Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He threatens the false prophets, who were promising peace and prosperity to the people, that like a wall plastered with mud without straw, they will be cast down by the rain and hail of divine vengeance. Secondly, in verse 17, He directs the same threat against women, namely false prophetesses, who were accustomed to sew cushions under every elbow and make pillows for every head: for He threatens to tear these apart along with the seamstresses themselves. These things can easily be applied in like manner to preachers and teachers who teach falsehoods and flatter sinners.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 13:1-23
1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy: and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart: Hear the word of the Lord: 3. Thus says the Lord God: Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit and see nothing. 4. Like foxes in the ruins, your prophets, O Israel, were. 5. You have not gone up against the enemy, nor have you set up a wall for the house of Israel, that you might stand in battle on the day of the Lord. 6. They see vanity and divine lies, saying: The Lord says — when the Lord has not sent them: and they persevered in confirming their word. 7. Have you not seen a vain vision, and spoken a lying divination? And you say: The Lord says — when I have not spoken. 8. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken vanity and seen lies, therefore behold, I am against you, says the Lord God. 9. And My hand shall be upon the prophets who see vanity and divine lies: they shall not be in the council of My people, nor shall they be written in the register of the house of Israel, nor shall they enter into the land of Israel: and you shall know that I am the Lord God. 10. Because they have deceived My people, saying: Peace — and there is no peace: and he was building a wall, and they were plastering it with mud without straw. 11. Say to those who plaster without tempering, that it shall fall: for there shall be an overflowing rain, and I will send great hailstones rushing down from above, and a stormy wind to scatter it. 12. For behold, the wall has fallen: shall it not be said to you: Where is the plaster with which you plastered it? 13. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will cause a stormy wind to break forth in My indignation, and an overflowing rain shall come in My fury, and great hailstones in wrath unto destruction. 14. And I will destroy the wall that you have plastered without tempering: and I will level it to the ground, and its foundation shall be revealed; and it shall fall, and shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and you shall know that I am the Lord. 15. And I will accomplish My indignation upon the wall, and upon those who plaster it without tempering, and I will say to you: The wall is no more, and those who plastered it are no more. 16. The prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem and see visions of peace for it:
and there is no peace, says the Lord God. 17. And you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people who prophesy out of their own heart: and prophesy against them, 18. and say: Thus says the Lord God: Woe to those who sew cushions under every elbow and make pillows for the head of every age to catch souls: and when they caught the souls of My people, they gave life to their own souls. 19. And they violated Me before My people, for a handful of barley and a piece of bread, to kill souls that should not die, and to give life to souls that should not live, lying to My people who believe lies. 20. Therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against your cushions, with which you catch souls as if they were birds: and I will tear them from your arms: and I will release the souls that you catch, souls meant to fly. 21. And I will tear your pillows, and I will deliver My people from your hand, and they shall no longer be in your hands to be preyed upon: and you shall know that I am the Lord. 22. Because you have made the heart of the just man sorrowful with lies, whom I have not saddened: and you have strengthened the hands of the wicked, so that he would not turn from his evil way and live: 23. therefore you shall see vanity no more, and you shall divine divinations no longer, and I will deliver My people from your hand: and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Verse 3: Woe to the Foolish Prophets Who Follow Their Own Spirit
3. WOE TO THE FOOLISH PROPHETS, WHO FOLLOW THEIR OWN SPIRIT (that is, they follow what is suggested and inspired not by God, but by fantasy, human thinking, appetite, and concupiscence; and they sell this as the oracles of God), AND SEE NOTHING — 'and' means 'since,' that is to say, since they hear nothing from God, they prophesy whatever comes into their mouths.
Note: He calls them foolish, when he could call them falsifiers, because they were priests, whose honor he spares, saying that they prophesy falsely from ignorance and foolishness, not from malice.
However, since in verse 6 and following he accuses them of lying, it is better to say they are called foolish, that is, stupid and dense, because by their lies they were creating ruin for themselves as much as for the people.
Verse 4: Like Foxes in the Ruins
4. LIKE FOXES IN THE RUINS — that is, in the broken walls of a vineyard (as Vatablus translates from the Hebrew), and the broken hedge through which foxes enter the vineyard, as if its hedge were abandoned: for this is plucked and devastated both by passersby and by wild beasts, and becomes like a desert. Hence Symmachus and Theodotion translate 'in ruins,' as if to say: These priests are not shepherds and guardians of the people, but wolves and foxes. First, because they secretly and deceitfully devastate the people, as if from ambush, pretending to speak things profitable to the people in order to hunt their own gain from them. Second, because being timid, when danger threatens, they do not oppose the enemy, but like foxes hide in their dens. So Maldonatus. Hence it follows: "You have not gone up against the enemy," etc. And therefore that saying of Psalm 62:11 will befall them: "They shall be delivered to the power of the sword, they shall be the portion of foxes," so that their earthly bodies may be devoured by foxes, and their souls by infernal ones.
Morally, note that foxes here represent hypocrites and flatterers, especially false prophets and heretics, says St. Jerome, of whom Song of Songs ii, 15 says: "Catch for us the little foxes that destroy the vineyards." Just as only the skin of the fox is valued, while its flesh is not edible, so the external appearance of the hypocrite is fair, but the interior is full of deceit
and poison. Carbo, a prudent man, according to Plutarch, wishing to call Sulla cruel and deceitful, said he was a lion and a fox. And Lysander used to say "that the fox-skin must be added, if the lion-skin were not sufficient," that is, that cunning and fraud must be employed when strength was lacking or insufficient. And Plato, in Book II of the Republic says: "Each person ought to throw around himself an outer vestibule of virtue's shadow, but in such a way that he drags the fox of the most wise Archilochus behind him." For the fox surpasses other animals in craftiness. On this subject there is a fable in Plutarch's Moralia: Once, he says, when a leopard looked down on a fox because he himself had a skin variegated with spots of every color, the fox replied that the beauty she had in her mind was what he had in his skin — that it is better to be many-colored and versatile in mind than in body. The common proverb indicates the same thing: "The fox is not corrupted by gifts." For birds and wild beasts are caught with bait, but the fox is not. And another: "Sleep steals upon the hungry fox." For when the fox is hungry, she gives herself to sleep, partly because sleep naturally soothes and extinguishes hunger and thirst, and partly because the fox, when pressed by hunger, feigns sleep to catch and devour the chickens lured to her. And a third: "Play the fox with a fox." And a fourth: "The fox knows many things, the hedgehog one" — namely, to put out spines like prickles, with which he rolls himself into a ball while dogs pursue him.
Now heretics excel at this, especially the Calvinists, who lurk and creep stealthily into cities and provinces like foxes, but when they become masters of affairs, they rage like lions. Calvin taught them this, who through Luther cunningly, under a specious title, as if a reformer of religion both Lutheran and Orthodox: "he entered like a fox;" then, supplanting Luther: "he reigned like a lion;" and finally, snarling and blaspheming: "he died like a dog," as Bolsec and others relate in his Life.
Pythagoras for no other reason used to say that one should not taste things that have a black tail,
except to teach us that the snares of hypocrites must be avoided. For even if they display candor and friendship, yet their tail is foul, their end is wicked, and their purpose is perverse. When the poets relate that Actaeon was devoured by his own dogs, which he had fed, they wished to signify nothing else, says Phavorinus, than that he who feeds and fosters his own praisers and flatterers is not infrequently devoured and consumed by those very ones whom he raised. For a dog, fawning with head and tail upon its master, is the symbol of a hypocrite and flatterer.
Verse 5: You Have Not Gone Up Against the Enemy
5. YOU HAVE NOT GONE UP AGAINST THE ENEMY — of the enemies, or rather, as follows, of the Lord God, who sends the Chaldean enemies against the broken wall of the vineyard, that is, of the city of Jerusalem. Hence in Hebrew it reads: You have not gone up into the breaches, or broken places. So Pagninus. The Septuagint translates: They did not stand in the firmament.
NOR HAVE YOU SET UP A WALL (in Hebrew, as Vatablus also translates, nor have you hedged a hedge) FOR THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL, THAT YOU MIGHT STAND IN BATTLE ON THE DAY OF THE LORD — that is, when the Lord, like the commander of the enemy, invaded the city, so that you might resist the wrath and vengeance of God through prayers and holiness, and win victory through His clemency. He compares the people to a city, laws and holiness to walls, sins to breaches in the wall. He therefore rebukes the false prophets because they did not correct the vices of the people, and because by not interceding for them, they did not turn away the wrath of God from them.
Learn here how great the zeal, prayer, and holiness of a prelate and preacher must be — namely, such that they set themselves like a wall against the anger of God. So Moses set himself against Him, saying in Exodus xxxii, 32: "Either forgive them this offense, or blot me out of Your book which You have written." And St. Paul, Romans ix, 3: "I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for the sake of my brethren." So when God's fire raged against the murmurers, Aaron offered incense, and standing between the dead and the living, he stopped the wrath and plague of God, Numbers xvi, 48. So God says to Jeremiah in chapter vii, 16: "Do not resist Me." Hear again St. Gregory, Part II of the Pastoral Rule, chapter iv: "To go up against the enemy is to oppose the powers of this world with a free voice in defense of the flock. And to stand in battle on the day of the Lord is to resist the wicked who fight, out of love of justice. For a pastor to have feared to speak what is right — what else is this but to have turned his back by keeping silent? For if indeed he exposes himself for the flock, he sets up a wall for the house of Israel against the enemy."
Verse 6: And They Persevered
6. AND THEY PERSEVERED. — The Chaldean: They impudently asserted in order to confirm their word.
Verse 8: Behold I Am Against You
8. BEHOLD, I AM AGAINST YOU. — The Chaldean: I will send My wrath upon you. It is an aposiopesis.
Verse 9: And My Hand Shall Be
9. AND MY HAND SHALL BE (that is, My vengeance, and, as the Chaldean says, the blow of My power) UPON THE (false) PROPHETS. — So also Elijah killed the 400 prophets of Baal, 3 Kings xviii. So suddenly and miserably almost all heresiarchs have perished. Arius burst asunder in the middle, like Judas; Julian the Apostate was pierced by a spear from heaven; John Hus was burned; Muhammad was struck down by apoplexy; Luther, sleeping with his concubine, was suffocated at night; Mani was flayed alive by the king of the Persians; Calvin was eaten by worms. This is what Isaiah says in chapter xlv, 16: "The makers of errors have gone away in confusion." So from heaven the Antichrist shall be struck with his forces, Apocalypse xx: "Fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them."
THEY SHALL NOT BE IN THE COUNCIL OF MY PEOPLE — that is, they shall not be summoned to the council of elders in Jerusalem after the return from Babylon, 1 Esdras chapter x. Hence the Chaldean translates: They shall not be in the secret; Vatablus: in the hidden counsel. Secondly, "in the council," that is, they shall not be in the assembly of the people returning from captivity. The Septuagint translates: They shall not be in the teaching, or instruction, of the people, that is, they shall no longer teach the people; I will deprive them of the office of teaching.
NOR SHALL THEY BE WRITTEN IN THE REGISTER OF THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL. — That is, they shall not be written in the catalog of the Israelites who are living and returning from captivity, because they shall die. For such a catalog of the Hebrews leaving Egypt is drawn up in Numbers ii, and of those returning from Babylon in 1 Esdras viii. This catalog is called the book of life and of the living: from there it was transferred to the living and the Blessed in heaven.
Verse 10: Saying Peace
10. SAYING: PEACE. — "Peace," that is, prosperity. As if to say: I threaten war against the people so that they may come to their senses; they promise peace, and thus foster the people in their sins.
HE WAS BUILDING A WALL. — That is, the first false prophet set up a wall, that is, a false prediction; others by assenting would plaster it over and approve it. So Vatablus. Secondly, St. Jerome says: "God, through the law and the threats of the Prophets, was building the wall of the people; but the false prophets plaster it over with their lies." Thirdly, the Scholiast says: "The wall is the doctrine of the false prophets, which they plaster over with elegance of speech." Fourthly, and best, Prado and Maldonatus say: The people themselves were trying to restore the wall, that is, the hedge and wall of their vineyard — that is, of the city and kingdom — which was falling and broken, namely the protection of God, which was like a wall for Judea but was withdrawing from it; they tried to restore it with human help, especially that of the Egyptians, but in vain. The false prophets encouraged them in this, by plastering the poorly built wall with mud without straw, that is, by confirming vain trust in the Egyptians with lying promises; when rather they should have torn down this wall and built another from the foundation, based on hope in God and on the help and mercy of God, says Theodoret.
Note: Builders customarily apply a crust to a wall to strengthen it, but from lime and mud that is not crumbly and loose, as these did; rather with straw and chaff mixed in to bind and strengthen it. Therefore, just as mud without straw, when rain comes, loosens and falls: so all the arguments of the false prophets, by which they were promising and confirming peace and security to the people, when war came crashing in, were undermined
were. But by saying that the plaster would not last, he sufficiently indicates that the wall would not be strong. For it is clear from Amos vii, 7 that plaster serves not only for ornament but also for the strength of the wall: where, when the Lord puts down the trowel and ceases to plaster the wall, the collapse of the people's strength is foreshadowed. So Ribera, and from him Delrio, adage 807.
St. Gregory says beautifully, and it is found in distinction xlvi, chapter "Sunt nonnulli": "By the name of wall, the hardness of sin is designated. Therefore, to build a wall against oneself is to construct against oneself the obstacles of sin. But they plaster the wall who flatter those who commit sins; so that what those sinners build by acting perversely, these flatterers make appear as if it were beautiful."
Verse 11: Without Tempering
11. WITHOUT TEMPERING — without straw, with which clay or morite is tempered and mixed. For in Hebrew there is the same word that a little earlier the translator rendered as 'without straw,' namely taphel, which properly signifies 'unseasoned.' Hence Aquila translates it analo, that is, 'without salt': because, just as meat without salt, or unseasoned, is not solid and firm, so neither is mud without straw. Or rather, Aquila took this not as referring to mud or plaster, but to whitewash made from lime, which is not suitable for plastering unless the pure lime is mixed with salt and leather shavings, and properly slaked and tempered, as Vitruvius attests in Book VII, chapters ii and iii. Our translator, the Chaldean, Symmachus, Vatablus and others understood it as plaster; the Septuagint and Theodotion translate it as 'folly': because a thought that lacks seasoning, and a speech or discourse lacking the salt of discretion and wisdom, is foolish. They therefore translate: And they plaster with folly.
I WILL SEND GREAT HAILSTONES. — So also the Septuagint has petrobolous, that is, catapults which hurl great stones. The Hebrew elgabis means 'of hail.' So St. Jerome, Pagninus, Forster, Marinus, and the Hebrews generally, even though this word is not found elsewhere. By rain, stones, wind, storm or tempest, he understands the onslaught of the Chaldeans, who like a storm overwhelmed and overturned Judea. So also the Chaldean.
Verse 14: The Foundation Shall Be Revealed
14. THE FOUNDATION SHALL BE REVEALED — that is, it shall be overturned all the way to the foundation, so that it is revealed and visible.
AND IT SHALL FALL (the wall) AND SHALL BE CONSUMED — namely, those who plaster the wall. It seems it should be corrected with St. Jerome to 'you shall be consumed,' namely the plasterers, the false prophets. Hence the Hebrew, the Chaldean, and the Septuagint have 'you shall be consumed, O you plasterers!'
15. IT IS NO MORE — that is, the wall has collapsed along with those who built and plastered it.
16. THE PROPHETS OF ISRAEL. — Remove the period before 'the prophets,' and read: 'Those who plaster together with the prophets of Israel.' Although the Roman editions have a period, this seems to be a printing error.
Verse 17: Set Your Face
17. SET YOUR FACE — that is, with a resolute and threatening countenance speak, not to men as hitherto, but to the women who are false prophetesses. Although the Scholiast thinks that women are here called men because of the feminine disposition with which they sewed soft cushions for every elbow. Thus the Poet says of Jupiter:
He stood, and fixed his gaze upon the kingdoms of Libya.
Here he passes from men to women prophetesses (though some understand by women effeminate men who effeminate others), whose falsity was equal to the men's, but whose imposture was greater because of their smooth speech. Such were Prisca and Maximilla for the heresiarch Montanus, "who overturned the faith of truth with the prophecy of lies," says St. Jerome. Hence the proverb: "The ruin wrought by women." For women have been the authors of almost all calamities for men. Witness is the Pandora of Hesiod, witness Helen of Troy, witness Deianira who killed Hercules, witness the story of the Danaids, witness the history of the women of Lemnos, witness Cleopatra, witness Delilah, witness the mistresses of Solomon, witness Eve. Although the greater blame belongs to the man, who being wiser allows himself to be ruled and deceived by a weak and foolish woman. For what the soul is to the body, that a husband ought to be to his wife. There is an ancient saying of the wise: "Trust not even a dying woman."
Verse 18: Woe to Those Who
18. WOE TO THOSE WHO (so it should be read with the Hebrew, Septuagint, and Roman editions, not 'who' masculine) SEW CUSHIONS UNDER EVERY ELBOW, AND MAKE PILLOWS FOR THE HEAD OF EVERY AGE — that is, woe to the false prophetesses who flatter the Jews in their vices and rebellion, and foster them so that they may rest securely and softly therein, promising peace, that is, security and prosperity, as if the Chaldeans were not going to conquer Jerusalem. He aptly assigns to men the building and plastering of the wall, but to women the sewing of cushions and pillows. For the latter is the work of women, the former of men. The cushion, therefore, represents the luxurious and pleasure-seeking life: this is consumed by those who say: "Eat, drink, and play; after death there is no pleasure." So Origen, St. Jerome, and others generally. Hence:
Secondly, Polychronius and Theodoret say: "The cushion and pillow are soft and flattering words composed for profit, which for a time tickle the hearing but overthrow souls." So also Gregory, XVIII Moralia iv: "Whoever flatters those who act wickedly places a cushion under the elbow or arm of one lying down, so that he who should have been corrected for his fault, supported by praises, may rest softly."
Thirdly, Lyranus, Vatablus, and Isidorus Clarius think that these women actually sewed real cushions and pillows, and through them prophesied or taught others to prophesy. Hear Clarius: Women versed in the magic art used to sew cushions and place them under the armpits of the men who came to inquire; and they placed veils, that is, the thinnest linen cloths, on their heads, as if through these garments they were made fit to receive the sacred oracle. Indeed, they themselves meanwhile poured into the ears of the foolish what they had contrived, namely that these
this or that would befall them. But these inventions seem novel and frivolous, and discordant from the common opinion of the interpreters. For interpreters generally judge that cushions and pillows are here used proverbially, not literally, and are adages.
Fourthly, the Greek Scholiast, Polychronius, and our Prado agree with this, translating the Hebrew kesatot, which our translator renders as 'cushions,' as phylacteries; and the Hebrew mispachot, which our translator renders as 'pillows,' as perimmata, that is, magical amulets — namely, scrolls, medallions, netted chains, which were hung from the neck or arm, as if people would be protected by them against enemies, swords, and all attacks; by which these sorceresses sought profit and at the same time hunted souls for the devil as with their net; and Prado thinks these amulets are called cushions and pillows by our translator because people rested securely in them as on a soft pillow.
But it seems truer that both the Greek and Hebrew words already mentioned properly signify a netted covering and veil (hence the Septuagint translates proskephalaia kai epibolaia, that is, cushions and coverings or additions; and Symmachus translates brachionia kai bregmena, that is, arm-cushions and head-coverings) which is bound around or placed upon or stretched over something to cover and foster it, as cushions and pillows do. For so translate the Chaldean, the Septuagint, St. Jerome, Theodoret, Vatablus, Lyranus, Pagninus, Clarius, and other distinguished Hebraists, who judge that mispachot stands for mitpachot (by substitution of the letter daleth for the similar teth); and mitpachot signifies linens, from the root napach, that is, 'he spread out, unfolded, stretched,' as is done with linens and veils. So that kesatot means cushions is clear: for the root kasa means 'to cover, to conceal.' Hence kisse means a seat, a throne, which is covered and concealed by a cushion. The vernacular languages support this related word: for the Italians say cussinetto, the Spanish cozin, the French coussinet, the Flemish and Germans cussen.
Therefore, to sew cushions and pillows is an adage meaning to fondle and flatter. For, as Plutarch says in his work On Distinguishing the Flatterer from the Friend, flatteries are like cushions and pillows, which though they seem to resist and push back against the heads resting on them, actually yield the more and comply. For thus the flatterer too assumes a feigned liberty of speech,
and from time to time criticizes and rebukes certain things, and seems to rise up and swell, only to sink down and draw in so as to catch, and equally sweep away, the one who throws herself upon him. And this is what the Prophet adds: "To catch souls." With a similar phrase Plautus and others say: "To sew together deceits, frauds, lies." So Origen, Theodoret, St. Jerome, St. Gregory (XVIII Moralia iv), Delrio (adage 908), and others generally. St. Jerome truly says to Eustochium, Epistle 19: "Since honey is not offered in God's sacrifices, excessive sweetness has been artfully altered, and seasoned, so to speak, with a certain pungency of pepper. For nothing that is merely pleasurable and merely sweet pleases God, unless it has in it something of the bite of truth." Therefore, what pleases God is not smooth and deceitful flattery, but severe and biting truth. Furthermore, the Syriac translates: Cushions and coverings; the Antiochene Arabic: Cushions for the elbows of hands, and a covering for every head; the Alexandrian Arabic: Woe to those who sew cushions so that the elbows of hands may rest on them, and weave and make veils for every head. Therefore the first sense, as it is the common one, so it seems the truer, and the second is connected with it and serves it.
Morally, note: The cushion, that is, pleasure, is the net by which the devil catches souls. This therefore is a great calamity of Churches and Republics and certain ruin, when pastors do not attack the vices of the people, but conform to them and flatter them. St. Jerome laments this concerning his native Stridon, Epistle 43 to Chromatius: "In my homeland," he says, "the native saying is that the belly is God, and people live for the day: and the holier man is the richer one. To this pan has come a fitting lid — Lupicinus the priest — according to that saying about which Lucilius says Crassus laughed once in his life: The lips have a lettuce that matches them, like a donkey eating thistles. That is, that a weak helmsman should steer a ship with holes, and a blind man should lead the blind into the ditch, and the ruler should be such as those who are ruled." Again, learn here that the vices of the subjects seek and deserve such cushions, that is, such pastors: therefore the fault belongs to the hearers, that their prophets, that is, their preachers, are smooth, deceitful, and lying. For they say "to those who see: Do not see; speak to us pleasant things, see errors for us, let the Holy One of Israel cease from before our face," Isaiah xxx, 10. And St. Paul, 2 Timothy iv, 3: "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires they will heap up teachers for themselves, having itching ears." The itching of the disciples therefore provokes the rubbing and tickling of the teachers, which customarily ends in pain and torment. Thus, as Cicero truly says in his speech for Caelius: "Loves and delights quickly and soon fade, and in all things the greatest pleasures border on disgust." And Boethius, Book III, meter 7:
Every pleasure has this quality: With stings it drives those who enjoy it, And like a swarm of flying bees, When it has poured out its welcome honey, It flees, and with too clinging a bite It wounds the stricken hearts.
An apt symbol of this is the Hypanis spring, which, as Herodotus testifies in Book IV, for a five-day journey pours forth sweet but scanty waters; then after another four days' journey, gives waters most bitter. Likewise the leopard, which lures gazelles and goats to itself with a sweet scent, then seizes and tears them apart. So Plutarch in his book Against Pleasure.
The comparison is drawn from cushions, which the ancients did not, as we do, place under the loins of those sitting, but according to the custom of reclining at table, which was then in use, they used to spread them under the necks or shoulders of those reclining. Hence Martial, Epigrams Book III, 82: Galbanus lies on his occupied couch, Pushing aside guests on either side with his elbows, Propped up with purple and silken cushions. See Bonfrère's Analecta S. Script. page 280. He aptly assigns to men the building of the wall, to women the applying of cushions. (Rosenmuller.)
because our translator renders 'not' as birds potentially, but 'flying' actually; hence more is signified, namely that these fowlers catch souls while they are flying, when they seem completely secure and neither think of nor fear any snares — as we see happen with nets suspended from a height, namely from a tree or between trees. So tropologically the devil, both by himself and through these his fowlers and the like, especially lies in wait and sets snares for souls when they think of soaring upward from sin or the world to a state of grace or perfection, as we all experience. Therefore the Psalmist says in Psalm liv, 7: "Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly (that I may escape from these snares) and find rest?" So St. Anthony saw the whole air and world full of snares by which souls soaring upward were caught; and when he groaned and said: "Lord, who will escape these snares?" he heard: "Humility" — for this, by letting itself down beneath the snares, slips through. So "to the woman," that is, the Church, whom the Antichrist ambushes, "wings were given, that she might fly into the desert," Apocalypse xii, 14. So Hosea chapter ix, 11 says: "Ephraim has flown away like a bird." And Proverbs vi, 5: "Escape like a gazelle from the hand, and like a bird from the hand of the fowler." Jeremiah also laments, Lamentations iii, 52, saying: "My enemies have hunted me like a bird, without cause."
Note secondly: He compares these "cushions" to nets, both because the more refined ones, for the sake of softness and elegance, are customarily embroidered on the outside with needlework, or woven in a netted pattern, namely spotted like a net, and because with them, as with nets, they were catching souls, as if to say: Just as a fowler catches birds with a net, so you catch souls with your netted cushions. Delrio takes it differently, adage 904, where he thinks that cushions allude to the plots that fowlers prepare for birds. But plots are not cushions; nor are cushions, but rather nets and bait, usually prepared for catching birds. St. Augustine says truly in the Sentences, sentence 137: "The tongues of flatterers bind souls in sins. For it is a delight to do those things in which not only is no reprover feared, but a praiser is heard."
THEY GAVE LIFE TO SOULS — they were promising life and salvation to souls, that is, to people; but falsely.
19. THEY VIOLATED ME BEFORE THE PEOPLE — by saying they were acting and prophesying from My spirit, when they were driven by their own. For it is equally injurious to God if you say that the prophecies of God are human, as if you say that human ones are divine; for in both cases God is mixed up with and equated to man, and consequently in both cases He is made a liar. For every man is a liar.
FOR A HANDFUL OF BARLEY — that is to say, they demand and receive a cheap reward for their prophecy, namely a piece of bread and a handful of barley. See at how cheap a price the sinner sells his immortal and divine soul to sin and the devil.
TO KILL (that is, to predict destruction for the true Prophets who) DO NOT DIE. — In Hebrew: who shall not die, that is, who ought not to die, who have not deserved death.
AND TO GIVE LIFE (that is, to promise life to false prophets and Jews who) DO NOT LIVE. — In Hebrew: who shall not live, that is, who ought not to live, but should be killed. Namely, they predicted that those who with Jeconiah surrendered to the Chaldeans would die (who in fact were going to be saved), and conversely, that those who remained in Jerusalem and resisted the Chaldeans would be saved (who in fact were to be killed). So Maldonatus. He speaks of life and death, first of the body and the present life, then of the soul and eternal life. Prado takes it differently, saying: Because by their sorceries they were killing the holy and preserving the life of the wicked who used their amulets.
Morally, St. Gregory, Homily 27 on the Gospels: "He does not give life to one who is not dying," he says, "who condemns the just; and he strives to give life to one who shall not live, who tries to absolve the guilty from punishment."
Verse 20: Behold I Am Against Your Cushions
20. BEHOLD, I AM AGAINST YOUR CUSHIONS (that is, I prophesy and foretell exile for them, because they are like nets with which) YOU CATCH (in Hebrew: you hunt, as fowlers) FLYING SOULS — that is, souls like flying birds. It is an aposiopesis. Less correctly Clarius translates: So that they may be flying toward and coming to them, as if to say: They lure souls with their lies to destroy them. Less aptly also Pagninus and Vatablus translate: that they may fly, that is, fly out of the body.
Note: In the Hebrew there is the same word leporechot, which in this verse the translator renders 'for flying,' but in the preceding verse rendered 'flying.' Thus 'for flying' means, understand, born and prepared to fly — which is the same as 'flying,' that is, wanting to fly. Or rather, the pe in leporechot can be taken as an article, and then it means 'flying'; it can also be taken as a preposition, and then it means 'for flying.' The shrewd translator therefore in the former place translated 'flying,' because there the discussion was about fowling, by which souls like flying birds are caught; but here he translates 'for flying,' because the discussion is about their liberation, by which God, breaking the snares, frees these souls to fly where they desire. So St. Jerome: "God breaks apart the cushions of those who, like nets, catch flying souls, so that once they are broken, they may have the free power of flying." So also Clarius, and Delrio adage 909.
I WILL TEAR THEM APART — by showing the falsity of your promises of peace, so that you may not be treated softly but harshly by the enemy: for luxuries, relaxation, dissolution, and pleasure, which are the cushions and pillows of sinners, do not allow them to recognize God unless they are torn apart, says the Scholiast. And thus "the souls" that you catch as fowlers, "I will release for flying," that is, I will lead them into freedom like a bird snatched from a snare. Prado takes it differently, as if to say: I will tear apart your amulets and illusions with which, as with a net, you enchant and catch souls.
Note: He calls the "souls" "flying," that is, souls that are like birds, just as the flatterers were like fowlers. For he persists in the metaphor of fowling and hunting. Therefore the mark of comparison must be understood: "as if flying," that is, as if flying or like birds, that is, like birds. However,
a preposition, and then it signifies 'for flying.' The shrewd translator therefore in the former place translated 'flying,' because there the discussion was about fowling, by which souls like flying birds are caught; but here he translates 'for flying,' because the discussion is about their liberation, by which God, breaking the snares, frees these souls to fly where they desire. So St. Jerome: "God breaks apart the cushions of those who, like nets, catch flying souls, so that once they are broken, they may have the free power of flying." So also Clarius, and Delrio adage 909.
Verse 21: Nor Shall They Any Longer Be in Your Hands
21. NOR SHALL THEY ANY LONGER BE IN YOUR HANDS (in your power) TO BE PREYED UPON — that is, for you to plunder them. As if to say: They shall no longer be exposed to the plunder of your hands.
22. YOU HAVE MADE THE HEART OF THE JUST MAN SORROWFUL (by prophesying sad things and death to him; and conversely) YOU HAVE STRENGTHENED THE HANDS OF THE WICKED — by prophesying joyful things and life to him, because he gave you gifts.
23. YOU SHALL SEE VANITY NO MORE. — The Chaldean: You shall no longer prophesy false things, because I will kill you, either by plague or by the sword of the Chaldeans.
Morally, learn from this chapter how great an evil flattery is. By this Justinian was deceived, otherwise a shrewd Emperor. For Tribonian the jurist, wickedly flattering him, instilled in him, as Suidas testifies under the entry Tribonian (from which the Theater of Human Life, vol. XIII, book II, page 2852 relates the same): "That he would not die, but would migrate to heaven together with his body." Who would not laugh at the stupidity of a prince who fosters and exults in such a flatterer? He would certainly have believed the flatterer less if he had remembered the admonition of Pope Agapetus, who wrote to him thus: "Embrace those, O Emperor, who wish to advise you with good counsels, not those who often strive to flatter. For the former truly perceive what is expedient; but the latter look to what pleases the powerful, and imitating the shadows of bodies, applaud their every word."
Caligula, as Dio attests in Book LIX, since he wished to be regarded as a god and even to seem to have relations with the moon, asked Vitellius whether he had seen him meeting with the goddess. Vitellius, as if thunderstruck, with eyes cast down to the ground, said: "Only you gods, lord, are permitted to see one another." Such was a flatterer, and indeed a senator. More sincere was that Gallic cobbler, of whom when the same Caligula, sitting on the tribunal in the appearance of Jupiter, asked what he seemed to be, he replied: "A great piece of madness."
In Paris there is shown the mouth of a sewer in the grain market, in which a certain man ordered himself to be buried, who too late repented of his harmful flattery. For he had advised a king who was distressed by financial difficulties to exact one or two small coins even from the smallest goods that farmers bring into the city, and this only for two years. And from this, when the counselors saw that an enormous sum of money was being collected in the city because of the large population, many similar exactions burdening the common people were devised. He who had given the advice, therefore, seeing that he did not have the same authority in dissuading as he had had in persuading, fell into great anguish of mind and nearly despaired of his salvation. And to testify to this his repentance and to warn others to beware of flattery, he directed in his will that he should be buried in that sewer into which the filth of the entire market flows; and to this day the execution of the tax he had suggested and imposed continues.
The Greeks truly say: It is better to fall among crows than among flatterers. For first, crows devour the dead, flatterers devour the living, said Demosthenes; second, crows tear out the eyes of corpses, flatterers tear out the eyes of the mind, said Epictetus.
Aristonymus, as Stobaeus attests in Sermon 12, used to say: "Logs, while they feed the fire, are consumed by it; wealth, while it feeds flatterers, is destroyed by them."