Judge, that is, prince: for the chief duty of a prince is judgment and judging, namely, to rule the people in judgment and equity; so that, with injustice and iniquity excluded, the due order of justice may be preserved, and thence public peace and tranquility. All of which the royal Prophet briefly encompassed, foretelling the kingdom of Solomon, and in it the kingdom of Christ, Psalm 71:1, when he sings thus: "O God, give Your judgment to the king, and Your justice to the king's son. To judge Your people in justice, and Your poor in judgment. Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice. He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the sons of the poor, and shall humble the slanderer. Justice shall arise in his days, and abundance of peace, until the moon be taken away." Hence princes are called judges; whence the book of Judges is so entitled, that is, of the rulers of Israel: for such were Othniel, Barak, Gideon, Samson, Samuel, etc.
For "stable," the Latin and Greek Bibles consistently read "stable" or "ordered." For order produces peace, peace produces usefulness, stability produces longevity and expansion, according to Proverbs 29:14: "The king who judges the poor in truth, his throne shall be established forever."
Pliny says admirably in his Panegyric to Trajan: "There is no more excellent and beautiful gift of God to mortals than a chaste, holy, and most God-like prince." And Plutarch in his Life of Numa: "When kings are wise and holy, then let the commonwealth consider that it has received a certain greatest and divine gift from God."
St. Thomas, Part III, Question 59, article 1, teaches that judiciary power is appropriated to Christ as man, because it requires three things which clearly befit Christ: first, power to coerce subjects; second, zeal for righteousness; third, wisdom, according to which judgment is formed; whence it is said in Sirach 10:1: "A wise judge will judge his people."
Basil the Emperor, in his Exhortation to his son Leo, chapter 20: "My hands have placed upon your head the crown of empire bestowed on you by God. Render therefore to the Giver a gift worthy of Him. Honor God, who has honored you. But you will honor me not in exactly the same way as subjects do, namely, by kneeling, or standing at my side; for such things are not sufficiently worthy of a prince and king; but rather by exercising every virtue, cultivating temperance, adorning your morals, pursuing the study of letters, and so preparing yourself that you may be deemed worthy of this earthly empire, and may reflect the image of the King of heaven on earth." Hence it comes about that the government of a prudent man is stable; because it rests and is founded on wisdom, which is stable, solid, and eternal. So the kingdom of Christ, as of the wisest Prince, will be eternal, according to Luke 1:33: "And He shall reign in the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there shall be no end."
Verse 2: As the Judge of the People Is, So Also Are His Ministers; and as the Ruler of the City Is, Such Also Are Its Inhabitants
To the prince's character and life, as to a standard and model, first his ministers conform themselves, then the other citizens and subjects, according to the words of Claudian:
The whole world is ordered after the example of the king.
And he adds:
Edicts have not such power to bend
Human minds, as the life of the ruler:
The fickle populace ever changes with the prince.
Thus if the prince is warlike, the subjects breathe war and handle nothing but arms; if he is a lover of peace, all cultivate peace, give themselves to letters, arts, agriculture. If he is orthodox and zealous for the faith, his subjects imitate or feign this zeal; if he is chaste, all profess chastity; so on the contrary, if he is a heretic, unchaste, intemperate, immediately many become heretics, unchaste, intemperate.
Quintus Curtius relates that the courtiers of Alexander the Great walked with a twisted neck, because the king was stiff-necked. Lactantius gives the reason in Book 4 of the Divine Institutes: "Since to imitate the morals and vices of the king is considered a form of obedience, all cast off piety, lest they seem to reproach the king for his crime if they lived piously." And Pliny in his Panegyric of Trajan: "The life of the prince is a censorship, and a perpetual one; we are directed by it, we are turned toward it, and we need not so much his command as his example."
Verse 3: An Unwise King Will Destroy His People; and Cities Will Be Inhabited through the Prudence of the Powerful
An imprudent king, and consequently unjust, partly by his wicked example, partly by his wicked governance and negligence, destroys the people's wealth, peace, concord, strength, and often their life and conscience, and therefore exhausts the population -- both because he causes many to be killed by famine, war, quarrels, and seditions; and because he is the cause of citizens fleeing from the city, and migrating elsewhere, where a wise prince rules. So Saul, Rehoboam, Jeroboam, and the other impious and idolatrous kings of Israel destroyed their people. By antithesis he adds that the understanding and prudence of princes causes citizens and the city to flourish with wealth, peace, population, and abundance of all things, according to Proverbs 29:4: "A just king raises up the land; a greedy man destroys it."
Plato, who learned the same from Solomon and the Hebrews, in Book 3 of the Laws says: "Of the best forms of the commonwealth, the best is monarchy, which is established by and employs good laws." And again: "The ignorance or wickedness of those who rule is the plague and supreme ruin of the state. Unlimited power, even in kings themselves, which does not allow itself to be restrained by the bonds of law, is the most certain ruin of the kingdom." Aristotle also in Book 5 of the Politics, chapter 8, lists five things that preserve the commonwealth: the inviolable authority of good laws; the prudence of magistrates; the obedience of the people; the concord of citizens; and the paternal care of the magistrate toward the people. By these arts Romulus built Rome, Constantine Constantinople, Alexander Alexandria, and above all, Christ propagated the Church throughout the whole world. This is what the Wise Man says in chapter 6:26: "A multitude of the wise is the health of the world, and a wise king is the stability of the people."
Verses 4-5: In the Hand of God Is the Power of the Earth; In the Hand of God Is the Prosperity of Man
4. It is in the hand of God to give the earth whichever ruler He wills, and to raise up in due time a useful ruler over it.
5. Instead of "power," the corrected reading is "prosperity" (Greek euodia): it is in the hand of God to make a man prosper, and to cause all his actions and undertakings to have successful outcomes, praise, honor, and glory; and especially it is God who gives prosperity to the king and prince, so that his rule may succeed prosperously. "Scribe" (Hebrew sopher, Greek grammateus) among the Jews meant a learned man, a wise man, a teacher. It is God who instills and communicates His wisdom to the scribe, that is, to the teacher, through which he is honored by his disciples and the people as a wise man, powerful in the gift of teaching.
Verse 6: Remember Not Any Injury Done by Your Neighbor, and Do Nothing by Works of Injury
Let the prince remember that, while all bees have a stinger, the king alone among them lacks one.
Second Part of the Chapter: On the Harm of Pride
Verse 7: Pride Is Hateful before God and Men, and All Iniquity of Nations Is Execrable
Pride is hateful to God because it is diametrically opposed to the humility and obedience that He demands; and it is hateful to men because the proud man despises, insults, and injures all others.
Verse 8: A Kingdom Is Transferred from Nation to Nation on Account of Injustices, and Injuries, and Insults, and Various Deceits
Kingdoms are transferred on account of the injustices, injuries, insults, and deceits that arise from pride. For pride is the mother and root of all injustice and oppression.
Verses 9-10: Why Is Earth and Ashes Proud? Nothing Is More Unjust Than to Love Money
9. Intolerable is the wretched little man who is proud, since he is earth and ashes. Literally, dust and ashes pertain to the body, and are the same thing; but they are joined together for emphasis, because man was formed from dust and ends in ashes. St. Jerome, in Book XIII on Isaiah, Chapter 48: "Why does earth and ashes boast, and not know its own frailty?"
10. Nothing is more unjust than to love money: for such a man has even his soul for sale, because in his life he has cast away his inmost parts. The miser strips away all humanity, as if he had cast away his bowels, in which is the seat of mercy, for the sake of money. Hence St. Augustine, Sermon 25 On the Words of the Lord: "What is this greed of desire? Since even the beasts have moderation: for they seize their prey when they are hungry, but spare it when they have felt satiety. The avarice of the rich alone is insatiable; it always seizes and is never satisfied; it neither fears God nor respects man; it does not spare the father, does not acknowledge the mother, does not obey the brother, and does not keep faith with a friend. What is this madness of souls? To lose life, to pursue death, to acquire gold, to lose heaven." The symbol and example of this was Judas who, by selling Christ, sold his soul to the devil.
Verses 11-13: All Power Is a Brief Life; the King Exists Today and Tomorrow Will Die
11-12. All honor, as well as life, is brief and vain: for the king exists today, and tomorrow he will die. Just as the physician cuts short a brief illness, so death cuts short even the most powerful reign.
13. For when a man dies, he will inherit serpents, and beasts, and worms. After death, the body that was clothed in purple and fine linen becomes food for the vilest creatures.
Verses 14-15: The Beginning of the Pride of Man Is to Apostatize from God
14. Pride is apostasy from God: for the proud man, by attributing to himself what belongs to God, withdraws from God and sets himself up in God's place.
15. Because his heart has departed from Him who made him: because the beginning of all sin is pride: whoever holds to it will be filled with curses, and it will overthrow him in the end. Pride is the root and beginning of all sin, because it was pride that first caused the angels to fall, and pride that caused Adam and Eve to transgress.
Hear St. Gregory, book XXXIV of the Morals, chapter 18: "The beginning of all sin is pride. For through it he himself (Leviathan, that is, the devil) fell; through it he overthrew the man who followed him. For he assailed the welfare of our immortality with that very weapon by which he extinguished the life of his own blessedness." And shortly after: "For just as a root is hidden below, but from it branches spread outward: so pride conceals itself within, but from it open vices immediately sprout. For no evils would come forth into public view if this did not first grip the mind in secret."
St. Bernard, treatise On the Interior House, chapter 41: "Pride, as it is the origin of all crimes, so it is the ruin of all virtues. For it is first in sin, last in battle. It either in the beginning casts down the mind through sin, or at the end throws it down from its virtues." The same, sermon 2 On St. Andrew: "The beginning of all sin, and the cause of all perdition, is pride. Therefore, whoever you are who strive to work out your salvation, remember to have the sign of the cross upon your head against this vice, lest you be lifted up in pride, lest your heart be exalted."
Again St. Bernard, sermon 1 On the Advent: "Flee pride, my brothers, I beg you, flee it greatly. The beginning of all sin is pride: which so swiftly darkened with eternal gloom even Lucifer himself, who shone more brightly than all the stars: which changed not merely an angel, but the first of angels into a devil."
St. Chrysostom, homily 59 on Matthew: "Nothing is worse than pride, which so casts down even the powers of mind granted by nature, that it makes fools and madmen out of the prudent." Wherefore St. Gregory, book III of the Morals, chapter 18: "Pride, queen of vices, when it has fully captured the conquered heart, straightway hands it over to the seven principal vices, as to certain generals of its own, to be devastated."
He who holds fast to it will be filled with curses. The Complutensian reads "he will inflict abomination," meaning he will pour forth abominable injuries. Better, the Roman text reads "he will rain down abomination," meaning he will pour forth many abominations like waves. And it will overthrow him in the end -- namely, pride will overthrow its possessor, the proud man, "in the end," that is, at last, with a final and ultimate overthrow; and this either in this life, or certainly in the next, namely in hell.
But you will say: I am a king, I am a prince, I am a bishop, I am a doctor. These are ornaments of dust. Whoever you are who says this, remember that you are dust and ashes; remember that you are clay gilded with the gold of kingdom, principality, episcopate, doctorate.
Finally, just as pride was the first sin of the first man and of the angel, from which as from a fountain the rest flowed forth: so conversely humility is the first and proper virtue of the God-man, namely, Christ the Redeemer, from which as from a fountain all virtues and good things have flowed forth and continue to flow.
Verses 16-17: Therefore the Lord Has Dishonored the Assemblies of the Wicked, and Has Destroyed Them Even to the End
16. That is, forever, or to the very end and root, utterly cutting them off. He recalls the ancient and famous catastrophes of the proud, inflicted upon them by God on account of pride: the builders of Babel, whom God punished with the confusion of tongues and dispersed throughout the whole world (Genesis 11:8); the giants, whom God drowned in the flood (Genesis 6:4, 17); and Sodom: for as Ezekiel says (16:49): "This was the iniquity of Sodom: pride."
17. God has destroyed the thrones of proud leaders, and has made the meek sit in their place. In Greek: the Lord cast down thrones, or the seats of princes, and in their place established the meek. He opposes the meek to the proud, because under "meek" he includes also the humble: for whoever is meek is also humble; just as conversely, whoever is proud is also harsh. Thus He cast down the proud angels from their heavenly thrones, and placed in them the Apostles and other meek and humble men. So when the proud Belshazzar was cast down from the Assyrian monarchy, He replaced him with Darius and Cyrus, who were mild toward the Israelites. So He drowned the proud Pharaoh through the meek Moses, He overthrew Holofernes through the meek Judith, Haman through Esther, Sennacherib through Hezekiah, Antiochus through the Maccabees; finally, He set the meek David over the disobedient Saul.
Hence let princes learn, if they wish to be long-lived in their rule and to perpetuate it for their descendants, to govern gently and humbly: for this wins over God and men, according to that saying in chapter 3:19: "My son, accomplish your works in meekness, and you will be loved above the glory of men." The Blessed Virgin alluded to this, indeed cited this verse, when singing the hymn: My soul magnifies the Lord; for she says: "He has put down the mighty from their seat, and has exalted the humble." Thus God deposed Diocletian from the throne of empire, and in his place exalted the gentle Constantine; and the arrogant Eugenius, and set before him the humble Theodosius.
Verse 18: God Has Dried Up the Roots of Proud Nations, and Has Planted the Humble from Those Same Nations
What he said in the preceding verse about princes, he now says about entire nations, namely, that they were overthrown and uprooted from their very roots by pride, and in their place other gentle and humble peoples were established. For just as, when the root of a tree is torn out, the plant or tree withers and dies: so when families (for these are the roots of nations, from which sons, grandsons, and the multiplication of the nation sprout forth like branches from the fibers of the root) perish, the nation composed of them also perishes. Hence instead of "dried up," the Greek is exerrhizen, that is, "uprooted."
Thus He expelled the seven Canaanite nations for their pride from the holy land, which is called by Daniel in chapter 8, verse 13, in Hebrew tsebi, that is, the beauty, splendor, and glory of the whole world, and in it, in their place, He established the Hebrews, who among the nations seemed to be the most humble, indeed the dregs and refuse. Thus again, God dried up in faith, grace, and glory the proud Jews who rejected the humble Christ, and in their place substituted the Gentiles who humbly submitted themselves to Christ.
The truth of this statement is adorned by the fable of the air and the earth in Cyril, book 2 of the Moral Apologues, chapter 1, entitled "On the good of humility and the evil of pride." The air, puffed up by its bodily breadth, the brightness of its substance, and its lofty position, scorning the earth, spoke to it, saying: Why do you, a dark point, always remain below? But the earth, grounded in humility upon the firmament of patience, patiently replied: "I indeed confess that I am a point; but by this small, point-like body, having been made the center of the world, I rest forever, while you with your great magnitude always fluctuate. Around me the whole heaven revolves, and its vital influence is founded upon my stability." Then she more fully recounts the fruits and gifts of her humility: "Since I am an opaque body, I am not dispersed as you are who are transparent; rather I retain the celestial virtues, adorned internally with most precious gems and metals, externally decorated with streams, plants, animals, and human beings. But because I remain beneath all things, I am never troublesome to anyone. As a place of life, a seat of rest, and a harbor of salvation, I am prepared for all by perpetual fixity, freely. But you, situated above, when you receive the vapors, you deprive living things of sweet light with dense clouds; you send forth deadly lightning bolts, and pour out terrible thunders, and burst with the weight of winds, crush with the stone of hail, submerge with the whirlwind of storms: indeed the emissions of your pride are the most grievous tempests. Therefore the modest obscurity of humility is better than the stormy visibility of proud sublimity." With these words she confounded the arrogant one.
Mystically, God in holy and religious men, whom He especially loves, consumes down to the root whatever vices and vicious acts and habits there are, which mostly arise from pride, by multiplying His efficacious grace in them, by which He implants, strengthens, and amplifies the contrary virtues that dominate over vices.
Verses 19-21: The Lord Has Overthrown the Lands of the Nations, and Has Destroyed Them to the Foundation
19. From nations he descends to the lands they inhabited, and says that these likewise were utterly overthrown because of the pride of their inhabitants. He alludes to the conflagration of Sodom and the Pentapolis by heavenly fire, by which those regions, previously most fertile, became most barren, indeed were converted into the Dead Sea, and therefore were deprived and emptied not only of men, but also of animals, fish, plants, and all fruits. So were utterly overthrown the most powerful cities, Tyre, of which Isaiah speaks in chapter 23, Nineveh, Babylon, Ecbatana, etc., to such a degree that scarcely their ruins remain, and it is uncertain where they were situated.
20. He dried up some of them and destroyed them, and made their memory cease from the earth. God so dried up some of the lands of the proud, such as the Pentapolis, that He destroyed the inhabitants along with all animals and plants, and made their memory to cease, indeed turned their memory into eternal ignominy and infamy.
21. God has destroyed the memory of the proud, and has preserved the memory of the humble in mind. "In mind," that is, in mind and spirit, who namely think humbly of themselves, and wholly humble and prostrate themselves under the mighty hand of God. By "memory" understand that which is joined with honor and praise, celebrated, illustrious; for this only the humble and holy attain. This is what the Psalmist says, Psalm 111, verse 6: "The just shall be in eternal memory," as we see happen with the holy Apostles, Confessors, Virgins, and Martyrs, whose memory we honor with feast days.
Hear what duties of humility make kings and kingdoms long-lived and happy, from St. Augustine, book 5 of The City of God, chapter 24: "We call them happy if they rule justly; if amid the tongues of those who honor them loftily and the obsequiousness of those who greet them too humbly, they are not puffed up, but remember that they are human beings; if they make their power a servant to God's majesty for spreading His worship as widely as possible; if they fear, love, and worship God; if they love more that kingdom where they do not fear to have companions, and are slower to avenge themselves, and readily forgive; if they employ the same vengeance for the necessity of governing and protecting the state, not for satisfying the hatreds of enmities; if they grant the same pardon not for the impunity of wickedness, but for the hope of correction; if what they are often compelled to decree harshly, they compensate with the gentleness of mercy and the generosity of benefits; if their luxury is the more chastened the freer it could be; if they prefer to rule over wicked desires rather than over any nations whatsoever."
Verse 22: Pride Was Not Created for Men, nor Wrath for the Race of Women
It is the error and excuse of the proud that they think and say that pride is magnanimity co-created with man and implanted and inborn in him by nature, both to defend himself against invaders and to aspire to great things; and therefore that humility is a vice of nature tending toward its depression, harm, and destruction: hence humility among the pagans was considered a vice and a matter of blame, and was therefore hated, indeed unknown.
Sirach refutes this, saying that pride was not created for men, which can be taken thus: Pride was not co-created and congenital with men, pride was not implanted in men by nature, nor instilled by the Creator, but came from elsewhere, namely borrowed from the devil and impressed upon man through sin; therefore pride is not natural to man, but rather a vice of nature; for it had its origin not from nature healthy and whole, but corrupted through vice; for God created Adam upright and humble. So Rabanus: "Vices were not created in men, but were found by the perverse will of the rational soul." And St. Antiochus, Homily 44: "Pride was not co-created with man, for pride is not natural, but is the image of the most obstinate demon."
Secondly, and more aptly: Pride was not created for men, but for wild beasts and brutes. For nature implanted in the lion, tiger, leopard, etc., great and proud spirits, because they are wild beasts: but in man, who is human and humane, she implanted rather modesty, fairness, gentleness, and humility. Hence the Syriac translates: pride was not apportioned to men, nor elation of heart to the sons of women.
He joins anger to pride, as daughter to mother: Pride, and the anger flowing from it, was not created from the nature of men, nor for the nature of men, but was introduced through the devil and sin; for since men are begotten from a woman who is frail and weak, they have rather an occasion for great humility and meekness than for anger and pride. Therefore, just as a peacock, spreading its tail and looking at its train adorned and painted with so many eye-like feathers, swells with pride; but when it turns its eyes back to its ugly feet, it deflates and draws in its train: so you, O man, who are proud of the gifts of your mind and body, look at the feet of your vileness and misery, so that from the one you may learn to be humbled, and from the other to groan and beseech.
Third Part of the Chapter: True Honor and Glory Consist in the Fear of God
Verses 23-24: That Seed of Men Will Be Honored Which Fears God
23. Fittingly he transitions from pride to the fear of God, and opposes it to pride by antithesis; for just as the beginning of all sin is pride, so the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom, that is, of humility and every virtue. True honor before God and men consists not in display and ostentation of self, but in the fear of God: therefore he who fears God will be honored; but those who do not fear God, but proudly transgress the commandments of God, these are despised and confounded, both in this life and even more in the life to come; for God humbles the proud and exalts the humble. Therefore the true glory of man is the fear of God and humility, because through these, from a man, indeed from a beast or demon, he becomes an Angel, a divine man, and as it were a kind of earthly God similar to Christ the Son of God, and therefore worthy of the highest honor. For the fear of God gives man a divine being, which far surpasses every natural being.
With this nobility, Noah was noble and illustrious, whom therefore Scripture so celebrates in Genesis 6:9: "These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just and perfect man in his generations." St. Ambrose gives the reason: "Noah is praised not for his family but for his justice; for the family of a proven man is the lineage of his virtue." Hence also the Saints were preferred in honor to kings. So Pharaoh was a suppliant to Moses, to stop the plagues of Egypt. So Joshua commanded not only the kings of the earth, but also the heavens, by stopping the sun and moon. So Ahab revered Elijah, Joram revered Elisha, Hezekiah revered Isaiah, Nebuchadnezzar revered Jeremiah, Darius revered Daniel, Alexander revered Jaddus the High Priest, Constantine revered Anthony, Valens revered Basil, Arcadius revered Chrysostom.
24. In the midst of brethren their ruler is in honor: and those who fear the Lord will be in His eyes. Just as a firstborn is in honor among his brethren, as the head and ruler of the rest; so equally, indeed more so, those who fear the Lord are in honor in the eyes of God, that is, before God. For he compares those who fear the Lord with a ruler, in that just as the latter is honored by his subject men, so the former is honored by God. By which he signifies that the fear of God is a greater honor than a rulership, because this fear makes those who fear God more honored than rulership does: for the highest honor is to be honored before God, indeed by God.
Verse 25: The Glory of the Rich, the Honored, and the Poor, Is the Fear of God
Instead of "glory" the Greek has kauchema, that is, boasting. The meaning therefore is: Both the rich and the poor, both the honored and the common person, should boast not in riches, nor in the art in which one excels, but in the fear of God: for if this is present, it supplies and provides all things; if it is absent, all other things are present in vain. He alludes to Jeremiah 9:23: "Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, and let not the strong man glory in his strength, and let not the rich man glory in his riches; but let him who glories glory in this, to know and understand Me."
Verse 26: Do Not Despise a Just Man Who Is Poor, and Do Not Magnify a Sinful Man Who Is Rich
He draws this statement as a conclusion from the preceding: "The glory of the rich, the honored, and the poor, is the fear of God"; for from this it follows that those who are endowed with the fear of God, and therefore are just, should be honored, even if they are poor; but those who lack it should not be magnified, even if they are rich: for just as riches do not make one worthy of true honor, but justice and virtue do: so poverty does not make one worthy of contempt and disgrace, but iniquity does. Alluding to this, St. James in chapter 2, verse 3, severely attacks the respect of persons by which the rich are preferred to the poor.
St. Paulinus writes beautifully in his epistle to Alethius: "Consider the reason: you will easily judge that the poor are despised at our whim by a crime worthy of parricide, since we see them in no way distinguished from us by any work of God. For how can we exclude from our modest dwellings those whom God has enclosed with us in this one house of the world?"
On the other hand, Epictetus in Stobaeus: "Just as when you see a viper or asp in an ivory and golden casket, you do not love them because of the value of the material, but rather abhor and detest them because of the deadly power of their nature: so also when you see malice dwelling in riches and the display of fortune, do not be astonished at the splendor of the material, but despise the depravity of morals."
Verse 27: The Great Man, the Judge, and the Powerful Are in Honor: and There Is None Greater Than He Who Fears God
Great men, judges, and the powerful are in honor, and great among men; but they are not greater than one who fears God, because the fear of God has placed itself above all things, as we shall hear in chapter 25:14. Hence the Greek has megistanes, that is, magnates, judges, and rulers shall be honored, and there is none of them greater than one who fears the Lord.
Verse 28: To a Sensible Servant Free Men Shall Serve; and a Prudent and Disciplined Man Will Not Murmur When Corrected, and the Ignorant Shall Not Be Honored
Sense, that is, prudence and wisdom, is so excellent a gift that it makes even slaves not only free men, but also masters and rulers, so that free men serve him, indeed rejoice to serve and obey. The sensible man, even if he is a slave, is worthy to govern others and to have the rest serve him: but the senseless man, even if rich and noble, is unworthy to govern others, since he himself rather needs to be governed and guided like a blind man.
Seneca gives the reason in book 3 of On Benefits: "If anyone thinks that slavery descends upon the whole man, he is mistaken; the better part of him is excepted: bodies are subject and assigned to masters: but the mind is indeed its own master." Again, he who serves well is worthy to rule; and therefore serving well is an excellent preparation for ruling well. Hence Plato: "Those who have not first served cannot rule rightly." For, as St. Augustine says, book 19 of The City of God, chapter 15: "Just as humility benefits those who serve, so pride harms those who rule."
St. Augustine writes admirably, book 4 of The City of God, chapter 3: "A good man, even if he serves, is free: but a bad man, even if he reigns, is a slave, and not of one master, but, what is worse, of as many masters as he has vices."
Thus Daniel, on account of his wisdom, although a captive and slave, together with his three companions Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, was placed by Darius and Nebuchadnezzar over all the provinces of Babylon, Daniel 2:49.
By the second member he signifies that it belongs to the wise man to readily and willingly admit advisors and to accept admonition, instruction, and correction. For he knows that no one is so wise as to be wise in all things. He alludes to Proverbs 9:8: "Do not rebuke a scoffer, lest he hate you; rebuke a wise man, and he will love you." Hence St. Bernard says: "Lord, You know my foolishness, because namely in this I am wise, that I myself also know it."
Therefore St. Augustine, in Epistle 19 to St. Jerome, writes: "Again and again I ask that you confidently correct me, wherever you see this to be necessary for me. For although the episcopate is greater than the presbyterate, yet in many things Augustine is lesser than Jerome; although correction should not be refused or disdained even from any lesser person." In this matter, St. Charles Borromeo gave a memorable example, who wonderfully desired that anyone should admonish and correct him regarding his defects. For this reason he maintained in his household two grave priests, to whom he had given this duty, to watch over all his actions, and wherever he erred, to admonish him freely and faithfully.
Verse 29: Do Not Exalt Yourself in Doing Your Work, and Do Not Delay in the Time of Distress
The meaning is: Do not exalt yourself and boast about your nobility, lineage, dignity, or status, as if it were unworthy for you to labor with your hands, nor put forward these sophistical excuses for your idleness, so that in the day of distress and want you hesitate and are slow to work and to provide for your own and your family's needs: because your boasting is empty and will not fill your stomach, but will fill your mind with vanity and pride.
Cyril represents this maxim with the fitting fable of a reed contending with a sugar cane, in book 2 of the Apologues, chapter 14: A common reed, growing next to a sugar cane, quickly surpassing it and swelling with its height, said mockingly: "Blessed be nature, which in one year has made me surpass you." To this the sugar cane replied: "Rightly are you a reed, dry of sense and agitated by every blast of wind. Do you not consider that, in order to grow more quickly, you gave everything to height and nothing to depth? Inside you are empty, and outside you swell fruitlessly: indeed lofty trees are for the most part seen to be fruitless; and what sprouts up in great size quickly dries up."
Then it proves the same point with the example of the hen, honey, dust, mountains, and valleys: "A small hen lays an egg every day, but the huge ostrich only once a year. The firmness of my humility protects me from the tempest of winds, but your height is a tempest for you. Therefore incomparably better is the smallness of full humility than the swift loftiness emptied of every good."
Rabanus explains differently: "He forbids anyone from boasting on account of a good work, because all arrogance is an abomination before God." So also Lyranus: "Do not exalt yourself, because whatever good you have, all of it is from God."
Verse 30: Better Is He Who Works and Abounds in All Things, Than He Who Boasts and Lacks Bread
The Greek adds "for," since here the reason for the preceding verse is given. "Better," that is, more advantageous, wiser, richer, fuller in belly, happier in mind. The Syriac: Better is the man who works and abounds in riches, than he who makes himself important and lacks food. Here applies that saying of the Comic poet: "It is better to be rich and common than noble and a beggar."
He alludes to, indeed cites, Proverbs 12:9: "Better is the poor man who provides for himself, than the boastful one who lacks bread," because the poor man through humility and labor procures for himself food and clothing; but the boastful man through laziness and pride cheats himself of both. Man was born for labor, as Job says in chapter 5:7: let him therefore not flee the labor that is inborn to him. "Blessed are they who shall eat the labors of their hands," Psalm 127:2, not those who sit idle. Hence conclude that the farmer and craftsman, who by his labor ensures he does not go in want, is better than the noble and splendid man, whose splendor the pallor of hunger obscures.
Verses 31-32: My Son, in Meekness Preserve Your Soul, and Give It Honor According to Its Merit
31. In Greek it is doxason, that is, honor, glorify. Vatablus renders: "My son, through meekness win glory for your soul, and bestow upon it the honor it deserves." Hence wise and pious men teach that a person ought not to be indignant at his own soul when it falls into certain faults; but rather to correct and instruct it gently and sweetly, and to direct it, rather than to reprove it: for this gentle correction will penetrate and move it to amendment more than a harsh one.
This maxim of Sirach can first be taken plainly and simply: Devote yourself to meekness; for this wins you honor, this is the beauty and glory of your soul, because in it consists the peace and quiet of the soul, as well as its holiness. Again, the honor due to the soul is that it, like a queen, should rule over the body and the senses, as over subjects and handmaids. For, as Aristotle says in Politics I: "The soul naturally rules over the body, as a master over a slave; and when this dominion holds, all is well." For he who serves vices dishonors the soul, and makes it like the brutes, indeed like demons.
Thirdly, Jansenius skillfully and aptly narrows these words to the pursuit of labor, so that by this labor one may provide sustenance for himself, as if to say: Do not become impatient in laboring because of the annoyance and difficulty of labor, and therefore lazy and slow; but humbly and meekly undertake and embrace every labor, because through it you will glorify your soul, giving it honor, that is, sustenance and nourishment, which is owed to it according to its dignity. For "honor" in Scripture often signifies nourishment, as when it says: "Honor your father and mother," honor, that is, revere, obey, and feed them, if they are in need.
32. Who will justify him who sins against his own soul? And who will honor him who dishonors his own soul? The lazy and idle man, who does not wish to provide sustenance for himself by laboring, sins against his own soul, because he exposes it to the danger of hunger and death: who therefore can justify or excuse him? Again, the same man dishonors his soul by sloth, idleness, and pride; who therefore will consider him worthy of honor? The proud and vainglorious man, through his proud idleness, by which he refuses labor of the hands as beneath him, seeks honor and glory. But he errs; for since he himself dishonors his soul by pride and laziness, indeed lets it waste away with hunger, who can rightly honor him, or consider him worthy of honor?
Verses 33-34: The Poor Man Is Glorified through His Discipline and His Fear
33. For "glories" and "is honored," the Greek has the same verb doxazetai, that is, is honored. The poor man is honored for his discipline of morals and fear of God, but the rich man is honored for his wealth and substance. Therefore the honor of the poor man is greater than that of the rich man, and by as much as the fear of God surpasses all the riches of the world. Therefore let not the poor man grieve that, lacking riches, he likewise lacks worldly honor, because he has a greater honor and one of a higher order, namely a divine one from the fear of God; conversely, let not the rich man grow proud because he is honored for his riches, because this honor is meager if compared to the honor that the fear of God produces.
The judgment of the world and of worldly people is the opposite, who place happiness in abundance of things; hence they esteem each person according to how much wealth he has, according to the adage cited by St. Augustine: "As much as you have, so much will you be worth." But the philosophers had better wisdom, who considered poverty equal to riches, indeed preferred it, as an instrument of wisdom and virtue. Hence Crates threw away his gold, so that he might philosophize more securely; Arcesilaus used to say that poverty was the mother of frugality, continence, modesty, and therefore the training ground of every virtue.
34. But he who is glorified in poverty, how much more in wealth? And he who is glorified in wealth, let him fear poverty. This verse serves to console the dejection of the poor, and to blunt the pride of the rich. The honor of the poor man is solid, because it is situated in the solid fear of God, and therefore it can easily grow and increase if riches are added to it. For God often enriches those who fear Him; wherefore then a double title of honor accrues to him, namely, the title of the fear of God, and the title of wealth. For just as a beautiful image becomes more beautiful if it is surrounded by a golden border: so too virtue, beautiful in itself, becomes more beautiful if it is adorned with riches; as happened to Daniel, when he, on account of his virtue and wisdom, was set over Babylon, honored by the king and all the princes, Daniel 2:48. But the rich man lacking the fear of God, indeed given over to pride and luxury, lacks true honor, and possesses only a vain one, which is situated in the abundance of riches; for a rich man can easily become poor, as we see happening daily.
Therefore let the poor console themselves with these words, with which Tobias consoled himself and his son, saying in chapter 4, verse 23: "Do not be afraid, my son; we lead a poor life indeed, but we shall have many good things, if we fear God, and depart from all sin, and do good." And with those words of St. James, chapter 2, verse 5: "Has not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith, and heirs of the kingdom, which He has promised to those who love Him?" And with those words of Christ: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5:3.
St. Leo says admirably in sermon 4 for Lent: "Christian poverty is always rich, because what it has is more than what it does not have; nor does it fear to labor in want in this world, to whom it has been given to possess all things in the Lord of all things."
Mystically, since this entire chapter attacks and assails the proud and pride, these words can be understood of the poor man who is humble, and of the rich man who is proud on account of his virtues, good works, and merits: Better is a penitent sinner who is poor in merits but rich in humility, than a just man who is rich in merits but proud of them. This is what is commonly said: "Better is a humble sinner than a proud just man." For the former will grow in merits through humility, the latter will decline through pride, indeed, abandoned by God, he will fall into mortal sin. This is clearly seen in the parable of the humble Publican and the Pharisee who was proud of his merits, which Christ recounts in Luke 18:10ff. For the Publican, confessing and saying, "God, be merciful to me a sinner," deserved to hear from Christ: "I say to you: This man went down to his house justified rather than the other: because everyone who exalts himself will be humbled; and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Wherefore St. Bernard wisely says in Sermon 13 on the Song of Songs: "It is truly a great and rare virtue that, although you do great works, you should not know yourself to be great, and that your holiness, manifest to all, should be hidden from you alone. To appear admirable and to consider yourself contemptible -- this I judge more admirable than the virtues themselves."