Supplement

of that voice of yours, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you," and so on.

VERS. 14. *Flee, my little brother, and be like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of spices.* For by calling the just to your kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world, you put away from us every care concerning sensible things, drawing the worthy up to the heights of spiritual graces, with the odors of which they are filled; in which fragrant graces, like a roe or the young of a hart, an exterminator of poisonous beasts, you destroy the spirits of wickedness that rage against us, putting to rest the war they wage against us.

SUPPLEMENT TO THE COMMENTARIES OF PROCOPIUS ON PROVERBS

NOTICE

After the Commentaries of Procopius of Gaza on Proverbs and the Song of Songs, which have passed into this our new edition from the edition of the Most Eminent Cardinal Angelo Mai (*Class. Auct.*, vol. IX, 1-256; 257-430; VI, 348-378) along with a Latin translation, we have taken care to append here certain excerpts from the codices 3895 and 3896 of the Royal Library of Brussels, from an unpublished work entitled: *Procopius of Gaza on Proverbs, and a compendious explanation of the Song of Songs, translated by Corderius*. However, lest the bulk of the volume grow to an immense size, we have provided only those things that seemed to us worthy of note.

CHAPTER XII

VERS. 1. *He who loves discipline loves knowledge; but he who hates reproofs is foolish.* He who loves moral education is a lover of the knowledge through which we have our senses exercised to discern good and evil. And this is a gift of God. But he who hates reproofs is foolish, since he wishes always to dwell in ignorance and never to arrive at the knowledge of the truth. Moreover, discipline is earlier than reproof and ought to precede it.

VERS. 5. *The thoughts of the just are judgments; but the impious govern deceits.* For the thoughts of the just are discreet and simple. But the beginning of counsel is thought, of which one thing he praised in the just man, but the other he censured in the impious man. Or certainly because they always meditate on the judgments of God; or because they always exercise the judgments of God in the mind. For our mind is a judge, and it sits judging any virtue whatsoever with the vice opposed to it, and the one it condemns, but the other it justifies.

CHAPTER XIII

VERS. 13. *He who is contemptuous shall be treated with contempt because of it: but he who fears the commandment shall be whole.* *Of Origen.* Just as he who fears God does His will, so he who fears the commandment keeps the commandment; but he who is contemptuous of God is contemptuous of His commandments, and the soul that keeps the divine commandment is whole. ^A

VERS. 22. *A good man shall cause his grandsons to store up: but the riches of the impious are stored up for the just.* Such was Paul, generating much in Christ through the Gospel. Furthermore, when they had learned from him, they taught others. Or the "father" is the mind that generates good thoughts. And these things generate similar ones.

*Of Evagrius.* Those who are converted from impious doctrine are a treasure to good teachers, whereas previously they were the riches of the impious. Also, the riches of those who were of the circumcision are stored in the treasury for the Gentiles who believe in Christ, the kingdom of heaven having been taken from the former and given to those justified by faith. Or even, the riches are in the malice of the impious, which the just will consume through good doctrine, whether now or in the future age, having been set over five or ten cities. ^B

CHAPTER XIV

VERS. 4. *Where there are no oxen, the mangers are clean; but where there are many sprouts, the virtue of the ox is manifest.* Where there are no teachers, there the seats of the hearers are empty. But the virtue of the teacher is shown where there are many sprouts, that is to say, disciples. Perhaps, however, the ox spoken of now is singularly Jesus, the fruits of whose virtue can be shown among many men. Therefore, where there are no spiritual oxen—prophets and apostles—the mangers are void of sprouts, in which the Savior coming, every sprout ^C

the whole earth with it, and it was said: "The harvest indeed is great, but the laborers are few."

VERS. 18. *The thoughtless shall divide evil: but the prudent shall keep hold of sense.* ^A Eusebius. — They will indeed have this share and portion; but he has opposed "evil" to "sense." If, however, evil is opposed to virtue, then indeed "sense" signifies virtue.

VERS. 26. *In the fear of the Lord is hope of strength; but to his children he leaves a foundation.* Again, he has spoken of the disposition instead of the one who possesses it. "Hope of strength" exists because he who struggles still in this life, knowing in part and prophesying in part, has hope laid up for the future, which he shall receive; and to his children he leaves "a foundation." Such was that prophet when he was dying, whose wife came to Elisha, bewailing her poverty and her creditors; but he, while the woman multiplied the oil, delivered her from the creditors and gave sustenance to her children. Moreover, the fear of the Lord, having pious children—who are sons of fear, just as sons of light are also called "light"—left this foundation for them. ^B

CHAPTER XV.

VERS. 5. *In abundant justice is much strength.* Eusebius. — "For unless," he says, "your justice shall abound, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." But the root of the wicked is malice, which, after the present life, is about to perish together with them. Similar to this is also that saying: "He shall pluck you and your root out of the land of the living." ^C

VERS. 25. *The Lord shall raze the house of the insolent: but he has established the boundary of the widow.* Eusebius. — The Lord has razed the houses of the proud Jews; but he has established the boundary of the Church, the widow, left widowed by the tearing away of the devil from her. For the Lord overturns the empty webs and structures of those who resist the truth, destroying the wisdom of the wise, but he confirms the house of those whose soul is widowed of these things.

CHAPTER XVI.

VERS. 14. *The wrath of the king is a messenger of death: but a wise man shall appease him.* Origen. — The saint said this, being removed from passion: either the wrath is to be taken allegorically, or he calls the king by a name not in the good sense. But a wise man, although he may have sinned as a man, yet by penance he appeases him. The messenger who knows words concerning punishment is called an angel, or messenger, of wrath.

VERS. 15. *In the light of life is the son of the king: but those who are very acceptable to him are as a latter rain.* Evagrius. — In many places of Scripture, "light of life" is conjoined, according to that saying: "The life was the light of men," in which light is the Son of the King, the disciple of Jesus. The Son of the King is also Christ, and those who are perfected in the knowledge of truth according to Christ.

Didymus. — Those who drew near to the faith at the advent of Christ, because they believed at the end of the ages, are as the latter rain: for virtue, born late at last, renders one of this sort master of himself, [and] acceptable to Christ the King, or indeed to any wise person.

VERS. 17. *He who receives discipline shall be in good things, but he who keeps corrections shall become wise. He who keeps his ways, preserves his own soul, and loves his own life, spares his own mouth.* For moral education, as it is a certain introductory instruction, conciliates the perfection of virtues to the one who is advancing; but he calls "corrections" the reproofs, or demonstrations of words, or the commandments of God, for these rebuke us when we sin.

VERS. 22. *The fountain of life is thought to those who possess it: but the discipline of the imprudent is evil.* Eusebius. — The thought of intelligent and sound-hearted men, which takes things as they are, directs their life; but the discipline of the imprudent is evil, as bringing forth death; or he has thus called an irrefragable and inexcusable malice.

VERS. 32. *A long-suffering man is better than a strong one.* Didymus. — For an internal war is altogether more dangerous and more difficult than any external one, because he who has conquered this is now freed from all cares, but he who is subject to it struggles with an untiring enemy.

CHAPTER XVII.

VER. 2. *A wise servant shall rule over foolish masters, and will divide portions among brothers.* The same. The people from the nations, while they were servants (for Christ redeemed them with a price), having become wise through faith, have surpassed the noble Jews and masters. And in another sense: If everyone who commits sin is a servant of sin, everyone who departs from malice has, through virtue, conquered the foolish demons who were his masters; the one who becomes a dispenser of the mysteries of God, according to the condition of his circumstances, bestowing spiritual knowledge upon each of his brothers—giving milk to the Corinthian, and nourishing the Ephesian with solid food, discoursing on length and breadth, and depth and height, and by these intervals signifying the distinction of rational nature, which holds together things escaping human grasp due to the immense depth of divine judgment and of the providence of reason. A symbol of these is Jesus Nave, distributing the land to the twelve tribes; for the divine discourses regarding the incarnation of Christ are hidden in knowledge in Judah, in whose lot or tribe Christ is born.

VER. 14. *The principle of justice gives power to words, but contention and strife precede want.* Origen. ^A According to that saying: there is no unjust power, or because there is a supereminent power, or even, if we may say so, justice is the principle or head in power. For the confidence or liberty belongs to the incorrupt word. Therefore it is said of the Savior: *For He will be teaching as one having authority, and not as the scribes.* Eusebius. Contention or sedition precedes want, just as an army's sedition produces poverty, so also the dissension of thoughts produces a poverty of words. If, therefore, knowledge follows justice, malice precedes ignorance.

CHAPTER XVIII

VER. 2. *Wisdom does not need intelligence, for it is led by foolishness.* Didymus. But it is led more by imprudence, because it has loved darkness more than light. Furthermore, folly, rejoicing, thinks that wisdom is not necessary for it. ^B

VER. 8. *Fear casts down the sluggish, but the souls of the effeminate shall hunger.* Eusebius. Fear, that is, the enemy, or the fear of the Lord, separates them from sluggishness through good works. But the effeminate one is he who neither can teach nor desires to learn. Therefore, fear excites those who are sluggish in practical virtue from evils or troubles, lest they prepare [them], since they have nothing in which to trust for the future. Moreover, the man who is a woman in will and zeal will not have the virtue by which he may be sustained.

VER. 10. *From the magnificence of strength comes the name of the Lord; but the just who run to Him are exalted.* For from creatures and their magnitude it becomes manifest that God is omnipotent. The name of the Lord, however, signifies the knowledge of God. And indeed, the righteous run to Him for the sake of a straight life, and are exalted through contemplation. Also in another sense: The name of the Lord is he who is magnificently strong in the Lord who comforts him, whom the appellation of the Most High God renders sublime as he runs to Him.

VER. 14. *A prudent servant mitigates a man's fury; but who can sustain a pusillanimous man?* Eusebius. Just as our Lord is called the stumbling-block to sinners and the rock of scandal to the unbelieving, so also is He called pusillanimous on account of sinners. The same. Moses, while he was a servant of a man: *“Behold, the man whose name is the Orient,”* mitigated God’s fury against His own people, saying: *“If You forgive them, forgive,”* etc. But the pusillanimous man is he who quickly changes his mind. ^C

VER. 15. *The heart of the prudent possesses sense: but the ears of the wise seek cognition.* Didymus. Sense in this place should not be understood as natural, but as the one acquired regarding dogmas, which belongs to an industrious or practical man. But the contemplative person, since he is occupied with the contemplation of things, seeks the intellect. Often, however, and especially in the present book, the practical and the contemplative life are designated and declared by sense and intellect.

VER. 16. *A man's gift makes room for him, and makes him sit among princes.* Eusebius. He who gives to the poor will not be reduced to straits, but will be as one of the princes. Or, he has called the man's gift that straight life by which, expanding himself, he makes himself worthy of the fullness of God, which he calls the chair of virtues; for the chair of the mind is the best habit which keeps the sitter unmoved or difficult to move by motion.

CHAPTER XIX

VER. 4. *Riches add many friends: but the needy are deserted even by the friend they had.* Eusebius. The riches of knowledge and wisdom add many angels to us. But the impure is separated even from the angel whom he had received as a guardian from childhood. For spiritual friendship ^D is virtue and knowledge, through which we are amicably associated with those holy virtues.

VER. 14. *House and substance are divided by fathers to children: but a wife is fitted to a man by the Lord.* Didymus. It is indeed for fathers to teach their children virtue and the knowledge of God. But it is for God to bestow wisdom upon them; for understand the wife here to be wisdom. He calls the discourses about business the substance, but the mind the house by which these are to be heard.

VER. 16. *He who keeps the commandment saves his soul; but he who neglects it will perish in his own ways.* Basilius. For man was created according to God's image...

remedies. He has received just ways from Him. For God made man upright. But these very ways are called precepts, as regards the one commanding, but as paths, with respect to the mind that travels them. They are called testimonies because they were delivered in heaven and on earth; whence the mind that has received them is called a witness, which, if it fails, will not go unpunished.

VER. 17. *He who is merciful to the poor lendeth to God; and according to his gift, He will repay him.* Eusebius. — For God appropriates to Himself and claims what is bestowed upon Him; and according to his gift it shall be repaid to him, that is, according to [the] affection; He does not repay out of sadness or necessity. For God measures not the gifts, but the disposition of the soul.

VER. 19. *A man who thinks evil shall suffer no harm; but if he corrupts, he shall add to his own soul.* Didymus. — For he defiles all his senses alike, cleaving even to the soul itself entirely. But is not the very privation of the contemplation of created things a great harm? To which is added the deletion of natural thoughts concerning God, the soul itself being reduced to total privation of reason.

VER. 24. *He who hides his hands in his bosom unfairly, will not even bring them to his mouth.* He who does not live rightly hides his hands in his soul unfairly, not wishing to labor his land nor to be filled with bread. Since virtues, occupied with actions, possess the nature of hands, such as bring that bread to our mouth which descended from heaven and gives life to the world. A person such as this, therefore, being lazy and slothful, will be unable to acquire any beginning of fruitful action.

CHAPTER XX

VER. 2. *The threatening of a king is no different from the roaring of a lion: but he who provokes him sins against his own soul.* For he does not have the intellect by which he might escape the evils with which he is surrounded on every side; but if the wine of those [people] is the fury of dragons, and wine is incontinent, then fury is also incontinent, as it makes men intemperate, and anger is contumelious, as it is engendered by effervescent fury. For this reason, the Nazarites, that they might live in a way without such things, were commanded to abstain from wine. He who provokes the king, that is, he who by sin provokes Christ to anger, sins against his own soul.

VER. 4. *The reproached sluggard is not confounded; likewise also he who receives grain on usury from the harvest.* Eusebius. — For such a one, when he ought to be a master because of the time, still has need of primary instruction. But if the grain is in the harvest, he receives it on usury from those who labored their land for six years and feed the widows and orphans in the seventh.

VER. 20. *The lamp of him who curses father or mother shall be extinguished: but the pupils of his eyes shall see darkness.* Eusebius. — For he who has cursed father or mother ^A shall die the death. But he who has said the same to Christ and the Church will be deprived of the faith he had before the accusation, which was the light in him. It may also be used of external darkness, for which reason it is also spoken of in regard to the future. Nay, Christ indeed is the Father of those who have the spirit of adoption, the Mother of those who have need of milk and not of solid food, seeing that Paul was indeed the father of the Ephesians, revealing mysteries of wisdom to them, but the mother of the Corinthians, giving them milk to drink.

VER. 10. *Great and small weight and double measures are unclean before the Lord, and both [are] also he who does them.* Basilius. — By the mention of the quality of scales in regard to judgment, he signifies that he who has a deceitful affection, bland in words but in reality wicked, is unclean: as when one pretends to temperance who is not temperate. I also judge every excess and defect to be a great and small measure. For both have vice attached to them: moreover, a double measure belongs to him who wishes to receive benefits from another, but does not in turn repay the same to others. For he does not behave according to what is said: "All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

CHAPTER XXI

VER. 4. *The wise man is great in contumely with an audacious heart; but the lamp of the wicked is a sin.* The wise man, he says, is great in contumely, not in virtue, but he glories in those things in which he ought to be confounded. But the lamp of the wicked is sins, according to that: "Walk in the light of your fire." For they think sin is good, when it is temporary. Perhaps also, in respect of impiety toward God and of worse things, sin may be seen as a lamp. But even coming from a greater evil to that which is less, one receives the beginning of illumination.

VER. 19. *It is better to dwell in a desert than with a contentious and talkative and irascible woman.* Didymus. — It is better to be a celibate than to dwell with such a one: or it is even better to be in the Church of the Gentiles than in the synagogue of the Jews. Or even as David says: "In a desert land, pathless, and waterless." Earth, therefore, is virtue, which has no ^B former inhabitants, nor men depraved according to the desires of error, and so the devil does not find rest in it, since he walks through arid and waterless places seeking rest and finds none. For He is the King of all who dwell in the waters. And he says that the commemorations of the houses of wisdom are frequent. But if this is as true as it is in reality, a pugnacious or contentious woman is malice, which will make the one with whom she dwells contentious and talkative and irascible.

CHAPTER XXII

VER. 7. *The rich shall rule over the poor, and servants shall lend to their own masters.*

Eusebius. — In the age to come, those who have been ^A needy in all things will preside in all knowledge and wisdom over those who are deprived of these riches. Moreover, as to what is said here concerning servants and masters, let the hidden meaning be set aside for a moment: according to the letter, it declares the instability of human life. Indeed, even where ruling power rests with the few, the rich dominate the poor. In another sense, those endowed with knowledge preside over the ignorant and unrefined, and the faithful who are from the Gentiles lend doctrine to the Israelites, to whom it formerly belonged by right, even though they previously had lent it to many nations, and had ruled them. Now, however, since the kingdom of heaven has been taken away from them, the reverse has come to pass.

VERS. 16. *He who slanders the poor, multiplies his own goods: but he gives to him that is rich to his own loss.*

Just as the devil slanders us, taking from us virtues which he did not give to us, so also we slander him by accepting from him vices which we did not give to him. And in so far as we receive certain vices from him, we accept them as from one who is poor in virtues; but in as much as we give our own virtues to him—to our own detriment—we donate them to him as to a rich man in malice. Therefore, the more anyone gives to him, the more he wounds his own soul. ^B

VERS. 20. *And do thou describe them to thyself triply, in counsel and knowledge upon the breadth of thy heart.*

Eusebius. — He says that these Proverbs shall be in thy mind as thou describest them, so that thou mayest speak of them sitting in thy house, and walking by the way, and lying down and rising up. Everything, moreover, should be described in a triple way, in counsel and in knowledge; for example, whatever pertains to theory, since it even has a true literal sense, will be threefold. For instance, that saying: "Thou shalt not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn," bears this meaning according to the letter; according to the anagogy, however, it signifies that we must not hinder that which works in us upon the earth—namely, the sense—from using sensible things rightly, and thereby obtaining food. According to the allegory, it signifies that the teacher, who sows spiritual things in us, ought to reap [from us] carnal things, namely, by receiving food from us. Furthermore, he calls those things counsel and knowledge which pertain to action and doctrine. Or it may be that every scriptural composition or commentary is divided into the moral, the natural, and the theological. The Proverbs correspond to the first, Ecclesiastes to the second, and finally the Song of Songs to the third, which are described in the heart once understood through the purity of the soul. ^C

Chrysostom. — Or also thus, as if to say: Dilate thy heart for the reception of divine theorems, so that every sense may be multiplied. For one who is listening to "Thou shalt not commit adultery," if indeed he has a wife, let him be content with the letter; if not, let him not take one. This same thing also has a place in alien doctrine, either that one must not commit adultery against the Lord the Spouse, nor retreat in mind from His adhesion; or that [word] is taken in a triple way as a safeguard, firmly or frequently, according to that of Ezekiel: ^D Qoniam exfornicata es tripliciter, vel indesinenter in omni vita tua. Or the words of Scripture are described in a threefold manner, namely according to history, and to the morals of the soul, and according to the anagogy. Furthermore, there are three most important times of life's transformation, according to which one is a child, a youth, and a perfect man. And, speaking in a threefold way, he says this: so that the simpler person may be edified by the obvious wording of the letter, but the perfect man by the hidden sense of the letter. For just as a human being consists of body and soul and mind, so also do the holy words. For each thing is threefold, namely, according to the letter, and the intellect, and the contemplation or anagogy.

VERS. 27. *For if thou hast not wherewith to pay, they will take away thy bed that is under thy ribs.*

Do not rashly bear witness for those tutors who wish to know things, for because that which is different appears in thee, a debt will redound upon thee for which thou wilt not be able to pay; for no one is good for another; for they will scarcely suffice for themselves. Moreover, those teachers to whom thou hast pledged thy faith will occur—in moral matters, actions; in scientific matters, indeed, correct opinions about God and the world—and if these are not exhibited or paid, they will snatch away thy covering in which thou restest: thy soul, I say, or its faculties or powers, for the ribs designate [our] powers, as in that passage of Job: "His ribs, his ribs of bronze," that is, the powers of the fleeting voice, or alternatively. Do not rashly bind thy flesh, nor take upon thee the actions of others, for unless he is found to be such as thou hast testified, the payment for that kind of debt will redound entirely upon thee. Those who admit friendly cogitations and thereby honor the evil one, let them strive to pay the worse with better cogitations, because they will take up the underlying virtue, since this is called the garment of the mind standing in justice, while the remainder which falls away through perverse cogitations is called the bed.

CHAPTER XXIII

VERS. 1-3. *If thou shalt sit to eat at the table of a powerful man, be wise and understand what is set before thee: And put out thy hand knowing that it behooves thee to prepare such things. But if thou art insatiable, do not covet his meats: for these obtain a false life.*

At the meal, indeed, he says, use restraint with thy words; but at the supper, after the meal, understand what things are before thee—not those which are higher and placed far away; and add action to thy words: for thus will we prepare things consonant to spiritual matters. Therefore, at the table of the powerful, seek nothing lowly or earthly with which to be nourished, and not so much that which is historical, as that which is spiritual and heavenly. This must be understood when the letter follows the sense; but understand "princes" as Christ, or if "princes" is written, as Moses and the prophets. If, however, thou dost not desire to be freed from the consideration of the letter, do not insatiably covet his meats. For if thou art concerned only with the letter, abstaining from allegory, what will thou be able to say about those things which cannot consist together according to the letter, such as that: Thorns grow in

hand of a drunkard? The table of rulers is the oracles of the prophets, which the auditor must translate from history to theory, and thus exercise them. Understand spiritually, however, those things that are set before you, and extend your hand. Do not, he says, fix your foot in history alone, nor be content with the first course: for this is what that means: "And put forth your hand." Knowing that things of this kind are to be prepared for you, that is, to be understood spiritually, namely, that you also may nourish Christ with virtues: but if you cling to the insatiable study of history, how will you be a participant in the spiritual table? For they cling to the mendacious life, carnal and not spiritual; for to such [people] is offered food of this kind, which can nourish souls. ^B

VERS. 21. For every drunkard and lecher shall beg, and every drowsy person shall be clothed with rags and tatters.

He forbids the wine which is expressed from the Sodomitic vine. This also corresponds according to the letter and according to the sense to him who strives for wisdom. For although the dogmas of adversaries may seem solid after the manner of meats, and to provide good nourishment, they are nevertheless serpentine and difficult to digest, like the venom of asps and the grape of gall. Hearing those things, therefore, do not extend yourself to their purchases; but to this end only is it permitted to hear them, that you may pursue an argument for refuting them. You have wine expressed from the true vine, namely, the sense of the Scriptures: he who drinks from these becomes inebriated with a sober drunkenness, and surpasses men, conversing with God. But he who drinks from the vine of the people of Sodom is composed of madness. Wherefore it is also said: "But our enemies are senseless." Everyone who falls away from divine doctrine and wisdom, in whose right hand are riches and glory, is begging, consorting with harlots who simulate true knowledge. And he is drunk from wine that induces lethargy. In short, he who does not stay awake so as to appear with virtue, and is not sober—he shows his soul’s garments to be ragged and base. Now the garments of the soul are sound dogmas and the clear thoughts of actions; which garments, indeed, a righteous man, obtaining them luminous, is clothed in white at all times, and has hatred for the tunic of the flesh contaminated with filth. ^C

VERS. 22. Hear, my son, the father who begot you; and do not despise because your mother has grown old.

The mother of your tutor-father is doctrine: for your infirmity is seen to be his. Therefore, arouse yourself the more and then you will find the mother robust and vigorous. For you, by your own negligence, reduce her to old age and oblivion, while she herself meanwhile suffers nothing. Indeed, the elders used to say that the soul is the mother of the mind, calling the soul itself the soul’s affection, and anger, and concupiscence. For by practical virtues the mind is brought into the light; since through fortitude and temperance we obtain wisdom and the knowledge of God, which are the virtues of anger and concupiscence. But someone might say that the mother is also the Old Testament, which is not easily to be despised. ^D

Evagrius. — Lest you understand Scripture sensually, he admonishes us to converse with the just described therein. Or even, he commands us to converse with those saints still surviving, walking and progressing, which is a state of neither standing still nor sitting. For the mind that converses in the places of walking walks worthily according to the vocation by which it was called, and busies itself in the Scriptures which contain the lives of the just.

CHAPTER XXIV

VERS. 3. With wisdom a house is built, and with understanding it is directed.

Chrysostom. — The Scripture frequently calls intermediary arts wisdoms, as in this: "Who gave women the wisdom of weaving?" that is, the habit of making it—of that wisdom which exists in the artisan, but also of the rational calculation of dispensations which are sufficient for completing it; for this structure, and even the framework of speculations, is built wisely with speculative virtue and practical intelligence. Nevertheless, "Unless the Lord build the house, they labored in vain who build it." For there is need of God as a cooperator. The house which was not in the beginning, but is restored after the fall, is completed with practical virtue; it is the house of the soul. Furthermore, when the intelligence of these [things] is raised up and depicted to the life, and with sense, with labor and action, the receptacles of the soul are filled.

VERS. 10. But filth to a pestilent man, he shall be defiled in the day of evil and in the day of tribulation until he fails.

The prophet also declares sin to be filth: "his filth is before his feet." For in his actions is sin, which shall be hardened into a habit, fixed by a movement difficult [to overcome].

Didymus. — Now such a one, affected by punishment, fails in the day of judgment. Specifically, he who, while he was powerful in virtue, was formerly a man, ceases to be such, falling from virtue on the day that he commits evil. But if malice diminishes virtue, virtue also destroys malice. Yet this will be in the future age, until iniquity fails. For that "he shall be defiled" is the same as saying he shall be corrupted or destroyed. Now filth is destroyed either by practical virtue or by the bitterness of punishment.

VERS. 12. But if you say: I do not know this [man]; know that the Lord knows the hearts of all: and He who fashioned the spirit for all, He knows all things, who renders to each according to his works.

If, he says, you say: "I do not know this man," He will convict you of a lie, and you will be guilty of falsity and murder. For He who fashioned the soul, He knows all things, and renders to each according to his quality—the good to the good, and the perverse to the perverse. For that which is not [measured] according to quantity is evident: "For the passions of this [present time] are not worthy..."

^A of the glory to come. But if anyone wishes also to receive according to quantity, let him estimate it according to the capacity of each virtue, just as also the gifts of the Spirit are given according to the measure of faith.

VERS. 13. Eat honey, my son, for it is good, that your throat may be sweetened. Thus you will perceive wisdom in your soul: for if you find it, your exit will be good, and hope will not desert you.

He eats honey who receives utility from the divine Scriptures: but he who draws discourses from the very things from which the holy prophets and apostles drank, he eats the honeycomb that belongs only to a pure heart. But to be stated in another sense, honey is allegory, but the honeycomb is literal consideration, inasmuch as it holds an abstruse and profounder meaning: for honey is in the honeycomb; the throat is the nourishing faculty of the soul, through which foods are carried into the stomach. And so, if you digest these things rightly, both those that pertain to understanding and those that pertain to history, the very dogmas and decrees of wisdom will be a taste to you. And your exit will be good, so that it may be said: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints;" ^B nor will you fail in the hope of future goods.

VERS. 15. Do not apply the wicked to the pastures of the just, nor be seduced by the satiety of the belly.

The pasture of the just is a green and flowering place, and also an education alongside the water of refreshment. Do not, therefore, he says, introduce the wicked into the pastures of that true shepherd. For since he has no art or manner of grazing, like some most impure swine, he will trample with hands and feet that vineyard which was planted by the householder. Do not, therefore, let him deceive you, even if you seem to be fed in some way by it and to sate your belly; for he is weak regarding the cognition of things. But rather a humbler diet is fitting for him, that is, the primary instruction of the Christian faith which introduces one to divine dogmas, so that he may be able to feed on solid food thereafter. In another sense, too: Do not betray God for the sake of pleasure: for this is the food of the just and will by no means desert you.

VERS. 19. Do not rejoice in evildoers, nor envy sinners.

Eusebius. — Since your enemies rejoice in evils, do not be like them: for if one ought not to rejoice in their punishment, much less should one take pleasure in those who commit the evils themselves. ^C

VERS. 20. For the descendants of the wicked will not come to be, but the lamp of the wicked will be extinguished.

Didymus. — Perverse men do not beget virtues nor right dogmas, for these are the pledges of a righteous soul. But these things are already consistent with what has been said. For the enemies, he says, being perverse, have rejoiced together in strange lapses [or falls]. But as for what you rebuke, have you not been zealous? For whatever is as if splendid is theirs, and it is deceptive while this life lasts, and it is extinguished by death, indeed, it is frequently extinguished while they are still living, having been refuted.

A sword is the tongue of the king and not flesh: but whoever is delivered up will be crushed.

But the sword is the word of God, and not flesh, that is, [not] sensible; for if its wrath is irritated, it consumes men along with their sinews and devours the bones of men, and burns like flame, so that they might be unfit for the food of the eaglets.

For the ancient men who were corrupted according to the concupiscences of error, the sword of God consumes; but let them put off the old man, and put on the new. He who was created according to God, who not even able to be swallowed by demons, having been cleansed by the Lord and abstaining from every vice. It subjoins, therefore, so that they may be unfit for the food of the eaglets, or also because it is burnt and digested; but otherwise it is unfit for food for eagles, for the use is by circumlocution.

Who gathered the winds in his bosom!

Eusebius. — And he moderates the forces of sensible winds; but the wings of spirits are the sublime thoughts about God in which he walks to be found in the same. If therefore he who came forth from the root of Jesse gathered the winds in his bosom, of whom it is said: "And there rested upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of cognition and piety, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of the fear of God." Another says: Who hides false cognition through true cognition?

Lest being sated I become a liar, and say: who sees me? or being in want I steal and perjure the name of the Lord.

For satiety begets pride, by which one seems to be superior to reproach, as one who is devoid of sin in word and deed. Or lest, he says, filled with knowledge, I appear to surpass the grasp of others, or by bringing forth those things which are above them, I appear to be a liar. But also one steals alien theorems to fill a hungry mind. But this [was] before the advent of the Savior: now, however, Paul says: "He who stole, let him steal no more," ^D but rather let him work righteousness, so that having attained knowledge he may communicate it also to him who is in need. For what is not ours, that we should steal? For all things are ours, but we are Christ's, and Christ is God's. Furthermore, he steals knowledge not who receives it from him who had previously received it, but who takes it from the science falsely so-called. The faithful, therefore, who draw it from the apostles and prophets, are by no means said to steal theorems, but rather to be heirs of patristic possessions.

The evil son has sublime eyes, but he is lifted up by his own eyelids. The evil son has sword-teeth, and knives for molars, to consume and eat the humble from the earth, and their poor from among men.

He says that the evil son curses his father, namely, him who educated him in the discipline and correction and fear of the Lord, and likewise his mother or even thus: The evil disciple hates his preceptor, considering the sermons of that one to be a rebuke of his own wickedness. But while he holds virtue with doctrine, he does not dare to slander it, but acknowledging it to be blameless, he rails at the master himself. In another sense, the evil son...

his sword has teeth; saying: Do not approach me, for I am pure, that it may consume the weak of the earth. For the flesh of weak men takes hold of them, bites and devours them. But the expression: "he does not wash his own exit," or the direction of the bowels, signifies that, not having been cleansed at his own birth, he should judge himself to be just, and having grinding molars, that is, he should have a mouth clean from obscene speech, or a heart clean from unclean thoughts, or should have meditated upon the end of life; or he may still be impure, because the water of baptism did not wash away the stains which he contracted from the origin of his birth so that he might be regenerated, but he remained in his first generation.

VERS. 27. Prepare your works for your departure, and be ready in the field, and go after me, and you will build your house.

That is, do here what may be of use to you in the future. In the Gospels, He called this world a field: but now he calls the contemplation of the world a field, into which pure hearts enter. And go, he says, after me; for he who follows wisdom, keeping the middle way, does not deviate to the right or to the left; for he walks the path of Him who says: "I am the way"; whence he adds: "And you will build your house"; that is, your own habit of life, where you will reduce my words into deeds. For by wisdom a house is built, but into a malevolent soul wisdom will not enter.

CHAPTER XXV

These are the indistinct proverbs of Solomon which the friends of Hezekiah, king of Judah, described.

Didymus. — Certain sentences were found in the scrolls of the kings which they called disciplines for King Hezekiah, which his friends described, although they did not have an order of distinction, so that one was first and another second and so forth. The meaning of this kind of script seems to me to suggest that the proverbs which, up to this inscription, are contained in this book, having been brought together and digested into one body, were found to have been composed, discrete—that is, verse by verse—and in an orderly manner, by Solomon himself. But many other sentences in the form of apophthegms, drawn from him, were still being circulated here and there. For the book of Kings has revealed how Solomon spoke three thousand proverbs. Therefore, from those which were circulated here and there, confusedly and without order, the friends of Hezekiah, gathering them up as if into a bundle and a collection, and bringing them into one order and series, appended them to this book. You are not unaware of how friendly King Hezekiah was to God, a keeper of legal precepts, and a student of sincere divine worship, as well as an enemy and foe of the gods of false name. Consequently, therefore, his friends, being eloquent Hebrew sages, carefully distinguishing these indistinct and confused proverbs in a certain order, and bringing them into one body, offered them ^A to the king as a kind of honorarium. And so this inscription presents the history of someone’s achievements to the readers, and this present reading shows this very fact as well. For it does not contain what the friends of Hezekiah wrote, but what they described, that is, what they interpreted and explained, weaving together those that were scattered into one harmony.

The glory of a king honors things.

Eusebius. — We said that owners are named from their virtues and vices, according to the saying: "The Lord is just and has loved righteous judgments" 17, that is, the righteous. And "the fear of the Lord hates iniquity and insolence and pride," that is, the unjust, the insolent, and the proud. And now he calls one who possesses the glory of God or the glory of a king both of these. For they hide the word of God within ^B themselves so that they do not sin, and they honor His precepts when they perform them. Unless perhaps he means that the one who honors God or the king hides the word and honors the precepts. For he who dishonors Him, through prevarication of the law, dishonors Him.

VERS. 11. Grace and friendship deliver: keep these for yourself lest you become blameworthy: but guard your ways composedly.

Eusebius. — For the Savior says: "The truth shall make you free" 18. And Paul: "Christ redeemed us" 19. If, therefore, friendship, and truth, and Christ liberate, Christ is truth and friendship. Whence even those who have the knowledge of Christ are friends among themselves. In another sense: Man is ornamented with favors ^C which can liberate his own mind: for he who possesses consistency with the virtue of his thoughts, he is entirely free.

VERS. 12. As a precious sardius bound in a golden earring, so is a wise word upon an obedient ear.

Didymus. — Just as an apple of gold is appropriate to a sardius, so is the knowledge of God to a pure soul. Insert the precious sardius into the golden earring, and the wisdom of the Lord into a mind devoid of trouble: he who utters a timely word, he possesses ornament. Perhaps the sardius signifies action, because it is a stone, but gold signifies contemplation. And since the wise man is adorned with both, a word is accommodated to those who are so disposed as if by its own proper means.

VERS. 13. As the outgoing of snow in harvest in the heat benefits those who sent him: for it aids the souls of those who use it. ^D

The same. — For vehement heat at the time of harvest makes the grain fall before it is ripe; but the snow that follows repairs the damage: so a faithful messenger benefits souls. Perhaps high heat may be temptations, and the grain in the harvest scorched by heat may be a man exercised by temptations, and the snow a slight relief. Or symbolically, the snow is the Holy Spirit, on account of His splendor and purity, whose outgoings are consolatory words.

VERS. 18. A club and a sword and a sharp arrow: so also...

... [**1795**] ...man who speaks false testimony against his friend. *Eusebius.* — Do not use material things beyond what use and necessity demand, lest they render you hateful to God by making your mind carnal; or even theology's problems are rarely to be approached, lest we perhaps say something that should not be said at all about God, and fall away from spiritual knowledge as impious. And just as a nail, a sword, and weapons cause injury, so too does slander inflict a wound when judges lack the faculty to discern.

VERS. 23. *The north wind arouses clouds: but a shameless face irritates the tongue.* *Didymus.* — The harsh north wind, from whose face evils are aroused over all who dwell on the earth, stirs up clouds in times of temptation. He calls the devil a shameless face that irritates the soul.

[CAPUT XXVI]

VERS. 19. *So are all who lie in wait for their friends, and when they are seen, they say they did it in jest.* For he says, whoever is unacquainted with their wicked habit, if he encounters them first, is supplanted; for deceitful friends differ in no way from tempters or pirates. In another sense: just as those who decline manifest absurdity offer words of excuse, accusing, of course, those who tempt, and then remove from the midst the one who first contradicts the word: so also some, while feigning friendship, but plotting snares when they see their friends, say they are doing it in jest when they are caught.

VERS. 22. *The words of flatterers are soft: but this one strikes into the innermost parts of the belly.* *Didymus.* — Contumelious words stir up the agitation of strife; but those who utter deceptive words, like the heterodox who flow into the souls of the simple with persuasive and sweet language. Observe, therefore, he says, deceitful men, however soft the words they may use; for they are clearly exasperating, and they reach to the bottom of the soul: the word *kerkonton* is taken from foxes, which are accustomed to hunt and capture simpler birds in no other way than by lying down with their tails over their eyes, and by that method enticing and catching the simpler creatures.

VERS. 23. *Smooth lips hide a sad heart.* *Eusebius.* — Sadness will not occupy a pure heart, provided it has expelled corrupt desires; but consolatory words cure a sad heart.

VERS. 24. *With lips the enemy welcomes everything, while in his heart he weaves deceits.* *Didymus.* — The cunning flatterer, of course, sympathizes with his friends until he has persuaded them that he sympathizes with them and labors for their sake, while in his heart he weaves evils, of which it is said: "With their mouth they blessed, and in their heart they cursed."

VERS. 25. *If an enemy asks you with a loud voice, do not believe him: for there are seven iniquities in his soul.* *Eusebius.* — For since he is perfect in malice, he acts in this way, conformed to each of those seven spirits, which the unclean spirit, having taken, returned (after he had departed) to where he had been cast out. Sometimes Satan also asks us to perform, at times by inducing us with impure thoughts and the softness of pleasure, at other times by emitting articulate speech as if overcome, to which we must resist, as he wages war against us.

[CAPUT XXVII]

VERS. 7. *A soul that is in satiety mocks honeycomb: but to a needy soul even bitter things seem sweet.* The wise man, having his soul replenished with every good, deems the use of indifferent delights of no account, because he scorns all the pleasures of this life. Or also thus: those who have been refreshed by them to whom *woe* is joined, mock the honeycombs of the apostles and prophets, who were bees. But the hungry, who are declared blessed, having been helped even by those bitter things in which they were exercised by the comments of pseudo-teachers—which put forth a show of probability—hold those bitter things as sweet. Indeed, he who is filled with divine knowledge deems the words of human wisdom as not at all to be sought: but the soul not yet initiated into divine things thinks those that are bitter—namely, external sciences—to be sweet, as if compared with the true wisdom of God.

VERS. 10. *Do not abandon your friend or your father’s friend: and do not enter the house of your brother when doing badly.* For since a just father educates properly, he will also have just friends similar to himself, whom you should not abandon. It is the habit of the happy to call him happy who enjoys what is sought after in this life, but to call the contrary unhappy. Such is the envious man who bears it ill that he does not have what his neighbor has. He therefore dissuades such a one from showing himself to his brother; and since every brother is of the same faith, and the house of the upright man is virtue; do not, he says, envy him, who is engaged in a more sublime mode of life; but imitate him.

VERS. 18. *He who plants the fig tree shall eat its fruit; but he who guards his Lord shall be honored.* *Eusebius.* — Since the letter does not altogether agree with itself, it must be said that the fig tree is planted together with the true vine, whose figs the prophet saw as good. Or our Lord is the fig tree; for His fruit cures leprosy: and he who guards the word shall be honored. *Didymus.* — Perhaps the discourse is also about the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 22. *If you scourge anyone imprudently in the midst of a gathering, dishonoring him, you will not take away his imprudence.* *Eusebius.* — Indeed, by not treating the fool ignominiously, you will lead him away from his foolishness, but by teaching him what great ignominy foolishness entails. Otherwise: Do not extend the whip against the fool in everything, because he becomes more impudent and contentious.

VERS. 26. *That you may have sheep for clothing, cultivate the field, that you may have lambs.*

Eusebius. — The flowering field, teeming with various spiritual blossoms, is Holy Scripture; the grass is divine doctrine; the mountain hay is the composition of morals.

Another. — Take care for the vital goods that reside within you and never fail. The mountain hay is the soul that brings forth fruit in its migration. Moreover, honor as a field the keeping of your heart; and call the mind a field—the green herbs being the virtues that exist within it according to one’s capacity. He who takes care of these reaps the green herb, namely, the knowledge of God. The mountain hay is a certain knowledge of holy virtues that befits a still ruder constitution of souls. It is a custom, moreover, for ancient writers to use the name of mountains, as when David says: "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains," and again: "The mountains skipped like rams," surely for the sake of the salvation of Israel. For if the angels rejoice for one sinner who repents, how much more for so many who, having abandoned malice, have passed over to virtue? Wherefore, even the mere knowledge of the holy angels nourishes those virtues which are in us, through which the soul puts on the bowels of mercy, kindness, longsuffering, and the other virtues. For David also calls rational souls fields, saying: "Your fields will be filled," etc.

VERS. 27. My son, you have from me strong words for life and for the life of your servants.

Didymus. — He has strong words from God who has received the spirit of adoption of sons for himself to assist toward life. The other leads to life those who are trained in the fear of the spirit of bondage. And perhaps among the words of God, some are written for the life of sons, and others for the life of servants.

CHAPTER XXVIII

VERS. 28. In the places of the impious, the just groan: but in their destruction the just will abound.

Eusebius. — The place of the impious is this earthly world, in which the just, dwelling as in a tabernacle, groan, oppressed by them. But if the impious put off impiety, they soon become just. That destruction of theirs denotes the ruin of impiety. Thus the Lord destroyed Matthew the publican, when He bestowed grace and justice upon him.

CHAPTER XXIX

VERS. 1. Better is a man of corrections than a man of a stiff neck: for if he burns suddenly, there is no healing.

He did not say that when the flame ceases there is no healing, but when it is burning, seeing that it possesses wood, iron, and straw, for even after the burning there is healing. But he who corrects, namely, to repentance, refrains from inflicting insults upon those who are being corrected, since he is better than the reviler, for the latter is of a stiff neck. Yet that mention of "better" is not said in a comparative sense but by antiphrasis. Whatever, therefore, he who is of a stiff neck utters inconsiderately, he in no way heals. For he says, the one who does the insulting, but not the one who wishes to emend. Otherwise, if we are not cured by correction, we shall suddenly be set ablaze and not suddenly be healed.

VERS. 18. There shall be no narrator to a wicked nation; but he that keeps the law is most blessed.

Eusebius. — Not the narrator, he says, but the castigator, if indeed not a sermon but a rod is given to a wicked nation. For if the nation is wicked, the narrator of laws is useless, from whom beatitude is also far distant.

CHAPTER XXX

VERS. 15. The horse-leech had three daughters dear with love, and those three did not satisfy her, and the fourth did not say it is enough.

The devil is the insatiable one of spiritual blood, who is figuratively called the horse-leech. But the blood of the soul is its vital faculty. He has daughters, but not sons, for there is nothing manly, but all is effeminate pleasure, and he had none. Furthermore, even when the just speak the truth, saying: "We shall be caught up in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air," they cannot know the track of the eagle, a beast unclean and rapacious, and forbidden by the law, lest by chance, being defiled, they might not be able to be with the Lord forever.

Origen. — Perhaps this ship should be understood here as the one which, carrying Jesus and his disciples across the sea, did not cross; for this ship was immediately on the land to which it was driven by divine power. But the ship that does not carry Jesus crosses the sea, and that is always turbulent with the adverse blowing of winds. And because the affairs of this life are vanity, which always cross the sea and bring no man to eternal life, their ways cannot be discovered. For the track of the glorious kings of the earth, or even of princes alienated from the true worship of God, is left behind nowhere after death. For their glory has been deleted. Moreover, he says, the ways of a man who is inflamed with lusts in his youth are also not known, due to the inconstancy of morals, and likewise that of the harlot due to her impudence. Or, it also signifies the Church from the Gentiles, which, after it was washed by baptism, did nothing, he says, that was absurd. But the just man is not in his youth, seeing that: "Being perfected in a short time, he fulfilled long times." Such is also every adulterous woman who has made herself a stranger to her spouse, and the soul which has abandoned her husband and gone after lovers.

VERS. 21-23. Through three the earth is shaken, but the fourth it cannot bear. If a slave should reign, and the imprudent be filled with food. And if a servant girl should eject her own mistress: And a hateful woman if she has obtained a good husband.

The shaking of the earth designates the change of things that are done upon it, at one time indeed in the flood due to the sin then reigning, which by its nature is a slave; for everyone who does sin is a slave of sin: if indeed sin reigned in the mortal bodies of men.

^A Again, on a second occasion, among the Sodomites, not only did they bear the fertility of their land least of all, but they even offered violence to guests. Finally, on the third occasion, in abominable Egypt, which had been allotted the man Joseph, measuring out a portion of grain to all so that they might not perish from famine, it did not endure its own prosperity and was injurious to the sons of Israel. Furthermore, the maidservant who cast out her mistress is the Church from among the nations, which, though by its own nature it was a slave, alien to the covenants and estranged from the promises, and far from God, became more pleasing to Him than the noble synagogue, which was the mistress because of the fathers and the legislation. But it cast out its mistress and became the bride of Christ. Someone might say that these things, according to various understandings, also apply to those from among the nations who believed, who were also foolish. For He says: "I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation." This people, therefore, formerly foolish, having been nurtured by divine oracles, and fed with the loaves of wisdom which He had prepared in the law and the prophets, and refreshed with the bread of life, having been a slave because of sin, reigned through the reception of the heavenly Bridegroom. Why, even our soul, although it is a hateful woman, has obtained a good husband: or even the Church from among the nations, although it is the maidservant of the house of God, has cast out her mistress to whom God had said: "Hear, O daughter, and see," and what follows. The Jews, however, not in the least understanding the things they speak of nor those of which they have been made certain, relate how, indeed, Christ, upon arriving, is the lover of the Gentile woman, ^B and that He is to take this one with Him so that He may rule Israel.

Vers. 24-28. Four things are least upon the earth, but these are wiser than the wise. The ants, which have not strength, yet prepare their food in the summer; and the conies, a people not strong, who have made their houses in the rocks.

It appears that he has rehearsed in order the things that have been said: for first he treated of the leech's daughters worthy of reproach and the eye mocking the father; then of sinners who cannot be understood; thirdly, of the transformation of the perverse; fourthly, of those things which were praised a little before, such as the things wiser than the wise. Then, consequently, of those things which proceed on a prosperous journey. Now I consider those who approach Christ to be the least upon the earth. For "God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise," and the things that follow: these are wiser than the wise. If, however, these are indeed the least upon the earth, they are therefore the greatest in heaven. Wherefore the Savior says: "Whoever wants to be great among you, will be the servant of all." He urged the sluggish to imitate the laborers who are least on earth, namely, the ants: those, therefore, who heed the Savior saying: "Work while it is day, the night comes when ^C no one can work," are ants wiser than the wise, who prepare food in the summer so that they may obey the Lord saying: "Lift up your eyes and see the regions, for they are already white for the harvest," for they prepare food before the future winter of wrath. Furthermore, the conies are a symbol of those who dwell in the help of the Most High, and not only drink from the rock which is Christ, but also dwell within it. Because, however, of the various understandings regarding this animal, the cony is indeed considered unclean in Leviticus, but here it is praised. In the same way, the lion is both praised and accepted as a figure of the devil.