Fragmenta in Psalmos

For because of the things they were doing, which were lower, the anger was kindled and went up against Israel. And perhaps anger comes down upon those who are alien to the worship of God, lying somewhere below, according to what was said: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. But anger goes up against those who have been called to do what God wills, who have become above through having been called. At any rate, it is said that the anger has gone up against Israel, who ought to look upward. Consider whether those who are ministered to by punishments from God, being vessels of wrath, are called wrath by the same name as that by which they are served. And the so-called wrath, being lower than the previously mentioned Israel, goes up against him. With these things agrees: If the spirit of the ruler rises up against you, do not leave your place. For in these words the unclean spirit is said to be lower than that against which it rises. Therefore it has been able to rise up against Israel. And since they did not believe God, nor

They hoped in his salvation. For those who did not hope in Jesus, who is God's salvation, did not believe in God himself either. At any rate, it was said by Christ to the apostles, "Believe in me, and believe in God." And it is possible to think that the wrath which they endure, having been captured by force, came up upon Israel, which did not believe in God nor hope in his salvation—concerning which Paul said, "And wrath came upon them to the end." And he gave them bread of heaven. The word "heaven" signifies the substance of intelligible things, just as we have also distinguished in what came before; and the opened windows of the heavens are the unfoldings and manifestations of the Father's gifts, God pouring out his gifts through these windows. Man ate the bread of angels—so that he might mean the man in the hidden part of the heart. Therefore also, passing over all the other names, although he had often mentioned them—those of Jacob and Israel and Ephraim—he here mentions the designation "man" to show that the truly human being, the one who has come to be according to the image and likeness of God, has become a table-companion and household companion of angels, partaking of the true manna. "To destroy" sometimes signifies to fall into punishment, just as, "If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him," in place of "will punish." But since "to destroy" also indicates being handed over to passions of dishonor, in requital for error and other sins that occur, God does not destroy in this sense those worthy to find him, so as to propitiate their sins with great mercy and compassion.

He calls them evil angels, not because they are such by nature, but because they are those who bring on the affliction of pains. He did not spare their souls from death, having brought upon them his own death for the destruction of their wicked life; into this death he also shut up their irrational powers, figuratively called cattle. For it will be to their good to cast away even their cattle, that is, the passionate motion, along with their corrupt life. And you will understand it more deeply: since the psychic man lives according to the soul but not according to the spirit, he does not spare what are thus called their souls, so that by destroying their psychic condition he may lead them into a spiritual state. That the name of soul does not always signify substance is clearly shown by the verse, "An evil soul will destroy the one who possesses it." For it does not say that the body which possesses a soul is evil, but the substance to which the thing has happened, the word "soul" now being applied to that. And common usage, which says that some have a good soul and some a bad one, agrees with the meaning here proposed. The tenth plague brought upon the Egyptians was the death of their firstborn, from man to cattle. Perhaps, then, in the case of men, the firstborn are those first brought forth, the word "firstborn" being used in its proper sense; but in the case of irrational animals, it called the firstborn the firstfruits of labors. For the firstfruits of labors belong to those who raise animals, namely the firstborn. And I agree that this is what is indicated.

By way of addition to the passage that says, in their dwellings the firstborn of the irrational creatures were destroyed—not so that those who owned them might fall under loss, but also the firstborn of humans were subjected to death, so that their parents might be tried by calamity. At any rate, to those who are not disciplined nor repent over such divinely sent visitations it is said, "In vain I struck your children; you did not receive discipline." And these firstborn either had the death of their own sins as a penalty, or they suffered no harm at all, if for the sake of the discipline of others they fell under death; for to have died is indifferent and happens by necessity, and in truth the judgments of God are unsearchable. For the anagogical sense: since spiritually every place around the earth is called Egypt, those who dwell in it are addressed as Egyptians. By the grace of God, then, the first offspring of their soul—namely ignorance and wickedness—is destroyed. For before the virtues and the beneficial sciences, which are the children of the minds, wickedness and ignorance subsist; therefore one who names these firstborn does not err. But also among the activities according to pursuits, those that are base in relation to the knowledge of virtue are to be destroyed. For to everyone who works according to craft and knowledge, the doing or performing well does not come immediately, but after working blamelessly, working faultlessly comes. And the phrase added, "in their dwellings," makes clear that what is said concerns souls still entangled with bodies; for the dwellings of souls are bodies.

The mountain of sanctification is the divided and most exalted virtue, not only the intellectual but also the practical. And the only perfect teacher, Jesus, alone genuinely leads into it. Then those who are on the mountain are sanctified, when they are led by the Lord into it. This mountain is not any ordinary thing but is called the right hand of God's power, being none other than the only-begotten Jesus. For every best thought and contemplative grasp of the truth is truly a possession of Jesus; hence those who acquire these dispositions are called possessions of the Lord. And perhaps, when they had died in such a flood of God-sent evils, they counted them blessed rather than lamented them. He struck them backward, so that they might not go forward and advance in cruelty, but might be driven back from their inhuman and wicked condition; for God does not wish anyone to progress in evils, but caring for them he also gave them everlasting reproach. And sinners are reproached not only by others but also by themselves, when they perceive the evils they have done. At any rate God says to certain people: Be ashamed of your boasting and of your reproach all the day long. For those who boast in the worst things are benefited when they are ashamed and reproached for the things in which they prided themselves. The name of innocence here does not signify foolishness but the absence of evil and the guileless. Therefore as many of those who are ruled as imitate the innocence of the teacher are shepherded by it. And so that he might not be thought to pursue innocence in a counterfeit way but from the best condition, he said that he has innocence of heart accomplished.

He also guided others by the understanding of his hands. For the form of understanding is twofold: one of hands, the other of mind and hand; for the understanding that is named with wisdom comes to the mind. Concerning this it is said, "The Lord gives wisdom, and from his presence come knowledge and understanding." But the understanding of hands, being practical and productive, is made clear in the verse, "Understanding is good to all who do it." For the understanding that is done is of hands; and by this the teacher guides certain ones—those who are benefited not so much by word as by deed. Let the understanding of hands be understood also as the principle of things to be done, according to which we are able to attend rationally to each of the things done according to virtue. For the thought: the soul that was once the lot of God and was called a temple, having fallen, experienced the things that lay within. For the invisible enemies came against it, which was the inheritance of God—enemies who of old could not come near it even in the least degree, whom he called nations because of their estrangement from the familiarity of God. These, then, having drawn near, defiled the holy temple of God within it, corrupting it through the sins they introduced. So that this may not happen, it is written to certain ones: "Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone corrupts the temple of God, God will corrupt him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are." It is possible also to call the impure and uncircumcised thoughts nations, having come into the inheritance—the soul that was once made familiar to God—and they defiled what was once holy. But if the things that happened according to

What times were brought to pass for Christianity and for the holy places by the nations, let the reader judge. But these invisible enemies, called nations, prevailed to such a degree as to lay waste the city that was once God's, so that no fruit at all remained in it, and it was set as a fruit-watcher's hut. Now the fruit-watcher's hut, as it is written in Isaiah, is through a cucumber bed; and its fruits are cucumbers and melons, Egyptian foods which the people in their sin desired, although they had the manna and the heavenly food from God—but also they set the carcasses of God's servants as food and nourishment for the birds of heaven. For the soul that has sinned, the one that saw the peace of God—not Jerusalem, which fared well—had certain reasonings which, because of their earnestness and virtue, happened to be servants of God. But these did not remain entirely, laying claim to incorruptible life, but they took to themselves something mortal in acting with passion. This, then, became the carrion food of the birds that snatch away what is sown along the road, which the Savior interpreted to be the evil one and those made sick by him. For these, being reckoned vultures and vultures' nestlings, being beasts of the earth, devour not the holy ones but their flesh. For whatever is found to be fleshly and passionate is fed. But if one can refer these things to the martyrs of Christ, you too will understand.

Since many became food for birds and prey for beasts in the persecutions, yet their souls neither the spiritual birds of heaven nor the beasts themselves were able to devour, since God does not hand over to the beasts a soul that confesses him. But those who become guilty of the destruction of a soul pour out blood—that is, figuratively called blood, its life-giving power—not far off nor at a distance from Jerusalem, but round about her. And this is the vision of peace. Since the one who is scandalized comes to be outside Jerusalem, that is, outside the correctness of doctrines, his aforementioned blood is poured out around her and round about her, and he is not even worthy of burial because his sins rise too high; such are the offenses committed after the knowledge of the truth. Since, then, the one who is baptized is not buried together with Christ, and there is no second washing, reasonably he does not bury those who have acted impiously after the washing. And by way of spiritual interpretation you will call the heretics neighbors; for they have their dwellings very near to us because they lay claim, as it seems, to the same Scriptures. These, then, reproach us, proclaiming themselves heretics, while calling us slavish, simple, and foolish. And round about us are the wise among the Greeks, mocking and ridiculing us as believing without examination and foolishly. You have disciplined, he says, the Jews sufficiently; at some point transfer your wrath upon the impious nations and upon kingdoms alien to your worship. And by way of spiritual interpretation: if the account concerns invisible enemies, these have devoured the one who was once the supplanter of the wicked, on whose account their place was also laid waste.

Each one's place is his manner of life, in which he lived. For the prudent man in a certain way inhabits prudence. We say that some inhabit the place of the prudent, and others the rank of the righteous. If, then, it should happen that those who cultivate these dispositions are devoured by enemies, their rank will be laid waste and their place. We speak, then, in the church of the place of a bishop and a presbyter. As, therefore, those who are saved are food for Jesus, so those who perish are food for the wicked. Do not remember our ancient lawless deeds. And in other places we have said that no one confesses for the evils he is still doing, but for those he long ago committed, since it was set forth: Do not remember the sins of my youth and my ignorances. And now, therefore, those who repent ask that their lawless deeds, which have ceased and for this reason are ancient, not be remembered by God. At any rate, those who are perceptive always entreat God not concerning fresh deeds but past ones, saying: We have sinned, we have done wrong, we have acted lawlessly; for it is contrary to the repentant man still to sin. We have become very poor, having fallen from the wealth of virtue and knowledge, Master; therefore we beseech you to deem us worthy of your pity, not for the future but now and quickly. For you are the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort, and your mercies are sufficient to show us rich again. And this will be most easy for us, with you helping and saving; for already often, with you helping and saving, we have had experience of it.

Even if we are not worthy to fare well because of the sins that are in us, yet since your name is invoked upon us (for we are your inheritance and your people), be propitiated for our sins, so that your name may be glorified. For we cannot bear the reproach of the nations who say, Where is their God? For they prevail over us because we have sinned, and they reproach your name too, thinking that you have been defeated by our being under their hand. And according to the figurative interpretation: those who are bound fast by the chains of their own sins are fettered, but when they come to a sense of the weight of the fetters they wear, by which they are hindered both from running toward salvation and from doing the things that contribute to blessedness, they groan, lamenting themselves. Therefore they also pray that their groaning, made known to God, may enter before him. For in this way he will stir up his own goodness and consent to break their bonds; for the Lord looses the fettered. And he will preserve them for a blessed life, which is according to the greatness of God the Word, who is his own arm, so that, even if they appeared as sons of men who had been put to death, yet they may be shown to be children of the living. For their fathers who were put to death by their enemies are alive with the Lord, being his holy ones and servants. Since the number seven is a symbol of rest, they wish the recompense to be brought upon them for the cutting off of their impiety, on account of which they reproached God and dealt cruelly with his servants.

For those who know God to be good do not wish to bring punishments upon those who are chastised by way of destruction, but rather for the cessation of those works which punishment necessarily follows. And the symbol of cessation is the sabbatical number. Since we are called your people and sheep pastured on your pasture, concerning which it is said, "He will go in and out and find pasture" (clearly the sheep of Christ), the benefits which we have asked, according to your greatness do, for which, as already present, we will give thanks to you throughout our life; for this is what "forever" means in the present context. But if the customary sense of "age" is also taken, you will say that thanks must be given to God not only in the present but also in the future life. And "to generation and generation" can be said more simply in place of "and to years and to more successions of men." But more mystically you will say: in the present and in the future life, or in both generations, both that from the circumcision and the calling of the Gentiles, so that these too may learn to hymn God.

The shepherd of Israel is none other than the one who said, I am the good shepherd, pasturing those who have a mind that sees God. He also leads those who are added from the nations like sheep—that is, as his own sheep—the Israelites; for Joseph, interpreted, means "addition of the Lord," signifying those from the nations who are added to those of the circumcision. It was a custom among the ancients, and among them alone, to assign the word "shepherd" in place of the title of kings. At any rate, they are appointed to rule from shepherds for the most part, being first accustomed to authority and to leading among the herds of the more lowly animals, so that having advanced they might pass over to leading peoples as well. And the Lord is the one who sits upon the cherubim, as is presented in Ezekiel. He sits upon the four living creatures, which have obtained this designation from the wisdom present in them (for cherubim is interpreted as "multitude of knowledge"), or he is seated upon virtue itself wherever it is found to be present; and he is present in all who have illuminated themselves with the light of knowledge, in whose hearts God has shone for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of Christ. This one, then, who is royally established upon the cherubim, the chorus of the saints entreats to appear and shine forth before those who bring forth the fruit of virtue, and before the sons of the right hand of God—who have become such through right works and thoughts and words—and before those who have unlearned the knowledge of evils together with their activities. For these, having truly received forgetfulness of evils, have come into remembrance of good things.

For Ephraim means fruitfulness, Benjamin means son of the right hand, and Manasseh is interpreted as from forgetfulness. They say, then: Since you are a king possessing the greatest dominion, having stirred it up and roused it—yes, O Master—to save us; for it is not otherwise possible to obtain salvation unless you, having come to us, turn us back from sins and from captivity, being Lord of the powers according to what follows next. O Master, almighty King, ruling over the heavenly armies, how long will you not shine upon me? I long to see your face. For you seem to be angry with me, your servant; therefore I beseech you: be reconciled to me, your servant, and grant what I have asked. For I thirst for it exceedingly with an unrestrained desire. But since you are angry at the prayer which we sent up, having turned to weeping and lamentation, we bring forth such an abundance of tears at the time of food that we eat bread of tears and drink with tears a little and measured drink. Since toil for virtue and weeping are nourishment, we eat the tears of this very weeping as bread. But we also drink them in measure. The phrase In measure shows that we are not to weep always and without limit. For the toils endured for noble things, having come to be for some purpose, will be succeeded by rest and a cheerful state. To this end you will receive the words Blessed are those who weep now, for they will laugh; and Those who sow in tears will reap in exultation. For those who sow virtue with sweat and tears will have weeping in measure, reaping in exultation; for after it they will laugh. You have made us a contradiction to our neighbors.

If anyone speaks of Contradiction, every evil person stirs it up; and the Savior too says to the sinning people that he has stretched out his hands to a disobedient and contradicting people. And these neighbors are enemies to those whom they contradict. They mock them, jeering at them and ridiculing their wise words. At any rate, the wise man received a commandment to say nothing in the presence of a fool, so that the fool might not mock the wise man's prudent words. But they will also mock those who call upon God. Yet they themselves, rather, in entreaty say: O Lord, God of hosts, turn now, redeeming our captivity from those who oppress us; and we shall obtain this good, if you cause your face to shine, you will grant us eternal salvation. As for the allegory: the soul is then said to dwell in Egypt when it lingers among things perceptible and the works of the flesh. But God removes it from Egypt, drawing it away from all material things, and he will also transplant it from its former worthless planting into a better land. And this is the disposition according to virtue. And he made a road before it—this soul being called figuratively a vine—having given a saving law and luminous commandments, so that it might journey to the good land; and this is perfect virtue. But if it seems good to you to understand a spiritual Egypt as the world concerned with the earth, in which the soul, cleaving to things perceptible and temporary, has been planted, you may take the transplanting to be its establishment in heavenly and intelligible things.

God being the cause of so great a good for her, because he made a path before her by giving the spiritual understanding of the divinely inspired Scriptures. Her shade covered the mountains. For those who led a life under her, being called mountains, were sheltered—those who possessed something lofty and exalted in their manner of life. But also those who through a more strenuous life had become steadfast and vigorous, so as to be accounted God's gain, were covered by her vine-branches, being in some way supported by them. And being well-called, the vine sent forth its branches to the greatest length, so that approaching the seas they did not suffer harm, but even amid the temptations and surges of life—figuratively called seas—bore fruit. And it sent forth its shoots even as far as the very rivers that watered it, so as to yield the appropriate fruit. And its branches were those who were united to the Jewish worship, who bear fruit through persisting in the Law, while its shoots were those who were becoming proselytes. But if the vine is such a soul, cultivated by God, having its beginning and root in the Word, according to which it is rational—the Word who said, I am the true vine—then God will plant its various relations and powers, which are figuratively roots, in the manifold conceptions of the Only-begotten. This vine, therefore, being exalted because it is well cultivated, will cover the lofty doctrines of truth, which are called mountains, with its own shade.

But the citizenship and knowledge here can be shown to bear a shadow and type of her true state hereafter. She also extends her branches—the branches that have grown out from her powers, the virtues—as far as the drinkable rivers of God's words, as they are called. And in another way, those things that grow out from her for benefit from other instruction can be called her branches. For just as branches are fattened and acquire fatness from the plant on which they have grown, so the things that grow out from her from other learning are fattened by her preceding teaching, every name being taken captive to the obedience of Christ. Why have you cast down her hedge? When the vineyard bears fruit, the guard of the grape is in the booth; but when there is barrenness, he abandons the booth. And those who pass by the way pluck her, not those who walk. These are false teachers and the spirits of error. They pluck her when she has a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness; for she has become a dwelling-place of such things. And when, instead of the ethical virtues, she bears passions as fruit, she has brought forth thorns instead of grapes; and when she sins in matters of knowledge, she bears a grape of gall and a cluster of bitterness. The boar from the thicket ravaged her. The things that ravage her are either her irrational and wild passions, or the bestial and most wicked powers. And perhaps the boar can be the shameful desires and dissolute pleasures, which because of their impurity lurk in the thicket, that is, in fruitless plants.

For these passions are hidden around the irrational impulses and impressions, but the name of the wilder "monios" can indicate rages and angers, even if they have come to be. And "monios" is the wild ass, as if one were to say that the spirited part of her will be mounted. 829 Often a "man," who for our sake became as we are and did not lose being what he was, is addressed in divine Scripture: for behold, "the East is his name," and "after me comes a man." If, then, upon this man, insofar as he became human, the hand of God that works signs and wonders should come to be—being the right hand (and this is the Word of God)—instead of "if it were united to flesh by hypostasis, having a rational soul," and through it should work the divine signs, so great an improvement will be in us that we shall not depart from you. For thus, partaking of you, we shall be given life and shall call upon your name. For from this salvation will also follow for us: for "everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Since there are many ranks of those improved by Christ, who are also called his branches, while he is the true vine, there are various winepresses—that is, promises—into which their fruit, when pressed out, makes wine that gladdens the heart of man. And since all inspired Scripture has been called a vineyard (for concerning it, when it was taken away from the Hebrews and given to those from the nations who believed, it was said to the Jews, "The kingdom of heaven will be taken from you"—which he hinted at as a vineyard in the parable—"and will be given to a nation producing its fruits"), the fruits and clusters of this vineyard are the abundance of thoughts.

Just as the minds of the faithful, having received the fruits, the divine winepresses will press them out and make new wine, from which he who is able to say to God, "You have given gladness in my heart," will drink. And fittingly with the inscription, the eightieth psalm is also appointed, since this number contains ogdoads of tens, so as to bear a symbol of the resurrection of the Lord, which was accomplished on the Lord's day, the eighth day. And this is not the first to be inscribed "For the winepresses," but the eighth also, and it too, for the reason mentioned, is arranged in the order of the eighth number. And since by his own death Jesus, helping us, destroyed the devil who held the power of death, we shout aloud mocking the tyrant who has been abolished, exulting in the one who provided the help. Since the timbrel is made from the hide of a dead animal, he wills that we, having put to death the members that are on the earth and carrying about the death of Jesus in the body, should make for ourselves a timbrel, which we will give in place of a psalm. We do not receive it for the one who passes by it; and the word commands us to render not only a timbrel for the psalm but also a psaltery and a lyre. And as has been said in other psalms, the psaltery is so called because it is straight and unbending and sends forth its sound from above, meaning that the spirit of the man is what is in it, while the soul is indicated by the lyre, since the senses are stretched taut and the powers of the soul produce the sound of their activities melodious and musical.

If, then, the psaltery intimates the spirit, the harp the soul, and the timbrel the body, we receive the word as a divine psalm, being for the giving—the spirit, the soul, the body—to work the contemplations and practices according to virtue. But according to anagogical interpretation it stands thus: the commandment that makes clear the spiritual will of the shadowy feast has been set by the Lord as a testimony for those who have been added by the nations to the gospel. For that these are signified by the name of Joseph has been said before. For these, having left behind in their mindset the passions and the vices and the very place around the earth, hastened to be outside the figurative Egypt, and at the same time as going out they heard the tongue, that is the dialect, which they did not know before. And the symbols of this paradox are brought forward in the Acts of the apostles, when tongues as of fire appeared so as to sit upon each one of those who believed, and suddenly each heard in his own dialect the great things of God spoken by different voices. But those who obtained this grace turned the back of their soul away from vices, no longer enduring to take up the material and muddy affairs of the figurative Egypt. For they served, but their hands shall not serve in the basket, their hands—which he called hands—of their deeds no longer touching chaff and brick, but nobly and freely taking up certain of the baskets which Jesus filled, from which he broke the loaves. For the fragments left over have become fillings of baskets, from which

Those who carry these spiritual baskets feed those who are being discipled. A squall is often taken to mean temptation. Since God is present to those who are tempted, not openly but hiddenly, the one being tempted ought to call upon him, so that God, having heard him, may rescue him from his present affliction. And my people did not hear my voice. To hear signifies not only to perceive a voice but also to be persuaded by the one speaking, according to, They did not hear my voice when I was instructing them—that is, they did not agree with the commands of the one instructing. The phrase to hear a voice also signifies to understand and to comprehend. For he says, Let the one who has ears to hear, hear, which is the same as, Let the one who has understanding understand. But he calls them his people, either stirring them up to goodwill or weighing them down and intensifying their accusation—almost saying: if it had been another nation, they would have had excuse for not hearing our voice, being unaccustomed to it; but now they would be punished without excuse—and not only did my people not hear my voice, but they did not even attend to me, although they had a mind able to see me, so that, even if they despise the voice, at least they might be ashamed when they assail my authority. It is good, at an opportune moment, to clarify an evangelical phrase that is not understood by the heterodox, who moreover cut apart the divinity, when the Savior says to the Jews concerning the Father, You have never heard his voice nor seen his form.

The heretics, not understanding what was said, claim (since the Jews had heard the voice of God who made the world and had seen his form) according to the declarations recorded among them, that the Savior, in refuting them as never having heard the voice of God nor seen his form, is directing them to another God whose voice they had heard and whose form they had seen. But those who think differently were deceived, being ignorant of the many meanings of "hearing a voice." For if the Jews, who received the law from him, heard the voice of God but did not understand it nor obey it, they are reasonably refuted as not having heard his voice; but neither have they seen his form, since they did not accept the impress of his substance which says, "He who has seen me has seen the Father." Therefore, in the sense in which it is said that they never heard the voice of God, so also here they are struck through the word just mentioned and through the next expression, which stands as follows. "In nothing" means that through worthless things they were humbling their enemies, just as also the greatest tyrant of Egypt—not by arming mighty giants against them, nor great beasts, but worthless and tiny creatures. They say that by Hebrew custom the men appointed to judge the people were called gods, as Moses himself sets forth, saying, "You shall not speak evil of gods, and you shall not curse the rulers of your people." For gods, being ranked with a ruler of the people, would be none other than the judges.

But since next in this very psalm God says, "I said, You are gods, and all of you are sons of the Most High" (not that they were made such, since the word of God had come to them), it is clear that even now the statement "God stands in the assembly of gods" will be brought against them. For since all who are gods in this way—both men and divine angels—exist in the same manner, God stands in their midst, not moving away from them nor abandoning them as long as they are such. For he departs from those who fall away, leaving them behind. Therefore Adam too, after the transgression, perceived that God had stood by him before the sin; and in the prophet it is said, "And the Lord God will go in the storm of his anger." But God, standing in the assembly of gods, preserves their divinity, nourishing—or rather increasing—it by the participation by which they partake of him. But also, being in their midst, he distinguishes them in the manner stated: "How long will you judge injustice and accept the persons of sinners?" If the judges of Israel are gods, what follows is said to them when they have fallen away. For it is a perversion of a judge to judge injustice and to accept the persons of sinners. For just as others, for the sake of gifts, falsify justice, so these, accepting persons, judge contrary to equity. And fittingly "of sinners" is added. For it would not be blameworthy to give justice to a rich man and one who is otherwise superior in the sequence of equality. At any rate it is said, "And you shall not pity the poor in judgment"; and it is also said, "You shall not accept a person in judgment; you shall judge the great and the small alike; you shall not shrink from a person, because the judgment is God's.

For the judge must know that he serves the judgment of God. Therefore it is rightly said that God stands in the assembly of these gods and distinguishes them in their midst, so that knowing him in themselves and that he is in their midst, they may follow his will. But if they were gods who laid claim to divinity, since they are changeable, they might also be turned aside, having been inattentive to the things toward which the word, indignant, says, "How long will you judge injustice?" For having an implanted law by which it is possible to know that the good is to be chosen and evil to be avoided, when they approach affairs with exchange, so as to turn away from the good and embrace the evil, they judge injustice; therefore they also accept the persons of sinners, concealing the persons that are in themselves insofar as they are in the image of God. "Judge for the orphan"—you who have been entrusted with judging, for the one bereft by a father's care—but also for the poor man who does not wish to struggle for his own rights; but also "rescue the needy and the poor" who are oppressed, delivering them from the sinners who take advantage. But it is also said to those who have been made divine according to virtue, that they should judge worthily of the protection over them through instruction the one who has cast off the worthless father and the wealth of wickedness. And let them justify also the one who is humble through freedom from pride and poor because he has become toilsome for the sake of piety, rescuing those who are thus poor and needy from the hand—that is, the action—of the sinner. The divine knowledge, being the wisdom of God, shines upon and enlightens the one who possesses it.

For a person's wisdom will illuminate his face, and those called to divine knowledge have the commandment to illuminate for themselves the light of knowledge. If, then, those who are wise according to God happen to be illuminated, those who are disposed in the opposite way, who embrace ignorance and lack of understanding, walk in darkness, always advancing in evils. But since, having been rubbed down in evils and having borne the first fruits of wickedness, they have become not only earth because of their material condition, but also wished to be foundations of the earth, remaining firmly and immovably in their base disposition. But even if they themselves loved to be such, nevertheless the philanthropic Word prays that they be shaken and moved from the most wicked stance they hold and fall down from the worst condition they have built up. The good God, far from all envy, sharing his own gifts with humans, said, so that they might also be gods by receiving his Word, God. And this Word, God, who makes them gods, is God and will make them sons of the Most High, being participated in by them, he who is the only-begotten Son of the Most High. But while God granted them to be gods and sons of the Most High, they themselves ran the opposite course, so as to become humans and to die the death that follows humans. These have become humans by falling away from divinity, not insofar as they are mortal and rational living beings (for this they had even when they happened to be gods and sons of the Most High), but insofar as they loved mortal and human things.

But they die in this way: they are humans not with the common death but with the death that follows sin, falling in a manner similar to the one of the rulers who fell. And this is the devil; for while he too was a ruler in the heavenly places, he fell. At any rate it has been said concerning him: How did the morning star, which rises early, fall from heaven? In this way Adam too, having sinned, became not as God but as one of God's having fallen, clearly, he became; for God did not say concerning him, Behold, Adam has become like us, but As one of us, or As one from among us, as many of the copies contain. 839 He mentioned another writing that has: Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you will destroy utterly among all the nations. God will judge either all those upon the earth or those who have become earth through thinking earthly things. And God will judge the earth by destroying utterly among all the nations—but not all the nations. For as many nations as were superstitious, with their oracles and the rest of their meddlesome curiosity together with the spirits of error that energized them, were destroyed utterly by God, so that the nations might become pure of these things for the purpose of receiving the word of salvation. And the very disposition among the nations, according to which there happened to be various nations, God having destroyed utterly, he will show the humans themselves in accordance with his own image, having cast off the accidental qualities just as they also became nations. 840 Likeness is understood in two ways. For there is likeness according to essence, which is also properly called identity, and there is also likeness according to quality, which is also called simply likeness. According to the second meaning, those who become perfect would be made like God: As your heavenly Father is perfect.

Hence it is said, "When he is revealed, we shall be like him"—that is, like God. And the Cause of all things made man according to the image and his own likeness in the first sense, I mean that which is according to essence, since nothing is made like God. For the words "Who shall be likened?" do not indicate a question nor rarity but impossibility, since nothing is able to be made like God according to essence. But do not let yourself be deceived into thinking that the Son also is subject to what is said. For it does not say "Who is like you?" but "Who shall be likened to you?" For the Son does not have the being made like God as something future, since he is of his essence and for this reason is the same as him—not in number but in the identity of essence. He wishes them to be placed by God as a wheel, unstable and unsteady. For it will be to their good not to be confirmed and to hold immovably to the evil which they chose. Therefore he also wishes them to be placed as chaff being scattered and tossed before the face of a violently blowing wind by the punishing spirit that pursues them, which he called a wind allegorically. And the fire of punishments will consume them, having become a forest and fruit, cut down with an axe. And using another punishment against them, he will pursue them with his own storm, which cannot be escaped; hence they will also be troubled in the wrath of God borne against them. For since their sins happened to be varied, of necessity a manifold punishment has been provided for them. And it should be noted that, though they were a good planting, they loved barrenness.

For the stalk has its origin from the good seed, not primarily but growing alongside incidentally. For it was necessary that they, if indeed they were bearing fruit primarily, become wheat, so that they might be brought into the storehouses of the word. But not wishing this, they have become stalk and chaff, which the tyrant of spiritual Egypt will also use for the building of the destructive cities he constructs, and they will also be burned by the unquenchable fire. For the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. Even if others have become lofty and most high from God, being lifted up and exalted by virtue, yet none of those is such of himself and by essence. For God alone is Most High, making others most high but not becoming so; as he alone is wise and alone true, granting wisdom and truth but not partaking of them, so he alone is Most High, in this respect the form of the Most High and of the Only-begotten being Most High. For being the power of the Most High, he overshadowed Mary; and the Holy Spirit also, sent from the Most High, is Most High. The one who alone is Most High therefore fits together with the Trinity. For he who called the Father Most High also indicates the Son and the Holy Spirit; likewise

The one who thus called the Son makes clear both the Father and the Holy Spirit. For just as there is one Godhead, so also the Most High is one, so that there may be no difference in this regard concerning the Trinity, just as in other matters we rightly theologize. The word "as" does not here signify likeness and comparison, but the beloved itself, just as also in Moses: "In all his house as a servant," and further, Christ "as a Son." For "as a Son" signifies a son in truth, not a likeness of this, and Moses was not a likeness of a servant of God but was his servant. Hence, in the present word, the tabernacles of God are beloved not by way of comparison but in truth. And if we understand what kind they ever are, we shall understand still more that they are beloved, but not like things that are beloved. These, then, are eternal and heavenly, concerning which the Savior said to those present: "Make for yourselves friends from the mammon of unrighteousness, so that when it fails they may receive you into the eternal tabernacles." "My soul longs and faints," by casting off the soul-like condition and becoming spiritual, so as to be fit for the dwelling in the heavenly courts, spoken of in parallel. Altars not perceptible. For there was not a multitude but one altar according to the history, unless perhaps one might thus call the altar of the Lord of the heavenly powers—the altars, he said, upon which better sacrifices are offered than those according to shadow and type; to which the apostle says: "It is necessary that the copies of the things in the heavens be with these sacrifices; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

For the sacrifices of praise and righteousness are offered upon these altars, and those who bring a living sacrifice, well-pleasing to God, offer their own bodies not upon anything else but upon these altars. The house of God is the complete virtue and the highest knowledge of the truth. It has been said in what precedes that the tabernacle is a symbol of progress; for it is proper to those who are journeying. But the very end of blessedness is made clear by the phrase "house of God." Hence also according to the history, the people as they journeyed had the tabernacle of testimony (and a house of theology), and various tabernacles of their own virtues in which the whole people dwelt. But when they arrived at the holy land, they themselves had their dwelling in houses, no longer making progress; for they had reached the end of virtue and knowledge. But no longer approaching the tabernacle of testimony but the house that was established, they performed the rites of worship. And here, then, after longing for and loving the progresses which he hinted at through the tabernacles when he said, "How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord," he pronounces blessed those who have ascended through the progresses to the summit, as being able to dwell in the house of God, bearing the state according to God, when there is fulfilled in them, "When he is revealed, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." "He set" means "he made then," as in "I set a guard on my mouth" instead of "I made"; and "He who makes the whole inhabited world desolate" is the same as "to make the inhabited world desolate." And here, then, "Into the place which he set" presents "he made a place." And this is the place around the earth.

For in this God established his covenants with humans. Let us weep in a praiseworthy manner—weeping blamelessly—learning from the covenant that God established for those still present here. For in this way we too shall obtain the blessings, having lived according to the will of the covenant given here. And we shall know the greatness of the blessings given, understanding who it is who extends them. And this is God, the lawgiver. And they shall go from strength to strength. The virtues and contemplations of the truth are strengths; therefore those who possess them are able to do something greater. Those, then, who have journeyed according to the progressions of the introductory strength will hasten to become more perfect—and those who live according to the law will hasten to the gospel way of life, those who knew Christ according to the flesh, to behold his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father; those who know in part, because they are on earth and cannot contain the purest knowledge—when the perfect form of contemplation has come, to know as one ought to know, journeying from a lesser strength of understanding to a greater and more perfect strength. 847 More simply, each of the saints—or rather both priests and kings—can bring this request, being a christ of God. For "Do not touch my christs" has been said concerning all the saints, and priests and kings were called christs by Hebrew custom. Better would it be to be in your courts even for one day than to be outside your courts amid a multitude of thousands of days.

For the apparent little thing in the courts of God surpasses the perfection that is among humans. Such also is what was said by the Savior about John: "Among those born of women none is greater than John, but the lesser in the kingdom is greater than he." It could also be said thus here: humans living are under time, and time is divided into a multitude of days, while the one who has been in the divine courts of the Lord has one eternal and uninterrupted day. For the Lord has become for him an eternal light, since the sun of righteousness does not set upon him. This uninterrupted and unceasing day would therefore be better than the life of many days that comes to be here. God gives grace to those who are saved by grace, according to "By grace you are saved," grace being here equal to a gift in power. For there is also another meaning of grace, in that someone is found to be graced. For according to this someone is said to have found grace before God. This grace he gives in place of the former grace, which we hastened to receive from what is in our power as far as possible. And he gives glory to those worthy to obtain it because he has first glorified the one who says, "Those who glorify me I will glorify," evidently through good works and true doctrines. And they walk in guilelessness—those who move through all things without a most wicked disposition. But if guilelessness also signifies simplicity, consider that yourself as well. And since hope is the expectation of good things, and only the rational is desirous of things that are truly good, it is the peculiar virtue of man alone to hope, especially when he lays claim to piety; for it is written, "There is hope for the pious.

For the faithful are reborn to a hope that is living and abiding, because the expectation of good things is undefiled. According to the deeper meaning: the Lord takes pleasure in the good and earnest heart, which is his earth, because it receives the seed that comes from him and bears fruit a hundredfold. And he turns back into it also the multitude of captives led away by evil powers—reasonings that are Jacob's—because it stands firm against the passions. Having accomplished these things, he grants forgiveness of lawless deeds to all, lifting up and loosing their lawless acts. And if ever, even after forgiveness, one has sinned, he also covers over these sins, granting virtue; for virtue covers sins, not hiding them but utterly removing and obliterating them. For in this way love covers a multitude of sins. For just as knowledge covers ignorance, utterly removing it from the soul in which it comes to be, so also the love of God, which is the same as virtue, covers sins whenever he judges fit to do good. And God took pleasure in his earth, having sent his Son to be seen upon the earth and to live among humans; whence at the birth-giving of Mary it was said: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among humans of good pleasure." And we learn from what has been said here that what is called his anger is not a passion of God. For because of the

Since you give us the things of salvation, O God, you are [our] existence: turn us back, providing us with occasions for repentance and receiving us as we return to you. For it will follow that your wrath also is turned away from us. For since we kindled it by our sins, when we have repented and turned back, it will no longer work against us but will be made to vanish. For just as fire, when the combustible material through which it works gives out, no longer exists, so when our sins have vanished, your wrath will no longer be set against us. God gives life, granting life to those who were turning toward him after having stood apart from him and turned away from him; or he himself, having turned his face, which he had turned away from them because of the wickedness they practiced, [gives life]. For in either way it is possible to understand "having turned," since it is spoken without an infinitive. For it does not make clear whether he himself turned toward them or they turned toward him. When life had been given to those made alive, the people of God rejoiced in God himself, who had given them life. Since they ask for salvation not from works but by the grace and mercy of God, they say, O Lord, show us [the way] by which you have mercy and compassion on your people; for in this way also your salvation—that is, the salvation that comes from you—would be given to us. It is possible to call Jesus, the cause of mercy and salvation, both "mercy" and "salvation.

For he himself is the mercy and the salvation of God, insofar as he shows mercy and saves. God does not speak by knocking on the hearing of those who listen from outside, but by placing within the very mind what he wishes to make clear to the intellect without utterance; whence it is said, "I will hear what he will speak in me." In harmony with this is also the saying of Habakkuk, which runs thus: "And I will watch to see what the Lord God will speak in me." In accordance with these things Paul also says: "If you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me"—for in him, but not simply to him, Christ was speaking. For he speaks to that one in whom he speaks, but not in every case does one speak to that one to whom he speaks, when only the hearing is struck from outside. Moreover, "the Lord God will speak in him," interpreting, said that there is peace upon his people—the people of God, evidently when all the enemies arrayed against the people are overthrown—or the peace that surpasses all understanding, which the people has possessed, through which they would be outside all disturbance and tumult, their thoughts leading a calm. This peace is given by grace from God and the Father and the Lord Jesus, as the Savior says concerning it: "My peace I give to you." And this peace is given also to those who render the things of God to God and keep righteousness toward him, who are properly called his holy ones. And he gives it also to those who through repentance turn their heart toward him, making the turning toward him not crooked nor counterfeit but from the very depth of the mind.

Then truly he also made his dwelling and glory in the earth, while the Savior wondrously accomplished many great things: resurrections of the dead, recoveries of sight for the blind, cleansings of lepers, and whatever other marvelous things he did. But to speak more mystically, for those who fear God and are lacking in nothing (for there is no want for those who fear him), the salvation of God has drawn near, being partaken of by them through the things they do in a saving manner. For just as salvation is far from sinners who work the works of destruction, so, by contrast, the salvation of God is near to those who fear him. Therefore he also makes glory dwell in the earth of those who say these things. And you would call their earth their good heart, which bore fruit a hundredfold from the seed cast upon it. That the glory of God makes its dwelling in the heart, the passage attests, which says: God, who said that light should shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts for the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of Christ. And he makes his dwelling also in the body of those who obey the exhortation that says: Glorify God indeed in your body, of those who achieve perfect chastity. From this the mutual succession of the virtues can also be shown, since the merciful is truly merciful and the true is merciful, but also the just is peaceful and the peaceful is just. And elsewhere, truth is named together with mercy, as in: Your mercy and your truth have always upheld me, and: God has sent forth his mercy and his truth.

And for this reason I maintain that these same things have been spoken together, since the truth of things is hard for humans to attain—or rather unattainable—unless it happens to be supplied by the mercy of God; or perhaps true salvation, which was not possible to receive without the mercy of God, was at the same time named righteousness. He says that mercy has met with truth. For if mercy and truth come to the same place, we shall both know it and be in it. But righteousness also kisses peace, and peace kisses righteousness. For where righteousness is, peace necessarily follows, being its offspring. You can also understand these things as said of the Savior according to his different conceptions, as has already been stated before. And the truth has sprung up from the earth, since the Savior became man. For great deception and much falsehood were among humans. For there is no truth and mercy, nor knowledge of God upon the earth; therefore also falsehood and murder and adultery have been poured out upon the earth, says the prophet. This universal falsehood, then, that prevailed over the earth, he destroyed who said, I am the truth, and who sprang up from the earth—that is, from humans. But also, being righteousness of the Father according to his being the Word of God and Wisdom, he looked down from heaven, having bowed the heavens and come down. And he brought us peace inasmuch as he is righteousness, and mercy inasmuch as he is truth; for all these things are conceived of him, as has just been said. In the same way as, when rain is given, the earth bears fruit—the Lord himself having given goodness—the noetic earth gives fruit, having been watered by the goodness from God.

Its fruit is the generic virtue, which projects the species; the soul is earth that happens to bear fruit. What is set before us can be said about the people, so that what is said is something like this: since the Lord spoke peace upon his people, the righteousness of the people, going before him, will set his steps upon the road that leads up to blessedness—or the Lord himself, who is righteousness, goes before the people and will set his steps into the way. To someone, at any rate, he said, I will go before you and I will level the mountain. Or also in this way: the righteousness according to the law, working in Moses and the prophets, whose end John came forth before the Savior, having been set into the way—his goings in us—so that he may dwell and walk among us, cried out, Prepare the ways of the Lord straight, make his paths straight; all but shouting, Make a way for him who rides upon the west, the Lord is his name. Indeed, it is also said about John, And he himself will go forth before the Lord in the spirit and power of Elijah, and, Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way before you. But if the Savior too is righteousness going before the Father into the minds of those who are God-bearing, consider, understanding in what manner it is said, He who receives you receives me, and he who receives me receives the one who sent me. All the saints exult as over a great honor that they are servants of God. Jonah, at any rate, when asked from what country he was and from what people, said, I am a servant of God, and I worship the God of heaven.

And indeed the apostles are testified to by the Savior as rightly confessing him as Lord through works and words: "For you call me 'Lord' and 'Teacher,' and you speak rightly; for I am always both your Lord and Teacher, of those who learn from me and serve me genuinely." And indeed they place this designation before their own writings, exulting in it as in the greatest honor; for James is "a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ," and Paul is "a servant of Jesus Christ." For just as the people of the world in the records of their worldly transactions wish to be styled by the honors that pertain to them, so the apostles at the beginnings of their writings deem it worthy to be styled servants of God and of Christ. David does the same, though he was a king: "Save," he said, "your servant, O God, who hopes in you; and save me by your mercy," since "all the day long"—that is, the whole time of my life—"I cry to you." But "gentle" is not used of God in its proper sense; for gentleness is a human virtue. It is said of him in a more human fashion, as are also other things—rejoicing, being glad, remembering. And "gods" here must be understood not as statues and demons but also as the saints. For among these no one is in every way and without variation like the Lord. For he alone is God in the same way as the Father, while each of these has become god by participation, having received the divine Word according to "He called them gods to whom the word of God came.

For even if they have come to be according to the image and likeness of God, nevertheless none of them is like the Lord in essence—they being ones who will be made like, but not yet being so. For you shall be holy, because I am holy—he being holy, while they will be so. Concerning those who will be, it is true to say, "Who is holy as you, O Lord?" For it is not written, "Who will be likened to you among the gods, O Lord," but "Who is like you?" For they will be like, according to what was said: "We shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is." Therefore none of the aforementioned gods is like the Lord, nor indeed is any of them [like him] according to his works. For which reason also in the Gospel he says, "If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not have had sin." For even if the saints once did the same things as the Savior in the underlying matter, yet in manner they differ greatly—the former working by prayer and faith in God, while he accomplishes them with authority; whence it is said that none of the gods is [like him] according to the works of the Savior. And we have also spoken at the beginning of Psalm 82 about how it was said, "O Lord God, who will be likened to you?"—which we deem the reader should also apply to the present passage. It is impossible to partake of the knowledge of the truth blamelessly without having passed through ethical teachings and practices. At any rate, he first prays to be guided by God in the way. And this is progress in practical matters; for the beginning of a good way is to do what is just, so that in this way he may be able to walk in the truth of God, progressing in it until he passes through to the end.

The goal of the knowledge of the truth is to grasp the things that are known perfectly and as they have existence. He who chooses good things for their own sake rejoices in the possession of them. And to fear the name of God is also among good things; therefore, wishing to have it with gladness, he prays that his own heart be made glad by God for the fear of his name. And having obtained this, he gives thanks, confessing to the Lord God with his whole heart, which has been made glad at having obtained his requests. And he glorifies the name of God forever—that is, for the whole time of his life—since the great divine mercy has come upon him, by which he was also rescued from the bottom of Hades. For this he called the lowest Hades. For those who sin greatly and often fall down into the lowest Hades, from which, in order to be rescued, they need great mercy, so that each of them says as a prayer, Have mercy on me, O God, according to your great mercy. It fits, then, for the one rescued from such great evil to glorify the name of God forever and in

to confess to him with a whole heart. And one would not unsuitably accept that these things were spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ, when the kings of the earth stood by and the rulers were gathered together against him. Look upon me. For you look upon those whom you see not for the sake of anything else than to do good and show mercy. Therefore also in what follows he asks as king that the dominion be given and preserved to him, which God himself gave to him. For this will also follow—that he be saved, being the son of the handmaid of God. But if the promises were a prophecy concerning Christ, the things set before us would be leveled in this way: David says, Look upon me as God, have mercy on me. And it will belong to you who give your dominion to your servant, in his becoming man and taking the form of a slave. And since it follows for the one who became man also to die, God, raising him up, will save him, being the son of his handmaid, who said when she heard from the angel: Therefore also the holy thing born of you will be called the son of God. Behold the handmaid of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word. For truly the one who bore him is both handmaid and mother of the Lord. And consider that "servant" and "son of the handmaid" are said in parallel. But the son of the handmaid can also be the people from the circumcision. For Paul, writing clearly to the Galatians about these things, says: But the one from the handmaid has been born according to the flesh.

May there be for me a sign for good, when the prophecy is taken away that declares that God will be born among us humans, a virgin giving birth before a man has experience of her, and remaining a virgin even after the birth. This appeared as a sign for good for the help of our race. Therefore we were also comforted; for how would we not be going to have the fullest consolation, having God as our helper? God says that he will remember Rahab and Babylon, of those who know him. In harmony with these things is, "But now, having known God, or rather having been known by God." For having taken up knowledge of him, we shall rather and most especially be known by him; "For if anyone is ignorant, he is ignored." And God says to someone, "Because you rejected knowledge, I will reject you from being priest to me; you forgot the law of your God, and I will forget your children." Therefore, since the wicked were ignorant of him, God forgot them, when he remembered them and they themselves knew him. See, then, that God said he remembered Rahab, which is translated as "broadening," and Babylon, interpreted as "confusion," of those who have known him. For those who walk the broad and spacious way, having changed, are Rahab, having known God; and those who have come from confused and disturbed thoughts to calm and a settled mind are Babylon, having known God, whom God remembers, since they have been judged worthy of his remembrance. But "broadening" can signify those coming from the east and the west into the kingdom.

Not only the rulers of the church but also the peoples were enrolled in the citizenship of the heavenly city of the living God, having their reference to the church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, since God alone is able to recount their register. For their enrollment has not been made from names composed of syllables but from those that reveal the quality of their soul, of which he alone is the overseer. And it is possible to establish the opposite from what is observed: in Jeremiah it is written, Those who have departed will be written on the earth. As, therefore, those who have departed and become far from God are written on the earth, wearing the image of the earthly one, thinking earthly things and devising material things, so those who wear the image of the heavenly one and have their citizenship in the heavens, being enrolled as citizens there, were set down in the book of God. 868 A psalm. For Maeleth, that is, for a chorus or dancing of the sons of Kore, for understanding and for answering with understanding to the one who fears God and for this reason is truly an Israelite. For Aiman is interpreted as their fear, so that everyone who has divine fear and reverence is an Aiman, to whom it belongs to answer with understanding, since he is an intelligent hearer, proclaiming the song of the psalm with dancing and a divine chorus. I will cry out to you not only by day but also by night, not being in the bright and pleasant circumstances of life alone (for it is impossible for it to be day) but also having come to be in gloomy things that contain a nighttime condition.

Crying out by day, so that the participation in good things may remain with me, and by night, so that when it has reached its end, my spirit may be able to rise early from the night toward you. But it is also possible to speak more simply, in a way similar to what was said by the Savior: "The Father will bring about the vindication of his children who cry out to him day and night." For the one who meditates on the law of the Lord day and night, and through that very meditation in deeds and disposition, will cry out to God for his own salvation day and night, at one time asking for salvation, at another entreating that it be guarded once it has already come to be. And that voice has great boldness toward God which says, "Let my prayer enter before you." For since I ask for such things as are both beneficial to me and fitting for you and dear to give (for I ask for the things that are truly good), let our prayer be in your sight; for thus you will also nod assent to grant what I have asked, condescending and inclining your ear to me; for thus I have believed that I shall be heard; and for this reason I cry out to you, O Master. For many are the enemies pressing upon me who wish to drag down my life into Hades, on account of which, being disheartened and in anguish, I have my soul filled with evils, that is, with painful and afflictive things. It is the custom of divine Scripture, by way of parallel, to call the same place both Hades and the pit. He, then, the Savior, having become such for the salvation of all, came to give his soul as a ransom in exchange for many, having by the grace of God tasted death for every one. For he alone died for all, and in this way it was said, "I was reckoned among those who go down into the pit.

For each one reasonably goes down into the pit because of what he did or thought, and I was reckoned among them and numbered with them—not because a sequence of works led me to this, but because the Father's good pleasure and our own will judged that I should be reckoned with those who go down into the pit. Therefore of my own accord and willingly I became as a man without help, the likeness not being referred to the man. Far be it! For he truly became man, but he says he was made like not simply a man but a man without help. For being able not to suffer, not to be overcome, not to be bound, he gave himself up, becoming obedient unto death, even death on a cross. But even if he willingly became a man without help, so as also to be clothed in death, yet among the dead he was free. For while all who depart to the place of the dead are led by certain powers—not only the wicked but also the virtuous—Jesus alone has dared to say, No one takes my soul from me; I lay it down of myself, that I may take it again. That the soul of all is led by certain powers into Hades will be clear to you if you attend to the Gospels. For concerning Lazarus, who was a virtuous man, it is said, And it came to pass that the poor man died and was carried away into Abraham's bosom; and to a certain wicked man it was said, Fool, this night they demand your soul from you; and to another person was said the

Until you are brought down to Hades. For the one who is brought down somewhere by others is brought down there. Hence no one among the dead is free—whether of those dragged by others or led down into the place of the dead—but Jesus alone, who laid down his own soul of himself, no one taking it from him, has become free among the dead. And further: since All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, those departing from life with bonds that differ in greater and lesser degree have come to be in Hades, while he alone, who committed no sin and knew no sin, has also become free among the dead, so as even to loose the bonds of death of the other dead in order to raise them and give them life. For just as on earth he alone is the liberator who grants forgiveness of sins—he says, at any rate, If the Son sets you free, you will truly be free—so also, having come to be in Hades with freedom, he set free the souls that were held captive, instilling fear in those who held them; indeed, the gatekeepers of those places melted away when they beheld his authority and his freedom. It is fitting also to interpret the preceding verses as spoken by Christ. The Savior, then, says to his own Father: Even if I, having come as Savior of the world to seek and to save what was lost, am the cause of eternal salvation for all, yet, O Father, you are the God of this salvation which I provide to those who are saved; for I grant it by your will. Hence, also becoming an advocate with you on behalf of those who have sinned, I will save them, interceding for them.

Consistently with what has been said before, you will also understand what follows. For no one will be able to snatch away the one who is guarded by the mighty hand of God, says the Savior; for as far as one is encompassed by God, he remains unconquerable by those who wish to plot against him and snatch him away. But whenever someone, having become worthless through the sins he commits, becomes unworthy of that hand, he is thrust away, no longer being worthy to be held fast and remembered by God. Since he came into Hades and death not by reason of his own works but for the sake of others, tasting death on their behalf, referring the cause of his having reached the lowest pit and the very heart of the earth to those others, he says, "They placed me," meaning, "They caused me to go into the lowest parts of the pit," so that having drawn up those in its depth I might transfer them from there to bring them into the paradise of God. "They placed me also in dark places and in the shadow of death." For even if I have been among them for their sake in their death, yet not in death itself in the strict sense but in its shadow (for I rose on the third day), and in the same way, having been placed by them in dark places, I shone light upon them, so that they might no longer live in darkness but in me, the light. The wrath of God, being like fire, has the sins as its food and material. Therefore, as long as these exist, it also is active; but when they are consumed, it departs along with them.

Since many human acts of lawlessness existed, the wrath of God was being borne against them, but the Savior, being a benefactor, submitted himself to the wrath of God, so that he might be established upon it, no longer being moved or active because he found no material. Hence it also happened that it was quenched, not being fed by that on which it rested, since he knew no sin, by having been tempted in all things without sin. And he brought upon him also all his lofty pretensions, which are temptations and afflictions, so that having struggled and been tempted concerning all things he might be shown approved, so that we might no longer be subject to lofty pretensions. For he made them disappear; and these are called of God, since by his judgment they are brought on for benefit. The acquaintances of the Savior were those who knew him and were known by him—those of the circumcision who relied on the law and the prophets; but they have become far from him, having separated themselves and been shown to be his betrayers, since the Father cast them out and made them far from his own Son, who is also his hand, from which he thrust them away, according to "They themselves were thrust away from your hand." Hence also, declaring the reason why they were made far from him, he says, "They set me as an abomination to themselves." For the Jews, having become sinners, regarded godliness as abominable; for "godliness is an abomination to a sinner." Therefore they also set as an abomination to themselves the mystagogue of this godliness, though he was not such. "I was delivered up and I did not go out." For the Savior, having been delivered up by them to death, did not go out immediately, leaving them, but still remaining with them by providing a way of repentance.

For it is necessary that they be clear-sighted, so that they may also be called his eyes, and they grew weak so as no longer to see him. Therefore he says, My eyes grew weak from poverty. For spiritual poverty has become the cause of their weakness, which they desired to hold to, interpreting everything written according to the letter. But how can the clear-sighted eyes of Israel be his, it will be clear to you when you have carefully noted the saying, But you are the body of Christ and members in part. For just as those who have believed according to the gospel complete the body of Christ, so that some are clear-sighted eyes, others understanding hearers are ears, and still others who are practical are called hands, so also before the visitation those who clung to the Scriptures were the body of the Word of God according to the analogy just mentioned. The question can be read thus: Will you do wonders for the dead, who are insensible and have lost even the capacity to perceive? For these things happen alike to those who perceive and are able to wonder, not to the god-fighting giants who are impious against God and for this reason remain unrepentant. For no one will pray for them. Resurrection will be upon confessing to you. For the god-fighting, as they happen to be, are not by nature such as to confess. And by resurrection here he does not mean the more common one that is understood (for all will share in that), but the one that comes about through repentance, according to which it is said, Does not the one who has fallen rise again? It is possible that the statement be, Will you do wonders for the dead?

Almost saying, Do not make wonders for the dead who have been put to death to other gods, since not even the giants who exist through fighting against God will rise to give thanks. For no one, he says, will declare your mercy to those who have been given up in hope and are already hidden in tombs—mercy proclaimed to the living and to those who long to be shown mercy—nor will anyone declare your truth to those who do the works of destruction and are for this reason called destruction. For the word declares mercy to those who are by nature fit to be shown mercy (and these are those who show mercy to their neighbors; for he says, Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy), but also truth, not in destruction but in those who have departed from it and have reached salvation. Your wonders will not be known in the darkness. Those who are mastered by excessive wickedness and ignorance are darkness. For darkness has been spoken of in reference to certain people, and also a land forgotten and unremembered—the heart filled with thorns, which are pleasures and worldly cares. Therefore the wonders of the truth will not be known in these who are darkness, nor will practical righteousness, the ethical virtue, be known in those who have become a forgotten land because of the thorns. It fits the boldness of Jesus to say, Why, Lord, do you reject my prayer? For there is no cause for which you reject my prayer and turn your face away from me, since I have in no way sinned; therefore, having accepted my prayer, bring all those for whom I intercede to salvation, causing your face to shine upon them.

When for our sake the rich one became poor and labored for us, toiling for our salvation, he will speak the words set before us, saying not that he is poor once for all but from his youth. For being rich and existing in the form of God, he emptied himself and in the present age became poor, from the time he was born and began to have a stature; but having been exalted upon the cross and humbled, when his body was brought into the tomb, he seemed to be utterly at a loss, since many of those who had believed in him were scandalized; but having risen from the dead he was exalted again to the heavens, taken up so as to draw to himself those who are able no longer to see him as poor and toiling because of his becoming man, but as rich and being the image of the invisible God. Since the Lord who became man bears the person of all humanity, which sinned greatly (for he took up the sins of all into his own body), all the wrath against various sins and his terrors passed over upon him so as to trouble him, but they were able to accomplish nothing against him, since he neither knew nor committed sin. And the wrath and terrors of God might be called the powers that minister to punishments, being vessels of wrath. These, having passed over upon the Savior, troubled him as he said, Now my soul is troubled. For even if he had a most perfect soul, nevertheless, seeing so great a multitude of enemies, it had a prior affection, especially since like water they surrounded him all the day long, rushing together against him and choking him, had he not been a most excellent diver.

For just as perceptible water, when it surrounds someone, chokes him, especially if he does not know how to swim, so the evil powers will kill the one swallowed up by them. But if these have become like water all around Jesus, surrounding him all day long, at any rate they have not been able to harm him; for many waters will not quench love. For the perfect state, established through love toward God, is unquenchable. And this existed in Jesus according to the human nature, whence the band of the worse ones could not harm him. And thus Eusebius of Caesarea and Didymus and Apollinarius interpreted it. It has often been said that here "the generation" is taken in two ways. It signifies the people from circumcision and from the Gentiles. And he gives the reason why the mercies of the Lord are sung forever, adding, "For he said, Mercy shall be built up forever." For as long as this present age stands, God openly shows mercy and does good; and in this way he says that mercy is built up forever. For just as a building is completed from many and various parts fitted together, so when many are benefited by the mercy of God, a building comes into being. Perhaps mercy is built up, since Wisdom has built for herself a house. For her becoming human is the foundation and the completion of the building of mercy, since all are shown mercy by the removal of the sin that previously prevailed. Next after these things is: "In the heavens your truth shall be prepared.

For since we who are on earth see divine things through a mirror and in a riddle, not yet able to grasp them by direct contact, the truth of God is prepared in the heavens for those who have been prepared beforehand here below so as to be able to approach it. For then they approach the beauty of the truth face to face, having received the end of knowledge and understanding, since their partial comprehension of things has been abolished. And the truth of God is prepared in those who do not think on earthly things but have their citizenship in the heavens, by bearing the image of the heavenly one, through which they are called heavens. To this one God gives the throne of David his father, to reign over the house of Jacob forever, so that there is no end to his kingdom. But so that no one might suppose that David obtained this blessing by chance, according to favoritism, God says, I have sworn to David my servant: since David has been shown to be my genuine servant and attendant, I give to his house a sign, that a virgin, undefiled and untouched by a man, should bear the God who is with you, the humans. For this is what the word Emmanuel signifies; this one is the

A seed prepared of David. And the saying "I have sworn," spoken by God, sets forth the certainty of the promise to David. For just as one who swears keeps an inviolable resolve, since the oath is a word firmly established with God's acceptance, so also God is said to swear concerning the things which He grants eternally and firmly, not in the manner of another. For it is said, "I have sworn by myself, says the Lord," not because He employs oaths of denial or affirmation, but because, being immutable and having an unchangeable will, He promises. Since, therefore, His will concerning the coming of His Son as a man from David was unchangeable, fittingly He said, "I have sworn to David my servant." None of those born of God, by having received the spirit of adoption, will be able to be likened to the Lord. For He alone is truly the offspring of God, while the others are called sons of God by participation in Him. For the perfect understanding of what lies before us, we shall use the apostolic voice, which reads thus: "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." For having called God his Father and the Father of those like him, he was cautious lest he should seem to some to be assigning equal honor to himself in relation to the only-begotten Son; therefore he added "and the Lord Jesus Christ," all but crying out: Even if we have become sons by the grace of God, and He Himself is our Father, yet we are also servants of Jesus Christ, since He is our Lord by nature. This thought the present passage also intimates: "For who shall be likened to the Lord among the sons of God?

No one is a son of God by essence except the Savior alone, who is proper and only-begotten and consubstantial with the Father; but these shall be made like him, not by essence but by quality, becoming merciful as the Father is, and becoming perfect as the Father is. For you shall be holy, because I am holy. This Lord comes upon the clouds of heaven with power and much glory, and the saints shall be caught up in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, in order to be always with him. Therefore, since the Lord and the saints are in clouds, none of those caught up in clouds shall be made equal to the one who comes upon the clouds of heaven with power and much glory. For even if each was caught up with power and glory, yet not with much. For that power and glory he had, he did not receive; but the Savior will come with power and much glory which he himself provides; and each of those is in a cloud, but he is upon the clouds. And the phrase "upon the clouds" sets forth his authoritative and royal nature, whence no one in clouds shall be made equal to the Lord. Moreover, since each of the saints is a spiritual cloud, raining down the noetic rain (for the clouds, it says, let them drop righteousness), none of such clouds will be able to be made equal to the Lord, who is himself also a cloud, inasmuch as each of those waters a few, but this one not only all men but also all rational beings. And he is fearful also to his adversaries, threatening punishments and bringing them upon those who transgress his divine commandments.

For those who are near him by having received his divine teaching—when they sin, they are near the fire, as it is said somewhere by the Savior: "The one near me is near the fire, but the one far from me is far from the kingdom." Hence also in the present passage he is fearful to those who surround him because they have believed in him yet disobey his commandments, while he is great to those who encompass him through virtue. The truth concerning God is none other than the one who said, "I am the truth." And if this truth is in a circle around God, it can never not be, lest God be reproached for not always being encircled by truth by those who have come to this state. But he is encircled by it as he begets it and is alone the true God. For just as he is alone wise, not partaking of wisdom but also begetting wisdom, so he is alone true and has the truth in a circle around him, not sharing in it but being with it and granting it to others as well. For according to each conception and activity the Father has the Son coexisting with him; for the Word is with God, being God the Word, so that the Father may be in the Son and the Son in the Father; for it was fitting for God the Father to be with God the Word. But also, being light, God has the Son with him as light, as Daniel says: "And the light is with him." For he did not say "was" or "will be," but "is"—for this is indicative of eternity, whence also he is called the radiance of eternal light. And the truth is not said to have become or to be going to be in a circle around the powerful God, but to be.

Present with the powerful God will also be the eternal power, the same being as the wisdom and truth and light and word of God, but also "your truth" is "among those who surround you." You will understand it also in this way: the faith that he rules over all creation, and the things written about Jonah concerning the sea; for there it is said that he stirred up a surge in the sea, and again by his will the sea stood still from its tossing. And Jesus, showing by deed that he is the Son of the Master of the dominion of the sea, rebukes it when it is foaming and stirring up triple waves, and immediately calms it. But if the name of the sea signifies the life of human beings, its dominion can be the evil one in whom the whole world lies, that is, the mortal and transient way of life. To this dominion of the sea, then, its Master, granting weakness, gives authority to his disciples to tread upon all its power, calming its unstable and irregular impulses called waves, so that it is also walkable for those who have received authority to walk upon it with Jesus, of whom Peter bears the image. For no one without Jesus can tread upon that sea of life, becoming above cares and pleasures, unless Jesus walks together with him. For he himself is the one who walks upon the sea as upon ground, whence it is said to him, "In the sea is your way, and your paths in many waters." For the paths Jesus trod in the mighty waters are the passions and the cares of life, upon which those who follow in his footsteps are able to walk.

But all the heavens that are interpreted according to understanding, confessing his wondrous works, and the earth that receives the seed of Jesus and bears fruit to a hundred and sixty and thirty, being his possession—and which he founded together with its fullness as the inhabited world, being none other than the church, in which dwell souls that have received the right word and the truth. And the sacred powers also dwell in it, encamping round about those who fear him. And the foundation on which it has been founded is none other than that about which Paul writes: "For no one can lay another foundation beside the one that is laid, which is Jesus Christ." And the fullness of this intelligible inhabited world, established on the same foundation, is the fullness of the virtues and of the doctrines of piety together with the divine gifts of the Spirit. The Lord created the north and the seas, so that they are no longer as they were before. For just as, having created the two into one new man, he has made them one from two, and the heart that is created pure has become pure from what is pure—and he creates also those outside the faith, so that they may become a new creation in Christ—so he creates the north and the seas. And everyone who is of divine election and is lifted up by light, because he has enlightened himself with the light of knowledge, rejoices in the name of God. Thus Tabor is outside, and Hermon is a lifting up of light; for the Hebrew names of the mountains are translated into these.

But if Tabor is also interpreted as a pit (for it is not otherwise rendered), you will understand how it is said to be a praiseworthy pit, having noted that God gives to some blessings in the manner of pits hewn out, which those who received them did not hew out. But if the word "pit" is also spoken in reproach, he who is so named having changed so as not to be called a well, the spring will exult in the name of the Lord. 887 The creative power of God (and this is his creative Only-begotten Son) is signified by all the names that are applied to him. For he is called an arm in "And to whom was the arm of the Lord revealed?" and "High is your arm, and you did not know it." But the hand of the Lord is also confessed in "My high hand made all these things"; and the right hand in "The right hand of the Lord exalted me." At any rate the saint says to God: "Yours is the arm with power, reigning and ruling over all things." And he also says, "Let your hand be strengthened," working wonders and performing mighty miracles. For Peter says to God: "Grant to your servants to speak your word without fear with boldness, while you stretch out your hand for healing and for signs and wonders." By a different conception, then, Christ is called these things—the power of the Father. For if he is Son of God and Wisdom and God the Word and Truth, he is the right hand of God that is exalted, lifting up and raising on high everyone who imitates him; and mercy and truth go before your presence. For no one is able to approach your face who has not first received mercy and conversed with the truth.

It is possible, then, that here as in other places the mercy and the truth are not other than those of the Only-begotten, as in the verse "God sent forth his mercy and his truth." This Only-begotten Son of God, therefore, being the same as the mercy and the truth of God, arriving beforehand in our minds, reveals the Father united with him: "For the one who receives me receives the Father," and "I and the Father will come." For being the image of the invisible God, he reveals himself to the pure mind, so that through being seen he may also show the Father. But if the Son is called the face of the Father because he is the express image of his own substance, it is necessary that this face go before in those who, through purity of heart, are able to look upon the face of God—mercy through ethical virtues and truth through knowledge of the mysteries of piety. For since by our ethical activity we are shown mercy, and by knowledge we draw near to the truth, for this reason in many places mercy is named together with truth. But he did not say that the people are blessed who have known the shout of triumph, but those who are knowing it. For it is not enough to have conquered, unless we also always actively conquer; for we always have opponents. In this way one who prevails over those arrayed against him would advance also to the contemplation of the truth, and, always illumined by the light of the divine face, he will be in the eternal day, in which, being present together with all who have the same illumination, he will exult, clothed with God's saving title, exulting in the name of the Lord all the day long.

For the cause and reason for exultation for those who walk in the face of God is the name of God. These men also will be lifted up by your righteousness, which exalts them. And your righteousness is the one who became for us from you, not only wisdom but also righteousness and sanctification. For this righteousness exalts all, drawing them to itself through participation. And a person is also exalted by the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, which is coming to all who believe. And he made clear the reason for this when he said, "For you are the boast of their strength." For even if they have power by which they accomplish and contemplate all things powerfully, yet knowing that they have it from you, they boast not in another but in you, fulfilling the saying "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." At any rate they confess, saying, "For he himself gives strength to do power"; whence also they say more boldly, "In God we shall do power, and in your good pleasure our horn will be exalted." For our horn was exalted and increased by the good pleasure of God, who said, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I was well pleased." For he was well pleased in his own Son to accomplish our salvation. And for this reason, he says, our horn was exalted in the good pleasure of God, since it is the Lord's own help, by which he helps, fighting for and shielding those who from him receive this

...of those who receive grace. And the help of the Holy One of Israel is our king. For the king of the true Israel, of him who sees God, is holy, being the same as the Lord, whose help he is. The same help of the Lord can be both as being worked by him and as that of the Holy One of Israel as he who submits to it. And you will call the Holy One of Israel in these things the one who is sanctified in mind to behold him. But the phrase "our King" must be referred to the Lord, with the hyperbaton restored thus: that the help of the Lord our King and of the Holy One of Israel. He who receives spoken words, if he perceives only the sound of it as audible, has the speaker speaking in hearing; but if he understands the things announced, he receives the speech of the one who offers it not by hearing but by the sight of the mind. Since, then, God was showing the realities even more than announcing them, he speaks to those who have been designated his sons through progress and perfection not in hearing but in sight. Thus, indeed, it is written also concerning Israel: "And the people saw the voice of the Lord." Though it should have said, "He heard the voice of the Lord," instead of this it is said, "He saw the voice," that is, he understood it. The prophets saw visions; for they were not said to see by receiving certain sensible things graspable by sight, but by applying the mind to the beauty of intelligible realities. "You spoke in a vision to your sons: I have set help upon one who is mighty," calling mighty the Savior who was born from the root of Jesse. For truly in him he set help—the help that is able to help all creation.

But the mighty one, on whom he set help, is the chosen one from the people, exalted not according to his divinity but according to his flesh. For concerning him is also the saying, "Israel my chosen, my soul has accepted him." For he is reckoned among the myriads, as in the Song of Songs. And according to this the Father exalted him, granting him the name that is above every name. "I found David my servant"; and since he is of the seed of David according to the flesh, being mighty and sufficient in hand to teach all rational creation so to serve me; whence also "with holy oil I anointed him," showing him to be high priest and king at once in all respects (with holy oil, that is, having been anointed with the Holy Spirit, concerning whom it is said, "God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your fellows), since my hand will assist him, my arm strengthening him. And the arm and hand of God is the divinity of the Only-begotten; and it assists him, performing wondrous and great works through him. "The enemy will not profit in him"—instead of the devil ("For he knew no sin, nor was there guile in his mouth"), thinking to profit in whatever ways he is able to implant deceit and other wickedness. But not even any son of lawlessness, having become such through lawlessness, will be able to harm him by casting him into sin. Properly, "to profit" is used of the enemy instead of "to succeed." And indeed in the Gospel the chief priests and Pharisees who plotted against Jesus, not succeeding in their scheming against him, said to one another, "You see that you profit nothing.

But the whole world went after him—equal to accomplishing nothing. Thus Didymus, manifestly dividing the one Christ, even if he somewhat avoided his blatant blasphemies. For he openly posits two persons and two sons, and leads to the doctrine of this pre-existence; whence it seems to me that the interpretation of those before him is more preferable to those who wish to understand piously. And Eusebius also proceeds through thoughts nearly similar to Didymus, to which he adds: "The one of the prophets," etc. He calls the existing David, since according to the flesh he is from the seed of David, mighty and sufficient, being as it were by hand; for the voice of David is taken up for this purpose. "I found and anointed him with holy oil," since "my hand shall assist him, and my arm shall strengthen him." And the arm and hand of God is said to be the Son of God. For this one strengthens the man by assisting him—the one born of the virgin. The hand strengthens him and assists him, performing wondrous works through him. And the phrase "The enemy shall not profit"—the devil in the Lord's man; for "he knew no sin, nor was there guile in his mouth." He himself (clearly the one anointed with holy oil) "shall call upon me: You are my Father, my God," he said. For since, being born of the virgin, he was called Son of God, "he shall call upon me," saying, "You are my Father," of the only-begotten Son of God (for he is Son by essence)—but not even calling upon him, but confessing God as Father.

The one whom he took up as man was also called Son of God and calls God his own Father and the helper of his salvation; for he raised him up and took him up into the heavens. And he became a helper of his salvation also in another way—not of the salvation by which he himself is saved, but by which he saves those who flee to him. Since he therefore called upon the Father, the cause of all things, the Father himself also appoints him firstborn, bearing the first rank over all who have been called sons of God, who were not blended with the only-begotten in the same way as he; for he alone has been shown forth as the genuine instrument and temple of the divine Word. But do not let yourself be deceived, thinking that the throne of Christ extends only until this is fulfilled: "For heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away." For he reigns again, since his words do not pass away after the passing of heaven and earth. For it is not said, "I will establish his throne until heaven passes away," but "As the days of heaven"; for even after its passing it is heaven. For his passing is not equal to his being destroyed. And it is possible that the bright and much-contested things for men are days of earth, while the days of heaven are the luminous and light-like mysteries of the truth, in likeness to which the throne of the Savior, having been established, remains unshaken forever. Here God, having sworn, is introduced as surely promising upon the things he has spoken. Since, therefore, in the priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek he gives an inviolable priesthood by oath, he does not repent.

And when he promised to Abraham with oaths that all the nations of the earth would be blessed in his seed, he makes clear the immovability of the blessing. But if somewhere he gives something for a time, he does not swear on this account; at any rate, he did not hand over the kingdom to Saul with oaths, and then repented. Since, therefore, he wished both that the Savior be born of David according to the flesh and that the seed of him who was born of David be unalterable and firm, he swore to him that his promises would be unshaken. Since, then, David swore in my holy one, not lying, concerning the things I promised, His seed endures forever, the throne of his rule enduring forever together with him, the sun of righteousness. And the moon also, the gathering of those enlightened by Christ, endures forever, most fully enlightened, when there is fulfilled, The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and when the righteous shall shine as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And a faithful witness concerning this being so in the heavens is he about whom Job says, For behold, my witness is in the heavens, and my consort is in the highest. Didymus, however, rendered the thought of Eusebius' interpretation thus: You, O master, having said, The seed of Christ endures forever, have cast off his seed. You have brought him to nothing, him who took up the Christ whom you anointed with holy oil, oil remaining forever and ever, by which those born of him are shown mercy.

You cast down his covenant by rejecting Christ, who is your servant, although you said you would not profane your covenant with him. But you profaned his sanctuary to the ground—either by delivering his body to death and the grave, or by profaning the church, which is his icon and sanctuary, to the earth itself in the times when you permitted or allowed persecutions to be carried out by the godless. Christ is a servant of God, having taken the form of a servant, born of her who said to the angel, "Behold, the handmaid of the Lord; let it be done to me according to your word." And you brought down all his fences from his sons, every strongest help, so that everyone who attempted to plot against them was able against them. For fences, according to the Scripture, are guards that come from God without distinction; and the fences of Christ's vineyard can be said to be the apostles, whom those who see them scattered and scandalized in the night of Jesus' betrayal say are brought down by God. You made his strongholds a terror. Christ's strongholds are his genuine disciples, who, having been terrified at the time of Jesus' betrayal, are said to have been made a terror. What followed was that Christ himself was plundered by those who passed by or traveled along the road. But Christ, when plundered, is none other than those who plunder his body: "For you are the body of Christ and members in part." It is also possible that the churches in various parishes are called his strongholds.

In addition to this, you made him a reproach to his neighbors—those who are called his neighbors because of their relation to him and to what surrounds him. For those who seem to be encompassed by his Scripture and are gathered near his church through falsely named knowledge are his neighbors; through their wrong thinking and acting, they reproach him. For just as, by contrast, the one who acts rightly and praiseworthily, thinking according to the truth, glorifies him, so the one who is disposed contrary to those who hold right views reproaches him. For this reason you exalted the right hand of his enemies; for they are lifted up as though they had prevailed by their own power and had done what you appointed for him. And you made glad those who happened to him, and those who hated him, because you did not take hold of him in war. But indeed you also turned back from helping his sword, or the sword of his help—for it is transmitted both ways. For when his enemies and those who hated him joined battle against Christ, you did not take hold of him in the war, so that they bound him and led him away to crucify him and to bring other insults upon him. Those who have a longing for Christ and have rightly understood providence will cease saying these things, though they do not see the purpose according to which the Father, not sparing his own Son, handed him over and left him to those who stood by and gathered against him, having learned the salvation that was accomplished through his death—not only because the Father delivered him over for us, but also because he delivered himself over to this; for he gave his soul as a ransom for many.

You destroyed him from his purification, and the rest, up to the diapsalm. Those who think that what happened to him came about contrary to what was promised to him say these things too. At any rate, they have supposed that he was destroyed from the purification which he worked through his own blood; on account of this they think that his throne was also dashed to the ground, the days of his throne having been made few. But nothing of that sort will happen concerning his throne, since God has set it like the days of heaven—concerning which we have spoken as far as possible. But God also said that the throne of Christ remains before him like the sun and the moon that has been established forever. For when they saw him crucified and suffering, they thought that his kingdom had come to an end, his throne having been made few and overturned, and that the shame upon the cross had taken hold of him—concerning which the apostle says, Who, for the joy set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, so that, having risen from the dead, he might no longer be destroyed by purification, but might complete and work it, taking away the sin of the world, according to what is said: Having made purification of sins, he sat down at the right hand.

of majesty in the heights, with the throne set upright and firmly established, enduring long of days and eternal. Remember what our substance is, we who say these things. For we are subject to change and alteration, being possessed of free will; therefore we also fear lest we be drawn down into impiety. Wherefore hasten thy mercy, looking upon us. For thus alone is the wrath that has been kindled naturally quenched. The name of substance can signify not the essence, as we have interpreted, but the condition by which one is able to endure some one of the painful things. 896 Since the word "who" signifies many things, let us consider according to which of its meanings it is said, "Who is man." For it sometimes signifies a question, in "Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place?" It also denotes the rare, in "Who then is the faithful and wise servant?" and "Who is wise and will understand these things? and prudent and will know them?" The word is also used of the impossible, in "Who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been his counselor?" and in "Who has gathered the winds in his bosom? who has bound the water in a garment?" The word is also employed of one despised as being nothing, in "If God is for us, who is against us?" and "Behold, the Lord will help me, who shall harm me?" It is also used of what some call specifically a certain quality, but others call individual and one in number, in "A certain man of noble birth." Here, however, it is possible to take the present passage in the sense of "no one": "For who is man who shall live and not see death?" in place of "No one.

And if the statement concerns common death, no one truly is one who will live and will not see death, inasmuch as it is said, "And this death passed through to all men, in that all sinned," and "Inasmuch as it is appointed for men once to die." For the "who" is equivalent to "all men." No one, then, is a man, since every man is a mortal living being and every man has come to be by falling away from divinity, as it is said, "But you shall die like men," and "For where there is strife and jealousy among you, are you not men and walking according to man?" For none of such persons has been unrecorded by death through sinning; therefore it is said, "Who is the man who will live?" For such a thing belongs to gods, to those called gods by participation in divinity; for these alone will not see death, since they live, being transformed to eternal life; and upon that life Hades will not be able to touch or seize them, since God rescues such persons from the hand of Hades.

And these things will indeed be said while we remain with the literal text; but if someone were to say that the apostles are the "mountains" being established, and the "earth" being formed is the soul able to bear fruit, and the "world" is the church in which angels dwell, he will speak of doctrines of truth and the gifts of the Spirit before all these things, as though God had become a refuge for the prophets too in generation and generation. And the phrase "And from age and to age you are" signifies the existence of God from infinity to infinity. For you are the same, remaining always, not in one age one thing and in another age another; for being unchanging and immutable, from infinity to infinity you are the same. Having led man up from lowly and grovelling things to height, keeping him in elevation and height, do not turn him back again to become cast down to the ground. You set our lawless deeds before you, in order to punish us for them, so that our whole age (and time is what extends alongside our life with the body) is manifest and illuminated to you, every oversight—not only of action but also of thoughts—being manifest and illuminated to you. The petition set before us belongs to those who know that God has a right hand and who long to see it.

As those who understand, then, they say: O Lord God, make manifest your right hand, through which you created the world and provide for it, so that we may not comprehend it by the means he uses and works, but may know it by its reaching out to it. The entreaty of those who appeal can be a request for the coming of Christ. For he himself is the right hand of God. For then the right hand of God became known, when the Word became flesh and dwelt among us; for we beheld his glory, as of the only-begotten from the Father. And when he made known the right hand of God, we knew that together with it were also made manifest those who have been trained in heart in wisdom. And these are those who say, But we speak wisdom among the perfect. It is possible also to say that the prophets were made known, being trained in heart in wisdom, when the illumination of Christ has been manifested. For then the prophets, truly foretelling beforehand concerning him, were shown to be such as might perhaps have been suspected before their prophecies were fulfilled. For when their words obtained fulfillment, once the right hand of God was made known, they became evident as men trained in the wisdom of God. And he is trained in heart in wisdom who has made his mind and ruling faculty wise, so that his utterance errs in countless ways, so as even to say what is true: Even if I am unskilled in speech, yet not in knowledge. There is also brought forward, Those bound in heart in wisdom. For the reasoning and the thought are bound from the fetters of wisdom by him who wisely and piously applies himself to things; and it is said of the fetters of wisdom, into which we are commanded to cast the feet of the soul. Turn, O Lord.

How long, that is, how long will you turn your face and your right hand away from us? For even if you do this to us for a little while, a long time appears to those who are consumed with longing for what they desire. Therefore, being entreated on behalf of your servants, turn back to us who have become far off and have turned away from your commandments. We were filled in the morning with your mercy. For your right hand, having shone upon us—which we were deemed worthy to know, being the sun of righteousness—established the beginning of a noetic day. In that beginning, which is at morning, we were filled with mercy from you, so that we might exult and be glad in all the days in which your true light shone upon us; this light, entering into our minds, is productive of mornings. But since it rises upon us not in one manner but in various ways, according to different actions and thoughts, we become as in many days; in all of them let us exult and be glad so much as is enough to dissolve the outward gloom and affliction of the days in which you humbled us by captivity and delivered us to enemies through ignorance and wickedness. For in days and more years, having been humbled, we saw evils—either the opposites of the truly good things, concerning which it is said, A fool in laughter does evil, or the painful things and those that produce affliction, about which it has been said to Job, If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? For having first seen both kinds of evils, now let us exult and be glad.

Look, then, upon your servants and upon the works of your hands, and guide the males born to us through teaching and imitation of virtue, who are vigorous and steadfast, onto the road of salvation. For thus your splendor, O God, will shine upon us as the sun in your kingdom. Therefore we entreat: Direct the works of our hands upon us. This is the prayer of those who are confident in what they have done and in their disposition, since the wicked one does not wish the works of his hands to be directed upon him, but rather to be delivered to forgetfulness. In these things there were hunters—the deceivers and the sophists, men attempting to ensnare people, so as to lead them by their wisdom into the false doctrines they wish. Therefore, interpreting their snare, he called it a turbulent word; for nothing so confuses and throws the mind into disorder as an argumentative word. Those who hunt by a snare are also the evil powers, catching souls through harmful desires and the other passions. For, he says, the eye of a prostitute is the snare of a sinner, and again, For a woman catches precious souls of men. And through wealth and similar things these catch them. The leader of these hunters is the devil, who himself also has a snare. At any rate it has been said concerning someone, so that he may not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. In agreement with these things, in the song of Deuteronomy it is sung concerning God: As an eagle he will cover his nest and longed for his young; spreading his wings he received them and took them up upon his back.

All who through endurance and the other strength that arises from virtue are, like an eagle, high-flying, being lifted up by the wings of understanding and of practical virtue. That they are such they have received from God; therefore they are also his nestlings, whence it is said in the prophet: But those who endure the Lord shall exchange strength, they shall grow wings like eagles, they shall run and not grow weary. Those who have grown wings in the same manner as eagles God will shelter as eagle's nestlings; for As an eagle he will shelter his nest. Whence also, longing for his nestlings, he took them up on his back to shelter them. And in the present passage, then, concerning the one who dwells in the help of the Most High, it is said that God takes him up on his back, so that he hopes and expects good things, being among the wings of God. And it is stated what the wings of God are and how one hopes while being overshadowed under them in the fifty-sixth psalm, where it is written: And in the shadow of your wings I will hope.

God the protector encircles with his truth as with a shield and a weapon every one who is guarded by him, so that he may remain unwounded by all who plot to strike him, and especially by the devil, who sends forth fiery arrows. And this man, encircled by the truth of God, because he has put on the whole armor of God and has taken up in all things the shield of faith, even if he be in the night, does not fear, being enlightened by the truth that encircles him, which is also light. For if ever someone, having come into ignorance, should seem to be in a nighttime condition, he will not fear, having the light that is the cause of knowledge, which is said to be the same as the truth. And if the night should be the harmful and gloomy affairs of life, even having come into this night he does not fear, being able to say, The Lord is my light and my savior; whom shall I fear? For honoring God and therefore being strong, he fears no one except him, having learned, Honor God and you will be strong, and except him fear no other. For just as one who is in the night does not fear, since he has light and there are those who keep watch by night, so he who has the one who said, Fear not, for I am with you, will fear none of the aforementioned nighttime things. Only those fear who sleep and are drunk in the night, but the one encircled by the truth of God is not terrified even by the arrow that flies by day. The arrow that flies by day is the heterodox doctrine that professes to be luminous. But neither does he fear from a thing that passes through in darkness, since he uses truth as his weapon.

Every sin is a thing that walks in darkness, and ignorance, and the evil spirits of deception that work them. In addition to these, he will not fear even a chance occurrence, bearing all things patiently and nobly, saying in the same manner as Job: If we received good things from the hand of the Lord, shall we not endure evil things? As it seemed good to the Lord, so also it came to pass. For he receives everything that is brought upon him by the Lord as good, knowing that To those who love the Lord all things work together for good, even the toilsome and grievous things brought on by way of trial. Indeed, it happens that he both conquers and turns them to his advantage; for Blessed is the man who endures trial, because when he has been proved he will receive the crown of life. Therefore the one found in such great achievements does not fear even the devil who transforms himself into an angel of light, being a demon of midday. And even if he promises a brilliant light through philosophy and empty deceit, this very thing in its entirety is a demon of midday. And not he alone, but his ministers also, transforming themselves into ministers of righteousness, are demons of midday. But even if each of them pretends to be of midday, they do not remain such as they pretend to be, since the light of the ungodly will be extinguished, when Christ comes and illuminates the hidden things of darkness and makes manifest the counsels of the hearts. The one who succeeds in practical matters and in the things of the knowledge of the truth has many who lie in wait plotting against him, but he prevails over them all by putting on the whole armor of God.

If, then, since fewer plot against the ethical, as being on the left, while many are set against the spiritual, who are on the right, from the left side of the perfect a thousand fall, when ten thousand fall from his right. The left side, being spoken in contrast to the right, suggests the notion concerning the left and the sinister. Similar things to these are also said in Deuteronomy to those who set the law aright: One of you shall pursue a thousand, and two shall put ten thousand to flight. And Paul, then, having been perfected, wars against the adversaries through the weapons of righteousness of the right and the left, so that a thousand fall from his left, and ten thousand from his right. And in Ecclesiastes the right is brought forward in praise thus: The heart of the wise is at his right, but the heart of the fool is at his left; the wise man, having his mind set on intelligible and spiritual things, is called right because these things are precious, while the fool's is set on perceptible and material things, which are second and left. But the thousand and the ten thousand that fall do not come near the righteous man to harm him; for it is written: But they shall not come near you. For at the very moment he wishes to draw near, the wise man's phalanx of adversaries falls; for when they draw near against me to devour my flesh, my oppressors and my enemies themselves grew weak and fell. You would find these things fulfilled symbolically in the Gospel.

For when those who had come to seize Jesus dared to draw near to him, and he said, "Whom do you seek?" and they answered, "Jesus the Nazarene," and Jesus answered, "I am he," they went backward and fell to the ground. Besides, while these things are being accomplished (I mean that the thousand and the ten thousand of the enemies who fall do not draw near to the righteous man), with the eyes of his own mind he will perceive, guarded by the truth, the things that have been set right for him, and will also see the recompense of the sinners; when these things have been said about them, he immediately confesses the very cause of the good things that have come to be. Therefore he says: O Master, all these things have been set right for me, since no other than you has become my hope. For he had said in the earlier passages, "And my God is my refuge, and I will hope in him," and about him, "And under his wings, O God, you will hope." You will understand it also in this way: since circumstances fall alike upon the unjust and the just, and evils were named because of their toilsomeness, the words set before us are not about evils of this kind. For a bodily scourging often has fallen upon the tabernacle—that is, the body—of a righteous man; for "they were tempted, they were scourged," says Paul. And indeed the Savior himself was scourged when led to the cross, fulfilling what he foretold about himself through the prophet: "I gave my back to scourges." Since, then, the class of evils is twofold, and one of the two comes indiscriminately to the earnest and the base, the other does not draw near to the one who has made the Most High his refuge. For cleaving to him

Being made a partaker of good things, he says, "But for me, to cleave to God is good." For having this good, he is untouchable by the opposing evils, conquering evil in the good and thereby doing good. The one who has been filled with goodness, by doing and working good, is without part in the things that are truly evil. But since the aforementioned evils do not draw near to the one who has set the Most High as his refuge, neither does the punishment, called the scourge upon these things, draw near to his dwelling, since he is not a sinner; for this alone is the scourging upon these things: "For many are the scourges of the sinner"; and in other places it has been said by us that the same circumstances are scourges for sinners, but contests for the righteous. And if ever painful and afflictive things come upon the pious man, they come not as a scourge but as a test, just as they came upon Job for the purpose of his being shown righteous. And well is it said, "Evils shall not come near to you." For the nature of wickedness comes from outside, while virtue has its occasion from within; for God made man upright, but he, seeking evil reasonings, drew wickedness upon himself from outside. The devil took these words as spoken to the Savior, as is recorded in the Gospel. And the psalm is spoken in the person of every righteous man who is helped and sheltered by the Most High, who is the God of heaven. But if it is also said concerning Christ, it is clear that it is not as God but as man.

But all the things concerning him, or addressed to him, or spoken by the man, are proclaimed, and will fitly apply also to every saint who imitates him and follows him. And these things suffice up to this point. But let us also consider the intent of the words themselves. God gives a command to his angels, that they may guard and protect the righteous man, since they are ministering spirits sent forth for service for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation. Indeed, the angels encamp round about those who fear him, to deliver them from enemies and invisible foes. Indeed, at any rate, Jacob the patriarch also, when about to engage the greatest enemies, sees the camp of God filled up by angels who would fight on his behalf; whence, giving thanks, he said, "The God who nourishes me from my youth, the angel who delivers me from all my evils." Likewise Elisha also had a multitude of angels encircling him, visible to himself but not to his servant; at any rate he prays that the eyes of the young servant be opened, so that he might see that he had more fighting on his behalf than those arrayed against them. And the angels, having received a command from the Lord to guard the earnest man from all his deeds and activities, which he called his ways, lift him up upon their own hands (and these are the angelic activities), so that the foot of his soul may not stumble against a stone. For the one borne up by angels obtains the blessing that says, "But your foot shall not stumble." For when the true light has risen and has illumined the noetic day, the one who walks in this day will not stumble, because he sees the light.

But the stone against which those who are not lifted up by angels stumble is foolish and most hardened sin. They also stumble against the chosen and precious cornerstone, through unbelief, so that it becomes for them a stone of stumbling. He signifies four kinds of opposing powers through the four names that lie in the text, which are venomous and beast-like creatures. And Paul, having passed beyond the struggle against blood and flesh, has his contests against four varieties of invisible adversaries: against principalities, against authorities, against the world-rulers of darkness, against spiritual powers of wickedness. And the one now praised for his valor treads upon the asp and the basilisk, having received authority from Jesus to tread upon serpents and scorpions; and trampling down every power of the enemy, he will trample the lion and the dragon. It is possible also, by way of parallel, that the lion and the dragon are our adversary the devil; for he walks about as a lion seeking whom he may devour; he himself is both the serpent and the dragon, the ancient Satan, according to the Apocalypse. Since he hoped in me, says the Lord—the one who took refuge and hoped in me, who said, "For you, Lord, are my hope"—I will deliver him from the thousand that falls from his side and the ten thousand from his right hand; but I will also shelter him who has known my name, so that he may remain unharmed, having trodden upon the asp and the basilisk and having subdued the lion and the dragon, since the knowledge of my name, being of a nature that wards off evil, comes to be around him. And having cried out to me with the great voice of his soul, he will find me listening and nodding assent to him.

For I am always present with him, even if he happens to be in adversity; for I am with him in affliction (for especially then is it necessary to be with him, when distressing and adverse circumstances surround us). And not only will I deliver him from distresses, but I will also make him conspicuous. I will also grant him eternal life, in that he is of many days and long-lived and has eternal light (for light is for the righteous always). And I will show him my salvation—that is, the salvation that comes from me, or Jesus, the cause of it—which the blessed Simeon also saw and gave thanks, saying, Now you release your servant, Master, in peace, because my eyes have seen your salvation, which you prepared before the face of all peoples. Therefore it must not be supposed that the whole psalm was spoken about the Lord, as the Arians wish and Eusebius, but it also concerns a righteous man who has trusted in God, whose goal of hope is set before him: to see Christ Jesus, the salvation of God, the best thing. But if the devil, in his words to the Lord, said to him that the promise lay in the words, He will command his angels concerning you, as he also conversed with him as a righteous man, seeing in him the purely and eminently righteous one, but not yet able to understand the more than human and higher thing in Christ.

The one who confesses and accuses himself before the Lord, asking for forgiveness and pardon, having learned by experience the benefit of confession, proclaims in deeds the mercy of God, having been shown mercy for the things he repented of. And he announces the mercy of God that came upon him, having been enlightened and having been present at the beginning of the day under the sun of righteousness as it rose; hence he says that he announces in the morning the benefaction which he received from God. And the singing to the name of the Lord, of the Most High God, being a subject of theology and divine vision, has as its end the truth which it is fitting to announce—not superficially and from obvious matters, but from deep and hidden things through an excess of knowledge. And the obscurity in such things he called night; for by nature the things said piously and rightly are far removed from the knowledge of the many because of their greatness of power. And night is that which is hard to grasp. And this night itself has a reference to the darkness which God set as his hiding place. And in the morning he announces the mercy of God, and his truth by night. And to the extent that their greatness is revealed to us, to that extent we see the thoughts of God concerning them growing deeper, according to which he made them and magnified them. With these things agrees what is said by the Ecclesiastes: I said, I will be made wise, and this very thing was far from me, far beyond what it was, and a deep depth—who will find it? As if he were saying that its depth appeared to me incomprehensible.

Having said, "Your thoughts are exceedingly weighed down," he cheers those who love wisdom, saying that the foolish and unintelligent man will not know or understand these things—evidently meaning that the wise man who has the Spirit of God, which searches all things and understands the deep things of God, will understand them. He calls "foolish and unintelligent" the one deprived of divine prudence and understanding, even if he seems otherwise to be prudent and intelligent; so that, by contrast, the one who has the wisdom of God is most foolish—not absolutely, but in relation to human prudence. For "I am most foolish of all men, and the prudence of men is not in me"; but "God has taught me wisdom." Hence also, "Let the wise man in this age become a fool," in relation to mortal wisdom. On the day of judgment, when all men are humbled from the arrogance they had over transient things, the Lord alone is exalted, being shown to be king of all, having providentially cared for all things blamelessly and ordered all things. And another meaning can be grasped in the preceding words: when sinners spring up like grass and lawlessness is at work and their enmity toward God is intensified, the height and greatness of God is unknown, since wickedness blinds the eye of the mind that is able to look upon the Lord; but when the destruction of sin comes about, so that those who have become enemies of God through sinning are destroyed—destroyed insofar as they are such—then at that time God will be found most high forever by the purified mind. I have often said that the horn is a symbol of kingship.

Not only will my horn be exalted like that of a unicorn, but also my old age will be fattened with the oil of exultation—old age, not the bodily kind, but that which represents the perfect stature of the inner man, about which it is written: "For old age is honorable, not that which is long in time, nor measured by the number of years; but gray hair is understanding among men, and old age is a blameless life." Abraham, having reached this, is said to have been nourished in a good old age; for it is written concerning him: "And Abraham, failing, died, nourished in a good old age, an elder and full of days." But concerning bodily age, if it were meant, these things would rather have been said concerning those who lived before Abraham and were longer-lived. This old age, then, which has been interpreted, is fattened with oil pressed out from that true olive tree which says in the house of God: "But I am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God." This oil not only fattens the light of knowledge, but also heals and loosens pains, fattening the aforementioned old age. And my eye has looked upon my enemies, and my ear will hear of those who rise up against me and plot evil. Perhaps he looks upon the present enemies as already cast down, but his ear will hear concerning those who will rise up against him hereafter—as though they too were already dissolved. But all these things must be understood concerning evil powers; for these are properly hostile to us. Since, however, some attack the Scripture as sometimes speaking superfluous and vain things, come, let us make a defense also concerning the matters at hand. For they say:

Who does not know that when someone sees with his own eye and hears with his own ear, he observes a person and hears about someone? One must respond to these things that have been said wickedly, that there is a twofold kind of senses in us, mortal and immortal, and properly the immortal one, being intelligible, belongs to us who are rational. For the mortal one is not our own but common also to irrational animals. When, therefore, Scripture signifies the senses of the inner man, it says "my eyes and my ears see and hear," as in the preceding passages. Since the palm tree bears fruit with many clusters and the cedar in Lebanon is many-branched and many-rooted, reasonably it compared the righteous man to such things, since he is fruitful in the virtues according to species and in the various doctrines of the truth. For according to these things his flower is compared to the palm, but also because of his firmness and stability in good things he is likened to the cedar in Lebanon; for the cedar is incorruptible and very dense, and the palm is evergreen and has its heart turned upward, to which reasonably is likened the one who has stored up treasure in heaven and for this reason has his heart there. And since in the Song of Songs the bridegroom (and this is the divine Word) has been called a palm, upon which the bride (the perfect soul

And the church says, "I will go up into the palm tree and take hold of its heights," seeing whether the righteous man will flourish like this palm tree, receiving from it the power to save the flourishing fruit. For the female palms, as they are called by farmers, receive from the male palm the means of preserving their fruit. Such is the one on whom the bride says she goes up, in order to take hold—according to one of the interpreters of the palms—of his divine teachings, which possess the generative and fruit-preserving power. Whence also the bride who says these things, being nothing other than the righteous man who flourishes like the palm, says, "I will be like the palm tree." Taking from this palm the branches—ornaments made from the fronds of palms—one celebrates the feast of Tabernacles, and the victors' symbols of victory are borne from it. The rivers that imitate the river which gladdens the city of God first raise up their own understanding, then the utterances that interpret what has been understood by them, so that from the voice of the waters of these many rivers those who were formerly exalted by boastfulness and wealth and arrogance and petty glories—[exalted] upon the sea of human life—become wonderful and worthy of acceptance through repentance and the recovery of virtue. It is possible also that the very words of the divinely inspired Scriptures, both new and old covenant, are rivers, because of their being drinkable and life-giving and the cause of fruit-bearing.

The rivers do not lift up and exalt by the contemplation of truth the one who drinks from them, nor those whom they find ready, lifting up their voices as well—from which voices, understood in a manner befitting God and sublime, the exaltations of the sea become wonderful. Since, according to the present meaning, the exaltations of the sea are the so-called temptations, these too will become wonderful, appearing as causes of salvation from the voices of many sweet waters. Indeed, one may see certain people proved victorious in these temptations and struggles; for "Blessed is the man who endures temptation," and what follows. Consider whether the many waters—from whose voices the exaltations of the sea become wonderful—belong to the sea; for from its own affairs and from what happens among people in them, its exaltations become wonderful, when they are examined and known reasonably and prudently. In the lofty and exalted words the Lord is wonderful, so that the testimonies akin to what are called his statutes and laws are confirmed in this; and the lofty things of God himself are those in which he is wonderful. It is possible to say that divine men are exalted through faith and the rest of virtue, or also the angels and archangels in heaven, lofty in those things in which the Lord, being wonderful, has testimonies and oracles tested and examined, which are called faithful because of their certainty. All those who received him into themselves are the house of God, to whom it truly belongs to be holy, not for one day or a second, but for length of days.

Therefore the mystagogue, wishing the servant of God to have sanctification for length of days, says: Do you not know that you are a temple of God and the Spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone destroys the temple of God, God will destroy him; for the temple of God is holy, which you are. For holiness and sanctification truly befit everyone who has become a house of God, so that he may be holy as God is holy and in the same way as God. 917 The God of vengeance, being in the very act of avenging, spoke with boldness. For by knowing exactly the matters of those who are judged, and the very intention of those who commit them, he brings his vengeances with boldness, while other judges at times err, so as not to bring punishment in proportion to the quantity and quality of the sins committed; on which account it also happens that the judge is ashamed, as having not fittingly rebuked those who have been overcome by evil. Only the one who says, With the measure you measure, it will be measured back to you, speaks with boldness in avenging; for he repays each according to his works. 918 Let all these things be referred also to the coming of Christ. For then he spoke with boldness, having become a man without sin, although he was the God of vengeances, the Lord; but he also judged the earth, showing it full of sin, while he himself did not commit sin nor know sin; therefore he also repaid the Pharisees who rose up above him and the invisible enemies who were lifted up in crucifying him. In many places the pit is spoken of instead of punishment, as it is said: And he will fall into the pit which he made.

Since "until" is spoken without a stated subject (for it is not said by whom), it is established from other Scriptures that the pit dug for the sinner is dug by no one other than by the very one who will fall into it: For they dug a pit before my face, and they fell into it; and, He who digs a pit for his neighbor will fall into it; and, The fool digs evils for himself, calling punishments "evils," into which those who sin through folly fall. You, being our Creator, care for and take thought for us, O Master; whence, if any good is present with us, we know that it is yours and comes from you. But since we see certain wicked men slaying the righteous and condemning the innocent, we cry out to you: no other throne of kingship is with you or will be added to you, because these things are done against your servants—but no throne of lawlessness is with you; for you have appointed law as king of all things, by which the whole is governed. And even if the devil, having become an apostate from your ordinances, should attempt to rule lawlessly, he is not with you nor will he be added to you, but having apostated and become far from you, like a chief of robbers he tyrannizes over those who have chosen to fall under his cruelty. For a throne of lawlessness is rule accompanied by tyranny; for a tyrant is nothing other than lawless rule. Therefore also, being most cruel and burdensome, he commands heavy and toilsome things, preserving toil for his ordinances. But your commandments, O God, are not heavy, according to John; whence they are also uplifting, raising and elevating the one who is transformed.

It is also possible to take the passage in this way: Since you, O Master, command things that are light and easy, the throne of lawlessness fabricates toils upon your commandments, suggesting cowardice and the opposite of what is enjoined to the mind of those who have been appointed. For when right reason urges toward righteousness as being profitable, it sets injustice in opposition, offering the gains and profits that come from it; again, when the word exhorts to poverty and freedom from care, even upon such a commandment it fabricates a toil, instilling a thought of cowardice and the fear of being deprived of necessities, and the disease of old age when it overtakes them. Likewise also in the case of the other commandments of God, which are not heavy, it fabricates a toil, suggesting a phantom of heaviness. But it is also to be read thus: O Master, you who fashion toil upon your commandments, so that they may not be despised because of their easiness; for you wish those who approach them to accomplish them with sweat and labor. For thus it happens that endurance and patience are acquired; and therefore salvation will follow: for he who endures to the end, this one will be saved. A tyrannical throne shall not be with you; therefore prevent them from their most savage assault against us, by which they craftily hunt upon

The soul of the righteous man, while they pretend also to be judges and arbiters, they condemn the innocent. And by "throne of lawlessness" he means the tyrannical rule of the devil. For the devil advanced to such a degree of wickedness as to be equivalent to the evil condition. For the Scripture calls him "lawlessness" instead of "lawless one," and "destruction" instead of "one who is destroyed"; in one place saying to him, "You have become destruction" (by this Judas also was called a son of destruction, having become a son of Satan), and in another place naming him "lawlessness"; for those who have become his children it calls sons of lawlessness, where it says concerning Christ, "And a son of lawlessness shall not add to afflict him." His attendants are those who do evil, concerning whom it says, "Who will rise up for me against those who do evil, or who will stand with me against those who work lawlessness?" And these are demons and evil men, who through cunning perpetrate the aforementioned things against the innocent and righteous man. They call for confession, either for the evils they have done or giving thanks for the good things they have received from God to him who appeared and shone upon them, who is the impress of his own substance, his own face; for he is the image of the invisible God. It is possible to assign the third line to the first and the fourth to the second, understanding it thus: to rejoice in the Lord because he has come: "We anticipated his face with confession," but also "we shout aloud to God our Savior in psalms." And the psalms by which they shout aloud to the Lord are the deeds by which they act, pleasing him; for the voice of the psalm suggests such things as these. It calls "gods" those whom the Scripture calls angels.

He rules also over those who have become gods, to whom the word of God has come. The word, encompassing all the earth according to the principle of providence, holds in his own hand what are called the ends of the earth; for his possession is the ends of the earth, and he rules over the ends of the earth. Since the mountains of the Lord himself are also parts of the earth (and these are the high places among them), it should be noted that throughout all Scripture the doctrine of those who circumscribe providence up to the boundaries of the moon is refuted. For not only here is he said to rule over the ends of the earth, but also in many places; indeed, just as he is Lord of heaven, so also of earth: "I give thanks to you, Father, Lord of heaven and of earth." But in the mind, in the protective and almighty hand of God, only those come to be in his hand who are beyond the earth in understanding and conduct; whence no one can snatch them, since they are in the hand of the Father and in the hand of the Son. These ends, according to another conception, are Christ's sheep, of which the Lord says, "My sheep hear my voice, and I give them eternal life; and no one will snatch them out of my hand," and following: "No one can snatch them out of the hand of my Father." Since, then, the things interpreted are the ends of the earth in the hand of God, reasonably also the high places of his mountains are his, the mountains being those of men who are divided in life and in mind, God-fearing men. But by way of eminence, those who are pre-eminent are his, whom he called the high places of the mountains.

Or perhaps the ends of the earth are the people who walk upon the earth, while those who have their citizenship and their heart in heaven, because they have stored up treasure there, are the high mountains—that is, the angels. It should be noted that the dry land is said to have been formed not by a hand but by hands, just as "The heavens are the work of your hands," and "Your hands made me and formed me." But it must be asked who these creative hands are. For one creative hand of God is confessedly the Word of God; but with this hand another also is joined through many scriptures, and this one too is creative. It seemed good to divine men who had become disciples of the apostles to say that the creative hands of God are the Only-begotten and the Holy Spirit. Irenaeus especially held this view, from which it is clear that it is an ancient opinion which holds that the Holy Spirit is not made but creative. They do not go from one place to another to worship God when they exhort one another; for worship is no longer local, as it happened to be when Jerusalem and the temple there stood. For they worship the Lord, according to the prophet, each from his own place, not perceptibly and bodily but in spirit and truth. They come, then, to worship and fall down before him by disposition rather than by change of place, bending the knee to him and confessing him to be God—not only those on earth but also those in the heavens and under the earth, weeping before him with the weeping of repentance, or in whatever ways we have said that some weep and grieve.

But blameless is the weeping that escapes every stain—the weeping of one who dares to stand before the Lord. And they state the reason for which they perform what is set before them, saying, "For he is our God, and we are the sheep of his pasture," the relation of the people to God being made clear through this expression. Therefore he says: "We are the people of his pasture," because he himself has given himself to become our God; for since he himself is our God, we also are the people of his pasture; and since we are the people of his pasture, he is our God. And being the people of his pasture, we are also the sheep of his hand, since he is our shepherd. Therefore no one will snatch us from his right hand; "For I give them eternal life, and no one will snatch them out of my hand." Having said that these words, up to the end of the psalm, were spoken by the Holy Spirit, the apostle placed them in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in some way also adding an interpretation to them. And he interpreted "today," referring it to the whole present age; for each day of the age is signified by "today." And the heart is hardened in the same manner as Pharaoh's, which inclined to wickedness and appeared hard and resistant by all sin. Therefore, having abandoned this cruelty, let us incline our ear to God as he calls, in order to become righteous. But another says that "I was provoked" means "I became weary," not with every generation but with that one which always lived together with error because it did not wish to have knowledge of God; he said that God, having been angered, swore that they would not enter into his rest—and he said these things in the 77th [psalm].

Since Paul also expounded this expression, we shall say nothing more than what was said then. But you may also understand it in this way: the rational soul that is being made according to the image and likeness of God is a house of its Maker, especially when it lives in virtue; but when it sins, it is taken captive and brought down, so that it is no longer a temple of God. For indeed God said concerning certain people, "My Spirit shall not remain among these men, because they are flesh." For formerly, when the divine Spirit dwelt in them, they were his temple; but when they sinned they became flesh, having taken on a passionate and material disposition, and at that time the one who dwelt in them departed, and they underwent destruction at the hands of the evil spirits that took them captive. Just as, therefore, the one who sins, having become a captive, ceases to be God's house, since the building made of virtues has been dissolved, so the one who turns back to God through repentance is not only ransomed from captivity, but is also founded and built up as God's house through uprightness of mind and the best of deeds. And this is what the superscription prefixed to the psalm indicates. For after the captivity, when the house was built up by those who had fared well, a song of thanksgiving is sent up for the release from captivity and the consecration of the divine house. And one may also take the things pertaining to the place in the literal sense

it will be able. For the house appears to have been built in the times of Esdras after the captivity. We must therefore say that David, having contemplated prophetically such a restoration of the house to its ancient state, composed the song concerning the dedication of the house. And those sing the song who have put off the old man and put on the new, which is being renewed so as to become according to the image of the one who created him, by being taught in the new covenant and having received the newness of Christ's teaching. Here, then, all the earth is commanded to sing, but in the [sixty-fifth psalm] to worship: For let all the earth worship you and sing psalms to you; and in Habakkuk it is said, All the earth is full of his praise (that is, of God), and in other places, All the earth is full of his glory. All these, then, who sing to God are commanded, in addition to singing to him, also to bless his name. For through good works and the knowledge of the truth one blesses and glorifies the name of God. Indeed it is said in the Gospel, Let your light shine before men, so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven. For when the name of God has been invoked upon us, doing all things according to right reason, through the blessing of those things which we bless, we accomplish, we bear, the name of the Lord; for since it is not otherwise, we pray that it may become blessed and holy. And with precision, as far as was possible, it has been said about this in the thirty-third psalm, in the passage, Let us exalt his name together; whence now we are content with what has been said briefly.

Consider whether it is also possible to understand the words set before us in this way: those who cling to the old covenant, singing an old song for the sake of perceptible events, sang. For when Pharaoh, the tyrant of Egypt, was drowned, Moses with the whole Hebrew multitude sang a song, even a triumphal ode: Let us sing to the Lord, for he has been glorified gloriously; horse and rider he has thrown into the sea. And in other events too, one may see Israel singing in a more bodily fashion in the Pentateuch and the rest of the old Scripture. But those who have departed from the oldness of the letter, so as to be discipled into the newness of the Spirit, sing a new song to the Lord over things accomplished intelligibly and spiritually, since the devil, who held the power of death, has been abolished and the tyrant of the intelligible Egypt has been sunk beneath the waters, Jesus having tasted death by the grace of God on behalf of all. And these, singing to the Lord, freed from all curses and having partaken of the blessing supplied from God, bless the name of him who blessed them with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.