Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He describes the heavy yoke of the miseries of this life arising from sin. Second, at verse 19, through various and elegant gradations he teaches which things are more excellent and to be preferred to others. Third, at verse 29, he treats of avoiding poverty.
Vulgate Text: Ecclesiasticus 40:1-32
1. Great labor was created for all men, and a heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb, even to the day of burial in the mother of all. 2. Their thoughts, and fears of the heart, the imagination of expectation, and the day of ending: 3. from him who sits upon a glorious throne, to him who is humbled in earth and ashes; 4. from him who wears purple and bears a crown, to him who is covered with rough linen: fury, jealousy, tumult, wavering, and the fear of death, persevering anger, and strife, 5. and in the time of rest upon his bed the sleep of night changes his knowledge. 6. A little as if nothing in rest, and from that time in dreams, as on a day of keeping watch. 7. He is troubled in the vision of his heart, as one who has escaped in the day of battle. In the time of his safety he rises up, and wonders that there is nothing to fear: 8. with all flesh, from man to beast, and upon sinners sevenfold. 9. In addition to these, death, blood, strife, and the sword, oppressions, famine, and affliction, and scourges: 10. all these things were created against the wicked, and on account of them the flood came. 11. All things that are of the earth shall return into the earth, and all waters shall return into the sea. 12. Every bribe and iniquity shall be blotted out, and fidelity shall stand forever. 13. The riches of the unjust shall dry up like a river, and shall resound like a great thunder in rain. 14. When he opens his hands he shall rejoice: so transgressors shall waste away in their consummation. 15. The descendants of the wicked shall not multiply their branches, and unclean roots make noise upon the top of the rock. 16. Greenness over every water, and at the bank of the river it shall be plucked up before all the grass. 17. Grace like a paradise in blessings, and mercy endures forever. 18. The life of the self-sufficient worker shall be sweetened, and in it you shall find a treasure. 19. Children, and the building of a city shall establish a name, and above these an immaculate wife shall be esteemed. 20. Wine and music gladden the heart, and above both, the love of wisdom. 21. Flutes and the psaltery make sweet melody, and above both, the pleasant tongue. 22. Your eye shall desire grace and beauty, and above these, green sowings. 23. A friend and companion meeting in time, and above both, a wife with her husband. 24. Brothers for help in time of tribulation, and above them, mercy shall deliver. 25. Gold and silver are the establishment of the feet, and above both, good counsel. 26. Riches and strength exalt the heart, and above these, the fear of the Lord. 27. In the fear of the Lord there is no want, and there is no need to seek help in it. 28. The fear of the Lord is like a paradise of blessing, and above all glory they covered it. 29. Son, in your lifetime do not be in want: for it is better to die than to be in need. 30. The man who looks to another's table — his life is not to be considered as a life: for he feeds his soul with another's food. 31. But the disciplined and well-taught man shall guard himself. 32. In the mouth of the imprudent begging shall be sweet, and in his belly a fire shall burn.
FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER
1. GREAT LABOR WAS CREATED FOR ALL MEN, AND A HEAVY YOKE IS UPON THE SONS OF ADAM, FROM THE DAY OF THEIR COMING FORTH FROM THEIR MOTHER'S WOMB, EVEN TO THE DAY OF BURIAL, IN THE MOTHER OF ALL. — Namely from the moment we are born,
we die, that is, we begin to die and tend toward death: "On earth we are born, on earth we die, returning to it whence we were taken," says St. Bernard in the Feast of St. Martin. Wherefore St. Gregory, Book XI, Epistle 26 to Rusticia, says: "I live in such great groaning and occupations that I repent of having reached the days I am living, and my only consolation is the expectation of death. Hence I ask that you should pray for me, so that I may be led out of this prison of the flesh more quickly, lest I be tortured any longer by such great labors." In the preceding chapter he described the magnificence of God, His power, His clemency toward the pious, His severity toward the impious, so that we might worshipfully honor and venerate Him; now he aptly subjoins a consideration of human misery and fragility, so that man, considering it, may humble himself more under his God and implore His help and grace. So Lyranus. Sirach is accustomed to combine opposites and contraries, and to pass from one to the other; because contraries placed next to each other shine forth more clearly. Thus here from the contemplation of divine majesty he passes to the contemplation of human unhappiness, so that wretched man, contemplating both, may say with the Psalmist: "The abyss" of my misery "calls upon the abyss" of divine mercy, and with St. Francis: "Who are You, Lord, and who am I?" You are the abyss of wisdom, goodness, power, and all good things; I am the abyss of ignorance, malice, weakness, and all evils. He therefore exaggerates the miseries of men, so that the pious may learn to bear them patiently and bravely, since they are common to all men and imposed upon all as punishment for original sin, which we all contract from Adam (for the penance imposed by God upon the sinner must be borne patiently, so that it may expiate and wash away guilt) — especially because these miseries touch the impious more, so that in comparison with them the pious may seem happy and blessed.
For "occupatio," the Greek is "ascholia," that is, trouble, restlessness, afflictions — great both in gravity and in multitude, in amplitude because it extends to all, and in duration because it stretches through all of life. For "sepulturae" the Roman edition reads "epitaphes," but the Complutensian reads "epistrophes," that is "of return." He calls the earth "the mother of all"; for the earth is the mother of all the living, and from it man was originally formed by God, Genesis 2, and dying he returns again to it. So Blessed Gregory, Moralia II, 11: "Because indeed," he says, "the earth bore us all, hence not undeservedly we call it mother. Whence it is written: 'A heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb, until the day of burial of all.'" Hence when Junius Brutus, while the two sons of Tarquin were consulting the oracle of Apollo at Delphi as to which of them would reign at Rome, and hearing that he would reign who first gave a kiss to his mother, immediately fell prostrate upon the earth and kissed it, and was the first to be created consul at Rome. So Valerius Maximus, Book VII, Chapter III. This serves for the consolation of mortals in death: that through death they return to their common mother, namely the earth, from
which they came forth. For everything rejoices to return to its own origin, just as a son to his mother.
The sense therefore is, as if to say: A great trouble has been created, that is, destined and appointed for all men, even for little children and the innocent: "and a yoke," that is a burden and weight, "heavy," of manifold and great afflictions, "upon the sons of Adam," to punish the first sin of Adam; which he transmitted to all his posterity through a vitiated and condemned propagation, and this from the first day on which—
they come forth from their mother's womb into this world, until the last day on which they die and are buried, so that they may return to the earth from which they were formed by God. Hence the Tigurina translates: "A great trouble is destined for every man, and a heavy yoke upon the posterity of Adam, from the day they emerged from their mother's womb, until the day when they are laid in the common mother of all." The Arabic: "He has created many and very numerous kinds, and has bound men from the time they were begotten in their mothers' wombs, until they return to the way of life." The Syriac: "God has created great things and mighty kinds upon the sons of men, from the day they came forth from their mother's womb, until they lie down in the land of the living — their praise, and the thought of their heart, and the end of their words, until the day of their death."
Understand therefore this "yoke" of punishments and afflictions, under which we all ceaselessly sigh and groan through our whole life. St. Augustine however, in Book V of the Hypognosticon (or whoever the author is; for this book does not have the style of St. Augustine, nor is it cited by Possidius, or Bede, or any other ancient author under the name of St. Augustine), by "yoke" understands original sin itself; for the yoke of guilt drew after itself the yoke of all punishment. And he adds that it is aptly called a "yoke" because we draw it from two, namely Adam and Eve, just as the yoke of oxen is drawn by two. Indeed the sense will be fuller if you take both yokes here and explain it to be sin itself with its offspring and posterity, that is, with its effects and punishments; for sin properly seems to fit verses 2, 5, and 9. But hear St. Augustine: "What is this heavy yoke, if not sin? And why is it called a yoke, except because it comes from two, Adam and Eve; or because it presses and crushes the necks of two, that is of male and female, namely of the evil and impious, because in each sex they are a yoke. Therefore he says generally: 'A heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam.' By saying 'upon the sons,' therefore, he did not distinguish ages or sexes; and by comparing the yoke to sin, on account of Christ, who was not born as others from the use of marriage, he made all others equal as sinners. Bound by this yoke, that is by original sin, greater and lesser alike, from the vice born of it, we drag along as it were a plough, as long as we are in this body of death: by the ploughshare of whose concupiscence our earth is furrowed, that is, corrupted. On account of which I believe it was said in the Book of Wisdom: 'The body which is corrupted weighs down the soul.' From the labor and burden of this yoke—"
from the labor and burden, or the corruption of the plough, so that it might rest — no one is freed by his own will and power, except by Him who judges justly and shows undeserved mercy, who says: 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you; take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls: For My yoke is sweet, and My burden is light.'"
And from this passage he proves that infants contract original sin from Adam, because this yoke of Adam weighs even upon little children: "While they are afflicted," he says, "by many kinds of afflictions, and in all these, although they cannot say what they are suffering, nevertheless they in a certain way speak of being tortured by various punishments, when, pricked by the sting of pains, they emit confused wailings of voice. If they are not at all struck by the sting of the sin of our first parents, from whose sinful flesh they are flesh of sin, and yet they suffer — according to your error — then God who makes such a nature, that the soul is bound to penal sufferings, is cruel, or certainly unjust, in permitting holy innocence, guilty of absolutely no fault, to be pressed by such great perils, and sometimes even to be deprived of life in these very perils. Unless you believe that they suffer on account of original sin, without doubt you accuse God, who made all things very good."
God threatened this yoke upon Adam after his sin, and upon all his posterity in him, saying, Genesis 3:17: "Cursed is the earth in your work: in labors you shall eat from it all the days of your life. Thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the earth. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken: for you are dust, and to dust you shall return. Hence it is rightly said that a heavy yoke has been placed upon the sons of Adam, from the day of their coming forth from their mother's womb, until the day of burial in the mother of all," says Rabanus. Who also adds: "Therefore similar to this passage is what is written in Job: 'The life of man upon earth is warfare.' Man could have peacefully possessed the flesh, if, well created by his Author, he had wished to possess it rightly; but when he strove to raise himself against his Creator, he immediately found in himself the shame of the flesh; but because punishment is propagated from the origin together with guilt, we are born with an implanted defect of weakness, and we lead with us as it were an enemy, whom we overcome with labor.
The very life of man, therefore, is a trial; from itself is born that which destroys it; and even if it always cuts down by virtue what it generates from weakness, nevertheless it always generates from weakness what it must cut down by virtue. Thus human life is a trial, so that even if it is already restrained from the perpetration of iniquity, nevertheless in its very good works it is darkened — now by the memory of evils, now by the fog of seduction — from the interruption of its intention." Hear St. Bernard, Sermon 2 on Septuagesima: "Heavy," he says, "is the yoke upon the sons of Adam; but not in the beginning upon Adam himself, but now upon his sons. What is not heavy for the wretched, for whom even to live is labor? For whom (what few seem to notice, and no one deeply feels) even the very use of sensation is found to be a burden, to such a degree that it cannot be sustained unless we are refreshed by the rest of alternation. What is not labor and pain, affliction of spirit from all things that are under the sun, when even that in which he most delights is most burdensome to him — namely the vitality and sensation of the flesh? Indeed how sweet the union is, the sad divorce reveals, since it can scarcely at last be torn away, because the very corruption of the body is utterly intolerable to the living soul. Truly not simply the body, but the body which is corrupted, weighs down the soul, so that you may know that the soul of our first parent was free from this burden, as long as it still bore an uncorrupted body." Hence Pope Gelasius also, in Epistle I Against the Pelagians, proves that infants are born with original sin, and that all men need the grace of Christ to be freed from this yoke of Adam: "A heavy yoke," he says, "upon the sons of Adam, from the day of coming forth from the womb of the mother, etc., from which captivity of the yoke only our Lord Jesus Christ alone redeemed us by the exchange of His passion, and by a changed birth delivered us. He alone came to seek and to save what had perished, so that the liberty which had been cast down through reckless pride might be restored and repaired through grace; and by a mutual exchange the free will of the human will, just as by following the devil it had merited everlasting captivity, so by following the Author of restored liberty it might return to the lost reward. Hence the Lord Himself says: 'When the Son shall have set you free, then you shall be truly free.'"
Therefore this yoke encompasses all the weaknesses, needs, pains, sorrows, cares, anguishes, labors, contradictions, persecutions, disgusts, injuries, robberies, murders, and temptations of all men; indeed even the concupiscences and pleasures themselves (hence Pope Urban IV, in his Metaphrase on Psalm 1, about the middle: "This yoke," he says, "is concupiscence": for these bring with them innumerable troubles and afflictions, so that the life of man seems to be nothing other than a long and perpetual death; and rightly may each one, grieving for his soul, say that saying of Epictetus: "You are a little soul carrying about a corpse." O heavy yoke, O burdensome weight — the body infected with original stain, which sits upon the necks of all—
of all the sons of Adam, from the first day when they receive the use of this light, until the day when they bid farewell to mortal life! Indeed this yoke begins to press upon the wretched soul from the very moment of its creation, to call it away from heavenly things, to weigh it down to earthly things, and to incline it toward concupiscible, depraved, and most vile things. The soul therefore is held in the body as though enclosed in a prison, and is weighed down by the limbs as if by shackles. For the body is to the soul as a fog, which does not allow it to clearly behold heaven and heavenly things; it is to it as an enticement, which drags it toward evil forbidden by God's law; it is to it as a chain, which does not permit it with the wings of affec-
tion to fly up to God, according to Wisdom 9:15: "The body which is corrupted weighs down the soul" — but by love, not by mass, says St. Bernard, Sermon 81 on the Canticle.
This yoke is vividly depicted by St. Job, Chapter 14, and there by St. Gregory, Book XI of the Moralia, Chapter 26; St. Augustine, in the Soliloquy of the Soul, Chapter 2; St. Jerome, Epistle 139 to Cyprian, in the exposition of Psalm 89; and St. Bernard, Book of Meditations, Chapter 3, and Book II On Consideration for Eugenius, Chapters 5 and 9; the author of the Sermons to the Brothers in the Hermitage in St. Augustine, Volume X, Sermon 65; and finally simply, but truly and forcefully, our Thomas the God-taught, On the Imitation of Christ, Book I, Chapter 22, and Book III, Chapter 53. See Bellarmine, Book VI On the Loss of Grace, Chapter 15, where he lists ten miseries, as it were punishments inflicted on human nature on account of original sin: the first is ignorance in the mind; the second, malice in the will; the third, concupiscence; the fourth, calamity, labor, and pain in the body; the fifth, death; the sixth, the wrath of God; the seventh, captivity under the devil; the eighth, quarrels, brawls, seditions, and wars; the ninth, the enmity and rebellion of beasts; the tenth, all evils which from heaven, earth, or sea — either foreseen or entirely unexpected — befall men. And he judges that Ecclesiasticus signified all these things when he said: "A heavy yoke upon the sons of Adam," etc. For which reasons most of the ancient pagans so bewailed the miseries of human life as either to accuse nature as a stepmother, or to suspect that sins of souls committed in another life are being punished through these miseries. Hence St. Augustine, Book IV Against Julian, Chapter 12, says they saw the fact but were ignorant of the cause. See the maxims of the pagans on this matter in Theodoret, Book V On the Cure of Greek Maladies, near the beginning, and in St. Augustine, Book IV Against Julian, Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15.
Morally, from this gather what, of what kind, and how great sin is, and how great its malice. For one sin of Adam brought this yoke of miseries not only upon him, but upon all his posterity — upon innumerable, I say, millions of men — and brings and will bring it until the end of the world. If God so punishes another's sin, namely Adam's, in his children, how will He punish the personal sins of each? If He so chastises one act of disobedience of Adam in innocent little children, indeed in the justified and saints in this life, how will He chastise so many lusts, envies, murders, and heresies, which the reprobate daily accumulate, in hell? For enduring this yoke there is great need of penance and patience; for these clearly lighten it. For, as Boethius says in Book II of The Consolation: "Nothing is miserable unless you think it so, and on the contrary every lot is happy for the equanimity of the one who endures it."
2. THEIR THOUGHTS, AND FEARS OF THE HEART, THE INVENTION OF EXPECTATION, AND THE DAY OF ENDING. — From the thesis he descends to the hypothesis; for he explains in detail the occupation and heavy yoke of the posterity of Adam, which he proposed in verse 1, as if to say: That occupation and heavy yoke of the sons of Adam are, first,
"their thoughts," by which they distract and torment their minds, in order to obtain for themselves the goods of this life and to avert all evils; from which follow, second, various "fears" constricting the heart, lest perhaps they may not attain the goods they desire and may fall into the evils they shun; third, "the invention of expectation," that is, the invented and devised imagination of impending goods or evils, as if the imagination itself awaits them, or rather they await it. In Greek it is "epinoia prosdokias," that is, imagination of expectation, namely of things to be expected hereafter; for the expectation and hope of a desired thing afflicts and torments the one who desires gravely and for a long time. The Roman edition translates "consideratio exspectationis" [consideration of expectation]; others, "commentum exspectationis" [fiction of expectation]; for often hope is not really hope, but a fiction of hope, which man invents for himself and fashions and paints in his mind. Say the same of fear. Fourth, "the day of ending," that is, the day of death and decease, by which this life is ended, and all its joy and pleasure. Hence the Tigurina translates: "Their thoughts, I say, and fear of the mind, and the imaginations of things to be expected, and the day of death." Moreover, it is astonishing how much imaginations torment a person, even of vain things that will never happen. Thus we read that some have been made insane by imagination, others grey-haired, others dead. Therefore whoever is wise should remove them from himself, or at least restrain them and turn them elsewhere. One imagines and expects a prelacy, another a benefice, another an inheritance, another a wealthy marriage. Almost our entire life slips away from us in expecting, says Palacius; we live and feed like chameleons on the breeze of hope, never actually to enjoy the reality. How great the power of imagination is, Galen teaches in Book III On the Interior Parts, or On Affected Places, and Rhodiginus in Book XVII of Various Readings, Chapter 2.
3 and 4. FROM THE ONE SITTING UPON THE GLORIOUS THRONE, DOWN TO THE ONE HUMBLED IN EARTH AND ASHES: FROM THE ONE WHO WEARS HYACINTH AND BEARS A CROWN, DOWN TO THE ONE COVERED WITH RAW LINEN. — That is: The afflictions of this life already enumerated are common to all, both the highest and the lowest, and so they begin from the one sitting upon a glorious seat, namely from the Pope and Emperor, and thence through all those in between descend down to the lowest, who humbly and abjectly sit in earth and ashes. Again, they begin "from the one who wears hyacinth," that is a hyacinthine garment (for kings and princes formerly used this, as I said at Ezekiel 16:10), namely from the king and prince who wears a crown and diadem, down to the vilest and poorest, who is clothed in a garment of "raw linen," that is, fresh, rough, coarse, hard (thus Hippocrates, Galen, and Aetius approve of rubbings with raw linen, which the Greeks call "apaliere"), which is therefore a sign of extreme poverty — so that neither is the king spared on account of his eminence, nor does the lowest escape or pass by on account of his lowliness. Hence the Tigurina: "From the one who sits on the throne with majesty, down to the one who lies on the ground in dust: and from the one who wears hyacinth and a coro-"
"—na, down to the one who lies on the ground in raw linen," according to the saying of the Poet [Horace]:
Pale Death with equal foot strikes the hovels of the poor and the towers of kings...
The Syriac: "From those sitting on royal seats down to those sitting in earth and ashes, and from those wearing a diadem down to those clothed in garments of poverty."
He begins with Popes and kings, because the greater the men, the greater their cares and troubles, and the greatest have the greatest. Pope Adrian VI, a wise and holy Pontiff, understood this when he said: "The papal throne is thorny, the road everywhere beset with thorns." Accordingly on his tomb in Rome we read the inscription: "Here lies Adrian VI, who considered nothing in life more unfortunate than that he had to rule." The same was understood recently by Philip III, King of Spain, whose swan song in death was this: "Being a king serves for nothing other than that in death one should repent of having been one" — as indeed he did repent. These afflictions of kings Lucian vividly recounts in his famous dream, in which he introduces Gallus the rich man envying Mycillus the poor man his rest, and narrating the maladies of the powerful: "Fears," he says, "gnawing cares, suspicions, the hatred with which those who live with the king pursue him, plots, and for these reasons sleep is rare, and even this is very light, and sleepless nights full of tumult, perplexed thoughts, hopes always disappointed, and lack of leisure, and occupations, judgments, expeditions, edicts, treaties, consultations — by which things it comes about that not even in a dream can one enjoy anything pleasant. Yet he must alone look down upon all matters and sustain a thousand affairs."
"Indeed not even sweet sleep held Agamemnon, son of Atreus, Who was turning manifold cares in his breast" [Homer, Iliad 10:3-4].
And this while all the other Achaeans were snoring.
4 and 5. FURY, ZEAL, TUMULT, AGITATION, AND FEAR OF DEATH, PERSEVERING ANGER, AND CONTENTION, AND IN THE TIME OF REST UPON THE BED THE SLEEP OF NIGHT CHANGES HIS UNDERSTANDING. — He calls "the time of rest" not the time of eating, but the time of quiet (for the Greek word "anapausis" signifies this), when through sleep the animal and vital spirits, wearied or exhausted by waking and labor, are to be refreshed and restored, as if to say: Not only during waking by day, but also during the time of nocturnal rest, when the limbs are to be refreshed through it, sleep itself often vexes and disturbs the understanding and imagination of man. For it suggests to him dreams and phantasms which either strike him with immense fear, or inflate him with great hope, or excite him with great love, anger, or hatred. Hence the Syriac translates: "And in the time when they rest in their beds in the time of night." So likewise, and even more, during the day "the understanding," that is, the mind, knowledge, and affection of man is "changed" and, as it were, driven mad: first, by "fury," in Greek "thymos," that is, indignation, flaring anger — for this causes man to seem not to use reason but to rage and be insane; second, by "zeal," that is, emula-
tion and envy, by which one envies his neighbor and strives to surpass and supplant him — for this blinds the mind with spite and hatred; third, by "tumult," in Greek "tarache," that is, disturbance, perturbation, tumult, which fury or envy stirs up — for this makes a man rage inwardly in his heart and outwardly in action; for it stirs up seditions, quarrels, brawls, and murders; fourth, by "agitation," in Greek "allos," that is, commotion, stirring, wavering, by which the soul, agitated by indignation, envy, fear, or some other passion, fluctuates, so that now it wills this, now that; now it takes this counsel, now that, and so hangs in suspense and is torn and mangled by its own thoughts. Thus St. Augustine, Book IX of the City of God, Chapter 6, says from Apuleius that the heart "fluctuates on the sea of the mind through all the surges of thoughts." Fifth, "the fear of death": for very many occasions and causes of this present themselves daily, to such a degree that a man does not have one year, indeed not even one certain day of life, but rather can and must fear death lurking secretly or lying in wait for him every day and hour. Sixth, there is "persevering anger": for this is like gall continually stinging, embittering, gnawing, and consuming the mind like a moth. Our translator reads with the Roman edition, the Tigurina, and others "menima" or "menima," that is, lasting anger, inveterate hostility, enmity watching for the time of vengeance. The Complutensian however reads "mimia," that is, imitation, likeness — but less fittingly, it seems. Seventh, "contention": for this is like a Fury that disturbs the mind and makes it restless, and drives it into a thousand quarrels, lawsuits, blows, and murders. These seven passions and perturbations therefore are seven parts and species of the heavy yoke weighing upon men both the highest and the lowest throughout the day, which equally with dreams at night change, agitate, alter, and tear the mind of man, and, as the Tigurina translates, "affect each one's disposition in various ways." Therefore they are, as it were, so many executioners of the soul, tearing it apart; hence they are called passions and perturbations, because they disturb the soul and torture it with dire sufferings — which therefore the Stoics judged could not befall a wise man. Hear St. Augustine, Book XIV of the City of God, Chapter 8: "What the Greeks call 'eupatheiai,' and Cicero in Latin called 'constantiae' [constancies], the Stoics held there were three in the soul of the wise man in place of the three perturbations: in place of desire, will; in place of joy, gladness; in place of fear, caution; but in place of grief or pain — which we preferred to call sadness to avoid ambiguity — they denied that there could be anything in the soul of the wise man. For the will," they say, "desires the good which the wise man does. Gladness is about a good obtained, which the wise man obtains everywhere. Caution avoids the evil which the wise man ought to avoid. But sadness is about an evil which has already happened. And they judge that no evil can befall the wise man; they said nothing could be in his soul in place of it. Thus they speak in such a way as to deny that anyone but the wise man can will, rejoice, or be cautious; the fool,"
however, can only desire, rejoice, fear, and be saddened. And those three they called constancies, but these four perturbations; according to Cicero, however, very many passions. In Greek moreover those three, as I said, are called "eupatheiai"; but those four "pathei."
But St. Augustine refutes this opinion of the Stoics — that the passions already mentioned do not befall the wise man — in Book IX of the City of God, Chapter 4, teaching that the wise man is subject not only to the four latter passions but also to the three former, and thus to all seven; but he knows how to bridle and govern them. The Sage admirably describes these passions, fears, and anguishes of the impious throughout the whole of Chapter 17 [of Wisdom].
Anagogically, Rabanus applies all these things to the damned in hell: "For fury," he says, "and zeal are shown in vengeance, when sinners will be tortured in punishment for their offenses: where there is tumult and agitation, because there is no order, but perpetual horror dwells there: where there is fear of death, and persevering anger, and contention. Truly there is fear of death, where there is the continuous fire of the flames of hell; anger perseveres and contention, because there is no peace there, and no mitigation of pain." And further on: "For what can be said or thought more horrible than to receive the wounds of damnation, and never to end the pains of those wounds? In the torments of this life, fear contains pain, but pain does not contain fear, because the mind is by no means tortured by dread once it has begun to suffer what it feared. The reprobate, delivered to the fires of hell, feel pain in their torments, and in their pains are struck by anguish, with terror always pounding — so that they endure what they fear, and again they ceaselessly dread what they endure. Here the flame that kindles gives light; there the fire that tortures brings darkness. Here fear is lost once what was feared has begun to be endured; there both pain tears apart and dread constricts." And a little later: "He calls the time of rest the time of retribution, when with the body laid in the bed of the sepulcher, the soul is assigned to places of punishment for its sins. Then the sleep of death changes its understanding, because it then feels far otherwise about its deeds than it felt before in this life: because then all things were manifested that had previously been hidden, and by malign spirits those things are brought back to its memory which had been neglected or consigned to oblivion." And after some further remarks: "Then 'a little as though nothing is in rest,' because although the dead and insensible flesh may seem to rest from pains for a time in the earth, yet the soul, living before the day of judgment, feels pain, and on the day of resurrection, receiving back the very body through which it sinned now made immortal, it shall live in everlasting punishments. In a horrible manner therefore there shall then be for the reprobate pain with dread, flame with darkness — so that, as is fitting, the weight of supreme justice must be felt by the damned; since by the will of the Crea-
tor they were by no means afraid to disagree while they lived, so in their eventual destruction the very torments may also be at variance in their qualities, so that by assailing each other they may increase the tortures: and as they come forth in various ways, they may be felt in manifold ways. Thus for the wretched there is death without death, end without end, failure without failure; because both death lives, and the end always begins, and failure knows not how to fail."
6 and 7. A LITTLE AS IF NOTHING IN REST, AND FROM THAT POINT IN DREAMS, AS ON A DAY OF LOOKOUT. HE IS DISTURBED BY THE VISION OF HIS HEART, LIKE ONE WHO HAS ESCAPED IN THE DAY OF BATTLE. IN THE TIME OF HIS SAFETY HE RISES UP, AND WONDERING AT NO FEAR. — The Syriac: "What is promised in a vision of the night is like a man who flees from the face of one pursuing him: he awakes and sees that he has nothing." He compares the dream to a watch, and the dreamer to a watchman. Hence for "in die respectus," the Greek is "en hemerais skopias," that is, "in the days of the watchtower." For just as a sentinel who keeps watch outside on a mountain against enemies is anxious and fearful, and anxiously looks around on every side to see if anyone is approaching — and if he sees an enemy, immediately flees to his own people in the city or fortress — so does the dreamer act in exactly the same way. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: The dreamer, though he may rest and sleep in bed, nevertheless has little and almost no rest, and scarcely rests at all. And "from that" little in which he was at rest — that is, after a little quiet sleep free from dreams — he soon begins to dream, and "in dreams as on a day of looking out," that is, of prospect, in which like a sentinel keeping watch on a watchtower he anxiously looks around and surveys on every side what is happening — understand: he is anxious and fearful. As if to say: The dreamer anxiously and fearfully, as it were, keeps vigil and watches for the things which the dream suggests or threatens. Therefore often "he is disturbed by the vision of his heart" — that is, by the sight and phantasm of his imagination: for he dreamed that he was surrounded by enemies and thought he was fleeing "like one who has escaped," in Greek "ekphygon," or as others read, "ekpephygos," that is, "who escaped" in the past tense, "in the day of battle." That is, he dreamed he was besieged by enemies and therefore fleeing from them, and indeed he truly seemed to himself to be doing so, as if he had really fled, and by continually fleeing had finally escaped the hands of the enemy and gotten away safe. Therefore "in the time of his safety he rose up" — that is, when he dreamed he had escaped by flight and was safe, out of joy he wakes from sleep and rises, and wonders that he had been disturbed and anxious "at no fear," that is, when there was nothing to fear. As if to say: Wondering, he sees and recognizes that all were vain phantasms of a dream, and that in reality there was nothing of battle or enemies to have feared and fled from — for, as Zophar says, "like a fleeting dream it will not be found; it will pass like a vision of the night," Job 20:8. Hence Vatablus clearly translates: "Little and almost nothing is given to rest; then in the dreams of the mind, as at a time when one keeps watch on the lookout, they are disturbed by imagination, and—"
like one who has fled from the sight of battle, they feel more secure in the time of their safety and wonder at the vain terror. We experience this most truly in the nightmare, which the Latins call "Incubus" or "Incubo," in which one dreams of being invaded by some mass or by an enemy, oppressed, suffocated, and strangled, and unable to escape — hence one is distressed, groans, and sweats. This vice arises from excess eating and continuous rawness of the stomach; hence thick and cold vapors rising fill the ventricles of the brain and prevent the spirits of the brain from being diffused through the nerves. So Paul of Aegina, Book III, Chapter 15. Job, having experienced this mockery of dreams — a grave mockery indeed — said in Chapter 7, verse 14: "You will terrify me through dreams, and through visions You will shake me with horror. Wherefore my soul has chosen hanging, and my bones death." And St. Augustine, Book X of the Confessions, Chapter 30, lamenting his shameful dreams: "And so powerful," he says, "is the illusion of the image in my soul and in my flesh, that false visions persuade the sleeper of what true ones cannot persuade the waking man." Nevertheless, the same Augustine, Book XII of On Genesis Literally, Chapter 2, confesses that sometimes while dreaming the dream seemed to him to be a dream, not a real thing: "Although," he says, "I know it has happened to me, and therefore I do not doubt it could or can happen to others, that seeing in dreams, I perceive in my dreams that I am seeing, feeling, and that those images which are accustomed to mock our very habit are not real bodies but are presented in dreams — and I held and perceived this most firmly even while sleeping." But even then often something false, or what does not really exist, is mixed into the dream, as Augustine adds in the same place.
Anagogically, Rabanus applies all these things to the damned, who "judged," he says, "through the prosperity of the world as though deluded by a dream, that it was a time of peace and not of war."
8. WITH ALL FLESH, FROM MAN EVEN TO BEAST, AND UPON SINNERS SEVENFOLD. — That is: These afflictions and passions already enumerated befall all flesh, that is, every living thing, both men and beasts. For beasts also dream and are troubled by their dreams, as Aristotle teaches in On Divination through Dreams, Chapter 1, and Pliny, Book X, last chapter: "Besides man," he says, "it is well known that horses, dogs, oxen, sheep, and goats dream. For this reason it is believed also of all animals that bear live young. Concerning those that lay eggs, it is uncertain; but that they sleep is certain." But upon sinners these afflictions come "sevenfold," that is, far more abundantly. For anger, fury, zeal, and the other passions harass them, and hence turbulent and fearful dreams, as the Sage teaches about the Egyptians, Chapter 18 [of Wisdom], saying: "Visions of evil dreams disturbed them, and unexpected terrors came upon them." The causes are many. First, because God pursues and afflicts sinners; second, because the pious bear evils more patiently than the impious, since the latter are destitute of the grace of God and are full of desire, pride, and impatience; third, because the pious flee to God as to a
refuge in tribulation, and God consoles those who hope in and call upon Him — neither of which befalls the impious. Hence the Tigurina translates: "All this is joined to every living creature, to man as well as to beast: but to the wicked seven times as much." Others: "All these things are present to the flesh, both to men and to beasts; and upon sinners moreover sevenfold more." Note: the word "sevenfold" signifies the abundance and fullness of these scourges which befalls the impious. Thus Genesis 4:13 and 24: "Sevenfold," it says, "shall vengeance be given for Cain: but for Lamech seventy times seven." Where Procopius says: "The number seven denotes the perfection of punishment." Hence Leviticus 26:28: "I will chastise you with seven plagues." And Psalm 78:12: "Render to our neighbors sevenfold in their bosom." See Delrio, Adage 10. Furthermore, the Syriac translates: "With all the sons of the flesh their cares are present, and riches awaken them with fear."
9 and 10. BESIDES THESE: DEATH, BLOOD, STRIFE, AND THE SWORD, OPPRESSIONS, FAMINE, AND DESTRUCTION, AND SCOURGES: ALL THESE THINGS WERE CREATED FOR THE WICKED, AND ON THEIR ACCOUNT THE FLOOD CAME. — For "ad haec" the Greek is "pros tauta," which the Roman edition, the Tigurina, and others refer to "sevenfold" which preceded, hence they translate "sevenfold more." He spoke of afflictions intrinsic to man; now he enumerates the extrinsic ones, those coming to man from outside, all of which he asserts are indeed common to all, but nevertheless most affect sinners. Such are death violently inflicted by another, the shedding of blood, contentions, swords (that is, a blade striking and wounding), oppressions, famine, destruction (that is, hostile devastation), and any kind of scourges. All these things indeed befall everyone, but they most afflict and harm sinners. Hence on their account the flood, or cataclysm in the time of Noah, was brought upon the world by God. For upon sinners these
God properly sends these as scourges of guilt, to avenge their crimes; but to the just only for the testing and increase of virtue and merits — therefore they are brought upon them not as evils but as goods, says Jansenius. Hence the Tigurina translates: "Death, murder, dissensions, the sword, assaults, famine, disaster, tortures: all these things together were created against the unjust, and on their account the flood came from God." Therefore these scourges are properly created, that is, produced and sent by God on account of sinners to chastise their sins; but by concomitance they touch also the good, who dwell and are mixed together with sinners — just as the sun, rain, hail, frost, cold, and heat touch all the inhabitants of a place, and therefore the good along with the wicked. Therefore the Sage wisely advises:
"One ought to rejoice sparingly, and complain gradually: Because pain and joy are mixed throughout the whole of life."
11. ALL THINGS THAT ARE FROM THE EARTH SHALL BE TURNED BACK TO THE EARTH, AND (that is, "just as" — for "et" here is comparative, comparing water to earth) ALL WATERS (namely living waters, that is, moving and flowing, not
standing or stagnant) SHALL RETURN TO THE SEA — from which they originally came forth, Genesis 1:10. That is: All things return to their own origin — namely, what came forth from the earth returns to the earth; what came from waters, to water and the sea. He names the sea because at the beginning of the world God separated all the waters that are under heaven from the land into one place, "and the gatherings of waters He called seas," Genesis 1:9. Therefore the sea then constituted the source, indeed the receptacle and repository of all waters — so that it, through channels and underground veins spread throughout the whole earth, and through the vapors which it evaporates and which are resolved into water and rain, might be the matrix and origin of all springs and rivers, as I said at Genesis 1:9, and as I shall say more fully at Ecclesiastes 1:7, which reads thus: "All rivers enter the sea, and the sea does not overflow: to the place from which rivers go out, they return to flow again." For Sirach alludes to this here; see our Pineda on this passage. Hence the Greek reads: "kai apo hydaton eis thalassan anakampei," that is, things born "from waters" are "bent back" or deflected "into the sea," that is, into waters (whose matrix is the sea). The Tigurina: "Whatever consists of earth returns to the earth, and what arose from the sea returns to the sea." Here note, as I warned in the Prooemium, that the Tigurina does not render word for word, but more freely renders the sense which the author formed in his mind; hence it acts not so much as an interpreter as a commentator. For in place of "from waters" (as it is in the Greek), it translates "from the sea," because it judged that all rivers come forth from the sea.
This general statement is to be conveniently explained: "all things," that is, most things, very many — for not absolutely all things born from the earth are turned back into earth: for houses, trees, and wood, which are burned, are converted into fire, smoke, and air, not into earth. Likewise not absolutely all waters return to water and the sea, as is evident in those which, heated by the rays of the sun, are converted into exhalations and thence into fire or air, and in those which, mixed with earth, are converted into mud and earth. But the most and greatest do, as mighty rivers flow down and return to the sea. Hence learned men judge that the Caspian Sea, although it appears to be completely separated from other seas, is nevertheless secretly joined to the Ocean through hidden passages and flows into it.
Sirach says this either to explain death, of which he spoke in verses 1, 4, and 9, which is the chief part of the yoke weighing upon the posterity of Adam (verse 1), as if to say: The chief part and terminus of this yoke is death, through which men born from the earth (as also all other things) return to the earth, according to the law decreed against them, Genesis 3:19. Indeed, the impious through death return not only according to the body but also according to the soul to the earth to which they had fastened it: for they go to hell, which is at the center of the earth. Or rather, you may refer this statement as an exordium to what follows: for through it
Sirach shows the yoke and folly of the impious, who, bent toward the earth like cattle, devote themselves to earthly goods so as to heap up wealth, families, children, and grandchildren, but are soon deprived of the same — because all things roll back and slide back into the earth from which they came. Meanwhile the pious, fastening their heart to faith and virtue, heap up heavenly riches that will last forever, according to that saying: "Remember, O man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Therefore, O foolish and unhappy man, why do you fix to the ground that particle of the divine breath? Why do you not rather render your soul to your God, so that it may remain with Him in eternal glory?
Hence, applying and explaining this same point, he adds: "Every bribe and iniquity shall be destroyed." This is what the Syriac meant when it translated: "Everything that is of the earth returns to the earth, and what is of the heights, to the heights." Hear St. Jerome, on Ecclesiastes 1:7: "'All rivers (or torrents, as he himself translates) enter the sea.' Some think," he says, "that the sweet waters which flow into the sea are either consumed by the sun burning above, or become food for the salt of the sea. But our Ecclesiastes, the very creator of those waters, says that they return through hidden veins to the heads of springs, and from the womb of the abyss always bubble forth into their own sources. But the Hebrews more aptly judge that under the name of torrents and the sea, by metaphor, human beings are signified — that they return to the earth from which they were taken; and they are called torrents, not rivers, because they perish quickly, and yet the earth is not filled with the multitude of the dead."
This departure of man from the soil and return to it, that is, this rising and setting, Sacred Scripture everywhere rubs in and places before our eyes, as in Genesis 3:19: "Until you return to the earth from which you were taken: for you are dust, and to dust you shall return." Job 10:9: "Remember, I beseech You, that You made me like clay, and You will reduce me to dust." Job 34:15: "Man shall return to ashes." Psalm 103:29: "You shall take away their spirit, and they shall fail, and shall return to their dust." Psalm 145:4: "His spirit shall go forth, and he shall return to his earth." Ecclesiastes 12:7: "Let the dust return to its earth whence it was, and let the spirit return to God, who gave it." Therefore whoever is wise, constantly thinks upon this return of his, despises present things, looks up to future things, and lives for eternity.
The Council of Tibur cites these words of Sirach, Chapter 16, and it is found in XIII, Question II, Canon 14, and from them proves that ecclesiastical burial of the earth ought not to be sold for a price, because the earth by the law of nature is common to all, indeed the mother of all, who therefore willingly receives her children no less when dying than when being born into her bosom: "You tread the earth," it says, "you bear the earth, and to the earth you shall be turned, you who are taken from the earth."
12. EVERY BRIBE AND INIQUITY SHALL BE DESTROYED, AND FAITHFULNESS SHALL STAND FOREVER. — It is a hendiadys. "Bribe and iniquity," that is, the bribe of iniquity, an unjust bribe, a bribe given or received
for committing iniquity. That is: Just as everything born from the earth perishes and returns to the earth, so likewise every earthly bribe given unjustly — for example, for corrupting a judge — and therefore all iniquity together with its author, namely man, shall perish and return to the earth as to its origin. But "faithfulness," that is, fidelity, truth, sincerity, justice, integrity, by which one allows himself to be turned aside from the right neither by prayer nor by bribe (for this is what the Hebrew "emet" and the Greek "pistis" signify) — this shall stand forever, because it will obtain eternal praise and glory from God. That is: Of all earthly things, nothing is stable and enduring except
justice and virtue; all the rest is abolished and slides back into the earth whence it came forth. Therefore whoever seeks stable and perpetual goods should not pursue the riches and honors of this life, since they will last no longer than life itself; but should devote himself to integrity and virtue, which will endure even in heaven through all ages. Hence the Tigurina translates: "Every gift and injustice shall be abolished, and integrity endures forever." The Syriac: "Everyone who sins and lies shall perish, and the blessed shall themselves also be raised up forever."
Hence, explaining further, he adds:
13. THE POSSESSIONS (in Greek "chremata," that is, money and riches) OF THE UNJUST SHALL BE DRIED UP LIKE A RIVER, AND LIKE GREAT THUNDER IN RAIN SHALL RESOUND. — This should be read with the Roman and Greek editions as "siccabuntur" and "personabunt" [plural], not "siccabitur" and "personabit" [singular], as Jansenius reads. Rabanus however and five manuscripts in Francis Lucas read "manabunt" [shall flow] for "personabunt," because some Greek codices, according to Pagninus, read "ekrheose" (that is, "shall flow, shall pour out") for "ebrontese" (that is, "shall resound"). The meaning is: The riches of the unjust flow in like a torrent suddenly swelling; but just as a torrent, as soon as the rain ceases, subsides and dries up, so likewise the riches of the unjust soon decrease and vanish. Again, just as thunder with rain resounds with a terrible crash, but also roars, that is, makes a great noise, and passes away with its sound: so likewise the riches of the unjust, with great pomp and the clatter of servants, horses, chariots, trumpets, etc., resound in passing and slip away. Hence the Syriac translates: "The goods of falsehood shall slip away like a torrent, and like rivers which are filled from light clouds — when those clouds cease, they fail, and there shall be no sprout for impious men." Vatablus translates briefly and clearly: "The possessions of the unjust shall dry up like a river, and like great thunder with rain they shall cease to thunder" — that is, they shall stop thundering and lay down their pride, or shall be scattered through tumult and poured forth as if by force. He alludes to Proverbs 10:25: "Like a passing storm, the impious man shall be no more; but the just man is like an eternal foundation." Therefore the treasure of the unjust, says Rabanus, just as it is collected inopportunely and indiscriminately, so it is scattered powerfully and swiftly: he who, after the likeness of thunder, raises a storm in the rush of avarice, quickly gives way in the very tumult. Hence it is written in Psalm 9:1: "The swords of the enemy have failed forever: and the civi-"
ties You have destroyed. Their memory has perished with a noise." In the thunder therefore is noted both the swiftness, and the force and violence, and the noise and crash of the ruin of the impious.
14. WHEN HE OPENS HIS HANDS HE SHALL REJOICE: THUS TRANSGRESSORS SHALL WASTE AWAY IN THEIR CONSUMMATION. — First, Lyranus, Hugo, Dionysius, Emmanuel Sa, and others explain it plainly and clearly thus: Just as the unjust man, about whom the preceding verse spoke, rejoices for the short time in which he opens his hands to receive bribes: so sinners shall finally "in their consummation," that is, completely, fully and perfectly, "waste away" — that is, as the Greek reads,
"ekleipsousin," that is, they shall fail, perish, and be destroyed forever. For he contrasts their brief joy, which lasts no longer than the opening of a hand, with their long and complete destruction: "They rejoice indeed," says Rabanus, "for a time in worldly prosperity, when they open their hands to seize what belongs to others: but because they have transgressed the precept of God, who says, 'You shall not covet your neighbor's property,' they shall waste away in their consummation, when, empty of good works, they shall be plunged into hell for their sins." For this entire passage depicts the swift passing and destruction of the abundance and prosperity of the impious.
Second, the Tigurina translates: "When someone opens his hands, they shall rejoice to slip away: thus those acting wickedly shall utterly fail." For it supplies and understands the word "to slip away," which is not in the Greek, so that the sense is: Just as rainwaters caught in cupped hands rejoice, as it were, when they are allowed to slip away into the earth with an opened hand, because they tend toward their center, to which they are carried by natural appetite so as to rest in it — so likewise all the good, indeed all creatures, shall rejoice when the evildoers fail and return to the earth and to hell; for this is owed to their wickedness, by which they disturbed the order of the whole universe. Therefore by this punishment of theirs they shall make satisfaction for the scandal they gave to the whole world, and for the disturbance they caused in it; because through their punishment and just vengeance the order of all things, which they themselves disturbed, shall be restored, and therefore all creatures shall, as it were, rejoice over it.
Third, Palacius refers these words to thunder; hence some translate: "when it (namely the thunder) shall have opened its hands, it shall rejoice," etc. That is: The unjust man is like great thunder, producing a great crash and noise; but he does not rejoice except while he opens his hands — that is, he does not last except while he extends his rays like hands. For he is speaking of thunder mixed with lightning, which lasts only roughly while it unfolds its light: thus transgressors, although they may seem to sound and flash, will soon waste away in their consummation. However, there is an objection: the Greek word "autos" (that is, "it/he"), being masculine, cannot refer to "bronten" (that is, thunder), which is feminine in gender.
Fourth, Jansenius, referring "auton" to "hyeton," that is, rain — whence the Romans also translate: "In aperiendo auton, that is the rain, manus suas laetabitur" — explains it thus: When the rain shall have opened its hands, that is, poured itself out lavishly upon the earth, it shall rejoice that it has overcome the terror, namely of thunder, and has taken it away from men, whom it also makes rejoice by its flowing down to earth; because when rain falls copiously, thunder and lightning cease and are less feared. Hence it is said in the Psalms: "He made lightning into rain." In this part therefore he still persists in the simile proposed in the preceding verse, and here it is completed. And by prosopopoeia the act of opening hands and rejoicing is attributed to rain, just as in the Psalms it is said: "The rivers shall clap their hands." It signifies therefore that just as some torrent is dried up by the heat of the sun, and thunder is overcome by the outflow of rain, so too the riches of the wealthy suddenly fail together with themselves through divine vengeance coming upon them — by which, as by a rainstorm overwhelming them, all their terror, which they inflicted trusting in their riches, is overcome; and thus the just man shall rejoice, freed from their terror. Hence there follows: "Thus transgressors shall waste away in their consummation" — that is, they shall so fail as to be utterly consumed. This interpretation is more connected, vigorous, and apt, but more obscure and intricate, whereas the first is the easiest and plainest.
15. THE DESCENDANTS OF THE IMPIOUS SHALL NOT MULTIPLY BRANCHES, AND UNCLEAN ROOTS UPON THE TOP OF A ROCK MAKE NOISE. — He said that the riches of the impious are perishable and fragile; now he says the same about their stock and posterity. That is: The descendants of the impious shall not have many children, nor as a well-founded tree multiplies branches far and wide, shall they generate an extensive progeny of children that continues through many centuries; but they shall be cut off in the third or fourth generation, as God had threatened the Jews, Exodus 20:5. Thus God cut off the family of Saul, 2 Samuel 21, and the family of Hiel, who rebuilt Jericho, 1 Kings 16:34, and the families of Jeroboam, Jehu, Menahem, Pekah, and the rest of the impious kings of Israel, as is narrated at length in 1 and 2 Kings.
AND UNCLEAN ROOTS UPON THE TOP OF A ROCK MAKE NOISE. — That is: Impious parents are like a root founded not deeply in earth but lightly and thinly upon a rock, which therefore together with the tree growing from it is easily shaken by the winds, and when shaken by the wind it rattles and resounds in its branches — but at the same time, along with the very noise, it is uprooted and torn out. For in a similar way the impious pompously make a great noise and resound for a short time, but because they do not have roots founded by God, they are shortly cut off and uprooted by Him together with their entire stock and posterity. The Greek text at this point does not have "sonant" [they make noise], but relegates it to the beginning of the following verse. Hence the Greek reads: "The descendants of the impious do not multiply branches, and unclean roots upon a hard rock" — that is, "and" (meaning "because") they are like impure roots poorly founded upon rock, and therefore they cannot put forth much offspring from themselves. Hence the Complu-
tensian edition translates: "upon a precipitous rock" — which, namely, drags down with it the root and the tree founded upon it headlong, and casts it down. The Tigurina: "The offspring of the impious shall not multiply branches, nor shall impure roots upon a high rock." For the Greek word "akrotomou" signifies both a hard and lofty rock, and a precipitous one. But from the Greek the word "si echei" (or in Doric, "achei"), that is, "they make noise," has dropped out; because "hme" immediately follows, but signifying something different, whence unskilled scribes, thinking one was superfluous, omitted it from this place, even though the sense requires it — otherwise a verb is lacking to complete the meaning.
He alludes to Wisdom 4:3: "Spurious shoots (in Greek 'moscheuomata,' that is, offshoots, runners, or new sprouts cut from a tree and planted in the ground — the translator Graecizes the word; for he derives 'vitulamina' from 'vitulus' [calf], just as the Greeks derive 'moschomata' from 'moschos,' that is, calf) shall not give deep roots, nor establish a stable foundation. And if they sprout in the branches for a time, being weakly set they shall be shaken by the wind, and by the violence of winds they shall be uprooted."
16. GREENNESS OVER EVERY WATER, AND AT THE BANK OF A RIVER IT SHALL BE PLUCKED UP BEFORE ALL GRASS. — The comparative word "just as" must be understood, which the Hebrews in parables and similes often suppress and leave to be understood. That is: The offspring, progeny, and prosperity of the impious is like greenness, that is, green grass, which "over" (that is, beside) "every" (that is, any) "water," on account of the abundance of moisture, quickly springs up and germinates indeed, but also quickly — before all other grass, that is, herbage or plants — is mowed down, or trampled, or plucked up; because it is situated at the bank of a river, where people walking customarily trample it with their feet, and animals graze upon it, since it is a place open and accessible to all.
For "viriditas" the Greek is "egu" or "agu" or "agu," which the Roman edition retains. Hence they translate "achi, super omnem aquam" ["achi, over every water"]. "Achi" is a Hebrew word signifying a marsh, says St. Jerome in his Traditions on Genesis. For Sirach alludes to the Septuagint which at Genesis 12:1 [actually 41:2], instead of what our translator with Aquila renders as "they were feeding in marshy places," retaining the Hebrew word "ochu," translates "they were feeding in achi." A scholiast says "achi" is "a thin and grassy nursery-bed." Our translator renders the Hebrew "achu" as "carectum" [sedge] at Job 8:11, following whom some translate this passage thus: "Sedge beside any water, and the banks of a river, is plucked up before any grass." Furthermore, the Tigurina, reading "aga" for "aga," that is, the most delicate
little stalk which first sprouts from the root of plants, and is therefore called "pullus" [shoot] by the Latins, translates thus: "Their shoot over any water, or the bank of a river, shall be crushed before all grass." The meaning comes to the same thing, although more freely, and against the testimony of the manuscripts, the Tigurina substitutes "agu" for "agu." The same thing it does here and there elsewhere, as I warned in the Prooemium — which our critics do in Cicero, Plautus, and Terence, conjecturing a scribal error and substituting a neigh-
boring word to correct it — which boldness is perhaps tolerable in profane writings, but not in sacred and hagiographic ones. The Syriac: "For the root of sinners is like an ear of grain that sprouts on the edge of a rock, and like a shoot that sprouts at the bank of a river, which withers before all other greenness."
He alludes to Job 8:11: "Can the rush live without moisture? Or can the sedge (in Hebrew 'achu,' which Sirach here renders in Greek as 'agu') grow without water? While it is still in flower, and is not plucked by hand, it withers before all other plants: so are the ways of all who forget God, and the hope of the hypocrite shall perish." And verse 17: "His roots shall be thickened upon a heap of stones, and he shall dwell among the rocks. If it swallows him up from his place, it shall deny him and say: 'I know you not.'"
17. GRACE LIKE A PARADISE IN (the Complutensian reads "WITH") BLESSINGS, AND MERCY ENDURES FOREVER. — Many take this as referring to the grace of God. So Rabanus: "The grace of God," he says, "which superabounds in the faithful and elect of God, like a paradise bears fruit of diverse kinds of virtues." And Lyranus: "Just as paradise," he says, "is a pleasant place full of good fruits, so the grace of God makes the soul gracious for God's habitation, and full of good works." And Dionysius: "With the impious failing in the manner just described," he says, "the grace of God through its gifts so beautifies, establishes, and delights the just, as that earthly paradise, a most pleasant place, is always tranquil. Therefore the Apostle says, Hebrews 13: 'It is best that the heart be established by grace.' And the Sage, Proverbs 10: 'The blessing of the Lord makes men rich, and no affliction shall be joined to them.'" This is a great consolation to the just man, even when most afflicted — that he is in the grace of God, which like a paradise heaps upon him every delight, beauty, fruit, and spiritual blessing; and so makes him a dwelling-place and garden of delight of God, in which God deals and converses familiarly with man. So Palacius. Hence the Syriac translates: "The works of the upright shall be blessed in remembrance, and the works of the just shall subsist forever; and he who draws near to them is like one who finds a treasure."
But it is better to take "grace" as meaning beneficence, both because grace here is opposed to the injustice of the impious discussed in verses 13 and 15, and because it is joined with mercy — for the latter hemistich in the Hebrew manner explains and completes the former. The meaning therefore is: "Grace," that is, kindness, beneficence, and mercy toward the unworthy and the poor, is "like a paradise" blessed by God, bringing forth the best and immortal fruits, which endure forever. For such is the increase of grace, merit, and glory that is caused by beneficence, as well as the good works which are performed by the poor sustained through almsgiving — all of which endure forever with respect to merit and reward. Hence Vatablus clearly translates: "Kindness is like a fortunate garden, and beneficence endures forever." For just as paradise was a place per-
petually green, blooming, and fruitful with every beauty and kind of fruit, so also mercy, in itself and in its effects and fruits, always flourishes and blooms.
The Apostle alludes to this, 2 Corinthians 9:6, where exhorting the Corinthians to almsgiving he says: "He who sows sparingly shall also reap sparingly: and he who sows in blessings shall also reap from blessings," etc.
Morally: Note how great a good beneficence and almsgiving are, since they are equated to the paradise of God. Therefore all the good things given by God to paradise, which I enumerated at Genesis 2:8, you may rightly attribute tropologically to beneficence.
18. THE LIFE OF A SELF-SUFFICIENT WORKER SHALL BE SWEETENED (Rabanus reads "indulcabitur"), AND IN IT YOU SHALL FIND TREASURE. — In the preceding verse he contrasted the miserable life of the unjust with the blessed life of the merciful and charitable giver; now he contrasts with the same the life of the worker, which holds the second place among blessed lives. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: "The life of the self-sufficient" — in Greek "autarkountos," that is, one content with his lot (others: one who has as much as suffices) — "worker," who prepares his livelihood by working with his hands, "shall be sweetened," that is, will appear sweet, quiet, pleasant, and agreeable, and will truly be so. "And," that is "because," "in it you shall find" — you who follow or embrace this life — "treasure," that is, great riches, both of quiet and joy, and of a good and holy conscience, and also of temporal wealth. For these through daily gains wonderfully increase day by day, especially because God blesses things so justly acquired by just labor, and increases and multiplies them. Hence St. Paul, 1 Timothy 6: "Godliness with contentment," he says, "is great gain" — in Greek "autarkeia," that is, with a soul self-sufficient and content with what it has.
The Greek text however reads differently, namely thus: "The life of a worker sufficient for himself shall be sweetened, and above both is he who finds a treasure." As if here the ternary of comparisons begins, which our translator begins at the following verse, so that Sirach here compares three things with each other, namely: first, the worker; second, the self-sufficient man; third, the one who finds a treasure — and he places this third above the two former, as if to say: Blessed is, first, the worker; second, the self-sufficient, that is, one content with his lot; but more blessed than both is the third, namely he who finds a treasure. For to him, without work and labor, as if to one sleeping, riches fly in by happy fortune, on account of which he becomes not only self-sufficient but also abundant and overflowing.
But here not three but two are being compared. For the worker and the self-sufficient man are not two but one and the same — otherwise Sirach would have added the conjunction "and" and denoted two by saying: "The life of the self-sufficient and of the worker shall be sweetened." The Tigurina saw this same point, whence it added the conjunction and translated: "The life of one content with his lot and living by his own work has sweetness; but greater than both is he who has obtained a treasure." Which Vatablus explains:
That is, to whom a thing has been left, not acquired by labor, according to that saying of Martial:
The things that make life happier. Most agreeably, Martial, these are: A thing not acquired by labor, but left by inheritance, etc.
But the Zurich translation added the conjunction "and" on its own authority against the testimony of the Greek codices, which all lack it. Therefore our Vulgate reading, as it is more fitting, so it is also more true, according to which workers and artisans should rejoice in their life and manual labor; for if they live content with these things, they will be happy, and in them they will find a treasure. Therefore Palacius rightly exclaims here: Why do you seek commerce, O men? Why offices in the houses of kings? Seek the life of a worker, who seeks for himself not riches, but what suffices: this life is the sweetest, this is a treasure, this is the natural life, the life which God established in paradise, a life harmful to no one, a life free from the evils of the world, a life most suited for gaining heaven.
Therefore Plato wisely, in Book V of the Republic, cites and praises that paradox of Hesiod: "The half is more than the whole," and applies it to greedy and ambitious tyrants, who wish to dominate everyone and expand their borders in every direction, when it would have been better to live content with their own few possessions. The same author, in Book III of the Laws, in order to show that the infinite power of princes, determined by no limits, is the present plague of all empires, adds that this happens because greedy and ambitious princes do not know that Hesiod rightly says: "The half often surpasses the whole, since it is harmful to take the whole thing; to take only the half is moderate; and the moderate clearly takes precedence over the immoderate and excessive, as being the better." So in lawsuits, greedy plaintiffs who desire the whole thing, unwilling to settle for half with the opposing party, often lose the whole, for whom it surely would have been more useful to seek half than the whole; since on account of the half which they refused, they lose the whole which they greedily pursued.
SECOND PART OF THE CHAPTER
19. CHILDREN, AND THE BUILDING OF A CITY SHALL ESTABLISH A NAME, AND ABOVE THESE A BLAMELESS WIFE SHALL BE COUNTED. — It should be read thus with the Roman and Greek editions, namely, "children, and building"; not "children's building." Again it should be read "above these," not "above this," as Jansenius and others read. For three things are here compared among themselves; for here begins the triad of comparisons, in which Sirach imitates Solomon, Proverbs chapter 30, verses 15, 18, 21, 29, comparing three things among themselves and preferring the third to the other two. The meaning therefore is, as if to say: There are two things that "establish a name," that is, that make a name famous and lasting, and that win long-lasting fame, namely first, children; second, "the building of a city," if someone builds a city, as Ninus built Nineveh, Nimrod Babylon, Alexander Alexandria, Romulus Rome; but to both must be preferred the third, namely "a blameless wife," in Greek γυνὴ ἄμωμος, that is, an irreproachable wife. So the Zurich translation: Children, it says, and a built city make a name stable; but more worthy than both is to be esteemed a blameless wife. The Complutensian edition is mutilated here; for it omits the third member about the wife, which the Roman edition supplies.
Moreover the Syriac for this one sentence gives two: Majesty and honor, it says, shall establish a name, and more than both he who finds wisdom. Building and planting renew a name, and more than both a wise wife.
Therefore first, "children" in the plural (for in Greek it is τέκνα), that is, an abundance of children makes famous and propagates the father's name, inasmuch as in them the father, as it were, survives and is represented, according to that saying of Euripides: "Male children are the pillars of houses." Hence children are called בנים banim, from בנה bana, that is, "he built," because they build up the house and family of the father. Therefore the Emperor Antoninus Pius, two days before he died, having admitted his friends, said about his son what Philip had said about Alexander, namely, that he died with equanimity, since he was leaving behind a son as another self. So Capitolinus in his Life of Antoninus. Second, "the building of a city" makes one famous, whether physical, as Cain built the first city of the world and called it Henochia from the name of his son Henoch, Genesis 4, or moral and legal, by which someone establishes a city with good laws and shapes it with good customs, as Solon gave laws to Athens, Lycurgus to Sparta, Numa to Rome. For these are celebrated as the lawmakers of cities. But to these two must be preferred a blameless wife. For what good is a crowd of children, what good is the glory of a name, if you have a wife who is unfaithful, immodest, rebellious, sharp-tongued, foolish, who continually torments, distresses, vexes, and kills you? For a wife is a companion of bed, table, and home; who accompanies you everywhere and clings to your side as your other half, so that if she is wicked, she everywhere intimately afflicts and tortures you, nor can you cast her off any more than you could cut away half your body. Add that, just as an honorable and prudent wife wins great distinction and reputation for her husband, according to that saying: "Her husband is known in the gates, when he sits among the elders of the land," Proverbs 31.
An indelible disgrace for a husband is a wife who is a harlot, or malicious and wicked. Such to the Emperor Antoninus was Faustina, to Socrates Xanthippe, to Samson Delilah. These women surely harmed the reputation of their husbands more than if they had died childless and as private citizens and had never presided over the government of the state. He therefore signifies that, in order for someone to gain a good name, he must above all take care that his wife be blameless; for otherwise she will bring him great disgrace. Finally, a virtuous wife bears and educates virtuous children, through whom she builds up the house and family, and consequently the city. Therefore in her you have all three things at once, which surpass one or two alone.
Mystically Rabanus says: "The construction, he says, of good works confirms the Christian name, because he truly proves himself to be a Christian who keeps the commandments of Christ by believing rightly and acting well: and above these a blameless wife, that is, a soul that is clean, holy, and undefiled, is counted. Therefore virginity holds the chief and supreme reward among the merits of the elect; because it is associated with the Angels in heaven, and follows the Lamb wherever He goes."
20. WINE AND MUSIC GLADDEN THE HEART, AND ABOVE BOTH THE LOVE OF WISDOM. — For this is spiritual, divine, and intimate to the soul, illuminating, sanctifying, and perfecting it; therefore it delights the soul far more than wine and music, which outwardly affect, tickle, and soothe only the ears and palate with bodily pleasure. The Zurich translation: Wine and music gladden the heart, but the study of wisdom more than both. The love of wisdom is fittingly compared and preferred to wine and music, because it is a spiritual wine inebriating the mind, and a spiritual music delighting the soul. Moreover the Syriac substitutes friendship for wisdom: Old wine, it says, gladdens the heart, and better than it is the friendship of a friend.
Note: "The love of wisdom" is properly the love of virtue. Among the virtues, however, charity holds first place; for true wisdom consists in the fear and love of God, according to chapter 1, verse 14: "The love of God is honorable wisdom;" see what was said there. "The love of wisdom" could also be taken for the wisdom of love, by hypallage, which is the wisdom of loving; for the highest wisdom is to know how to love God; or "the love of wisdom," that is, a wise love, for charity ought to be prudent. By a similar expression the Apostle in 2 Thessalonians 2:10 calls it "the love of the truth," that is, true love.
Morally: Learn how great is the force and energy of wisdom and charity from the fact that it is compared and preferred to wine and music, which are the most powerful things for stirring souls and bending them in any direction. Regarding wine, the matter is well known; regarding music, it is clear from what was said in chapter 32, verses 5 and 7. Hence St. Justin Martyr, celebrating the power of sacred music, namely the hymnody and psalmody of Christians that stirs up wisdom and charity, in Question 107 to the Orthodox, says: "This stirs the soul, he says, with a certain pleasure
He establishes as an heir of the heavenly kingdom, endows with grace and glory, and heaps with every good thing and makes blessed.
This is the second triad of delightful things, in which the palm is given to the love of wisdom, which is indeed charity, or the effect of charity; for this is what the Greek ἀγάπησις signifies. There follows the third, related to this one.
21. THE PIPE AND THE PSALTERY MAKE A SWEET MELODY, AND ABOVE BOTH A SWEET TONGUE. — The Syriac has "pure"; the Zurich translation: The pipe and the psaltery produce a sweet song; but a sweet tongue surpasses both, as if to say: Sweet speech affects and delights the mind more than the melody of musical instruments, both because this speech proceeding from the mouth and soul is living and vital, while those instruments are dead and empty; hence speech is more effective than they. For sweet speech carries with it, as it were, the inner honey and sweetness of the soul from which it flows, and conveys it to the ears and heart of the hearer, and thus imbues and sweetens it with its vital honey of divine sweetness, according to Proverbs 16:24: "A honeycomb, well-composed words"; and also because this speech is sensible, and carries with it prudence and wisdom, and fixes it in the mind of the hearer; and clinging there it moves, affects, and feeds the mind for a long time; while musical harmony immediately passes away with the sound and leaves nothing behind. Hence it happens that a sweet tongue calms anger, banishes sadness, and as it were charms away all passions, and persuades the hearer of anything. This has been seen, and is still seen, in the Apostles and Apostolic preachers, whose sweet tongue heals the broken-hearted, Isaiah 61:1. Likewise in peacemakers, who reconcile disagreeing minds, according to the saying: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called children of God," Matthew 5.
Hence Rabanus explains both verses thus: "Wine, he says, and the art of music with its instruments naturally delight and move the human soul through the sonority of the voice; but the love of wisdom, and a tongue that teaches sweetly, far more strengthens the understanding of the heart." So we see that gentle confessors attract penitents to themselves and bend them wherever they wish, and likewise gentle preachers influence the minds of their hearers more than harsh and threatening ones.
Again he fittingly compares and prefers the sweet tongue to the pipe and psaltery, because it is itself an animate and rational pipe and psaltery, which produces nothing but a sweet melody. Pierius, in Hieroglyphics 7, on the stag, chapter 1, relates that the stag, although a most fleet animal, is so detained by melody that standing still it allows itself to be captured and killed; how much more will a polite and gentle speech detain and befriend a rational man who is fleeing? The reason from first principles is that sweetness is friendly to nature and is, as it were, its honey and nectar, by which nature is nourished, led, and captured. Hence it is captured by the sweetness of milk, honey, sugar, etc., which produce sweet blood and thence sweet spirits both of loving and of speaking. Therefore Plutarch, in his Life of Artaxerxes, asserts that it was customary among the Persians to give honey mixed with milk as a drink,
because it produces the sweetest blood, and this in turn begets sweet and lovable affections and manners, as well as speech. Hence the Bridegroom says in Song of Songs 4:11: "Your lips drip as a honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue." And Proverbs 16:24: "A honeycomb, well-composed words: sweetness to the soul, health to the bones." And chapter 15:4: "A soothing tongue is a tree of life." And verse 1: "A soft answer turns away wrath." So Homer commends Nestor, because speech sweeter than honey flowed from his mouth. Memorable is what Valerius Maximus writes, Book 8, chapter 9, that Valerius calmed the rebellion of the Roman plebs against the senators with a sweet oration; and that Lucius Antonius, during the time of the Marian sedition, so stupefied with his eloquence the soldiers sent to butcher him, that they returned their already drawn and brandished swords, empty of blood, to their scabbards. So Cicero, in Book 2 of the Republic, compares the concord that sweetness of eloquence produces to pipes and musical harmony: "As in lyres, he says, and pipes, and in song itself and voices, a certain harmony must be maintained from distinct sounds; and this harmony, from the modulation of the most dissimilar voices, is nevertheless made one and congruent: so a state, regulated by nature with the highest, lowest, and middle orders interposed, like sounds, consists in a harmony of the most dissimilar elements, and what is called harmony by musicians in song, that is in a state concord, which without justice can in no way exist."
22. YOUR EYE WILL DESIRE GRACE AND BEAUTY, AND ABOVE THESE GREEN CROPS, — that is, green things sown, green sprouts. Some manuscripts read "the green of sowing"; in Greek χλόην σπόρου, that is, the greenness of seed; the Syriac: Beauty and comeliness, the desire of the eyes, and more than both the ears of grain of the field; the Zurich translation: Let your eye desire elegance and beauty; but a verdant crop is more pleasing than both. Therefore "green crops" properly are green fields of grain; for these are very green, and with their verdure and the hope of a rich harvest they wonderfully refresh the eyes and spirits of those who gaze upon them; indeed these alone are properly green. Hence Simon Porcius, in his Commentary on Colors, distinguishes the green color from the herbaceous. Extensively, however, by green crops understand all green sprouts, and also the leaves of herbs and other plants. He passes from the ears to the eyes. This is therefore a triad of objects that delight the eyes, as if to say: The elegance of things, and the beauty or comeliness of bodies refresh the sight; but the greenness of fields does this far more; this therefore is the greatest elegance and beauty, and for many reasons.
The first reason is that the elegance of things and the beauty of bodies is often artificially made and painted, as when painters paint things elegantly, or sculptors sculpt; or when women color their faces with antimony, white lead, and rouge, or adorn themselves with elaborate garments: but the greenness of plants is sincere and simple, as being implanted in them by nature. For nature surpasses art, and natural beauty surpasses the artificial, according to that saying of Christ about the lilies, Matthew 6: "I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed like one of these."
The second reason is that the beauty of bodies is alluring and entices to base desire: but greenness is pure, undefiled, and chaste, and produces a similar delight for the eyes.
Palacius gives the third reason, explaining thus: The eye delights in seeing pleasing and beautiful buildings, or in seeing the elegance and beauty of women: but you, my son, desire your fields sown with wheat and verdant. For Quintilian rightly says: "It is foolish to value blushing violets more than olive trees laden with fruit. From the former gather chaff, from the latter gather grain."
The fourth reason is that among all the species and colors of things by which the eye is nourished, the green color stands out, especially the natural green of fields, both because green is most perfectly tempered to the sight, and consists in a certain mean very well proportioned to vision. For the white color excessively disperses, scatters, and dissolves the sight; conversely, black contracts, tightens, compresses, and saddens the sight: but green, being in the middle between both, neither disperses too much nor contracts too much, but affects the sight in a balanced manner. The reason is, on the one hand, that white has much light, which disperses, and black much opacity, which contracts. For from the mixture of the bright and the dark arise all the varieties of colors, as Aristotle and the Philosophers teach in Book 3 of On the Soul; and green has its light tempered by a fitting opacity, yet in such a way that it sharpens, stimulates, delights, and strengthens the sight. Hence painters produce green from yellow and blue ground and mixed together; for yellow and blue wonderfully temper light with opacity. Furthermore, the species of greenness are very many and almost infinite, so that every herb and plant has its own distinctive green different from the others, so that anyone looking at a field or garden filled with plants sees very many varieties and species of greenness, some more and more whitish, others more and more blackish; some dark, some bright, some even shining and brilliant; and to behold all these together is wonderfully refreshing to the eyes.
So Aristotle, in Problems, section 31, number 20, teaches that the eye is refreshed and improved by green things, both because the green color is a mean between white and black, and because it is more moist and moderate: "The eyes, he says, when they strain toward solid things, labor and grow weary; when toward moist and soft things, because nothing resists them, they wander about aimlessly and dissolve in license; but when toward green things, because these are moderately solid yet contain sufficient moisture, they are not harmed at all, and they rest upon them more readily, because the appearance of this kind of color presents itself moderately to the sight." Moreover, green plants are, as it were, the tapestries and curtains of God, with which He clothes this hall of the world and its fields, and these surely adorn them more than golden hangings adorn the palaces of princes. For verdure arises from moisture; and therefore
verdure is vigor, and as it were the life of plants, because its nourishment is moisture; hence all herbs, on account of their vital moisture, have verdure, and the herbaceous and vivid color is green. Conversely, those that dry up and die lose their verdure. Therefore as varied and as variously mixed with earthly matter is the moisture, so varied is the verdure that arises. And this happens in very many and almost innumerable ways. Hence verdure signifies the vigor of a thing, and so in Latin viror (greenness) took its name from vigor (strength): hence one speaks of a green age, a green old age, green spirits, that is, lively, vigorous, and energetic. Finally, the beauty of the emerald comes from its greenness. Hear Pliny, Book 37, chapter 1: "No color is more pleasant to the sight of the eyes. For we gaze eagerly at green herbs and foliage; but at emeralds all the more willingly, because nothing at all that is compared with them is greener in its verdure."
Allegorically, Rabanus says: "Green crops, he says, surpass grace and beauty; since the preaching of the Gospel sown throughout the whole world excels, by the faith of the nations and the greenness of good works, the adornment of the temple, and the diversity of worship, and the observance of ceremonial festivals which the former people (the Jews) had under the law."
Tropologically: Green crops are the verdure and fervor of the young, for example of novices beginning to serve God piously and religiously; for these surpass all the elegance and beauty of things, and delight the eyes of beholders more; yet more than these does the mature and solid harvest of virtues nourish the mind, which is seen in holy men and elders. To this end applies that saying:
More pleasing is virtue coming in a beautiful body.
Again, green crops were the first Christians and especially St. Stephen and the other disciples and deacons of Christ, who, verdant in age and vigorous in spirit, wonderfully refreshed the eyes of God and of men with their virtue and fervor: whence from this sowing there afterward grew up so great a harvest of Virgins, Martyrs, Religious, and other faithful. Similarly, green crops were boys, girls, and young people who consecrated the vigor of their age, namely childhood or adolescence, to God through the grace implanted in their minds by God, through martyrdom, the vow of virginity, and religious life, such as St. Agnes, St. Cecilia, St. Prisca, St. Pancratius, St. Vitus, St. Lawrence, St. Vincent, and innumerable others, whose verdure of virtue was a delight and wonder to all.
Hence St. Augustine, in Book 2 of On Genesis against the Manichees, chapter 3, by "green herb" or "the green of the field," which God produced on the third day of the world, Genesis 1:11, mystically understands "the spiritual and invisible creature, on account of the vigor of life," such as are the angels, to whom Christ compares and equates virgins, Matthew 22:30. Hence St. Augustine adds: "Because even now God makes the green of the field, but by raining upon the earth, that is, when
the verdant herb, blooming with its flowers, delights the eyes of beholders, and gradually withering, it loses its beauty and turns into hay that must be trampled: so all the beauty of men blossoms in little children, flowers in the young, thrives in men of mature age, and suddenly stiffens, the head grows white, the face is wrinkled, the skin that was formerly stretched tight contracts; and at the final end, which here is called evening, that is, old age, one can scarcely move, so that one cannot be recognized as the person one formerly was, or is almost changed into another." Hence he concludes: "Compared with eternity, the length even of all time is brief. Everything that seems long in this world, before You, O God, is short; for the days and years to which human life is confined, if compared with eternity, will be reckoned as nothing." This is the fourth triad of comparisons; there follows the fifth.
He causes souls to revive through His word, but He waters them from the clouds, that is, from the Scriptures of the Prophets and Apostles."
So also St. Ambrose, Book 3 of the Hexaemeron, chapter 7, by the green herb understands "the greenness of life, which like a flower of a more cheerful life holds out pleasantness, namely a young person blooming with the verdure of the age of puberty." And in the following chapter he graphically depicts the wonderful manner of germination: "Then, he says, when the grain has opened itself, it puts forth a blade, the very appearance of the sprouting greenness being already pleasing, which immediately reveals the species sown by its likeness. The eyes are nourished by the pleasing spectacle." He adds that such things are the seedbeds of virtues. Finally he appends wonderful remedies from growing things: "A sick stag, he says, chews little branches of the olive and is made well. Locusts also are freed from sickness by olive leaves that they have nibbled. Bramble leaves thrown upon a serpent kill it. Gnats will not touch you if you boil wormwood herb with oil and anoint yourself with it."
St. Bernard adds, in Sermon 60 on the Song of Songs, who by the verdant and flowering vines, of which Song of Songs 2:13 speaks, understands novices: "The flowering vines, he says, have given forth their fragrance, which is nevertheless a sign of approaching fruit. This fragrance puts serpents to flight. They say that when the vines are flowering, every venomous reptile yields its place, and cannot at all bear the fragrance of the new flowers, which our novices should note with desire, and act with confidence, considering what kind of spirit they have received, whose first-fruits the demons cannot endure. If such is the fervor of a novice, what will perfect and complete holiness be? Let the fruit be judged from the flower, and the power of the flavor be estimated from the strength of the fragrance. The flowering vines have given forth their fragrance." And below: "Moreover, if the vine is the soul, the flower the work, and the fragrance the reputation, what is the fruit? Martyrdom. And truly the fruit of the vine is the blood of the martyr. When He shall give sleep to His beloved, he says, behold the inheritance of the Lord: children, the reward, the fruit of the womb. I had almost said, the fruit of the vine; why should I not call the blood of the grape the most pure blood of an innocent, the blood of a just man? Why not the proven, precious red must, plainly from the vine of Sorec, pressed out in the winepress of suffering? Finally, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."
Again St. Gregory, in Book 30 of the Moralia, chapter 15, explaining that passage in Job 39:8 about the wild ass: "He searches out every green thing," says: "Dry indeed are all things which, created in time, are dried up from the pleasantness of the present life by the coming end, as if by a summer sun. But those things are called green which wither by no passage of time. Therefore for this wild ass to search out green things is for every holy man, despising transitory things, to desire those that will remain forever."
St. Jerome, moreover, in Epistle 137 to Cyprian, explaining that passage, Psalm 89: "In the morning let it pass like grass, in the morning let it flower and pass away, in the evening let it fall, harden, and wither:" says: "Every human condition will be compared to a dream. For just as in the morning
lay aside the swelling of your heart, the harshness of your manners, when your attentive wife comes to meet you; drive away indignation when your gentle spouse calls you to love. You are not a master, but a husband; you did not receive a slave, but a wife; God willed you to be a guide of the weaker sex, not a tyrant. Return effort with effort, return love with gratitude."
Moreover the Apostle suggests an effective means for this union of husband and wife, Ephesians 5:33, saying: "Let every man love his wife as himself: and let the wife fear (reverence) her husband." Commenting on these words, St. Chrysostom, in Homily 20, notes that between husband and wife there is a difference of condition, because they are unequal in status, since the husband is the head and the wife is subject, who looks up to and reverences her husband, but through love this difference is removed and they become equals; for the love of the husband creates, as it were, a counterbalance to the reverence of the wife. For when the wife reverently lowers and submits herself to the husband, the love of the husband descends to her, raises and elevates her, and makes her his equal and peer. The love of the husband therefore corresponds equally to the reverence and submission of the wife, and with it creates an equilibrium, so that between husband and wife in a certain inequality there is equality, and in a dissimilarity of weights there is balance. St. Chrysostom alludes to the Greek word σύζυγος which means "spouse": and ζυγός is an ambiguous word meaning both yoke and balance, so that σύζυγους can be translated as co-yoked or co-balanced just as well as spouses. Just as therefore equilibrium in a balance creates equality and concord of the pans: so love, creating an equilibrium between husband and wife, brings about their parity, union, and peace.
But hear Chrysostom: "The wife holds the second place of authority, and therefore let her not seek equality of honor; for she is under the head, lest he despise her as a subject, for she is the body. And if the head despises the body, it too will perish together. But let him bring in love, which responds equally to obedience and submission, as is the case when the hands, feet, and all the other members serve the head, and the head in turn takes care and provision for them, having all sensation in them. Nothing is better than such a marriage. And how can there be love, he asks, in the presence of fear? Then certainly most of all. For she who fears her husband also loves him; she who loves, fears as her head and loves as her member; since the head too is a member of the whole body. For this reason God made the woman subject and set the man over her, so that there might be peace. For where there is equality of honor, or where the household dominates, or where all exercise authority, there can never be peace; but it is necessary that there be one authority, and this everywhere in bodily matters."
Tropologically, the best and most pleasing union is that by which in a person the lower part submits to the higher, namely the concupiscible faculty to the rational, and the senses to the mind, as a wife submits to her husband, and is united and in harmony with him in all things; for this is the highest friendship, companionship, and marriage. See what I said about the good of concord in chapter 25, verse 2.
24. BROTHERS COME TO HELP IN THE TIME OF TRIBULATION, AND ABOVE THEM MERCY SHALL DELIVER. — The Greek for "to help" has εἰς (for) help. Hence the Syriac: A brother and helper in the time of tribulation, and more than both almsgiving redeems. And the Zurich translation: Brothers and aid will profit in the time of calamity; but mercy, more excellent than both, is a deliverer, as if to say: Brothers will come to meet their afflicted brother in the time of tribulation, to help him and free him; but far more will mercy exercised toward the wretched by one who is merciful come to meet him, if he should fall into some misery, to free him from it; because it will obtain from God the help and grace that will rescue and save him, according to Tobit, chapter 4: "Almsgiving frees from all sin and from death, and will not suffer the soul to go into darkness." See what was said in chapter 3, verse 34. The parable teaches, says Jansenius, that more trust should be placed in the protection of good works than in the protection of men, however friendly they may be. For the help that a brother gives to a brother in the time of tribulation is indeed most welcome, most secure, and most powerful; but the help of almsgiving given surpasses it: for this help is from God, the other from men.
This is the sixth triad of comparisons; there follows the seventh. For Sirach multiplies triads in order to shadow forth in them the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; for this Trinity, being essential, uncreated, and immense, is the origin and source of every created and finite triad, and thus expresses and represents itself in them; and for this reason it has inserted into all things a certain triplicity, whether of powers, or of operations, or of similar things, as an image, as it were, of itself, as I showed in Amos, chapter 1, verse 3, but in such a way that it itself immeasurably surpasses each and every one of them.
25. GOLD AND SILVER ARE THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FEET (in Greek ἐμπρισμοὺς ποδός, that is, they make one stand, establish, raise, strengthen, and stabilize the foot): AND ABOVE BOTH, GOOD COUNSEL IS WELL-PLEASING, — supply "is"; that is, it is well-pleasing, welcome, and acceptable. For the Greek is βουλὴ εὐδοκιμήσει, that is, counsel is approved, as if to say: The wealth of gold and silver strengthens a man and his position, so that he stands firmly in it and cannot easily be cast down from it, and so that he walks confidently and securely in it: but far more is sound counsel approved and valued; for this far more strengthens him and directs his steps, so that he walks steadily without fear of falling or stumbling. Hence the Arabic translates: Gold and silver establish (the Syriac, confirm) the foot: and better than all these is good counsel; the Zurich translation: Gold and silver will have established someone's position; but prudence is more commendable than both.
For, as Isocrates says to Demonicus: "Wisdom alone is an immortal possession. Consider it best that good fortune comes from the gods, but good counsel from ourselves." But receive
this with a grain of salt, namely that counsel is from ourselves, yet with God's help; while the goods of fortune are for the most part from God alone.
The reason from first principles is that gold and silver are inanimate and external, while counsel is the intimate core of a matter, as it were its foundation, indeed its soul. For just as reason directs a man to act and live rationally, so counsel directs actions and affairs, so that they are done prudently and stand firmly. For counsel suggests all the supports and props of a matter, and removes all its obstacles and everything contrary to its stability. Therefore kingdoms, republics, cities, colleges, and assemblies that are governed by counsel stand firm, grow, and are exalted, according to Proverbs 11:14: "Where there is no governor, the people shall fall: but there is safety where there are many counsels." For just as the safety and course of a ship depends on a skilled helmsman and rudder, so the safety of a republic depends on a wise counselor and counsel. And chapter 20:18: "Designs are strengthened by counsels: and wars are to be managed by governments." For in war, counsel avails more than many soldiers. So the Romans "possessed every place by their counsel and their patience," 1 Maccabees 8:3. Alexander the Great, when asked by what means he had conquered the world in so short a time, answered: "By counsels, eloquence, and the imperial art," according to Stobaeus, Sermon 54. Hence Vegetius, Book 3, chapter 9, greatly recommends the counsels of wise men to an army commander. Passienus Crispus, stepfather of the Emperor Nero, used to say that he preferred the counsel of certain men to their benefactions. The Emperor Antoninus Pius did nothing in military or civil affairs except by the counsel of prudent men, saying: "It is more fair that I should follow the counsel of so many such friends, than that so many such friends should follow the will of me alone." So Julius Capitolinus in his Deeds. Memorable is the maxim of Euripides: "A single right counsel conquers a great band of soldiers." For moderate forces armed with counsel can do more than great forces devoid of counsel. Paulus Aemilius used to say: "A general ought to be an old man, if not in age, at least in character and counsel." Finally Antonius in the Melissa, Part 2, Sermon 60: "Such as is a city, he says, whose walls are destroyed, such is a man who does not do everything with counsel." So Hushai by his counsel did more to raise up David than if he had given him many talents of gold. For he restored him, a fugitive from the face of Absalom, to his kingdom, 2 Samuel 27. The same was accomplished by the counsel that Jethro gave to Moses, Exodus 18.
Mystically, Hugh by counsel understands the Evangelical counsel, for example of poverty, as if to say: Evangelical poverty is better and more pleasing to God and the Saints than all the riches of gold and silver; for it is written: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven," Matthew 5.
There follows the eighth triad, or as others (who count the first at verse 18: "The life of a self-sufficient worker, etc.") reckon it, the ninth, namely the last and most perfect, of the fear of the Lord; just as the ninth choir of angels, namely the Seraphim, is the highest and most perfect; because they supremely fear, that is, reverence, love, and glorify God. Hence from the ardor of their love they are called "Seraphim," that is, burning and inflamed, and inflaming others.
26. RICHES (in Greek χρήματα, that is, money, wealth) AND STRENGTH EXALT THE HEART; AND ABOVE THESE THE FEAR OF THE LORD. — "Strength," in Greek ἰσχύς, that is, powers, vigor, fortitude; therefore it is wrongly read in Rabanus as "food" instead of "strength." The Syriac: Fortitude and vigor exalt the heart, and more than both the fear of God. The meaning is, as if to say: Wealth and strength raise up a man's heart and make him spirited and bold, so that he fears no one; but far more does the fear of the Lord raise up the heart and make one spirited; for although human fear contracts, weakens, and depresses the heart, yet the fear of God dilates and lifts up the heart and increases one's powers; both because this fear makes a man obedient to God and exactly observant of His laws, whom therefore God protects as His faithful servant; and because this fear causes hope in God, which makes a man, as one who relies on God, fearless, indeed almost omnipotent, so that he may say with the Apostle: "I can do all things in Him who strengthens me"; and because this fear either is love, or includes the love of God; and God loves in return those who love Him as His dearest friends and children, protects them, and defends them against all enemies and every adversity. Finally, the fear of God exalts the heart because it gives joy to the heart, gives length of days, gives every blessing both in life and in death, as was said in chapters 1 and 2.
Hence the Zurich translation renders: Riches and power indeed raise up the spirit; but the worship of the Lord surpasses both. For the fear of God is the veneration, religion, worship, service, obedience, and love of God. Thus the fear of God so exalted the heart of David that, in the midst of dangers, besieged on every side by Saul and his enemies, trusting, secure, and cheerful, he sang: "The Lord is my light, whom shall I fear? The Lord is the protector of my life, of whom shall I be afraid? If armies should stand together against me, my heart shall not fear; if a battle should rise up against me, in this I will hope," Psalm 26. So we see the apostles and apostolic men, armed with the fear of God, magnanimously attempting the greatest things and successfully accomplishing them; and daily attempting and accomplishing to subject to themselves kings, princes, wise men, and the wealthy, to convert provinces and kingdoms, and to subject the whole world to Christ.
Therefore St. Basil, on that verse of Psalm 14, verse 4: The wicked (in Greek, annihilated) is brought to nothing in his sight; but he glorifies those who fear the Lord, writes thus: "A truly great and excellent spirit is needed, one that allows itself to be bent in no direction by human affairs, and that, endowed with manly fortitude, has already attained the highest habit of justice, to distribute and apportion his right to each according to dignity, and knows how to bring to nothing those who act wickedly; however great the magistracy with which they are powerful, however great the riches with which they vaunt themselves, however distinguished they may be by the splendor of their birth
conspicuous and illustrious, however much they may exalt and celebrate the splendor of their name; if only some wickedness of life is detected in them; to bring these, I say, to nothing, that is, to esteem them not even a little, belongs to a truly lofty and excellent spirit. But on the contrary, those who fear the Lord, even if they are poor, ignoble, unlearned in speech, weak in body; to exalt these with glory and praises and to consider them blessed befits one who, instructed in spiritual doctrine, has learned that such are truly blessed. For it belongs to the same well-trained mind both to account as nothing one who acts wickedly, however famous and powerful, and to glorify one who fears the Lord, however humble, of a poor and despicable life, possessing nothing of external goods that might invite us to commend him."
27. IN THE FEAR OF GOD THERE IS NO DIMINISHMENT, AND IN IT THERE IS NO NEED TO SEEK AID. — So the Latin Roman edition and the Greek Complutensian, although the edition corrected at Rome has φόβῳ, that is, "to the fear," instead of "in the fear." He persists in his eulogy of the fear of God, as the pinnacle of wisdom and of every good, and as is his custom, digresses into its praises. He says therefore: In the fear of God there is no diminishment; in Greek ἐλάττωσις, that is, diminution, deficiency, want, as if to say: Nothing is lacking to the fear of God to save a man: for it suffices by itself, even if other things are wanting; therefore there is no need for anyone to seek a helper or aid to assist the fear of God in saving a man, as if it were by itself diminished and insufficient for this, and in need of another's help. For the fear of God either embraces or obtains from God all other virtues and goods. Hence the Syriac: In the fear of God there is no deficiency, and there is no need to seek a helper with it; and Vatablus: Nothing is lacking to the religion of the Lord, nor need you desire aid in it, according to Psalm 33: "Fear the Lord, all you His saints; for there is no want to those who fear Him. The rich have wanted and have hungered; but those who seek the Lord shall not be deprived of any good." In all other aids and things there is diminution and deficiency; and therefore all need the help and aid of another; but it is otherwise with the fear of God; because this relies on God, and has and can do all things in God, according to that saying of Jacob to Joseph, Genesis 49:24: "His bow rested upon the strong, etc. The God of your father shall be your helper." And that saying of Jacob to Asher, Deuteronomy 33:26: "The rider of the heavens is your helper; His magnificence drives the clouds, His dwelling is on high, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He shall cast out the enemy from before your face, and shall say: Be crushed." See what was said there. He who fears God therefore needs no one's help, because he is aided and supported by the help of God.
28. THE FEAR OF THE LORD IS LIKE A PARADISE OF BLESSING, AND ABOVE ALL GLORY THEY HAVE COVERED IT, — namely the fear of the Lord. He said in the preceding verse that fear removes every evil; now he says it wins every good, as if to say: The fear of God is "like a paradise of blessing," that is, blessed by God, to which God has given His blessing, that is, His bounty, adorning and enriching it with every pleasantness, every kind of fruit, abundance, and excellence. For just as He fills paradise with every kind of fruit, so He heaps upon the one who fears Him every kind of virtue, and especially feeds him with the tree of life, that is, the Eucharist, as the bread of immortality; which wins for him true and blessed immortality, as Christ promised, John 6:52. In a similar way, at verse 17, He compared "grace," that is, beneficence, to a paradise of blessing. Just as therefore hell is where mortal sin is, so paradise and heaven is where the grace and fear of God is, where no guilt of crime gnaws at the conscience: for the fear of God makes the soul blessed, as I said in chapter 34. Hence the Saints who fear God are called in Scripture "Heavens," according to Psalm 18:1: "The heavens declare the glory of God." And Psalm 88: "The heavens shall confess Your wonders." And Apocalypse 12: "Rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them." Therefore "above all glory," that is, beyond all honor and glory, both God and men and angels "have covered," that is, have clothed and adorned the fear of the Lord; inasmuch as they praise, honor, celebrate, exalt, and magnify the one who fears God above all others, not only in words but also in deeds; because they adorn him with their gifts, graces, honors, dignities, privileges, stations, ranks, and thus with every grace and glory.
Hence the Syriac: The fear of God is exalted above all things; lay hold of it, my son, and do not let it go; for there is nothing like it. The fear of God is blessed in its time, and above all honor it is praised. And Vatablus: The religion of the Lord is like a fortunate garden, in the covering of which all magnificence is surpassed. Our translator reads ἐκάλυψαν, that is, "they covered," in the plural. But the Complutensian and Roman editions read in the singular ἐκάλυψε, that is, "He covered, He clothed," supply, God covered paradise, as well as the fear and the one who fears God. Others translate: The fear of the Lord is like a happy paradise, whose covering surpasses all glory. The fear of God therefore is a gem, a veil, a golden robe, an emerald diadem, a royal cloak, which far more adorns the one who fears God than all purples and scepters adorn kings and princes. He also alludes to the blessings and benefits given to the Patriarchs who feared God, as if to say: You will obtain these and more, and will be crowned with them, if you fear God. But he especially alludes to that blessing which Jacob pronounced upon Joseph, Genesis 49:25: "The Almighty shall bless you with the blessings of heaven above, the blessings of the deep that lies beneath, the blessings of the breasts and of the womb. The blessings of your father are strengthened by the blessings of his fathers, until the desire of the everlasting hills should come; may they be upon the head of Joseph, and upon the crown of the Nazarite among his brothers." Moses when dying pronounced similar blessings upon Joseph, Deuteronomy 33:13. How therefore should the just man perpetually rejoice, exult, and jubilate, surrounded and as it were overwhelmed by so many blessings of God! How secure he should be in adversities and difficulties
secure, constant, magnanimous, whom God crowns on every side with His mercy and compassions! Moreover the Syriac adds here two maxims that are lacking in the Greek and Latin: My son, he says, be courageous, do not refuse. Do not be inclined to kill and slow to give life.
THIRD PART OF THE CHAPTER
29. MY SON, IN THE TIME OF YOUR LIFE DO NOT BE IN WANT; FOR IT IS BETTER TO DIE THAN TO BE IN WANT. — He returns to what he said in verse 18: "The life of a self-sufficient worker shall be sweetened;" to show how much idleness must be avoided, which is the cause of poverty, and how much labor and work must be embraced, which is the cause of wealth and abundance. For the fear of God teaches both, according to that saying of Paul: "Godliness with contentment is great gain," 1 Timothy 6.
For "be in want" and "to be in want," the Greek is ἐπαιτῇ, that is, to beg: because want is the cause of begging. It is therefore a metonymy. For our translator skillfully expressed the cause for the effect, which ordinarily follows from such a cause; hence the Greek elegantly reads thus: Τέκνον ζωὴν ἐπαιτήσεως μὴ ζήσῃς· κρεῖσσον ἀποθανεῖν ἢ ἐπαιτεῖν, that is, as the Complutensian: Do not live a life of begging (the Roman, of mendicancy; others, do not live a beggar's life; it is better to die than to beg. The Zurich translation: My son, beware lest you live by begging; it is better to be dead than to beg, as if to say: My son, do not by idleness and sloth cast yourself into utter destitution and the necessity of continually begging; for want and destitution here is understood not as any slight want, but as grave and continuous, which compels a man to live by begging. Otherwise there is no one, not even a king, who is not sometimes in need of something.
The reason is that the life of beggars is the most wretched, the most miserable, the most squalid, the most burdensome both to others and to themselves; and especially because among the Jews it was infamous; for it was a sign of wickedness and a criminal life. For to punish this, God had threatened the Jews, and actually inflicted upon them, scarcity of goods and beggary; just as conversely He had promised to the just and to those who kept His law, wealth and abundance of goods, as is clear from Leviticus 26, almost the entire chapter, and Deuteronomy 15:4: "There shall be no one in need or begging among you." Hence the Psalmist also assigns among the other curses of the wicked this one: "Let his children be carried about vagabonds, and beg," Psalm 108. And among the blessings of the pious this one: "I have not seen the just forsaken, nor his seed seeking bread," Psalm 36. But Christ removed this stigma, and moreover declared the poor in spirit blessed and Himself embraced this poverty, and proposed it to be followed by Christians, especially by Ecclesiastics and Religious who are eager for perfection. For this is a poverty not compelled but voluntary, willingly undertaken for the exercise of humility, patience, and penance, so that a man, free from earthly desires and cares, might devote himself entirely to God and
the contemplation of heavenly things, and through this be blessed by God with the greatest riches in heaven. For such a one does not look to another's table, as follows, but to God Himself, who promised to those who serve Him and seek the kingdom of heaven that He would add temporal goods as well. Such a one also, by praying, preaching, teaching, etc., is more useful to the commonwealth than if he labored with his hands. Hence the Apostle, 1 Corinthians 9: "If we, he says, have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things?" Indeed Christ, Luke 10: "The laborer is worthy of his food." Hence St. Francis, in the Rule, chapter 8, earnestly commending poverty to his followers: "Let the brothers, he says, appropriate nothing to themselves, neither house, nor place, nor any thing, but as pilgrims and strangers in this world, serving the Lord in poverty and humility, let them go for alms confidently. Nor should they be ashamed; because the Lord made Himself poor for us in this world. This is that eminence of the highest poverty, which has made you, my dearest brothers, heirs of the kingdom of heaven, made you poor in possessions, exalted you in virtues. Let this be your portion, which leads into the land of the living; clinging to it totally, may you wish to have nothing else forever under heaven for the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Tropologically, Rabanus fittingly applies these words to sloth and laziness in practicing virtues and acquiring the merits and rewards of good works: "Wisdom admonishes us, he says, not to lose through idleness the time granted to us, but rather to labor by believing rightly, by meditating attentively on the law of God, and by working well; so that here we may have the riches of virtues, and in the future eternal life. For it is better to depart quickly from this present life than to live here for a long time uselessly; because the idleness of a long time will have greater punishment in torments." He then cites the example of the foolish virgins who, lacking oil, while they were begging for and seeking it, were shut out from the heavenly wedding; and of the servants who, diligently investing the talents of their master, received from him an eternal reward, Matthew 25.
30 and 31. A MAN WHO LOOKS TO ANOTHER'S TABLE, HIS LIFE IS NOT TO BE COUNTED AS A LIFE; FOR HE FEEDS HIS SOUL WITH ANOTHER'S FOOD. BUT A DISCIPLINED AND LEARNED MAN WILL GUARD HIMSELF. — For "his life is not in the thought of sustenance," the Greek is, οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ ἐν λογισμῷ ζωή, that is, his life is not in the estimation, reckoning, computation, "of life," as if to say: Such a life is not to be esteemed and reckoned a life, but a death
rather a long and continual death; because he continually is in want, hungers, begs, is despised and ridiculed. Hence among the Greeks such a life is called ἀβίωτος βίος, that is, a life without life, a life that is not vital, the life of the wretched who are dying rather than living. Our translator could also be understood this way; for often "sustenance" is put for "life," because life is sustained by food and nourishment, so that it is a metonymy. More plainly, however, you may explain our text and consequently the Greek thus, as if to say: The beggar who, since he does not have a table and food to nourish himself, is forced to look to another's table to be fed; this man, I say, leads an idle and lazy life, and does not think about working to provide himself with sustenance: For he feeds his soul, that is, his life, with another's food. For "feeds," the Greek is ἀλισγήσει, that is, "he will contaminate"; because the life of beggars is filthy, miserable, destitute, vile, squalid, foolish, and infamous, indeed bestial and canine; for dogs beg at the master's table and continually look to him to throw them a bone to gnaw; hence a beggar does not have his own life, but another's; for his life is in the power not of himself, but of the rich man to whom he looks and who feeds him; so that if the rich man does not wish to feed him, he must be deprived of life and consumed by hunger; just as prisoners depend on the hand and word of the warden of the prison, to receive from him food and life, or they will be consumed by hunger and forced to die. Therefore "a disciplined and learned man," that is, a prudent and wise man, "will guard himself" from falling by his own laziness into so miserable a life; but rather by laboring will provide himself with food, so that he may lead his own life, honorable, peaceful, and pleasant.
Hence the Zurich translation renders: The life of a man looking to another's table is not to be deemed a life; for he saddens (Vatablus: defiles) his soul with another's food; which a prudent and learned man will beware of. The Complutensian editors, reading οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ βίος, translate thus: A man looking to another's table does not have life in the reckoning of life; he will defile his soul with another's food; but a wise and learned man will guard himself. The Roman editors, reading οὐκ ἔστιν αὐτοῦ ἐν λογισμῷ ζωή, translate: A man looking to another's table, his life is not in the computation of life, etc.; others: His life is not to be held as life, etc.; but a knowing and learned man will beware of this. The Syriac: A man who hopes in another's table, no one will reckon him alive. He who loves pleasures hates his own soul; and to a man who knows them, they are a pain of the bowels.
32. IN THE MOUTH OF THE SHAMELESS, POVERTY WILL BE SWEET AND IN HIS BELLY A FIRE SHALL BURN. — So the Roman edition. For "shameless," the Greek is ἀναιδοῦς, that is, impudent, and so reads Rabanus, Jansenius, and others; and also the Syriac: In the mouth of the impudent, it says, begging will be sweet, and like a fire it burns in his midst.
For "will be sweet," some incorrectly read "will be trampled"; for the Greek is γλυκανθήσεται. By "poverty" is metonymically understood begging and the beggar's life, of which want and laziness are the cause: for this is what the Greek ἐπαιτεῖν signifies. Otherwise this sentence would be contrary to that in chapter 13:30: "Most wretched is poverty in the mouth of the wicked." The meaning therefore is, as if to say: A foolish and shameless man, who lacks prudence as much as modesty, considers begging sweet; because he prefers, being lazy, to beg shamelessly with his mouth rather than to labor honestly with his hands to provide himself with sustenance: for he prefers laziness to labor, ease to honor, shamelessness to modesty. Therefore he will suffer punishment and loss: "For in his belly and stomach a fire," that is, hunger stirred up by the heat of the stomach, will blaze up, and will afflict and torment him; whereas if he had been willing to labor, he would have abundantly driven away all hunger, and at the same time would have provided for his modesty, reputation, and honor.
Hence the Arabic translates: The request or petition of the shameless, fear is in his mouth; like a fire it burns in his belly; the Zurich translation: To the mouth of the shameless, begging is sweet (others, mendicancy); a fire burns in his belly. So we see vile and vagabond wanderers preferring to beg foolishly and shamelessly rather than to seek their sustenance by working; from this shameless laziness and want they are often driven into thefts, robberies, brigandage, and other crimes, as experience proves. For this reason many well-ordered cities, in which good government flourishes, do not permit beggars, but compel the poor, if they have strength, to work: if they lack strength on account of age or sickness, and are native citizens, they feed them in hospitals or hospices: but foreigners they send back to their own cities and villages. For this reason Plutarch, in the Laconic Apophthegms, praises the Lacedaemonians, because they considered beggars as infamous and begging as a disgrace; because they both hated idleness and were content with very little. Kindness toward beggars is indeed an act of great virtue: but the goodness of pious people nourishes the luxurious laziness of very many wicked people. Hence a Laconian, he says, when asked by a beggar to give him alms, answered: "If I give you anything, you will be all the more a beggar; and the author of this disgraceful life of yours was the first one who gave to you and made you lazy." Therefore Solomon, the wisest of mortals, deprecates begging, Proverbs 30:8, saying: "Give me neither begging nor riches; grant only what is necessary for my sustenance, lest perhaps being sated I be tempted to deny You, and say: Who is the Lord? Or being compelled by need I steal, and forswear the name of my God."
Tropologically, Rabanus continues to apply this sentence to one who is lazy in good works, for whom his sloth is sweet: but on account of it he will be tortured by the fire of Gehenna. "For whoever, he says, now prefers to languish in the idleness of sloth rather than to benefit his neighbors with the word of doctrine; this one, burning in future punishment, will also be tortured without remedy by the pains of penance revolving in his mind."