Commentarius in Ecclesiasten

But God's patience is hidden, and now to afflict the saints, so that they may receive evils in their life, and not to visit sinners for their wickedness, and as it were to reserve them for the victim, so that he may both restore eternal goods to those and bring perpetual evils upon these. The Hebrews suspect that the righteous who perish in their righteousness are the sons of Aaron, because while they think they act justly, they offered strange fire. And the impious man long-lived in his wickedness they call Manasseh, who after the captivity was restored to the kingdom, and thereafter lived for a long time.

"Do not be much righteous, and do not seek more, lest you become stupefied." If you have seen anyone rigid and harsh toward all the sins of his brothers, so that he grants no pardon to one who sins in speech, nor to one who lingers sometimes because of natural sloth, know that this man is more righteous than is righteous. For since the Savior commands, saying: Do not judge, so that you may not be judged (Luke 6:37); and no one is without sin, not even if his life has been but a single day, it is inhuman righteousness that does not pardon the frailty of the human condition. Do not therefore be much righteous, because a great weight and a small weight are an abomination before the Lord. Hence also among the philosophers the virtues are placed in the middle, and everything that is excessive, whether upward or downward, is reckoned as a vice.

But what is said: "Do not seek more, lest you be disturbed," or, "lest you be astonished," he knows our mind cannot comprehend perfect wisdom, and he commands us to know the measure of our frailty. Finally, Paul also, to the one who was seeking to know more than a man could know, saying: "Why does he still complain? For who resists his will?" answered: "O man, who are you to answer God?" (Rom. 9:19), and the rest. For if that one who is introduced as asking had heard the causes of the question from the Apostle, he might perhaps have grown numb with astonishment and perceived the grace as useless. For there is also a gift, according to the same Apostle, which does not benefit the one to whom it is given. The Hebrews interpret this command, that is: "Do not be excessively just," as concerning Saul, who took pity on Agag, whom the Lord had ordered to be killed (1 Kings 15). But also that servant from the Gospel (Matt. 18), whom the Lord had forgiven, and who himself was unwilling to forgive his fellow servant, can be fitted to this verse, in that he was excessively just.

Do not act wickedly much, and do not be a fool; why should you die in a time not your own?" Since the Lord says, "I do not will the death of the dying man; only let him turn back and live": let it suffice to have sinned once; we ought to raise ourselves up after a fall. For if, according to those who dispute about natural philosophy, the swallow knows how to heal its young with celadon, and wounded goats seek the dictamnus, why should we not know that the medicine of repentance has been set before those who sin? But what he says: "Do not die in a time not your own," we know that Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, on account of their sedition against Moses and Aaron, were swallowed up by a sudden opening of the earth, and that for the correction of others many were judged even in this life before the day of judgment. What he says, then, is this: Do not add sins to sins, lest you provoke God to bring punishment upon you even here.

"It is good that you hold fast to this. And indeed from this do not let your hand go; for he who fears God will go forth to all things." It is a gift for the just to do good, but to do good also to sinners is not unjust. It is good to support the household of the faith, but to give to everyone who asks is also a commandment. For he who fears God, and is an imitator of his Creator, who rains upon the just and the unjust, hastens to do good to all without respect of persons.

Alternatively: Because this miserable life is varied every day by different events, both adverse and prosperous, the mind of the just man should be prepared, and should seek the Lord's mercy, so that whatever happens, it may bear it with a balanced mind. For he who fears God is neither lifted up by prosperity nor crushed by adversity.

"Wisdom will strengthen the wise man beyond ten who have power, who are in the city: because there is no just man on earth who does good and does not sin." Therefore wisdom strengthens the just man, and the help of all the rulers of the city surpasses him, because although someone is just, nevertheless while he is established in this flesh, he is subject to vices and sins, and needs greater protection. Alternatively: the ten who have power and stand in the city are angels, who have reached the perfect number of ten, and aid the human race. But if one considers all helps, greater is the help of wisdom, that is, of our Lord Jesus Christ. For after the angels said: "We have healed Babylon, and she is not healed; let us leave her, and let each one depart into his own land" (Jer. 51:8), then the physician of physicians himself descended, and healed us, sprinkled with blood and dripping with the gore of sins, who had spent all our substance on physicians, by the touch of his fringe (Luke 8). He healed, moreover, in the city, that is, in this world, and strengthened the wise man, or, as the Seventy translated, helped him.

For to everyone who has, it shall be given, and it shall be added to him. But because man, placed among sinners and fixed in the mire of the deep, needed greater help, therefore Wisdom herself came. Alternatively: Above he had said that one must do good both to those of the household and to strangers. Someone could therefore reply: If I wish to do good to all, I do not have the means to do it. Nor can a just man have such great riches, which usually abound more for sinners; therefore he now says: Those whom you cannot help with money, assist with counsel, cherish with comfort. For wisdom can accomplish more for one placed in distress than any greatest powers can. And do this very thing with prudence, for great is the balance of justice—both as to whom, and how much, and for how long, and of what kind, whether in money or in counsel, you should give.

And indeed, to all the words that they speak, do not give your heart: for you will not hear your servant cursing you. For your heart frequently knows that you too have cursed others. Do what has been commanded, and, strengthened by the help of wisdom, prepare your heart for either good or evil, and do not care what enemies say about you, or what opinion of you there is abroad. For just as it is the part of a prudent man not to listen to a murmuring servant, nor to apply a curious ear to what he says about him in his absence—for if he does this, he will always be in turmoil, and will be stirred to anger by the muttering of a servant—so too it is the part of a wise man to follow wisdom as his guide and not to consider vain rumors.

But he also teaches by another example that a righteous man should not be deeply concerned about what people say, saying: As your conscience knows that you have spoken about many and often disparaged others, so you ought also to forgive others who disparage. And at the same time he teaches that one should not judge readily, and that one who has a beam in his eye should not speak about another's speck.

"All these things I tried in wisdom, and I said: I will become wise, and it has become farther from me than it was: and deep profundity, who will find it?" He says of himself, as the books of Kings also testify (3 Kings 3 and 4), that he sought wisdom beyond all men and tried to reach its end, but the more he sought, the less he obtained, and was plunged into the midst of darkness, surrounded by the shadows of ignorance. Alternatively: The man who has been instructed in the Scriptures, the more he begins to know, the greater obscurity arises for him daily in them. Alternatively: The contemplation of wisdom in this life is seen in a mirror and in an image; therefore, when I have reflected that in the future its knowledge will be revealed face to face, then I will clearly recognize how far I now stand apart from its knowledge.

I surveyed myself and my heart, to know, and to consider, and to seek wisdom and reason, and to recognize the impiety of the fool and the error of the imprudent. And I find woman more bitter than death, who is a snare, and her heart a dragnet, her hands bonds. He who is good before God shall be delivered from her, the sinner shall be caught in her. For the phrase that the Septuagint had put as "I surveyed myself and my heart, to know," Symmachus translated, saying: "I passed through all things with my understanding, to know and to learn and to investigate." Since, then, Ecclesiastes had said above that he had tested all things in wisdom, and that the more he sought it, the further it fled from him, now he says that he also sought something else in his wisdom, namely what evil in human affairs surpasses all evils, and what thing holds the chief place in impiety, folly, error, and madness. And he says that he found woman to be the head of all evils, because through her death also entered into the world, and she captures the precious souls of men. For all adulterers are like an oven in their hearts, which has made the hearts of the young fly up. And when she has fallen into the mind of a wretched lover, she drags him headlong, nor does she allow him to look back at his own feet, but like a snare and a dragnet she entangles the heart of the young man. For her hands are bonds. In place of this Aquila translated: "Her hands are bound," which in the Hebrew language is called ASSURIS.

For it can persuade, it cannot use force, nor draw to itself those who are unwilling. The man who is just and good before God will be rescued from it; but the sinner, once captured, will be led down to death. Let us not think that Solomon rashly uttered this sentence about the race of women; what he experienced, he speaks. For he offended God for this reason, that he was captured by women. And this is according to the letter. But according to the spiritual understanding, either we name every sin generally, and iniquity, as a woman—which under the appearance of a woman sits in Zechariah upon the talent of lead (Zech. 5:7)—or we take the devil as the woman, on account of his effeminate powers; or certainly idolatry, and, to come closer, the Church of the heretics, which calls the foolish in mind to itself, so that one who is led in may receive stolen bread and stolen water, that is, a false sacrament and a polluted baptism. "Behold, this I found, said Ecclesiastes, one by one, that I might find the number which my soul still sought, and I did not find it. I found one man among a thousand, and a woman among all these I did not find. Only this I found, that God made man upright; and they sought out many thoughts." This, he says, I discovered, examining all things diligently; that by sinning little by little, and adding one offense to another, we make for ourselves a great sum of sins.

Heshbon, which all have translated with one accord, according to the ambiguity of the Hebrew word, we can call both a number and a sum and a reckoning and a thought. But this too, he says, my soul has sought: whether a upright woman may be found. And since I have scarcely found a few good men, so that one out of a thousand could be found, I could not find a good woman at all. For all led me not to virtue but to luxury. And because the heart of man is diligently set toward malice from adolescence, and nearly all have offended God: in this ruin of the human race, a woman is more prone to fall. Concerning whom even a pagan poet says: "Woman is ever fickle and changeable." And the Apostle says: "Always learning, and never coming to the knowledge of the truth." And lest he seem to condemn the common nature of mankind and make God the author of evil, while he is the creator of such as cannot avoid evil, he shrewdly guarded against this and said that we were created good by God; but because we have been left to free will, we slip toward worse things by our own fault, while we seek greater things and think various things beyond our strength. Otherwise: Every day, weighing the reason of each thing with myself, I could find no thought that was not disturbed from without by a perverse thought.

But among a thousand men I found a man who was formed according to the image of his Creator: and among a thousand—not any whatever, but a thousand men—a number which a woman could not fill. And among a thousand who did not draw near to a woman, and for that reason remained most pure. But all these things must be taken tropologically. For among many studious men, who sweat over daily meditation, a pure thought is scarcely found, and one worthy of the name of man. We can also take thoughts for men, and women for works, and say that the pure thought of anyone can with difficulty be found. But works, because they are administered through the body, are always mixed with some error. Moreover, in place of what we said above when interpreting the Hebrew text: "One to one, that a number may be found," whether sum, or reckoning, or thought, Symmachus has translated more plainly: "to find a reckoning one to one." For what we are accustomed to call absolutely and neutrally—that is, "this I sought," "this I wished to find"—the Hebrews pronounce in the feminine gender, as in the psalm: "One thing I have asked of the Lord, this will I seek," in place of "one.

(Chapter VIII.) "Who is like the wise man; and who knows the solution of a word? The wisdom of a man will illuminate his face, and the mighty man will change his countenance." Above he had taught that it is difficult to find a good man, and he had struck down the question that arose against this: that good men were created by God, but of their own will fell into sins. Now he enumerates, as if boasting, what good things God has given to man—namely wisdom, and reason, and providence, to know the hidden mysteries of God, to enter into his secrets with the sense of the heart. But obliquely he speaks of himself, that no one was so wise as he, and no one so knew the solutions of problems, and his wisdom was praised by the whole people, which lay hidden not only within, but also shone forth on the surface of the body and in the mirror of the face, and beyond all men he painted the prudence of his mind on his face. Where we have set down "Who is like the wise man," the Seventy translated "Who knows the wise?" And where we said "And the mighty man will change his countenance," they set down "And the shameless man will be hated in his countenance." And indeed, since there are many who promise wisdom, it is difficult to find one who can discern the truly wise man from those who seem to be wise. And since there are very many who say they can solve the hidden things of the Scriptures, rare is the one who finds the true solution.

But what follows: "The wisdom of a man will illuminate his face, and the shameless man will be hated by his face," we can explain in such a way as to set down the words of Paul: "But we all, beholding the glory of the Lord with unveiled face" (2 Cor 3:18); and of the Psalmist singing: "The light of your face is stamped upon us, O Lord" (Ps 4:7). But he does not call "the wisdom of a man" here anything other than the wisdom of God. And since it is the wisdom of God, according to the capacity of the man's ability it begins to be his who has merited to possess it. Every heretic and defender of false doctrine has a shameless face. Finally, Marcion and Valentinus say that they are of a better nature than the Creator is. And this could in some part be tolerated, if they claimed to have hope of this thing, and not already to possess the nature.

"I keep the mouth of the king, and the speech of the oath of God. Do not hasten to depart from his face, and do not stand in an evil word, for whatever he has willed, he will do. As he has said (or: will say) the thing, having power: and who will say to him, 'What are you doing?'" He seems indeed to command, according to the Apostle, obedience to kings and authorities (Tit 3:1), especially since the Seventy Translators say in the imperative mood: "Keep the mouth of the king"; but I think that it is now said of that king of whom David says: "O Lord, in your strength the king will rejoice" (Ps 20:1).

And in another place, to signify the one kingdom of the Father and the Son, Scripture records: "God, give your judgment to the king, and your justice to the king's son" (Ps. 71:1). For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22). He who is king, the Son of God, is the Son of the king, the Father. His commandments, therefore, are to be kept; his will is to be carried out. And this is what is written in the book of Tobit: "It is good to conceal the mystery of the king" (Tob. 12:7). And he especially warns us not to discuss why God has commanded each particular thing, but whatever he has seen to be a commandment, the pious mind of man should hasten to fulfill. And in the law of the Lord will be his will. But because the Seventy translated it differently, saying, "And concerning an oath and the word of God, do not hasten to walk from his face," we must know that the oath of God is written in the divine volumes. This oath, then, concerning the word of God, sacred and hidden, we ought not to tell to just anyone, nor bring it forth into the open, nor even pass judgment on it. Nor should you, like Moses, hasten to see the face of God, but wait so long until he himself passes by, and see only his back parts. Moreover, what follows: "Do not stand in an evil word," and the rest, we should understand as referring to one who has been overtaken by the error of heresy; or to one who, though he holds the faith of the Church, is nevertheless overcome by sins, so as to be faithless. Do not persevere in detraction, nor in foul speech, nor in lust, nor in avarice, nor in desire.

But if you persevere, the devil, the king of vices and of sin, will work destruction in you, and will do whatever he wishes.

« Whoever keeps the commandment will not know an evil word: and the heart of the wise knows both time and judgment. » It must be noted that "will not know an evil word" is put in place of "will not suffer," or "it will not be in him." For indeed it is written thus also of the Savior: "Who knew no sin, for us he made him sin" (2 Cor. 5:21). For "word," Symmachus rendered the sense, saying: "Whoever has kept the commandment will not experience an evil thing." But he commanded that the king's authority be preserved, and to know what, and why, and at what time he commands.

« Because for every matter there is a time and judgment. » For man's affliction is great upon him, because he does not know what is to come; for as it will be, who will announce it to him? Although diverse things happen, and the righteous man cannot know what is to come for him, nor will he know the causes and reasons of individual things (for no one is conscious of future things), yet he knows that all things are done by God for the benefit of men, and are arranged not without his will. For there is a great affliction of the human race, because, as the poet says (Aeneid 10:501): "The mind of men, ignorant of fate and of the lot to come," hopes one thing, and another comes to pass: from one quarter it expects the enemy, and is wounded by the spear of another.

For whereas the Seventy Interpreters and Theodotion said, «Because the knowledge of man is much upon him,» in the Hebrew it has malice, not knowledge; but because the Hebrew letters RES and DALETH are similar except for a small point, they read DAATH for RAATH, that is, knowledge for malice. This one will know better who has knowledge of the same language. That also which is written at the end of these verses, «Because he does not know what has been done; and what will be after him, who will announce it to him?» we have now translated word for word from the Hebrew speech, so that we may know there is another meaning—namely, that we can know neither the things that have passed, nor recognize the things that are to come, as they are to come.

«There is no man having power over the spirit, to prohibit the spirit, and there is no one powerful in the day of death, and there is no discharge in war, and impiety will not save the one who has it.» It is not in the power of our soul that it not be taken from us, and when the spirit goes forth at the command of the Lord, it profits nothing to close the mouth and to retain the fleeing life. And when destruction, the enemy and foe of our life, has come, we cannot receive a truce. Nor can kings formerly in the world, and all who lay waste our things by their impiety, offer their hands against death; but we shall be dissolved into ashes and earth.

It is not to be mourned, then, if we cannot know the future and are often oppressed by wicked men who are more powerful, since all things are ended by death, and the proud and powerful man, who has laid waste all things, cannot retain his own soul when he is snatched away. Otherwise: the Spirit, who dispenses all things, cannot be prevented by any man, nor receive laws for breathing. Of whom it is also said above: «The spirit goes circling about, circling.» In the day of death we are not powerful; for in the day of life the enemy is easily avoided. Likewise he who is in war, and does not have the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will not have a sending forth, of which it is said to the bride: «Your sendings forth are a paradise with the fruit of apples» (Song 4). And because impiety will not save the one who has it, piety on the other hand will save. Impiety can be called the devil, and piety our Lord Jesus Christ.

«All these things I have seen, and I gave my heart to every work that is done under the sun, and man has ruled over man, to afflict him. And then I saw the impious buried, and they came, and went forth from the holy place, and were praised in the city, because they did so: but this also is vanity.» For because there is no contradiction to those who do evil quickly, therefore the heart of the sons of man is filled in them, so that they do evil. I gave, he says, my heart, so that I might look upon everything that is carried on under the sun, and this especially, that man has received power over man, so that he may afflict and condemn whomever he wishes.

So then, when I directed my mind to contemplate these things, I saw the wicked dead, and buried with such a reputation, that they were reckoned as saints on earth—men who, even while they lived, were thought worthy of the Church and the temple of God, and moreover, walking about puffed up, were praised in their evils, as it is written: For the sinner is praised in the desires of his soul; he who does iniquity is blessed (Ps. 9:24). Now this happens for the reason that no one dares to contradict those who sin, nor does God immediately avenge the crime, but he postpones punishment while he awaits repentance. But sinners, because they are not immediately rebuked and corrected, thinking that there will be no judgment at all, persevere in their crime. We can use this testimony against bishops, who have received power in the Church and scandalize all the more those whom they ought to teach and stir up to better things. These men are frequently praised after death in the Church, and are publicly proclaimed blessed in the things they had done without approval, whether by their successors or by the people. And this too is vanity; for because they are not heard as they acted, nor are they immediately rebuked in their sin (for no one dares to accuse a superior), therefore, as if they were saints and blessed and walking in the commandments of the Lord, they increase sins by sins. Accusation against a bishop is difficult. For if he has sinned, he is not believed; and if he has been convicted, he is not punished.

Because a sinner does evil a hundred times, and he prolongs it for himself. From this I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who will fear before his face." From the fact that he sins very greatly—for "a hundred times" signifies this—God gives him room for repentance, and does not punish him at once in his wickedness, but waits for him to turn from his iniquity: I understand how kind and merciful God will be toward those who have fear of him and tremble at his word. Symmachus translated this passage thus: "For the sinner, being evil, is dead, long-suffering having been granted to him. Furthermore, I know that it will be well for those who fear God, who have feared before his face. But good will not be for the wicked, nor will he survive for a long time, because he did not fear before the face of God." And since it is clear what he translated, this must be said: that the Hebrew word MAATH, which the Seventy translated as "from then" and we have rendered as "a hundred times," Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion interpreted as "he is dead," so that the sense is: he who sinned and did evil is dead; for in that he sinned, he died at once. But if, according to the Seventy Interpreters, instead of "he is dead" we read "from then," according to some the sense here will be: the sinner does not first sin when he seems to commit sin, but he has already sinned before: "For sinners are estranged from the womb, they have gone astray from the belly" (Ps.

LVII, 4); and they seek this, what follows, "they have spoken false things," how it can be explained: for the simple understanding does not seem to have a connection, "little ones, sinners, as soon as they are cast out of the womb, a horse's lie."

"And let it not be well for the impious, and let him not prolong days like a shadow, who does not fear from the face of God." He curses those who do not have the fear of God, and he wishes that punishment not be long delayed, but that, taken away at once by death, they receive the torments they deserve. The Apostle says something similar: Would that those who disturb you be cut off (Gal. 5:12). And elsewhere: Alexander the coppersmith showed me many evils: may the Lord repay him according to his works (2 Tim. 4:14). How these things were said with clemency must be examined. These things are according to the truth of the Hebrew sense. But if anyone follows the Seventy Interpreters, who, beginning as it were from another sense, said: "And I recognize that it will be well for those who fear God, that they may fear from his face, and it will not be well for the impious, and he will not prolong days in a shadow: because he is not one who fears from the face of God;" he will be able to say this: As indeed also those things about which I treated a little earlier; yet I most manifestly know that it will be well for those who fear from the face of God: for the face of the Lord is upon those who do evil (Ps. 33:17). And it will not be well for the impious: for he does not fear from the face of God, and he will not prolong days in a shadow, that is, the days of his life, which are as a shadow for those who live.

For it is not those who live a long time who prolong their days, but those who make them great by the magnitude of good works. Hence also Jacob, as if confessing himself a sinner, says: "Few and evil are my days" (Gen. 47:9). And in the Psalm he confesses (Ps. 102:12): "My days," he says, "have declined like a shadow, and I have withered like grass." Not that he sought a long life in the present, in which all that we live is brief and a shadow and an image—for "man walks in an image" (Ps. 39:7)—but that he fears for the future, lest the length of his life, where true life is, be shortened.

"There is a vanity that takes place upon the earth: that there are righteous men to whom things happen as though done by the wicked, and there are wicked men to whom things happen as though done by the righteous. I said that this also is vanity." Among the other vanities that are borne along in the world with varying outcome, this too I have discerned: that the things which ought to have happened to the wicked frequently happen to the righteous, and the wicked live so prosperously in this world that you would think them the most righteous. The Gospel of the rich man in purple and poor Lazarus will give an example (Luke 16). The seventy-second Psalm also disputes concerning this matter: why sometimes evils happen to the righteous, and good things to the wicked.

But whereas we rendered it as "There is a vanity that takes place upon the earth," Symmachus translated it absolutely, saying: "It is difficult to know what takes place upon the earth." The Hebrews interpret the righteous, to whom evils befall, and the impious, to whom the works of the righteous accrue, as the sons of Aaron and Manasseh—because the former perished while sacrificing, and the latter, after such great evils and captivity, was restored to royal power.

"And I praised joy, because there is no good for man under the sun except to eat and drink and rejoice. And this itself shall go out with him from his labor in the days of his life, which God gave him under the sun." We have expounded this more fully above, and now we say briefly: although he prefers the brief and quickly ended pleasure of eating and drinking to the straits of the world and to those things which seem to be done unjustly in the world—since this alone man seems to have from his labor, if he enjoys even a modest refreshment. But this interpretation, if it is taken as it is written, will approve as wretched those who fast, hunger, thirst, and mourn, whom the Lord in the Gospel calls blessed (Matt. 5). And so let us take food and drink spiritually, and joy over them, which we can scarcely find in the labor of our life.

But that these things are to be understood as we have said, the following verse demonstrates, in which he says: "I gave my heart to see wisdom and occupation": namely, that men are occupied upon the earth, and day and night are engaged in the meditation of the Scriptures, so that for the most part, in the investigation of truth, sleep flees from the eyes.

"Wherefore I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to see the occupation which is done upon the earth. For neither in the day nor in the night does he see sleep in his eyes. And I saw all the works of God: because man will not be able to find the work which is done under the sun, in which man has labored to seek, and he will not find it. Indeed, even if the wise man says that he knows, he will not be able to find it." He who seeks the causes and reasons of things, why this or that was done, and why the world is governed by various events: why one is born blind and weak, another seeing and healthy; why this one has poverty, that one riches; this one is noble, that one inglorious—he profits nothing else except to be tormented in his own question alone, and to have disputation as a torment, and yet not to find what he seeks... And when he has said that he has known these things, then he has the beginning of ignorance, and is engaged in deep error. Yet he hints that there are causes of all things and a justice, why each thing is done as it is: but that they lie hidden in secret, and cannot be comprehended by men.

(Cap. IX.) "All this I gave in my heart, to consider all things: because the just, and the wise, and their works are in the hand of the Lord. And indeed love, and indeed hatred: man does not know all things before their face." Symmachus also interpreted this passage more clearly, saying: "All these things I set in my heart, to sift all things: because both the just and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God. And moreover man knows neither friendships nor enmities; but all things before them are uncertain, for the reason that similar things happen to all, to the just and the unjust." Now the meaning is this: Even in this I gave my heart, and wished to know whom God loved, whom He hated. And I found that the works of the just are indeed in the hand of God, and yet whether they are loved by God or not, they cannot now know, and they waver amid doubt, whether they endure what they endure for a testing, or for a punishment. In the future, therefore, they will know, and all things are before their face, that is, the knowledge of this matter precedes them when they have departed from this life, because then is judgment, and now is struggle. And whoever endures adversities, whether they endure them through love of God, like Job, or through hatred, like very many sinners, is now held uncertain.

In all things there is one event: to the just and the impious, to the good and the evil, to the clean and the polluted, to him who sacrifices and to him who does not sacrifice. As the good is, so is the sinner; as he who swears, so is he who fears an oath." Those things which in themselves are neither good nor evil, but are called by the wise men of the world "indifferent" (because they happen equally to the just and the unjust), disturb the simple, [who wonder] why they happen so, and therefore they do not think there is a judgment, although the distinction of all things is in the future, and here all things are confused. But what he says, "There is one event to all, to the just and the impious," signifies either the event of distress or of death; and for this reason they know neither the love of God nor hatred in themselves. And he who sacrifices and he who does not sacrifice, and the other things that are enumerated as opposites, must be understood spiritually, according to that saying: "A sacrifice to God is a troubled spirit" (Ps. 50:19).

"This is the worst among all that is done under the sun: because there is one event to all. But also the heart of the sons of men is filled with malice, and errors are in their heart in their life, and after these things they go to the dead. For who is he that may be joined to all the living?" And this Symmachus has interpreted more openly, after his manner, saying: "But also the heart of the sons of men is filled with malice and shamelessness according to their heart in their life. But let their last things come to the dead. For who can persevere living forever?

» But the Scripture repeats the same meaning that we discussed a little before: that since all things happen equally to everyone, and there is no distinction in enduring good or evil things, or certainly we are withdrawn from this world by an equal death, nonetheless we are filled with errors and shamelessness and malice, and after all these things we are suddenly snatched away in destruction, nor can we any longer have fellowship with the living. Or certainly thus: because common distresses press upon both the just and the unjust, therefore men are provoked to sins; and yet after all the efforts in which they have labored in vain, while they are ignorant, they descend to hell.

« There is confidence, because a living dog is better than a dead lion; because the living know that they will die, and the dead know nothing, and they have no further reward. For their memory comes into oblivion. But even their love, and their hatred, and their envy have already perished: and they have no part any longer in the world in all that is done under the sun. » Because he had said above that the heart of the sons of men is filled with malice and shamelessness, and that after all these things it is ended by death: now he completes and repeats the same, that while men live they can become just, but after death no opportunity of good work is given. For a living suppliant can be better than a dead just man, if he wishes to pass over to his virtues. Or certainly, than he who boasted in malice, power, and shamelessness, and has died, anyone can be better, even a poor and most worthless man. Why?

because the living can perform good works through fear of death; but the dead can add nothing to what they once carried with them from life, and all things are wrapped in forgetfulness, according to what is written in the Psalm: I have been given over to forgetfulness, like a dead man from the heart (Ps. 30:13). But their love too, and hatred, and envy, and everything they could possess in the world, is ended by the arrival of death; nor can they now do anything justly, nor sin, nor add virtues, nor vices. Although some contradict this exposition, asserting that even after death we can grow and diminish, and they understand that which is now said: "And they will have no part any longer in the world, in all that is done under the sun," in such a way that they say they have no fellowship in this world and under this sun which we behold; but they do have it under another world, of which the Savior says: I am not of this world (John 8:23); and under the sun of righteousness; and they do not exclude the opinion which contends that after we have departed from this world, rational creatures can both offend and merit. Otherwise the Hebrew expounded this verse, in which it is said: For a living dog is better than a dead lion, setting it out among his own people thus: that even an unlearned man is more useful, one who is still alive and teaches, than a perfect teacher who is already dead.

For example, so that he might understand one of many teachers as a dog, and Moses or any other of the prophets as a lion. But because this exposition does not please us, let us press on to greater things: and let us say that that Canaanite woman, to whom it was said, "Your faith has saved you" (Matt. 9:23), is a dog according to the Gospel; but the dead lion is the people of the circumcision, as the prophet Balaam says: "Behold, the people shall rise up as a lion's whelp, and as a lion exulting" (Num. 23:24). The living dog, therefore, is we who are from the nations; but the dead lion is the people of the Jews, forsaken by the Lord. And better in the sight of the Lord is this living dog than that dead lion. For we, being alive, know the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; but they, being dead, know nothing, nor do they expect any promise and reward: but their memory is fulfilled. Neither do they remember what they ought to have known, nor does the Lord now remember them. The love also, by which they once loved God, has perished, and the hatred of which they spoke boldly: "Have I not hated those who hate you, O Lord, and wasted away over your enemies?" (Ps. 138:21); and also their zeal, according to which Phinehas was zealous, and the knees of Mattathias trembled [in Greek]. It is clear, moreover, that their portion is not in the world. For they cannot say: "The Lord is my portion" (Ps. 72:28).

Go, eat your bread in gladness, and drink your wine with a good heart, because your works have already pleased God. Let your garments be white at all times, and let oil not fail from your head”; up to the place where it says: “As fish that are caught in a very bad net, and as birds that are caught in a snare: so are the children of men caught in an evil time, when it falls upon them suddenly.” Before we dispute about individual points, all these things must be briefly summarized, so that it may appear in what sense they are all said together. Because in the preceding chapter he had said beforehand that after men have died, they fall away from the heart of the living, and no one has either love or hatred toward them, according to that line of the poet: “No contest with the vanquished, and [words] scattered to the empty air”: and because under the sun they can do nothing further: now, as it were, he introduces human error and the custom by which people urge one another to enjoy the goods of this world, and he makes a personification, in the manner of rhetoricians and poets, saying: O man, since therefore after death you are nothing, and death itself is nothing, hear my counsel, and while you live in this brief life, enjoy pleasure, use banquets, crush your cares with wine, and understand that they have been given to you by God for your use. Walk adorned in white garments, let your head be fragrant with ointments: whichever woman has pleased you, rejoice in her embrace, and run through this vain and brief life with vain and brief pleasure.

For you will have nothing more beyond these things to enjoy: whatever can delight you, seize it quickly, lest it perish. Nor should you dread frivolous fables, that a reckoning for each deed, whether good or evil, must be rendered to you among the dead. For there is no wisdom in death; no awareness remains after the dissolution of this life. And these things, he says, let some Epicurus say, and Aristippus and the Cyrenaics, and the other cattle of the philosophers. But I, carefully reflecting within myself, find—not as some wrongly judge—that all things are carried on by chance and that varied fortune plays with human affairs, but that all things are done by the judgment of God. For neither should the swift of foot, if he runs, think his course is his own; nor should the strong trust in his own strength, nor should the wise reckon that riches and wealth are gathered by prudence; nor should the eloquent and learned think that through eloquence and learning they can find favor among the people; but all things are done by God's disposing. And unless he has ruled all things by his own will and built the house, those who build it have labored in vain. Unless he has guarded the city, those who guard it watch in vain.

It is not, therefore, as they think, one and the same outcome, and the state of this life is not uncertain; for when they do not expect it, carried off by sudden death they will come to judgment. And just as fish are caught by hook and net, and birds, though free in the air, are bound by the snare while they do not (??) notice it, so too men, according to their desert, will be led away to eternal punishments, when death has come suddenly, and judgment upon those who thought that all things were tossed about in an uncertain state. These things are to be understood according to that sense in which we wished briefly to comprehend everything; now, as though he were speaking not in another's person but in his own, the individual points are to be interpreted: "Go, eat your bread in gladness, and drink your wine with a good heart, because your works have pleased God." Because you have learned that all things are ended by death, and that in hell there is no repentance, nor any return to virtues, while you are in this world, hasten, strive to do penance; while you have time, labor. For God willingly receives the penitent. Otherwise: and understood simply, it is profitable, according to that saying: "Whether you eat, or drink, or do anything, do all in the name of the Lord" (1 Cor. 10:31). And in another place: "Drink wine with counsel." For he does not have true gladness and a good heart who abuses creatures beyond measure. But it is better to understand it thus: he whose works have pleased before God will by no means be able to lack true bread and wine, which is trodden out from the vineyard of Sorech.

Therefore, since the commandment has been given to us, which says: You have desired wisdom; keep the commandments, and the Lord will minister it to you (Sirach 1:33): let us keep the commandments, and we shall be able to find the spiritual bread and wine. But to him who does not keep the commandments, and who glories in abundance of bread and wine, it is said through Isaiah: Do not say, I know her; for you have neither known nor understood, nor have I opened your ears from the beginning. For I know that the despisers will despise (Isaiah 48:8, according to the Septuagint). Moreover, what is said in the Septuagint translators: Come, eat your bread in gladness — this is the voice of that Ecclesiastes who speaks in the Gospel: If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink (John 7:37). And in Proverbs: Come, eat my breads, and drink my wine (Proverbs 9:5). At all times let your garments be white, and let oil not be lacking from your head. Have, he says, a clean body, and be merciful. Or thus: Let there be no time in which you do not have white garments; take care lest at any time you be clothed in polluted garments. For the sinful people is described as having shone in dark garments. But you — in light, light, and not the curse which was written over Judah: Let it be put on like a garment (Psalm 108:18). Clothe yourself with the bowels of mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience (Colossians 3). And when you have stripped off the old man with his works, clothe yourself with the new, which is renewed from day to day.

But as for what it says: And let not the oil of your head fail: it must be known that this is the nature of oil, that it both nourishes light and relieves the weariness of the tired. There is a spiritual oil, the oil of exultation, of which it is written: Therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of exultation before your companions (Psalm 45:8). With this oil our face must be made cheerful. With this oil the head of the one fasting must be anointed, which sinners cannot have, to whom it is said: There is no plaster to apply, nor oil, nor bandages (Isaiah 1:6). For they have a contrary oil, which the just man detests, saying: Let not the oil of the sinner make fat my head (Psalm 104:5). This oil the heretics have, and with it they desire to pour over the heads of the deceived.

«See life with the woman whom you have loved all the days of your vain life, who have been given to you under the sun: because this is your portion in life and in the labor in which you labor under the sun.» Follow wisdom and the knowledge of the Scriptures, and join this to yourself in marriage, of which it is said in Proverbs: Love her, and she will keep you: embrace her, and she will surround you (Proverbs 4:8). But the days of vanity signify the days of this wicked age. Of which the Apostle also does not keep silent.

But what it says, "See life with the woman whom you have loved," is spoken ambiguously: either "see and contemplate life, both you and your wife with you" (for you cannot see life alone without such a wife), or consider both, and see life, and the woman, in the days of your vanity. And it aptly instructs that in the days of our vanity we should seek true life with a wise wife. For this is our portion, and this the fruit of labor, if in this shadowy life we are able to find true life.

"Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might: because there is no work, and thought, and knowledge, and wisdom in hell, where you are going." Do whatever you can now, and labor: because when you have descended to hell, there will be no place for repentance. Something similar to this is commanded by the Savior: "Work while it is day: night will come, when no one will be able to work" (John 9:4). But what it says, "In hell, where you are going," note that you should believe Samuel also was truly in hell: and before the coming of Christ, all, even the saints, were held by the law of hell. Furthermore, that the saints after the resurrection of the Lord are by no means held in hell, the Apostle testifies, saying: "It is better to be dissolved, and to be with Christ" (Philippians 1:23). But whoever is with Christ is certainly not held in hell.

I turned and saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the prudent, nor favor to the learned, because time and chance befall them all." The one who is bound in iron fetters and weighed down by heavy chains of lead—for iniquity sits upon the leaden talent (Zech. 5:7), and in the Psalm it is said: "Like a heavy burden they are weighed down upon me" (Ps. 38:5)—is not fit for that race of which it is said: "I have finished the race, I have kept the faith" (2 Tim. 4:7). But the one who is light, and whose soul is not weighed down, nonetheless cannot reach the finish line without God as his helper. Moreover, when there is battle against the opposing powers, of which it is written: "Sanctify the war" (Jer. 6:4), even if he is strong, he will not be able to conquer by his own strength. Also, one who is perfect among the children of men and wise will not be able to have the living and heavenly bread, except through Wisdom, which exhorts: "Come, eat my bread." And because there are riches of which the Apostle says: "Be rich in good works" (1 Tim. 6:18), and elsewhere: "You have become rich in every word and in all knowledge" (1 Cor. 1:5), it must be understood that a prudent man cannot gather these riches unless he has received them from the Lord, whose riches they are. Of these it is also said elsewhere: "The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches" (Prov. 15:8).

Grace too, unless it has been accompanied by knowledge and granted by God, an educated man will not be able to find it. Paul, knowing this, says: "I labored more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me" (1 Cor. 15:10). And again: "His grace in me was not in vain." And finally, it is not known by man when the time may come in which the varied outcome and the end of all things follows. This is the second point.

But to speak more simply, the Epistle to the Romans agrees with this passage: "Because it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" (Rom. 9:16). Now what it says, "Bread is not for the wise," is proved daily by the example of many who, though they are most wise, lack necessities. And "grace is not for the learned": for you may see in the Church the most unskilled of people flourishing, and because they have nourished boldness of countenance and acquired a fluency of tongue, while they do not reflect on what they say, they consider themselves prudent and learned—especially if they have the favor of the crowd, which is more delighted and moved by lighter words. And, on the contrary, an educated man lies hidden in obscurity, suffers persecutions, and not only has no favor among the people but wastes away in want and poverty. These things happen because all things are borne along in an uncertain state, and there is no recompense of merits in the present, but in the future.

And indeed a man does not know his time, like fish that are caught in a most wretched net, and like birds that are gathered in a snare: in the same way the sons of men are entangled in an evil time, when it falls upon them suddenly." We have already said above that, while men do not know, distress or destruction comes upon them. Furthermore, according to the allegorical sense, it must be known that the kingdom of heaven is like a net cast into the sea (Matthew 13); and, on the contrary, heretics have their own net, by which they catch fish to destruction. Their net is affable speech, flattering eloquence, feigned or forced fastings, humble dress, the imitation of virtues. But if they begin both to dispute about things above and to lift up their mouth on high and to seek the heights of God, they set a snare in the high places. Therefore, just as fish and birds are quickly caught by such a net and by the snare of this kind, so when iniquity has been multiplied and the love of many has grown cold, and signs and wonders have been performed, so that even the elect, if possible, may be deceived (Matthew 24), it must be known that ecclesiastical men too, who are called sons of men and are of little faith, can quickly fall. It should also be noted that throughout the whole book, wherever it says "sons of men," the Hebrew has "sons of man," that is, sons of Adam. And almost all Scripture is full of this idiom, calling the whole human race the sons of Adam.

But I too have seen this wisdom under the sun, and it is great in my estimation. There was a small city and few men in it: and a great king came against it and surrounded it, and built a great siege-engine against it. And he found in it a poor and wise man, and this man saved the city by his wisdom: and no man remembered that poor man. While others say that all things are uncertain, and that the just man has nothing more than the unjust, I have proved wisdom to be greatest even in this: that it often happens that a city is small, and its inhabitants few, and it is surrounded by the army of countless enemies, and the people within are killed by siege and famine: and suddenly, contrary to everyone's expectation, a humble and poor man is found, who, because he has wisdom greater than all the rich, great, powerful, and proud men who are placed in danger and terrified by the siege, thinks and inquires and finds a way to rescue the city from evils. And, O thankless forgetfulness of men, after we have been set free, and the captivity dissolved, and the fatherland's liberty restored, no one remembers that poor wise man, no one gives thanks for the deliverance: but all honor the rich, who could bring no help in the danger. The Hebrew interpreted this passage differently, as follows: The small city is man, who is even called by the philosophers the lesser world. And the few men in it are the members from which man himself is composed.

But when the great king, the devil, has come against it, and has sought a place through which he might break in, there is found in it a humble and wise man, and the quiet thought of the inner man, and he saves the city that was being encircled, besieged by enemies. And when a man has been delivered from the danger of persecution, or of distress, or of any adverse thing and of sin, that outer man, who is the enemy of that poor and wise man, does not remember the inner man, nor does he submit himself to his counsels, but again enjoys his own freedom. Otherwise: The small city, and the few men in it, compared with the whole world, is the Church, against which the great king, the devil, often rises up (not because he is great, but because he boasts that he is great), and surrounds it with a siege, whether of persecution or of another kind of distress. And he finds in it a poor and wise man, the Lord Jesus Christ, who for our sake became poor (II Cor. 8:9) and is wisdom itself; and that poor man delivers the city in his wisdom. How often have we seen the lion sitting in ambush with the rich, that is, with the senators and princes of this world, and striving against the Church, brought down by the wisdom of this poor man? And when this poor man has conquered, and the city has been restored to peace, scarcely anyone remembers him, scarcely anyone considers his commandments; but giving themselves wholly over to luxury and pleasures, they seek riches, which do not deliver in time of need.

And I said, wisdom is better than strength, and the wisdom of the poor man which was despised, and his words which were not heard. Although no one remembers that poor wise man when all things are prosperous, but all admire power and riches, yet I, in accordance with all the interpretations above, honor more the despised wisdom and the words which no one deigns to hear.

The words of the wise are heard in quiet, more than the shout of one having power among fools. Whoever you see in the Church as a declaimer, and who with a certain allurement and charm of words stirs up applause, provokes laughter, rouses the hearers into feelings of joy: know that it is a sign of foolishness, both of him who speaks and of those who hear. For the words of the wise are heard in quiet and in moderate silence; but he who is foolish, however powerful he may be, and whether he has the shout of his own voice or of the people acclaiming him, will be counted among fools.

Wisdom is better than weapons of war, and one sinner destroys much good." Now too he prefers wisdom to strength, and says that it is more powerful in battles than the weapons of those who fight. But if one foolish man exists, although he is small and nothing, yet often through his folly great wealth and riches are overturned. But since in the Hebrew it can be read: "And he who sins in one thing destroys much good," it must also be understood this way: that because of one sin many righteous deeds perish in retrospect, and that the virtues follow one another, and he who has one has all, and he who has sinned in one thing is subject to all vices (James 2).

(Chapter 10.) "Dead flies defile the oil of ointment: a little folly is precious above wisdom and glory." He gave an example of the preceding meaning, in which he said that through one fool many good things can be overturned, namely that the wicked man, mixed with the good, contaminates very many, just as flies, if they die in ointment, destroy both its scent and its color. And because wisdom is often mixed with cunning, and prudence has malice, he instructs that we seek simple wisdom, and that it be mixed with the innocence of doves; let us be wise for good, but simple for evil. And the meaning is: It is fitting for the righteous man to have a little simplicity, and because of excessive patience, while he reserves vengeance for God, to seem foolish, rather than immediately avenging himself and practicing malice under the veil of prudence.

Otherwise: the flies which, according to Isaiah, rule over the part of the river of Egypt destroy the sweetness of the oil, leaving in each of the faithful the odor and traces of their uncleanness. From these flies the prince of demons was also called Beelzebub, which is interpreted either as the idol of flies, or the man of flies, or the one having flies.

"The heart of the wise is in his right hand, and the heart of the fool in his left. But even on the way, when the fool walks, his heart is diminished: and he says, every man is a fool." And in the Gospel it is commanded that the left hand of the wise should not know what the right hand does. And when we are struck on the right cheek, we are not commanded to offer the left cheek to the one who strikes, but the other right cheek. For the righteous man has no left in himself, but everything in him is right. And when the Savior comes to judge, the lambs will stand on the right, but the goats will be on the left. And in Proverbs it is written: The Lord knows the right ways; but those that are perverse are on the left. Therefore whoever is wise always thinks of the future age, which leads to the right. But whoever is foolish thinks of the present, which is placed on the left. Following this, the same philosopher and poet says: The right way which leads beneath the walls of great Dis—by this is our path to Elysium; but the left exercises the punishments of the wicked, and sends them to impious Tartarus.

Our Firmianus too, in the renowned work of his Institutions, makes mention of the letter Y, and disputed most fully concerning things on the right and on the left, that is, concerning virtues and vices. Nor should we think that this is contrary to that little sentence in which it is said: Do not turn aside to the right, nor to the left (Prov. 4:27). For here the right side is taken for the good; there, however, it is not so much the right as a turning aside from the right that is accused: lest we be wise beyond what it is necessary for us to be wise, because virtues are in the middle, and all excess is in vice. But the sense of the following verse, in which he says, "But even when a fool walks on the way, his heart is in need, and he says: all is foolishness," or "the fool," is this: the fool, just as he himself sins, hopes that all sin in the same way, and judges everyone by his own nature. Finally Symmachus interpreted it thus: "But even when a fool walks on the way, he himself, being foolish, suspects concerning all that they are fools." The Seventy, however, produced a different sense, by which I would say: "All the things that a fool thinks are utterly vain.

If the spirit of one who has power ascends over you, do not abandon your place, because soundness makes great sins rest." The Scripture here signifies the prince of this world, and the ruler of these darknesses, and the one working in the sons of unbelief, whom the Apostle also mentions. But if he has ascended into our heart, and the mind has received the wound of an evil thought, we ought no longer to give him a place, but to fight against the worst thought, and to free ourselves from the greatest sin—namely, lest we complete the thought in deed; because it is one thing to sin in thought, another in deed. Concerning this great sin it is also written in the Psalm: "If they have not had dominion over me, then I shall be spotless, and I shall be cleansed from the greatest transgression." Symmachus interpreted the Hebrew word MARPHE, which all others likewise translated as "soundness" or "healing," according to the sense, and said: "If the spirit of the prince rushes upon you, do not withdraw from your place, because chastity suppresses great sins." That is, if the devil has tickled your mind, and stirred you to lust, do not follow the worst thought and the flattering pleasure; but stand strong and rigid, and extinguish the flame of pleasure with the cold of chastity. The Hebrew suspected some such thing in this passage.

If you have received any dignity in the world, and have been appointed greater among the peoples, do not abandon your former works, and do not begin to forget your earlier virtues, nor to disregard your former labor: because the remedy of sins is born from good conduct, and not from swollen and superfluous dignity.

"There is an evil which I have seen under the sun, as it were ignorance proceeding from the face of one who has power: that a fool be given high places, and the rich sit in lowliness. I saw servants on horses, and princes walking on the earth like servants." For what we have set down as "as it were ignorance proceeding from the face of one who has power," Aquila and Theodotion and the Seventy interpreted as "as it were not voluntary," that is, "from the face of a prince." To this Symmachus, adding, says: "A fool placed in great sublimity: but the rich sitting lowly." And so he recalls that he has observed this iniquity in the world, that the judgment of God seems to be unjust: and whether through ignorance, or whether it happens without his will, that either among the powers of the world, or in the principate of the Church, those who are rich in speech and wisdom, rich also in good works, sit inglorious, and each imprudent person holds the principate in the Church. But the Apostle does not keep silent that this is done by the devil, who has power in the world, so that he may press down any powerful and learned men, and not permit them to appear among the peoples.

But those whom he knows to be foolish in the Churches, he makes greater, so that the blind are led by the blind into the pit. To this sense also belongs what follows: "I saw servants upon horses, and princes walking like servants upon the earth." That is, those who are servants of vice and sin, or so lowly that they are counted as servants by men, suddenly puffed up by the devil with dignity, wear out the public roads with ponies; while anyone noble and prudent, oppressed by poverty, walks along the path and office of servants. The Hebrew exposited God as the powerful one and prince, from whose face ignorance seems to proceed, because men think that in this inequality of things he does not judge justly, and as is fair. Furthermore, others think this should be joined with the preceding: that he himself is the powerful one, of whom it is said before these verses: "If the spirit of one having power ascends upon you, do not leave your place." Let us not therefore be sad if in this world we seem lowly, knowing that from the face of the devil both fools are raised up and the rich are cast down: servants have the insignia of masters, and princes enter in the vileness of servants. But it should be noted that here too the horse is taken in a good sense, as there: "And your riding is salvation.

Whoever digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks down a hedge, a serpent will bite him." This is partly a simple and partly a mystical understanding. For indeed Solomon himself says elsewhere: "Whoever sets a snare will be caught in it" (Sirach 27:26). And in the seventh psalm: "He opened a pit and dug it out, and he fell into the pit he made." But the tearing down of the hedge and the wall are the ecclesiastical dogmas and the teaching founded by the apostles and prophets; whoever dissolves these and wishes to pass them by, in that very neglect of his he is struck by the serpent. Of this serpent it is also written in Amos: "If they descend into hell, I will command the serpent, and it will bite them" (Amos 9:3).

"Whoever removes stones will grieve over them: and whoever splits wood will be in danger over them." In Zechariah too (chapter 9, verse 16) the holy stones are rolled over the earth. For they do not stand firm in their station upon it, but they pass by, and always striving toward higher things, they hasten to depart from here. From these living stones, also in the Apocalypse (chapter 16 and following verses), the city of the Savior is built, and the Apostle does not keep silent that the Church is built. If anyone, therefore, perverted by heretical craft, has removed these stones from the building of the Church (whence also Aquila and Symmachus pointedly, for what we have set down as "Whoever removes stones will grieve over them," said: "Whoever transfers stones will be torn apart over them"), afterward he will suffer torments.

But because Scripture says absolutely, "Whoever removes stones," or "Whoever transfers stones," and did not add "good" or "bad," therefore it must also be understood conversely: that an ecclesiastical man—namely a bishop or a presbyter—if, according to the command of Leviticus (ch. 14, v. 45), he has removed a stone from a leprous house to be ground into ash and dust, will grieve in that very act, because he is compelled to remove a stone from the Church of Christ, saying according to the Apostle: "Weep with those who weep, mourn with those who mourn" (Rom. 12:15); and, "Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn?" (2 Cor. 11:29). Also, he who splits wood will be endangered by it. Heretics are unfruitful wood, and a grove without the usefulness of fruits. Hence also in the temple of God a grove is forbidden to be planted, and the vain shadows of leaves—that is, of words that merely make sound—are despised. Therefore, although he be a prudent and learned man who cuts these woods with the sword of his speech, he will be endangered by them unless he has carefully attended; especially if what follows happens to him: "If the iron has been blunted, and its face has been disturbed," that is, if his disputation has been found weaker, and has not the sharpness with which to cut through contrary things, but the principal part of his heart is dulled, he will pass over to the adverse side, and perverse strength will confirm him.

For this is what the Seventy Interpreters translated: "And he will be strengthened with strength; and being strengthened by superfluous wisdom, he will begin," he says, "to have strength, and wisdom which is superfluous and does not help its possessor."

"If the iron has been blunted; and this not once before, but it has been thrown into confusion, he will be strengthened by virtues: and the remainder of strength is wisdom." If someone, he says, sees that through negligence he has lost knowledge of the Scriptures, and the sharpness of his intellect has been dulled, and being thrown into confusion he has by no means remained such as he had already begun to be. For it happens sometimes that when someone has had a little knowledge, puffed up into pride, he ceases to learn and to read, and gradually from the fact that nothing is added to him, it is taken away, and his breast remains empty of disciplines, and the iron that had been sharp is blunted; for leisure and sloth are, as it were, a kind of rust of wisdom. If therefore someone has suffered this, let him not despair of the remedy of health, but let him go to the master, and again be instructed by him, and after labor and diligence, and excessive sweat, he will be able to receive the wisdom he had lost. This is what is said more significantly in Hebrew: "And he will be strengthened by strengths," that is, by labor, and sweat, and diligence, and daily reading, he will attain wisdom, and his crookedness will have this end, that he receive wisdom.

If the serpent bites in silence, there is no more for him who has a tongue." The simple sense here is this: the serpent and the detractor are alike. For just as the former, biting secretly, injects venom, so the latter, slandering in secret, pours out the poison of his breast upon his brother, and has nothing more than the serpent. For since man's tongue was created for blessing and for the edification of one's neighbor, he makes it equal to a serpent when he abuses its powers perversely. Otherwise: if the serpent, the devil, has secretly bitten someone and, with no one aware, has infected him with the venom of sin, if the one struck keeps silent and does not do penance, nor is willing to confess his wound to his brother and to the teacher, the teacher and brother, who have a tongue for healing, cannot easily benefit him. For if the sick man is ashamed to confess his wound to the physician, what medicine does not know, it does not cure.

"The words of the mouth of the wise are grace, and the lips of the fool will cast him down." Folly, if it were content with its own rusticity, would have less of evil. But now it wages war against wisdom, and whatever prudence it sees in a learned man, stirred by envy it does not receive. For the wise man speaks words of knowledge and words of grace, which can offer benefit to hearers, and the ears of the fool do not receive what is said as it was said; but on the contrary they try to supplant the prudent man and make him like themselves.

And indeed the wise man is cast down when he speaks into the ear of the imprudent, and his words perish in a deep whirlpool, so to speak. Hence the blessed man is the one who speaks into the ear of the one who listens.

"The beginning of his words is folly, and the last of his mouth is the worst error. And the fool multiplies words. Man does not know what it is that has been done; and what is to be after him, who will announce it to him?" The discussion is still about the fool, whose lips cast down the wise man, or according to another interpretation, make the fool himself fall. For the beginning of his speech, and its end, is folly and the worst error; or, as Symmachus translated, "tumult, and a certain inconstancy of words," since he does not remain in his opinion, but thinks that by multiplying words he can escape sin. For since he neither remembers past things nor knows future things, and is rolled about in ignorance and darkness, promising himself false knowledge, he thinks himself learned in this, wise in this, if he multiplies words. This can also be understood of heretics, who do not grasp the sayings of wise men; but preparing themselves for contrary disputations, they wrap up both the beginning and the end of speaking in vanity, tumult, and error: and when they know nothing, they speak more than they know.

The labor of fools will afflict them, who do not know how to go into the city.” Join these verses also with the preceding ones: either he speaks generally of all fools who do not know God, or more specifically he disputes concerning heretics. Read Plato; turn over the subtleties of Aristotle; look more diligently into Zeno and Carneades, and you will prove that what is said is true. “The labor of fools will afflict them.” They indeed sought the truth with all zeal; but because they did not have a guide and one going before them on the way, and they thought that by human senses they could comprehend wisdom, they by no means reached the city, of which it is said in the Psalm: O Lord, in your city you will bring their image to nothing (Ps. 72:20). For all the shadows and various images and persons which they put on for themselves in various doctrines, the Lord will scatter in their city. Of which it is also written elsewhere: The rushing of the river gladdens the city of God (Ps. 45:5). And in the Gospel: A city set on a mountain cannot be hidden (Matt. 5:14). And in Isaiah: I am a strong city, a city that is besieged (Isa. 27:30, according to the LXX). Indeed, this city of truth and wisdom, since it is firm and strong, all both the wise of the world and heretics try to attack. And what we have said of the philosophers, the same must also be understood of the heretics, that they labor in vain and are afflicted in the study of the Scriptures, since they walk in the desert and cannot find the city.

Concerning whose error the Psalmist also makes mention, saying: "They wandered in the desert and in the waterless place; they did not find the way of the city and of its dwelling" (Ps. 106:4).

"Woe to you, land, whose king is a youth, and whose princes eat in the morning. Blessed is the land whose king is the son of the freeborn, and whose princes eat in due time, in strength and not in confusion." He seems indeed to reprove the rule of the young and to condemn luxurious judges, because in the one case wisdom is weak through age, and in the other even mature age is enervated by pleasures. And on the contrary, he seems to approve a prince of good morals and liberally instructed, and to praise those judges who by no means prefer pleasure to the business of the citizens, but after much labor and the administration of the commonwealth are compelled as it were by necessity to take food. But to me something more sacred seems to lie hidden in the letter: that those are called "young" in Scripture who revolt from ancient authority and despise the hoary precepts of their parents, who, neglecting the command of God, desire to establish the traditions of men. Concerning whom the Lord also threatens Israel in Isaiah (chapter 8), because it was unwilling to accept the waters of Shiloah, which flow in silence, and turned away from the old pool, choosing for itself the streams of Samaria and the whirlpools of Damascus. And, he says, "I will give their princes as youths, and mockers shall rule over them" (Isa. 3:4). Read Daniel, and you will find God as the Ancient of Days (Dan. 7).

Read the Apocalypse of John, and you will find the head of the Savior white as snow and like white wool (Rev. 1). Jeremiah too, because he was wise and his gray hairs were reckoned in wisdom, is forbidden to say that he is young (Jer. 1). Woe, therefore, to the land whose king is the devil, who, always eager for new things, even in Absalom rebels against his parent: a land that has as its judges and princes those who love the pleasures of this world, who, before the day of death comes, say: "Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die" (Isa. 22:13). By contrast, blessed is the land of the Church, whose king is Christ, the Son of the freeborn; descending from the stock of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and of all the prophets and saints, over whom sin did not reign; and for that reason they were truly free. From these was born the Virgin, freer still, holy Mary, having no shoot, no sprout from the mud; but all her fruit burst forth into a flower, speaking in the Song of Songs: "I am the flower of the field and the lily of the valleys" (Song 2:1). Its princes too are the apostles and all the saints, who have as their king the son of the freeborn, the son of the free woman; not born of the slave girl Hagar, but of Sarah's freedom. Nor do they eat in the morning, nor quickly. For they have not sought their pleasure in the present world, but in their own time they will eat when the time of recompense arrives, and they will eat in strength, and not in confusion.

Every good of the present age is confusion; of the future, perpetual strength. Something of this sort is also said in Isaiah: Behold, those who serve me shall eat; but you shall hunger (Isa. 65). And again: Behold, those who serve me shall rejoice; but you shall be ashamed (Isa. 65:14).

"In slothfulness the roof-beam shall be brought low, and in the weakness of the hands the house shall drip." Our house, which was raised up with the standing of man, and the dwelling that we have in the heavens—if we are slothful and too slow to good works—shall be brought low. And every roof-beam that ought to bear the roof on high, falling down to the earth, will crush its inhabitant. And when the help of hands and of virtues has grown torpid, all storms from above and the whirlwind of clouds burst in upon us. Furthermore, what we have interpreted in the case of one man can better be understood of the Church: that through the negligence of her leaders all her height collapses, and there be allurements of vices where the covering of virtues was thought to be.

In laughter they make bread and wine, so that the living may feast. And all things obey silver.” I consider that what follows depends on the preceding. For we have explained above that through the sloth and indolence of teachers the Church is brought low, and her roof-tree falls, and her beams are swept away. Now, therefore, he speaks concerning these same teachers. And because he had seemed to accuse them for keeping silent and not discharging the office of teachers—that bishops and presbyters established in the Church did not labor in speech and doctrine, which Titus is also admonished to do (Tit. 1:5), and Timothy is instructed not to neglect the grace he had received through the laying on of hands; but that in this they should reckon themselves presbyters and bishops, so as to receive wholesome things, and as teachers seek the double honor that is due to those who labor in doctrine and speech (1 Tim. 4:14)—now, on the contrary, he accuses those who indeed speak in the Church and teach the peoples, but teach those things that delight the people to hear, because he flatters sinners in their vice and stirs up the clamor of his hearers. Do you not think that when speech runs wanton in the Church and promises blessedness and the kingdoms of heaven to the multitude, it seems to make bread in laughter and to mix wine for the gladness of the living?

Whether because those who teach themselves acquire riches, and foods, and wealth through pleasurable promises; or because they make the bread of the Church, which is the bread of those who mourn and not of those who laugh (blessed indeed are those who mourn, for they shall laugh), in gladness and joy. But what follows: All things obey money or silver, must be understood in two ways: either that the teachers themselves, after they have been enriched by flattery, exercise dominion over the peoples; or certainly, because silver is always taken for speech: For the words of the Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire of the earth, purified sevenfold (Psalm 11:7): he asserts this, that to eloquence and speech, which is composed with the foliage of words, the ignoble crowd easily yields. Otherwise: Those who have the bridegroom with them, and for that reason are forbidden to mourn and fast, make bread in laughter. From this laughter Isaac also received his name, and in the gladness of those drinking they prepare wine. And so every holy man who, as Christ commanded, is a teacher of the Church, makes bread in laughter and gladness, and ministers cups of wine in joy. Silver also, to which all things obey, are those five talents from the Gospel, and two, and one of the father of the household, and the ten minas, which are entrusted to servants for trading (Matthew 25, ff.).

«Do not curse the king in your mind, and in the secret of your bedchamber do not curse the rich; for a bird of the sky will carry off your voice, and one that has wings will report the word.» And the simple precept edifies its hearers: that we not, overcome by anger and fury, burst forth into cursing and slander against kings and rulers; because sometimes it happens contrary to hope that what we have cursed is reported to those very persons, and we incur danger through the immoderation of the tongue. But what it says, «A bird of the sky will carry off your voice, and one that has wings will report the word,» is to be understood hyperbolically, in the way we are accustomed to say that even the very walls, as witnesses when we speak, will not conceal what they have heard. But it is better to hear the precept thus, that we know it has been commanded us not only to speak nothing rashly against Christ, but also in the secrets of the heart, although we are constrained by various tribulations, to think nothing blasphemous, nothing impious. And because the love which we show to Christ we owe also to our neighbor—for You shall love the Lord your God, but also your neighbor as yourself—even now we are commanded not to detract easily from the king concerning the saints as well, and not to gnaw with the sharpness of the tongue those whom we have seen enriched with wisdom, knowledge, and virtues; because the angels who go about the earth, and are ministering spirits, also speak in Zechariah: We have gone about the earth, and behold, all the earth is inhabited, and it is silent (Zech.

(11:1): like birds, our words and thoughts carry to heaven; and what we think in secret does not escape the knowledge of God.

(Cap. 11) «Send your bread over the face of the waters: for after many days you will find it.» He exhorts to almsgiving, that it should be given to everyone who asks, and that good should be done without discrimination. For just as one who sows upon well-watered ground expects the fruit of his seed, so he who gives generously to the needy sows not a grain of seed but bread itself, awaiting its increase through a kind of interest; and when the day of judgment comes, he will receive far more than he gave. Otherwise: in whatever man you see that water of which it is said, «Rivers of living water shall flow from his belly» (John 7:38), do not be reluctant to offer him the bread of wisdom, the rational bread, the bread of speech. For if you do this frequently, you will find that you have not scattered the seed of teachings in vain. I think something of this kind is also said in Isaiah: «Blessed is he who sows upon the water, where the ox and the ass tread» (Isa. 32:20). That teacher is deemed worthy of blessedness who sows upon the well-watered breast of his hearers, gathered both from the Jews and from the people of the Gentiles.

«Give a portion to seven, and indeed to eight: for you do not know what evil will be upon the earth.» And in Ezekiel seven and eight steps are read for the ascent of the temple (Ezek. 40:26, 31). And after that ethical psalm, that is, the one hundred and eighteenth, there are the psalms of fifteen degrees, through which we are first instructed in the law, and when the number seven is completed, afterwards through the ogdoad we climb to the Gospel. It is commanded, therefore, that we believe in each instrument, namely both the old and the new, with equal veneration. The Jews gave a portion to seven, believing in the Sabbath, but they did not give to eight, denying the resurrection of the Lord's day. On the contrary, the heretics, Marcion and Manichaeus, and all who tear apart the old law with rabid mouth, give portions to eight, accepting the Gospel, but they do not assign the same to the number seven, rejecting the old law. Let us, therefore, believe in each instrument. For we cannot now comprehend in mind the worthy torments and the worthy punishment that are stored up for those who dwell on the earth, Jews and heretics, who deny one of the two. The Hebrews understand this passage thus: Observe both the Sabbath and circumcision, lest perhaps if you fail to do this, an unforeseen evil come upon you.

«If the clouds are filled, they will pour out rain upon the earth. And if a tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will be.» Keep the commandments that were commanded you above, so that I may pour out my rain upon you as clouds. For wherever you prepare a place for yourself and a future seat, whether to the south or to the north, there when you have died you will remain. Otherwise: For this reason we said above: «Send your bread upon the face of the waters, and give to everyone who asks of you;» because both the clouds, when they have been filled, bestow their riches on mortals, and you, like a tree, although you may be long-lived, will not be forever, but suddenly, overthrown by the storm of death as by winds, wherever you fall, there you will remain forever, whether the final time finds you rigid and harsh, or gentle and merciful. Otherwise: It is said to God in the Psalms: Your truth reaches to the clouds (Ps. 35:6); and in Isaiah, God threatens the sinful vineyard: I will command the clouds not to rain upon it (Isa. 5:6). The clouds, therefore, are the prophets, and every holy man, who when he has gathered many teachings in his heart, then will be able to rain the precepts of doctrines, and to say: Let my speech be awaited like rain, and let them pour out rain upon the earth (Deut. 32:2); to which it was said: Let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

But as for what follows: «And if the tree falls to the south or to the north, in the place where the tree falls, there it will be» — let us take that example from Habakkuk, where it is written: «God will come from Theman» (Hab. 3:3), which other translators rendered, «God will come from the south.» And, as I judge, the south is always taken in a good sense. Hence also in the Song of Songs it is said: «Arise, north» (Cant. 4:16) — that is, withdraw and depart, and come, south. The tree, therefore, that has fallen in this life and has been cut down by the condition of mortality either sinned before while it stood and is afterward placed in the region of the north, or, if it bore fruits worthy of the south, it will lie in the southern region. Nor is there any tree that is not either to the north or to the south. The same thing is signified also by what is written in Isaiah: «I will say to the north, Give them up, and to the southwest wind, Do not withhold» (Isa. 43:6). For it is never commanded of the south and the east wind that they bring them, because those who are afterward to be led to the east and the south must be in other regions. The north, therefore, brings its inhabitants to the south, and the southwest wind to the east. For they cannot advance if they persist in their former seats.

«Whoever observes the wind will not sow; and whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.» Whoever considers to whom he should do good, and does not give to everyone who asks him, often passes by the one who deserves to receive (Luke 6:30). Otherwise: whoever preaches the word of God only at the time when the people willingly listen, and when the favorable breeze of popular report blows, is a careless sower and a lazy farmer. For in the very midst of prosperity, while we do not know it, adversities rise up. But the word of God must be preached in season and out of season, at its own steady course (2 Timothy 4:2); nor, in a time of faith, is the storm of adverse clouds to be considered. Of this it is said in Proverbs: Like a violent and useless rain, so are those who abandon wisdom and praise impiety (Proverbs 28 and 4). Therefore, without considering the clouds and without fear of the winds, we must sow in the midst of storms. Nor should it be said: that time is convenient, this one useless, since we do not know what the way and what the will of the spirit that dispenses all things is.

«How is it that you do not know what the way of the spirit is, and like the bones in the womb of a pregnant woman: so you do not know the works of God, who makes all things.» Just as you do not know the way of the spirit and of the soul entering into the little one, and you are ignorant of the varieties of bones and veins in the womb of a pregnant woman: how from a base element the body of a man is varied into different shapes and limbs, and from the same seed one part softens into flesh, another hardens into bones, another throbs in the veins, and another is bound together in the sinews: so you will not be able to know the works of God, who is the maker of all things. From this he teaches that contrary things are not to be feared, nor is judgment to be passed rashly about the winds and clouds that we mentioned above: since the sower ought to proceed in his own course and tenor, and to reserve the outcome to the Lord's sentence. For it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy (Rom. 9:16).

«In the morning sow your seed, and in the evening do not withhold your hand: for you do not know which will please, this or that. Even if both are, as it were, one good, and the light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to see the sun: because if a man has lived many years, let him rejoice in all these things, (??) let him remember the days of darkness, because they will be very many. Everything that is to come is vanity.» Do not choose whom you should benefit; but even when you have done good, never cease from the good work. Let evening find the morning's righteousness. And let the rising sun heap up mercy for the evening. For it is uncertain which work pleases God more, and from which the fruit of righteousness may be prepared for you.

But it can happen that not one thing only, but both, are pleasing to God. Otherwise: Both in youth and in old age let your labor be alike. And do not say: While I was able, I labored; I ought to rest in old age. For you do not know whether you are pleasing to God in youth or in advanced age. Nor does the frugality of youth profit, if old age is spent in luxury. For on whatever day the righteous man has gone astray, his former righteousness will not be able to free him from death. But if, according to either interpretation, you have always done good, and have kept an even course at every age, you will see God the Father, the sweetest light; you will see Christ, the sun of righteousness. Furthermore, if you have lived many years, and have had all good things, or have performed good works, and you know that you must always be dying, and the approach of darkness is always turning before your eyes, you will despise present things as fleeting, fragile, and falling away. Symmachus has interpreted the end of this sentence thus: If a man has lived many years, and has rejoiced in all of them, he ought to remember also the days of darkness, because they will be many, and in all of them will come the ceasing to be. Otherwise: He promises in another place of Scripture, with God saying: I will give you the early and the late rain (Deut. 11:14), namely the old Testament and the new, and with both showers I will water you.

Hence we are also admonished now to read the old Law in such a way that we do not despise the Gospel; to seek the spiritual understanding in the Old Instrument in such a way that we do not think that in the evangelists and apostles only what is read aloud has meaning. For we are ignorant of the fact that knowledge is granted to us by God more in one respect, and grace in another, and that he is blessed who has joined both together in common and made them, as it were, one body. Whoever has attained this will see the light, will see Christ, the sun of justice. And if he has lived for many years, he will pass his time in the highest joy and delight, having knowledge of the Scriptures, and will be driven to this labor all the more by the remembrance of the future judgment: because a perpetual time of darkness will come, and eternal punishments are being prepared for those who have not sown in the morning and in the evening, and have by no means joined both together: nor have they seen the light, nor the sun, from which that light itself comes forth.

(Chapter XII.) "Rejoice, young man, in your youth, and let your heart be in good in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart, and in the sight of your eyes. And know this, that over all these things God will bring you into judgment. And repel anger from your heart, and take away malice from your flesh: because youth and folly are vanity. And remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of malice come, and the years draw near in which you will say: I have no will in them." In this chapter, the explanation of all has been diverse, and there have been almost as many opinions as men. Hence, because it is long to review the opinions of all, and to explain the arguments by which they wished to approve their opinions, it is nearly the matter of a single volume: let it suffice for the prudent to have indicated what they thought, and, as if in a certain brief tablet, to have painted the sites of the lands, and to have shown the vastness of the whole world and the circuit of the Ocean in a narrow compendium.

The Hebrews think that the command pertains to Israel, by which it is enjoined that it enjoy its riches before the time of captivity comes upon it, and exchange adolescence for old age: whatever delightful or pleasant thing has appeared, whether to the heart or to the eyes, let it use it while it is at hand; yet in such a way that it knows itself to be judged in all things, and flees both evil thoughts and lusts, knowing that foolishness is coupled with adolescence; and let it always remember its Creator, before the days of the Babylonian and Roman captivity arrive, in which it will not be able to have its will. And this entire passage, from what it says, "Before the sun grows dark, and the moon, and the stars," up to the place in which Scripture recalls, "And the dust will return to its earth as it was, and the spirit will return to the Lord, who gave it," they explain concerning the state of its condition. Because these things, as we said above, are verbose and lengthy, they will be touched upon by us briefly and in summary. Rejoice therefore in your youth, O Israel, and do this or that, of which it has already been said, before the captivity comes, and your honor and glory depart from you, and your judges and your holy ones (whom they wish to be understood in the sun, and moon, and stars) are taken away. Before Nebuchadnezzar comes, or Titus the son of Vespasian, summoned by the prophets, and their prophecies are fulfilled.

On the day when the angels, the guardians of the temple, withdraw, and the strongest of your army are thrown into confusion, and the eloquence of the teachers falls silent, and the prophets, who were wont to receive the light of their visions from the heavens, grow dark: when the gates of the temple are shut, and Jerusalem is brought low, and the Chaldean comes, as if summoned by the voice of Jeremiah like the song of a bird (Jer. 9), and the daughters of song fall silent, the choirs of those singing psalms in the temple. At that time, when they come to Jerusalem, the enemies of God themselves will also dread its greatness, and doubtful on the way, they will fear the destruction of Sennacherib. For they think this was said: And they shall fear from on high, and shall be afraid on the way (Isa. 37). In those days the almond tree shall blossom—that staff and rod which Jeremiah saw in the beginning of his prophecy—and the locust shall grow fat, Nebuchadnezzar with his army, and the caper berry shall be scattered (Jer. 1), the friendship of God with Israel. But what the caper berry means, when we begin to speak of each in turn, will be explained more fully. Now all this will happen to Israel: because man is about to go to the house of his eternity, and from the protection of God to return to heavenly things; when he departs to his tent, they will go about in the street weeping and wailing, hemmed in by the siege of enemies.

Rejoice therefore, O Israel, in your youth, before the silver cord is broken—that is, while your glory is with you—before the golden band rolls back, that is, before the ark of the covenant is taken away; before the pitcher is shattered at the fountain, and the wheel is rolled over the cistern—that is, while the precepts of the law and the grace of the Holy Spirit are within the holy of holies, and before you return to Babylon, from where you went forth from the loins of Abraham, and begin to be crushed in Mesopotamia, from where you once set out; and all the grace of prophecy, by which you were once inspired, returns to its giver. These things the Jews discuss to this day, and apply the understanding of this chapter to their own person.

But we, returning to the order of the preceding discussion, shall attempt to explain each point: "Rejoice, young man, in your adolescence, and let your heart be in good things in the days of your youth, and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes. And know concerning all these things, that God will bring you into judgment." He had said that the light of this world is most sweet, and that man ought to rejoice in the days of his life and seize pleasure with every effort; for the eternal night of death is pressing on, when it is not permitted to enjoy what has been gathered, and all that we have passes by like a shadow.

Now therefore he exhorts the man, and says: O young man, before old age and death fall upon you, rejoice in your youth, and whatever seems good to your heart, pleasant to the sight, take up and enjoy as you please the things of the world. Again, lest in saying this he be thought to provoke the man to luxury and to fall into the dogma of Epicurus, he removed this suspicion by adding: "And know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment." Thus, he says, use the things of the world, but know that you will be judged at the last. "And drive anger from your heart, and put away malice from your flesh: because youth and folly are vanity." In anger he comprehends all the disturbances of the mind. In the malice of the flesh he signifies all the pleasures of the body. Thus therefore, he says, enjoy the good things of this age, but do not sin either through desire or through the flesh. Leave behind the old vices, by which in your youth you served vanity and folly: because youth is joined to foolishness. "And remember your Creator in the days of your youth, before the days of malice come, and the years draw near in which you will say: I have no pleasure in them." Always remember your Creator, and so walk the path of your youth that you may be mindful of the final death: before the time comes upon you in which all sorrowful things follow.

Before the sun and the light and the moon and the stars are darkened, and the clouds return after the rain. If we take this concerning the general consummation of the world, this chapter agrees with the words of the Lord, in which he says: There will be tribulation and distress, such as has not been from the beginning of creation, nor shall be. For the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of heaven will be shaken, which are the guardians of the house; so that by the house is understood this world, and by the strong men those deceived by error, and the opposing powers that are to be scattered. But if it is the particular consummation of each one, it is referred to the end of this life; and sun, and moon, and stars, and clouds, and rains will cease to be for him who has died. Otherwise: Rejoice, O young man, O Christian people, and enjoy the good things that have been granted to you by God, and in all these things know that you are to be judged by the Lord.

And do not think that because the earlier branches were broken off and you were grafted into the root of the good olive tree, you are therefore safe; but take anger away from your heart, and pleasures from your body, and, leaving behind the other vices, remember your Creator before the day of malice comes upon you, and the incurable day, in which punishments are prepared for those who sin: lest, when you have sinned, the sun of righteousness strike you at midday, and the light of knowledge perish, and the splendor of the moon, that is, of the Church, be withdrawn, and the stars fall, of which it is written: Among whom you shine as luminaries in the world, holding forth the word of life (Philippians 2:15). And elsewhere: Star differs from star in glory (2 Corinthians 15:41). Before the clouds return after the rain: lest the prophets, who water the hearts of believers with their speech and their rains, after they have seen that you are unworthy of their shower, return to their seat: namely, to him by whom they were sent.

In the day when the keepers of the house shall be moved, and the men of strength shall perish. By the keepers of the house is understood either the sun and the moon and the rest of the chorus of stars, or the angels who preside over this world. But the men of strength—whether "the strong," as Symmachus translated it, who shall perish, or, as Aquila rendered it, "they shall wander"—are understood to be demons, who have received their very name from the strong devil, even they obtaining a lot of torture. Overcoming and binding him, according to the parable of the Gospel, the Lord despoils his house (Luke 11). Otherwise: the keepers of the house, who refer all that has been written to the body of man, think that the ribs are signified, because by them the intestines are enclosed and all the softness of the belly is preserved. But the men of strength they reckon to be the legs; the sun and the moon and the stars they fit to the eyes, ears, nostrils, and the senses of the whole head. This, however, is so because, being compelled by necessity below, they are forced to understand what follows not of angels and demons, the sun and the moon and the stars, but of the members of man.

And the grinding women shall cease, because they are diminished; and those who see through the holes shall grow dark. At the consummation of the world, when the love of many has grown cold, and the souls of the teachers have been diminished—those who could offer heavenly food to believers—and have been transferred to heavenly things, then those who in this world saw the light of knowledge only in part shall begin to be wrapped in darkness. For if it is said to Moses: I will place you in the hole of the rock, and so you shall see my back parts (Exod. 33:22), how much more does each soul see the truth through a hole, as it were through certain dark caverns! Otherwise: there are two grinding women, of whom one is taken and the other left, as the Gospel does not keep silent (Matt. 24:41). When these have been diminished and have ceased, it is necessary that all the light of knowledge be taken away from the eyes. Otherwise: they think that the grinding women ceasing because they are diminished is said of the teeth. For when extreme old age comes, the teeth are either worn down or fall out—teeth by which food, once ground, is passed into the stomach. But they consider that those who see through the holes growing dark refers to the eyes: because in those worn out by age the sharpness of sight grows dim and the gaze is darkened.

And they shall shut the doors in the street at the low voice of the grinder; and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird; and all the daughters of song shall fall silent. When the voice of the grinder has been weakened, and the teaching of the teachers has ceased, then all things will consequently cease; among them, the doors will also be shut in the street, so that, like the foolish virgins of the Gospel (Matthew 25), each one may have the gates of his street shut, and they may not be able to buy oil. Or indeed, while the foolish virgins go about in the street, those who have entered with the bridegroom will shut the bridal chamber. For if the way that leads to life is narrow and strait, and broad and spacious is the way that leads to death (Matthew 7), rightly, when the love of many has grown cold, the door of teachings is shut in the streets. In the following verse, however, in what it says: And he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, or sparrow, we shall use it in time, if ever we see a sinner rising up through repentance at the voice of a bishop or a presbyter. This can also be taken extraordinarily, even though we do not follow the context of the chapter, concerning the final resurrection, when at the voice of the archangel the dead shall rise. Nor should we wonder if we compare an angel to a sparrow's trumpet, since every voice compared to Christ is faint. And as far as I can recall in my mind, I have never known myself to have read "sparrow" in a bad sense. The righteous man speaks in the tenth psalm: In the Lord I trust: how do you say to my soul, Transmigrate to the mountain like a sparrow.

And elsewhere: I have watched, and become as a solitary sparrow on the housetop (Ps. 101:8). And also in another place: For indeed the sparrow has found a home for itself (Ps. 83:4). Otherwise: by the doors shut in the streets they wish the steps of the weak old man to be understood: that he always sits, and cannot walk. But the lowliness of the grinder's voice they interpret as concerning the jaws, that he cannot grind food, and with his breath scarcely constrained, his thin voice is heard. Furthermore, that he rises up at the voice of the bird shows that, with the blood now growing cold and the moisture dried up—materials by which sleep is nourished—he wakes at a light sound, and in the middle of the night, when the cock has crowed, he rises up hastily: by no means able to turn his limbs on his bed more often. That the daughters of song also fall silent, or, as it has it better in Hebrew, grow deaf, signifies the ears, because the hearing of old men becomes heavier, and among voices they can discern no distinctions, nor take delight in songs. Which indeed Berzellai also says to David, not wishing to cross the Jordan.

But even from high places they will be afraid and will dread the way. That is, they will not be able to walk upon steep paths, and with weakened knees and trembling step, wavering even on level ground, they will dread stumbling in their steps.

And the almond tree will blossom, and the locust will grow fat, and the caper will be scattered; for man will go to the house of his eternity, and those mourning will go about in the street. Even now the Preacher's discourse is about the members of man by way of metaphor: that when old age comes, the hair has grown white, the feet have swollen, desire has grown cold, and man has been dissolved by death: then he will return to his own earth and to the house of his eternity, the tomb; and when the funeral rites have been duly celebrated, a crowd of mourners will go before the funeral. But the blossom of the almond, which we have rendered as gray hairs, some interpret as the sacred thorn, because, as the flesh of the buttocks wastes away, the thorn grows up and blossoms. Furthermore, as for what he says, The locust will grow fat, it must be known that where our codices read locust, in Hebrew is written AAGAB, a word that is ambiguous among them. For it can be translated both as ankle and as locust. Just as, then, at the beginning of Jeremiah, the word SOCED, if the accent is changed, signifies both a nut and vigils; and it is said to him: What do you see, Jeremiah? And he answered: A rod of nut. And the Lord said to him: You have seen well, because I will watch over my word, to do it.

or that passage: and it has the etymology of the nut, because God will be watchful and will repay the people what it deserves, and that is the occasion of the saying. So too now the ambiguity of the word, through its etymology, indicates the swollen legs of old men, and weighed down by the humors of gout. Not that this happens to all old men, but because it happens for the most part, by synecdoche—the part is named for the whole. But in the place where we have "capparis," the Hebrew has ABIONA: which is itself ambiguous, and is translated as love, desire, concupiscence, or caper. And it is signified, as we said above, that the lust of old men grows cold, and the organs of intercourse are dispersed. This is so because these words are ambiguous, since in their own forms they sound as almond, locust, and caper, but when derived they signify something else, and by figure they are derived to the senses that befit an old man. It should also be known that where the Seventy translators have now put "almond," the word itself is SOCED, which is at the beginning of Jeremiah; but there it was rendered as "nut," here as "almond." Symmachus, sensing I know not what in this place, translated far otherwise. For he says: "Beyond these things they will also look from on high, and terror will be in the way, and the watchful one will fall asleep, and the spirit of strength will be dissolved. For a man will go into the house of his eternity, and they will go about in the street lamenting.

Whose interpretation the Laodicean followed, and it can please neither Jews nor Christians: since he is both far from the Hebrews and disdains to follow the Septuagint Translators.

« Before the silver cord is broken, and the golden band runs back, and the pitcher is crushed over the fountain, and the wheel is broken over the cistern. And the dust returns to its earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it. Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, all is vanity. » He returns to the earlier points, and after the great hyperbaton (which he had interposed from that place where he says: « And remember your creator, in the days of your youth: before the days of malice come, and before the sun and moon grow dark, and the rest on the day when the keepers of the house shall be moved »), now he concludes the sentence begun with a similar ending, saying: « Before the silver cord is broken, » and let that or that be done. But the silver cord shows this bright life, and the breath that is granted to us from heaven. The running back of the golden band also signifies the soul, which runs back thither whence it had descended. Furthermore, the two remaining things that follow, the crushing of the pitcher over the fountain, and the breaking of the wheel over the cistern, are through metaphor the riddles of death.

For just as a pitcher that is shattered stops drawing water, and a wheel by which waters are lifted from the lake and the wells, if it has been broken or, as the Seventy Translators would have it, rolled up in its own cord, the use of water is cut off: so too, when the cord of silver has been broken and the stream of the soul has run back to its source, man will perish. And, as follows more plainly: « The dust will return to its own earth, from which it was taken, and the spirit will return to the Lord, who gave it. » From this they are quite to be laughed at, who think that souls are sown together with bodies, and are generated not by God but by the parents of bodies. For since the flesh returns to the earth, and the spirit returns to God, who gave it, it is manifest that God is the parent of souls, not men. After the description of human destruction, beautifully repeating the opening of his book, he says: « Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes, all is vanity. » For since the whole labor of mortals, about which discussion has been carried on throughout the entire volume, comes to this, that the dust returns to its own earth, and the soul returns thither whence it was taken, it is great vanity to labor in this world and to acquire things that will profit nothing.

And moreover, because Ecclesiastes had been made wise, he further taught the people knowledge, and he caused them to hear: and searching out, he composed proverbs. Ecclesiastes sought much, to find words of the will, and to write rightly words of truth." The wisdom by which Solomon surpassed every race of men, he now also at the end of his little work declares, that he was not content with the instruction of the old Law, but had of his own accord plunged himself into deep questions, and for teaching the people composed proverbs and parables, having one thing in the marrow, and promising another on the surface. For that proverbs do not sound what is written, we are also taught in the Gospels (Matthew 13 and 15), that the Lord spoke to the people in parables and proverbs, but in private explained them to the apostles. From this it is manifest that even the book of Proverbs does not, as the simple suppose, contain plain precepts, but as gold in the earth, the kernel in the nut, the fruit hidden in the prickly husks of chestnuts, so in them the divine meaning must be searched out more deeply. Beyond these things he added that he wished to know the causes and natures of things, and the disposition and prudence of God: wherefore he wished to know each thing, or how it was made: so that what David, after the dissolution of body and soul, hopes he will see at his return to the heavens, saying, I shall see the heavens, the works of your fingers (Psalm

And this is what Solomon strove to find in the present passage: that the truth, known to God alone, might be grasped by the human mind, enclosed as it were by the rampart of the body.

“The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails driven deep, given by one shepherd to those who have gatherings.” Lest he should seem, after the law of God, to burst forth suddenly as a rash teacher and to claim for himself a doctrine that Moses had received not so much of his own accord as first from God's wrath and then from his inspiration, he says that his words are the words of the wise, which, in the likeness of goads, correct those who go astray and stir the sluggish steps of mortals with a pricking sting; and so they are firm, like nails driven deep and solid; and they are brought forth not by the authority of one, but by the council and consensus of all teachers. And lest human wisdom be despised, he says that it was granted by one shepherd—that is, although many teach, yet the author of the doctrine is the one Lord. This passage is directed against those who think the God of the old law is one and the God of the Gospel another, since the one shepherd instructed the council of the prudent. Now the prudent are both the prophets and the apostles. At the same time this too must be noted: that the words of the wise are said to prick, not to stroke, nor to handle wantonness with a soft hand, but to fix the pains and the wound of repentance in those who err and (as we said above) are slow. If therefore anyone's speech does not prick but is a delight to its hearers, that is not the speech of a wise man.

For the words of the wise are like goads. And because they provoke the delinquent to conversion, they are both firm and given by the council of the saints, and granted by one shepherd, and founded on a solid root. By this goad, I think, not yet Paul but still Saul, pierced on the road of error, heard: It is hard for you to kick against the goad (Acts 9:5).

“And beyond these, my son, beware. There is no end to making many books, and much meditation is labor of the flesh.” Except for these words which are given by one shepherd and approved by the council and consensus of the wise, do nothing, claim nothing for yourself: follow in the footsteps of your elders, and do not depart from their authority. Otherwise, to one who seeks many things, an infinite number of books will present itself, which will drag you into error and make the reader labor in vain. Or certainly you teach that brevity must be cultivated, and that meanings are to be pursued more than words, against the philosophers and teachers of this world, who try to assert the falsities of their dogmas by the vanity and multiplication of words. On the contrary, divine Scripture is confined within a brief compass, and as much as it is expanded in meanings, so much is it compressed in speech. Because God has made a consummate and shortened word upon the earth, and his word is near in our mouth and in our heart (Rom 10:8; Deut 30:14). Otherwise: frequent reading and daily meditation is wont to be a labor of the soul rather than of the flesh.

For just as whatever is done by hand and body is accomplished by the labor of hand and body, so what pertains to reading is more a labor of the mind. From this it seems to me that the earlier statements about the multitude of books are to be understood differently from how most people estimate them. It is a custom of the Scriptures that, although there are many books, if they do not disagree among themselves and are written about the same matter, they are called one volume: since indeed both the Gospel and the Law of the Lord, spotless, converting souls, are called in the singular, although there are many Gospels and many commandments of the law. So too the volume sealed in the prophecy of Isaiah is all divine Scripture, and Ezekiel and John feed on one chapter of a book. The Savior also, foretold by the voices of all the saints of old, says: In the chapter of the book it is written of me. According to this sense, therefore, I judge that the precept is now given, that many books should not be made. For whatever you have said, if it is referred to him who in the beginning was with God, and was God the Word, it is one volume: and innumerable books are called one Law, one Gospel. But if you have disputed diverse and discrepant things, and by excessive curiosity have led your mind hither and thither, even in one book there are many books. Whence it is said: From much speaking you shall not escape sin. Of such books, therefore, there is no end. For every good thing and the truth are concluded by a certain end: but malice and falsehood are without end.

And the more they are sought after, the greater the series of them that is produced. On this matter, study and meditation are a labor of the flesh—of the flesh, I say, not of the spirit. For the spirit too has its own labor, according to what the Apostle says: I have labored more than all of them; yet not I, but the grace of God which is with me (1 Cor 15:10). And the Savior: I have labored crying out (Ps 68:4).

"The end of the discourse of the whole word is very easy to hear: Fear God, and keep his cleansed commandments. For this is every man, because God will bring every theft into judgment, from every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil." The Hebrews say that, among the other writings of Solomon which have grown old and have not endured in memory, this book too seemed fit to be blotted out, because it asserted that God's creatures are vain and thought everything to be as nothing, and preferred food and the sky and passing delights to all things; and that by this one chapter alone it merited authority to be placed in the number of the divine Volumes, in that it compressed its whole disputation and entire catalogue, as it were by a recapitulation, and said that the end of its discourses is most readily heard, and that it contains nothing difficult in itself—namely, that we should fear God and keep his commandments. For man was born for this: that, understanding his Creator, he should venerate him with fear, and honor, and the work of the commandments.

Indeed, when the time of judgment arrives, whatever has been done by us will stand before the judge, and will long await an uncertain sentence, and each one will receive according to his work, whether he has done evil or good. But in place of what we have set down: Concerning every hidden thing, whether it be good or evil, Symmachus and the Seventy translated as concerning every despised thing, or certainly concerning every unknown thing, because even for an idle word, spoken not from will but from ignorance, we shall render an account on the day of judgment. Otherwise: Because fear is the portion of servants, and perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18), and in divine Scripture fear is called twofold, both of beginners and of the perfect: now I think it is said of the fear that is consummated in virtues, according to that saying: There is nothing lacking to those who fear him (Psalm 33:10). Or certainly, because he is still a man, and has not yet received the name of God, he has this as the reckoning of his substance, that, placed in the body, he should fear God. Because God will bring every deed, that is, all men, into judgment concerning all things that they have understood otherwise than as arranged and spoken by him, whether in this direction or in that. Woe indeed to those who call evil good, and good evil (Isaiah 5:20).