Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He continues to predict Pharaoh's glory, ruin, and disaster, and laments it as much as he describes it through a mournful song. First, therefore, he declares that there will be such a great slaughter of the Egyptians that all birds and wild beasts will rush to devour them, and the sun, moon, and stars will seem to be darkened. Secondly, at verse 17, renewing his lamentation and mournful song, he says they will descend to the lowest part of hell, where the Assyrians, Persians, Edomites, and other tyrants are buried, and he describes their descent and burial at length and pathetically.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 32:1-32
1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say to him: You were likened to the lion of the nations, and to the dragon that is in the sea: and you tossed your horn in your rivers, and you stirred up the waters with your feet, and trampled their streams. 3. Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will spread My net over you with a multitude of many peoples, and I will draw you up in My seine. 4. And I will cast you upon the land, I will throw you upon the face of the field: and I will cause all the birds of the sky to dwell upon you, and I will satiate the beasts of all the earth with you. 5. And I will lay your flesh upon the mountains, and I will fill your hills with your gore. 6. And I will water the land with the stench of your blood upon the mountains, and the valleys shall be filled from you. 7. And when you are extinguished, I will cover the heavens, and I will make the stars grow dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. 8. All the luminaries of heaven I will make to mourn over you: and I will bring darkness over your land, says the Lord God, when your wounded shall fall in the midst of the land, says the Lord God. 9. And I will provoke the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, over lands which you do not know. 10. And I will cause many peoples to be astonished at you: and their kings shall tremble at you with exceeding horror, when My sword shall begin to fly over their faces: and they shall be suddenly stunned, each for his own life, in the day of your ruin. 11. For thus says the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon you, 12. by the swords of the mighty I will bring down your multitude: all these nations are invincible: and they shall lay waste the pride of Egypt, and its multitude shall be destroyed. 13. And I will destroy all its cattle that were beside the many waters: and no
the foot of man shall disturb them anymore, nor shall the hoof of cattle trouble them. 14. Then I will make their waters very pure, and cause their rivers to flow like oil, says the Lord God. 15. When I shall have made the land of Egypt desolate: and the land shall be stripped of its fullness, when I shall have struck all its inhabitants: and they shall know that I am the Lord. 16. This is a lamentation, and they shall lament it: the daughters of the nations shall lament it: over Egypt and over its multitude they shall lament it, says the Lord God. 17. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18. Son of man, sing a dirge over the multitude of Egypt: and bring it down, both it and the daughters of mighty nations, to the lowest parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. 19. How fair are you? Go down, and sleep with the uncircumcised. 20. They shall fall in the midst of those slain by the sword: the sword is given, they have dragged it down, and all its peoples. 21. The mightiest of the strong shall speak to it from the midst of hell, who with its helpers went down and slept, uncircumcised, slain by the sword. 22. There is Assyria and all its multitude: its graves are round about it: all of them slain and fallen by the sword. 23. Their graves are set in the lowest parts of the pit: and its multitude lies round about its sepulcher: all of them slain and fallen by the sword, who once spread terror in the land of the living. 24. There is Elam and all its multitude round about its sepulcher; all of them slain and fallen by the sword: who went down uncircumcised to the lowest parts of the earth: who spread their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down into the pit. 25. In the midst of the slain they have set its bed among all its peoples; round about it is its sepulcher: all these are uncircumcised and slain by the sword; for they spread their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down into the pit: they are placed in the midst of the slain. 26. There is Meshech and Tubal and all its multitude: round about it are its graves; all these are uncircumcised, slain and fallen by the sword: because they spread their terror in the land of the living. 27. And they shall not lie with the mighty who fell among the uncircumcised, who went down to hell with their weapons, and laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were in their bones: because they had been the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. 28. And you therefore shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall sleep with those slain by the sword. 29. There is Edom, and its kings, and all its princes, who with their army were laid with those slain by the sword: and who slept with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down into the pit. 30. There are all the princes of the North, and all the hunters: who were brought down with the slain, trembling, and confounded in their strength: who slept uncircumcised with those slain by the sword, and have borne their shame with those who go down into the pit. 31. Pharaoh saw them, and was comforted over all his multitude that was slain by the sword; Pharaoh and all his army, says the Lord God: 32. for I spread My terror in the land of the living, and he slept in the midst of the uncircumcised with those slain by the sword: Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord God.
Verse 1: And It Came To Pass In The Twelfth Year
1. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR — from the deportation of Jeconiah. ON THE FIRST (that is, the first day) OF THE MONTH. 2. TAKE UP A LAMENTATION — that is, a mournful song, such as you took up over the disaster of the king of Tyre, chapter 27, verse 2, and Isaiah over Belshazzar, chapter 14, verse 4. It was the custom of the ancients, both believers and pagans, to perform funeral rites for the dead with a lamentation, and as it were to pay them their due honors: hence in it they used to recount the wealth, virtues, and triumphs of the deceased. So David, when Saul and Jonathan were slain, mourned them with this song, 2 Samuel 1:19: "The renowned of Israel are slain upon your mountains; how have the mighty fallen!
How have the mighty fallen? etc. The arrow of Jonathan never turned back, and the sword of Saul did not return empty. Saul and Jonathan were lovely and comely in their life, in death also they were not divided: swifter than eagles, stronger than lions." Such a song is the Lamentations of Jeremiah, in which he mourns the ruin of Jerusalem. Such also is Jeremiah 51:41, in which he mourns the fall of Babylon: "How is Sheshach taken, and the renowned of the whole earth captured?" etc. So the Romans would carry the dead into the forum, and there publicly praise them from the rostra with a funeral oration. The origin of this custom of eulogy is attributed to Valerius Publicola, who was the first to praise the dead Brutus from the rostra.
praised him, as Plutarch and Dionysius of Halicarnassus attest in book V. Others, however, trace this custom back earlier, to the times of the kings. The old commentator on Horace says in the Epodes: "Varro said that the tomb of Romulus was at the rostra: where also, in memory of this fact, two lions are known to have been erected; whence it came about that the dead were praised at the rostra." Moreover, these eulogies were delivered by the closest relatives. So Plutarch, in his Life, reports that Fabius praised his son from the rostra; and Suetonius says of Tiberius: "At nine years of age he delivered the eulogy for his deceased father." Hear also Appian, book I: "When the corpse was placed on a platform at the rostra, the most eloquent man of that age delivered the funeral oration, because his son Faustus was not yet of age."
TO A LION OF THE NATIONS — as if to say: O Pharaoh! You were among the nations what a lion is among beasts, and you ruled them like a lion, indeed, when you pleased, you devoured them. AND TO THE DRAGON — to a sea-monster, or whale. Whence Aquila translates, Leviathan; whence it follows: "Who is in the sea," that is, who rules in the sea, who blows out huge masses of water through his nostrils and hurls them on high, and stirs up the whole sea: for so Pharaoh ruled in Egypt, which is surrounded by the seven streams of the Nile, as by arms of the sea.
YOU TOSSED YOUR HORN. — So also the Septuagint translates, as if to say: You brandished your horn, that is, your power and ferocity in Egypt. The Interpreter reads הנח vattaggach, from the root נגש nagash, that is, to butt with horns, to attack with the horn. For thus the larger and stronger beasts toss with their horns, chase away, and lay low the smaller and weaker ones on land, just as crocodiles do to fish and other animals in the Nile, and whales in the sea. So Homer, Iliad II: Τρώας κεράϊζε, "he tossed the Trojans with his horn"; this, as many other things, he borrowed from the Hebrews and the sacred books. Others read מם vattagach, that is, as Vatablus says, you brought forth, namely waters through your rivers, that is, you channeled the Nile into many streams to irrigate and fertilize all the fields. Others: you leaped, you frolicked in your rivers; others: you creep forth, you rush out, you push forward (as fish push one another) in your rivers. For this is what the root מי goach signifies.
AND YOU STIRRED UP THE WATERS — you who by your insane wars disturbed all neighboring nations, and trampled their rivers, that is, their territories. Secondly, by the disturbance of the waters is understood a turbulent manner of governing subjects: for Pharaoh, impious, monstrous, most fond of discord, disturbed and threw everything into confusion. He alludes to the Nile, whose waters are turbid, and which, when it floods, covers and confounds the entire land.
Verse 3: I WILL SPREAD MY NET OVER YOU (I will capture
3. I WILL SPREAD MY NET OVER YOU (I will capture you as a wild beast, namely a lion, and as a sea-monster with a seine) WITH A MULTITUDE OF PEOPLES. — For many are accustomed to gather for the capture of a lion, as well as a whale, as if to say: I, O Pharaoh, will drag you through the Chaldeans from your kingdom and cast you upon the land (for sea-monsters and fish, drawn from the water, die on land), so that you, that is, your kingdom and riches, may be plundered, torn, and devoured by the "birds," that is, the princes of the Chaldeans, "and the beasts," that is, the soldiers.
Symbolically, by the net is signified that God most easily captures and comprehends all things by His providence. Hence the proverb: "He takes cities with nets," which is said enigmatically of those who have good fortune in their undertakings; derived, as it is written, from Timotheus the Athenian, who was given the surname κλευχή from his good fortune, and to whom it is said that the shade of a spirit appeared at night, giving him a net to capture cities: and therefore he was said to take cities with nets. Ulpian writes this in the second Olynthiac of Demosthenes, and the commentator on Aristophanes. Suidas and Ulpian say that this same Timotheus was customarily painted by artists with this likeness: that while he slept, Fortune brought him cities enclosed in nets for him to capture. But when, puffed up with a certain insolence, he said that he accomplished such great things not by Fortune's nod but by his own virtue, he was reduced to extreme poverty. Read Plutarch.
Verse 5: I Will Fill Your Hills With Your Gore
5. I WILL FILL YOUR HILLS WITH YOUR GORE — that is, with the corpses of your army. So Rabbi David. Instead of "gore" it can be translated "your height"; that is, a high heap of corpses; the Septuagint reads, with your blood. For fish have ichor instead of blood.
Verse 6: STENCH.
6. STENCH. — The Hebrew צפה tsapha can, first, be derived from צוף tsuph, which means to swim, to overflow, as if to say: As Egypt overflows with water, so now it will overflow with the blood of the slain; so that this blood will exceed the mountains. Secondly, if you derive it from the root צפה tsapha, it means to watch, to spy, as if to say: The land from which you spy, that is, your mountains, I will water with your blood.
AND THE VALLEYS SHALL BE FILLED FROM YOU — from your blood, that is, of your soldiers, as if to say: The valleys and hills will swim in your gore. It is a hyperbole. See Canon XXXII.
Verse 7: I WILL COVER, ETC., THE HEAVENS, AND I WILL MAKE
7. I WILL COVER, ETC., THE HEAVENS, AND I WILL MAKE THE STARS GROW DARK — by extinguishing your splendor, by which you previously seemed to illuminate all these things. It is a hyperbole and a poetic hypallage. For Scripture is accustomed to express the bitterness of grief through the darkening of the sun, moon, and stars; not because these were truly darkened, but because the grief and the disturbance of mind and senses in people is so great that the sun and stars seem to them to fall or grow dark. By a similar poetic figure the Poet said: "And the impious ages feared an eternal night." In the same way all these things are here poetically expressed by the Prophet.
are said and exaggerated. For this is Pharaoh's lamentation, that is, a mournful song, as he said in verse 2. Allegorically, these things will truly and actually happen at the end of the world, Matthew 24:29. Tropologically, the sun, moon, and stars of the Church are darkened when ecclesiastical or secular princes fall from justice and holiness into wickedness.
Verse 9: AND I WILL PROVOKE (that is, I will not so
9. AND I WILL PROVOKE (that is, I will not so much stir up with anger, as agitate and strike with fear, as is clear from what follows) THE HEARTS OF MANY PEOPLES, WHEN I SHALL BRING YOUR DESTRUCTION — that is, when I lead you captive, O Egypt, to nations unknown to you: or, when I cause your destruction and disaster to become known to unknown nations through your flight, when your citizens, devastated, shall flee to them.
Verse 10: WHEN MY SWORD SHALL BEGIN TO FLY (that is, to
10. WHEN MY SWORD SHALL BEGIN TO FLY (that is, to be drawn and flash) OVER THEIR FACES — that is, when they see you struck down with the gleaming, drawn sword, they will tremble, thinking their own affairs are at stake, "when the neighbor's wall is on fire." FOR THEIR OWN LIFE — fearing for their soul, that is, their life, lest they be cut down in the same way as you.
Verse 13: I Will Destroy All Its Cattle That Were Beside The Many Waters
13. I WILL DESTROY ALL ITS CATTLE THAT WERE BESIDE THE MANY WATERS — that is, which grazed in the meadows and fields that, irrigated by waters drawn from the Nile, abound in vegetation. THE FOOT OF MAN SHALL NOT DISTURB THEM. — So great will be Egypt's devastation and desolation that there will be no people to disturb the waters with their feet, as usually happens at watering places.
Verse 14: Like Oil
14. LIKE OIL — that is, calm, and therefore pure, clear, and limpid like oil. He speaks poetically, as I said at verse 7. 15. ITS FULLNESS — its inhabitants: for they fill the land and are, as it were, its fullness.
Verse 16: This Is A Lamentation
16. THIS IS A LAMENTATION — that is, it will be: or rather from the Hebrew, as if to say: This is the lamentation. In Hebrew קינה kina, that is, a dirge and mournful song, with which, as I said above, they will lament Egypt. THE DAUGHTERS (that is, nations, or cities) OF THE NATIONS. — For cities are called daughters by the Hebrews on account of their beauty; as the daughter of Zion, that is, the beautiful city of Zion. OVER EGYPT, ETC., THEY SHALL LAMENT IT — "it" namely the lamentation. Thus we are said to weep a weeping, to laugh a laughter. Maldonatus reads differently: "They shall lament him," that is "her," namely Egypt, so that there is an enallage of gender. But since he says: "They shall lament it over Egypt," the word "it" here necessarily refers to the lamentation, not to Egypt.
Verse 17: AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR (the
17. AND IT CAME TO PASS IN THE TWELFTH YEAR (the same year) ON THE FIFTEENTH OF THE MONTH — of the same, that is, the twelfth, as he had said in verse 1. That is, fourteen days after it was said to him: "Take up a lamentation." So Maldonatus.
Verse 18: BRING DOWN (proclaim that Egypt is to be brought down)
18. BRING DOWN (proclaim that Egypt is to be brought down) AND THE DAUGHTERS (that is, the cities of other) NATIONS (neighboring ones) TO THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE EARTH, INTO THE PIT — that is, not into the grave, as Vatablus wants, but into hell.
Verse 19: HOW FAIR ARE YOU?
19. HOW FAIR ARE YOU? — So the Hebrew and the Roman Vulgate, as if to say: To whom do you prefer yourself, O Egypt? How much higher and fairer are you? Behold, the higher you seem to yourself, the deeper you will fall; the fairer you are, the more horrible will be the place into which you fall: therefore, because of your pride, go down and sleep in the grave and in hell with the uncircumcised, and, as the Chaldean says, with sinners. This is what Christ says about Capernaum, Luke 10:15: "And you, Capernaum, which are exalted to heaven, shall be thrust down to hell." The Septuagint, instead of ממי mimmi, that is, "how," reading with different vowel points ממים mimme, that is, "from waters," translate, from the beauty of the waters, that is, from Egypt, which is made beautiful and fertile by the Nile, descend.
St. Gregory, book XXIV of the Moralia, chapter 3, following this reading non-interrogatively, explains it morally thus: "To the soul that exalts itself it is said: How fair you are, descend, and sleep with the uncircumcised. For everyone who neglects to consider the ugliness of his own weakness, but through the pride of arrogance attends to the glory of his own virtue, descends precisely from that which makes him fairer: because by exalting himself for his merits, he falls more deeply into the abyss, from whence he judged himself glorious. And descending, he sleeps with the uncircumcised: because in eternal death he perishes with the rest of sinners."
Verse 20: THE SWORD IS GIVEN (to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, and)
20. THE SWORD IS GIVEN (to Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, and) THEY HAVE DRAGGED IT DOWN — namely Egypt, into the mouth of the sword, and into death. Pagninus translates, it is given to the sword, namely Egypt.
Verse 21: They Shall Speak To It
21. THEY SHALL SPEAK TO IT — as if in the service of congratulation, for they will rejoice at its descent to hell, as he said in the preceding chapter. I omit the words they will speak, but understand them from Isaiah 14:10, that they will be these or similar: "You also are wounded, O Pharaoh, just as we are; you have descended to hell," etc.
Verse 22: There Is Assyria
22. THERE IS ASSYRIA — the king of the Assyrians, whom Nebuchadnezzar slew and from whom he took the kingdom, aided by Cyaxares and the Medes.
Verse 23: THEIR GRAVES ARE SET (that is, placed) IN THE LOWEST
23. THEIR GRAVES ARE SET (that is, placed) IN THE LOWEST PARTS OF THE PIT — that is, in the depths of hell, as if to say: They who from the highest pinnacle of kingdom and tyranny descended to the lowest depths of Gehenna. AND ITS MULTITUDE HAS BEEN MADE — as if to say: The princes and soldiers of Assyria are buried next to their king, since in this life they were a terror to all. See where tyranny ends up, and tyrants. This is the just and fitting reward, that those who slew others and sent them to the underworld should themselves be slain and sent to the same place. For the word "who" here means "because," as is clear from verse 26.
Note: The wicked in hell are said to have graves, because they are in the second death. For as in Luke 16:22, it is said that he was buried in hell.
Mystically, St. Gregory, book IX of the Moralia, chapter 18, says: Assyria is the proud devil, who drags many along with him to sin and punishment: "Who, namely, when he takes possession of human hearts, they become without doubt his sepulchers. But round about him are his sepulchers: because those in whose minds he now buries himself through desires, he afterward joins to himself through torments. And those who-
now in themselves the reprobate receive malign spirits by committing illicit acts, then as sepulchers they will burn with the dead (with the demons)." IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING — among the living in this world. For he contrasts the land of the living with hell, which is the land of the dead. Others read, "of the living," that is, of the just and faithful, namely of the Jews, whom he afflicted.
Verse 24: There Is Elam
24. THERE IS ELAM — the Persians. See what was said at Jeremiah 49:34. ITS SEPULCHER — that is, its grave, namely of Elam. THEY HAVE BORNE THEIR SHAME — as if to say: The tyrants, who here were a terror to others, at last slain by the sword, died ignominiously, and carried with them to hell their evil works, full of shame, and hence perpetual disgrace and punishment.
Verse 25: THEY HAVE SET (namely the demons, who lead, or rather
25. THEY HAVE SET (namely the demons, who lead, or rather drag, tyrants and the wicked to hell) ITS BED (namely of Elam, that is, of the king of the Persians, its infernal bed among the peoples who obeyed him in this life, and) ROUND ABOUT IT IS ITS SEPULCHER — namely of the aforementioned peoples. Note the change of number: for now he speaks of peoples, now of a people. In the Hebrew there is also a change of gender. For now he speaks of Elam in the masculine, as of a king, now in the feminine: for he means its congregation and multitude.
Verse 26: There Is Meshech
26. THERE IS MESHECH — that is, the Cappadocians. AND TUBAL — that is, the Spaniards, or the Iberians. So Lyranus. Others take them to be the Italians. See chapter 27:13. Note: By these peoples he means their king. Whence it follows: "Round about him," namely the king or prince, "are its graves," namely of the multitude or people. BECAUSE THEY SPREAD — as if to say: Because they slew others by the sword, they themselves were also slain by the sword. "For all who take the sword shall perish by the sword," Matthew 26:52.
Verse 27: And They Shall Not Lie
27. AND THEY SHALL NOT LIE — they shall not die a natural death, like heroes who, having died gloriously as victors, are buried with their weapons, swords, and pomp: but they shall be conquered in war, and there, as the defeated, they shall be killed shamefully and violently. He compares them, therefore, not with the just, but with the uncircumcised who, though uncircumcised, nevertheless fell gloriously, as if to say: Compared to those, these will be more wretched; for those descended to the underworld gloriously, but these ignominiously, as if conquered and slain.
AND THEY LAID (that is, they commanded to be laid, or deserved to have laid) THEIR SWORDS UNDER THEIR HEADS. AND THEIR INIQUITIES WERE IN THEIR BONES — as if to say: Their bones will be cast out unburied because of their iniquities, with which they were so imbued that those iniquities seem still to cling to their bones. Rabbi David, and after him Maldonatus, explain differently: Those who, pierced by the sword to the bone, paid the penalties of their iniquities: but for the rest, they truly died honorably and bravely. Or, as others say, they paid the penalties of their iniquities not by dying ignominiously, but by burning in hell to the very marrow of their bones.
Verse 28: And You Therefore
28. AND YOU THEREFORE — O Pharaoh! You will be the companion of these tyrants and slain ones equally in punishment as in guilt and tyranny, and you will be buried with them in the depths of hell.
Verse 29: There Is Edom
29. THERE IS EDOM — in hell shall be the Edomites, just like the Assyrians, Elamites, etc. It is a poetic repetition. For he repeats and reiterates the same thing about each one in the Hebrew manner, for greater emotional effect.
Verse 30: There Are All The Princes Of The North
30. THERE ARE ALL THE PRINCES OF THE NORTH — that is, the Babylonians, and other northern tyrants, such as the Tyrians and Sidonians, etc. AND ALL THE HUNTERS — that is, tyrants, who hunt the goods and bodies of others, whose father was Nimrod, a mighty hunter before the Lord, Genesis 10:9. The Chaldean translates, Sidonians: for he retains the Hebrew word Sidonim as a proper name, which our translator took as a common noun: for thus צדנים sidonim means hunters.
Verse 31: Pharaoh Saw Them And Was Comforted
31. PHARAOH SAW THEM AND WAS COMFORTED — when he saw that he had so many and such illustrious followers and companions, because it is in itself an alleviation of punishment to have a companion in it: although from another perspective it increases, since they afflict and curse one another, as the damned do in hell.
Verse 32: FOR I SPREAD MY TERROR.
32. FOR I SPREAD MY TERROR. — So the Hebrew, the Septuagint, and the Roman Vulgate, as if to say: "Because," that is, indeed I, God, just as I formerly spread terror through them upon the Jews and other living people whom they afflicted: so now, by punishing them and hurling them down to the underworld, I will likewise terrify him and all tyrants. Others read: Because he spread his terror, as if to say: Just as he by his cruelty terrified everyone, so I, by punishing him, will terrify all the wicked, and will set him up as a mirror of My terror, by which all nations may be struck with fear. Both readings come to the same meaning.
So Virgil, in Aeneid VI, describes Aeneas descending to the underworld and seeing there Agamemnon, Dido, the Titans, the Cyclopes, and other princes and tyrants: "Among whom Phoenician Dido, fresh from her wound, wandered in the great forest." And shortly after: "Here Tydeus met him, here Parthenopaeus renowned in arms, and the pale shade of Adrastus. But the chiefs of the Danaans and Agamemnon's battalions, when they saw the man and his gleaming arms through the shadows, trembled with enormous fear. Some turned their backs. And here he saw Deiphobus, the son of Priam, his whole body mangled." And below: "Here the ancient race of the earth, the Titan brood, struck by the thunderbolt, are rolled in the deepest abyss."
seemed to extend from the earth. And in chapter 36 he narrates that a certain Peter saw the punishments of hell, and when he seemed about to be plunged into it, having been freed by an Angel, he heard: "Return, and most carefully consider how you must live hereafter." And in chapter 38 he narrates that Chrysaorius at his death saw the most foul spirits threatening him, to drag him to the prison of hell. And in chapter 54 he narrates about a certain dyer who, buried in the church of St. Lawrence, cried out from the grave at night: "I am burning, I am burning," and when they inspected the grave, they saw his clothes, but did not find his body.
"I saw also Salmoneus paying cruel penalties, while he imitated the flames of Jupiter and the thunders of Olympus. Madman! who had simulated the storm clouds and the inimitable thunderbolt with bronze and the trampling of horn-hoofed horses." And again: "Others roll a huge stone, and hang stretched upon the spokes of wheels; unhappy Theseus sits and shall sit forever: and most wretched Phlegyas admonishes all and testifies with a great voice through the shadows: Learn justice, being warned, and not to despise the gods."
But hear things certain and sacred. So Lazarus from Abraham's bosom saw the rich man tormented in Gehenna, imploring the help of both him and Abraham. But in vain; for from Abraham he heard: "Son, remember that you received good things in your life, and Lazarus likewise evil things: but now he is comforted here, while you are tormented," Luke 16:25. So a holy hermit saw King Theodoric stripped and barefoot, with his hands bound, being led between Pope John and the patrician Symmachus (whom he had unjustly killed) and thrown into the volcanic cauldron, as St. Gregory reports, Dialogues book IV, chapter 30. And in chapter 31 he narrates that Reparatus saw a pyre being prepared for a certain criminal, whose summit toward heaven
So recently a certain counselor of Elizabeth, queen of England, dying, saw his own deep, fiery seat in Gehenna, and other similar seats prepared for his colleagues, as I received from men of entire trustworthiness. These trumpet players, these funeral pipers God has given to mortals, who with silent yet fiery voices continually cry out to sinners: Be wise, be wise from our harm. Today for me, tomorrow for you. O vain riches, O deceptive honors! Ambition, avarice, and gluttony led us, and will likewise lead you to the underworld. Who shall be able to dwell with devouring fire, to abide with everlasting burnings?