Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
At the end of the preceding chapter he showed how efficacious is the prayer of the humble and afflicted, and how ready is mercy to hear it. Now he gives an example of this in himself. Therefore he prays that the faithful people, namely the Jews subjugated, afflicted, and scattered by the Egyptians and other nations, may be freed and gathered together in Jerusalem, and that God may crush the nations and convert them to know and worship the true God of the Jews. Second, in verse 20, he treats of the goodness of good wives, so that a man seeking a wife should choose a good and suitable one rather than a wealthy one; and that, having left her, he should not wander off like a vagabond to another more alluring woman.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 36:1-19
1. Have mercy on us, O God of all, and look upon us, and show us the light of Your mercies. 2. And send Your fear upon the nations that have not sought You, that they may know that there is no God but You, and that they may declare Your great deeds. 3. Lift up Your hand against the foreign nations, that they may see Your power. 4. For as You were sanctified in us in their sight, so may You be magnified in them in our sight, 5. that they may know You, as we also have known You, that there is no God besides You, O Lord. 6. Renew the signs and change the wonders. 7. Glorify Your hand and Your right arm. 8. Stir up fury and pour out wrath. 9. Remove the adversary and afflict the enemy. 10. Hasten the time and remember the end, that they may declare Your wonders. 11. Let him who escapes be devoured in the wrath of flame; and let those who oppress Your people find destruction. 12. Crush the head of the princes of the enemies, who say: There is no other besides us. 13. Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may know that there is no God but You, and that they may declare Your great deeds; and You will possess them as an inheritance, as from the beginning. 14. Have mercy on Your people, over whom Your name has been invoked, and on Israel whom You have made equal to Your firstborn. 15. Have mercy on the city of Your sanctification, Jerusalem, the city of Your rest. 16. Fill Sion with Your unspeakable words, and Your people with Your glory. 17. Give testimony to those who are Your creatures from the beginning, and raise up the predictions that the former prophets spoke in Your name. 18. Give the reward to those who wait for You, that Your prophets may be found faithful; and hear the prayers of Your servants, 19. according to the blessing of Aaron for Your people, and direct us in the way of justice, and let all who dwell on earth know
that You are God, the beholder of the ages. 20. The belly will eat every food, yet one food is better than another. 21. The palate tastes the meat of game, and the wise heart tastes lying words. 22. A perverse heart will bring sadness, and the experienced man will resist it. 23. A woman will receive every man, yet one daughter is better than another. 24. The beauty of a woman gladdens the face of her husband, and it draws desire beyond every concupiscence of man. 25. If she has a tongue of healing, and also of gentleness and mercy, her husband is not like the sons of men. 26. He who possesses a good wife begins a possession: she is a help like himself, and a pillar of rest. 27. Where there is no hedge, the possession will be plundered; and where there is no wife, the needy man groans. 28. Who trusts him who has no nest, and who turns aside wherever darkness overtakes him, like a nimble robber leaping from city to city?
Note: A little before the time of Sirach, Ptolemy Lagus, the first king of Egypt after Alexander the Great, greatly afflicted the Jews. For adding Syria to his kingdom, he entered Jerusalem under the pretext of offering sacrifice and seized it on the Sabbath. Then he took many captives from Judea and Gerizim into Egypt and sold them, to such an extent that his son and successor Ptolemy Philadelphus restored one hundred and twenty thousand Jews to liberty, as a favor to Eleazar the high priest, who sent him seventy-two translators to convert the Sacred Scripture from Hebrew into the Greek language. So Josephus, Antiquities XII, 1 and 11.
Literally, therefore, Sirach prays to God that the Jews captured, scattered, and afflicted by Ptolemy Lagus may be freed; and he obtained this. For God sent Ptolemy Philadelphus, who not only freed them but also honored them and the temple with great gifts and privileges. But the Holy Spirit looked further, namely to the conversion of the nations from idolatry to the worship of the true God — that is, from paganism to Christianity — to be accomplished through Christ and the Apostles. For just as the Egyptians persecuted the Jews, so the Gentiles persecuted the true worshippers of the true God, whom God freed by sending them Christ, the Apostles and apostolic men, and especially the Emperor Constantine, whom Ptolemy Philadelphus represents. For Constantine, having become a Christian, stopped and prohibited all the persecutions of the preceding pagan emperors, and having erected churches and destroyed idols, propagated the worship of Christ throughout the whole world among all nations. There is here therefore a tacit foreshadowing of the conversion of the nations, and a prophecy in the form of a prayer; for he prays that the Israelites who are scattered and afflicted may be gathered together, and may worship God in Sion peacefully, joyfully, and with one mind; and that the nations who afflicted them may be crushed, that is,
may be suppressed and made subject to Sion, so that they may see, acknowledge, and celebrate the power and magnificence of God. This began to be fulfilled under Ptolemy Philadelphus, but was completed by Christ and the Apostles, who established the Catholic Church in Sion; they then subjected all nations, which henceforth worship and celebrate the true God and His Son Jesus Christ. So Rabanus.
FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER.
1. HAVE MERCY ON US, GOD OF ALL, AND LOOK UPON US (so the Greek also reads; but what follows): AND SHOW US THE LIGHT OF YOUR MERCIES — is now missing in the Greek. He calls the joy and gladness that would come to the Hebrews from God's mercy "light," if He would free them from the Egyptians and other nations that afflicted them. Hence the Syriac translates: "Free us, O God, all of us, that You may restore us to our former freedom, homeland, wealth, glory, and kingdom." St. Augustine, City of God XV, 20, reads: "Have mercy on us, Lord God of all."
2. AND SEND YOUR FEAR UPON THE NATIONS THAT HAVE NOT SOUGHT YOU, THAT THEY MAY KNOW THAT THERE IS NO GOD BUT YOU, AND MAY DECLARE YOUR GREAT DEEDS. — The Complutensian Greek merely has: "Send fear upon all nations not seeking You." The Roman edition deletes "not seeking You." The Syriac: "Bring Your fury upon the peoples who have not known You." The Tigurina: "Strike fear of You into all the nations that do not worship You, that they may know there is no God besides You, and may proclaim Your magnificent deeds." He prays for mercy upon his own Israelites, but for fear upon their enemies from God; for God shows mercy to the faithful when He strikes fear into their enemies; and He strikes this fear when He strikes them and afflicts them with plagues, as follows. But God does this not from hatred but from love of them, so that they themselves, feeling the powerful hand of God and His plagues, may know and revere Him, and celebrate His magnificent works against the enemies and His merciful works toward the faithful. Hence, explaining further, he adds:
3. LIFT UP YOUR HAND AGAINST THE FOREIGN NATIONS, THAT THEY MAY SEE YOUR POWER. — In Greek, ἔπαρον τὴν χεῖρά σου ἐπ'ἔθνη, that is, "lift Your hand upon the nations;" that is, so that You may strike, scourge, and chastise them, and they themselves may see and recognize in themselves Your power and mighty vengeance. Thus God is said to have raised His hand against Pharaoh, and to have led the Hebrews out of Egypt "with a high hand and an outstretched arm," when He struck the Egyptians with great and mighty plagues and compelled them to release the Hebrews (Exodus 6:8 and 14:8). The Tigurina: "Direct Your hand against the foreign nations, that they may perceive Your power." The Syriac: "Raise Your hand above the foreign people, that they may know Your strength."
4. FOR AS YOU WERE SANCTIFIED IN US IN THEIR SIGHT, SO MAY YOU BE MAGNIFIED IN THEM IN OUR SIGHT. — This sentence depends on the preceding verse, as if to say: Lift up Your hand against the nations, striking and suppressing them; thus You will be magnified in them. "For as in the sight" of them (our translator renders "their," by antiprosis, because he looked rather to the thing signified than the noun that preceded, namely of men or peoples, of which nations consist and are composed) "You were sanctified in us," by showing Your holy mercy by which You miraculously freed us from slavery and many hardships, and heaped upon us such great gifts: "so in our sight You will be magnified in them," namely the hostile nations, by showing in them Your great strength, power, and vengeance, with which You will so severely chastise and punish them. Instead of "You will be magnified" he could have said "You will be sanctified," or as the Syriac translates, "may You be sanctified;" because there is a sanctity of justice as well as of mercy, and God is sanctified both in exercising vengeance and in showing clemency, and so God is "holy in all His works" (Psalm 144:13). Holy in punishment, holy in glory; holy in the blessed, holy in the damned; holy in heaven, holy in hell. But he preferred to say "You will be magnified," because in the faithful and the Saints God is properly sanctified, inasmuch as He dwells in them through grace and holiness; but in unbelievers and the impious He is properly magnified, because in them He dwells not through holiness, but through great power and vengeance. The Greek has it in the optative and precative μεγαλυνθείης, that is, "may You be magnified;" for he prays that God may be magnified in His enemies, that is, may show Himself great, powerful, and glorious, and may be acknowledged and feared as such by His enemies. Hence the Tigurina translates: "As You have declared Your divine power (providence) in us before their eyes, so may You show Your majesty in them before our eyes." St. Augustine likewise reads and understands it this way (City of God XVII, 20).
5. THAT THEY MAY KNOW YOU AS WE ALSO HAVE KNOWN YOU, THAT THERE IS NO GOD BESIDES YOU, O LORD. — It is a metalepsis: "that they may know," that is, that having known, they may fear, revere, worship, and love. For from knowledge follows fear, from fear reverence, from reverence worship, from worship love. He teaches that plagues should be desired for unbelievers and the impious, not from hatred that they may perish, but from love, that through them they may come to know God, invoke Him, and love Him, and so be saved and blessed. For as Christ says (John 17:3): "This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." On which words St. Cyril, book 11 on John, chapter 16, says: "Knowledge is the spiritual life, bringing us such a blessing, through which the Spirit dwells in our hearts for the adoption of the sons of God, and reforming true piety through the evangelical life and incorruptibility. Since therefore the origin and, as it were, the bridesmaid of all these said goods is found to be the knowledge of the true God, rightly by our Lord Jesus Christ it is called eternal life, as a mother and root that by its own power and nature brings forth eternal life."
Morally, learn here that the knowledge of God is the fountain of every good. Hear St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his oration On the State of a Bishop: "I consider the kingdom of heaven to be nothing other than the attainment of what is purest and most perfect. And the most perfect of all things is the knowledge of God," which Clement of Alexandria, book 6 of the Stromata, calls "the most perfect good, desirable in itself." The same author, in book 7, asserts that one who has truly and magnificently known God cannot serve pleasures or other disturbances of the soul, but always does and thinks holy things, prays with the angels, and even when praying alone has the attending choir of angels. And most excellently St. Jerome: "The knowledge of the one God," he says, "is the possession of all virtues." And elsewhere: "The memory of God excludes all wickedness." And finally St. Augustine: "Nothing is better than the knowledge of God, because nothing is more blessed, and it is true blessedness itself." Finally St. Bernard, sermon 37 on the Song of Songs: "That,
if you are ignorant of God, can there be hope of salvation without the ignorance of God? Not even this; for you cannot love what you do not know, or possess what you have not loved." And presently he warns that this knowledge of God must be joined with knowledge of oneself: "Know yourself, therefore," he says, "so that you may fear God; know Him, so that you may equally love Him. In the one you are initiated into wisdom, in the other you are also perfected; for the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the fullness of the law is charity. Therefore both forms of ignorance must be guarded against by you, since without the fear and love of God there can be no salvation."
6 and 7. RENEW THE SIGNS (Rabanus reads: "pass over to new signs"), AND CHANGE THE WONDERS. GLORIFY YOUR HAND AND YOUR RIGHT ARM. — That is, produce new signs; "change," in Greek ἀλλοίωσον, that is, perform other and new miracles, change the old into new, exchange the ancient with the modern; perform similar but different miracles from those You performed under the leadership of Joshua against the Canaanites, and under the leadership of Moses against Pharaoh and the Egyptians. And by this means "glorify," that is, make glorious, Your "hand," that is, Your power, and Your "right arm," that is, Your strength, with which You are accustomed to strike and trample Your enemies; so that they, feeling it, may glorify You, that is, may fear You, and even unwillingly celebrate Your might. Hence the Complutensians add: "That they may declare Your wonders." The Tigurina: "May You renew Your examples and change Your miracles; display Your hand and right arm, that they may proclaim Your wondrous deeds." The Syriac: "Renew the signs and change the miracles; strengthen Your hand and arm."
The proud and tyrants glory in their own right hand, in their sword and strength, and say: "Our hand is exalted, and it was not the Lord who did all these things" (Deuteronomy 32:27). But God blunts their pride and breaks their hand with a mightier hand, so that they may know that the divine hand surpasses the human; and that the human hand can do nothing against the divine, indeed nothing without it.
God has often shown this same thing to holy men through visions. Blessed Juniper, one of the first companions of St. Francis, while praying on a certain occasion and perhaps conceiving something great of himself, saw a hand hanging in the air, and at once a divine voice resounded: "A hand without the Hand can do nothing," as if to say: No one is so good, so wise, so powerful that he can do anything without the Hand, that is, without the power and help of God. Hearing this and rejoicing, and leaping through the house, he said: "Lord, it is true." So the Annals of the Minorites record, by Luke Wadding, year of Christ 1210, number 36.
This is what the Psalmist prays in Psalm 79:18: "Let Your hand be upon the man of Your right hand, and upon the son of man, whom You have strengthened for Yourself;" and Psalm 143:4: "Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for battle, and my fingers for war." St. Bernard refers these words
to the Incarnation of the Word (for here the gaze of the Holy Spirit extends to this point, as I shall presently show), about which he speaks thus in sermon 4 for the Vigil of the Nativity: "Add yet more, O Lord Jesus, renew the signs, change the wonders; for the former ones have become cheap through familiarity. For clearly the rising and setting of the sun, the fertility of the earth, the succession of the seasons — these are miracles, and great miracles; but we have seen them so many times that no one pays attention anymore. Renew the signs and change the wonders. 'Behold,' He says, 'I make all things new.' Who says this? The Lamb, of course, who sat upon the throne" (Revelation 5, etc.). "O truly new miracles! He was conceived without shame, born without pain. In our Virgin the curse of Eve was changed. For she bore a son without pain. The curse, I say, was changed into a blessing." For in Christ and the Blessed Virgin, God performed new prodigies unheard of since the beginning of the world, and thus changed the order of the world and of all things. So also Rabanus, whose words I shall presently recite. A woman bears a son who is a man in knowledge, a child in age, the Word in person, God in nature, born from a Virgin in time, full of grace, in name and reality Jesus, surnamed Christ. How many and how great are the marvels — indeed, the miracles — in this one mystery of the Incarnation! Just as many are in the mystery of the Passion, the Cross, the Death, the Resurrection, the Ascension, etc.
Wondrously the dry rod of Aaron put forth leaves and bore fruit; more wondrously the Virgin, remaining intact, bore a son. Wondrously the serpent on the pole healed the wounded; more wondrously Christ on the cross healed all who believe. Wondrously Elijah raised the widow's son (3 Kings 17); more wondrously God the Father called His Son back from the dead. Wondrously Samson, dying, laid low the Philistines; more wondrously Christ, dying, overcame death itself and the demons. Wondrously Jonah sprang forth from the belly of the whale; more wondrously Christ rose from the underworld. Wondrously Elijah ascended in a chariot of fire into paradise; more wondrously Christ, made immortal, ascended into heaven. There Elisha lamented Elijah's ascent; here the company of Apostles marveled at Christ's ascent. There Elijah ascending left behind his mantle; here Christ at the right hand of the Father sent the Holy Spirit. This is the renewal of signs and the transformation of wonders. Therefore the petition of Jesus the son of Sirach has been fulfilled: the signs have been renewed, the wonders have been changed. "Behold, I make all things new," says the Lord (Revelation 21:6). For such things the Prophet sings: "Sing to the Lord a new song, for He has done wondrous things."
8 and 9. STIR UP FURY AND POUR OUT WRATH; REMOVE (so the Roman edition; for in Greek it is ἔπαρον; the Syriac, "crush"; therefore Jansenius and others incorrectly read the opposite, "raise up") THE ADVERSARY, AND AFFLICT THE ENEMY. — By the adversary he means Ptolemy Lagus and his followers, who, as I said at the beginning of the chapter, greatly afflicted the Jews. So Palacius. God is said anthropopathically to stir up fury when He sends severe plagues, so that He appears to the impious to rage and be furious. Thus soldiers about to fight sharpen their anger, so that they may rush upon the enemy as though raging madly and trample him: for anger is the whetstone of strength and valor, as well as of vengeance. The Tigurina: "Raise Your indignation and pour out Your wrath; remove the adversary and rout the enemy." The Syriac: "Crush the enemy and make the adversary cease."
10. HASTEN THE TIME AND REMEMBER THE END, THAT THEY MAY DECLARE YOUR WONDERS. — "Hasten," that is, bring forth quickly and speedily. It is a Hebraism: for the simple form is used for the causative, that is, the intransitive verb for the active. Thus the wind is said "to fly away" the chaff, which by blowing makes it fly away. So "hasten," that is, make it hasten, or cause the time of our liberation to come quickly. For in Greek it is σπεῦσον καιρόν, that is, accelerate and press the time, or the occasion of freeing us and routing our enemies. "Remember the end" that You have appointed for our afflictions and for the infidelity of the nations, as if to say: Put an end to our afflictions — indeed, to those of all nations and of the whole world — that is, send the Messiah who will put an end to all evils. So St. Augustine, City of God XVII, 20. Our translator read ὁρίου or ὁρισμοῦ, that is, "of the end" or "of the decree about imposing an end." Others read ὀργῆς, that is, "of wrath," namely to be poured out upon the hostile nations. The Tigurina reads "of the oath," by which You swore to Abraham that You would be our father, protector, and deliverer. The Tigurina therefore
translates: "Press the time and remember the oath;" so that μεγαλεῖα (others read θαυμάσια, that is, "wonders"), that is, "Your magnificent deeds may be celebrated." The Syriac: "Make known the punishment and bring the time to pass; for there is no one who says to You: What are You doing?" As if to say: Bring quickly, O Lord, the time when You will free us and suppress or rout our enemies — the time, I say, defined by You, indeed confirmed by oath, especially concerning the sending of the Messiah, who will free us from all enemies and evils. For Rabanus, Palacius, Jansenius, and Lyranus teach, from Rabbi Solomon, that Sirach — or rather the Holy Spirit — extended his mental gaze toward the Messiah, and Rabbi Solomon adds the reason: "All the Prophets spoke only with reference to the days of the Messiah, so that their words were directed toward the coming of the Messiah as toward their end." For already from the time of Sirach the Jews were expecting — and indeed even now still expect — the coming of the Messiah, that they may be freed from the servitude of the nations. For the end of the Law and the Prophets is Christ (Romans 10:4; Revelation 21:6). And Augustine, City of God XVII, 20: "In Ecclesiasticus," he says, "the future faith of the nations is predicted in this manner: 'Have mercy on us, Lord God of all, and send Your fear upon all the nations,' etc. 'That
they may know You, according as we also have known You, that there is no God besides You, O Lord.' This prophecy in the form of a wish and a prayer we see fulfilled through Jesus Christ." Hear also Rabanus: "He prays," he says, "that the divine Majesty through His hand and right arm, that is, through the Lord Christ, may renew in the times of grace the miracles that were performed in ancient times: so that the same one God of the Old and New Law may be understood, namely the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who with the Father and the Holy Spirit, then and now, works wonders alone. As for what he asks — to stir up fury and pour out wrath, so that the adversary may be raised up and the enemy afflicted — he means to signify that necessarily by the coming of Christ the devil will be removed from the hearts of unbelievers, lest he hold them captive any longer in error and idolatry." And a little later: "As for what he says, 'Hasten the time and remember the end' — this is what the Prophet says to God in the Psalms: 'Arise, O Lord, You will have mercy on Sion; for the time to have mercy on her has come.' He prays that, since it is the last hour and the end of the world draws near, He who was promised may come and have mercy on the human race: for He is the expectation of the nations." Most excellently St. Augustine, tract. 55
on John: "Christ," he says, "is the end that perfects, not that destroys: the end toward which we go, not where we perish." So also St. Bernard, in his treatise On Loving God, calls God and Christ the end that does not consume but consummate. For speaking of the impious who "walk in circles" (Psalm 11:9): "They walk," he says, "naturally desiring something to end their appetite, and foolishly spurning that by which they might draw near to the end. I say the end, not of consumption, but of consummation. Therefore they hasten, not to be consummated by a blessed end, but to be consumed by vain labor: delighting more in the appearance of things than in their Author, they wish to run through all things and to experience each one, rather than to hasten to the Lord of all things Himself."
Moreover, in Christ there are many wonders that Sirach here urges to be declared, so that rightly by Isaiah (9:5) Christ is called "Wonderful," being θεάνθρωπος καὶ δικόθεος, that is, God-Man, as the Greeks say. The first wonder is that the complete human nature, which in the instant of its formation would otherwise have subsisted of itself and constituted its own hypostasis, was prevented from doing so, having received a mode of existing by which, elevated above every creature, it existed in the Word. The second is that the Word so received that nature, sustaining it and terminating its inexistence, that nevertheless He underwent no change, contracted no new intrinsic relation to that nature, no order, no propensity or inclination: for that infinite hypostatic power was sufficient to extend itself as a hypostatic terminus and basis toward that nature drawn from without and as it were inserted, without any change in itself. The third is that the Word,
the divine, without any new relation to the human nature, became a true man, and that between the divine and human natures by reason of the union in the Word there is a mutual embracing, or περιχώρησις (circumincession), as Damascene says in book III, chapter 2.
The remaining miracles are extrinsic and due to so great a mystery, as consequences following from it. First, that the body was perfectly formed in an instant; second, that the almighty power of the Holy Spirit supplied the role of seminal power; third, that that most blessed soul, in the first instant of its creation and infusion, was most eminently filled with the light of glory and all heavenly goods, so that no addition could be made to it through any length of time; fourth, that He was conceived of a virgin; fifth, that He was born of a virgin without the opening of the virginal enclosure, by a wondrous penetration of bodies — poured forth from the womb as light through glass; sixth, that the glory of the soul did not overflow into the body, as the glory of the divinity overflowed into the soul, but the body remained passible; seventh, that the beatific joy did not exclude the sadness of the soul and the bitterness of sorrows. Behold ten astonishing miracles in this wondrous union, each of which deserves lengthy consideration. So our Lessius, On the Divine Perfections, book 12, chapter 5. Therefore St. Dionysius, epistle 3 to Caius: "Moreover," he says, "in the Sacrament of the humanity of Christ, I think Theology also wished to signify this: that from concealment that supersubstantial God suddenly came forth into our sight, clothed in human substance and flesh; yet hidden even after the revelation, or — to speak more divinely — He endures even in His very self-revelation."
Finally, in this work of the Incarnation of the Word, the wondrous and astonishing wisdom, power, and clemency of God shine forth. For as St. Thomas wisely and piously says in Opuscule 60: "This work was fitting for God, whom it befitted to show His wisdom, power, and goodness. For what is more powerful than to join things that are supremely distant from each other? For there was great power in the joining of disparate elements, greater in the joining of them to a created spirit, but the greatest in the union with the uncreated Spirit. And what is wiser than that for the completion of the whole universe there should be a joining of the first and the last — that is, of the Word of God, which is the principle of all things, and of human nature, which in the works of the six days was the last of creatures? What is more benign and better than that the Creator of things wished to communicate Himself to created things? This benignity was great in the conjunction of Himself with all things through presence; greater, because He communicated Himself to the good through grace; greatest, because He communicated Himself to Christ as man, and consequently to the individual kinds in the unity of person." See more in the same St. Thomas and the Scholastics, Part III, Question 1, Article 1.
11. LET HIM WHO ESCAPES BE DEVOURED IN THE WRATH OF FLAME; AND LET THOSE WHO OPPRESS YOUR PEOPLE FIND DESTRUCTION. — "The wrath of flame" is flaming wrath, wrath that blazes and sets all things on fire; or by hypallage, "in the wrath of flame," that is, in the flame of wrath — namely in the burning heat and fierce blaze of wrath, that is, in the fury and sharp vengeance of Your wrath — "let him who escapes be devoured." In Greek, ὁ σωζόμενος, that is, as others translate, "he who escaped safely," as if to say: He who escaped safely from one disaster — for example, from the invasion of enemies — let him fall into the hands of Your wrath, O Lord, to be struck down and devoured by plague or some other weapon from You. Hence Lyranus explains it anagogically thus, as if to say: He who has escaped Your vengeance in this life, let him be swallowed up by the wrath of infernal flame. "And those who oppress" — that is, treat most badly and harass (for the Greek is κακοῦντας, that is, "those afflicting") — "Your people," namely us Jews, "let them find destruction." Hence the Tigurina translates: "Let him who has escaped be swallowed up by burning wrath, and let the oppressors of Your people meet with ruin." The Syriac: "In fury and fire cause the enemy to perish, and all the great ones and princes of the people." This alludes to Isaiah 24:18: "He who flees from the voice of terror will fall into the pit; and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the snare." Similar things are said by Jeremiah in chapter 28:44. Thus now let him who is saved from other dangers be devoured by the most furious flame; as if to say: He who by escaping the sword of war has taken refuge in a fortress, let him there be devoured by avenging flames.
Tropologically, Rabanus judges that what is said here is what Christ said: "He who wishes to save his life will lose it" (Luke 9:24). "This," he says, "foretells that those who love their souls in the pleasure of this life, and are unwilling to lay them down for Christ — indeed who persecute the catholic people and hand over the faithful of God to destruction — may be devoured by the wrath of the future flame, and may find eternal perdition in the fire of hell."
12. CRUSH THE HEAD (in Greek κεφαλάς, that is, "heads" — so also the Syriac) OF THE PRINCES OF THE ENEMIES (he reads ἐχθρῶν, for which the Complutensians read ἐθνῶν, that is, "of the nations") WHO SAY: THERE IS NO OTHER BESIDES US. — That is, crush and virtually annihilate, just as an earthen vessel is crushed and virtually annihilated when it is struck with a stone and reduced to dust. Crush, I say, the king who is our enemy, for example Ptolemy Lagus: for when he is crushed, his other princes will likewise be crushed, or at least will cease persecuting us. For their pride deserves to be cast down and crushed; for they say: "There is no other besides us" — that is, no one who commands so powerfully and rules so widely as we do. Therefore we can subdue all, and no one can subdue us. So the Tigurina: "Crush," it says, "the heads of the enemy princes who keep saying there is no one besides themselves" — as though they alone consider themselves men and use all others as cattle and beasts of burden. The Syriac: "Take away the diadem from the enemy who says: There is none like me."
Allegorically, Rabanus says: "The head of all the wicked and unbelievers is the devil. The Church prays for this — that he who is the prince of this world may be crushed, who stirs up idolaters to persecute Christians, saying: 'There is no other besides us,' because they think they alone rule in the world, and they refuse to be subject to the eternal power of God."
Tropologically, "the head of the princes of the enemies," that is, the head and prince of the seven capital vices, is pride. For the proud man says: "There is no other besides me." He deserves and is accustomed to be crushed, so that he who alone wished to exist and rule among all may be destroyed by all, according to Psalm 67:22: "God will crush the heads of His enemies, the crown of the head of those who walk in their sins." For when pride is cut down, the other vices are also cut down; just as when the head of a serpent is crushed, the whole serpent is destroyed. For pride among the vices is what the head is among the members.
13. GATHER ALL THE TRIBES OF JACOB, THAT THEY MAY KNOW THAT THERE IS NO GOD BUT YOU, AND MAY DECLARE YOUR GREAT DEEDS; AND YOU WILL POSSESS THEM AS AN INHERITANCE (as if to say: And so You will inherit them) AS FROM THE BEGINNING. — The Greek has only: "Gather all the tribes of Jacob." The Complutensians add: "And I inherited them as from the beginning;" but they incorrectly read κατεκληρονόμησα, that is, "I inherited," for κατεκληρονόμησας, that is, "You inherited;" which means "You will inherit," that is, "inherit" — for thus the Hebrews say ונחלה venachalta, that is, "and you inherited," for "and you will inherit," that is, "and inherit." For it is the waw conversive, which turns the past tense into the future. Hence the Tigurina translates: "Gather all the tribes of Jacob, that they may know there is no God besides You and may proclaim Your miracles, and possess them as from the beginning." Therefore it seems to have read κατακληρονόμησον, that is, "possess, inherit," as some read. The Syriac: "Gather all the tribes of Jacob, and let them inherit, as You said from the days of old." The twelve
tribes of Jacob — that is, of Israel — were led into captivity and scattered among various nations by Shalmaneser and Nebuchadnezzar. After 70 years they were gathered together — at least Judah and Benjamin — by Cyrus. Again they were taken captive and scattered by the kings of Persia, and lastly by Ptolemy Lagus and the kings of Syria. He prays therefore that God may gather them into one Synagogue or Church, which may be God's possession, treasure, and inheritance, just as He originally gathered and took them as His inheritance through Moses, when He led them, separated from the Egyptians and other nations, to Sinai, and there gave them the law and the priesthood, and chose and increased them from among all peoples as a faithful and holy people.
Allegorically and primarily (and therefore this sense is rather literal than allegorical; for elsewhere too the literal sense sometimes embraces both the letter and the allegory, as I showed in the Prophets) he prays for the coming of the Messiah, who will gather Jews and Gentiles into one Church, so that there may be one fold and one shepherd; for Christ came for this purpose: "To gather into one the children of God who were scattered" (John 11:52). Hear Rabanus: "After completing his prayer against sinners and their head the devil, Wisdom prays for the state of the Church and the salvation of believers. For what are the tribes of Jacob but the Churches gathered from the nations? For the younger son, who seized his brother's blessing, prefigured them. He asks that these be gathered, that is, be strengthened in the unity of the Catholic faith, so that faithfully knowing God, they may declare His wonders in the preaching of the holy Gospel, and as His inheritance — just as from the beginning of the faith they were possessed by Him — so they may remain forever."
For since Israel, that is Jacob, was the father of the twelve Patriarchs, each of whom established his own family and tribe, all of which — and only which — God chose for Himself as His Church and faithful people and His own special possession, Israel is therefore a type of the Christian people, and his twelve tribes are a type of all the faithful nations: both because formerly the faithful people was none other than Israel, and because from Israel were born Christ, the Blessed Virgin, the Apostles, and the first Christians; and so Christian Israel succeeded Jewish Israel, and into it were then grafted the faithful from the nations. For as the Apostle says (Romans 9:6): "Not all who are of Israel (according to the flesh, like the Jews) are Israelites; nor are all who are the seed of Abraham his children; but 'In Isaac shall your seed be called' — that is, not those who are children of the flesh are children of God, but those who are children of the promise are counted as seed." Hence that saying of Christ to the Apostles (Matthew 19:28): "When the Son of Man shall sit upon the seat of His majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" — that is,
all the faithful, both Jews and Gentiles; for Christ and the Apostles will judge all of these. For formerly the twelve tribes of Israel were the chosen people and the Church of God — indeed also in the time of Christ; and this indeed was the promised kingdom of the Messiah. Hence the nations that believed in Christ were, as it were, grafted into this Church and Jewish people, and granted citizenship; so that they are now called not Gentiles but Jews — that is, confessors and believers — as is clear from Romans 11:17, 19 and following. Hence St. John (Revelation 21:12) says that he saw inscribed on the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.
14. HAVE MERCY ON YOUR PEOPLE, OVER WHOM YOUR NAME HAS BEEN INVOKED, AND ON ISRAEL WHOM YOU HAVE MADE EQUAL TO YOUR FIRSTBORN. — That is, have mercy on Your people who is distinguished by Your name and is called the people of God, devoted to His faith and worship; have mercy, I say, on Israel, that is, the Israelite people, "whom You have made equal to Your firstborn" — that is, You have regarded, loved, and treated as a firstborn, pursuing with equal rank, honor, and love as fathers are accustomed to pursue their firstborn sons. The translator read πρωτογόνῳ ἀμοίκσες. The Complutensians read πρωτόγονον ὠνόμασας, that is, "whom You named firstborn," saying in Exodus 4:22: "My firstborn son is Israel." But both readings come to the same thing and convey the same sense. Hence the Complutensians have: "Have mercy on Your people, O Lord, called by Your name, and on Israel whom You named firstborn." Although in the Greek corrected at Rome all these verses from 13 to 20 are separated from the preceding ones — for the former are found in chapter 33, while the latter are in chapter 36, just as in the Latin Vulgate. And the Syriac: "Rejoice in Your people, and let Your name be invoked over him, over Israel whom You called Your firstborn." The Tigurina: "Have mercy, O Lord, on Your people celebrated in Your name, and on the Israelite nation which You acquired for Your firstborn" — both in name, by naming him firstborn; in care and favor, by treating him as firstborn; and in inheritance, by inscribing him as heir of the Holy Land on earth and of eternity in heaven. Therefore the other peoples were also considered children of God, but among them the first and, as it were, the firstborn was Israel. For to Israel applies that saying about the firstborn: "First in gifts, greater in authority" (Genesis 49:3). Therefore have mercy on him, O Lord, because even though he has sinned, he is still Israel — that is, Your firstborn son — according to that Hebrew proverb: "A myrtle standing among nettles is still called a myrtle."
Note: That the name of one should be "invoked over" another is in Hebrew the same as saying that the other is called by that person's name, and is adopted into his name, protection, and household, is devoted to him, and reveres and worships him. For this is what this phrase signifies in Genesis 48:16; Deuteronomy 28:10; 2 Samuel 6:1; Jeremiah 44:9; Baruch 2:15, and often elsewhere. Hence the Greek here has: λαὸν κεκλημένον ἐπ' ὀνόματί σου, that is, "have mercy on the people called in Your name" — or "from Your name" or "by Your name" — so that it may claim and assume to itself the name of God, and may be called the people of God. This is truly a great dignity, both for the whole people and for every faithful and holy soul, according to that saying of Isaiah 62:2: "You shall be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. And
you shall be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God. You shall no longer be called 'forsaken,' but you shall be called 'My delight is in her,' because the Lord has taken pleasure in you" (Isaiah 62:2-4). And verse 12: "And they shall call them the holy people, redeemed by the Lord."
Mystically, the faithful and holy person is made equal — not precisely and geometrically, but analogically, morally, and in a certain proportion — to the Firstborn of God, Jesus Christ; because just as Christ is the natural Son of God, so the faithful and holy person is an adopted son of God, and therefore an heir of God and co-heir with Christ. This is truly an admirable dignity, which the Apostle admires in Romans 8:29: "Those whom He foreknew," he says, "He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son (so that they may be similar and conformed to Christ in grace and glory), that He might be the firstborn among many brothers." So Rabanus. The Saints are therefore made equal to Christ not arithmetically but analogically — that is, they are made similar and adapted to Him as members to the head. Thus in 2 Samuel 22:34, David says to God: "Making my feet equal to the deer's." "Making equal," that is, making them not equal but similar in speed; for the speed of a human foot cannot precisely equal the speed of a deer's foot, but can only imitate and follow it to some extent, not attain it. "A Christian therefore is a kind of second Christ," as Gregory of Nyssa teaches in On the Profession of the Name Christian: "Let him therefore live as a second Christ."
15. HAVE MERCY ON THE CITY OF YOUR SANCTIFICATION, JERUSALEM, THE CITY OF YOUR REST. — He prays especially, above the other cities of Judea, for Jerusalem, because it was the capital of the Israelite people, the citadel of faith, the sanctuary of religion. And to incline God to have mercy on it, he gives it three titles that attract mercy. The first is that it is the city of the sanctification of God, in which God is sanctified and worshipped in holiness — both internally through true hope and religion, and externally through sacrifices and other ceremonies ordained by God, and this in the sanctuary and temple chosen and consecrated by God.
The second is that it is Jerusalem, that is, "vision of peace," as if to say: You, O Lord, called this city the "vision of peace" because You willed that the people should dwell in it in peace under Your protection, and worship You peacefully. Therefore restore to it this peace, originally promised and granted.
The third is that it is the city of God's rest; because God rested pleasantly in its temple as in His own house, and dwelt in the Holy of Holies, seated upon the propitiatory above the ark as upon the footstool of His feet, surrounded on both sides by Cherubim, and from there gave oracles and responses (Exodus 25:22). Hence the Tigurina translates: "Have mercy on the city of Your holiness, the city (it reads πόλιν; others read τόπον, that is 'place') of Your rest." The Syriac: "Have mercy on the city of Your holiness, Jerusalem, the place of Your dwelling."
Allegorically, Jerusalem is the Church of Christ. Tropologically, it is the faithful and holy soul, to which all these things are easily applied. So Rabanus.
16. FILL SION WITH YOUR UNSPEAKABLE WORDS (the Royal Bible incorrectly reads "virtues") AND YOUR PEOPLE WITH YOUR GLORY. — For "words" the Greek is λόγια, that is, oracles and whatever sayings of God — for everything that God says is an oracle, and therefore most certain. Hence the Complutensians read and translate: "Fill Sion so as to bear up Your oracles, and Your people with Your glory." The Tigurina: "May You fill Sion with Your oracles that are to be extolled, and Your people with Your glory" — repeat, "may You fill." Others: "Fill Sion, that it may raise up Your oracles, and Your people with glory." The Syriac: "Fill Sion with Your majesty, and Your temple with Your glory." After the city of Jerusalem, he descends to its chief and holiest part — namely the temple on Mount Sion — and prays that God may fill it with His words: both with the oracles that He originally and continually gave from the propitiatory, and with the promulgation of doctrine and the preaching of the divine law, and that effectively — so as to move the hearers to fulfill it in deed; for the action of the hearer fills and completes the words of the law and the preacher. The "words" can also be understood as God's promises — namely that God may grant the immunity, peace, and holiness that He promised to give in the temple. All these things are called "unspeakable" because they can never be fully declared, explained, praised, or celebrated as they deserve; and because they fill the mind that tastes them with ineffable joy and jubilation that cannot be expressed.
Moreover, when God bestows these things, He likewise fills His people with glory, because Israel's great glory was that, alone among all nations, it possessed God's domestic oracle, and also God's law and Sacred Scripture, and its teachers and preachers, according to that saying of Moses (Deuteronomy 4:7): "Nor is there any other nation so great that has gods so near to it, as our God is present to all our prayers. For what other nation is so renowned as to have ceremonies, and just judgments, and the whole law that I shall set before you today?" Now in the time of Sirach — indeed, long before, namely in the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by Nebuchadnezzar — this oracle of God had ceased, as had all the Prophets and prophecies, as I showed on Haggai, chapter 1, verse 8. Sirach therefore prays that God may restore these things to Israel, especially through Christ. And so this prophecy was fully and completely fulfilled by Christ, when He Himself in Sion poured forth unspeakable words hidden from the foundation of the world. For He is the λόγος, that is, the Word of the Father, and therefore He made the λόγια, long mute and silent, vocal again for Israel; and so He heaped the greatest glory upon it. So Rabanus, Lyranus, Palacius, Jansenius, and others.
Allegorically, Rabanus says: "Sion is called 'contemplation,' and rightly the holy Church is called 'contemplation,' because from there the hearts of the faithful contemplate the joys of the heavenly kingdom. The Lord fills her with His unspeakable words when He instructs her with the knowledge of the divine books, in which the unspeakable power of God and the inestimable glory of His majesty are proclaimed. He makes her stand out among all nations by the signs of miracles, so that she is a source of both terror and honor to all the surrounding nations. Hence it is read in the Acts of the Apostles that when Paul was preaching and working miracles in the city of Ephesus, fear fell upon all of them — that is, Jews and Gentiles who lived there — and they magnified the name of the Lord Jesus" (Acts 19:17).
17. GIVE TESTIMONY TO THOSE WHO ARE YOUR CREATURES FROM THE BEGINNING, AND RAISE UP THE PREDICTIONS THAT THE FORMER PROPHETS SPOKE IN YOUR NAME. — So the Roman and Greek editions. Less correctly, therefore, Jansenius and others read "because" for "who," and "prayers" for "predictions" — namely the prayers that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Daniel, and the other Prophets poured forth for the coming of the Messiah. The sense is, as if to say: Testify through the testimony of Your customary beneficence toward us that we are "Your creatures" — that You originally chose us for Yourself by redeeming us from Egypt, and created and formed a faithful people and Your Church. Just as You testified this to Pharaoh and the other nations by working so many plagues and miracles through Moses in favor of our fathers, so now may You deign to do the same in our favor. Therefore "raise up the predictions" — that is, the prophecies of the Prophets about the help to be given us by You — by actually providing that help. Otherwise those predictions will seem to be dormant and, as it were, dead. Raise them up, therefore, so that they may seem to us to awaken from sleep and to be raised from death and come alive again, as they are actually fulfilled by You. He means that if those prophecies are fulfilled by God in deed, they will be so welcome to the Hebrews as if they were rising from the dead with the Prophets themselves. Hence the Complutensians have: "Give testimony in the beginning to Your creatures, and raise up the Prophets in Your name." The Tigurina: "May You grant testimony to Your first possessions, and stir up what the Prophets foretold in Your name." For it reads κτίσμασι, that is, "possessions," for which our translator reads κτίσμασι, that is, "creatures" — both are correct and fit this passage; for the Israelites were both creatures and the possession and treasure of God. Again, it reads προφήτας, that is, "Prophets," for which our translator reads προφητείας, that is, "prophecies" — that is, "predictions" or "forecasts." Others: "Give testimony to Your first creatures (which are we Israelites), and raise up prophecies in Your name." The Syriac: "Establish the testimony of Your servants as in the beginning, and let the prophecies of those Prophets of Yours who spoke in Your name come to pass." For as St. John says (1:17): "The Law
of his testament were verified." So his Life, chapter 5, records, written by Philip, Bishop of Eichstätt, which our Gretser has illuminated with notes.
Note: The faithful and the Saints are "creatures" of God, because faith and holiness surpass all nature and all its debt and merit, and are pure grace and, as it were, a gratuitous creation of God, according to Ephesians 2:10: "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God has prepared that we should walk in them." See what was said there.
18. GIVE THE REWARD TO THOSE WHO WAIT FOR YOU, THAT YOUR PROPHETS MAY BE FOUND FAITHFUL; AND HEAR THE PRAYERS OF YOUR SERVANTS. — The reward of those who wait is the good that they themselves endure and expect, and for which they pray to God with patient longsuffering — namely the liberation of Israel and salvation through Christ; for this is the reward of endurance, long expectation, and patience. As if to say: Send, O Lord, the Savior promised by You through all the Prophets, whom we have been awaiting with longsuffering, yet most eagerly, for so many thousands of years; for this our so long endurance merits; this is owed to the Prophets, so that they may be found "faithful," that is, truthful. Fulfill therefore their word — indeed, Your own word (for You spoke through them), O Lord. This, finally, is what our prayers demand, which ceaselessly and ardently plead for this. Hence the Tigurina: "Give a reward," it says, "to those who strive in expectation of You, and make the fidelity of Your Prophets appear" (others: "and win credence for Your Prophets"). "Hear the prayers of Your servants" (it reads with the Complutensians δεήσεων; the Roman reads ἱκετῶν, that is, "of suppliants"), "O Lord." The Syriac: "And You will give a reward to the one who waits for You, and Your Prophets will find credence, and You will hear the prayer of Your servants." For as Rabanus says: "Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Christ; he saw it and was glad (John 8:36). Isaiah, chapter 26, says: 'Lord, we have waited for You; Your name and Your memorial are in the desire of the soul.' Many kings and righteous men desired to see what the Apostles saw, and did not see; and to hear what they heard, and did not hear. Hence Simeon also received an answer from the Holy Spirit, that he would not see death until he had first seen the Christ of the Lord. And so, when he received Him present in his arms, he said: 'Now You dismiss Your servant, O Lord, according to Your word in peace; for my eyes have seen Your salvation, which You have prepared before the face of all peoples — a light for the revelation of the nations, and the glory of Your people Israel'" (Luke 2:29 ff.).
Anagogically, the same Rabanus says: "The reward is given to those who wait for God, when to the faithful who await the grace of Christ and hope in Him, the recompense of the future life is bestowed. For thus the divine Prophets are found faithful and truthful, and the devout prayer of His servants is heard — those who pray daily that the kingdom of God may come and His will may be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Galatinus notes, in book 2 of On the Secrets of the Faith, chapter 1, along with others, that the Aaronic priests, when blessing the people, formed over them the sign of the cross — either placing the right hand crosswise upon the left, or raising and moving the right hand up and down, left and right, to trace a cross — in order to foreshadow the mystery of the cross of Christ and its fruit: namely that through it every blessing would descend, was descending, and would continue to descend upon all men of all ages. Galatinus adds that with three fingers raised and the other two closed, and pronouncing the tetragrammaton Jehovah, otherwise unspeakable, they blessed the people, so as to represent to the people both the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity and of the Incarnation and crucifixion of the Word (which are the two primary mysteries of religion — indeed, the summit and comprehension of the entire faith). See what was said on Numbers 6:24, where I showed that to signify this, the pontiff blessing the people repeated the name "God" three times, just as we, in making the sign of the cross, express the three persons of the Most Holy Trinity, saying: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit."
19. ACCORDING TO THE BLESSING OF AARON FOR (so the Roman and Greek editions; therefore Jansenius and others incorrectly read "give" for "for" throughout) YOUR PEOPLE ("for Your people," that is, on behalf of Your people, which Aaron bestowed and prayed for Your people), AND DIRECT US IN THE WAY OF JUSTICE, AND LET ALL WHO DWELL ON EARTH KNOW THAT YOU ARE GOD, THE BEHOLDER OF THE AGES. — This verse depends on the preceding one, as if to say: Give the reward to those who wait for You, that Your Prophets may be found faithful, and hear the prayers of Your servants "according to the blessing" that "Aaron" the prophet and pontiff gave "to Your people" at Your command. For You prescribed for him and the pontiffs who would succeed him this formula for blessing the people (Numbers 6:24), saying: "Thus shall you bless the children of Israel, and you shall say to them: The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face shine upon you and have mercy on you. The Lord turn His countenance toward you and give you peace." Indeed, You added the promise that You would hear this blessing of the pontiff and fulfill it in deed, saying: "And they shall invoke My name upon the children of Israel, and I will bless them." Sirach therefore prays that God, according to this blessing, may bless the people and hear their prayers; and therefore may direct them in the way of justice, so that by walking in it and continually performing just works, they may be an honor to God, a glory to themselves, and an example to the nations. "And let all know that You are God, the beholder" — that is, the foreseer, provider, orderer, governor, rewarder, and avenger — "of the ages," that is, of all men and all works that have been, are, or will be done by them successively in every age. Hence the Greek has: "For You are the Lord of the ages." Hence the Syrians call God "the giant of the ages," because by the immensity of His presence, power, and wisdom He infinitely surpasses and transcends all ages and whatever happens in them — indeed, He encompasses and embraces all things with His mind and hand. Hence the Tigurina translates: "Hear the prayers of Your servants according to the good prayer of Aaron for Your people, and lead us in the way of justice, so that all who dwell on earth may acknowledge You as the Lord God eternal." The Syriac: "And You will hear the prayer of Your servants according to the desire of Your people (which Aaron expressed in his blessing), and let all who are in the ends of the earth know that You are God forever and ever." In a similar way Virgil depicts God in the Aeneid, book 1, when he sings:
Note, secondly, that by this blessing the pontiff prayed for the people indeed for peace — that is, for every good — but above all that God would direct their actions "in the way of justice," as Sirach says here, and as I showed in Numbers 6:24. For thus the people is directed to heaven and eternal life, which is the reward of justice and the supreme happiness of man. So also St. Paul blesses the Ephesians, saying (3:16): "That He may grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell by faith in your hearts; rooted and grounded in charity, that you may be able to comprehend with all the Saints what is the breadth, and length, and height, and depth, and to know also the charity of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God."
Hence also St. Clement of Rome, in book 2 of the Constitutions, chapter 58, reports that the Bishop at the beginning of the Church was required to bless the people with these words: "Preserve, O Lord, Your people unharmed, and bless Your inheritance, which You purchased and acquired by the blood of Your Christ, and which You called a royal priesthood and a holy nation."
Finally, St. Augustine, in epistle 90 to Innocent, attests that the Bishops, when blessing the people, prayed to God on their behalf that by living rightly and piously they might please Him in all things. Moreover, that the blessings of pontiffs and priests were and are efficacious, and are customarily heard by God, is clear from the fact that God Himself promises this in Numbers 6:27; whence also in 2 Chronicles 30:27 it is said: "The priests and Levites arose and blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer reached the holy dwelling place of heaven."
Allegorically, Rabanus says: "What is the blessing of Aaron, if not the order and rite of the priesthood that the Lord gave to His people when He united it with Christ, His only-begotten Son? For He is the true priest who offered Himself as a sacrifice to the Father for us and handed down to us the sacraments of His body and blood, of whom it is written: 'You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchisedech.' He has made us a lamb and priests to God and His Father. Hence the Apostle Peter says (1 Peter 2:9): 'But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people, that you may declare the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His admirable light; drawing near to the living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God.'
and you yourselves as living stones are built up, a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For the blessing of Aaron is truly given to the people of God when they are directed in the way of justice; so that what Aaron prefigured in the bodily sacrifices of the Law, this one may fulfill in the spiritual sacrifices of the Gospel. 'Let all who dwell on earth know' (he says) 'that You are God, the beholder of the ages.' That is, let all nations acknowledge in the wonderful salvation of the Christian people that You are God before all ages and after all ages, remaining the same — You who so ordered past times that You made future times surpass them on account of the grace of Christ."
SECOND PART OF THE CHAPTER.
ON THE CHOICE OF WORDS AND WIVES, AND ON GUARDING AGAINST WANDERING LUST AND ROAMING.
After the prayer, Sirach returns as usual to the precepts and teachings of wisdom; therefore in this place he adds precepts of discernment, which is the chief part of practical wisdom or prudence. He gives various counsels on various matters, arranged as parallels and comparisons. For he teaches that discernment and choice must be exercised: first, in what we hear and read, so that separating the good from the bad, the true from the false, the joyful from the sad, we commend to the mind only what is good, true, and joyful. Second (verses 24 and 25), he teaches that a wife should be chosen who, along with beauty, has an agreeable and pleasant character. Third (verses 27 and 28), he teaches that a stable marriage should be preferred over wandering vagrancy. Fourth (chapter 37, verse 1), he teaches that a sincere friend should be recognized and chosen over a false one. Fifth (there, verse 7), he teaches that a skilled and trustworthy counselor should be distinguished from an unskilled and untrustworthy one. So Lyranus.
He therefore compares the discernment of foods, which the throat and belly perform, to the discernment of words, which the ear and heart — or mind — perform. For just as food feeds the throat and belly, so a word feeds the ear and mind; and just as one food is beneficial and another harmful to the belly, so one word is beneficial and another harmful to the mind. Therefore just as God and nature gave man a palate and throat as, so to speak, preliminary tasters and samplers of food, to distinguish wholesome food from unwholesome and harmful, and to pass the wholesome on to the belly while rejecting the harmful — so likewise God gave man eyes and ears as, so to speak, samplers of the word read or heard, to pass the beneficial on to the mind and reject the harmful. Finally, just as the belly performs the final examination of food, and ejects the harmful food — which causes the belly pain, nausea, cramps, etc. — by vomiting from the mouth or evacuation from below, while it embraces, digests, preserves, and converts beneficial food into its own substance, and is thereby fed, refreshed, and strengthened — so likewise the mind performs the final examination of a word. If it is wise and prudent, it immediately rejects a harmful word, but eagerly receives a beneficial one, digests it, retains it, converts it into its own nourishment, and is thereby fed, refreshed, and strengthened for every good thing to be thought, meditated upon, willed, and accomplished in deed.
It is a beautiful and apt allegory. For reading or hearing is compared to eating, food to a word, the palate to the ears, the belly to the mind. From this he leaves us to conclude that just as one is foolish who loads his belly with harmful food, while the wise man admits only what is beneficial and moderate into it — so likewise one is foolish who indiscriminately admits into his mind all kinds of words, useful and useless, vain and solid, false and true. For by vain, false, and harmful words the mind likewise becomes vain, false, and brings upon itself the harm of errors and vices, and thence of punishment and damnation. On the contrary, the wise man admits into his ears, eyes, and mind only useful, solid, true, pious, and holy words; for through them he is fed and strengthened in every virtue, so that he may advance with great strides toward eternal happiness.
20 and 21. THE BELLY WILL EAT EVERY FOOD, YET ONE FOOD IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER. THE PALATE TASTES THE MEAT OF GAME, AND THE WISE HEART TESTS LYING WORDS. — So the Roman, Rabanus, and the Greek. Therefore some incorrectly read "unwise" for "wise" and give this sense: Just as the palate of the gluttonous or famished person "touches the food" of game meat — that is, swallows it without proper chewing and testing — so the unwise heart immediately transmits into the mind the "lying words" it hears, and does not examine whether they are true or false, but without examination or discernment of truth from falsehood receives, admits, and believes them. So Lyranus. And Palacius says: There are wild and game meats, yet there are always palates to taste them and a belly to receive them; so likewise, although truth is the food of the heart, there is nevertheless an unwise heart that devours lies. But for "taste" the Greek is γεύσεται, that is, "it will taste;" and for "unwise heart" the Greek is καρδία φρονίμη, that is, "a prudent, understanding, wise heart."
Hence the Tigurina translates: "The belly takes in any food (it can hold every kind of food), yet one food is better than another. As the palate detects game by its taste, so a sagacious mind detects lying words." Vatablus: "feigned words." The Syriac: "The soul accepts every food, but one food is sweeter than another. The mouth tastes the flavor of food, and the heart of the wise tastes the words of the wicked." What our translator therefore renders as "the palate tastes the meat of game" — "tastes," that is, as the Greek has it, γεύσεται, that is, "they taste" and by tasting judge game meat — so also the wise heart by the taste and perception of its mind judges lying words and discerns the true from the false. He aptly compares falsehood to the flesh of wild beasts, because just as this is wild and game-like, and therefore hostile — or at least less suited — to the human belly and body, so likewise lies are wild and bestial, and therefore hostile to the human mind, whose food is truth. For falsehood is the food of demons, says Palacius. For the devil is the father of lies, as Christ says (John 8), while truth is the food of angels and men.
22. A PERVERSE HEART WILL BRING SADNESS, AND THE EXPERIENCED MAN WILL RESIST IT. — To the wise heart that judges and separates true words from false, he opposes the perverse heart — in Greek καρδία στριφέα, that is, a distorted heart, meaning perverse, cunning, deceitful, and fraudulent. As if to say: A perverse and deceitful heart, by its perverse and deceitful words and deeds, will give many people occasion for grief and sorrow; but the experienced man — in Greek πολύπειρος, that is, one who has experienced many things, prudent, wise — will resist it, because by his prudence he will expose its perversity, errors, and frauds. Hence the Syriac translates: "A hidden (covered, dissembling) heart — great is its anxiety — and the wise man understands these things."
Our translator read ἀνταποδώσει, that is, "he will go to meet with his feet," meaning "he will resist it" — namely the sadness and grief. Others read ἀνταποδώσει, that is, "he will repay it," as if to say: The experienced and wise man will repay the perverse heart with the chastisement and punishment its perversity deserves. The Tigurina, however, judges that Sirach the Elder wrote in Hebrew ישלים לו iaslim lo, that is, "he will look after his own peace;" which Sirach the Younger translated as ἀνταποδώσει, that is, "he will repay," as though it had been written ישלם iescallem, that is, "he will repay." But Sirach the Younger knew better what his grandfather had written than the Tigurina, especially since the Church has approved and received his translation. Nevertheless, what the Tigurina translates — "A wicked mind creates grief, but the experienced man looks after his own tranquility" — can rightly be applied to the Vulgate version: for he who resists within himself the perverse heart that sows sadness and sorrowful things does indeed look after his own tranquility.
To the perverse heart he opposes the wise heart — that is, the prudent and wise heart — which as far as it can drives out and excludes all sadness: both because it exposes and dispels the frauds and malice of the perverse heart, which cause sadness; and because it suggests a thousand arts and ways of escaping the evil that the perverse heart threatens, which is the cause of sadness, and on the contrary it discovers a thousand reasons and objects of joy and presents them to the mind, so that, with sadness excluded, they make it cheerful and pleasant. For sadness is caused by a mental image and a sad object that afflicts a person; joy, however, comes from a joyful one that gladdens a person. The prudent man suggests many motives of joy to the imagination, which exclude all the motives of sadness. See what was said in chapter 30:22 ff.
Morally, note that the prudence and experience of the skilled man can heal and resist both a perverse heart and sadness. On the contrary, the wise man becomes wise who admits into his ears, eyes, and mind only useful, solid, true, pious, and holy words: for through them he is nourished and strengthened in every virtue, so that he advances with great strides toward eternal happiness.
23. A WOMAN WILL RECEIVE EVERY MAN, AND ONE DAUGHTER IS BETTER THAN ANOTHER. — First, Lyranus, reading "one daughter is better than a son," expounds it thus, as if to say: A woman in childbirth will gladly receive a male child because she would always wish to bear a boy; yet it is sometimes expedient to bear a girl or daughter, because occasionally a daughter is better than a son. But the Greek and Latin commonly read "daughter," not "son." For thus the Greek corrected at Rome reads: "A woman will receive every male; but (the Complutensians read γάρ, that is 'for,' instead of δέ, that is 'but') one daughter is better than another daughter." The Tigurina: "A woman is capable of any husband; yet one daughter is superior to another." The Syriac omits this verse. Some translate: "For one daughter is better than another." For the Greek ἔστι δε θυγάτηρ θυγατρός κρείσσων can be rendered either "one daughter is better than another" or "a daughter is better than a daughter." But the latter rendering is required by what precedes and follows, and is embraced by the Complutensians, the Romans, Rabanus, and the other interpreters. Hence Rabanus too, reading "one daughter is better than another daughter," explains the second "daughter" as "than a daughter" by the ancient syntax, in which "better of a daughter" was said for "better than a daughter."
Second, Palacius judges it to be a hypallage: "A woman will receive every man" — that is, a man will receive every woman. But let him see which one and what kind; because one woman and daughter is better than another.
Third, and plainly: "a woman will accept every male" as a husband — as if to say: Women do not very carefully examine which or what kind of men they marry, but they accept the husband who presents himself. But the man, who is more prudent than the woman and the head of the family, must carefully attend to what kind of wife he takes; for one daughter is better and more excellent than another — not only because she is more beautiful, but also because she is more obedient to her husband, more peaceful, prudent, diligent, and apt for governing the household.
This verse is parallel, corresponding equally to verse 20, and is, as it were, its apodosis and the completion of the comparison. For just as he said in verse 20: "The belly will eat every food, and one food is better than another," so here he says: "A woman will receive every man, and one daughter is better than another" — as if to say: Just as the belly receives every food, and the ears and mind receive every word, so a woman can receive any man, and a man any woman, and often does. But just as for the belly one food is better than another, and for the mind one word is better than another, so likewise for a man one daughter is more suitable than another. When therefore he seeks a wife, let him carefully examine which is the better and which is more suited to him, and then spend his whole life with her peacefully, honestly, and holily. For what madness is it to choose better foods for the belly, but not to choose a better wife?
Mystically, Rabanus says: "A woman, because she is beautiful and gracious, is a sign of the grace of God, which makes us pleasing and beautiful to God and the angels. When he says, 'One daughter is better than another,' he shows that there is a difference in the progress of knowledge and the practice of virtues, and that some works are good while others are perfect — just as the Lord Himself showed in the Gospel, saying: 'If you wish to enter life, keep the commandments.' And again: 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.' Hence Paul too, wishing us to understand that there is a difference in the reward of the Saints, says: 'Star differs from star in brightness, so also the resurrection of the dead'" (1 Corinthians 15).
24. THE BEAUTY OF A WOMAN GLADDENS THE FACE OF HER HUSBAND, AND DRAWS DESIRE BEYOND EVERY CONCUPISCENCE OF MAN. — That is, the form and beauty of a woman, both external and internal — which consists in virtues and good manners — gladdens the face of the husband, so that, content with her, he lives happily and does not seek another. For this beauty excites the man's desire and draws it to itself above all things, "and beyond every concupiscence" — that is, beyond every desirable object that attracts and arouses a man's desire toward love of itself. Thus we see young men carried away by the beauty of beautiful women, and to possess them they put their wealth, reputation, and often their life and eternal salvation at risk. The word "desire" is not in the Greek; hence the Tigurina translates: "The beauty of a woman gladdens the face, and excels every human delight." Others: "And exceeds every desire of man." The Syriac: "The beauty of a woman praises her face, and it will prevail over every concupiscence of the eyes." This means that some account should be taken of beauty in choosing a wife, because it is the enticement and preserver of conjugal love. But because greater account must be taken of character, he adds about her: "If she has a tongue of healing," etc. See what was said in chapter 26:21.
Morally, learn here how alluring the beauty of a woman is, and how much it should be guarded against by the young and the chaste; for it is the desirable thing that above all else inflames desire. Hence St. Bernard, sermon 66 on the Song of Songs: "To always be with a woman and not to know her — is this not more than raising the dead?" And St. Francis: "By the sight and conversation of women, even a strong spirit is weakened. For who can walk upon coals and not have his feet burned?" (Proverbs 6:28). "It is therefore dangerous to inwardly drink in the images of their forms, which can either rekindle the spark of flesh already subdued, or stain the brightness of a chaste mind. Truly every conversation with a woman is frivolous, except confession alone or the briefest instruction, insofar as salvation requires or propriety permits." St. Dominic, dying, gave his brethren this last admonition about chastity: "Behold, until this hour the mercy of God has preserved my flesh uncorrupted and has kept the spotless purity of my virginity intact. That it may remain inviolate in you also, avoid all suspicious company with women." So his Life relates, found in Surius, book 5, chapter 1.
Mystically, Rabanus and the Gloss after him say: The woman is the Church, and the faithful and holy soul; also the grace of Christ itself, which through preaching heals souls and mitigates the concupiscence of the flesh. This abounds in the Church, whose desire is above every concupiscence of man, because in her is the beauty of virtues and the loveliness of doctrine, according to that saying: "Grace is deceitful and beauty is vain; the woman who fears the Lord shall be praised" (Proverbs 31:30). Her beauty and comeliness, which she has in right faith and good works, gladdens the face of her husband — namely her Spouse Jesus Christ — who delights in her progress, according to that saying: "The heart of her husband trusts in her, and he will not lack spoils. Strength and beauty are her clothing" (Proverbs 31:11, 25). "Her husband is not like the sons of men," because Christ her Spouse surpasses all human beauty, according to that saying: "Beautiful in form above the sons of men; grace is poured out upon Your lips; therefore God has blessed You forever" (Psalm 44:3). This therefore is a good possession — indeed, the best; this is the help given to man for bravely enduring all the labors and sorrows of this life; this is the pillar and rest of the whole present and eternal life. And as Rabanus says, she is said to become a pillar as rest, because she who in the present life is the support of man's frailty, in the future will become through glory the supplement of his rest.
Far more aptly, and almost properly, these things apply to the Blessed Virgin, whose beauty of virtues and graces gladdened "the face of her husband" — that is, of her Christ — whom she conceived not as an infant but as a man perfect in all wisdom and virtue, according to Jeremiah 31:22: "The Lord has created a new thing upon the earth. A woman shall encompass a man." Hence by her beauty she drew to herself the desire of all men and angels — indeed, even of the divine Word itself, that He might descend into her womb and from her assume human flesh. Thus Cardinal Halgrinus, on the Song of Songs chapter 4, explains these words of Sirach thus: "The beauty of a woman humbles a powerful man and softens a severe and austere one; but the Lord so desired the beauty of the Virgin, and she His desire —
drew desire to such an extent — that is, led it to such excess — that the Almighty was humbled to our weakness, and He who is the life of the living was softened to the point of death." That these things are to be understood mystically of the Virgin is clear from what follows: "Her husband is not like the sons of men," etc.
25. IF SHE HAS A TONGUE OF HEALING (repeat: "if she also has a tongue") OF GENTLENESS AND MERCY, HER HUSBAND IS NOT LIKE THE SONS OF MEN. — That is, if to her beauty and loveliness a wife adds a gentle and prudent tongue that, by its discretion and grace, knows how to cure all the troubles, afflictions, and sorrows of her husband and household; if moreover she adds "a tongue of gentleness and mercy" that knows how to soothe all the anger, grief, and bitterness of her husband and household, and bend them toward mercy, equanimity, and kindness — then truly her husband is not like other men, but surpasses them all and is the most fortunate of all. Hence some Greek and Latin editions, omitting "like," read clearly thus: "If on her (the wife's) tongue there is θεός, that is, mercy, καὶ πρᾳΰτης, that is, gentleness" (so the Roman edition; but the Complutensians add: καὶ ἴασις, that is, "healing," meaning the capacity and grace of curing), "her husband is not like the sons of men." The Tigurina: "If her tongue possesses courtesy, gentleness, and wholesomeness, her husband is not to be compared with the sons of men."
Note here three outstanding endowments and virtues to be required in a wife. The first is that on her lips, as well as in her heart (for the mouth follows the heart, and as the heart is, so are the mouth and tongue), mercy should shine — that is, she should be merciful toward her husband, children, servants, handmaids, and outsiders, especially the poor and afflicted, so that she bears, consoles, supports, and relieves their infirmities and miseries as much as she can.
The second is gentleness and meekness, by which she shows herself gentle to all, in words, gestures, and deeds.
The third is the grace of speaking and acting, by which she knows how to soothe, cure, and reconcile the quarrels, anger, bitterness, grief, and sorrows of her husband, household, and anyone at all. For there are many women, especially beautiful ones, who are proud of their beauty and form, and are therefore arrogant, haughty, merciless, noisy, quarrelsome, domineering, and consequently troublesome and hateful to their husbands, their entire household, and outsiders. These virtues Abigail possessed, and by them she preserved both the life of her husband Nabal and the conscience of David (lest he kill Nabal), when she soothed David's just anger with her humble, gracious, and effective speech. And Esther, who appeased Ahasuerus when he was offended at the Jews, and thus snatched all the Jews from death and crucified Haman their enemy. And that woman of Tekoa, who reconciled David with Absalom (2 Samuel 14:2). And the other woman who saved the city of Abel from destruction by Joab (2 Samuel 20:16).
Mystically, the Blessed Virgin possessed these three virtues in the most eminent degree. She is therefore greeted and invoked by the Church: "Hail, Queen, Mother of mercy; our life, our sweetness, and our hope, hail!" For she soothes the griefs and sorrows of all who invoke her. She mitigates the anger of Christ and of God. She heals and cures every vice and every weakness of the soul — because "her husband," namely Christ the Lord, "is not like the sons of men;" for He is not a mere man, but God-Man. And thus as God He infinitely surpasses all men; as man He far excels all other men in wisdom, virtue, grace, and glory.
26. HE WHO POSSESSES A GOOD WIFE BEGINS A POSSESSION: SHE IS A HELP LIKE HIMSELF, AND A PILLAR OF REST. — So the Roman and Greek editions, which have στῦλον ἀναπαύσεως, that is, "a pillar of rest," or as others read, ἀναπαύσεων, that is, "of rests." Others read "a pillar and a rest," which comes to the same thing, but the former reading is more elegant and beautiful. The sense therefore is, as if to say: He who possesses or acquires (for the Greek ὁ κτώμενος means both) a good wife — this man, first, begins a possession: both because the first and chief possession is a wife (hence the Syriac translates: "As the chief of your possessions, possess a good wife; for she is a help like yourself and a pillar before you"); and because through a wife the husband enters into the inheritance both his own and his wife's, and acquires for himself a home in which to live with his wife and future children — he who previously wandered about as if unattached, lacking his own home and inheritance. Hence the Spanish and Italians call marrying "casare," that is, receiving a "casa" — a house — because through marriage every man receives a home, and every woman devotes herself to her husband's household. And finally, because through a good and industrious wife a husband gains much. Hence the Tigurina translates: "He who has obtained a good wife prepares to build wealth; he has a helping partner and a foundation of rest."
Second, for such a man "a help like himself is at hand" — that is, such a husband has a help like himself, namely a wife similar to him in human nature and duties. For she was created by God to be the helper of the man and to assist him in the begetting, rearing, and governing of children and the household (Genesis 2:20). So also St. Joseph had as his helper St. Mary as his spouse, in the upbringing of Christ, as well as in every advance in virtue, so as to become most like her. Hear St. Bernard in his sermon On St. Joseph: "Moreover, since all that belongs to a wife belongs to the husband, I believe that the most Blessed Virgin most generously bestowed upon Joseph the entire treasure of her heart, insofar as he could receive it, and in a short time. How many exhortations, consolations, promises, illuminations, enkindings, and revelations of eternal goods do you think Joseph received at his passing from his most holy spouse Mary!" And below: "How can a discerning mind think that God would unite to the mind of so great a Virgin any soul, unless one most similar to her in the practice of virtues? Hence I believe that Joseph was most pure in virginity, most profound in humility, most ardent in charity, and most lofty in contemplation."
Third, for a husband his wife is like "a pillar of rest" — that is, like a pillar on which he may securely rest. For the husband entrusts to his wife his children, household, coffers, and wealth — indeed, himself — so that he seems to rest upon her as upon a pillar, indeed to stand firm. Hence for "pillar" the Tigurina translates "foundation;" Vatablus, "support" — for the Hebrew עמוד amod, that is, a standing and enduring pillar, from the root עמד amad, that is, to stand, endure, stabilize, signifies all these things. A good wife is therefore a pillar of the husband's weakness and a rest from his labor, so that the man can safely lean upon her as upon a pillar, being raised up, supported, sustained, and strengthened by her.
That this is the sense is clear from the Greek, which the Romans read and translate thus: "He who possesses a wife begins a possession — a helper like himself and a pillar of rest." So Rabanus, Lyranus, Jansenius, and Palacius, whom let us hear. The sense, he says, is as if to say: He who begins to possess a good wife, one suited to marriage, begins to be wealthy; this will become clearer from the following text; and experience too opens up the text.
The second part openly alludes to the word of the Lord in Genesis 2: "Let us make," He says, "a help like himself." In Hebrew it is: "A help as before him" — so that the wife may be a help to the husband not sought from afar, but one that is at hand and present before him. The Latin text, however, suggests a more intimate sense: namely that the wife is a help to the husband as if she were another husband. For if a friend is "another self," much more will a wife, who was taken from the man's side, be "another husband" — so that she cares for her husband's affairs as the husband himself would. And this is plainly the case, for what the husband acquires abroad, the wife preserves at home like a husband.
The third part indicates that the wife is not only a pillar on which the husband leans, but also like a house in which he rests. The wife is therefore a pillar to the husband in firmness, but in capacity she is like a house — a rest. She is therefore like a house built within a pillar. This implies that other friends may sometimes be pillars, but a wife is different — she is a perpetual rest for the husband, namely as long as she lives.
27. WHERE THERE IS NO HEDGE, THE POSSESSION WILL BE PLUNDERED; AND WHERE THERE IS NO WIFE, THE NEEDY MAN GROANS. — The Tigurina: "And he who has no wife will groan as a wanderer" — that is, a husband in need of the help, comfort, and rest of a wife. In Greek it is πλανώμενος, that is, a wanderer, a stranger roaming about. He proves what he said — that a wife is a good possession for a man — because she preserves and increases it, by an argument from the contrary. As if to say: Just as a possession — for example, a field, garden, or vineyard — if it lacks a wall or hedge, is plundered by all who pass by, so likewise where there is no wife, there the husband, wandering from house to house, is forced to entrust his possessions to others — indeed, to allow and expose them — and they will steal and plunder them, because he lacks a wife, who is the guardian of the home, the children, the property, and even of the husband himself. Therefore Paul, writing to Titus (2:5), wants women to be οἰκουρούς — that is, keepers of the home. See what I noted there. A wife, says Palacius, is therefore the hedge and rampart of a man's wealth: she is the key by which the husband's treasure is locked up. For when a wife is absent, no riches are sufficient for a man — they are so plundered by servants; this we who lack a wife experience and groan about daily. Therefore he who wishes to be rich should get himself a wife. Hence the Syriac translates clearly: "Where a place is without a hedge, the vineyards are gleaned (that is, so thoroughly harvested that not even a grape cluster remains for the gleaners), and a place without a woman is uncovered and scattered."
Second, Lyranus takes "the needy" to mean a poor man who wanders about begging, as if to say: Where there is no wife, there the poor will groan, because alms will be denied them; for women are accustomed to be more merciful than men.
Finally, St. Ephrem, in his treatise On the Fear of God, reads "patience" for "wife." For he writes thus: "Have you gone out of your cell, O monk, for service? Guard your senses, lest you stir up wars and disturbances for yourself through wicked thoughts. 'Where there is no hedge,' says Sacred Scripture, 'the possession will be plundered; and where there is no patience, the wanderer will groan.'" Unless one says that St. Ephrem mystically takes "wife" to mean patience: for patience is the hedge of the soul, which makes it impervious and unconquerable to its enemies.
In a similar way, our Alvarez de Paz, book 2, part 1, chapter 15, takes this "wife" to mean self-denial and mortification. For this so fortifies the soul that it fears no plundering of its virtues. This again is the good possession of which the text speaks; for he who possesses self-denial already has the beginning of great riches — namely of the most precious virtues, which the industry of such a spouse prepares. He also has a help very suited to himself, which restrains the crowd of little servants — that is, the passions — and keeps the whole house of the heart in peace. Self-denial is also a pillar for him, which defends him from many falls and faults; and a rest, in which, freed from the desires of the world, he may find repose.
28. WHO (so it should be read with the Roman and Greek editions, not "which" or "to whom," as Lyranus, Jansenius, and others read) TRUSTS HIM WHO HAS NO NEST, AND WHO TURNS ASIDE WHEREVER DARKNESS OVERTAKES HIM, LIKE A NIMBLE ROBBER LEAPING FROM CITY TO CITY? — This is the second argument proving, from the contrary, that a good wife is a possession, help, and pillar for a man — because no one trusts a young man who lacks a wife and is unattached and wandering. The sense therefore is, as if to say: A young man lacking a wife is like vagrant birds that have no nest, but fly from place to place and spend the night now in this tree, now in that — whom the other birds therefore flee as thieves and predators, and drive away from their nests. For in a similar way, the unmarried and celibate man "has no nest" — that is, no fixed dwelling where he can be found, met, detained, and (as they commonly say) apprehended. He is rather "turning aside wherever darkness overtakes him" — that is, he lodges and finds shelter wherever evening catches him wandering. Indeed, he is like an unencumbered "robber" roaming about, or rather leaping with the greatest speed "from city to city." Who then would trust him? Who would enter into contracts with him? Who would conduct business with him? No one, as if to say. For a young man who is unmarried, roaming, covetous, and bold must be guarded against as a vagabond — indeed, as a robber — because wherever he turns, he will lie in wait both for the chastity of daughters and for the wealth and goods he covets, thinking he can do so with impunity since he has no home, wife, or children from whom damages can be claimed. For he is unattached and alone, and can either resist like a robber or an armed man, or escape unencumbered.
Somewhat differently, Palacius says: A wife is the nest where the husband rests; he who lacks one — to whom does he entrust himself? In whom does he confide? For if he commits himself to servants, he commits himself to robbers. A man lacking a wife, who sleeps in whatever house night overtakes him, is like a robber; for just as the robber leaps from city to city, so this man goes from woman to woman, polluting them with adultery or fornication.
Second, just as birds lacking a nest invade, occupy, plunder, devour, and destroy the nests of other birds and whatever they encounter, so likewise a roaming and covetous young man seizes and occupies whatever beautiful, fine, and convenient things he sees anywhere.
Third, just as vagrant birds flying from one place to another are easily caught in hunters' nets, so likewise vagabonds easily fall into dangers, slavery, and death — especially if, in the manner of robbers, they commit theft, robbery, rape, murder, or a similar crime, as I said a little before. Thus we see fowlers particularly lying in wait for cranes and wild geese, at the beginning of spring when they arrive and at autumn when they depart in great flocks. For then they catch and kill some with arrows, others with guns, others with birdlime, others with nets, others by other arts. Hence St. Ambrose, noting these fowlers in book 5 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 18: "With what inhospitable cruelty," he says, "(that is, violating the laws of hospitality through cruelty) do we plot ambushes, and in various ways now try to deceive them by an unfaithful perch, now to snare them with birdlime, now to catch them with nets or snares." In a similar way, one who leaves his homeland and migrates and wanders in other regions is easily thrown into prison, or forced to serve in a degrading manner, or killed by hunger or by an assault of the inhabitants or robbers. Hence the Septuagint translates the cited passage of Proverbs 27:8 thus: "As when a bird has flown from its own nest, so a man becomes a slave when he has traveled away from his own home."
The Syriac translates this passage of Sirach as follows: "Who trusts a young man who is like a slave, leaping from city to city? So the man who has no wife — in the place where he is found, he will die." Thus we see daily in Rome that foreigners who were respectable, rich, learned, and distinguished in their own homes are reduced to working as cooks, grooms, and beggars, and finally dying in hospitals.
He alludes therefore to vagrant birds lacking nests, which invade the nests of other birds, devour their eggs, destroy their chicks, and substitute their own eggs, so that they may be warmed and hatched by the birds whose nest it is — as cuckoos do, according to Aristotle (History of Animals, book 9, chapter 29) — to whom fornicators and adulterers are therefore commonly compared.
He also alludes to Proverbs 27:8: "As a bird that wanders from its nest, so is a man who leaves his place." A vagabond man is therefore like a bird lacking a nest and wandering. First, because he is similarly fickle, inconstant, and roaming, and therefore no one trusts him, no one wants to have dealings with him. For as our Salazar rightly notes there, all birds, so long as they are rearing their chicks in their nests, remain there and do not wander far away, but walk about in the vicinity. But once the grown chicks have flown away, they themselves settle nowhere, but fly about here and there, wandering and straying. Solomon therefore says: Every inconstant and fickle person who perseveres in nothing for long, but daily changes and exchanges his occupations, trades, homes, cities, and lands, is like a bird that has already deserted its nest and therefore settles nowhere — one whom it is not fitting to trust or believe. Hear Seneca, epistle 21: "He is nowhere who is everywhere. Those who spend their life in travel find this: that they have many lodgings but no friendships. Food does no good and does not nourish the body if it is expelled as soon as it is taken. Nothing hinders health so much as frequent change of remedies. A plant that is often transplanted does not take root. Nothing is so useful that it benefits in passing." Here is relevant the witty but pious jest of Blessed Giles, who called Blessed Bernard of Quintavalle (both were among the first companions of St. Francis) a swallow, because for a full fifteen years, with face and mind abstracted from earthly things, he looked up to heaven, and running — indeed flying like a swallow — through mountains and wilderness, disdaining earthly things, he was wholly caught up in God. So Wadding records in the Annals of the Minorites, year of Christ 1241, numbers 3 and 4.
Note: For "nimble robber," the Greek is εὔζωνος, in Hebrew גדוד gedud, that is, girded with a sword, armed, unencumbered, ready for battle, for attack, or for flight. Hence it follows: "Leaping from city to city." Therefore our Pineda on Job 38:3 expounds it thus, as if to say: He always stands ready for flight, never secure. For "leaping" our translator read ἀπαλλόμενος or ἐφαλλόμενος; others read ὁμαλλόμενος, that is, wandering, straying about. The Greek here reverses the order, and therefore makes one comparison that virtually includes two. For it reads thus: "For who would trust a nimble robber wandering from city to city? So too a man who has no nest and turns aside wherever darkness overtakes him" — repeat, "who would trust?" No one, as if to say. The Tigurina: "For who would trust an unencumbered robber wandering from one city to another? Who likewise a man who has no nest and lingers (others: turns aside, or spends the night) wherever evening falls?"
Mystically, Rabanus says: "By 'nest' he here means the holy Church, where the pious souls of the elect nourish the children of good works. Hence it is written in the Psalm: 'The sparrow has found herself a home, and the turtle dove a nest where she may lay her young.' Where then does one who does not remain within the holy Church find rest and protection? For wherever he has turned aside through the teachings of heretics or the studies of philosophers, he will always be in error and will nowhere find the light of sincere truth. He also leaps like a nimble robber from city to city, because, unstable in everything, a vagrant and fugitive, he falls from error to error."
From what has been said it is clear that Sirach in this passage so commends marriage and one's own home because these things were to be counseled for the unrefined and earthly-minded Jews — without however condemning the celibacy of priests and Religious, nor their poverty by which they renounce all possessions and dominion out of zeal and love for heavenly things. He passes over celibacy in silence because the weakness and dullness of the Jews could not rise to it; hence he left it to Christ and the Apostles, the sons of the New Testament, to commend to those zealous for perfection. For these, says Jansenius, if as they should they take Wisdom as their spouse instead of a carnal wife, following the Wise Man who says, "I sought to take her as my bride, and I became a lover of her beauty" (Wisdom 8:2), will easily overcome all the inconveniences of celibacy that are hinted at here. For in her they will find the greatest beauty and delight, because on her tongue is clemency and restorative health; for her companionship holds no bitterness. In her they will have help, so that in all tribulations they may receive consolation and be aided in doing every good thing. Likewise she will be for them like a pillar, on which their mind will sweetly rest, free from carnal distraction. Through her they are well protected, and it easily comes about that they choose for themselves some fixed dwelling and manner of life in which to serve God.
Add that priests and Religious are above the earth and earthly things — namely marriage, a home, possessions — and have bidden them farewell in order to devote themselves to God, and to live on earth not a human and ordinary life but an angelic and divine one. Therefore these precepts of Sirach, which regard the common life of men, do not pertain to them; for to them, as St. Ambrose says, Christ is all things, and therefore to them most especially applies that saying of the Apostle: "I have betrothed you to one husband, to present you as a chaste virgin to Christ" (2 Corinthians 11:2). And that saying of the Psalmist (Psalm 15:5): "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup; You are He who will restore my inheritance to me."
Finally, to Religious and apostolic men who leave wives, homes, and everything to follow Christ, Christ promises the hundredfold (Matthew 19) — so that for one wife they may receive a hundred brothers, for one house a hundred monasteries, and may be cosmopolitans, indeed lords of the world. "For to the faithful man the whole world is a wealth of riches." Hence Climacus, at step 17, asserts that the poor monk is lord of the world, and because he has cast his care upon God, he possesses by faith all nations as his servants. And he adds that the poor servant of God loves only one thing viciously: for he reckons all things that he has or can have as though they were nothing; and if he must leave them, he considers them as dung. Therefore "the miser hungers for earthly things like a beggar; the faithful" and the religious "despises them like a lord," says St. Bernard, sermon 21 on the Song of Songs. For as St. Cyprian says in his treatise On the Lord's Prayer: "He who has already renounced the world is greater than its honors and its kingdom; and therefore he who dedicates himself to God and Christ desires not earthly but heavenly kingdoms." There, therefore, is his nest and his home. Hence St. Augustine, Confessions book 10, chapter 40: "Nor in all these things that I run through do I find a safe place for my soul except in You, where my scattered parts may be gathered together and nothing of me may depart from You." See Jerome Platus, On the Good of the Religious State, book 2, chapters 3, 6, and following.