Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
The Prophet returns from Bethlehem, Christ, and the Apostles to his own times; and with the Jews of his age, he pathetically disputes and remonstrates in the name of God: My people, he says, what have I done to you, or how have I been burdensome to you? Then he recounts the many great benefits bestowed upon them by Himself, to show their supreme ingratitude in having defected from God to idols and crimes. Next, in verse 6, when they ask by what means they might reconcile God to themselves, He responds in verse 8, saying: I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: namely, to do justice and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God. Third, in verse 9, He threatens them with a terrible voice and threats of God, because of their unjust measures and weights, and similar frauds and deceits, by which they plundered the poor; wherefore He threatens them with poverty, destruction, captivity, and disgrace.
St. Jerome, Remigius, and Hugo think the Prophet speaks these words to Israel, that is, to the ten tribes, because in verse 16 he mentions Omri and Ahab, kings of Israel. Better, Theodoret, Vatablus, and Arias think these words are addressed to the Jews, that is, to the two tribes. For it seems that the Prophet prophesied these things under Hezekiah, after the destruction of the ten tribes, as I said in chapter 3, verse 12, when only the two tribes remained in Judea.
Vulgate Text: Micheas 6:1-16
1. Hear what the Lord says: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2. Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth: because the Lord has a judgment with His people, and He will plead against Israel. 3. My people, what have I done to you, or how have I been burdensome to you? Answer Me. 4. For I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you: and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam? 5. My people, remember, I beg you, what Balak king of Moab planned, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might know the righteous acts of the Lord. 6. What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bow the knee to God on high? Shall I offer Him holocausts and yearling calves? 7. Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my crime, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? 8. I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Namely, to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God. 9. The voice of the Lord cries to the city, and salvation shall be for those who fear Your name: Hear, O tribes, and who shall approve it? 10. As yet there is fire in the house of the wicked: treasures of iniquity, and a scanty measure full of wrath. 11. Shall I justify wicked scales, and the deceitful weights of the bag? 12. By which its rich men are filled with iniquity, and the inhabitants thereof speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13. And I therefore have begun to strike you with destruction for your sins. 14. You shall eat and not be satisfied: and your humiliation shall be in the midst of you: and you shall take hold, but shall not save: and those whom you shall save, I will give to the sword. 15. You shall sow, but shall not reap: you shall tread the olives, but shall not be anointed with oil; and the new wine, but shall not drink wine. 16. And you have kept the precepts of Omri, and all the work of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their desires, that I should give you up to destruction, and the inhabitants thereof to hissing: and you shall bear the reproach of my people.
Verse 1
1. Hear (O Jews, O inhabitants of Jerusalem) what the Lord says (to me, Micah, that I may report and announce the same to you. God therefore says to me): Arise, contend. — Here God commands Micah to contend and dispute in His name with the Jews, and to accuse them of their crimes. The Prophet obeys God's command in verse 2, saying: 'Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord.' In a similar manner God contended with Israel through Jeremiah, chapter 2, verse 9, saying: 'Therefore I will yet plead with you in judgment, says the Lord, and I will dispute with your sons. Cross over to the islands of Kittim, etc., and see if such a thing has happened.'
Contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. — The Hebrew: Dispute with the mountains; the Septuagint: Judge before the mountains; Pagninus: Show your judgment to the mountains. Hence a Castro thinks that the mountains are here cited as witnesses, not as defendants; for the defendants are the Israelites. But our Translator better renders: 'Contend in judgment against the mountains,' both because the Hebrew rib, when construed with eth, which the Latins translate as 'to litigate with someone,' in Hebrew as in Latin means the same as 'to litigate against someone'; and because thus there is greater weight and force in the speech, as I shall now show.
The mountains are therefore cited here as defendants, because on the mountains idols had been erected and worshipped: for although properly the people are the defendants, yet because they, hard and rebellious, refused to hear the Prophets and through them the lawsuit and judgment of the Lord, hence for the sake of pathos the mountains are cited, on which the people had sinned, as if to say: You, O insensible mountains, are more sensible than the sentient Israelites; for you perceive the voice and command of God your creator, and obey Him; whom they do not perceive. I therefore summon you, that you may represent your inhabitants who are the defendants; that through you they may hear and recognize my just lawsuit, action, and complaint, and confess themselves guilty, repent, and seek pardon.
It is a prosopopoeia: for the mountains are here introduced as if they were living and rational persons; because through the altars and idols, and through the blood, bones, and ashes of victims that stood upon them, they spoke with a mute but clear voice of the idolatry and crimes of the Jews, and consequently that God's action and remonstrance against them was just.
In this lawsuit therefore God is the plaintiff, the Jews together with the mountains and all Judea are the defendants, the herald is Micah, the judges are angels and men; indeed the very defendants themselves, who, having heard the complaint of so just and beneficent a God, cannot but themselves adjudicate the case and condemn themselves for ingratitude. So Theodoret, Arias, and Clarius.
With a similar prosopopoeia Jeremiah summons and calls out to the land of the Jews, chapter 22, verse 29: 'O land, land, land, hear the word of the Lord.' And Isaiah, chapter 1, verse 2, summons heaven and earth: 'Hear,' he says, 'O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.'
Symbolically, by mountains and hills the Prophet means princes and magistrates, who stood out among the people as mountains do on the earth, about whom Habakkuk chapter 3, verse 6 says: 'He dissolved the nations, and the ancient mountains were crushed'; and Psalm 71, verse 3: 'Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice.' The same are 'the foundations of the earth'; because they sustain the people as foundations do. Wherefore the Greek word for king is basileus, because he is, as it were, the base of the people; and the Hebrew adon, that is, lord, is derived from eden, that is, base.
So St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, Lyranus, and Vatablus. To this pertains the version of the Chaldean, who by mountains means fathers, by hills mothers of the Jews: Contend, he says, with the fathers, and let the mothers hear your voice. Hence St. Jerome takes the mountains to mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and holy men, who should have been for their descendants a rule of life and a stimulus to virtue, so that it might appear how degenerate these were compared to them, whom in this judgment the piety and religion of their parents condemns.
Wherefore wise men teach that nothing more effectively shakes off sloth and gives a stimulus to all virtue than constantly setting before one's eyes holy men, especially those of one's own state and order, who gave strenuous service to God and virtue. Everyone experiences this in himself, namely, when he reflects on the heroic deeds of the fathers or saints whom he venerates and loves, he finds himself wonderfully stirred to imitate the same: 'The younger ox learns to plow from the older.'
Golden on this matter is the precept of Seneca, book 1, letter 11: 'Some good man must be chosen and kept always before our eyes, so that we may live as if he were watching, and do everything as if he were seeing. This, my dear Lucilius, Epicurus prescribed; he gave us a guardian and a teacher; and not without reason. A great part of sins is removed if a witness stands by those about to sin. Let the mind have someone whom it reveres, by whose authority it may make even its inner self more holy. Happy is he who corrects not only his actions but also his thoughts! Happy is he who can so revere someone that at the very memory of him he composes and orders himself! He who can so revere someone will soon be worthy of reverence himself.
Choose therefore Cato: if he seems to you too rigid, choose a man of gentler spirit, Laelius; choose him whose life and speech have pleased you: and bearing his spirit and countenance before you, always set him before yourself, either as a guardian or as an example. We need, I say, someone against whom our character
may be directed. No one corrects what is crooked without the help of experience. Nor indeed is anyone happy unless, so to speak, he lives and associates in the companionship of friends and good men; and this is without doubt true.' So says Seneca.
Verse 2
2. Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth: because the Lord has a judgment with His people, and with Israel He will plead. — The Hebrew: And the strong, or immovable, foundations of the earth. The Septuagint: And the valleys, the foundations of the earth; Pagninus: And the robust, or perennial, foundations of the earth.
Symbolically, by mountains and valleys the Prophet means princes and magistrates, who stood out among the people, since Micah's message pertains to all and touches the greater and lesser alike, as if to say: Let both the nobles and the common people hear my judgments: for you are all at fault, namely worshippers of idols. What charges I will demand an account of in this judgment, follows:
Verse 3
3. My people, what have I done to you, or how have I been burdensome to you? Answer Me. — God pathetically complains of the ingratitude of His people, as if saying: What cause do you have for defecting from Me to idols? Have I been burdensome to you? Have I offended you? Answer Me if you can. Certainly you cannot. For this complaint of God is irrefutable.
Mystically, this is the complaint of Christ to the Jews, who crucified the most beneficent and most innocent Christ. Hence these words, 'My people, what have I done to you,' are recited in the Church on Good Friday, the day of Christ's passion, as if it were the complaint of Christ Himself now hanging on the cross to the Jews. For Christ pathetically complains to the Jews: 'My people, what have I done to you?' as if to say: My people, whom I have made, redeemed, and cherished; what evil have I done to you, that you should treat Me so badly and nail Me to the cross? Answer Me.
Verse 4
4. For I brought you out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you: and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam. — He enumerates the benefits with which He heaped His people, to demonstrate their ingratitude. First, He freed them from Egypt. Second, He gave them leaders: Moses, who was lawgiver and leader; Aaron, who was priest and pontiff; Miriam, who was prophetess and leader of the women.
Verse 5
5. My people, remember, I beg you, what Balak king of Moab planned, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might know the righteous acts of the Lord. — The third benefit of God is that He turned into a blessing the curse of Balaam, whom Balak had hired to curse Israel, Numbers 22, 23, 24. 'From Shittim to Gilgal': this clause signifies the extent of the journey and the abundance of benefits that God had conferred on His people from the departure from Egypt to the entrance into the Promised Land. For Shittim was the last station in the desert, and Gilgal the first in the land of Canaan.
Verse 6
6. What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bow the knee to God on high? Shall I offer Him holocausts and yearling calves? — Here the people, touched in conscience and pierced by God's complaint, deliberate how they may appease God: whether by sacrifices, or by some other means? They ask therefore, as if uncertain and anxious: What shall I offer to God, that I may turn away His wrath from me?
Verse 7
7. Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my crime, the fruit of my womb for the sin of my soul? — The question escalates, from the lesser to the greater, as if to say: If calves do not suffice, will rams please Him? If not rams, will fat goats? If not even these, shall I give my own firstborn as a sacrifice? This last offering is the greatest and most harsh: to give one's firstborn son as a victim for sin, as the Moabites and Ammonites formerly did, offering their sons to Moloch.
Verse 8
8. I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Namely, to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God. — The Prophet responds, teaching that God is appeased not by external sacrifices, but by internal virtues. He requires three things: First, to do justice, that is, to render to each what is his due. Second, to love mercy, that is, to be beneficent, generous, and merciful to the poor and afflicted. Third, to walk carefully with your God, that is, to walk with fear, reverence, and piety before God, having God before one's eyes in all of life, and always striving to please Him.
and without priests; and while others devour their produce, they with parched throats promise themselves future things which they do not know.
1. Hear what the Lord says: Arise, contend in judgment against the mountains, and let the hills hear your voice. 2. Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord, and the strong foundations of the earth: for the Lord has a judgment with His people, and He will dispute with Israel. 3. My people, what have I done to you, or how have I been burdensome to you? Answer Me. 4. For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and from the house of bondage I freed you: and I sent before your face Moses, and Aaron, and Miriam? 5. My people, remember, I pray, what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, from Shittim to Gilgal, that you might know the righteous acts of the Lord. 6. What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? Shall I bow my knee to the Most High God? Shall I offer Him burnt offerings and yearling calves? 7. Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams, or with many thousands of fat goats? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? 8. I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: Namely, to do justice, and to love mercy, and to walk carefully with your God. 9. The voice of the Lord cries out to the city, and salvation shall be for those who fear Your name: Hear, O tribes, and who will approve it? 10. There is still fire in the house of the wicked, treasures of iniquity, and a measure smaller than is just, full of wrath. 11. Shall I justify a wicked balance, and the deceitful weights of the purse? 12. By which her rich men are filled with iniquity, and her inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. 13. And I therefore have begun to strike you with destruction because of your sins. 14. You shall eat, and not be satisfied: and your humiliation shall be in your midst: and you shall seize, but shall not save: and those whom you do save, I will give to the sword. 15. You shall sow, and not reap: you shall tread the olive, and not anoint yourself with oil; and the grape juice, and not drink wine. 16. And you have kept the precepts of Amri, and all the works of the house of Ahab, and you have walked in their desires, that I should give you over to destruction, and your inhabitants to hissing: and you shall bear the reproach of My people.
1. HEAR (O Jews, O inhabitants of Jerusalem) WHAT THE LORD SAYS (to me Micah, that I may report and announce the same to you. God therefore says to me): ARISE, CONTEND. — Here God commands Micah to contend and dispute in His name with the Jews, and to accuse them of their crimes. The Prophet obeys God's command in verse 2, saying: "Let the mountains hear the judgment of the Lord." In a similar way God contends with Israel through Jeremiah, chapter II, 9, saying: "Therefore I will still plead with you in judgment, says the Lord, and with your children I will dispute. Cross over to the islands of Kittim, etc., and see if such a thing has happened."
CONTEND IN JUDGMENT AGAINST THE MOUNTAINS, AND LET THE HILLS HEAR YOUR VOICE. — The Hebrew has: Litigate with the mountains; the Septuagint: Judge toward the mountains; Pagninus: Show judgment to the mountains. Whence Castro judges that the mountains are cited here as witnesses, not as defendants; for the defendants are the Israelites. But our Translator better renders it: "Contend in judgment against the mountains," both because the Hebrew word rib, when construed with eth, which the Latins translate as "to litigate with someone," means for the Hebrews, just as for the Latins, the same as "to litigate against someone"; and because thus there is greater weight and force in the speech, as I shall now show. The mountains are therefore cited here as defendants, because upon the mountains idols had been erected and worshipped: for although properly the people are the defendants, yet because they, being stubborn and rebellious, refused to hear the Prophets and through them the lawsuit and judgment of the Lord, hence for dramatic effect the mountains are cited, upon which the people had sinned, as if to say: You, O insensible mountains, are more sensible than the sensible Israelites; for you perceive the voice and command of God your Creator, and obey Him; whom they do not perceive. I therefore summon you, that you may represent your inhabitants who are the defendants; that they through you may hear and recognize my just lawsuit, action, and complaint, and confess themselves guilty, repent, and seek pardon. It is a prosopopoeia: for the mountains are introduced here as if they were living and rational persons; because they, through the altars and idols, and through the blood of victims, the bones and ashes that stood upon them, spoke with a mute but clear voice of the idolatry and crimes of the Jews, and consequently that God's action and remonstrance against them was just. In this lawsuit, therefore, God is the plaintiff, the Jews with the mountains and all Judea are the defendants, Micah is the herald, the judges are the angels and men; indeed the very defendants themselves, who upon hearing so just a complaint from the most beneficent God, cannot but adjudicate the case themselves and condemn themselves for ingratitude. So Theodoret, Arias, and Clarius. With a similar prosopopoeia Jeremiah summons and addresses the land of the Jews, chapter XXII, 29: "Land, he says, land, land, hear the word of the Lord." And Isaiah, chapter I, 2, summons heaven and earth: "Hear, he says, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord has spoken."
Symbolically, by mountains and hills the Prophet understands princes and magistrates, who stood out among the people as mountains do upon the earth, of whom Habakkuk chapter III, 6 says: "He dissolved the nations, and the ancient mountains were shattered;" and Psalm LXXI, 3: "Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills justice." These same are the "foundations of the earth," because they sustain the people as foundations do. Whence the word for king in Greek is basileus, because he is as it were the base of the people; and in Hebrew adon, that is, lord, is derived from eden, that is, base. So St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, Lyra, and Vatablus. The rendering of the Chaldean is relevant here, who by mountains understands the fathers, by hills the mothers of the Jews: Contend, he says, with the fathers, and let the mothers hear your voice. Whence St. Jerome takes the mountains to mean Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the holy men, who should have been for their descendants a rule of life and a spur to virtue, so that it might appear how degenerate these were compared to those, whom in this judgment the piety and religion of their parents condemns.
Wherefore wise men teach that nothing so shakes off laziness and spurs one to every virtue as to keep constantly before one's eyes holy men, especially those of one's own state and order, who devoted vigorous effort to God and virtue. Everyone experiences this in himself, namely that when he reflects on the heroic deeds of the fathers or saints whom he honors and loves, he is wonderfully stirred to imitate them: "The younger ox learns to plow from the older." Golden is the precept of Seneca on this matter, book I, epistle 11: "Some good man must be chosen and always kept before our eyes, so that we may live as though he were watching, and do everything as though he were seeing. This, my dear Lucilius, Epicurus prescribed; he gave us a guardian and pedagogue; and not without reason. A great part of sins is removed if a witness stands by those about to sin. Let the mind have someone whom it reveres, by whose authority it may make even its innermost self more holy. O happy is the man who corrects not only his actions but even his thoughts! O happy is the man who can so revere someone that he composes and orders himself even at the mere memory of that person! He who can so revere someone will soon himself be worthy of reverence. Choose therefore Cato: if he seems to you too severe, choose a man of milder temper, Laelius; choose him whose life and speech pleased you: and bearing his spirit and countenance before you, always present him to yourself, either as a guardian or as a model. There is need, I say, of someone toward whom our character may raise itself. Without a standard, you will not correct what is crooked."
Thus Scipio Africanus constantly set before his eyes for imitation the Cyrus of Xenophon, Julius Caesar set before himself Alexander the Great, and Selim the emperor of the Turks set before himself Julius Caesar.
with himself, by what kind of sacrifice or what service he might appease the one he has offended. To this the Prophet responds, teaching the necessary parts and conditions of true justice, 8. Second, through a quasi-judicial action, or through a reproof of crimes, in which first, he summons them to hear the voice of God so that no one may excuse himself by ignorance, 9; second, he recounts the causes of the prepared affliction, namely the crimes of unjust possession of others' property, 10; of injustice in weight and measure, 11; of robbery and fraud, 12; third, he announces punishments partly present, 13, partly imminent: namely the destruction of men, 14; the despoiling of goods, 15; ruin combined with disgrace not only on account of their most corrupt morals, but also on account of their obstinate defection from God to the worship of idols, 16.
Plato imitated Socrates to such a degree that he is commonly, even by Aristotle, called the younger Socrates. For, as Aristotle says in book IX of the Ethics: "To receive the virtues of the virtuous is the most blessed life." And Plutarch in his Moralia: "Just as, he says, those who adorn themselves use a mirror; so he who is about to undertake a task should set before himself the examples of praised men." And again: "Against all disturbances of the soul, certain examples of the best men should be kept at hand." Finally St. Basil, in his epistle to Gregory, on the Solitary Life: Just as, he says, painters frequently examine their models in order to reproduce them; so he who strives for perfection of virtue ought to turn the eyes of his mind frequently to the lives of the Saints, as to images endowed with life and activity. Wherefore it is most useful frequently to read the lives of the saints. This St. Dominic did, and St. Thomas Aquinas and others; and especially St. Ignatius, who by the reading of them was converted from military life to a holy and spiritual one, and became the founder of our Society.
Mystically, St. Jerome takes the mountains to mean the angels deputed from heaven for our guardianship, as though they were summoned by God to give an account of the men committed to them and of the sins which those men committed. But this must be taken with a grain of salt; namely, that they are summoned not as defendants but as witnesses of the deeds that men, their charges, perpetrated. For otherwise this savors of the error of Origen, who believed that angels in the guardianship of men could merit and demerit, so that if they guarded them well, they would be rewarded by God; if poorly, they would be punished and cast into hell: and therefore that they were not yet blessed, but uncertain of their own salvation and beatitude. Similar was the error of the Master of the Sentences in book II, distinction XI, letters D, E, and G, where he teaches that angels through their diligent guardianship of men grow in merit and in the reward of beatitude until the day of judgment, not only accidental but also essential: which all the Scholastics there refute.
2. LET THE MOUNTAINS HEAR THE JUDGMENT OF THE LORD. — "Judgment" in these two verses is taken as a judicial lawsuit and forensic action. Whence the Zurich version translates: Hear, O mountains, the action, that is, as Vatablus says, the dispute, quarrel, controversy, of the Lord: for this is what is carried on in a trial by the plaintiff before the judge, with the defendant defending himself. AND THE STRONG FOUNDATIONS OF THE EARTH; — the Septuagint has, And the valleys, the foundations of the earth. Likewise the Chaldean: And the roots, he says, of the foundations of the earth. For the deep valleys are as it were the roots and foundations of the mountains and the earth; and the Jews had their groves and idols not only on the mountains but also in the valleys; therefore they contaminated the valleys as well as the mountains with their sacrilegious sacrifices; whence the valleys equally with the mountains are cited here by God as defendants. Second, by way of epexegesis it could be taken as meaning that is, as if to say: Hear, O mountains that are firmly founded in the earth, and therefore are as it were the strong foundations of the earth. For since mountains are lofty, they have strong foundations in the earth: just as towers, the higher they are, the stronger foundations they require. So Vatablus. Castro adds that the earth is supported by mountains and hills as by foundations, that is, buttresses. Whence Arias judges that these are summoned here by God rather than heaven and earth; because not only heaven, which by its nature is mobile, but even the earth itself, contained and abiding in the middle of the world, the mountains surpass in stability and firmness, inasmuch as by their strength, rampart, and position they hold the earth together lest it be scattered by the force of winds, or the power of heat, or the flooding of waters. And so mountains hold the name of great virtue and constancy in the nature of things, as it is written in Psalm LXIV: "Preparing the mountains by Your power, girded with might." God therefore summons here the mountains and their foundations, that is, their roots; for upon these as foundations they rest, to signify His strong and constant power and beneficence, both toward the mountains and toward their inhabitants the Jews, which beneficence they nevertheless abused against God for the worship of idols: wherefore He likewise brings against them here a strong and constant lawsuit, in the sense which I assigned in the preceding paragraph.
FOR THE LORD HAS A JUDGMENT WITH HIS PEOPLE, — that is, as the Zurich version has it, for the Lord has a lawsuit with His people, who inhabit the mountains and their foundations and pollute them with their crimes, as if to say: God is prepared and intent to dispute by lawsuit with His people. AND HE WILL BE JUDGED WITH ISRAEL, — that is, He will contend and dispute by judgment. So Vatablus; whence Pagninus translates: And He wishes to dispute with Israel, not speculatively, as we dispute in the schools, but criminally, as is disputed in the tribunal. Thus Job disputed for his innocence with his friends and with God; and he conquered his friends, but was conquered by God: "I desire to dispute with God," he himself says in chapter XIII, 3; but after the disputation, conquered and confounded, he says in chapter XLII, 3: "I have spoken foolishly, and things that exceeded beyond measure my knowledge;" namely, that he dared to provoke God to disputation and say to Him: "Hear, and I will speak: I will question You, and answer me," whence repenting he adds in verse 6: "Therefore, he says, I reprehend myself, and do penance in dust and ashes." So everyone at the hour of death, that is, at the particular judgment, will dispute and defend theses about the soul — not in general, but individual and his own; the arguers will be demons, indeed God Himself. Let everyone therefore strive not to speculate well, but to live well, so that he may be able to answer all the arguments and objections that will be proposed about his life well or badly spent. Wisely does our Thomas say, in book I of the Imitation of Christ, chapter III: "Certainly, he says, when the day of judgment comes, we will not be asked what we have read, but what we have done; nor how well we have spoken, but how devoutly we have lived." For then Christ the Lord, the Master of masters, of all
will hear all their lessons, will examine all, will dispute with all about the conduct and life of each. Thus Climacus, in his Step on fear, relates the disputation of Stephen, a holy man, with demons in the agony of death, in which sometimes he answered, sometimes he was overcome and yielded, so that he struck immense horror into the bystanders. St. Jerome, in his epistle to Eustochium, relates that when he was more devoted to Cicero than to Sacred Scripture, he was snatched before the tribunal of Christ, and there examined and beaten by Him.
3. MY PEOPLE, WHAT HAVE I DONE TO YOU? (Here begins the judgment, that is, the lawsuit, action, and accusation of the Lord, and it is forceful and emotional. Now first, Arias reads these words as an exclamation of wonder, and explains them thus, as if to say: My people, how many and how great are the good things I have done for you! What great benefits I have conferred upon you! How then could you forget them and be ungrateful for them? Second, the Chaldean translates: What good thing did I say I would do for you that I have not done? Third, others commonly explain it thus, as if to say: What evil have I done to you? How have I offended you? What occasion for defecting from Me did I give you? For there follows): OR HOW HAVE I BEEN BURDENSOME TO YOU? — For which St. Jerome in his Commentary translates: With what labor have I burdened you? Pagninus: In what have I made you labor? Vatablus: By what thing have I wearied you, or caused you to faint? The Chaldean: What severe infirmity have I multiplied upon you? For properly, as is clear from what follows, it refers to that immense and continuous miracle by which God led the Hebrews through the desert for forty years, healthy and vigorous, so that they were not wearied by the labor of the journey, and there were none among them who were sick or ailing, according to Psalm CIV, 37: "And there was none feeble among their tribes." And Deuteronomy VIII, 4, Moses says to the Hebrews: "Your garment, with which you were covered, did not at all wear out with age; and your foot was not worn, behold it is the fortieth year." So explain St. Jerome, Remigius, Rupert, Hugo, Dionysius, and others.
Second, however, these words may be taken in general, as they sound, of any kind of burden, as if to say: In what matter have I afflicted you? In what have I caused you trouble? Is it that in the desert, instead of the onions of Egypt, I rained manna upon you? But the manna was not bitter, but pleasant and tasty, having every sweetness of flavor, Wisdom XVI, 20; for it was the bread of heaven and of angels, Psalm LXXVII, 25. Is it that I led you out of Egypt into the desert, and made you dwell in tents, or rather under the open sky, instead of in houses? But with a pillar of cloud I protected you from rain, heat, and every inclemency of the weather, and treated you more gently than if you had lived in the palace of Pharaoh? Is it that I gave you so many and so various laws through Moses? But I who fed you with manna had the right to give laws as well, according to the old saying: "When you have fed them, command them." Moreover, your proneness to superstitions, idolatries, and all kinds of novelties demanded these laws, which had to be restrained, occupied, and bridled by these laws; and they are far sweeter than the laws of
4. FOR I BROUGHT YOU UP OUT OF THE LAND OF EGYPT: — Note that these words are to be read, as the Romans do, as a question, as if to say: Is this what you object to Me, as though I had afflicted you, namely that I led you out of the land and servitude of Egypt? For I do not see what else you could object to Me, except this and other similar benefits, which from that time on I continuously and abundantly conferred upon you: for I inflicted no evil upon you. For even if I permitted you at times to be afflicted by the Philistines, Edomites, and other nations; yet I did this only when provoked by you, in order to chastise and restrain your crimes. This therefore was for your good, not your harm; and accordingly I permitted it not from hatred, but from love of you. It is a mycterism, or tacit mockery. See Canon VII, in the Proem of this work.
FROM THE HOUSE OF BONDAGE I FREED YOU. — The Hebrew has, From the house of servants; the Septuagint and Chaldean, From the house of servitude: thus is Egypt called; because such it was for the Hebrews, who as slaves of the Egyptians served them in brick and mortar, Exodus I and following. Arias and Vatablus add that Egypt is called the house of servitude, from the fact that the Egyptians themselves were servants; inasmuch as they were consigned to servitude by Noah cursing his son Ham: "A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers," Genesis IX, 25. For the son of Ham was Mizraim, the first inhabitant of Egypt, and the father and name-giver of the Egyptians: for Egypt is called in Hebrew Misraim, as if to say: in Egypt you were serving not nobles, not masters, not free men; but servants, and those formerly condemned to servitude by their first ancestor Noah, and to serve whom was the most degrading servitude: therefore as great as the degradation was, so great was My clemency toward you when I led you out of it.
AND I SENT BEFORE YOUR FACE MOSES, AND AARON, AND MIRIAM? — These three were the leaders and directors of the Hebrews departing from Egypt, through whom the Hebrews received immense benefits. For by Moses they were led through the desert, governed, and fed with heavenly food: by Aaron, through sacrifices, purifications, expiations, prayers, and vows, they were cleansed and reconciled to God: from Miriam they received prophecy, instruction, and the governance of the women. Whence the Chaldean translates: I sent before you three Prophets, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam: Moses to teach the tradition of judgments, Aaron to purify the people, Miriam for the instruction of the women. So St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, Lyra, and Hugo.
Allegorically, Moses represents the sovereignty and legislation of Christ in the Gospel, Aaron His pontificate and priesthood, and Mary represents Blessed Mary, the Mother of Christ and Mother of God. Just as therefore Micah here assigns as the greatest benefit given to the Jews by God the fact that He gave them Moses, Aaron, and Miriam; so the greatest benefit given by God to Christians and to the whole world and all ages is Christ and Mary. For just as the welfare of a large household consists in an energetic father and a diligent mother; so the welfare of the Church consists in Christ and Mary: whom therefore St. Leo, in Sermon I on the Passion, calls the saving Virgin. And St. Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, in his oration on the Mother of God: Just as, he says, continual breathing is not only a sign of life, but also its cause; so the most holy name of Mary, which is constantly on the lips of God's servants, is at once a proof that they truly live with life: and at the same time it produces and preserves this very life, and imparts to them all joy and help in all things. God therefore, in the pilgrimage and voyage of this life so dark and dangerous, gave us Mary, as a star of the sea and a guiding light, to direct our journey and bring us to the port of salvation.
And St. Bernard, in homily 2 on the Missus est: "If, he says, the winds of temptations arise, if you run upon the rocks of tribulations; look to the star, call upon Mary: if you are tossed by the waves of pride, of ambition, of detraction, of jealousy, look to the star, call upon Mary. In dangers, in distresses, in doubtful matters, think of Mary, invoke Mary. Let her not depart from your mouth, let her not depart from your heart; and that you may obtain the help of her prayer, do not abandon the example of her life. Following her, you do not go astray; praying to her, you do not despair; thinking of her, you do not err: with her holding you, you do not fall: with her protecting you, you do not fear: with her leading you, you are not wearied: with her favorable, you arrive." The same, in Sermon I on the Nativity of Blessed Mary: "Look more deeply, he says, at how great an affection of devotion He willed that Mary should be honored by us: so that accordingly, if there is any hope in us, any grace, any salvation, we may know that it overflows from her, who ascends abounding in delights. A garden of delights indeed, which not only the coming divine South Wind has breathed upon, but also the arriving one has blown through, so that on every side its fragrances may flow and overflow, namely the gifts of graces. Take away this solar body that illumines the world — where is the day? Take away Mary, this star of the sea; of the sea indeed great and wide — what remains but enveloping darkness, and the shadow of death, and the densest gloom? With all the marrow of our hearts, therefore, with all the affections of our innermost being, and with all our prayers, let us venerate this Mary: for such is the will of Him who willed that we should have everything through Mary."
Wherefore the Church on Good Friday applies all these things fittingly and emotionally to Christ, and uses them and sings them in the adoration and kissing of the cross; so that each one kissing the crucified Christ may think that these things are said to him by Christ, which were literally said to the Jews: for it was not so much the Jews as each person who by his own sins scourged Christ, crowned Him with thorns, and crucified Him. Hear the hymn, or rather the reproach and lamentations of Christ on the cross, drawn from this passage of Micah and from Jeremiah II, 16, which may soften hearts of stone and dissolve them in tears; for each benefit of Christ is directly set against each of the injuries done to Him by the Jews, and therefore just as many reproaches are cast in the face of the ungrateful. The cantors lead each verse, then the whole choir in the person of Christ proclaims, and repeatedly impresses the Trisagion; and: "My people, what have I done to you," etc. Thus the two cantors begin: "My people, what have I done to you? Or in what have I saddened you? Answer Me. For I led you out of the land of Egypt, and you have prepared a cross for your Savior." The choir alternately responds: "Hagios ho Theos, Holy God: Hagios Ischyros, Holy Mighty One: Hagios Athanatos eleison himas, Holy Immortal One, have mercy on us." Again the cantors: "For I led you through the desert for forty years, and fed you with manna, and brought you into a land rich enough." The choir responds: "Hagios ho Theos, Holy God," etc. The cantors again: "What more ought I to have done for you that I did not do? Indeed I planted you as my most beautiful vineyard, and you have become exceedingly bitter to me; for with vinegar you quenched my thirst, and with a lance you pierced the side of your Savior." The choir responds: "Hagios ho Theos," etc. The cantors press on: "I for your sake scourged Egypt with its firstborn, and you have handed Me over to be scourged?" The choir responds: "My people, what have I done to you, or in what have I saddened you? Answer me?" The cantors continue: "I led you out of Egypt, drowning Pharaoh in the Red Sea, and you have handed Me over to the chief priests." The choir responds: "My people, what have I done to you," etc. The cantors pursue the complaint: "I opened the sea before you, and you have opened My side with a lance." The choir responds: "My people, what have I done to you?" The cantors insist: "I went before you in a pillar of cloud, and you have led Me to the praetorium of Pilate." The choir responds: "My people," etc. Again the cantors: "I fed you with manna through the desert, and you have struck Me with slaps and scourges." The choir responds: "My people," etc. Again the cantors: "I gave you saving water from the rock to drink, and you gave Me gall and vinegar to drink." The choir responds: "My people," etc. Furthermore the cantors: "I for your sake struck down the kings of the Canaanites, and you have struck My head with a reed." The choir responds: "My people," etc. Finally the cantors: "I exalted you with great power, and you have hung Me on the gibbet of the cross." The choir responds: "My people, what have I done to you?" etc. And then with one voice they all cry out: "We adore Your cross, O Lord, and we praise and glorify Your holy resurrection. For behold, through the wood joy has come to the whole world."
Wherefore St. Ambrose, commenting on Psalm I, on the words And You may be justified when You judge, pressing these words of Micah: "He places, he says, each of His benefits before your sight, so that you may judge as it were concerning those things which you ought to have preserved, that you may be all the more guilty, who could not stand by divine benefits. What have I done, He says, to you? He constitutes Himself as the defendant, and you as the judge. Or in what have I saddened you? He does not deny the charge of an offended countenance, if you were saddened by God as the author. Or how have I been burdensome to you? He confesses the injury of the appeal, if it was considered too troublesome: He adds the benefits, whose grace he was not ashamed of, who was ungrateful." From this gather how just and serious will be the complaint of God on the day of judgment against the ungodly, who spurned Him when He called, and returned such great injuries for so many of His benefits. A similar sharp remonstrance, to be directed by Christ the Judge against the reprobate on the day of judgment, is found in St. Augustine (or whoever the author is; for it does not seem to be St. Augustine), treatise On the Vanity of the World, chapter III, volume IX.
5. MY PEOPLE, REMEMBER WHAT BALAK DEVISED (in Hebrew ya'ats, that is, consulted with his princes, and especially with Balaam the soothsayer, seeking from him counsel and a means by which he might destroy and ruin you), KING OF MOAB, AND WHAT (when consulted by him) BALAAM THE SON OF BEOR ANSWERED HIM, FROM SHITTIM TO GILGAL. — For Shittim the Septuagint translates schinon, that is, mastic trees: for incorrectly schoinon, that is, ropes, is read in them, says St. Jerome. He here recalls the story of Balak summoning Balaam to curse Israel encamped at Shittim, Numbers XXII and following. From Shittim Joshua, chapter II, 1, sent spies to Jericho, and soon after crossing the Jordan, he besieged and took it: for Shittim was distant from the Jordan seven and a half Italian miles, that is, two and a half French leagues; having crossed the Jordan, Joshua proceeded into Canaan for six miles, that is, two leagues; and pitched his first camp in the place which he called Gilgal, that is, rolling away, removal, namely of the foreskin and the reproach of the Egyptians. For there he circumcised the Hebrews, and thus removed them from the life and customs of the uncircumcised Egyptians through circumcision, and transferred them into a new people and law, and into the holy Church of God, Joshua V, 9.
But the question is what is meant by from Shittim to Gilgal? First, some explain it thus, as if to say: Balak asked Balaam to curse the camps of Israel, which extended from Shittim to Gilgal. So Remigius, Rupert, and Lyra. But this is false; for, as I said, the camps of Israel were then at Shittim, and were distant from the Jordan by seven miles, from Gilgal by thirteen miles; and after the death of Moses, Joshua moved his camps from Shittim across the Jordan to Gilgal.
Second, St. Jerome and Haymo explain it, as if to say: Remember, O Israel, how many evils you have committed against Me from the time when you fornicated and worshipped Baal-Peor at Shittim, until the time when Saul was made king at Gilgal: and on the other hand, how many and how great benefits I conferred upon you; and you will see how beneficent I was to you, and how malicious and ungrateful you were toward Me. But this interpretation is too remote: for the subject here is the time of Moses, not of Saul.
Third, the Chaldean, Vatablus, Arias, and Clarius repeat the word remember, and explain it thus, as if to say: Remember, O Israel, with what care, with how many miracles and wonders I led you from Shittim to Gilgal, that is, into Canaan itself. For, to pass over other things, I miraculously divided the Jordan, and suspended and stopped its waters, so that you might cross through the middle of its bed with dry feet into Gilgal. But this interpretation supplies and adds many things that are not in the text, namely all these: Remember with how many miracles I led you.
Fourth, I say plainly and simply with Ribera that these words: "From Shittim to Gilgal," are connected with the preceding words and depend on them, as is clear from the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin text. Whence the meaning is, as if to say: Remember what he answered, and what evil counsel Balaam gave to king Balak; namely, when he saw that he could not curse Israel, and was compelled by God to bless them, he persuaded king Balak to send beautiful Moabite and Midianite girls into the camp, as if selling food to Israel, who would entice them to fornication, and through it to idolatry; for thus it would happen that Israel, deserting God, would in turn be deserted by Him whose help made them invincible, and so could be overcome and slain by Balak. See what was said at Numbers XXV, 1, and Apocalypse II, 14.
You will say: Balaam gave this counsel at Shittim only, not all the way to Gilgal. For before the Hebrews proceeded from Shittim to Gilgal, by God's command Joshua declared war on the Midianites, in which he killed all the women who had given this scandal to Israel, and Balaam himself, the author of the scandal, as is clear from Numbers XXXI, 2, 8, 15. I answer: It is true that Balaam and the Midianite women were killed while Israel was dwelling at Shittim; but nevertheless before this war and slaughter, Balaam persuaded king Balak to send the temptress girls already mentioned, not only at Shittim, but continuously from Shittim all the way to Gilgal, against Israel, namely to the borders of his kingdom, until Israel should enter from Moab into the neighboring Canaan, and pitch its first camp at Gilgal. For this is expressly stated here: for the wicked Balaam wished to secure the kingdom of Moab for king Balak, and utterly destroy the people of Israel; whence he wanted this scandal of the women to be long and continuous. For he feared that if he set it against Israel only at Shittim, few of them would be caught;
THAT YOU MIGHT KNOW THE RIGHTEOUS ACTS OF THE LORD, — that is, the mercies of the Lord, says St. Jerome, namely how I, even though you were fornicating, was clement, merciful, and beneficent toward you. Second, and more accurately, he calls "righteous acts" the faithful promises and fidelity of God, as if to say: That you might know how certain and stable are My promises, by which I pledged to lead you into Canaan; and how faithful I am in keeping and fulfilling them. So Theodoret and Lyra. Third, "righteous acts" can here be taken properly, namely as the just punishment of those who fornicated, and the just rewarding of the innocent or penitent: for God exercised justice at Shittim, when He killed those who fornicated, but preserved the penitent or innocent, and brought them safely to Gilgal, and specifically to Phinehas the priest, who killed those fornicating, He assigned the perpetual pontificate. See what was said at Numbers XXV, 13. Wherefore less aptly Vatablus explains it thus, as if to say: That you might know how just is My action and complaint against you.
nor do they please the Lord by themselves; but they will appease Him only if they are offered with faith, humility, contrition, love, and reverence for the supreme majesty, whom you have dishonored and offended by your sins. Note the word I will bow, as if to say: Is it enough for God to bow the knee, as certain nobles and courtiers now do, who bend only one knee when they pray, and hold up the other as if to threaten God that unless He gives what they ask, they will take it back, or demand with swords what they cannot obtain by prayers.
7. Or in many thousands of fat goats. — The Hebrew has: In many thousands of torrents of oil, or of valleys of fatness; the Chaldean: In myriads of torrents of oil; the Tigurina: Does a thousand torrents of oil please God? Our translator with the Septuagint renders fat goats or she-goats. You ask why? Some respond first, that by fat valleys are understood metonymically and hyperbolically goats and she-goats, which by grazing in those valleys grow fat, as if to say: Shall I offer God valleys full of the fattest sheep? But what are these before an immense and most high God?
Second, more simply and plainly, repeat the word rams, which preceded; or rather, lest the same be repeated, supply something similar, namely goats, with the Septuagint and our translator, as if to say: In many thousands of goats, or similar livestock of the valleys of fatness, that is, which are pastured in fat valleys and pastures, and therefore are themselves fat. For from the context it is clear that this noun must be supplied. For what preceded was: "Shall I offer Him burnt offerings and yearling calves? Can the Lord be appeased with thousands of rams?" Therefore here likewise rams or goats must be understood. Otherwise Clarius and Arias. For by torrents of oil they understand the sacrifice of the minchah, that is, of bread and fine flour: for this was mixed and seasoned with oil and offered to God.
Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression? — Does God demand from me a sin-offering and sacrifice of my son, as He demanded from Abraham the slaughter of Isaac? Or rather, as Saturn, Moloch, and the other gods of the nations, whom we have worshipped, demand human victims, namely sons and daughters, Jeremiah XIX, 5.
8. I will show, — in Hebrew higgid, that is, he indicated, he announced. Whence the Chaldean and Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion chapter XXXVI, render it by interrogation thus: Will he announce to you, O man, what is good, as if to say: By no means; but it belongs to God Himself to announce it. Others without interrogation render it assertively: He will announce to you, O man, what is good; the man here is Moses, the Prophets, and specifically Micah. So Pagninus, Vatablus, and others. Whence the Septuagint renders: It has been announced to you, O man, what is good, namely in the law and the Prophets. So Theodoret. Our translator, instead of higgid in the past tense, reads with different vowel pointing haggid in the infinitive: for the infinitive is often used for the future among the Hebrews, as also among the Greeks and Italians: or perhaps
6. What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord? — These are the words of the people, namely of penitent Israel. For the Prophet introduces them speaking here, and as if asking through a dialogue what they should offer to God, so that He may be pleased and reconcile them to Himself. He does this so that by answering the question he may teach the people what they ought to render to God; as in fact he teaches by answering in verse 8. Therefore the people say: "What worthy thing shall I offer to the Lord?" etc. The Septuagint: With what shall I lay hold of the Lord? Shall I receive the Most High God? The Chaldean: With what shall I serve before the Lord? Shall I submit myself to God, whose most high majesty resides in heaven? The Hebrew words literally have: With what shall I come before the Lord, shall I bow myself before the God of the heights? The Tigurina: With what thing shall I meet the Lord? Shall I walk bowed before the Most High God? As if to say: What shall I offer to the Lord, so that I may merit His favor? Shall I offer burnt offerings and sacrifices? The Prophet responds: By no means: for these do not expiate sins,
or, if there were many, they would be restrained through Moses and compelled by repentance to return to God's favor, and thus God, being reconciled to them, would turn the blame back upon Balak and Balaam, as He did: therefore he advised that this scandal be given continuously from Shittim to Gilgal, so that the Israelites would sin continuously and be unable to repent. The devil does the same thing, when after one act of fornication he invites a man to a second; after the second, to a third, a fourth, and finally to continuous concubinage; from which, on account of the force and bond of habit, the concubines can scarcely extricate themselves, and in fact very few do extricate themselves. But God destroyed this deadly counsel of Balaam through Moses, by hanging the leaders and killing 24,000 of the people for this sin, Numbers XXV, 9. For as the Poet says:
An incurable wound must be cut away by the sword, lest the sound part be infected.
instead of haggid he read aggid, that is, I will indicate? Finally, if you prefer to read with others higgid, that is, he announced; supply, God through me Micah, which is the same as what the translator renders: "I will show you, O man." Here the Prophet responds to the people asking: What shall I offer to the Lord? By what means shall I appease God?
And what the Lord requires of you: namely, to do justice. — The Hebrew and Chaldean: And what does the Lord require of you, except that you do justice? You will ask what this justice is? First, St. Jerome, Haymo, Remigius, and Dionysius take justice to mean discernment and prudence, as if to say: What does God demand of you, except that you do all things discreetly and prudently, according to the prescription of the law? Whence Vatablus thinks that three things are signified here, and all the duties of a faithful and Christian man, by which he satisfies his respective obligations: for he ought to conduct and order himself rightly toward himself, toward his neighbor, and toward God. Justice rightly orders a man toward himself, mercy toward his neighbor, carefulness toward God: for a man owes justice to himself, that he may do all things with reason and prudence; mercy to his neighbor; and careful walking with God. So St. Bernard, sermon 57 on the Canticle, places man's full perfection in three things, "that, he says, he may be pleasing to God, cautious for himself, and useful to his neighbor."
Second, Theodoret, Lyra, and Arias take justice to mean righteousness, as if to say: What does God require of you, except that you do injury to no one, but render to each what you owe him by right and justice?
Third, more aptly and genuinely, Rupert takes justice to mean the satisfaction of penance, as if to say: What does God require of you, O sinner, except that you anticipate God's judgment, and judge yourself before He judges and condemns you, as the Apostle commands in I Corinthians XI, 31; for God does not seek sheep and oxen, but a contrite and humble heart. Go then, ascend the tribunal of your reason, summon your will there as the accused, examine its acts and sins, judge, condemn, and inflict the deserved punishment and penance upon it; so it will come about that you reconcile the offended God to yourself, especially if to this judgment you add mercy and almsgiving to the poor. For almsgiving gives wings to penance, and lifts it to heaven, says St. Chrysostom, homily 5 On Penance, and preserves and increases the righteousness received through penance. Whence St. Augustine, explaining these words of Micah, sermon 136 On the Seasons: "You were asking, he says, what you should offer for yourself? Offer yourself; for what does the Lord seek from you, except yourself? Because among all earthly creatures He made nothing better than you. He seeks you from yourself, because you had lost yourself." So Aeschines, says Seneca, book I On Benefits chapter VIII; when as a poor man he had nothing to give Socrates his teacher, he gave
St. Augustine continues: "But if you do what He commands, He finds in you justice and righteousness: justice first in yourself, righteousness toward your neighbor. How justice in yourself? So that you may be displeased with yourself for what you were, and be able to become what you were not. Justice, I say, about yourself in yourself, without partiality toward your own person, so that you do not spare your sins, nor are they pleasing to you because you commit them. Do not praise yourself for your good deeds, and accuse God for your misfortunes. For that is a perverse judgment, and therefore not judgment, but vice." And shortly after: "Do you wish then to render right judgment? Correct what is disordered, and it will be right. What does correct mean? Praise God for your good deeds, accuse yourself for your evil deeds," etc., as if to say: Punish the pleasure of sin with the pain of contrition, with groaning, and voluntary penances: punish the pride of guilt with the humility and shame of confession, by which you confess those things modestly and sorrowfully not only to a man, but also to a priest.
Fourth, more broadly and most fully, by justice understand every duty of virtue, namely whatever we owe to our neighbor, to ourselves, and to God, whether we owe it from justice, from penance, from religion, from gratitude, from charity, or from any other virtue; for justice is opposed to mercy. Just as, therefore, mercy signifies the free works of charity and other unowed virtues; so justice signifies those things which are owed. Wherefore Scripture by justice and mercy usually signifies and encompasses every duty of virtue and every good work: for everything is either owed or not owed: if owed, it is justice; if not owed, it is mercy. So Psalm C, 1: "Mercy and judgment I will sing to You, O Lord;" Psalm LX, 8: "Who will seek out His mercy and truth?" Psalm LXXXIII, 12: "God loves mercy and truth;" Psalm LXXXIV, 11: "Mercy and truth have met each other;" for truth is the same as judgment or justice. Whence, explaining further, he adds: "Justice and peace have kissed. Truth has sprung from the earth; and justice has looked down from heaven. For the Lord will give His goodness." Just as, therefore, the Psalmist sums up every duty of man in Psalm XXXVI, 27, with these two precepts: "Turn from evil, and do good," so Micah here encompasses the same with the same number, namely justice and mercy, as if to say: If you wish to reconcile God to yourself, and please Him in all things, do the works of virtue both those commanded by law and those counseled, namely free and voluntary works. What follows supports this interpretation: for immediately in verse 10, he will contrast with the justice and mercy he has required, the injustice and mercilessness of the Jews, namely their unjust measures, frauds, and deceits, as if to say: God requires of you, O Jews, first justice, because you amass wealth and treasures through injustice
by fair means and foul; second, mercy, because you mercilessly and unjustly oppress the poor: third, carefulness in walking with God, because you carefully walk in the precepts of Amri, with his Baals and idols, as we shall hear in verse 16.
himself, saying: Others have given you much, but have kept more for themselves; I, however, reserve nothing for myself. To whom Socrates replied: "Why should you not have given me a great gift, unless perhaps you value yourself cheaply?"
And to walk carefully with your God; — the Septuagint: That you may be ready to walk with the Lord your God; the Syriac: That you may be ready to go after your God; the Alexandrian Arabic: That you may be following the Lord your God; the Antiochene Arabic: Be ready to walk in the footsteps of your God; the Chaldean: That you may be humble to walk in the fear of your God; Theodotion: And be carefully on guard, that you may walk with your God; Tertullian, book IV Against Marcion chapter XXXVI: And to be prepared to follow the Lord your God; the fifth Edition: To act carefully; the Tigurina: And to walk submissively with your God; Pagninus: And to humble yourself, and walk with your God. For the Hebrew word tsana, both in sound and in meaning, is related to cana, that is, he cared for, and by metathesis to tsaan, that is, he rolled on the ground, or in a low place: and it denotes prostration, lowliness, modesty, reverence, and the humiliation of a careful soul, which out of humility and carefulness bows, draws back, wraps itself up, and as it were hides itself, and signifies acting both humbly and submissively, as the Chaldean, Vatablus, Pagninus, and other more recent translators render it; and promptly and carefully, as St. Jerome, Theodotion, the Septuagint, and the fifth Edition render it, for tsana also alludes to tsinnim, that is, thorns; and tseninim, that is, stakes and lances. For just as these goad the body with their point, so carefulness with its anxiety goads the mind to walk exactly. Just as, therefore, well-born children act modestly, submissively, reverently, and carefully with their parents, students with their teachers, servants with the Pope, with the king, with the prince, observing all their inclinations and nods accurately, so as to carry them out immediately, not walking but running, and as it were flying; and they take care not to err even on a single point, or to do the slightest thing that might displease the king: so entirely should we walk carefully, submissively, and suppliantly with God. This is what the Apostle says in Hebrews XII, 28: "Let us serve, pleasing God with fear (in Greek, with modesty) and reverence." The meaning of the Prophet, therefore, is, as if to say: O Jerusalemites, O faithful, walk carefully with God whom you have offended, so that you may reconcile Him to yourselves as suppliants and penitents, and recover His grace, and carefully preserve it once recovered. For from God's grace, salvation and every good must be expected; from His offense, hell and every evil.
Furthermore, the incentives to this careful walking with God are various. The first is if you consider how august, sublime, and awe-inspiring the majesty of God is, in whose sight the pillars of heaven, the Seraphim, and the Cherubim tremble; and again how solicitous He Himself is for you. For, as St. Augustine says in his Meditations chapter X: "God does nothing else but provide for my salvation; and therefore I see Him entirely occupied with guarding me, as if He had forgotten all others and wished to attend to me alone: God always shows Himself present to me, always offers Himself ready; wherever I turn, He does not desert me: wherever I shall be,
He does not withdraw: whatever I do, He equally assists; and finally He is the perpetual inspector of all my actions; and, as far as concerns His goodness, He assists as an inseparable cooperator." And elsewhere: "God, he says, cares for each one of us as if He cared for him alone. The saints experience this more truly and fully, especially those who devote and consecrate themselves entirely to God's service. Whence the bride in Canticles II: "My beloved, she says, is mine," that is, He is entirely attentive to me, "and I to him," supply: I am entirely attentive, as St. Bernard explains, sermon 68 on the Canticle, who, also marveling at this condescension of God, exclaims: "O what does a pure heart, a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith dare! He attends to me, she says. Is that majesty so attentive to me, upon whom equally rests the governance and administration of the universe? And is the care of the ages transferred to the affairs alone — nay, to the leisures — of this love and desire? Yes, indeed." And shortly after: "Therefore we do not deny providence to other creatures: the bride claims His care for herself," according to that saying of St. Peter, epistle I, chapter V, 7: "Casting all your care upon Him, for He has care of you." And that of Psalm XXXIX, 18: "The Lord is solicitous for me." And a little later: "He for me, and I for him. He for me, because He is kind and merciful: I for Him, because I am not ungrateful. He gives me grace upon grace, I give Him thanks for grace. He cares for my deliverance, I for His honor. He for my salvation, I for His will. He for me and no other, because I am His one dove; I for Him and no other." The same, sermon 2 On Pentecost: "You see, he says, how truly he spoke who said: The Lord is solicitous for me. The Father, to redeem His servant, does not spare the Son; the Son most willingly gives Himself over: both send the Holy Spirit; and the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with inexpressible groanings. O hard, and hardened, and obstinate sons of Adam, whom such great kindness does not soften, such a flame, so immense an ardor of love, so vehement a love, which for worthless bundles expends such precious wares!" And shortly after: "What then does He seek from you, who sought you with such great care, except that you walk carefully with your God? This carefulness is produced by none other than the Holy Spirit, who searches the depths of our hearts, the discerner of the thoughts and intentions of the heart: who does not suffer even the smallest straw to remain within the dwelling of the heart which He possesses, but immediately burns it with the fire of the most subtle circumspection, a sweet and gentle Spirit,"
The second, if you consider how exactly and carefully that majesty desires to be served by us, mere little worms; how accurately He desires His commands to be observed by us: "You have commanded Your precepts to be kept most diligently," says the Psalmist in Psalm CXVIII, 4. For, as St. Augustine says in epistle 58 to Boniface: "Carefulness has taught those whom complacency had made negligent."
The third, if you consider your past sins, and the danger of present and future ones: "Concerning a forgiven sin, do not be without fear," says Ecclesiasticus chapter V, 5. In the present and future you walk and will walk among thorns and briers
of cares and troubles; therefore set your foot carefully, lest you be pricked or stumble: "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," says the Apostle in Philippians II, 12. See what was said there.
The fourth, if you consider that you are here in a contest, and have the fiercest enemies, who observe you everywhere in order to trip you up and turn you away from God; whence St. Jerome to Eustochium, On the Preservation of Virginity: "I do not wish, he says, that pride should come to you from your resolve (of virginity); you walk laden with gold, a robber must be avoided by you: this life is a racecourse for mortals: here we strive, so that elsewhere we may be crowned. No one walks securely among serpents and scorpions. And My sword is inebriated, says the Lord, in heaven, and you suppose there is peace on earth, which produces thorns and thistles, which the serpent devours? Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers of the world, etc. We are surrounded by great armies of enemies, and everything is full of foes: the fragile flesh, destined shortly to become ashes, fights alone against many. But when it shall have been dissolved, and the prince of this world shall come, and find nothing in it, then in security you shall hear through the Prophet: You shall not fear the terror of the night," etc. It is necessary, therefore, for you to walk carefully with your God, "so that you may never be complacent, so that with all vigilance you may guard your heart, so that you may consider that you walk in the midst of snares, and proceed beneath the pinnacles of the walls, so that you may meditate daily on this: They have set a stumbling block for me beside the way," says the same St. Jerome, book II Against the Pelagians.
The fifth, if you consider that every good thing of yours depends on God, and that you are God's beggar. Just as, therefore, at Venice and elsewhere, whoever seeks some office courts all the senators going to the assembly, and with bare head, bowing their knees and their whole body deeply, praying and beseeching, recommends themselves as suppliants, and just as beggars, hunching their shoulders most humbly, supplicate and beg for alms; so entirely and much more does this teach us to walk suppliantly with God, and to court Him with the most humble carefulness, so that from Him amid so many evils we may obtain help, grace, and eternal salvation. Splendidly St. Cyprian, treatise On Jealousy, at the end: "Consider, he says, that we stand beneath the eyes of God, with Him Himself watching and judging the course of our conduct and
life; that we can then at last arrive at the privilege of seeing Him, if we now delight Him who sees us with our actions, if we show ourselves worthy of His grace and indulgence, if we who are destined to please always in the kingdom, first please in this world?" And St. Jerome in the Epitaph of Fabiola: "Hidden virtue, he says, and a conscience safe in secret, looks to God alone as judge."
The sixth, if you consider that saying of Moses in Deuteronomy IV, 25, and of St. Paul in Hebrews XII, 29: "Our God is a consuming fire;" you have seen with what care and solicitude goldsmiths melt gold, ironsmiths iron, coppersmiths copper, and especially those who cast bells and cannons: for if they err even slightly, from
the fire or molten metal they are blasted and killed. All the more carefully must we deal with God, lest He blast us with fire and lightning, and hurl us down to hell. He who walks with a lion, even though he be its keeper and feeder, carefully observes all its movements and gestures, lest he offend it, so that, seized with rage, it might tear its companion apart. God is a lion: "The lion will roar, who will not fear?" says Amos chapter III, 8.
So Job walked carefully with God, saying in chapter IX, 28: "I feared all my works, knowing that You would not spare the transgressor;" and in chapter XXXI, 23: "For always I feared God like swelling waves above me, and could not bear His weight." And Tobias, dying, gives this as a testament to his son, chapter IV, 6: "All the days of your life keep God in mind: and take care never to consent to sin, nor to neglect the precepts of the Lord our God;" and David, Psalm CXVIII, 10: "With my whole heart I have sought You;" and verse 57: "My portion, O Lord, I said, is to keep Your law;" and verse 123: "My eyes have failed for Your salvation, and for the word of Your justice;" and verse 168: "I have kept Your commandments, and Your testimonies; for all my ways are in Your sight."
This carefulness of fearing and serving God, Moses on his deathbed inculcates upon the Hebrews throughout Deuteronomy, and especially in that swan-song of chapter XXXII. Indeed, St. Paul also says, I Corinthians IX, 16: "Woe to me, he says, if I do not preach the Gospel." And verse 24: "Do you not know that those who run in the stadium all indeed run, but one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. I therefore so run, not as one uncertain: I so fight, not as one beating the air, but I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps having preached to others, I myself should become a castaway."
So St. Cecilia walked carefully with her guardian angel and with God, devoting herself entirely to prayer, fasting, the hair-shirt, and the conversion of souls. Whence she made Valerian her bridegroom, Tiburtius, Maximus, and many others not only Christians but also martyrs, and offered them as victims to God, so that the Church rightly sings of her: "Cecilia served You, O Lord, like an industrious bee." Just as, therefore, bees are careful to gather and produce honey and wax, so Cecilia was careful to offer her own and others' souls to God. Let Christians who strive to walk carefully with God imitate her.
So Blessed Aloysius Gonzaga walked carefully with God, while living in the courts of various kings and princes, keeping himself unharmed from every sin, so that throughout his whole life he seemed never to have sinned mortally, and scarcely venially: for he so watched over his senses and mortified his body that he never felt the stings of the flesh: and in prayer he conducted himself so attentively and reverently that he felt no distraction. Therefore, when Cardinal Bellarmine wondered at this and asked how it could be possible, he replied, "that he rather wondered by what means anyone in
prayer could be distracted, while he considers that he stands in the presence of such great majesty, and converses with God." So his Life relates, which the auditors of the Rota, examining it strictly in the process of his canonization, bestowed upon him the title of Angelic, because he conducted himself continually before God as if he were an angel.
Now this carefulness of walking with God pertains not only to Religious or Ecclesiastics, but also to laypersons, married persons, and all people. For it is required not only in prayer and conversation with God, but in absolutely every action: namely, that we do all our works, even bodily and secular ones, however light and of small moment, carefully, exactly, and perfectly, according to God's law and will, so that we may please Him more and more and delight Him. This is what Ecclesiasticus chapter XXXIII, 23 commands: "In all your works, he says, be pre-eminent." For an action that is lighter and cheaper in itself, done excellently, is more pleasing to God than one that is excellent in itself, done mediocrely, or carelessly and lightly. For God does not consider how much, but from how much; nor what you do, but with how much virtue you do it.
Therefore in every work, even the smallest, we ought to be careful, so that we do it as well as possible, that it may be most pleasing to God. Our Luis de la Puente assigns the method for doing this, volume II On Perfection, treatise IV, chapter XV, where he assigns certain rules for living perfectly in any state and office, very useful and practical; namely, if to any work, even a lowly one, we add the six wings of the Seraphim from Isaiah VI, 2, by which it may be lifted from earth to heaven. The first wing is the remembrance of God's presence existing everywhere, and attending to, indeed inspecting, what you think, say, or do. The second, a pure intention for the greater glory of God; striving in all that you do to please Him, and always carefully to carry out His divine will, because He is supremely good and goodness itself by essence.
The third, prayer which gives a beginning to your works, and accompanies them by seeking divine help, so that you may carry them out with the care and perfection which He Himself commands and counsels. The fourth, trust in God, on whom all your good depends, from whose omnipotence you may hope that He will aid your weakness; from His mercy, that He will have compassion on your misery; from His faithfulness, that He will protect you in your temptations and dangers; from His providence, that He will lead you in all your ways, and hence the last wings arise, namely: The fifth, fortitude in undertaking difficult things, casting aside all fear of obstacles. The sixth, perseverance to the end of works begun, patiently enduring whatever troubles occur. For, as Isaiah says in chapter XL, 31: "Those who hope in the Lord shall renew their strength," putting on a fresh and more excellent one: "they shall take up wings like eagles," so that they may fly in spirit, and lift their works from earth to heaven:
"they shall run, and not labor," because of the delight with which God enlarges their hearts, according to that saying of the Psalmist, Psalm CXVIII, 32: "I have run the way of Your commandments, when You enlarged my heart; they shall walk, and not faint;" but they shall persevere in carefulness and in the works of His service, until they obtain the crown of glory.
To walk with your God, — that is, to cling to God in all things, to have Him always before your eyes, to observe and fulfill His commands, will, and every nod exactly, to please and satisfy Him in all things. Thus Enoch and Noah, as faithful servants, indeed as friends and sons, are said to have walked with God, Genesis chapter V, 22, and chapter VI, 9. See what was said there. Splendidly Seneca in The Wise Man, and in the book On Tranquility: "If, he says, you see a man undaunted by dangers, untouched by desires, happy amid adversities, calm in the midst of tempests, looking down on men from a higher place, and upon the gods as equals, will not reverence for him seize you? Will you not say: This thing is greater and loftier than can be believed to be like this little body in which it dwells." Man acquires this by praying and conversing with God. Therefore this ought to be the work, this the continual occupation of the religious man and of one striving for perfection, namely to be familiar with God and to walk with Him. Hear St. Dionysius, On the Ecclesiastical Hierarchy chapter VI: "It is the duty of the religious man to seek the One alone, and to be gathered to the sacred monad," according to that saying of Christ: "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is necessary: Mary has chosen the best part, which shall not be taken from her." Hence Climacus, chapter I: "A monk, he says, is one who always has his spirit raised to God, and prays in every place, time, and occupation." And St. Chrysostom, book I On Praying to God: "Prayer, he says, is the soul and spirit of the religious and perfect life." And St. Bonaventure, opuscule On the Perfection of Life, chapter V, teaches that a religious who does not frequently practice prayer carries a dead soul in a living body; or is like a body without a soul, having what is external in the religious life, without what is internal. The same: "Weak, he says, and infirm is the religious life that does not have much prayer." Indeed, even the philosopher Iamblichus, Protreptic chapter I: "To be wise, he says, and to contemplate is the work of virtue." The same, chapter III: "The knowledge (and contemplation) of God is perfect happiness." And Livy, decade I, book V: "All things, he says, turn out prosperously for those who follow the gods, and adversely for those who scorn them." And Seneca, epistle 103: "Great, he says, and noble is the human soul; it suffers no limits to be set for it except those it shares with the gods."
Verse 9
9. The voice of the Lord cries out to the city: — either to Samaria, as Remigius and Hugo hold; or rather to Jerusalem: for he continuously treats of it from chapter III, 9, to the end of the book, as I said there. So St. Jerome, Haymo, Rupert, Vatablus, and others, as if to say: God through me Micah and other Prophets cries out again and again against Jerusalem, and threatens it with destruction and con-
flagration. For the Prophet seems here to begin a new, or rather to renew an old, lawsuit of God against Jerusalem, and to accuse and punish its robberies and injustices toward neighbors. Whence the Hebrews begin a new chapter here. So St. Jerome, Theodoret, and others already cited. For city the Hebrew has lair; for which some read lehair, that is, to rouse, as if to say: God with a trumpet voice cries out through me, in order to rouse the sluggish and sleeping Jews from the sleep of their sins, and to urge them to carefulness in walking with God.
And salvation shall be for those who fear Your name, — as if to say: This is the voice of the Lord by which He cries out to Jerusalem: Those who fear God will be saved, for the rest will perish. Or more simply, as the words of the Prophet, speaking as if in dialogue and commending the voice of God to the people, that the people may eagerly hear and receive it, as if to say: O Jerusalemites, hear this voice of God which I shall now state: for those who hear it, and from it fear and worship God, they will be saved; all the rest will perish by famine, sword, and war. The translator reads teschua ierae, and rightly: for the Septuagint also reads thus; for they render: And He will save those who fear His name, and this version has an appropriate meaning. Some now read tuschia iire, that is, wisdom will see your name, that is, as the Tigurina and Vatablus: He who is endowed with wisdom and reason will regard your name, as if to say: The Prophets indeed cry out; but only the wise receive their preaching, or have regard for the honor of God's name. The Chaldean is intermediate, for he reads tuschia with the more recent ones, and ierae with the Septuagint and St. Jerome. Whence he renders: The wise, or the learned, fear the name of the Lord.
Hear, O tribe, and (that is, but) who will approve it? — Tribe in Hebrew is singular in number, as if to say: Hear, O men of the tribe of Judah, the voice of God crying out through me; but who will approve it? As if to say: I know there will be few who will approve and follow it, so as to do what I say, and I shall cry out in the name of God, so St. Jerome; or, as Rupert, as if to say: Hear, O tribe, your work which is now being arraigned in God's judgment, which no upright man will approve, or no one except the wicked will approve:
since your houses are still full of robberies, deceits, and frauds, and therefore cry out that your work is most wicked. For tribe in Hebrew is matte, which properly signifies a rod or scepter, and hence by metaphor a tribe: because just as many branches are cut from one tree, so from one patriarch many tribes are begotten and descend, as from Jacob sprang the twelve tribes of Israel: or because each tribe had its own scepter. Whence the Tigurina renders: Hear the rod, and Him who decrees it, as if to say: See what scourges threaten you, and from whom, namely from the terrible and omnipotent God. So Vatablus. The word matte, that is, tribe, in the singular indicates that the speech is addressed to one tribe, namely to Judah and Jerusalem, not to Samaria and the ten tribes, as Rupert and others hold.
Verse 10
10. There is still fire in the house of the wicked, treasures of iniquity. — For fire in the Hebrew there is a triple reading. For first, some read hais, that is, is there a man? Whence they render: Is there still (after so many voices and threats of God) a man who dares to keep treasures of iniquity in a wicked house? Second, others read haies, that is, is there? Whence they render: Does the house of the wicked still exist? Treasures and measures of iniquity? So the Chaldean; or, as the Tigurina and Pagninus: Is there not still a wicked treasure in the house of the wicked? Third, others read haes, that is, fire. So our translator, the Septuagint, and others, as if to say: The Jews, after so many outcries, threats, and warnings of God through the Prophets, still retain wealth and treasures unjustly acquired; which therefore will be fire for them, that is, will be turned to their punishment and vengeance, so that their houses, full of unjustly acquired wealth, will be burned by the Chaldeans setting fire to Jerusalem. In like manner, there is still in the house of the wicked a "measure" smaller than is just, and therefore "full of wrath"; because what is lacking in their weight will be supplied and filled up by God's wrath and vengeance. The Prophets frequently reproach the Jews for deceitful balances and unjust measures, indeed for double ones: namely, that when they bought something, they measured it with a measure larger than fair; when they sold, they measured the same thing with a measure smaller than fair: a vice that is still common among shopkeepers, especially the smaller ones.
Note: These unjust measures and unjust treasures acquired thereby are here called fire by apposition; because they proceed from the fire of covetousness, namely from the greed of the avaricious for gain, so that they may grow rich by fair means or foul: and they will end in the fire of vengeance, namely in God's harsh retribution and the fire of hell, according to that saying of Isaiah L, 11: "Behold, all you who kindle fire, girt with flames, walk in the light of your fire, and in the flames which you have kindled." See what was said there. Again, some read these words as an interrogation, as if to say: So the fire of covetousness (namely the treasures of iniquity and the smaller-than-just measure), against which we Prophets have thundered so many times, and which we extinguished with our threats, is it again kindled, revived, and blazing? But the Roman, Plantin, and
other more correct Bibles read it assertively without interrogation. Finally, he contrasts these treasures and measures of iniquity with justice, that is, with righteousness and mercy, the two things God required of them in verse 8. Whence the Syriac renders: There is still fire in the house of the wicked, and (that is, namely) storehouses of iniquity, and a small measure of fraud; and the Arabic: Is not the beauty of this city destined for fire? Because it has gathered for itself storehouses from iniquity and oppression in the fields.
Verse 11
Verse 11. 11. Shall I justify a wicked balance, and the deceitful weights of the purse (the bag in which they are kept and carried about)? — as if to say: Shall I, God, who am most just, "justify," that is, hold as just and declare, or at least ignore and leave unpunished an unjust balance? As if to say: By no means. It is a metonymy; for by balance he means the merchants themselves, who weigh their wares with an unjust balance. Whence the Septuagint clearly renders: Shall the wicked be justified with a balance? And the Chaldean: Shall they be held just who use the balances of iniquity, and a bag in which are larger and smaller weights? And the Tigurina, for the Hebrew azacce, that is, I will justify, reading with different vowel points azucce, renders: Shall I (the merchant) be clean and innocent before God with an iniquitous balance, and with a bag in which are fraudulent stones? As if to say: No. For God strictly forbade this in Deuteronomy XXV, 13, saying: "You shall not have in your bag different weights, a larger and a smaller."
Verse 12
Verse 12. 12. They spoke lies, — asserting that their balances and measures were equal and just, when they were unequal and unjust: likewise, that their goods were uncorrupted, fresh, and without defect, when they were corrupted, old, and defective: "For truth begets poverty, lying begets wealth," says St. Jerome. Therefore:
Verses 13 and 14. 13 and 14. I have begun to strike you (and I will continue to smite you) with destruction (and plague; the Hebrew: I have made you weak and caused you to fall sick; the Tigurina: I will weaken you, or make you sick, by striking and devastating because of your sins, as if to say: I will punish you with want and famine, from which you will contract disease and fall ill. For) you shall eat, and not be satisfied, — as if to say: In siege and captivity you shall eat so sparingly that you will not be satisfied.
This is a fitting punishment, that those who have grown rich by evil arts should be impoverished, go hungry, beg, and fall sick.
And your humiliation shall be in your midst. — First, as if to say: Your affliction, O Jerusalem, will be within you, when you are besieged by the Chaldean enemy. So Lyra. Again, in the midst of your wealth and pleasures, when you seem to yourself to be happy, you will suddenly become most wretched; for you will be captured and despoiled by the enemy. So Arias.
Second, as if to say: "Humiliation," that is, the cause and fault of your humiliation and affliction, is within you, namely your sins and crimes, as if to say: Blame your misfortunes on yourself and your crimes, not on the enemy. This is what Hosea says in chapter XIII, 9: "Your destruction, O Israel; only in Me is your help."
Third, very fittingly and connectedly the Chaldean,
the Hebrew, Pagninus, and Vatablus refer these things to what precedes, so that by all these things is signified famine, emaciation, squalor, and from these sterility and loss of children. Whence they render: You shall eat, and not be satisfied; depression shall be in your midst, that is, your belly, once swollen and distended with food, from hunger and emptiness shall be pressed down, and shall contract and shrink: hence it will happen that she shall conceive, supply your seed, your wife, that is, having received the seed she shall conceive, but will not bring forth a living child, but will miscarry: and if she does bring forth, I will deliver them to the sword of enemies, as if to say: From famine will follow weakness of the generative power, and from that miscarriage: but if any children are born to you, I will deliver them to be killed by the Chaldeans.
Tropologically St. Bernard, epistle 87: "Humility, he says, to which humiliation certainly leads, is the foundation of the entire spiritual edifice. For humiliation is the road to humility, just as patience is the road to peace, just as reading is the road to knowledge. If you desire the virtue of humility, do not shrink from the road of humiliation."
You shall sow, and not reap; — but the Chaldean enemies will reap your harvest, and will gather the grapes of your vineyards, and will strip your olive groves; and the oil and grape-juice that you pressed, whether in the vineyards or in the city, they will plunder, as if to say: Just as you defrauded your neighbors of their own labor, so you too will be defrauded of yours. So Vatablus. Here that saying of Chilon is true: "Gain acquired through crime is a loss, not a gain." So Laertius, book I, chapter IV. And that saying of Diogenes: "What are riches? The vomit of fortune." So Stobaeus testifies, sermon 91. For the wicked man will vomit up riches unjustly acquired: for these burden his stomach, that is, his conscience, so much that he is forced to vomit them up, according to that saying of Job XX, 15: "The riches which he devoured he shall vomit up, and God shall draw them out of his belly." Note: The Prophets commonly use plowing, sowing, and harvesting to signify the abundance of all things. For, as Xenophon wisely says in the Oeconomica, "agriculture is the parent and nurse of the other arts; when it flourishes, all other arts thrive," and many are those who promote and advance them.
And you have kept the precepts of Amri. — Amri was a wicked king of Israel, the father of Ahab, who together with his son renewed and expanded idolatry in Samaria, which had often previously been cut down by God in wicked kings, III Kings XVI. Whence St. Jerome and his followers think the Prophet here speaks to the ten tribes: for Amri was their king. But I say he speaks to only two, namely to the Jews. For the meaning is, as if to say: You, O Jerusalem, who through the temple were consecrated to the true God, voluntarily subjected yourself not to the precepts of your God, but to the impious precepts of the wicked Amri regarding idolatry, and lived so impiously and criminally as if you had been not in Zion under David and his descendants, but in Samaria under Amri, Ahab, and Jezebel, the most wicked kings. "For the work of the house," that is, of the family, "of Ahab," was idolatry, impiety, the slaughter of Prophets, the despoiling of the faithful, and other cri-
mes. So Theodoret. Note: Instead of Amri, the Septuagint read ammi, that is, of my people. Whence they render: And the laws of my people shall be scattered. They call them laws, that is, statutes and precepts, as the Hebrew, our translator, the Chaldean, and others have. However, the Roman codices of the Septuagint read: And you have kept the ordinances of Zambri; but the true reading is Amri, as is clear from the Hebrew and the Latin texts.
You have walked in their desires. — So the Hebrew, Chaldean, Septuagint, Roman, Plantin, and other editions generally. Therefore some wrongly read in their pleasures. The meaning is, as if to say: You have done what was willed and pleasing to Amri, Ahab, and other impious and idolatrous kings of Israel. He contrasts this with the carefulness of walking with God, which He required of them in verse 8, as if to say: I demanded of you that you walk carefully with your God; but you walk carefully with Amri, and his Baals and idols.
That I should give you over to destruction (so that it signifies a consequence, not an intended end, as if to say: It will follow, O Jerusalem, that I destroy you) and your inhabitants (in you, O Jerusalem) to hissing (there is a change of person; for he passes from the second to the third person, as if indignant and turning His face and speech away from her, as if to say: The rich and powerful citizens of Jerusalem, on account of idolatry and crimes, I will give over to hissing. Whence by another change of person he returns to the first person, saying): And you shall bear the reproach of My people, — as if to say: You, O rich men, you, O princes, I address here, who have been the leaders and instigators of idolatry and crimes for the people; to you the shame and disgrace of the destruction and captivity of My people will be imputed; and therefore all, both natives and foreigners, will curse and mock you, saying: Justly and most deservedly are the princes of the Jews despoiled, killed, and disgraced by the Chaldeans; because they themselves despoiled, killed, and disgraced the poor; and because by their impious counsels and crimes they destroyed the people, the city, and the kingdom. So St. Jerome, Lyra, Clarius, and others. Note: "The reproach of the people" is the disgrace of the destruction, captivity, and mockery which the Jews suffered from the Chaldeans and other nations, especially neighboring and hostile ones, and which Moses had threatened them with in Deuteronomy chapter XXVIII, 36, and Leviticus XXVI, verse 32.