In Psalmos 101_107

PSALM 101. A prayer for the poor man, when he is disheartened, and pours out his supplication before the Lord. 1. The psalm contains a foretelling of the misery of the people of the Jews in Babylon and of the return from there; and it foretells at the same time the calling and salvation of the Gentiles; and it is fitting for everyone struggling with some calamity and beseeching to obtain the divine inclination. For he calls "poor" the one who is in need of divine providence, comparing him to the one who is blessed according to the saying, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." Therefore everyone who is devoted to God, being poor in the affairs of life but rich with God, is disheartened, being grieved—or, "is discouraged," according to Symmachus—at the wickedness and destruction of the many; such was the one who said: "Alas, my soul! for the godly man has perished from the earth, and the one who sets things right among men does not exist"; and the one who said: "There is none who does good." "Lord, hear my prayer, and let my cry come to you." The "prayer" makes clear the supplication directed to God and the entreaty; and the "supplication" makes clear the request concerning the things which he wishes to be granted to him as he entreats. And he says: "Receive my supplication, O Master, and stretch out your help to me as I lament." For the "cry," Symmachus has called a "wailing." "Do not turn your face away from me." God turns his face away from some who pray in several ways: either those who ask do not entreat to receive the things which it is fitting for God to grant and which it is beneficial for them to receive; or, while it is fitting for God to provide the things they ask, they themselves do not have the time to carry these things out profitably.

There are also those who think fit to ask for things that lead to sin. The saint, then, in exhorting, says: May it not be that I should ask for such things, at which you turn away and turn your face from me. But I pray, not that I may not be afflicted—for that is impossible—but that when afflicted I may not be defeated, and that I may rejoice in hope, enduring afflictions, boasting in them. In the day when I am afflicted, incline your ear to me; in the day when I call upon you, quickly hear me. These words of the psalm also show that this is a foretelling of things to come, and not a narrative of things that have happened. For since the people were in great prosperity and prominence in the kingdom of the divine David, the prophet, reasonably using their person, offers the supplication and implores to obtain divine care, whenever the time for this should come. For my days have failed like smoke, and my bones have been scorched like a hearth. From here, according to his own idiom, he narrates the calamities that are to come as though they had already happened, and says that the time of life has been consumed like smoke, and that from despondency the body has become a dry brand, as though scorched by the assault of some fire. For thus Aquila also translated: And my bones, like a burning, have been reduced to powder. I was struck like grass, and my heart was dried up. But indeed, like grass I withered away, and I lost my former bloom. For I forgot to eat my bread; from the sound of my groaning my bone has clung to my flesh. For I cast off all desire for food, and I was completely stripped of my former well-being.

For the body was consumed by the wasting of despondency, and my skin cleaves to my bare bones. I was likened to a desert pelican; I became like a night-raven in a ruined house. I kept watch, and I became like a sparrow solitary upon a housetop. He has used many comparisons, wishing to set forth the calamities worthily; and by each of the birds mentioned he makes plain the cowardice and the desolation of the guardian. For the sparrow, out of anguish, drives away sleep, and the night-raven, fleeing the inhabited houses, runs to the desert and ruined places. For the ruined houses Symmachus has called Ereipia. So also the other bird dwells in the deserts. All the day long my enemies reproached me, and those who praised me swore against me. I became a laughingstock to my adversaries, and he who was once zealous and conspicuous has now become an oath to those who formerly admired me; for they swear by my calamities: May I not suffer what those men have suffered. For I ate ashes as if bread, and I mixed my drink with weeping, because of the face of your anger and your wrath.

2. He said these things also in the sixty-ninth psalm: You will feed us with the bread of tears, and you will give us tears to drink in measure; and through these words he reveals the excess of his pain. For if the time of nourishment was full of pain, scarcely would any other time be free of it. By these evils, he says, I am overwhelmed, because, Master, you have stirred up your anger against me: Because you lifted me up, you cast me down. For both the people and the temple were glorified when God presided over them; and to the extent that it was lifted up, it fell—the people led away captive, and the temple laid waste together with Jerusalem, in which the law and the worship according to it were carried out, having a shadow of the good things to come; and these too were taken away from the midst. He speaks also of his own case. For having shown me to be lofty and made me conspicuous, you suddenly cast me off. For the phrase, You cast me down, he has used by way of metaphor from those who lift something to a height and dash it down to the ground. My days have declined like a shadow, and I have dried up like grass. I am, he says, at the very setting of my life, and I resemble a shadow that has declined and is now fading; and I imitate the dryness of grass, summoning the hands of those who reap. But you, Lord, remain forever, and your memorial throughout generation and generation. Human things are like this, humbled through wickedness after their exaltation, and never remaining what they are; but you, having nothing subject to decay, are unchanging and unalterable, and the promises that come from you are firm; and not, he says, to the present generation, but to another, concerning which is the saying, The generation to come will be announced to the Lord; and, Let this be written for another generation.

For the remembrance of your promises will be fulfilled, and you would readily grant some change from the present evils. Therefore I speak with confidence, that you will raise up Zion; for this is what he adds: You, having risen up, will have mercy on Zion, because it is time to have mercy on her, because the time has come. Grant, he says, a better change to the calamity; for the time demands mercy. And through these words he hints at the end of the punishment limited to the seventy years. Thus also the wonderful Daniel, having numbered the time of the captivity, offers his supplication, in accordance with Zechariah who said: Lord Almighty, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem? With these things the words of the spiritual melody also agree: Because it is time to have mercy on her, because the time has come. And I think that in these words he prophesies the manifestation to men of God the Word himself, that is, of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which will be the cause of the rebuilding of Zion. Now being here, do not suppose that the city on earth is meant, nor think that the earthly Jerusalem is indicated, but the renewal of the commonwealth of piety. For this is the time about which he himself says through Isaiah: In an acceptable time I heard you. And Paul also writes that this time has been fulfilled, when the Savior had come

saying: Behold, now is the acceptable time. For your servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they will have pity on her dust. Holy stones are rolled upon the earth, it has been said somewhere in the prophets. But also Peter says, You are all living stones, being built up as a spiritual house into a holy priesthood. He calls by this name those who are received into the building of the Church of God. For through their cohesion and harmony with one another, and through their thinking the same things and saying the same things, and adhering with the same mind and the same judgment, they accomplish one house for God. These stones, then, your servants have taken pleasure in—namely, the prophets. For they, foreseeing by the divine Spirit the stones that would be gathered from all the nations into the building of the new Zion that was to be built throughout the whole inhabited world, took pleasure in them, being pleased with them. And you might say that the dust of the Zion we have conceived of is either those who live in a more earthly manner but are counted among the stones of the building; whence he also deems them worthy of pity—those from the Jewish nation who even now pretend to worship God in a more earthly manner, and for this reason are called dust. He says they are worthy of pity and mercy. Therefore the servants of God are prophesied to have pity on these, but to approve the stones of the new building. Or he means by stones those who believed in Christ after the resurrection, and by servants the holy apostles, through whom those who believed in our Lord Jesus Christ were saved.

And the nations will fear the name of the Lord, and all the kings of the earth your glory. The cause of these things is the proclamation that went from Zion into the whole inhabited world. And well did he say, They will fear; for at that time the nations did not possess fear of him; but from the time when he commanded the apostles, Go, make disciples of all the nations. But indeed also The kings of the earth, not some, but All; wherefore the righteous are also called supports of kings; for these are self-chosen; or rather, having been chosen by God as kings, they are so through ruling over pleasures and guarding the royal image. For the Lord will build Zion, and he will be seen in his glory. For since those who were ignorant of the divine dispensations supposed the servitude of the Jews and the desolation of Jerusalem to be a weakness of God, reasonably he called the renewal of the city the glory of God; meaning, when Zion has been built again, all will see the God of all in his former glory. When he stood in the midst of the chorus of the apostles, then he was manifestly seen in his glory, that is, in the signs of his sufferings; for he says to Thomas: Bring your finger here, and see my hands, and the rest. And he calls his sufferings glory, since through them he subjected the inhabited world. But you will understand, For the Lord will build Zion, also in another way. For the Word of God, having become flesh and dwelt among us, built the Church, which is spiritually called Zion.

He will appear in his glory, when, having made his dwelling among us, we behold his glory, a glory as of the Only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. He has looked upon the prayer of the humble, and has not despised their supplication. 3. He did not disdain them, he says, as captives and slaves, but received their entreaty and granted them freedom. By "humble" he means the lowly in mind, concerning whom the Lord said: On whom shall I look, but on the gentle and quiet man who trembles at my words? And he hints at the apostles. Or he also calls it the prayer of the prophets who humble themselves, concerning whom it was said, "The prayer of the poor man"; and concerning his supplication he said: And he shall pour out his supplication before the Lord, through which he will rebuild Zion, and will do the things that were spoken. Let this be written for another generation; and the people who are being created will praise the Lord. The prayer through the psalm, and the promise concerning the nations prophesied, as if stamped on a pillar, has been given to the Jews to be kept for the new people and the generation according to Christ, in which the nations were created through faith; concerning whom also the blessed Paul says: If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And the inspired David himself said in the twenty-first psalm: A generation to come will be announced to the Lord, and they will announce his righteousness to a people yet to be born, whom the Lord has made. And in Christ himself the two are created, the people from the nations and the people from the circumcision, into one new man. For the creation now indicates an alteration, not a change of substance; such as also this: Create in me a clean heart, O God.

And also the words, "The Lord created me as the beginning of his ways for his works." For the person who speaks was not created once for all, but for a beginning of God's ways, those leading to his works. For to be created as the beginning of certain things indicates a relation, not a change of essence. The people, then, who are thus created will praise the Lord, coming to the knowledge of the only God. But if he had signified essential being, he would not have said "the one being created," but "the one having been created." For it is not possible to remain in the state of having essential being, but in that of being transformed. Thus the people, instructed in both the old and the new, send up the fitting hymn to God the Savior. "Because he looked down from his holy height, the Lord looked upon the earth from heaven." The Savior is said to look down from the height at the time of the incarnation, as one who remained above and appeared below. For this is characteristic of those who look down from a height. He looked down to behold the earth, that is, to visit it. But the Lord, being an incorporeal and intellectual essence, or rather beyond these, bounded by nothing, is not circumscribed by place; but he traverses the whole creation by his power. For he was in the world, and the world came to be through him. And he is said to dwell in the better parts of the world, according to the words, "He who dwells in the heavens," and, "Our Father who is in the heavens," not by way of containment, but present to his own works by ineffable power. Being thus said to be in heaven, by his providence even over the earth, he looked upon it. To hear the groaning of those in chains, that is, to loose the sons of those put to death; to proclaim in Zion the name of the Lord, and his praise in Jerusalem.

He sets before us the reason for the calling of the nations. And this is the manifestation of the Savior, which he made when he bowed the heavens. And who are the bound ones, or those whom the devil, lover of evil, has bound with the cords of sins? And sons of those put to death would be those from among the nations, in that their fathers died in their own sins, still worshiping idols, and each one being bound with the cords of his own sins; whose conversion Isaiah, making known, said to God: "And they shall follow you bound with handcuffs, and in you they shall pray and shall worship you." For the Gospel, having begun from Zion, was spread to all the earth. For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he shall judge among many nations. When peoples are gathered together, and kings, to serve the Lord. He answered him in the way of his strength: "Announce to me the fewness of my days. Do not bring me up in the midst of my days." He calls the way of his strength his presence on earth. For he came that he might bind the strong one. For he prayed to see whether his life would reach those days in which the Only-begotten, having become man, was about to appear on earth. For for the present, when I prophesy these things and foresee what is about to be, I seem to be in a part of God's days; but I lack the actual sight of the fulfillment of the things prophesied, which if I obtain, I shall receive my life made perfect; but if I fail of the prayer,

I seem to resemble those who lay down their life incomplete and untimely in the midst of their days. And it seems to me that because of such utterances of the prophets our Savior said: Many prophets and righteous men desired to see what you see, and did not see it, and to hear what you hear, and did not hear it. In generation of generations are your years. He turned the word again to the Lord. For his are the years which he accomplished in the flesh, in generation of generations, as having a life perfectly completed and whole; whence also Paul, wishing to present those who are in perfection, said: Until we all attain to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. In the beginnings you, Lord, founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. 4. The phrase In the beginnings can abolish the opinion of those who say that the earth is an element of all things, as though all things came to be from it, with nothing prior to it. For it appears not to be a beginning, but to have foundations according to certain beginnings conceived beforehand. It was also said to Job by the Lord himself, as having founded the earth: Where were you when I founded the earth? And when the Lord, through whom all things came to be, founded the earth, it is also said concerning the Father: God founded the earth in wisdom. And the statement concerning God, He hangs the earth upon nothing, indicates that it has its place in the very middle of the universe. And all things will grow old like a garment. And like a cloak you will roll them up, and they will be changed. For all visible things will grow old and will imitate the old age of a garment.

But you will change them and make them new, and you will make them incorruptible instead of corruptible. This the divine apostle also said: that even creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. But you are the same, and your years will not fail. You arrange creation as you wish, O Master; but you have a nature that is unchanging and superior to alteration. These things, indeed, the divine Apostle has attributed to the peculiar property of the Son in the Epistle to the Hebrews. But nevertheless in the Son we behold the Father. For whatever he does, the Son also does likewise, and the sameness of nature is recognized in each. For we know one activity of the Trinity. The sons of your servants will dwell, and their seed will be directed forever. Instead of "will be directed," Symmachus has put "will remain." It means that those who have been released from slavery will inhabit Jerusalem, and the seed from them will remain forever. But "sons of servants" of God must not be understood altogether according to the flesh, but according to instruction and imitation of a true way of life; for in this way some were also called sons of the prophets, having perhaps come to be so from them according to a prophetic condition; and their seed were those who were benefited by them. Concerning this seed the divine Apostle said: until the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and, the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, "to seeds," as in the case of many, but as in the case of one, "and to your seed," who is Christ.

This seed will remain forever. For united to the Word of God, it has being imperishable, and it grants life to those who believe, according to the voice of the Lord himself; for he says: He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood will live forever, in Christ himself our Lord, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. PSALM 102. This psalm seems indeed to follow the one placed before it, even in its subject matter. For in that one, those lamenting the calamities in Babylon besought God to obtain their return; but here, having obtained what they asked, they hymn the benefactor. And I think that this hymnody suits all men, both those who have been delivered from a more bitter slavery and those deemed worthy of a greater freedom. The meaning of the words themselves will also show that this subject matter is truer than that one. 1. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name. The soul, being in the middle, drags the body toward pleasures, while the spirit draws it up toward God, commanding it to bless, that is, to speak of God and glorify him continually. And Paul also mentioned the three when he said: May the God of peace sanctify you completely, and may your whole body and spirit and soul be kept sound. This is said of the spirit of man that is within him, about which he again says: I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the mind also. Moses also mentions the body in the words, God took dust from the earth and formed man; and the soul in the words, Let us make man in our image; and the spirit, when he says:

And God breathed into his face a breath of life. The spirit calls upon all the powers of the soul to bless God—the intellectual, the rational, the spirited, the appetitive, the faculty of praise, the imaginative, the perceptive—all of which he has called "within"; which Paul interprets when he says: Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God. And the inward parts of the body procure a hymn for God; indeed, through the organic parts of the body he moves the active powers of the soul to hymn. And those who say that the soul belongs to the spirit do not mean that it gives the spirit soul, but that it falls under his care. He says that the rational power is "within," in the same sense that the Savior said the kingdom of heaven is within us. And the psychic powers, when at rest, are said to be "within" the good things they are able to do; but when stirred by their activities toward improper things, they go out of what is within. These he now stirs up to the hymn of God. It is fitting, then, for all to say: Bless the Lord, O my soul. For those who are gratefully disposed toward the divine graces stir themselves up to hymnody, repaying their benefactor as far as they are able. It is possible always to hymn and to carry about an echoing memory of his benefactions. These consecrate all that is within, and stir up every thought to the divine hymn. For he called "within" the thoughts and the intentions and all the movements of the soul. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his recompenses.

Again the soul is taught to rouse itself, and to drive out the cloud of forgetfulness, and to renew the memory of benefactions. For the one who remembers the divine benefactions does not cease from hymning him. Symmachus, however, has called the "recompenses" "benefactions." Then he sets these out in detail: "Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases." For this one has granted you the remission of sins, this one has bestowed on you the healing of sufferings. The one who was paralyzed enjoyed these things. For he heard, "Your sins are forgiven you"; and, "Take up your bed, and go to your house." Thus the sinful woman obtained both healing and forgiveness; thus the robber, thus the tax collectors, thus all who believed. "Who redeems your life from corruption." Those carried off captive in Babylon he freed from slavery, but did not release from corruptible life; but to us he has granted the hopes of the resurrection, and gave the earnest of the Spirit, and clothed us with the garment of incorruption. "Who crowns you in

by mercy and compassions. By grace you are saved, cries the divine Apostle; and this not of yourselves; the gift of God, so that no one may boast; and again, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first; but I was shown mercy, so that in me first Christ Jesus might display all his longsuffering, as a pattern for those who are going to believe in him for eternal life. The crown, then, belongs to grace and to love for mankind. Thus also the inspired Isaiah cries out in the person of the bride: Let my soul rejoice in the Lord; for he has clothed me with a garment of salvation, and wrapped me in a robe of gladness; he has set a turban on me as on a bridegroom, and adorned me with ornaments as a bride; and a little later, And you shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a diadem of kingship in the hand of your God. But all these things are the bridegroom's gifts and presents. For the bride has brought only faith. Who satisfies your desire with good things. Since there is a blameworthy desire, which the divine law also forbids, he has rightly added with good things; for the Master fulfills our good desires. For ask, he says, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. But ask for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you in abundance. Your youth will be renewed like an eagle's. And this renewal the Master has again bestowed on us through the all-holy baptism, and having scraped away the old age of sin, he has made us new instead of aged.

In agreement with these things, God says through the prophet Isaiah: But those who endure shall exchange their strength; they shall grow wings like eagles. For since, having been created, we received the divine and royal marks, and then we dulled and corrupted them by the manifold pursuits of sin, the prophetic word promises us the recovery of the kingdom. For this bird is royal, and is entrusted with the kingdom of the winged creatures. And it teaches us also the manner of the divine generosity, so that it is renewed, putting off the old man and taking up the new man, which is renewed unto the knowledge of the one who created it. And thus, it says, your youth shall be renewed, so as always to remain in youthfulness in the incorruptible life. Since the eagle is the most royal of all birds and the highest-flying, and is the only living creature able to face the flashes of the sun's light and to gaze fixedly upon them, with good reason he compared the renewal of the soul, and its flight from earth to heaven, and its life that will be in the highest light, to the nature of an eagle. The Lord who makes mercies, judgment for all who are wronged. 2. For not because of the righteous deeds that we did, but according to his great mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. And having seen us wronged by the devil of injustice, the enemy of truth, he opened for us the springs of mercy, but against him he brought forth the just verdict.

For as a compassionate Father and the only one who is good, redeeming the souls of those oppressed by Satan from injustice and usury, he took up the record of debt against us and nailed it to the cross, and proved them free. For the devil, holding this, kept us under debt because of the things we did, since we had done this. God has made this judgment for us when we were being wronged, having cleansed us by the blood of his Son both from the things we wronged and from the things we were wronged by the devil. Therefore Paul also taught us to be wronged rather than to wrong others. For to those who are wronged, God brings judgment through beneficence; but to those who wrong, through punishment, so that they fall away from the promise. For the unjust, he says, will not inherit the kingdom of God. He made known his ways to Moses, his will to the children of Israel. He did not accomplish these things for you out of regret—salvation—but from above he foretold these things through the prophets, and through the divine Moses he sketched out our salvation. And the sea received the type of the all-holy baptism, and the rock was shown to be a shadow of the immortal streams, and the manna was an image of the heavenly delight, and the other things too—so that I may not go through each one—one can find thus sketched out in those things. Therefore "ways" and "wills" both signify the virtues, according to, "Lord, make known to me your ways"; and according to Paul to Elymas: "Will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord?" Such also is, "I found David the son of Jesse, a man after my heart, who will do all my wills.

He says, then, that the transitions from the typical things of the law and the shadow to the good things to come, which are spiritual and archetypal, God taught to Moses when he gave him the law—teaching, for instance, what circumcision is, what the sabbaths are, what the sacrifices are, and who is the son of Israel, of whom it is said: Israel my chosen. For God makes these things known to those who see clearly: the Jew who is one inwardly, the circumcision of the heart, the sacrifice of praise and righteousness. The Lord is compassionate and merciful, long-suffering and abundant in mercy. For these things have been the causes both long ago and now of such great beneficence, since Moses also said: The Lord is long-suffering and abundant in mercy, and true, showing mercy to thousands. These powers, then, called ways, he made known to Moses, and the abyss of divine goodness orders the virtues in all things, the immeasurable mercy, the sea of loving-kindness. He will not be angry to the end, nor will he be wrathful forever. Therefore he will neither use his anger continually (for this is the meaning of "to the end"), nor does he grant mercy perpetually to the unworthy. For how, since God is a just and strong judge and long-suffering, how will he render to each according to his works? He mingles, then, anger with mercy, at one time putting forward mercy when it is the time for mercy, at another bringing on anger on the day of anger and righteous judgment, in which, Paul says, he will render to each according to his works. Therefore he says, He will not be wrathful forever, speaking of the present age; for he has reserved judgment and anger for the age to come.

He did not deal with us according to our lawless deeds, nor did he repay us according to our sins. For he did not endure to measure out the punishment to our sins, nor to stretch out his indignation against us to the greatest extent. For being truly God, he does not possess these virtues by habit, but is their source and essence; hence he does not punish to the end, persisting in wrath unto destruction. For he himself says: When the wrath of my fury comes, I will heal again; and he lessens the punishments, not punishing according to desert. For as the height of heaven is from the earth, the Lord has strengthened his mercy upon those who fear him. As far as the east is from the west, he has removed our lawless deeds from us. Even if he had found distances greater than these, he would certainly have brought these also into the middle, wishing to show the infinity of the divine goodness; but human reasoning has found neither a measure higher than heaven, nor a distance longer than that between the midst of evening and the dawn. And those humans who are in sins are in darkness and in the west; but having been released from their transgressions, they clearly become those who have been transferred into the light. So that with good reason he has called the release from sins a transition from the west to the east, and at the same time wishing to teach us what is the difference between sin and righteousness. As a father has compassion on his sons, the Lord has had compassion on those who fear him.

3. The Creator and Maker shows the goodness of the Father, or rather, pitying those who fear him, he placed them in the rank of sons. For he did not fashion us out of hatred, but knowing the hearts of men, which he formed individually, he knows what is beneficial for each; and the things for which we have both ability and occasion, these he gives, so that by having them in actual practice we might become his sons. He might also mean that, having become flesh, he took experience of our formation, and had a natural disposition, reckoning us as sons. For he himself knew our formation. He remembered that we are dust. For the Creator knows the weakness of our nature; he knows both from what we were formed and where we shall again go. And as in supplication, they put forward the worse part of what is in us. For we are not entirely dust, but also according to the image and likeness of God. The dust, then, piteously declares our weakness. Man, his days are like grass; like a flower of the field, so shall he flourish. For a spirit passed through him, and he shall not exist, and he shall no longer know his place. We differ nothing from grass and a flower, which blooms in spring, but after a little while withers and wastes away; for the discourse is again about the outward man. For according to the material life, in which we are dust, stretching out the present time for certain days, we are compared to grass that dries up. For also according to Isaiah, All flesh is grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The sun rose, and it dried up the grass, and its flower fell off; through which he sets before us the seeming prosperities of men—wealth, glory, honors—which indeed wither like grass.

But Symmachus published: "That a spirit passes through it, and then it does not exist." By "spirit" he means the soul, whose presence keeps the body alive and active; but when it has departed, the body is extinguished and corrupted, so that not even its former features are recognized, nor can one know that this body belongs to this person and that to that person. One could see this more precisely by peering into a tomb. For all things alike become a waste of corruption, and it does not preserve the former features. But the mercy of the Lord is from age to age upon those who fear him, and his righteousness upon children's children, upon those who keep his covenant and remember his commandments, to do them. The nature, then, is thus short-lived; but divine love for mankind grants a long-lived life, and preserves even to descendants the repayment of righteousness owed to their forefathers. Therefore, on account of the patriarchs, he deemed the people sprung from them afterward worthy of the calling and of his own visitation. This he made clear through Moses, saying: "Do not say, 'Because of my righteousness the Lord chose me'; for you are a stiff-necked people; but because he loved your fathers." You will understand in another way also the sons of righteous men to be the zealous imitators of their works. And he extends his mercy throughout all time; for always, being good by nature and merciful, having righteousness as the companion of this mercy upon those who keep his covenant, by which they were also enrolled through virtue as heirs of the promises to come. For they do not merely remember the commandments, but also practice them, for which purpose they were also given.

And since the Savior said, "The one who has my commandments and does them, that one is the one who loves me." But it is not the one who remembers the promises who inherits them, but the one who has done the commandments. Thus to Jehu he preserved the kingdom to the fourth generation, although he had not acquired even a perfect piety, but at the beginning of his reign he displayed his zeal. Thus to the wondrous David he kept the spark of his race unquenchable, and that too when many impious men had sprung up in the midst. This mercy, he says, he will bestow on those who keep his covenant, and not simply on those who remember his commandments, but on those who add deeds to words, and who order their own life according to them. The Lord has prepared his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all. It is said to rule over all, but not to reign, since not all are worthy of his reign. Therefore the Savior promised the kingdom of heaven to those who live the evangelical life; but he also holds sway over the unworthy, as Lord. And this seems to resemble what is said in another psalm: "He who dwells in the highest, and looks upon the lowly." For here too the prophetic word teaches us that the Lord has his throne in heaven over all things, but he also looks upon and governs creation, inasmuch as he is the maker and king and lord of all. Bless the Lord, all you his angels, mighty in strength, who do his word, to hear the voice of his words. 4. With good reason he called the invisible powers to a sharing in the hymnody. For human nature is not sufficient to hymn the benefactor worthily.

But the incorporeal and holy natures, possessing a life free from passions, are sufficient to fulfill the divine commandments. And the prophet expresses another thought as well. "Your own powers," he says, "O soul, are weak for hymning God worthily; yet let it do this in part." But know that his angels, being mighty in strength and doing his word without fail, and being worthy to hear his voice and his words, bless him fittingly and worthily. And if there be some among men pursuing an angel-like life, according to him who said, "I can do all things in Christ who strengthens me," let these also bless him; but let no one of those who transgress his word and disobey his voice dare to do this too rashly. "Bless the Lord, all his powers, his ministers, who do his will"—calling them angels, so as not to enumerate in part the orders in heaven, of which Paul made partial mention, saying, "Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named"; and again, "Whether invisible or visible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities"—in a word, encompassing all, he called them powers. And by saying "ministers who do his will," he distinguished them from the opposing powers that share the same name. For he does not call these to the hymn—his principalities and authorities and the world-rulers of this darkness and the spiritual forces of wickedness. But all the heavenly orders he called angels and powers.

The one sense is "as those who serve the divine commandments and transmit the divine words"; and "powers," as those who are able to do what is commanded and have received the capacity in their nature from the Maker. Bless the Lord, all his works, in every place of his dominion; bless the Lord, O my soul. By these words he persuades the soul not to shrink back from the hymn as though it fell far short of the heavenly beings. For not only are those heavenly beings commanded, but all the works of the Lord are commanded in common to bless the Lord, each according to its power. For every place is suitable for the hymn, and not heaven alone; for the worth of blessing comes through good deeds. And every soulless and irrational creature, even if it seems harmful, since through ineffable wisdom it is beneficial to the whole, contributes to the glorification of God, in that each, according to the worth of the place in which it is, blesses God. This, then, he says, do, O soul, in whatever place you happen to dwell, whether on the earth or in a better place. For there too bless with the choirs of angels for heavenly and perfect goods. But for the Jews not even this is fitting. For they, when commanded by those who had enslaved them to sing from the songs of Zion, said, doing what was lawful, How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a foreign land? But the divine Apostle enjoins us, praying in every place, to lift up holy hands. And the Master Christ said this to the Samaritan woman: Amen, amen, I say to you, woman, that the hour is coming and now is, when neither in the place,

Neither will they worship the Father in Jerusalem. For God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth. And the phrase "Bless the Lord, O my soul" — the ending is in harmony with the opening. For having called the noetic essences into fellowship of the hymnody, he teaches us also, as far as is possible, to honor the Maker and to offer the thanksgiving hymn of equal measure to his power, because to him be glory unto the ages. Amen. PSALM 103. 1. The grace of the all-holy Spirit not only offers moral and doctrinal teaching to men, but also accurately instructs them how one must hymn the Maker. For this reason it composed this psalm, using the blessed David as its servant, so that all might learn with what hymns one must repay the benefactor. Here, then, it recounts the common benefactions, and shows that the God of all things is both Maker and president of all things together. "Bless the Lord, O my soul." God blesses man, setting him in safety and making him more radiant, as he did Abraham; but man does not bless in this way, but rather makes himself more radiant then. For whether God blesses, or man blesses God, from both sides the gain passes over to man; for the Divine is without need. And it teaches each nursling of piety to hymn God the benefactor. "O Lord my God, thou art magnified exceedingly." Here too the "as" is expressive of intensity; and "thou art magnified exceedingly" is indicative not of increase but of immeasurable greatness; for thus Symmachus also translated it: "O Lord my God, thou art great exceedingly.

For you were not made great though small; but being great by nature, you were shown to be so to the pious. How does he become great who is always great and needs no addition, but is always perfect? How is he magnified? When those who recline at his table display the best life, when they hymn him both through words and through deeds, then he is magnified—not that he himself receives anything added to his greatness, but he is shown to be great to those who do not know him, through those who serve him, through the mighty works of creation, its variety and providence. And the soul, rejoicing in all this, says: O Lord my God—for the voice belongs to one who is honored. And in what manner he was magnified, he adds: You have clothed yourself with confession and majesty. But Symmachus puts it thus: You have put on hymn and glory. For no longer do those who enjoy your good things ignore you, nor do they offer your worship to idols, but they hymn you and pay to you the debt of doxology. For even if the creation of the angels, the stretching out of the heavens, the founding of the earth, and all the other things the psalmist added after these are sufficient to declare the greatness of God, yet more sufficient than these is that the Savior became man and remained God, suffered our sufferings and kept his own impassibility. Therefore these things, though second in order, he nevertheless placed before the others, since they are first in power. By confession he means the flesh taken from us, since through it he brought to God the confession on our behalf, so as to cry out to the Father: I confess to you, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding, and all such things.

and "majesty," since it was fitting that he should greatly and exceedingly surpassingly preserve our own nature. But he says that he also clothes himself with this confession and this majesty, not as though he were again about to put it off, but so that it might be shown that, having become flesh, he was not changed into a man, but both remains God and becomes man. "Who covers himself with light as with a garment." He is clothed with light as with a garment, as one filled with knowledge on every side, as having an incomprehensible essence. And the light signifies the purest knowledge of God; for, according to Paul, he dwells in unapproachable light. For "to dwell" signifies the whole of his being knowledge, being hard to comprehend by intellectual beings; for he called the light unapproachable. For in harmony with these things the Apostle also says: "Who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light." For that light is so great that no one dares to draw near; for the excess of its brightness turns away the eyes. For if the perceptible sun compels those who try to gaze on it insatiably to do this, who is sufficient to come into the contemplation of the unapproachable light? He is himself indeed the true light, but he also covers himself with light as with a garment, and he dwells in unapproachable light, and "cloud and thick darkness are round about him," and "he made darkness his hiding place." And these things are not contrary to one another; for the unapproachable light is the same to those unable to see as the thick darkness and the darkness; for neither the things in this nor the things in that can be discerned; and yet this and that alike declare the invisibility of the divine nature. Moreover, John the theologian also, recounting the same dispensation, called it light, saying:

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it. He clothes himself with this as a garment when he wholly covers and hides the power of the divinity with the weaknesses of the flesh—for instance, hungering, thirsting, growing weary, and enduring things akin to these. But he puts on light when he makes his divinity manifest, rebuking the sea, shaking the earth, darkening the sun; for he no longer permits the divinity to be hidden by the humanity. Stretching out the heaven like a curtain. 2. By these words he taught the ease of the creation. For just as it is easy for a man to stretch out a curtain and make a tent, so the God of all spread out the great vaults of the heavens, using only his word. Who covers his upper chambers with waters. The blessed Moses also taught this; for he said that God had spoken: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the water, and let it be dividing between the water above the firmament and the water below the firmament. Who makes the clouds his ascent, who walks upon the wings of the winds. By these words he made known the providence that extends everywhere. For he stands over both winds and clouds, and he himself directs and steers them, and gives the need that arises from them at the proper time. At the same time he teaches that the divine nature is present everywhere and stands over all things.

For since the nature of the winds is the swiftest of all perceptible things (for in an instant it runs from the western regions to the dawn, and from the dawn to the west), finding no other more precise image among perceptible things, he said that God rides upon the wings of the winds, thereby signifying that he is present everywhere. And we find that the God of all appeared to the sons of Israel in a cloud, and in a certain tabernacle made his own appearance through a cloud. And indeed, when Solomon was dedicating the house, a cloud covered the house; and the Master Christ on the mountain showed to the three apostles a bright cloud around himself; and as he was being taken up, a bright cloud received him from their eyes. Who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire. He showed that he is the creator not only of things visible but also of things invisible. And the same he called both spirits and fire, teaching through both the powerful and the swift. For the nature of the spirit is swift, and the energy of fire is strong. And God, the God of all, using angels as servants, both benefits the worthy and punishes the opposed. For this reason he also mentioned fire, the

signifying a punitive activity. “He who founded the earth upon its security.” But Aquila and Symmachus: “Upon its seat.” What security, O prophet, when so great a mass of water lies beneath and a vast open sea bears it upon its back? For elsewhere too, making this clear, he said: “To him who established the earth upon the waters.” For since the foundation was not secure but exceedingly rotten, the Maker placed the security in himself. And what is this security? The power of the one who wrought it. For “in his hand are the ends of the earth.” And he calls man “earth.” This man, then, he founds upon the security of faith, who “shall not be moved for ever and ever,” that is, in the age to come. “He shall not be moved for ever and ever.” For having settled it upon itself, he gave it immobility; and it remains in this condition as long as he himself wills. So too elsewhere he says: “Hanging the earth upon nothing.” “The deep, like a garment, is its covering.” He has put “its” in place of “her”; for thus both Aquila and Theodotion interpreted it: “You wrapped the deep around it like a garment.” And divine Scripture calls the watery substance “the deep.” So too at the beginning of creation the blessed Moses said: “But the earth was invisible and unformed, and darkness was upon the deep.” Since, then, the earth is surrounded on every side by water, and the great and boundless seas are its boundaries, while other navigable waters cut through it in the middle, with good reason he said that the deep lies upon the earth like a garment. And in another sense too you will find “the deep” used for incomprehensibility, in the words: “Your judgments, O Lord, are a great deep.

For since his judgments are unsearchable, it is not possible to find a comprehension of them; therefore they are compared not simply to an abyss, but to a great one. And God, then, whose judgments are a great abyss, is covered, like a garment, by incomprehensibility, called an abyss. “The waters shall stand upon the mountains.” “At your rebuke they shall flee, at the voice of your thunder they shall be afraid. The mountains rise up, and the plains go down to the place which you founded for them.” Through all these things he teaches the providence of God presiding over creation. For this reason the sea, imitating the peaks of the mountains, does not overwhelm the mainland with its waves, but just as we have been terrified at the thunder, so it too has been terrified at the boundary set for it. And “The waters shall stand upon the mountains” is instead of “as a mountain it has stood”; and “The mountains rise up” is instead of “as mountains.” I think he means the clouds that are above the summit of the mountains. For the clouds especially dwell in these places, so that the inhabited world is not continually darkened; “which,” he says, “when you wish, all receive their proper place, and are dissolved, and become a linen cloth.” And in another sense he calls the prophets mountains, because of the height of their contemplation. In them the waters stand, with which those who thirst are given drink of the water of teaching. But of what rebuke? That against the Jews. For another prophet shows this; for he says, “And I will give them not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord.” For when God is angry, the waters of the prophets are scarce, since they do not possess their supply from themselves.

Call the voice of thunder the voice of the Gospel, which the waters of the prophets do not flee but fear, because of the surpassing knowledge in them. You set a boundary, which it will not pass, nor will they turn back to cover the earth. The sea is ashamed before the sand, and raging up to that point, checked as if by a bridle by the divine boundary, it is reined back again and goes backward. Or this: for the prophets do not report all their revelations, but only those which they are commanded to reveal, lest by their abundance they cover the earth, that is, man, who is unable to contain them; and Paul bears witness, saying: I heard unspeakable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak. He who sends springs in the valleys; waters will pass through the midst of the mountains. Then he shows their usefulness. They will give drink to all the beasts of the field; the wild asses will receive them for their thirst. The birds of the heaven will dwell upon them; from the midst of the rocks they will give voice. And this is a very great proof of divine providence, that he fulfills the need not only of men but also of irrational creatures. For this reason, cutting through mountains, he fashioned a passage for the waters, so that not only men might have the streams of springs abundantly, but also the kinds of land animals and birds. The phrase, The wild asses will receive them for their thirst, Symmachus translated thus: The wild ass will recover its own thirst. And concerning providence extending to these, the Savior said: Look at the birds of the heaven, that they neither sow nor reap, nor gather anything into barns, and our heavenly Father feeds them.

The demons are called beasts of the thicket; but beasts of the field [these are God's], that is, of the world, he calls sinners, since just as the beasts in the field can become tame, so too can sinners be changed. Therefore they are also watered by the prophetic and apostolic waters. And he called wild asses those who no longer bear the burden of sin, but have been freed from it; therefore he led them, thirsting for the intelligible waters, into them. God hinted at these things to Job: Who is it that has let the wild ass go free? And who has loosed his bonds? He waters the mountains from his upper chambers; the earth shall be filled with the fruit of your works. For what reason are the mountains watered? Because they too need rains, where there are plants and fruitless trees. For he does not only cause the nature of the waters to well up from below, but also brings irrigation from above through the clouds. And he calls the air the upper chambers of God, as though the whole world were one house, the work of God; and to speak of the rain is because of the drawing up of the waters from the sea. He who sends grass for the cattle, and green herb for the service of men, to bring forth bread from the earth. For the grass grows and feeds the cattle that have come to be for the need of men. And the fruits too are nourished by the rains, and become ripe, and are offered to men. This he also said in another psalm: You will save men and cattle, O Lord. But nevertheless, for the need of men, the cattle also enjoy this providence.

For when the earth is fattened, he says, it yields to all things upon it the foods suited to them—grain, wine, and oil as choice nourishment for man, who is noble and honored by God: the one for the strength of the heart, the other for the gladness of the soul, and oil to soften and brighten the body from its toilsome hardship. And caring for the continuance of the others, he gave grass to the grass-eating cattle; but to those suited for the service of men through gentleness and strength, he assigned the herbage sown and cultivated by men, while to the rest he gave what grows of itself. Indeed, the herbage and the grass can be given to both. But he made mention neither of wild beasts nor of reptiles in these things, because these use another food. For some eat earth, and others flesh. And wine gladdens the heart of man, to make the face shine with oil; and bread strengthens the heart of man. 4. Symmachus has spoken more clearly: Bringing forth grass for the cattle, and herbage for the service of men, to bring forth food from the earth, and wine to gladden the heart of man; to make the face shine with oil, and bread to strengthen the heart of man. For to this end, he says, the God of all continually supplies the rains to the earth, so as to bring forth fruits of every kind; and with bread to strengthen

and to nourish the nature of men, and by wine to gladden and make life more cheerful, and by oil not only to nourish from within but also to make the bodies shine from without, and to make glad and brighten the face of the inner man with the oil that nourishes with the divine light, differing only in conception from the wine that was given. For the Word of God is both a vine and an olive tree. For I, he says, am like a fruitful olive tree in the house of God. For his teaching, according to different disposition, is both wine and oil and bread. The trees of the field shall be filled. But the Hebrew and the rest have put, Of the Lord. Having gone through the fruitful things, he necessarily mentions also the unfruitful, as providing a necessary use for men even themselves. Therefore he also called them of the Lord, as self-grown and not handmade, but sprung up by the divine word. And with what shall they be filled? With the knowledge of God, clearly. And how are they filled? By the meditation of the law. Therefore he also called them trees of the Lord, since those who meditate on the law day and night are said to be a tree planted by the streams of waters. The cedars of Lebanon, which you planted, there the sparrows shall nest. The dwelling of the heron leads them. But Aquila thus: There birds shall nest. And as necessary, after the fruitful things he mentions also the unfruitful. And through Lebanon, a notable mountain, and its cedars, he has indicated the remaining mountains and trees of the earth. And these trees establish houses for men, and receive the dwellings of birds. But Aquila gave: There birds shall nest.

For the heron, the fir trees are its house. One of the Fathers said: For the heron every place is suitable for dwelling, and it arrives everywhere as to a house prepared beforehand. For this is what "He leads them" means. But he calls sparrows the souls that are persecuted by the devil and by those who do his works because of piety, but that have been able to escape his snares, about which David said: Our soul has been delivered as a sparrow from the snare of the hunters. And you would not be wrong to call Peter a heron, since he followed Christ continually, just as the heron is said to be unwilling to be separated from those who possess it. This one leads the sparrows; for he shows them how one must leap over the snares of the hunters, and he himself, though ensnared by his denial, escaped the snare through repentance. The high mountains are for the deer; the rock is a refuge for the hares. Providence, he says, does not overlook even the small animals, but to the deer it gave the peaks of the mountains as a dwelling, and to the smaller animals the hollows of the rocks. And so nothing has come to be in vain from you, O God; for if these did not exist, the weak among the animals would easily be caught in the plain by the stronger, and they would have perished more quickly, being hunted especially in the time of sleep. And through the rocks he signifies both caves and dens, to which hares and rock-badgers flee. For the race of deer is also hostile to the race of serpents. All the disciples of Christ are such as these, having power against the noetic serpents, according to what was said by Christ:

Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. But Symmachus rendered it: The hares and the rock-badgers, which are ranked among the unclean and weak animals. Moses, then, says: You shall not eat the camel and the pig and the hare—which is the lagos. Through these, then, David hints at the nations. For these have as their refuge the noetic rock, the Church, through which they are strengthened and cleansed. And the deer, since they happen to be clean animals according to the law, are necessarily the souls of the righteous, as many as have kept the law. He made the moon for seasons. Having gone through all things on earth, and having shown the creation of the invisible natures, and having indicated the making of the heavens, he also makes mention of the luminaries, which came to be on the fourth day, and he says that the creation of the moon came to be for the teaching of the seasons. For its changes prepare time to be measured. For it makes the measure of the month, waxing and waning over so many days. And here he calls the moon the synagogue of the Jews, which he established until the times of the law and the prophets; and the sun, Christ. For thus Malachi also called him: To you who fear the name of the Lord shall arise the sun of righteousness, and healing in his wings—he who knew his own setting. For he knew the time at which it was necessary to accomplish the passion; so that before it came, he said: The hour has not yet come, that the Son of Man should be glorified. The sun knew its setting.

Though it is without soul and does not use reason, but walks according to the divine limit, it thus makes the day by appearing and hides itself at night, and runs its own course and keeps its measures. You set darkness, and night came to be. There is a necessary use even of this, both constituted by the retreat of the light and providing rest for human beings. And clearly he speaks of the time of the cross. For then darkness came to be from the sixth hour to the ninth, which has been taken for a whole night because of the three-day mystery of the resurrection. In it all the beasts of the thicket will pass through. Young lions roaring to seize and to seek food for themselves from God. For the night procures rest for human beings, but gives license to the beasts, so as to fill their hungry bellies. And the phrase, to seek food for themselves from God, is instead of, and divine providence supplies their need also to these. For to ask from God is characteristic of rational beings; but to seek is also characteristic of irrational ones. Nevertheless God provides the necessary nourishment also to these. And he calls the beasts of the thicket and the young lions the demons, which at the time of the Master's cross were roaring, thinking that then they had a time for hunting. For they saw Judas having betrayed, Peter denying, the rest of the apostles scattered. They were roaring, then, to seize and to seek food for themselves from God—first to seize; but not succeeding in the seizure, to seek. For they do not hesitate, out of shamelessness, to ask the righteous from God for temptations. Or did not the devil ask for Job?

He also demanded the apostles from Christ, so that the Lord says: Simon, Simon, how many times has Satan demanded to sift you like wheat? But I prayed for you, that your faith may not fail. The sun rose, and they were gathered together, and they will be laid down in their folds. As the sun rises, some depart to their own settings; but people, having put aside the toil of the day before yesterday, eagerly spend the day again at their works. For when Christ rose, they withdrew. But Symmachus wrote "they will withdraw" instead of "they were gathered together." But where did they withdraw? To their own folds, where they are laid down, lurking like reptiles. A man will go out to his work, and to his labor until evening. With good reason: since the resurrection of Christ has given confidence to those who are truly human, and has urged them until evening—that is, until the consummation of life—to work their own work, that is, virtue. For God has set this before us for work. How great are your works, O Lord; in wisdom you have made all things. Having considered each of the things said, and having perceived the great care of God, the prophet sent up the hymn in the middle of the narrative, saying that all the works of God are wonderful and exceedingly worthy of admiration and full of wisdom. For he found that the night, which is slandered by certain impious people, is exceedingly useful, and that the fruitless trees contribute another use

and the kinds of beasts, suited in many ways to humans. And it is wonderful that "How," and "wisdom," in which he made all things, is the Lord; for Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God, which, as surpassing and exceedingly hidden, none of the rulers of this age has known. For if they had known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory, as Paul says. The earth was filled with your creation; instead of, You filled it with all kinds of good things, that is, with renewal and renewal. For if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. And why "the earth"? Because he who bowed the heavens came down into it. And how did he renew it? Through waters, just as he brought it forth from the beginning, and it is clear that through the waters of baptism; for what follows makes it clear: "This is the great sea." For great is the grace of baptism, since it contains great mysteries; and spacious, since it contains the whole working of the Spirit. And "creeping things" means sinners, because they creep upon earthly things, who because of their multitude are reasonably said to be beyond number; or because only the righteous ought to be numbered; for it says: "But to me your friends, O God, have been greatly honored. I will count them, and they will be multiplied beyond the sand." "This is the great and spacious sea; there are creeping things, whose number is not." "Small living things with great." And this too is a proof of divine care, that the small kinds dwell among the great, and are not entirely consumed by them. Therefore he compares human life to the sea, because of the instability and constant motion of the things in it.

And the countless race of reptiles means the manifold and, as it were, many-faced multitude of human beings, the variation being understood as the diversity of their condition. For nature is the same for all, and the manner of birth is not different; but the mind is many-branched, and the heart in us is of many minds. And knowing this, someone said: As faces are not alike to faces, so neither are the thoughts of human beings. And we say that the ships passing through this sea are the holy Churches of our Savior, which are in the world but above the world; just as one may see the merchant ships, which are in the waters but above the waters. Therefore the Churches, in the rank of ships, swimming in their own way through this intelligible sea, receive those who believe, and carry them over, as it were to another land or country, to the kingdom of the heavens, and the hope that is in Christ, and to the sanctification of the Spirit, and to the fatherland of the saints, which is virtue. For being strangers, as it is written, and sojourners on the earth, they have no city here that remains; but they press on toward that one, whose craftsman and maker is God. There the ships pass through. This too is a very great need of human beings. For through the art of shipbuilding and the science of navigation we bring in from one another the things we lack, and we supply to others the fruit that grows among us, and we receive what is produced among them. This is the dragon which you formed to play with him. 6. Through the dragon he indicated the great sea-monsters, which dwell in the great deeps; and "to play with him" is instead of "with the sea itself.

For the Hebrew and the Syrian call it in the masculine. Thus, he says, it is great, because it encompasses also the countless kinds of fish, and the largest sea-monsters swim in it without fear. And if it seems good to some to interpret the dragon allegorically as well, because even in Isaiah the great and holy and mighty sword goes forth against the dragon, the crooked serpent that is in the sea, we too will not reject such a meaning; since even in Job we find God speaking: Will you bring the dragon with a hook? This one, formed by God but lifted up against his Maker, has been given over to be mocked; concerning whom again God spoke to Job: There is nothing on the earth like him, made to be mocked by the angels, that is, by the righteous. For these, having ascended through virtue even to the rank of angels, mock him who through wickedness fell from that rank. And the Lord gave authority to his own disciples to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and upon all the power of the Enemy. And elsewhere he says: You crushed the heads of the dragons upon the water. And with good reason in the discourse concerning the sea he made mention of this, since our whole life also is something salt-watered, and is dashed about from every side and stirred up by savage waves. All things wait for you to give them their food in due season. From you, he says, everything receives its need in due time. For the irrational creatures seek their food, but do not know the provider; yet they receive it from the Maker. When you give it, they will gather it.

When you provide abundance, each of these enjoys what is suitable. But when you open your hand, all things will be filled with goodness. Through these words he made clear the ease of the supply of good things. For just as it is easy to stretch out fingers that are bent inward, so it is easy for God to bestow the contribution of all good things. And the opening of his hands must also be understood as the stretching out upon the cross, from which all things were filled with goodness, that is, with love for humanity, since every sin has been forgiven through the cross. But when you turn away your face, they will be troubled. And just as you fill with every delight those who enjoy your good things, granting them in kindness, so when you turn away, all things are filled with confusion and fear. You will take away their spirit, and they will fail, and they will return to their dust. For when you will it, the separation of soul and body takes place, with which the body is handed over to corruption and is dissolved into the ancestral dust. And here he called the soul "spirit." You will send forth your Spirit, and they will be created; and you will renew the face of the earth. Here he proclaimed to us clearly the resurrection and the revivification through the all-holy Spirit. Thus also Elijah, the renowned, raised up the widow's son, breathing three times upon the child, bringing him back to life through the indwelling spiritual grace. Thus also Elisha gave life to the Shunammite woman's child, using spiritual breath and securing life through the life-giving Spirit.

Having thus shown this activity too of the divine power, he transfers his tongue to hymnody. Let the glory of the Lord be forever. Always, he says, it is right that he be hymned by all. The Lord will be glad in his works. By these words he foretold the future knowledge of God among men. For when men have been released from their former deceit and have received the knowledge of God, God is glad, not because he is worshipped, but because he sees them being saved. He who looks upon the earth and makes it tremble; he who touches the mountains, and they smoke. With good reason he has added these things, teaching the freedom from need of the divine nature. For it is not as though needing anything that he takes pleasure in being worshipped, but as one willing to save he shows forth the truth, and being able to punish, he does not bring on the punishment, although by his mere appearing he shakes the earth and fills the mountains with fire and smoke. This he also did on Mount Sinai; for having made his own appearing, he showed the whole mountain smoking. I will sing to the Lord in my life, I will psalm to my God as long as I exist. And with good reason he added these things. For there is not in death one who remembers him; and in Hades who will confess him? Thus the door of the bridal chamber was shut to the foolish virgins, who spent the time of the lamp-bearing on buying oil. May my meditation be sweet to him. He calls praise meditation; for the one who psalms converses with God. But the

Symmachus called the "dialogue" a "conversation," while Aquila called it an "address." I pray, he says, that this hymnody of mine may appear most sweet and most delightful. But I will be glad in the Lord. For when this comes to pass, he says, I will reap the good cheer that comes from it. Let sinners and the lawless cease from the earth, so that they may not exist. Having gone through the divine beauty and the ineffable wealth, as far as was possible for human nature, he longs that all men partake of the same knowledge, and he entreats that the whole company of sinners utterly cease—not pleading that they be destroyed, but asking that they be changed, and begging that their band come to an end, having been transferred and having learned the divine things. But if someone wishes to understand these words otherwise, as though the prophet were casting curses upon those who live in impiety, even so he will find the prophecy in agreement with the apostolic teaching. For the blessed Paul, writing to the Corinthians, says: If anyone does not love the Lord Jesus, let him be anathema. For this is characteristic of those who love fervently. For we all were in sins, the earth was full of lawlessness; but when the only-begotten Word of God appeared and became man, the sinners ceased, those who were in lawlessness have ceased. How, or in what manner? For he justified all, he released them from their transgressions. Therefore the sinners have become few, but those who have been justified are very many. Bless the Lord, O my soul. Let those, then, who do not wish to hymn the provider of such great goods suffer those things which I have mentioned; but you, O soul, hymn your Creator and Savior continually.

PSALM 104 Alleluia. This psalm also exhorts us to hymn the God of all things. The superscription makes this clear. For "Alleluia" is translated "Praise the Lord." It recalls both the promises made by God to the patriarchs and the good things provided by him through them to their descendants. For the remembrance of both these and those is sufficient to stir up and provoke those who have enjoyed so many good things to zeal for the virtue of their forefathers. At the same time it teaches the new people that it was not unjustly that he stripped that ungrateful people of his own care. For since they were reckoned the people of God and manifestly enjoyed divine providence, but later became completely destitute of it, through the psalms set before us he teaches all men how many benefits he bestowed on them, and how ungrateful they became regarding those benefits—so that all might at once learn the justice of the sentence pronounced against them, and, seeing the wages of ingratitude, might not walk the same road as they did, but might travel the straight way. They say that the interpretation of "Alleluia" is found in these words: "Praise to God, Iaō." But "Iaō" the Hebrews left as a kind of name for God, untranslated. Necessarily, then, this belongs to the heading of the present psalm. For the things in it tend to the glorification of God, both as they happened and as they are spoken. The present psalm, then, is the first of those inscribed with "Alleluia." I think it has this superscription because it is of a strange character compared with the psalms and the things concerning the song.

For it seems to me that these throughout contain praises and hymns to God; and rightly so, for Alleluia is translated "Praise the Lord"—neither struck on the psaltery nor spoken in song, but being themselves praises and hymns, and containing the benefactions of God toward men. 1. Give thanks to the Lord, and call upon his name. In this psalm the Holy Spirit commands the holy apostles to make manifest to the people from among the nations all the wonders which the Lord performed at his coming. And "Call upon," Symmachus translated as "Proclaim." The word exhorts us to offer up thanksgiving in hymnody and to recount the divine benefactions. Declare his works among the nations. It is clear and evident that the benefit is procured not for Jews only but for all the nations as well. Sing to him, and sing psalms to him; recount all his wonders. "Sing"—providing your tongues for the utterance of hymns; "sing psalms"—understanding what is being sung, and requiting him with hymns and melodies, and teaching those who are ignorant of the wonders that have been done by him. Be praised in his holy name. And Aquila has set down "Boast" instead of "Be praised." The word exhorts us not to be proud over wealth, nor over strength, nor over power, but in the knowledge and providence of God. This the divine Apostle also enjoined; for he says, "Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord." These things the most wise Anna also sets forth: "Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom.

Let the heart of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Having begun from confession, he concluded with gladness. For the beginning of progress is to confess one's own sins in repentance through good fruits, according to the saying, "Make fruits worthy of repentance." For then we shall have confidence to call upon his name, and we shall obtain the gifts that come from him, from which we ourselves, having come to know them, also benefit others; then, having been deemed worthy of the gladness that is according to God, we shall be able to sing to him and chant psalms, and thereafter to interpret the hidden things of divine Scripture. For these are his wonderful works. For then, as having accomplished so many things, we shall be praised in his name. For the fruit of hope in God is gladness. Seek the Lord, and be strengthened. And teaching how one must do this, he added: Seek his face continually. For not once or twice, but throughout one's whole life it is fitting to seek the help from above and to reap the benefit; for those who seek shall be unwarring and invincible. Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened. But what is seeking? To think of him continually. For the one who seeks has the object of his seeking in his mind. And he stirs up the heralds of the nations to seek the Lord; for from this they are strengthened, as being in need of strength to do the things commanded, and to proclaim to all Greeks and barbarians, according to the saying, "The Lord will give a word to those who proclaim good news with great power.

But the phrase "continually to seek" is contrasted with the Mosaic command, that he appear three times a year before him. And just as in the history Samuel, ministering in the tabernacle of witness, saw the face of God, so those who make progress in the examination of doctrines and always in the practice of the virtues continually seek his face, desiring to see him with a pure mind—which is the express image of his substance, being the image of the invisible God; therefore also the one who sees him immediately sees the Father. Remember his marvelous works, which he has done; his wonders, and the judgments of his mouth. 2. Do not deliver over to forgetfulness the ineffable miracles which the Master wrought. For here he has called "judgments" the wonders that came to be justly by God. For since he is making a narration of the things that happened in Egypt, he first teaches the justice of the Egyptians' punishment. And "mouth" is his word, as of a precise judge and lawgiver and instructor, having commanded things that are decided. And it seems to me that here he means the laws—those in heaven, those on earth, those in the sea, those under the earth, those under heaven. For surely not man alone received a law, but all things visible: the sea, that it not overstep its shores; the mountains, that they stand fixed; the earth, that it stand still; and all things alike are governed by their own proper laws. And all these things came to be by his command. Seed of Abraham, his servants, sons of Jacob, his chosen ones. He calls the same people both this and that, since the former were descendants and the latter were called sons. And he addressed them as "chosen," as having been called God's people beyond all the nations.

He showed this also through what follows. For not all those of Israel are Israel; nor are all who are the seed of Abraham his children. For indeed the Savior said: "I know that you are the seed of Abraham"; and again: "If you were the seed of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham." For some are only seed, while others are also imitators through their manner of life, being chosen and being sons—which he did not say concerning the seed, but rather "servants." And now he said both things concerning the disciples, for they were both: servants as seed, and chosen as sons—according to "These twelve Jesus chose, whom he also named apostles," and "Did I not choose you, the twelve?" And you will understand the special privilege of the chosen from "Many are called, but few are chosen." He himself is the Lord our God; in all the earth are his judgments. For being the same God and Lord of all, and ruling over all the inhabited world, he called them his own people. Therefore he commanded that the judgments of his mouth be declared, because all are subject to his judgments; therefore he deemed worthy of the call not only Jews but all. And another says that the providence of our God administers the whole world by divine judgments. He remembered his covenant for the age—the word which he commanded to a thousand generations. By these words he teaches the enduring and abiding nature of the promises made to Abraham. For the word is not, as some supposed, hyperbolic, but true and divine. And the God of all things promised that in his seed all the nations would be blessed.

And his seed is the Lord Christ according to the flesh, who has eternal might and an indestructible kingdom. The memory of the thousand generations also intimates this. For the word does not signify a number of years, but hints at the enduring and eternal multitude of the generations, or also because of the affinity with the number one, as also in the passage, "Thousands of those who prosper"; and again, "The law of your mouth is good to me beyond thousands of gold and silver." Which he established with Abraham; and his oath to Isaac. And he set it for Jacob as a command, and for Israel as an everlasting covenant. This oath the inspired Moses also mentioned. For he says, God said to Abraham: "I have sworn by myself: surely blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven"; and, "In your seed all the tribes of the earth shall be blessed." By this oath he also reminds Isaac, and he confirms the covenants with Jacob. And indeed he fulfills them, through Moses freeing their descendants from the slavery of the Egyptians, and through Joshua giving the promised land, and bringing the fulfillment of the promise to completion through the Lord Christ. Saying, "To you I will give the land of Canaan, the measuring-line of your inheritance." He called the measuring-line the dominion of the land; for it is proper to those who possess it to subject the land by measure. "When they were few in number, very few, and sojourners in it." These things, he says, he promised to the fathers, who were few and very easily numbered.

By this promise he shows his power, that he was able even to grant dominion over so great a land to those so few. For he promised to those around Abraham, in place of their being few, that they would be multiplied as the stars of heaven and as the sand by the shore of the sea, and that in them all the nations would be blessed; and in place of their then sojourning in the land of Canaan, that he would make them masters of the land. Both of these indeed came to pass for their descendants, who increased to a multitude like the sand. And through his seed, in whom the nations were blessed, these too became as the stars of heaven in number. For to these it has been said: In which you appear as lights in the world, holding fast the word of life. And they passed from nation to nation, and from kingdom to another people. For the patriarchs continued as sojourners, not settled in even one place, but now here, now moving their tents elsewhere. By kingdom he means that in Egypt, from which they crossed over and came to the people of the Canaanites. Therefore he did not permit a man to wrong them. For he made them stronger than those who attempted to wrong them. And he reproved kings for their sake. Touch not my anointed ones, and in my prophets do no evil. These things are the defense of the just rejection of their descendants, because they did not respect even the benefactions from their ancestors, which also benefited those from the nations. Their forefathers, then, he says, being few and sojourners, with such lack of intercourse at that time and such cruelty of the rulers, made their migrations safely by the providence of God.

For Abraham migrated from Chaldea to Canaan, and from Palestine to Egypt, and from there to Gerara, where Isaac dwelt after him; and Jacob migrated from Palestine to Egypt. And Moses writes how God, having tested kings on their behalf, did not allow them to be wronged. Thus he tested Pharaoh with great and fearful testings concerning Sarah, the wife of Abraham. Thus by night he terrified Abimelech, having said: Behold, you are dying because of Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and she is a woman who has lived with a husband. Thus he made Isaac revered by those who at that time inhabited Palestine. Thus he threatened Laban when he was plotting murder: For take heed, he said, that you speak not harshly against my child Jacob. And he calls them christs, not as those anointed with oil, but as those who became chosen. And God also called Abraham a prophet: For restore, he says, the woman to her husband, for he is a prophet, and he will pray for you, and you shall be saved. Or he means christs, as those who received an invisible anointing through the Spirit. For that it was he himself who spoke to them, he made clear, saying: Abraham your father rejoiced that he might see my day; and he saw it, and was glad. And when did he see it? When, looking up with his eyes, he saw God standing near him by the oak of Mamre; when Scripture said: God appeared to Abraham. And he called a famine upon the land.

3. Sin draws punishment in its wake; punishment exposes a beastly way of life; and exposure brings about a change of life. He therefore brought on the famine because of the lawless life of the people of that time; yet even so he took care of his own servants. But God in his providential ordering brought about the famine, so that through it they might go down and multiply and receive the land of the promise. He broke every staff of bread: that is, he caused everything able to nourish to become scarce, not only wheat, but also barley and legumes, and the other things by which people live. And this is what customarily happens in a time of famine by God's anger—that people are not strengthened by eating. He sent before them a man: Joseph was sold into slavery. He made both things clear at once, both the wickedness of his brothers and his own wisdom. For he used their wickedness for a fitting purpose. For he did not himself compel them to sell their brother, but he yielded to their malice, while he himself, using it for a fitting purpose, made the slave a king, and for his family the descent into Egypt

He presided. For it was necessary that those who were about to be called the people of God become conspicuous and notable through the wonders performed on their behalf. For the care exercised toward them proclaimed their God, and illumined those who heard with the light of the knowledge of God. They humbled his feet in fetters; his soul passed through iron. For after the slander of adultery, he dwelt in the prison, and immediately, as was likely, they put upon him bonds of iron. For thus Symmachus has said: His soul came into iron, instead of, he was in danger even to slaughter; or he called the firmness and strength of the trials iron; which Joseph passed through by endurance, and painful things became a passage for him through long-suffering. Until his word came; the oracle of the Lord tried him as by fire. But he endured all these things, being tested like gold—not so that the God of all might learn the genuineness of Joseph's virtue, who knows all things before their coming into being, but so that he might set before men that man's philosophy and the archetype of truth. And indeed, the written law had not yet been given, but to each rational being the natural law was an oracle from God, through which we are also called rational. And the phrase, Until his word came, means his word which, seeing it in the visions, he spoke to his father and his brothers concerning the sheaves and the stars. For until these things came to pass, he was exercised by hardships. A king sent and loosed him; a ruler of the people, and he released him. He appointed him lord of his house, and ruler of all his possession.

And showing the benefit that comes from the dispensation, he added: To instruct his princes as himself, and to make his elders wise. Refined like gold, according to, Prove me, O Lord, and try me, when God brought this to Pharaoh's mind, he is released and rules. And the reasoning of Pharaoh does not appear to be a chance one. For what prevented him, having learned the things concerning the famine, from releasing this man, and from managing the affairs concerning the grain with his own princes? But he cared not so much for the guarding of the crops as for the spiritual benefit of the princes and his elders who were about to be saved by him, and to be made wise by him; through which it was necessary that their subjects also become better. For having become conspicuous to the king through the interpretation of dreams, and having received authority, he led others to the knowledge of God, not using words only, but also drawing them to the same piety by his deeds. And Israel entered into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. The sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, Japheth. And the son of Ham was Canaan; and of him was Mesraim, which is interpreted Egypt, from whom also the country. Since, therefore, Jacob entered into Egypt, it was likely that Ham, being the grandfather of Mesraim, settled in Egypt, while Canaan dwelt in what is called Palestine. And through Israel and Jacob it is shown that they entered into Egypt, and his children. And in seventy souls Israel went down into Egypt, said the Scripture. But it was also expounded otherwise: This, it says, became the pretext for the patriarch of his departure into Egypt.

He calls the land of Ham Egypt, since Mesraim was the second son of Ham. For Ham, it says, begot Chus the firstborn, and Mesraim his brother. Chus the divine Scripture calls Ethiopia, and Mesraim Egypt; and it names the same man both Jacob and Israel: for the one name he received from his fathers, while the other God set upon him, making known by this appellation the divine manifestation that came to him. For God remembered the promise made to Abraham. For when Abraham said, How shall this be? he added: Knowing you shall know that your seed shall be a sojourner in a land not their own, and they shall enslave it and afflict it four hundred years. And he increased his people exceedingly, and strengthened them above their enemies. The history of Exodus also teaches this. For, it says, the more the Egyptians afflicted them, the more they multiplied, and the land increased them. He shows, then, that this increase was not of nature but of his promise. For when they ought to have become fewer, driven by the taskmasters, with the male children cast into the river and nature outraged, then rather they increased so greatly that they became exceedingly fearsome to those who dwelt there; so that Pharaoh, who did not know Joseph, said: Behold, now the nation is multiplied, and is stronger than we. But they would not have been strengthened when increased, had they not obtained the protection of Joseph and the favor of Pharaoh. He turned their heart to hate his people, to deal deceitfully with his servants.

Since they went over to the same idolatry because of being honored by the Egyptians, for this reason he caused them to be hated, and had heavy tasks imposed on them, so that being afflicted they might flee to God, and the promise made to Abraham concerning God might find a place to be fulfilled. For just as he glorified Joseph by testing him, when he proved worthy through trial, so now he did with the people; for being tested they groaned and cried out to their God. Therefore now the honor shown them was turned into hatred among the Egyptians. For having come into ease and honor among the Egyptians, they forgot the God of their fathers, and became partakers of their idolatry, as Joshua the son of Nun says: And now fear the Lord, he says, and serve him in uprightness of righteousness, and put away the foreign gods which your fathers served beyond the river, and in Egypt. But he turned the heart of the Egyptians, not by compulsion, but yielding to free will. And they dealt treacherously, at one time commanding the midwives to destroy the male children of the Hebrews, at another ordering them to be cast into the river. But nevertheless even so the race escaped the devices of death. He sent Moses his servant, Aaron whom he chose for himself. He set among them the words of his signs, and of his wonders in the land of Ham. 4. He sets forth the crucial narratives of the history. For having summarized, he says that after punishing them sufficiently according to their desert, he sends these through the wonders he performed, punishing the Egyptians and instructing the Hebrews toward the knowledge of himself.

He revealed the causes of the signs to Moses and those with him alone, making known a rational understanding as to those who alone are rational, so that they might know for what reason he sometimes changed the waters of the Egyptians, and sometimes each individual thing, and why it happened in this particular order, and of what things these were images or symbols. For since not all are able of themselves and by themselves to withdraw from harmful things, God sends to those who are thus weak those who are able, as guides and leaders of the road that leads to good things. And these are: the law of God, Moses, and the high-priestly word, of which Aaron is a symbol. And they moved the tongue and lent the mouth to God and brought forth the words; but the power was all sent from him. He sent darkness and made it dark, because they provoked his words. And the wonderful servants did not contradict the divine commands, but did what was commanded, and brought upon them the longest three-day night, or rather darkness more murky than night. For night, even if moonless, is mingled with the brightness of the stars; but that darkness the divine Scripture calls palpable. For God, the guardian of the people, did not punish the Egyptians through some great things; for the almighty hand was not at a loss to send sudden wrath upon them—lions, bears, famine, or plague, or death—but he punished them through the things he said, gently calling them to repentance; and the greatest affliction of the people was not through clay

and brickmaking, plainly, but by perverting them to the worship of idols. Therefore he punished little by little those who led them into error, bringing even these to knowledge of the Master of all, through the things by which creation was made to serve the plagues. The air into darkness, the water into blood, the earth into frogs, and the fire paradoxically was borne along with rain and hail; and the darkness, it says, sent forth from God, did not provoke his words, but obeyed readily, spread out over Egypt alone. For the Scripture says, For the sons of Israel there was light. For if it had been over the whole world, how does it say that it remained for three days and nights? For what was it that distinguished days and nights, when there was only one prolonged night? For lest anyone say that what happened was an eclipse, nor that it was a course of nature, the Hebrews dwelling in the same region did not perceive this plague; which also happened in the case of the other plagues. He turned their waters into blood, and killed their fish. For he changed not only the color of the waters, but also the very quality of their taste, so that all the kinds of fish were destroyed. Their land brought forth frogs in the chambers of their palaces. For since they had delivered the infants of the Hebrews to the river, he changed the water of the river into blood, convicting the murder that had taken place in it; and he caused frogs to spring up from there, crawling like the slain infants, and leaping into their houses, and reaching even to the very bedchambers of the king.

He mentioned the royal treasuries, so as to make clear the greatness of the wonder—that not even a multitude of servants or soldiers, which it is reasonable to suppose were living in the palaces, was able to drive away the frogs. He spoke, and the dog-fly came, and gnats in all their borders. For the deeds followed the words, and immediately, with God commanding and Moses speaking, both the dog-fly and the gnats filled the land, not passing beyond the borders of the Egyptians, nor bringing the plague upon other peoples, but inflicting the discipline upon those who opposed God. For this is what "in all their borders" means—that is, outside the borders of the Egyptians no such thing was to be seen happening. He made their rains hail, a fire burning up in their land. And he struck their vines and their fig trees, and shattered every tree of their border. For the clouds changed their customary pangs, and instead of rains and showers they gave birth to hail, and thunderbolts and fiery blasts were borne along with the hail, and natures opposed to each other, water and fire, did not harm each other. For neither did the fire melt the frozen water of the hail, nor did the water extinguish the flame; but setting aside their natural conflict, they brought the discipline upon the Egyptians in agreement, and refuted their beastliness—that, being humans, they were not ashamed of nature, but compelled those of the same nature to serve bitterly. For this reason both their vines and their fig trees and the other kinds of plants were utterly destroyed by them. He spoke, and the locust came and the caterpillar, of which there was no number.

And it devoured all the grass in their land, and it devoured all their fruit. By the hail and the fire he destroyed the trees; by the locust and the caterpillar, the marshes, the meadows, the grain fields. For not only their fruit but also their grass it consumed. And indeed it is not customary for the locust and the caterpillar to come upon the land at the same time; for either the locust, arriving first, gives birth to the caterpillar, or the caterpillar, having grown, advances and becomes a locust, so that the one comes first and the other follows after some time. But since it was a wonder, and the sign came about by the command of God, both passed through at once, and together with the grass it devoured the fruit also; so that in addition to the food of humans, that of the cattle was also being destroyed. And he struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt, the firstfruits of all their toil. This was the last plague he brought upon the Egyptians, after which they hastened the Jews to depart; for every house was filled with lamentation and wailing, since all the firstborn received a sudden death. For he brought the plague upon those most dear to them, striking with sharper goads those who had been unmoved by the earlier plagues. And he brought them out with silver and gold. For since the Egyptians did not permit the Jews even to take their own possessions, they received along with their own the wealth of the Egyptians as well, receiving gold and silver as a kind of wages for their harsh slavery. For God did not command this to happen unjustly, but both to discipline the wrongdoers and to console the wronged. And there was not one among their tribes who was weak.

For they did not experience the plagues that were brought upon the Egyptians. For God commanded them to despoil the Egyptians as men who had been conquered, and as wages owed for their long servitude. And it was a great thing, too, to depart unharmed from a land that had suffered the worst, not even one out of so many tens of thousands, until no one remained in Egypt who was held fast by bodily infirmity; and Moses recorded this. Egypt was glad at their departure, because fear of them had fallen upon them. And so were they terrified by punishments of every kind, that they considered the freedom of the Hebrews their own benefit. He spread out a cloud for their covering, and fire to give them light by night. For the same cloud became a tent for them by day, and kept off the harm of the sun's ray; but by night, becoming fiery, it supplied them with the light they needed. They asked, and the quail came, and the bread of heaven filled them. For since they also craved meat, he provided them a spontaneous catch of birds; and when they asked for bread, he supplied it from above, granting them through the clouds not rain, but the food itself. He calls it manna, not as coming from heaven itself, but as borne from the air above their heads, which divine Scripture calls heaven, and at the same time as bearing the image of the heavenly bread that was given in mystery to the Church. He cleft the rock, and waters gushed out, and rivers flowed in waterless places. And he healed their thirst also by the paradoxical birth-pangs of the rock; for in a waterless and dry place he commanded a river to gush forth.

He calls the channels of the waters that were given forth from the rock "rivers." And if it is written, "To the rivers," you will say that according to the history they crossed only the Jordan in this way, but in power also others, as many as stood in the way of the crossing. That he remembered his holy word, the one spoken to Abraham his servant. And he brought out his people in exultation, and his chosen ones in gladness. For all things that God promised to those around Abraham concerning the increase of his race in multitude and glory are without falsehood. And Moses also says to them in Deuteronomy: Do not say, "Because of my righteousness the Lord brought me out of the land of Egypt," but because of the oath that he swore to your fathers. For God is one who shows mercy to thousands of those who love him, and at the same time he exhorts those of them, that they might keep his statutes. And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they inherited the labors of the peoples. For he not only freed them from the slavery of the Egyptians, but also bestowed on them the land of the Canaanites, and made them masters of the labors of others, both punishing those men justly and confirming his own promises. And that he did not unjustly cast out those who formerly inhabited Palestine, he teaches both by the laws he gave to the Jews, commanding them to flee the imitation of that people's way of life, and he teaches it also by making the promises to Abraham. But why does he not give him the possession of that land immediately, but allows them to dwell there for a very long time? For, he says, not yet are they filled

the sins of the Amorites until now, meaning, they have not yet dared deeds worthy of utter destruction; and it is not just to bring punishment upon them, nor to pronounce the verdict of punishment in foreknowledge of a greater sin, but to wait for the end of the matter. For I use measure, and I govern by weight, and nothing is unweighed before me. For this reason, having waited a period of four hundred years, he thus cast them out, and fulfilled his promises to these. That they might keep his statutes, and seek after his law. And he gave them, it says, the land which he promised, having given them a law, and commanded them to live according to it. PSALM 105. Alleluia. 1. In this psalm he recounts the sins of the former people, teaching in what way also the rejection of them came about. In the one hundred and fourth psalm, then, the prophetic word went through the divine benefits; but in this one he both remembers the benefits, and accuses the beneficiaries of ingratitude, and teaches the various punishments brought upon them. And it is shaped as from the person of the more pious, lamenting the common calamities, and begging to obtain mercy. For the psalm reasonably has the same inscription as the preceding one; for it follows the same subject. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endures forever. The inscription, signifying "Praise the Lord," makes clear that the psalm contains praise of God.

He now teaches from the beginning that those who turn back from sins should approach the Savior as to a physician, showing their wounds, as it were, by the confession of their offenses—doing this, clearly, by a disposition of the soul, and not by mere word. For he says, He is ready, because of his goodness, to show mercy to those who repent, knowing that the things of this present age need mercy, inasmuch as they are mortal and perishable. And what is this, that his mercy is forever? That he shows mercy always; that he is always kind to man. He is always ready to give his own gifts. For there is no fixed time appointed by him, but it depends on your own will. Who shall speak of the mighty acts of the Lord? Who shall make all his praises heard? Whatever God does in us beyond mortal nature, these are the mighty acts of the Lord, which Paul calls workings of powers, saying: For to one is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith in the same Spirit, to another workings of powers. And again elsewhere: Are all prophets? Are all powers? Do all have gifts of healings? And he distinguishes powers from healings. For Jesus performed the powers, perhaps walking on the sea, rebuking the winds and the surge, and being transfigured on the mountain; but the healings, cleansing lepers and healing every disease. And in the Old Testament, the powers are the plagues against the Egyptians, the sea divided, the river Jordan receding, and the sun standing still in the time of Joshua; but the healings are when Moses healed Miriam of leprosy, and all that Elijah and Elisha wrought.

The apostles made all these mighty acts heard throughout all the earth, together with his praises. For each act of the Lord is full of praise. Perhaps the mighty acts of the Lord contain his wonders, while the gifts of healings contain his praises. Blessed are those who keep judgment, and do righteousness at all times. With the perception of sin, the fruit of virtue—that is, blessedness—enters in. For he who pays the penalties for this blesses those who have been set free from it and who order their own life by righteousness. And he blesses not the one who has practiced righteousness once, but the one who always and continually follows in its footsteps. Remember us, O Lord, in the good pleasure of your people; visit us with your salvation. Here he hints at the new people and the Church from the Gentiles, which he has deemed worthy of salvation, whose fellowship the multitude of the Jews is taught to seize. But what good pleasure here, or what visitation at all does he set forth, except that which God the Word has accomplished for our sake through the flesh? Hence the angels who appeared to the shepherds also called the mystery a good pleasure; for they cried out, glorifying: Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace, among men good pleasure. To see in the goodness of your chosen ones, to rejoice in the gladness of your nation, to be praised with your inheritance. We entreat, he says, to partake of the gladness of your new nation, and to become sharers in the goodness bestowed upon them.

Understand the goodness of the elect to be the love for humanity that came from God to the elect, being abundant, so that even prostitutes and tax collectors and sinners and poor fishermen received the election. The prophet desired to see this; for the wonder was worthy of contemplation; and to be gladdened in the gladness of your nation, so as to enjoy the fellowship of the mysteries. We have sinned with our fathers, we have acted lawlessly, we have done wrong. For, he says, we have inherited as it were a certain lot from our fathers—the transgression of your laws. And he calls fathers not the holy patriarchs, but those who came after them; for he made this clear through what follows. Our fathers in Egypt did not understand your wonders; and they did not remember the abundance of your mercy. 2. For from the beginning, he says, our race is sinful. For although so many wonders had happened in Egypt on their account, they were unwilling to perceive your power. Therefore the prophet also says: Woe to a sinful nation, a people full of lawlessness, an evil seed, lawless sons. They did not understand, then, he says, the portents that occurred in Egypt, even though they were in the midst of the Egyptians and did not perceive the punishments that occurred; nor indeed, when they were freed from the Egyptians, did they understand that it was not because of their own righteousnesses, but because of divine mercy that they received visitation from there. The preceding psalm briefly stated these things and those in the wilderness, accusing the people of nothing; but the present one, taking up the narrative again, brought forward the reasons for which the Jews sinned. And they provoked him as they went up in the Red Sea.

For when they saw the Egyptians pursuing them and the sea blocking their flight, they did not wish to wait for your help, but cried out against the great Moses, saying: "Because there were no graves in Egypt, you have brought us out to kill us in this wilderness." Yet even though they appeared ungrateful, you deemed them worthy of salvation. For this is what he added: "And he saved them for his name's sake, to make his power known; and he rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up; and he led them through the deep as through a wilderness; and he saved them from the hand of those who hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of their enemies." For by a word he laid bare the bottom of the sea, and made that great deep a plain for their horses and a wilderness. Since in wildernesses there is great ease for those who run, with neither plants in the way nor fences hindering, he has shown the ease of the crossing by the comparison of a wilderness. "Water covered those who afflicted them; not one of them was left." For he made all the Egyptians sink beneath the water. And the same sea brought salvation to the Hebrews but punishment to the Egyptians. "And they believed his word, and sang his praise." For while the men were singing hymns, Moses the

He considered him great, and the prophetess Miriam was the leader of the women's choir. The ode is also recorded. "They hastened, they forgot his works; they did not wait for his counsel. And they lusted with desire in the wilderness, and they tested God in a waterless place." For having so many and such great pledges of divine power, they did not ask to receive what they needed, nor did they wait for the divine gift, but immediately they resorted to insults against the servants of God. Two sins joined together among the Jews: one, that they lusted with fleshly desire in the wilderness, where they ought to have practiced philosophy and to have exercised self-control against every desire; the second, that when they asked for water, they did not ask but tested. Nevertheless God did not cease working wonders. And he gave them their requests; he sent fullness into their souls. For they did not believe concerning what was lacking on the basis of the good things they had already experienced; but they spoke against God, saying: "He remembered the flesh and the pots in Egypt." He called the desire a request. For they did not ask, but spoke against him. Yet he gave them both an abundance of flesh and bread not made by hands, and water most sweet and abundant. And they provoked Moses in the camp, and Aaron the holy one of the Lord. Neither those who embittered him at the Red Sea, nor those who tested him in the wilderness, did he who overlooks sins pursue, but he even gave them their desire; but when those around Dathan and Abiram provoked Moses, saying: "Has God spoken only to Moses? Has he not also to us?"—he handed them over to the earth opened up with their whole family.

But Korah and those with him who were about to offer their censers instead of Aaron, a flame coming forth from the tabernacle consumed. For God does not wish his own servants to be despised, but having shown his kindness, he also shows his severity, according to the saying, "See then the kindness and severity of God." For these are fitting remedies of God. The earth was opened and swallowed Dathan, and covered Abiram upon their assembly. And fire was kindled in their assembly; a flame consumed the sinners. Dathan and Abiram with all their family were swallowed up; but Korah and those with him were consumed by fire sent from God. And God brought these punishments, urging the others to be sober-minded; but they were unwilling to receive any benefit from this. And the explanation of their daring deeds makes this clear. And they made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the graven image. He did not mention the mountain without purpose, but teaching the excess of their impiety. For in this place the Lord of all was seen, in this place he filled them with fear, appearing with much fire, using trumpets, and thundering with thunderbolts, and presenting the legislation with so great dread; in this place they dared their impiety. And the phrase, "They worshiped the graven image," is also an accusation of another madness. For what they saw receiving its form through human craft, to this they offered divine worship. And they exchanged his glory for the likeness of a calf eating grass.

3. He dramatized their folly in a very fitting way. In return for the One who worked so many wonders and granted them that extraordinary salvation and was able to accomplish such great things, they honored the image of a calf, whose archetype is in need of food. But the food of a calf is not the bread that is offered to rational beings, but grass and fodder. And of the calf, whose nature is irrational, whose food is grass, and whose servitude has been given to humans, the image is far more worthless; for it is not only irrational but also lifeless, unable to act, to bellow, or to eat. Nevertheless, they preferred this so utterly powerless thing to the God of all. For they had from Egypt the image of Apis, who was in Memphis, and they worshiped not only this one but also many carved images. At any rate, having made one calf, they showed many, saying: These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. They forgot the God who saves them, who did great things in Egypt, wonders in the land of Ham, fearful things at the Red Sea. He does not mention these things idly, but wishes to show that God did not cast them off despite so many things, until they dared the most impious deed of all against Christ, rejecting the grace that had been given to them. Therefore the Savior says to them: How often I wished to gather your children, as a bird gathers her nestlings under her wings, and you were not willing? Behold, your house is left desolate. So then, he says, not being satisfied with their former evils, they exchanged their glory, which was God, for the likeness of a calf.

For they neither remembered their own salvation, nor the punishment of the Egyptians, nor the great wonder of the sea; but they spat out all of it at once. And he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen one stood in the breach before him, to turn away his wrath, so as not to destroy them. For when the God of all had said, Let me alone, and being provoked to anger I will blot them out, and I will make you into a great nation, the blessed Moses said: If you forgive them their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out also from the book which you have written. Here no small question arises. For what does it say? Had not Moses stood, they would have perished. What then? Did Moses accomplish everything, and did God, reverencing him, halt his wrath without exercising his own love for humanity? And who could say this? What then is the meaning of what is said? God employed a figure of speech for their benefit, and says that, reverencing him, he relaxes his wrath, and says: Let me alone, and I will blot them out. And yet Moses had said nothing, nor approached, nor supplicated; but wishing to lead him to the beginning of supplication, he makes a prelude here. According to justice, then, and the foreknowledge of their whole wickedness, the decree of destruction was set; but according to his love for humanity, the forgiveness of being saved came about through the holiness of the intercessor, who supplicated according to his providence for the world, so that the grace of God might not seem incomplete toward Israel, and because of the promise to the fathers, which he recalled in his supplication. And they despised the desirable land. They did not believe his word, and they murmured in their tents.

They did not listen to the voice of the Lord. This is the fifth charge after the Red Sea, and the wilderness, and the drunken insolence against Moses, and the calf at Horeb. For when the spies returned, speaking evil of the land, they turned the others away as well, except Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh. For when God had charged them to set foot upon the promised land, they, having received the passion of cowardice, openly set themselves against it, saying that the Canaanites were valiant, but that they themselves had no force sufficient for battle against their array. And this is plainly a proof of unbelief. For it was right that those who had seen such and so great wonders should trust in everything by the power of him who had saved them. And he lifted up his hand against them, to cast them down in the wilderness; and to cast down their seed among the nations, and to scatter them in the lands. But the dispute concerning the land, although it was older than the sedition of Korah and Dathan, he brought and subjected to the making of the calf, as being greater and more impious because of the unbelief toward God. For cowardice destroyed in them the hope of faith, since they were not confirmed even by the experience of what had gone before; and hence they also underwent a greater penalty than the punishment for the making of the calf. For having suffered partially then, now all of them perished utterly except the children, not even being deemed worthy of the promise. For God wished to impose a punishment suited to their unbelief, and to bring destruction upon all of them together. But nevertheless, exercising his customary love of mankind, a partial

He brought punishment upon them. And they were consecrated to Beelphegor, and they ate the sacrifices of the dead and provoked him with their practices. This is the sixth sin, in Numbers. For having again slipped into licentiousness, and mingling with the women of the Moabites, they learned their impiety. Now Beelphegor is an idol honored among them. And the place of the idol was called Phegor, and the idol Baal. Some say that this one is called Cronus in the Greek tongue; and he is also called Bel. He calls "sacrifices of the dead" the so-called libations among the Greeks, which they are accustomed to offer to the dead, or the sacrifice they made through certain necromantic works of sorcery, or because they contain memorials of dead men. And one would not err in calling the so-called gods themselves dead. And their fall was multiplied. 4. He did not state the cause of the idolatry, which was fornication, through which they became impious, to which gluttony was joined; but the outcome accuses the impiety. For it was for this reason that the law forbade intercourse with foreign women. For the sympathy of women knows how to stir even toward licentiousness. And Phinehas stood, and made atonement; and the slaughter ceased. And it was reckoned to him as righteousness for a generation forever. Symmachus called the slaughter a "plague." And the history also teaches this, that Phinehas, taking the spear, pierced through Zimri, who was fornicating, together with the Moabite woman, and with the spear he destroyed the woman with him. God, having accepted his zeal, proclaimed him, and proclaimed the punishment brought upon the others.

So great is the power of a righteous man with God, that he restrains a common plague. And they provoked him at the water of contradiction, and Moses was afflicted because of them, for they embittered his spirit. And he distinguished with his lips. This is the seventh sin, on account of which even Moses was blamed. For when they came to him while he was mourning his sister, with great disorder they demanded their need. And he, being struck both by the despondency of mourning and beholding their intemperance, encompassed by anger and grief, did not minister to the divine command with his customary harmony; but mixing a certain ambiguity into his words, he struck the rock and brought forth the water. For this is what is meant by "he distinguished with his lips," instead of "he did not use his words without ambiguity." For Moses said to them, it says, "Shall I bring you water out of this rock?" For this reason God, the ruler of all, being seemingly provoked, did not hand over through him the land promised to the fathers, but commanded him to receive the end of his life, and through Joshua the son of Nun he fulfilled the promise. And it seems that the overseer of all imposed this punishment upon him; but he accomplished this while arranging other things. For first, knowing the folly of the Jews, he did not allow the whole promise to reach its fulfillment through him, lest they suppose him to be a god. For those who deified the image of a calf, what reverence would they not have offered to the one who became the minister of so many wonders? For this very reason God also caused his tomb to remain hidden. And in addition to this, he wished to show the temporary nature of the legislation from what happened to the lawgiver himself.

For if the lawgiver himself did not enjoy the promised land, it was easy to see from this that they too would not enjoy it, for the most part of providence. Having thus recounted the events in the wilderness, he convicts them of the lawlessness that occurred in the land of promise. They did not destroy the nations, which the Lord told them. And they mingled among the nations, and learned their works, and served their graven images, and it became a stumbling block to them. For he prevented the mingling because of the fellowship of impiety, abolishing the end together with the beginning, and destroying the fruit together with the root, and checking the worse evil beforehand by the lesser evil. But nevertheless these men, transgressing the divine law even in this, neither destroyed the impious nations, nor fled from fellowship with them, but emulated their wicked way of life. Therefore the prophet, making clear that God was not teaching misanthropy, but wishing to establish them in safety, added: And this mingling and intercourse became a stumbling block to them, and a stumbling block not of the ordinary kind; for they went mad against nature itself, which he adds, saying: And they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons. And they shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the graven images of Canaan. And the land was polluted with blood, and was defiled by their works. He left the final climax of impiety for last. For what excess of impiety will he leave behind, to defile the land with the blood of sons and daughters, and to offer their sacrifices to the blood-devouring demons?

For they did not even bring to God the customary offerings, but to idols even the slaughter of their children. And they played the harlot in their practices. Here he calls harlotry not only licentiousness but also the worship of idols. For since, having been joined to God, they loved the service of those idols, he reasonably called their superstition harlotry. And the Lord was angered with wrath against his people, and he abhorred his inheritance. And he delivered them into the hands of the nations, and those who hated them ruled over them. And their enemies oppressed them, and they were humbled under their hands. 5. The history of the Judges teaches these things, and indeed also the writing of the Kingdoms. For at one time he delivered them to the Moabites, at another to the Ammonites, the Amalekites, the Midianites, and the Philistines, procuring benefit through discipline. But the phrase, He abhorred his inheritance, seems in some way to be contrary to what was said before: To see in the goodness of your chosen ones, to rejoice in the gladness of your nation, to be praised with your inheritance. But he speaks now of the inheritance that was abhorred, having foretold beforehand another inheritance, and another people and nation, with whom he prayed to be numbered. First comes the being abhorred, then the being delivered by God, then the being ruled over by enemies. For as long as God rules over someone, they cannot rule. And he adds: Many times he delivered them. But they provoked him in their counsel, and they were humbled in their lawless deeds. For by bringing discipline, he again imparted loving-kindness.

But they repaid him with the opposite. And he was sweet to them out of loving-kindness, but they forced him to appear bitter to themselves. And again he saved them as a Savior; but they destroyed themselves, piercing themselves through with works of destruction, until by doing this often they were finally destroyed. And the phrase "Often" is like "How often I wished to gather your children?" and "And they were humbled in their lawless deeds" is like "And you were not willing." And the Lord saw when they were afflicted, when he heard their supplication. These things the histories also teach, both that they supplicated God, driven by necessity, and that when they supplicated they were heard. And he remembered his covenant, and repented according to the abundance of his mercy. For because of the promises made to the fathers he granted the mercy. And he calls "repentance" the cessation of chastisement. For God does not have the passion of repentance, nor is he pleased now with these and now with those, but wisely governing all things, he both brings chastisement and extends loving-kindness. And he gave them to be pitied before all who had taken them captive. For Ezra says that the Lord God put it into the heart of Cyrus the king, and after these things of Darius and Artaxerxes, to use

in a loving-kind manner to the people of the Jews. And even now they are in mercies, serving the Romans, because of divine mercies, not because of their own worth. And repentance is not a passion of God, but a cessation of chastisement. Save us, O Lord our God, and gather us in from the nations, to give thanks to your great and holy name, to boast in your praise. And these things show, as the prophetic word teaches them, how one must propitiate God and obtain his care. And the inspired apostle also foretold the salvation that would come to the Jews through Elijah the Tishbite: For he will come, he says, who delivers, and he will turn away impieties from Jacob; and this is the covenant from me to them, when I take away their sins. Indeed, one must not expect the building of Jerusalem to remain, according to the myths of the foolish, nor the worship according to the law, nor the irrational sacrifices, nor circumcision, nor the sabbath, nor the shadowy sprinklings after the all-holy baptism; for these are the ravings of drunken old women; but rather calling and knowledge of the truth and faith in the Master Christ, and the citizenship of the new covenant.

They are also taught how one ought to pray, which the Jews expect, but we say was fulfilled through the coming of the Savior, with all people from everywhere coming to the saving proclamation and awaiting a better gathering into the kingdom of heaven, which, being a true land, is promised in contrast to the present one, according to the words, Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the land, where those who have been gathered will give thanks for the things they were deemed worthy of, boasting in the praise of the One who saved them. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel from eternity and to eternity; and all the people shall say, Let it be, let it be. For the Lord of all is worthy of praise in all things, who was called the God of Israel, who accomplished so much for the sake of the salvation of human beings. And it is fitting that all the people add the Amen to the voice of those who sing hymns. For the Hebrew calls "Let it be" "Amen and amen"; whence also the custom has remained in the churches, that the people assent to the doxology of the priest through the Amen, and offer the communion that follows from it, and receive the blessing, in Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom be the glory forever. Amen.

PSALM 106. Alleluia. 1. We have often shown that the old covenant is a shadow of the new; and this can easily be learned no less from this psalm as well. For it proclaims the freedom of the Jews and foretells the salvation of all people; and it has a great continuity with those that precede it. For the hundred and fourth had the narrative of the promises made by God to the patriarchs, and of the gifts granted to their descendants; and the one after it taught, in addition to the benefits, the ingratitude of the Jews, and the punishments brought upon them because of it. But this one foretells the release from captivity, which came about through the ineffable love of God for humanity. And since our own affairs are also sketched in those, we see the oracles of our salvation in this psalm as well; for the greater part of the prophecy fits us rather than them. Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his mercy endures forever. Again the prophetic word urges us to hymn the beneficent God; and it says the cause of the hymnody is his love for humanity. And those who have escaped dangers would be capable of saying these things, by the mercy of God alone, without

of our consummation. But such mercy is brief for those who obtain something temporary, but eternal for those deemed worthy of eternal things. For it has been said, "With eternal mercy have I had mercy on you," by him who shows mercy to thousands of those who love him, preparing for them "what eye has not seen and ear has not heard"; and "good" is synonymous with "kind." Let those who have been redeemed by the Lord say so, whom he redeemed from the hand of the enemy. Having indicated the rejection of the Jewish nation through the previous psalm, in which there was also the phrase "He abhorred his inheritance," now he makes known the calling of the Gentiles, gathered from everywhere in the world through the Savior and snatched from the hands of the devil into his holy Church. For in vain do the Jews expect that, having been gathered from the Gentiles, they will dwell by themselves in Judea. For in a thousand years from the captivity that took place in Babylon this has not happened, but the calling of the Gentiles has come to pass through deeds. And he gathered them from the lands, from the east and the west, and the north and the sea. We have not learned that this happened in this way for the Jews; for they live scattered throughout the whole world. But the Church from the Gentiles he called and assembled in all the parts of the world, eastern and western, southern and northern, and such gatherings are to be seen everywhere on land and sea. For the Jews, however, this happened faintly, when some returned from Babylon, and a few others were gathered at that time from Egypt and the neighboring nations. They wandered in the wilderness, in a waterless place.

For formerly the life of those from the nations was both waterless and barren; and being irrational nations they were led astray, being drawn away to voiceless idols, and they were strangers to the citizenship of Israel, and they were fainting in soul with hunger and thirst, by being deprived of rational food and spiritual drink, according to the saying, "Not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord." But also Babylon was desert and waterless. For it was a desert of God, and the multitude of the Jews serving there was deprived of spiritual irrigation; and those from the nations who had believed were likewise living in a desert and waterless place, "having no hope and being without God," as the Apostle says. "They found no way of a city for a dwelling." For neither were the Jews able to escape those who had enslaved them and to recover their own homeland, nor did those from the nations who had believed before the incarnation of the Savior find the way that leads to the divine city. And by "city" here we must understand the pious citizenship. "Hungering and thirsting, their soul fainted within them." The famine of divine teaching pressed upon both these and those. For the Jews, serving in Babylon, were deprived even of priests, and were unable to fulfill the worship according to the law; and the nations again neither received the divine law nor enjoyed spiritual teaching, by which souls are naturally nourished. Yet God threatened this famine to the Jews: "For I will bring," he said, "a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread." And they cried out to the Lord when they were afflicted, and he delivered them from their necessities.

The more pious among the Jews offered their supplication to God; and the prophecy of Daniel teaches us this; for he himself, along with Ananias, Azarias, and Misael, praying on behalf of all, sought the divine mercy. But the nations groaned, wrestling with all kinds of calamities, and gave themselves over to unconsolable wailings and lamentations, having no hope of the resurrection; yet they did not seek from the God of all the release from the evils that held them. Nevertheless the lover of mankind saw them groaning, and offered mercy. For when the nations, as I said, were suffering hardship in the deprivation of the good things mentioned, the angels of God who presided over them, as shepherds of the human flock, cried out to God that a common Savior be sent down to them. And the lover of mankind guided them in a straight way, which is the saving evangelical word. For he himself led us up to the heavenly city, on account of which he exhorts us to proclaim the wondrous works of God to all people, so that all, having learned the grace that has come to us, may hasten to the same salvation. But another says that the Jews, toiling long ago in Egypt, cried out to God; and if they would do this even now, they will obtain the perfect freedom that comes through Christ. And he guided them into a straight way, to go into a city of habitation. For to the Jews he granted the return through Cyrus the Persian; but the nations he guided through the holy apostles, and showed them the city above, which has its foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. But Symmachus has it thus: And his prodigies which are toward the sons of men. Yet it is not the mercy nor the wonders that offer the hymn of thanksgiving to God, but those who have enjoyed so many good things. For the freedom of the Jews was wonderful and worthy of admiration; but the salvation of the world is more wonderful and more worthy of admiration, and the change to the better, and the cessation of error, and the knowledge of the truth. And the divine cause of all these things is mercy: For not because of our righteousnesses, which we did, says the divine apostle, but according to his great mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly. Because he satisfied the empty soul, and filled the hungry soul with good things; those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in poverty and iron. 2. And the Jews, yoked to slavery and ill-treatment and wasting away with hunger, he freed from the evils that held them, and he nourished the whole nature of men with divine teachings, and having freed them from the gloom of ignorance, he enlightened them with the light of the knowledge of God, and he scattered the shadow of death that lay upon them, having given the hope of the resurrection, and he broke the strong bonds of sin. For with chains, it says, each one is bound by his own sins; and, Woe to those who draw their sins as with a long rope, and their iniquities as with the strap of a yoke for a heifer.

That one would properly be called an empty soul: the Greek soul, the Jewish soul, the soul deprived of spiritual food. For my food is to do the will of my Father. So this too is food, and the best of food; therefore he also said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. And Christ did this, satisfying the whole inhabited world with such food. And you would not err in calling idolatry and deeds done in godlessness a shadow of death; for these are what separate us from true life. And in these we once were formerly, because we provoked God to bitterness and stirred up the counsel of the Most High. For when we ought to contemplate from the greatness and beauty of created things the Creator of all things, and to perceive his eternal power and divinity from the creation of the world, we—like blind men dwelling in darkness and the shadow of death, with the rational powers of the soul fettered and blinded—exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things. Because they provoked to bitterness the oracles of God, and stirred up the counsel of the Most High. And their heart was humbled in labors; they grew weak, and there was no one to help. And the cause of all these grievous things, both for the Jews and for all men, is sin. For those men also, paying the penalty, were delivered over to the Babylonians

in slavery, and all people after the transgression of the commandment were subjected to the misery of toils. For after this Adam heard: Cursed is the ground in your works; thorns and thistles it will bring forth to you; in sorrow you shall eat it all the days of your life. In the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread, until you return to the earth from which you were taken, for you are earth, and to earth you shall go. But surrounded by so many calamities, they found no release from the evils pressing upon them; rather, the one who allotted them to these same calamities also granted them deliverance from them. And they cried out to the Lord when they were afflicted, and from their necessities he rescued them; and he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds. For having compassion on both these and those, he released the one group from the calamities pressing upon them, and freed the other from the darkness of ignorance, and broke the bonds of slavery. You might call the shadow of death idolatry, and the deeds in godlessness, which long ago separated us from the true life, provoking God and inciting the counsel of the Most High. For then our heart was humbled in the labors of sin, our innate and rational power being enfeebled, which no one restored; for they were weak, and there was no one to help; but this great achievement was reserved for the Word of God alone. And the phrase, He broke their bonds, indicates this: the sudden forgiveness of sins, of which the grace of the Savior deemed us worthy.

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men, because he shattered gates of bronze, and broke bars of iron. He called the inescapable nature of evils "gates of bronze and bars of iron." For just as it is impossible for one shut in from within by doors and bars to escape, so it was impossible for the Jews to escape the slavery of the Babylonians, and for all people the dominion of death. But divine mercy alone was sufficient to dissolve the power of both those and this, and to grant release from their miseries. He said the same things a second time regarding his second benefits. He makes clear the descent of human souls even to death, on account of which his own descent even to death was needed; having come there, he shattered the gates that were opened to no mortal, and for this reason are called iron and bronze. And the Lord also says in Job: Have you come to the spring of the sea, and walked in the footsteps of the abyss? Are the gates of death opened to you, and did the gatekeepers of Hades tremble when they saw you? And he alone took away our lawless deeds, on account of which we reached even the gates of death. He took hold of them from their way of lawlessness; for because of their lawless deeds they were brought low. Neither the Jews nor the whole nature of humanity fell into miseries unjustly; but both these and those pay the penalty for the offenses they committed. Nevertheless he deemed both these and those, rolling in such great evils, worthy of salvation. Their soul loathed all food, and they drew near even to the gates of death.

For the Jews, pressed by the multitude of their evils, even turned away from food itself. For this the prophet has also said in another psalm, as if on their behalf: For I forgot to eat my bread. But the Gentiles did not wish to pay attention even to the teachings of their own philosophers. For this reason some condemned Socrates to death, others handed Anaxarchus over to a strange form of punishment, and others, having cruelly tortured the successors of Pythagoras, brought upon them a premature death. Nevertheless, the God of all things prepared for these too to be made partakers of the immortal food, and persuaded them to run to it with all eagerness, and freed them from the gates of death. And in another sense we shall understand food here as the rational nourishment, about which the Lord said to the apostles: Work not for the food that perishes, but for that which remains unto eternal life. Every form of this man abhorred. For neither the natural law nor the written law did he keep, and therefore They drew near to the gates of death. The gates of death are sins, to which they drew near, when they ought to have kept far from them. For to the extent that they drew near to this, they necessarily became far from the gates of life. But Christ, even when they were far off, made them near through his own blood. And they cried out to the Lord in their affliction, and he saved them from their necessities. God reckons a cry not as that which is made through the voice, but as the disposition of the mind; since even when Moses was silent he said: Why do you cry out to me? He sent his word, and healed them, and delivered them from their corruptions.

For God the Word, having become man and been sent as a man (for as God he is uncircumscribed and is present everywhere and encompasses all things), healed the wounds of souls of every kind and restored minds that had been corrupted. Thus he healed that sinful woman and commanded her to have confidence; thus he strengthened the paralyzed man, saying, Your sins are forgiven you; thus he opened paradise to the robber; thus he made tax collectors teachers of the world; thus those who approach the all-holy baptism he renews and cleanses and releases from the wounds of sin. Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. And let them offer to him a sacrifice of praise, and let them proclaim his works with gladness. For all these things, he says, it is right to hymn the God who loves mankind, who has shown such great mercy and has granted us paradoxical salvation. But it is necessary not only to know the divine wonders but also to teach those who do not know and to stir everyone to hymn-singing. One must note, however, that here too he commanded a sacrifice of praise to be offered to God, and not the sacrifices of irrational animals. Therefore here too he casts out the worship according to the law. Aquila called the sacrifice of praise a sacrifice of thanksgiving. Those who go down to the sea in ships, doing business in many waters. The present prophecy has very fittingly connected the memory of the apostles and those with them to the coming of God the Word to men.

For these were literally and word for word those who go down to the sea in ships, as indeed the divine Scripture of the Gospels testifies concerning them. And they are commanded to perform the new mysteries of the new covenant, saying: And let them offer to him a sacrifice of praise. And it stands thus: For, it says, Jesus passing by the sea of Galilee saw two brothers, Simon who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen. And he said to them: Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And going on from there he saw two other brothers, James and John, mending their nets, and these likewise he called. Concerning the apostles, then, is the word. For as if someone were asking, And who are these? he added, Those who go down to the sea in ships, and the rest; and through them the power was fulfilled by their deeds. For while the disciples of our Savior were sailing with him, it says, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was covered by the waves; and they fell down and said to him: Lord, save us. And he rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm; which was to see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep. They themselves saw the works of the Lord and his wonders in the deep. The prophet has set these things down figuratively. And he says this, that just as those who sail and cross the great seas especially

They see the divine mighty works, falling into grievous surges, yet enjoying salvation beyond all human hope; so too the Jews, having fallen into those calamities and having lost their freedom, came to understand the divine power. And indeed all people, seeing the strange reversal of affairs, and the cessation of their former error, and the calm of their souls, and the harbor of the resurrection, marvel at the one who provides these things. Here one must understand the sea as our life; the ships, as the Churches, in which the apostles worked salvation, evidently in the multitude of people. They also saw the works of God, that is, the creations and the wonders, the signs—as many as, in ordering our salvation, he placed in the deep, that is, in the wisdom with which he orders our affairs. For the wisdom of God is a depth, because of its incomparability and immeasurability. He spoke, and a spirit of storm stood, and its waves were lifted up. They go up to the heavens, and they go down to the abysses. And through these things he taught that, at his nod, both grievous things come to be and pleasant things are added. And he means the temptations which the spirit of the storm raises up, that is, the opposing spirit, when God permits them for the training and manifestation of the righteous. God himself makes this clear when he permitted the devil to tempt, saying to Job: Do you think I have spoken to you otherwise, than that you might be shown to be righteous?

For what fire is to gold, temptations are to souls: they melt them, not to destroy them, but to make manifest how much brightness they possess. Their soul melted in evils. They were troubled, they were shaken like a drunkard, and all their wisdom was swallowed up. 4. He continued with the turn; and he seems indeed to speak about sailors, but through these things he hints at the manifold calamities of the soul, which no one using human wisdom is able to resolve. For not even the pilots, spun here and there like drunkards, when the swell prevails, bringing all their skill to bear, are able to overcome the dangers. And they cried out to the Lord when they were afflicted; and he brought them out of their necessities. And he commanded the storm, and it stood into a breeze; and its waves were silenced. And they were glad, because they were at rest. And to those many who call upon him he offers his own inclination, and he nods, and immediately the storm is changed into a gentle breeze, and the sea is released from the swell, and those wrestling with certain grievous things find through his grace a change of evils. Thus the Jews were freed from that bitter slavery. And he guided them to a harbor of his will. For as soon as he willed, there was a release from evils, and instead of the surge the harbor appeared. And this is more fitting for us than for them. For he has brought us to anchor in the harbor of his will, having granted his divine knowledge—that is, the kingdom.

This is a harbor, as it has not the waves of temptations, and is reasonably called a harbor, and necessarily a harbor of the will of Christ, who says: Father, those whom you have given me, I will that where I am, they also may be. Let them confess to the Lord his mercies, and his wonders to the sons of men. Let them exalt him in the church of the people, and praise him in the seat of the elders. Accordingly, after the apostles, he makes mention of the church and of the presbytery in it. For these things had to be added to the good tidings of good things. And it is necessary, he says, in the church of the Gentiles to glorify God who does wondrous things. For Gentiles and Jews have exchanged each other's order. For the one, cast out because of wickedness, deprived of angelic appearance and prophetic gifts—both their country and city, which formerly bore good fruits, from the time of the coming of Christ remains still unfruitful, being no metropolis, having no temple, no holy of holies, no priesthood, no kingdom; and having fallen from freedom, they serve Gentile laws. But the church of the Gentiles, formerly waterless, desolate and wandering, is now full of good things, and fills the hungry, and has established the divine commonwealth. For this is a city of dwelling, in which are both rational food and heavenly bread. He set rivers in a desert, and passages of waters into thirst, a fruitful land into saltness, because of the wickedness of those who dwell in it. And this one may see continually happening among the Gentiles who have believed.

For in all the churches throughout the world, when the sacred assembly presides, all the people hymn the Benefactor, recounting the wonders of the divine love for humanity. And those who have obtained salvation hymn him, seeing the strange transformation. For those who formerly were watered by many prophetic rivers and offered ripe fruit to God now enjoy not even a little moisture, but have become utterly desolate through their own wickedness, deprived of their former watering. He made a desert into pools of water, and a waterless land into springs of water. But the nations that were formerly desolate and had not even a brief drop are flooded with the waters of teaching, receiving the rational streams beyond their need. See, then, how the things concerning the Church are set forth in agreement with Isaiah. For he too says: I will make the desert into marshes, and the thirsty land into watercourses. And he settled there those who were hungry, and they established cities of dwelling. For those who formerly were wasting away with hunger and lacking spiritual food, he settled among those rivers, and established the pious commonwealth. And they sowed fields, and planted vineyards, and produced the fruit of their increase. For the heavenly seed, handed down continually in succession from the apostles, is sown in the souls of those whose life is one of repentance, concerning which the Savior says: The sower went out to sow his seed; and some fell on the thorns, some on the rock, some by the wayside, and some on the good and noble soil.

Vineyards are also planted—the Churches everywhere on earth—according to the words, “I planted you as a fruitful vine, wholly true,” and, “A vine came to be for the beloved one on a horn, in a fertile place.” For the vineyard of the Lord Sabaoth is the house of Israel, and the man of Judah a beloved new plant. For just as by these words he was indicating the synagogue of the Jews, so now he indicates the Church of the Gentiles. And that the Gentiles produced the fruit of righteousness, the Savior says: “The kingdom of God will be taken away from the former people and given to a nation producing its fruit.” And he blessed them, and they were multiplied exceedingly; and he did not diminish their cattle. 5. The prophet has spoken these things figuratively. And the Lord also used such parables, at one time calling the apostles reapers, at another himself a sower and a farmer, and the good soil those who receive the seeds of the word obediently. And the Apostle also says: “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth”; and again: “You are God’s field, God’s building.” And so the apostles sowed the saving proclamations, and planted for God the rational gardens, and brought to God the ripe fruit of righteousness. And all those after them who have been entrusted with teaching continue doing this very thing. For “the one who sows upon blessings will also reap upon blessings,” according to the divine apostle; and he calls “cattle” those who are pastured by them, whom he himself increased, supplying the power of his wonderworking. And the blessed Luke is a witness in the Acts, saying: “And the Lord was adding those

being saved daily. And the Lord himself also calls those who have believed sheep. For he says, "My sheep hear my voice." And they were brought low and afflicted by the tribulation of evils and by pain. These, then, he says—those who formerly dwelt in the desert and waterless place—having believed, enjoyed such great prosperity and blessing; but those who formerly enjoyed the watering of the prophets, then were deprived of it because of the wickedness of their disposition and remained utterly deserted and unfruitful, fell into all kinds of calamities and were scattered over the whole inhabited world, so that their populous mother-city is inhabited by few. "Contempt was poured out upon their rulers." And the facts bear witness to the prophecy. For those who seem to be their rulers and teachers have become worthy of no account, but those formerly distinguished and conspicuous are utterly obscure, and are despised even by those very people. For even if the Jews multiply bodily according to the saying, "And the number of the sons of Israel was as the sand of the sea," yet the Holy Spirit does not declare them all worthy; for he says through Isaiah the prophet: "If the sons of Israel become as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved"—which is what he now says, that "they were brought low and corrupted from the constraint of evil and misery." But these things apply to the many; while those preeminent in rank and knowledge were given over to contempt, whom indeed "God also led astray in a pathless place, and not in a way." "And he led them astray in a pathless place, and not in a way." But Symmachus reads thus: "And he will lead them astray in the vanity of their mind.

But God does not bring error upon them; rather, he leaves those who do not obey him ungoverned, and the ungoverned, being carried about here and there, wander astray. This is what the Jews also suffered; for having abandoned the straight way, they follow their own reasonings. And he helped the poor man out of poverty, and he set families like sheep. But Symmachus says: "And you shall strengthen the poor man from affliction." And he calls the people from the Gentiles the poor man. And he set families like sheep. But Aquila says: "And he shall set them as a flock of kinsfolk." And Symmachus says: "And he shall arrange the kinsfolk as flocks." And he means the Churches established in each city and region. And the Savior also says concerning his own people: "My sheep hear my voice." And he speaks as about things to come and not yet present. The upright shall see and shall be glad, and all lawlessness shall stop its mouth. For seeing these things, those who have employed uprightness of reasonings are filled with gladness; but those who choose to live with impiety and lawlessness are compelled to bow to the ground and be silent, curbed by the righteous verdict. And what shall they see, except the change from worse things to better? Therefore the Savior said to those who had beheld the ends of the prophecies: "But blessed are your eyes, because they see what many prophets desired to see, and did not see." And you will understand the devil as lawlessness, and everyone made according to it. Who is wise and will keep these things, and will understand the mercies of the Lord? For the greater part of them is set forth for spiritual understanding, and requires wisdom for comprehension.