of the spirit, so through the water of tears and the fire of fervent compunction, we are rebaptized and cleansed. For neither is baptism, nor the true compunction of tears, ever given without the Holy Spirit. *My eye was troubled by anger; I have grown old among all my enemies*; that is: I have been defiled, I have multiplied, I have grown old in sins. This is what it means to say: *I have grown old among all my enemies*. But see, after the long duration and aging in sins, after the living together with sins, the prophet did not despair of himself. He did not lose hope in the mercy of God, but was saved through compunction, was cleansed through tears, and says to those warring against him with authority: *Depart from me, all you who work iniquity*. Stop, be ashamed, withdraw. *For the Lord has heard the voice of my weeping, the Lord has received my prayer*. Let all my enemies be ashamed and confounded, let them be turned back and greatly ashamed. Do you see the power of tears? Do you see the fruit of confession? Do you see the renewal and regeneration after the aging in all sins? Therefore, do not say: I am an old man, I am weak, I have grown old in all sin, and I am no longer able to perform the commandments of Christ. Say nothing of the sort, do not put forward excuses in sins. But if you do put forward excuses, I will immediately show you that, if you only desire it, you can keep the commands of Christ in old age even better than in youth. But give me a truthful answer to my question. *Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven*. And when is a person’s mind more humble? In youth or in old age? It is obvious that it is in old age. For arrogance is innate in youth. *Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted*. Now tell me: Who is more inclined toward mourning and tears? Youth or old age? It is certainly old age. *Blessed are the meek*. Does everyone not agree that youth is more impulsive and warmer toward anger, while old age is more inclined than youth toward every remedy and divine commandment? For in youth the desire of the body is enkindled, and the furnace of greed wars against him, along with most of the other passions, such as vainglory, gluttony, and grudging; but in old age, this is not altogether the case; rather, there are cleansing tears, which come to us from the fear of God and the thought of death and punishment; if we persevere in these, and labor, we shall progress to spiritual tears, by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever. Amen.
WARNING
Such was the esteem for John Chrysostom among the Greeks above all others, that both his works and his smaller writings were sought out with the greatest zeal, and whatever bore the name of Chrysostom was held as legitimate by men unequipped with any judgment, such as were almost all in later centuries. There were those who rashly adorned the sermons and homilies they themselves had written with the name of Chrysostom. Copyists, too, for the sake of profit, sold homilies cobbled together by themselves or others, having prefixed the name of our John to them. Hence countless spurious works have appeared, some of which immediately offer signs of being forged; others require greater investigation. Of the first kind is this homily, whose style is altogether slack and vulgar, which favors many words either unknown or little used by Chrysostom. That this is from a much later age is entirely persuaded by these words in section 2: "In this way also, every heretic, being very clever, when speaking to the high priest in time of persecution, neither calls him high priest, nor archbishop, nor 'most religious,' nor 'holy'; but what? 'Your Honor,'..."ON PSALM XIII
*The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.* 1. Just as a good servant, being most loyal, is indignant when his master is insulted, so also when God is denied, the prophet of God instructs the atheist, saying, as you heard: *The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.* For just as a servant who loves his master, upon learning that his fellow servants are denying their lord, is stirred to show his loyalty by way of vengeance, and either punishes the insulter with his own hands, or exposes him to all, making him abominable, or reports to his lord for the correction and fear of others, and delivers the one who has revolted to heavier blows, warring against him as a second rebel; so too the prophet, having learned that the Creator was being dishonored by the creation, and the potter insulted by the clay, and God denied by the atheist, having received a blow to his heart as if from a stone, and not bearing the pain, cried out: *The fool has said in his heart: There is no God.* For see how it harmonizes and greets the psalm before it. Since in that one, languishing, he said: *How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end?* and a little later, *How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?* (For the fool who says there is no God—for he who is exalted against God will much more be exalted against God's prophets, and he who is lifted up against the Master will also be lifted up against his fellow servants), he, being asked, "And why do you suffer pain in your heart night and day?" now replies: "Why I suffer pain is because *the fool has said in his heart: There is no God*." I consider any association with an atheist to be an abandonment by God. I suspect that living with him means that He is unmindful of me. For the impiety of the godless is pain and irritation to the holy man. Thus it is also said concerning Paul: *And while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him*, as he saw the city full of idols. *Why do the ungodly live?* David said these things historically concerning Saul, because of the ventriloquist, as also in the fifty-second psalm concerning Doeg, which contains the same things. *The fool said* (Saul): *Seek me a woman with a familiar spirit...*A Divination in [the] python (Ibid. v. 8), and having abandoned prophecy, he turns to divination. *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* Let us fortify ourselves, brothers, lest we fall into the shipwreck of the fool, confessing him with words but denying him with deeds: calling him good and merciful, but not having mercy on one who is sick, or poor, or afflicted. And that not only by words but also by deeds one may deny God, and even he who is named a Christian may say the same things as the fool, *There is no God*; witness is the Apostle who says: *They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny him* (Tit. 1, 16). For by how much deeds are more powerful than words for persuasion, by so much is it more grievous to deny God with deeds than with words, by mouth or heart. *The fool said.* He who says with his mouth, *I love you, Lord*, and in his heart holds his brother in hatred, how does he love God, not obeying him who says, *You shall love the Lord your God, and your neighbor as yourself* (Deut. 6, 5; Lev. 19, 18)? The Lord says: *He who loves me, keeps my words* (John 14, 23). He who therefore does not keep them, does not love. With his mouth he says God, and with his heart he says: *There is no God.* Witness is the Lord who says: *This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me* (Is. 29, 13). *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* But that he who hates his brother also hates God, even if he shouts and cries aloud with his mouth that he loves God, the evangelist John says in the Epistle: *He who says he loves God, and hates his brother, is a liar. For if he does not love his brother whom he sees, how will he love God whom he does not see?* (1 John 4, 20). B Since, therefore, such a one confesses God, and does not openly deny him, he fabricates impiety in his heart. *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* Whence the prophet, confirming this opinion, says further: *Will not all who work iniquity know, who confess God in words but deny him in deeds? Who devour my people for the food of bread; they have not called upon the Lord* (Ps. XIII, 4). For they confess they know God; but because they have denied him by their deeds, they have not called upon him, even when they were calling. The Lord himself says: *Why do you call me, Lord, Lord, and do not do those things which I say?* (Luke 6, 46). Everyone, he says, who sins, has not known God (1 John 3, 6). For from sin, virtue departs, and religion yields, as something that is present for this reason, that it is not present. And they knew not, not because they denied the Lord with their mouth, but because they did shameful things in the tabernacle. He himself says: *Usury upon usury, deceit upon deceit, they would not know me, says the Lord* (Jer. 9, 6): who said, If you give money to your poor brother on loan, you shall not press him, you shall not impose interest upon him (Ex. 22, 25). C *There is no God.* And how are all things after God? *There is no God.* And how does every tongue of man name God? Are therefore all the myriads of men who say that God exists deceived, and the fool alone thinks he speaks the truth, who alone lies in this way? And he who wishes to overthrow five or seven testimonies in the testaments is rejected by consensus, when the truth judges: yet does the fool alone wish to overthrow the public tongue of the whole world? And how is the fool not truly reprobate, and more foolish than himself? A fool in denying, more foolish in behaving impudently in himself. For although all men have germinated diverse opinions about God, the foundation of the name, however, no one has overturned. The Godhead is proven. He refutes by an argument from the lesser. Who the fool may be understood to be. *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* There is no foundation, and how does the building stand? There is no keel, and how does the ship consist? There is no shipwright, and how was the ship constructed? There is no builder, and how was the house made? There is no architect, and who founded the city? There is no farmer, and how did the fields bring forth sheaves? There is no musician, and how does the harmony appear in the lyre of the world? There is no one to provide, and how does providence pervade through all things? There is no charioteer, and how is the chariot of the four elements driven? There is no statuary, and how did men become as it were statues in the world? There is no builder of the vault, and who constructed the vault of heaven for you? There is no goldsmith, and who placed the sun in the sky as it were a golden disc on a table? There is no one to carry the lamp, and who gave you the moon by night as it were a silver lamp? There is no one to enlighten, and who gave you luminous bodies that are clear and provide light? There is no one who alone makes great lights, and who placed the lit lanterns of the stars for you in the sky: just as the prophet says: *Who alone makes great luminaries, the sun to rule the day, and the moon to rule the night* (Ps. 135, 7-9)? D There is no creator, and how does the beauty of creatures testify to the creator? *For from the greatness and beauty of creatures, by the proportion of them, the Artificer is considered* (Wis. 13, 5). *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* Whatever happens in the world, is done and worked, has one who presides over them and brings them to perfection; and does the world alone not have one who administers it? If there is no God, what are you doing in those things which are of God? You remain in the house of God, do you deny the master of the house? Either give the recompense of the house, thanksgiving, or go out from the house: why do you also fill the house with the smoke of blasphemy? But he calls him a "fool" now, not one who is of unsound mind, or who is delirious, or who is less than capable in sense, but him who thinks wickedly; not him who is deprived of the implanted and common prudence of men, but him who turns himself away from prudence, which is one of the four virtues, which prudence is indeed the lamp of the soul, the queen of thoughts, the teacher of those things which are good and honest: of which the writer of Proverbs said, *And he who possesses prudence, loves himself* (Prov. 19, 8): and again: *Possess wisdom, possess prudence, do not forget* (Prov. 4, 5). But to him whose principal faculty of the soul is damaged, and to him who has lost his implanted prudence and is blinded in mind, he did not say: *Possess wisdom and prudence.* For although he may wish it very much, he cannot, as one who has lost the instrument of prudence. And that you may understand him, who is now called a fool, not to have been deprived of natural intelligence, see how much prudence could do. For he did not say with his tongue: *There is no God*: nor did he speak through his mouth, but he concealed his wickedness in his heart. For he knew that he would be in danger if he had blurted it out. For that he who in those times blasphemed God, or denied him, would be overwhelmed with stones, witness is Naboth (3 Kings 21, 13), who was condemned as a blasphemer: lest this same thing happen to this wickedly thinking man, he inscribed impiety in his heart, constituting his heart the temple of impiety. *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* For if he had been of unsound mind and had lacked natural prudence, he would not have said, *There is no God*, in his heart alone, but also with his mouth: and he would have come into danger neither before God, nor before men. For if an emperor, who is the charioteer of the whole world, is often afflicted with insults by a fool and a stupid man, he sustains it, led by the mercy of nature, which the disease of the mind snatches away: much more would neither God, nor man, have avenged him who is by nature a fool, blaspheming, but would have judged him, as a man speaking foolish things, worthy of pardon. And therefore those possessed by demons, or those driven by madness, are not considered to blaspheme. He who worships many gods, says: *There is no God.* For as the multitude of husbands makes it so that no one is considered a husband (*For you have had five husbands, and now who you have, is not your husband* [John 4, 18]), so also...
is polytheism atheism. For the creeping in of many gods is a denial of the One. And that those who practice polytheism are called atheists, hear the Apostle writing to the Ephesians: *You who once were the nations, when at that time you were without Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, having no hope, and atheists in the world* (Eph. 2, 11-12). And how are the Ephesians atheists? There are idols, there are statues; there is the temple-warden Artemis, there is Demetrius the silversmith, making silver temples of Artemis (Acts 19, 24): such a herd of gods, and yet how are the Ephesians atheists? But they are atheists for this reason: that by electing many gods, they fell away from the One. *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* From the first fool, it passed to his disciples. The first fool is the devil, the first conveyor of folly, the first herald of polytheism: *You shall be as gods* (Gen. 3, 5). He who speaks of many denies the One. The people of the Jews are also fools. The fool provoked the name of the Lord, saying concerning Christ that *He is not God*. If this man were a prophet, he would know who and what kind of woman she is who touches him, that she is a sinner (Luc. 7, 39). But those who did not even call him a prophet, how could they say he was God? *No one can forgive sins, but God alone* (Marc. 2, 7-8). But Christ says: *Why do you think in your hearts?* *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* For He is everywhere; yet in the heart of the fool, He is not. God said to the synagogue: *Because you did not take me into your mind, but cast me behind your back* (Is. 57, 11; 3, 14). The first fool A from himself was the conveyor of folly, the devil, because being wise, he practiced the business of folly; whereas he who had been was wiser. And what did he practice? He desired to be equal to God, saying: *I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High* (Is. 14, 13). He took away "God," and set down "Most High," ashamed to name Him whom he denied. So also every most formidable heretic in time of persecution, disputing with the chief priest: he neither calls him chief priest, nor archbishop, nor most religious, nor holy; but what? "Your honor," "your prudence," "your wisdom," "your righteousness," and he offers him common names, denying those of his dignity. This the devil did then in the case of God. *I will be like the Most High*, not like God, but like the Most High. And mark precisely, I pray, how the prophet became the precise accuser of the devil. *The fool said in his heart.* He does not say that he *says*, but that he *said*. He dared once, and said it. And since, having said it, he was cast out of the heavens as a rebel, he no longer dared to say it through himself. Since he said it only once, *I will set my throne above the clouds, and I will be like the Most High*, and denying God he made trial of God: being cast from on high, and trampled below by men, he no longer dared to say, *There is no God*, but by irony and hypocrisy he named God. "Why did God say, *You shall not eat of the tree?* (Gen. 3, 4). I know you who you are, the Holy One of God (Luc. 4, 34). These men are servants of the most high God" (Acts 16, 17). Therefore, since he once said the impious dogma, he no longer dares to say it. For see what happened to him: It does not say, *The fool says*, but, *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* For he no longer says this directly and through himself; but he said it in his heart. In every one who is of one mind, and of one way, and impious. He said it in Pharaoh: *I do not know the Lord* (Exod. 5, 2); and he procured for him the depth of the sea as a tomb. He said it through Sennacherib the Assyrian, that *God cannot rescue Hezekiah from my hands* (1 Reg. 18, 29); and he caused him to be slaughtered by the hands of his own sons. He said it through Nebuchadnezzar: *Who is God, who shall deliver you out of my hands?* (Dan. 3, 15). And the one who was most powerful of all men appeared more worthless than the children to these, feeding on grass like an ox (Dan. 4), so that he might learn that whereas B even an ox knew its owner, he himself denied Him. The God-denying Judas was destroyed by a noose (Matt. 27, 5), because he caused the God himself to be betrayed as a man. *The devil, it says, having already cast into the heart of Judas, that he should betray him* (Joan. 13, 2). *The fool said in his heart: There is no God.* For if he had then called him God, he would not have delivered him to death, and he educated the Jews to commit God-murder, since he persuaded them that Jesus is not God: *This man we do not know whence he is* (Joan. 9, 29). D 4. Since, therefore, they practiced the impossible, they were delivered to corruption. The prophet says, mourning: *They are corrupted, and have become abominable in their practices* (Ps. XIII, 1). For having been discipled to the devil, they fell by the devil's fall: as he from the heavens, so these from the royal thrones. For whom one follows, him he also shares. *They are corrupted, and have become abominable in their practices.* They are corrupted, because they campaigned with corruption against the Incorruptible. *And they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man* (Rom. 1, 23). Men corrupted in mind, *They are corrupted*, but, *And they have become abominable*. Why? Because they set up the abomination of desolation, which is impiety, in the temple of the heart (Matt. 24, 15). *In practices.* Why? Because what nature refused, this evil disposition devised. They are corrupted, like Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar. They are corrupted, because having been wounded, and rotting, and stinking, and dissolving into pus, they did not seek the physician. They have become abominable, because, wallowing in their sins like swine (2 Pet. 2, 22), and like dogs returning to their own vomit (Prov. 26, 11), they have become hateful. For so it is written: *Godliness is an abomination to sinners* (Eccl. 1, 32). Since, therefore, they utterly loathed the knowledge of God, they were loathed by those who love God. They are corrupted, as a garment by moths, as iron by rust. They have become abominable, as those who have touched the bones of the dead (Num. 19, 11), since Judas, always touching dead Christ and not seeing him living, became abominable. *With your corruption, O Israel, who will help?* (Osee 13, 9). Then, in order to show the fruit of impiety and atheism, he adds: *There is none doing kindness.* For he who has denied God, and does not reckon the Provider, expects neither death, nor consummation, nor resurrection, nor judgment, nor retribution; therefore he does not perform anything kind or good. For just as he who invokes some king conforms to his laws and decrees, while he who follows a tyrant does not perform the king's decrees, so he who denies God turns away from the commandments of God, and becomes useless and harmful to the commonwealth. *There is none doing kindness*: not Herod killing the innocent infants of Bethlehem; not the Jew calling the one who casts out demons Beelzebub; not the lawyer testing; not the high priest insulting; not the scribe rejecting; not the Pharisee insulting or mocking; not the Sadducee contradicting; not Judas selling, and an officer slapping; not Pilate condemning; not the people shouting, *Away, away, crucify him* (Joan. 19, 15); not the soldiers binding; not the crowds spitting, slapping, striking with a reed, plaiting a crown of thorns, crucifying, giving to drink vinegar and gall. *There is none doing kindness.* Mark carefully, for this utterance received its end especially at the crucifixion of Christ. For as to David, since these things were said, there were those who were doing kindness: the blessed prophets, those who were with David. But when Christ was born, there were the righteous men around Joseph, and Zacharias, and Simeon, and the...
apostles who were doing good—these indeed were admiring, while those were holding him in their arms. Only when he was crucified was there no one who was doing kindness. He did not say, "There is none who speaks kindness"—for both the centurion and the thief were speaking kind things of him: A *Remember me, Lord, when you come into your kingdom. Truly this man was the Son of God* (Luc. 23. 42. 47). *There is none who does kindness*—when even all the disciples, having abandoned him, fled. John departs naked, Peter denies, the disciples flee; a sword of doubt pierces the soul of his own mother, Mary. Since, therefore, during the passion no one showed the fruit of love, *There is none who does kindness, there is none even unto one*—not even that one soldier who, even after his death, pierced his side with a lance. And why, O prophet, before his advent in the flesh and the assumption of human nature, did he not visit the world that was suffering as a physician? He did visit it, certainly, and he wished to bring help and to save, but no one wished to apply the medicine to himself. B *The Lord looked down from heaven, that he might see if there be any who understands, or who seeks God. 3. But all have turned aside, together they have become useless.* And that saying was fulfilled: *Righteousness has looked down from heaven* (Psal. 84. 12). From the Father comes Christ; *Truth has sprung up from the earth*: the Lord from the virgin.
What it means for God to look down from heaven: you hear that the Lord has looked down from heaven; do not suppose that the divine and incorporeal nature bent and curved itself, or inclined its knees, or nodded its neck, but understand his condescension, kindness, and visitation. For just as he is said to have a head, and eyes, and ears, and mouth, and hands, and to sit, and to rise, and yet is not at all constituted of limbs, parts, and shapes, so too does he "look down"—not bending himself, but showing his kindness toward us. C But that expression, *He looked down from heaven*, does not mean that he made windows or doors in the heaven that is seen, and looked through them when they were opened; but that from the heavenly orders—the intelligent, incorporeal, and immortal ones—he visited humanity. And since it is said, *For you are earth, and to earth you shall return* (Gen. 3. 19), and *I am earth and ashes* (Gen. 18. 27), so too are the heavenly orders called "heaven," from which God looked upon the earth and the race of man. *The Lord looked down from heaven to earth*, to see—not in order to see at that moment, but in order to save at that moment; not to learn, but to bring help; that he might embrace him like a friend, and love him who is just, that he might say as he said to Noah: *I have seen you alone righteous in this generation* (Gen. 7. 1), and that he might appear to him as to a just man. D To those, however, he appears who have faith in him, so that he might see if there is an invalid who seeks a physician, if there is a poor people of the nations who requires Christ, the treasure of the Father—*that he might see if there is any who understands*, so that he might discourse with him as with a prudent and intelligent man; *or who seeks God*, so that he might be found.
Then, after the prophets saw that the Lord had looked down from heaven to see, they ask: "It is not enough, O Lord, to have looked down from heaven, just as you have looked; descend also. *Lord, bow the heavens, and descend* (Psal. 143. 5). Come, Son of the Father, seek what was made according to your image." *For all have turned aside, together they have become useless.* The entire host of men has turned toward the tyrant; they no longer adhere to the prophets. Come, O King, and appear, and they will fear your authority. *All have turned aside from the ways of the prophets.* Come, O Way, and those who have wandered will return.
*A righteous man was created by God.* A When he said, *They turned aside*, he showed that they had learned from nature to walk uprightly, but that because of an evil choice they turned aside into error; just as it is written in Ecclesiastes: *God made man upright, and he himself has found many thoughts* (Eccle. 7. 29). *All have turned aside*, like calves that are carried into ravines, and *together they have become useless*, like perforated jars, or like leaking waterskins, and are no longer useful for that for which they were made. And not gradually, but *all together have become useless*, once imprisoned in the one net of impiety. If they turned aside, it is clear they were upright by nature. For when God made man, he created him upright, and there is nothing evil by nature. B And elsewhere: *I have considered all the sinners of the earth as transgressors* (Psal. 118. 119). And by the fact that he said, *Together they have become useless*, he showed that although they were made useful by nature, they became useless against nature by their own choice of mind.
The Lord therefore looked down to see from heaven whether those who turned aside might repent, so that they might obtain salvation; or whether they sin in such a way that they be led to no repentance, so as to be condemned for that very thing. And that the Lord looks down and descends and visits for this purpose—either to save or to condemn—hear the Lord himself saying: *The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is multiplied before me, and their sins are very great. I will go down, therefore, and see if they perform according to their cry which comes to me; but if not, that I may know* (Gen. 18. 20-21). C The Sodomites, because all had turned aside, were for that reason *together become useless*. For fire descended and consumed them like stubble. The Ninevites turned aside, but because they quickly came to repentance, they did not become *together useless*, but were saved together. Do you see how the Lord visits, either to save or to condemn? And for this reason, the prophet Hosea also used to say: *Hear the word of the Lord, you children of Israel, for the Lord has a judgment with the inhabitants of the earth, because there is no truth; nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land. Cursing, and lying, and murder, and theft, and adultery are poured out upon the land, and they mix blood with blood* (Osee 4. 1-2). *All have turned aside, together they have become useless.* And for this reason the Lord looked down from heaven to earth. D How did he look down? Either by shaking the universe, or by sending lightning, or by doing something to strike terror and show his indignation. *Who looks at the earth, and makes it tremble* (Psal. 103. 32). The Lord looked down from heaven to earth, that the earth, or the human race, might see the Lord indignant, and might make an end of sinning. For just as when servants acting petulantly and insolently below in the courtyard or in the square are seen by the master or king looking down from on high, they fear and desist when they see him; so too, because the whole earth was leaping toward impiety, the Lord looked down from heaven to earth, so that the earth, affected by terror, might cease from sinning. A witness of this is the prophet, who said: *The earth trembled, and was quiet, when God arose to judgment* (Psal. 75. 9-10).
And because he said, *All have turned aside* (this word "all" is often taken as referring even to the greater part, just like the saying, *All have forsaken me* [2 Tim. 4. 16], even though the true and sincere disciples had not forsaken Paul), to show the shipwreck of the entire world, he subjoins: *There is none who does kindness, there is none even unto one.* From the feet even to the head, from the last pauper even to him who holds power, the whole world is sick. God seeks one faithful and just man, as in the case of the Chaldeans, Abraham, and Lot in Sodom. But those have neither faith nor a righteous life; these, however, have indeed true faith but do not have a righteous life. *They confess that they know God, but by their deeds they deny him* (Tit. 1. 16). They speak grandly and brilliantly about God, and sound forth like a trumpet; but in doing good, they are drowsy. *There is none who does kindness, there is none even unto one.*
Then, because the Lord looked down from heaven and was indignant on account of those who were sinning, the prophet teaches us that he not only looked down, but also spoke while threatening: 4. *Shall not all know who work iniquity?* (Psal. 93. 1). They shall know that the judge of the living and the dead has arrived. They shall know that he will reward each one according to his works. They did not know while they were being admonished; they shall know when they will be tormented. Thus also God sometimes said similar things about the impious Egyptians: And
A know that I am the Lord, and in their chariots (Exod. 14: 18). They shall know then, when nothing else will help them before the pursuing chariots, buried by the waves. Or, it must be read the other way: *They do not know, all who work iniquity.* And what do they *not* know? That the Lord from heaven to earth has prospered. What do they not know? That which is evil displeases Him. What do they not know? To know [the truth] I do not want. But the impious man says to the Lord: Depart from me, I do not want the knowledge of Your ways (Job 21: 14). For those who work iniquity know the laws of the Lord, but they do not endure them. And now there are wars, and plagues, and earthquakes; yet the many do not come to a consciousness of their sins, nor are they brought to their senses by the evils hanging over them. What do they not know? The will of God, the promises, the heavenly goods, the treasure of God, the paradise of delights, eternal life. Will all those who work iniquity, the Jews, not know that the Lawgiver and Lord of glory has been crucified by them? For had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Cor. 2: 8). And who are they? Those who devour my people as the eating of bread (Ps. 13: 4): those who, because of envy, hunger for the death of the faithful. And he did not say, "Those who eat," but "devouring," who are more cruel than wild beasts. For beasts, having tasted human flesh, quickly stop, ashamed of such disgusting food; but the wicked and the envious, devouring throughout, are not satisfied by the insults of the faithful. Let us be on our guard, brothers, lest, having insulted and slandered our fellow believers, we be found with the lawless. Will not all who work iniquity, whether they be heretics or fellow believers, those who devour my people, know? That even fellow believers devour fellow believers, the Apostle says: If you bite and devour one another, take heed that you are not consumed by one another (Gal. 5: 15). Comparing those who devour the people to foreign nations, the Syrians and Greeks, Isaiah said: I will lead Syria from the east, and the Greeks from the setting of the sun; those who devour my people with a whole mouth (Is. 9: 12). But even if, because of our sins, we are devoured by our enemies as if by lions, yet because of our piety toward God we shall obtain vengeance. Hear Jeremiah saying: Israel is holy to the Lord; all who devour him will be guilty, evils I will bring upon them, says the Lord (Jer. 2: 3); because those who devoured the sinners sinned more heavily than those who were devoured, having scourged His people more than the will of the Lord [required], just as God said concerning him: I delivered him into your hands, but you did not show mercy to him. And again: For which I was angry a little, but they collaborated for evil (Zech. 1: 15). And that because of sins God’s people are devoured by the enemies of God, Jeremiah says: A wandering sheep is Israel, lions have driven him out (Jer. 50: 17). The first king of Assyria devoured him, and the second, the king of Babylon, crushed his bones. If he had not wandered as sheep, he would not have been devoured by the lions. Understand what I say. Those who devour my people in the eating of bread have not called upon the Lord, even if they thought they were calling. For just as one who offers something to God from robbery does not really offer, since God does not receive it, so those who devour their brother, while calling upon God, do not [truly] call upon Him. Or also, *they have not called upon the Lord* stands for: they were not called Christians from Christ, since they made war against Christ. For neither did they hear Him who says: Confess to the Lord, and call upon His name (Ps. 104: 1). Yet they rushed like beasts; *There they trembled for fear, where there was no fear* (Ps. 13: 5). Like lions they grew bold, and like hares they trembled. This the prophet also says to the cowardly in times of persecution, that having heard, Do not fear those who kill the body, but cannot kill the soul (Matt. 10: 28); and, Do not fear the reproach of men (Is. 51: 7). When they did not fear God, they feared men. There the impious feared, when they saw the pious helped by God. For as if asked, "And why did the impious fear?" he answers, *For God is in the generation of the just* (Ps. 13: 5). As a general among soldiers, as a king in the senate, B *God is in the generation of the just*; He who said, Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in their midst (Matt. 18: 20). If He comes into the midst of two or three saints, much more is He found in the generation of the just, where there is life unconquerable, where there is conversation lacking sadness, where there is immortal rest, a carefree inheritance, a kingdom without succession, to which Christ calls, saying: Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you (Matt. 25: 34). Because the Lord is in the generation of the just, you have shamed the counsel of the poor; the Lord is his hope. For it has been said: except for God, fear no other. He also rebukes Jerusalem, saying: Being who you were, did you fear from mortal man (Is. 51: 12)? Or these things were said against Sennacherib and Rabshakeh, who thought the people of God vulnerable, and who scorned the Lord, whom they did not call upon. Therefore they went away in flight, with no man terrifying them, whom He found all impious, as if leaning out from heaven. For they scorned Hezekiah as a worthless man, and the generation of those who were pious under him, whom he justly shepherded. But he called "counsel" [the poor man's] firm trust in God. And otherwise: just as in transactions one must not look at persons, so in deliberations not at authority or wealth, but at a conscientious mind. But the Jews also strove to put the counsel of the Savior to shame, thinking He was someone poor, and not the wealth of divinity. For they maligned both His teaching and the signs as not being divine. Who will give from Zion the salvation of Israel? When the Lord turns the captivity of the people, Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad. Since all have turned away from Him, henceforth there is a need for One who can forgive sins and save. He is said to be "from Zion" because He is of the seed of David; according to [the scripture], He who delivers will come from Zion; and again, From Zion is his beauty (Ps. 49: 2). You could also say the Zion above, and our hope is the kingdom of the heavens. When the nations will have been saved, the truly just of Israel and the prophets will rejoice, congratulating us, and their prophecy being fulfilled. For Simeon too, having called the Savior the Light for the revelation of the Gentiles, adds, And the glory of your people Israel (Luc. 2: 32). A soul is taken captive through listlessness when it falls into sin and the devil, and has fallen away from virtue; but it returns having obtained through repentance the remission which the Lord provided through the cross. The same one, insofar as he is about to trip up the passions, is called Jacob, rejoicing in defeating the powers that produce these; insofar as he is purified and sees God, Israel: for he is a mind seeing God (Gen. 32: 28). And otherwise: in addition to the prophecy concerning Christ, he prays that the ten tribes that were taken captive might also be set free, just as Jerusalem was rescued from the siege. For thus they too will be glad, being called Jacob and Israel. May it come to pass that we all, living a life unshaken, unslippery, and unceasing, reach the kingdom of the heavens, by the grace of Christ, to whom is glory and power, now and always, and for ages of ages. Amen.