Homilies on Psalms 36–38 — Homily 3 — Psalm 36, Homily III — from "Gladium evaginaverunt peccatores"
Latin source: Origen's Greek homilies on Psalms 36, 37, and 38, surviving only in Rufinus of Aquileia's Latin translation (c. 401), from the reading text of J.-P. Migne (ed.), Patrologia Graeca 12 (Paris, 1862), cols. 1319–1410 (In Psalmos). This English translation is released into the public domain.On the same psalm, from the passage "The sinners have drawn the sword".
1. In the preceding treatise we said certain things about the sword and bow of sinners, and about the arms of God, and that all men are armed; and where we said all men, I will now add what was lacking in what preceded, that is, all those who are already able to sin, or to abstain from sins. For infants can handle neither the arms of God nor the arms of the devil. But if any are already able, in word and act and thought, to know what is right and to avoid what is contrary, these are they who are said to have all the arms; and if indeed they sin, they have the arms of the devil and of iniquity; but if they act rightly, they will be said to be clothed with the arms of God. What then he said, "The sinners have drawn the sword, they have bent their bow", we explained, following the Apostle, who spoke from contraries: "And the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God", that the sword of sinners would be the wicked spirit that is in them, which inspires them to words of blasphemy, and of iniquity, and of foulness. For example, if you see the gentiles fighting against one another in disputes, and constructing against each other diverse impieties by the cunning tricks of the dialectic art, you can then fittingly say that the sinners have drawn the sword. But even I who am called faithful, if perhaps I have a quarrel with someone, and, provoked to anger, cast aside meekness and utter furious words, and dismiss the spirit with lies and swollen and venomous speeches, deservedly I too, as a sinner, am said to have drawn the sword. It is therefore good, first, not even to have the sword of sin; but the second best thing is at least not to draw it, but to hide it away in its sheath. For if the sword is not brought forth from the sheath, nor used, its edge is blunted and consumed by rust, and if it always rests from work it will be exterminated. For this the Lord also promises, that he will exterminate the sword, that is, sin, so that there may no longer be a sinner. But if indeed we anticipate this work by the word of God, and while placed in this life make sin to perish within us, so that never at all is the sword of sin brought forth from us, neither by thought, nor by work, nor by word, we shall not need the punishment of eternal fire, we shall not be condemned to the outer darkness, nor shall we lie under those torments which threaten sinners. But if in this life we despise the words of the divine Scripture that admonishes us, and refuse to be cured or amended by its corrections, it is certain that that fire remains for us which has been prepared for sinners, and we shall come to that fire in which "the fire will prove of what sort each one's work is". And, as I judge, it is necessary for us all to come to that fire. Even if one be a Paul or a Peter, still he comes to that fire. But such men as those hear: "Even if you pass through the fire, the flame will not burn you". But if anyone be a sinner like me, he will indeed come to that fire like Peter and Paul, but he will not pass through as Peter and Paul do. And just as the Hebrews came to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians came too, but the Hebrews indeed crossed the Red Sea, while the Egyptians were drowned in it: in this way we too, if indeed we are Egyptians, and follow Pharaoh the devil, obeying his precepts, shall be drowned in that river or fiery lake, when sins are found in us, which without doubt we chose from the precepts of Pharaoh. But if we are Hebrews, and have been redeemed by the blood of the spotless lamb, if we do not carry with us the leaven of wickedness, we too indeed enter the river of fire. But just as for the Hebrews the water was a wall on the right hand and the left, so too the fire will be a wall, if we do what is said of them, that they believed God and Moses his servant, that is, his law and his commandments, and so follow the pillar of fire and the pillar of cloud. These things we have set forth as an admonition, repeating the explanation of how the sinners have drawn the sword.
2. But neither should this be passed over idly, that they are also said to have bent their bow: which we resolved now not by the setting-alongside of a contrary, as we did in the other cases, but from things similar. In the tenth psalm it is written that "The sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared arrows in the quiver, to shoot in the dark at the upright of heart". Whence it appears that the heart of the impious is filled, as a quiver, with venomous arrows. There are therefore arrows of the impious: their most wicked counsels and thoughts; but their mouth and lips are a kind of bow, by which, when it is widened and drawn taut, the darts of the venomous heart are hurled. But what he says, "in the dark", is fittingly said. For such men do not walk in the day, that is, in the light of God, but they walk in the darkness, and lurk hidden in the obscurity of malice and of ignorance. And that they shoot at the upright of heart, that is, at the simple and those ignorant of their malice. But I think that this saying is spoken not so much of sinful men as of the contrary powers. For it is they who shoot in the dark at the upright of heart. Therefore let those who are upright of heart keep watch day and night, because those have indeed prepared their arrows. He did not say, they have shot, but "they have prepared arrows"; they did not shoot nor wound, but they prepare themselves to shoot. You see that we are admonished before we are wounded, so that we may defend ourselves from their wounds, and keep our heart with all guard.
3. I wish also, being placed in these passages, to open up something further, lest I always speak to you of lower things, but that sometimes we may knock at certain higher matters too. I consider, then, that just as the Savior is an arrow of God, as it is written: "He set me as a chosen arrow"; and without doubt, by a similar example, Moses too, in whom God spoke, is an arrow of God: and the other prophets and apostles of Christ, in whom Christ himself was speaking, it is certain that through the arrow of God they wounded and pricked the heart of those to whom they spoke the word of God, so that those who heard the word of God from them said, "I am wounded with charity"; so again, on the contrary, just as Christ is the chosen arrow of God, so also the Antichrist is the arrow of the devil. And just as all in whom Christ spoke, or speaks—according to this likeness the prophets and apostles were themselves also arrows of God, and whoever, being righteous and a preacher, speaks the word of God to accomplish the salvation of men, can be called an arrow of God: so also all sinners, in whom the devil speaks, can be called arrows of the devil. If therefore you should ever see yourself being wounded by the arrows of the devil through the mouth of a sinner, have pity indeed on him who offers himself to the devil as a minister for this work; but you, be mindful of yourself, and seize the shield of faith, that in it you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the malignant one. And not only in words, but in deeds are the darts of the devil aimed at us. For if you were to see a woman lying in wait for you, to deceive you, is not this too a fiery dart of the devil, when she so speaks to you as to stir up in you the fire of lust? Likewise also, if someone provoke you to anger with bitter and harsh words, is not this too a fiery dart of the malignant one, by which you are inflamed and kindled to fury? But also if someone provoke and instigate you to something else, which, bearing it impatiently, you fall into sin, understand more diligently, and observe that all these are fiery darts of the malignant one, by which he inflames the upright of heart, and wounds them unto sin. But what is more unhappy, I see few arrows of God, few are there who so speak as to inflame the heart of the hearer, and draw him away from sin, and turn him to repentance. Few so speak who, having struck the heart of the hearer, draw from his eye a tear of repentance, who, opening the light of future hope and the greatness of the age to come, and testifying to the glory of the kingdom of God, can persuade men to despise the things that are seen, and to seek the things that are not seen, to spurn the things that are temporal, and to seek the things that are eternal. Very few there are such, and these, if there be any, are few: by envy and spite it is so brought about that there be not even a few at all, that they may not be able even to profit anyone. But the arrows of the devil abound in all places, all the earth is filled with them. The peoples of the world, the military hand, are for the greatest part arrows of the malignant one—would that the enemy prevailed only there, and among those, so that he had those alone for arrows. But now I fear even those who are within, and I fear myself, lest perhaps the devil lead me into some scandal, and use me as an arrow against the soul of a man: for whoever gives scandal to anyone, whether in word or in deed, that man has become to the soul which he scandalized an arrow and a dart of the devil. And see what happens to us more unhappily. Sometimes we think to speak against someone, and incautiously bring forth speeches, while we act too contentiously, and are eager to win by whatever words; then the devil uses our mouth as a bow, through which he may aim arrows and shoot at the upright of heart—namely, those who hear us speaking those things in which they suffer scandal. And just as God set the bow in the clouds, that there be no flood, and that the tempest may cease: so on the contrary the devil sets his bow not to make it cease, but to stir up tempests, to disturb the serenity in the soul, to drive away peace, to set wars in motion, and to rouse whirlwinds and storms. For when you see someone agitated by vices and passions going about and disturbing all things, I would not have you doubt that he is an arrow of the devil, and that his mouth has set his bow, and that his words have bent the arrows to shoot at the upright of heart. But those who are fortified with the arms of God could not be wounded by such as these.
4. But what he added, "that they may slay the upright of heart", since he had said above, "that they may cast down the needy and the poor", he joined to the poor the upright of heart: whom, I think, the Lord likewise joins in the Gospels; for where he says the poor are blessed, there he also blesses the pure of heart, and I judge that there is no difference between the pure of heart and the upright of heart. And they are slain in this way. If anyone come with simple mind and desire to the Church, that he may make progress, that he may become better, this man, if he see us who have already stood in the faith for a long time either not acting rightly or speaking with offense, we become to him an occasion of falling into sin. And when he has sinned, he is slain, and the blood of his soul flows out, all vital power departs from him. And if you hear it said in Genesis that "I will require the blood of your souls from every brother and from every beast", do not think that it commands so greatly about this bodily blood, as about the blood of the inner man, that is, about the life of the soul and the spiritual blood. For the blood of a scandalized soul is poured out when it has fallen into sin, and therefore he said that his blood is required from the brother. And why also from the beast? If he who scandalized you is faithful, he is a brother, from whom your blood is to be required. For he is your brother who shed your blood, and therefore it is said, "From the hand of the brother I will require the blood". But when a contrary power, wild and wicked, presses upon a man, and he is unfaithful through whom it lies in wait, if it has been able to shed the blood of your soul, that is, to cast you down into sin, it is a beast through which the Lord requires your blood. But Ezekiel the prophet too, when he says that he is set as a watchman for the house of Israel, who, if he announce the coming sword, does not become guilty of blood, but if he does not announce it, is guilty of blood; and in the law, when it is said, if he do this and this, he will be innocent of blood; without doubt here too he designates the blood of the soul, which is poured out through sin. Therefore let us all fear, lest perhaps the blood of someone who is scandalized be required from us, as the prophet designates. These things it behooved us to repeat, that we might more fully show how the sinners have drawn the sword and bent their bow, and who was the poor man whom they cast down, and how the upright of heart are slain, or what is the blood of theirs that is poured out.
5. But now let us see what happens to those sinners who do these things, that is, who use the sword of the devil and the darts of the malignant one, what the divine word says again about them: "Their framea", it says, "let it enter into their own heart, and let their bow be broken". Framea is a kind of dart, called by this name. Therefore those speeches, which, at the inspiration of the devil, the unjust and sinners bring forth, it says, against the righteous, to slay the upright of heart, will be turned back against those very ones who bring them forth, so that they may return thither whence they had proceeded. For just as it is said to the righteous and holy apostles by the Lord: "Into whatever house you enter, say: Peace to this house; and if there be there a son of peace, your peace will come upon him; but if not, your peace will return to you"; so here too, on the contrary, the sword of the impious which is drawn to slay the upright of heart is said to return upon themselves, and to be plunged into their own heart, and their bow to be broken, while the Lord delivers the righteous from their ambushes.
6. "Better is a little to the righteous than the many riches of sinners". According to the letter, this is straightway a useful admonition even for any of the simpler sort, of which it must be spoken first, although it has also something deeper, which, if anyone is able to grasp it, let him grasp it. What, then, the letter teaches us, let us see. In this world both the righteous and the unjust bear the common solicitude of life, that they may have the things necessary for sustenance. But the righteous indeed are not so inclined toward solicitude for sustenance as they earnestly bear the care of righteousness, so that even if the things necessary for sustenance are to be sought by them, they are sought without injustice, so that their very gain, which is necessary for daily use, is made with all righteousness. But the unjust care nothing about righteousness, but expend all their care on this: how they may acquire; in this is all their zeal, to seize gains in whatever way and of whatever sort: they do not consider whether they acquire well, whether with righteousness: they are not solicitous that at the judgment of Christ their possessions may be found to have been sought with righteousness. How can those do these things, who join field to field, and bring farm near to farm, that they may take something from their neighbor? Since therefore one of two things must necessarily be done, that is, either to acquire much with injustice, or a little with righteousness, "Better is", it says, "a little to the righteous, than the many riches of sinners". And truly, as by some special title, many riches are reckoned as being in iniquity. Whence I too judge that our Lord and Savior pronounced the Mammon of iniquity to be, as it were, truly a god and lord, when he says: "Make for yourselves friends of the unrighteous Mammon". These things according to the letter. Let us now see whether the word contains anything secret as well. There are many and diverse studies of letters in this world, so that you may see very many, beginning with the grammarians, learning by heart the poems of the poets, and the fables of the comedies, the fictitious or laudatory narrations of the tragedies, the long and diverse volumes of histories, then afterward passing on to rhetoric, and there seeking every dye of eloquence, after these coming to philosophy, examining dialectic, inquiring into the knots of syllogisms, testing the measures of geometry, scrutinizing the laws of the constellations and the courses of the stars, and not omitting music either; and thus, having been instructed through all these so diverse and various disciplines, in which they have learned nothing of the will of God, they have gathered riches, many indeed, but riches of sinners. But you may see one from the Church, unskilled indeed in word and in erudition, but filled with faith and the fear of God, who, because of the fear of God, dares in nothing to transgress, but altogether fears to open his mouth, lest perhaps an evil word proceed from his mouth, and takes care not to transgress even in the least matters, in which that man who is rich in the wisdom of this world cannot take care of himself. Comparing these, therefore, with each other, the divine word says: "Better is a little to the righteous, than the many riches of sinners". As are the riches of sinners, the wisdom of this world, in which they are rich and abounding in eloquence, nor yet are they able through these to restrain themselves from sin. But the little of the righteous is that of him who has faith like a mustard seed, little, but living and vehement, through which he strengthens and restrains himself from sin. Better, therefore, is this little of the faith of the righteous than the many riches of sinners, which they have in the eloquence and wisdom of this age, which is destroyed. Yet if anyone were able both to have riches, and not to have the riches of sinners; but to gather some things from the treasures of Moses the lawgiver, to acquire others also from the wealth of the prophets, from Isaiah, from Jeremiah, from Ezekiel, to examine also the secrets of Daniel, and to penetrate the hidden and obscure treasures of the rest of the prophets; this man is now not compared with the wise of this world, so as to be called better than they, but is rather set on a level with those who were saying, "that you have been made rich in all word and in all knowledge"; and who, destroying the wisdom of this world, and having become as it were its conquerors, say that they are ready to take captive every understanding that exalts and raises itself against the knowledge of Christ. Even if indeed he be the one whom we spoke of above, unskilled and an idiot, but faithful and fearing God, "better is that little" of faith to this "righteous man than the many riches of sinners", which they have gathered along with the wisdom of this age. But above both of these is he who is rich in the word of God and the knowledge of the truth, that is, who, according to Paul, is rich in all word and in all knowledge, and is nonetheless rich in good works. But if you wish to know what it is to be rich in all word, I will teach you briefly. Begin to examine from the first word of Genesis, thence in the word of Exodus, after these in the word of Leviticus, in Numbers, in Deuteronomy; grow rich from Joshua the son of Nun, grow rich from all the judges together, and thence onward, in sequence, from each and every of the books of divine Scripture, until you arrive at the evangelical and apostolic riches. For, by way of example, if anyone should give his labor to the one word of the Psalms, and when he wishes sing the whole psalter, he is rich indeed, but not in all word and all knowledge, but is rich in the word of the Psalter alone. Or if anyone give his zeal to the evangelical and apostolic reading, and exercise himself in the commandments of the New Testament, this man too is rich, but not in all word, except only the evangelical and apostolic. But if he were able to learn thoroughly the New and the Old Testament with equal zeal, and to be instructed out of all its erudition, so that he be ready to give an account of each and every of the things that are written, and to fit his life according to the word of the truth which is contained in the Scriptures; this man indeed is rich in all word and in every good work. And these, I think, are the riches of which it is said: "The redemption of a man's soul is his own riches". "Better", therefore, "is a little to the righteous than the many riches of sinners".
7. "For the arms of sinners shall be broken". How can this stand according to the letter, even if someone try to do violence to it through inexperience? There are many things so placed in the Scriptures which can move even him who is very brutish and snoring, nay, compel him, so that he must of necessity, the letter being abandoned, ascend to the spiritual understanding; as also now do these arms of the sinner, upon which he threatens the breaking to hang. But in another place too he says: "Break the arm of the sinner and of the malignant one". What then? shall we suppose that that bodily arm of the sinner and of the malignant one is to be broken? We do not see this easily come to pass. But if we consider how, when sinners have been lifted up into pride, and have prepared their bows, and have bent those arrows of theirs, of which we spoke above, against the righteous; when all this intention of theirs has been destroyed by the power of the Lord, so it is deservedly said that the arm of the sinner is broken. Or in another way, since the hand and the arm is an indication of work. If therefore you see the sinner not stretching out his hand to a good work, to a work of mercy, it will not be absurd to say that his arm is broken. But such a breaking must be believed to come not from God, but from the devil. For it is he who breaks and binds the arms of sinners, that they may not be stretched out to mercy. There comes to be, therefore, a certain breaking of sinners from God, when he destroys and frightens them as they lie in wait for the righteous; but a certain breaking from the devil, when he hinders the zeal for a good work, the arms of the unfaithful being as it were bound and broken. And there is another breaking, which is granted indeed by God, but fulfilled by the devil, that of which the devil was saying to the Lord: "But nevertheless put forth your hand and touch all that he has, unless he bless you to your face", and then he received him into his power. Whence Job himself also says: "For it is the hand of the Lord that has touched me".
8. "But the Lord upholds the righteous". Those who are weak and frail have need of one to uphold them. Where ruin and falling threaten, there support is sought. But every man, as far as regards human frailty, is both weak and prone to falling. And in this psalm indeed it is written that the Lord upholds the righteous, and in another he says: "The Lord upholds all who fall, and the Lord raises up all who are cast down". It is only for us to rouse ourselves at some time and to wake up, so that if ever through weakness some fall threatens, we may entreat the Lord to send us his word and his wisdom, which may uphold those about to fall and raise them up.
9. "The Lord knows the days of the spotless, and their inheritance shall be forever". According to the Scriptures, as we have observed in many places, the Lord does not know all things, but only those that are good; but he is said to be ignorant of evils, not that there is truly anything that lies hidden from his knowledge, but those things which are unworthy of his notice, he is said to be ignorant of. Which we have also shown from the Scriptures, when the Apostle says: "If anyone among you be a prophet, or spiritual, let him know the things that I write to you, that they are the Lord's". But if anyone is ignorant, he shall be ignored. And in the Gospel, where the Lord says to sinners: "I know you not, depart from me, workers of iniquity". For just as it is said elsewhere: "The Lord knows who are his"; so here the Lord is said to know not the days of the impious, but of the spotless. For the days of the spotless are worthy of the knowledge of the Lord. But even this I do not know whether it can be consistently expounded according to the letter. For how can there be days of the spotless which are not also of sinners? since the day of this age is one and the same for all, and in the same light both the righteous and sinners alike are engaged: as the Lord himself says of the Father, that "he commands his sun to rise upon the good and the evil". How then here is the Lord said to know the days of the spotless as though something excepted and set apart? But let us see whether perhaps each one makes for himself his own day. And if ever, casting away lying, we speak the truth with our neighbor, we are engaged in the day of truth and in the light of truth. Likewise also, when we withdraw ourselves from those who hate their brothers, and walk in darkness, and remain in the love of the brothers, we make for ourselves the day of charity. But also when we keep righteousness, and when, visiting widows and orphans in their tribulation, we keep ourselves spotless from this age, we make for ourselves days of the spotless. And these are the days which he is said to know, when he knows the days of the spotless. But if we wish to examine a still more sacred sense in this place, we can say that the days of this age are evil, according to what is written: "Because the days are evil". But there are other, good days, which are themselves also of the spotless, which the Lord knows, in which also their inheritance remains forever; then without doubt, when the righteous shall take the inheritance of eternal life, obtaining the things which "eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it ascended into the heart of man, which God has prepared for those who love him". Those are the days of the spotless, in which not this sun which the setting overtakes, and whose light the succeeding night destroys, but the sun of righteousness will shine, which knows no night, which is eternal light, as it is written, that "the Lord himself will be to them everlasting light".
10. "And they shall not be confounded in the evil time". But the righteous shall not be confounded in the evil time. And the evil time here he names the time of judgment, because of the multitude of sinners, and of those whom savage torments shall receive. Then therefore, in the time of resurrection, when all have risen, and some shall rise into eternal life, others into eternal confusion, then, he says, the righteous shall not be confounded, because nothing worthy of confusion is found in their acts. But he adds: "And in the days of famine they shall be satisfied". First it must be inquired who are the days of famine. God threatens in a certain place through the prophet, and says: "Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will send a famine upon the earth, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst of water, but a famine for hearing the word of God. And they shall go about from the east even to the west, that they may hear the word of the Lord, and shall not find it". These, therefore, are the days, and this is the time of famine, when there are none who speak the word of God, as also there is now a famine among the Jews. For nowhere is there a prophet, nowhere a wise man, nowhere a prudent judge, nowhere a captain of fifty, nowhere a wise counsellor, nowhere an understanding hearer: God has taken away all things from Judea and Jerusalem. But in us too there is a huge fear, lest perhaps a famine threaten us as well. For just as those of whom we spoke above, by reading the law and not doing it, ran into this: that they suffered a famine of the word of God, and all the gifts of God which we mentioned above were taken away from them, and it was commanded to the clouds (namely the prophets) not to rain upon them the rain of the word of God, it is to be feared lest some such kind of correction be brought upon us too: but let us rather become not only hearers of the law, but also doers, so that the Lord may command his clouds, not one, nor two, but many, to rain upon us the rain, so that in the Church two or three prophets may speak, and the rest examine: and if it be revealed to one sitting, let the first be silent, so that there may be many workmen who need not be confounded, rightly handling the word of truth, so that each of the teachers and of those who preach the word of God may say, according to Paul: "I planted, and he watered, but God gave the increase". And these things will come to pass, if we who are watered by the clouds and have heard the word of God bring forth those fruits which the Apostle enumerates, that is, "the fruits of the spirit", which are "joy, charity, peace, patience, long-suffering", and other things like to these. And if we delay to bring forth these fruits, it is to be feared lest it be commanded to the clouds to withhold their showers from us, and each of the saints begin to do that which is written: "But he who understands shall in that time sit and be silent, because the time is evil". But we ought to remember the history of the ancients concerning the time of famine, how the righteous man is satisfied in the time of famine. A fitting famine, I think, there was in the times of Elijah the prophet, when heaven was shut for three years and six months. And then the people indeed were imperiled by famine, but Elijah did not suffer famine. And then indeed he was fed by an angel, when he also went in the strength of that food, and remained forty days and forty nights; but now he was fed by the ministering ravens, when they brought him bread in the morning and flesh in the evening, and again it is related that he drank water from the torrent Cherith, and came into Zarephath of the Sidonians to a widow woman in the time of famine, and, because he was righteous, he did not suffer the want of famine, but everywhere abundance was at hand for him; and at one and the same time there was famine for sinners; but Elijah, because he was righteous, knew no famine. So therefore, even if a famine come at some time—which the Lord may not grant to his Church!—yet if ever it happen, he who has understanding and exercise in the meditation of the word of God, and has resolved to meditate in his law day and night, and to exercise himself to grasp the spiritual understanding, will find in them that bread which came down from heaven, and the word of God will become to him abundant food, and overflowing drink; and not only food and drink, but if he be able to examine the deeper sacraments of mystical understanding, the words of God will be delights to him. It is possible also in another way in this place for a deeper sense to be opened. The Lord and Savior says: "The night will come when no one can work". And this he says of that time which will be after this age, the time in which each one shall receive punishments for his own evils. Then, therefore, he says that night will come, when now no one can work anything, but each one is then fed from his own works which, placed here, he wrought. When therefore it is night, no one works in that time: when sinners shall be afflicted with punishments, there will without doubt be famine for those who have gathered no fruits of good work. But in that time of famine, the righteous shall be satisfied, namely from the fruits of their own righteousness. For just as in the desert they gathered manna for six days, but on the sixth day they gathered not the measure of one day, but as much as would suffice for the morrow, and each one ate on the Sabbath day what he had gathered on the sixth day; so also now the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be reckoned as a kind of sixth day, and this time of his dispensation, which by his passion he procured in this age. And therefore, while we are in the sixth day, let us gather manna doubly, that it may be able to suffice us when the true observance of the Sabbath of the people of God shall have come. For if we do not gather double food, which may suffice us both in the present age and in the future, in the days of famine we shall not be satisfied. For thus, when the righteous shall be satisfied in the days of famine, "the sinners", it says, "shall perish; but the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they have been honored and exalted, failing shall fail like smoke". The divine word teaches us of what sort are the honors of this age. For when you see that man puffed up, having received the fasces of that province, another lifted up with consulships, another raised up with diverse magistracies, when therefore you see all this elation, consider that, failing, they shall fail like smoke: recall too how many you have seen in these honors, and how great the heights to which you remember them to have ascended even up to your own time, and see whether not all of them, well and truly, after they were exalted, thrown down again and prostrated, failed like smoke. "But the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they shall be honored and exalted, failing shall fail like smoke". But on the contrary the friends of the Lord, as soon as they have been despised and looked down upon and humbled by men, shall be exalted and raised up by God: since "everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted".
11. After these things there are added certain matters which need no small exposition, for he says: "The sinner shall borrow and shall not repay, but the righteous shows mercy and lends". Even this, if we take it according to the letter, will not seem true. For many sinners indeed receive money on loan and repay it with interest, so that they themselves sometimes have even taken profit from the money which they had received. But here the Prophet defines, saying: "The sinner shall borrow, and shall not pay". But if you understand who it is that lends, and who it is that receives the loan, and inquire who is the sinner that does not repay the money which he received, you will understand that what is written has consistency. For example, when Paul teaches and hearers stand by him, Paul is he who lends the Lord's money, but the hearers are those who receive from his mouth the money of the word on loan. And if indeed he be righteous who receives the money from him, he will repay the loan whole and say: "Five minas you gave me, behold I have gained another five". If he is righteous, he says: "Five talents you gave me, behold you have ten"; or, "Two talents you gave me, behold you have four". But if he is a sinner, having received the word of God, he does not work out of it the works of the commandment, and does not repay the interest, but consumes all that he received on loan. Behold, even now all you to whom I speak these things, you receive on loan my words as money; this money is the Lord's. Or if you doubt, hear the Prophet saying, that "The eloquences of the Lord are chaste eloquences, silver tried by fire, purged of earth, sevenfold". If, therefore, I teach badly, my money is reprobate, according to those to whom it was said, "your silver is reprobate". But if I teach well, the money or silver is not mine, but is the Lord's, and it is tried. It is lawful for me, therefore, to lend the Lord's money, but my own proper money it is not lawful, because the word of the Lord forbids human money to be lent at interest. What, then, is the human, and what the Lord's money? I think that the speech of Valentinus is human money and reprobate, and the money of Marcion and of Basilides is human and reprobate, and the speech of all the heretics is not tried money, nor does it have in itself entire the figure of the Lord, but an adulterate one, which, so to speak, has been so figured outside the mint, because it has been composed outside the Church. But if you should see someone speaking forth not his own words, but the words of God, who may truly dare to say: "Do you seek a proof of Christ who speaks in me?", know that this man indeed lends, and lends not his own, but the Lord's money, and does that which is written: "All the day he shows mercy and lends", having authority to lend given to him by my very God Jesus Christ. For it is the Lord himself who, in the parable, when money has been given, says to the servants: "Go, do business until I return". And that servant who had scorned to multiply the money, he says, "You ought to have given my money to the money-changers, and I, coming, would certainly have exacted it with interest". This is the sinner who borrows and shall not pay: but the righteous repays the money received with interest, that is, he presents the received word of God together with works. You hear a discourse about chastity, you praise the teacher, you embrace the doctrine, you admire the teaching; through these you have received the money of chastity. And if indeed you are a sinner, having gone out from the Church you engage yourself in secular business, wantonness receives you, drunkenness follows, the faithless conversations of corrupt men, forgetting straightway all that you had received from the teacher, which you had praised, which you had admired, and you turn aside again to unchaste harlots, and you have become a sinner, who borrowed the word of chastity and do not repay the works of chastity. Likewise also, if you have heard the word of righteousness in the church, you have gone forth outside, there meets you a neighbor whose field you had coveted, and straightway forgetting the things that were said, that you may satisfy your desire, you invade what belongs to another, and thus, having borrowed the money of righteousness, you do not repay the interest, working the deeds of righteousness. So therefore, concerning each and every thing, "the sinner borrows and shall not pay, but the righteous shows mercy and lends". Not only, it says, does the righteous lend, that is, not only does he preach the word, that is, not only does he teach the unskilled, but he also has mercy on the weak. For he follows the example of the Lord who says: "I prefer mercy to sacrifice".
12. "Because those who bless him shall inherit the earth; but those who curse him shall be exterminated". Those who bless him, that is, those who bless the righteous, shall inherit the earth. Which earth?—that good earth, that abundant earth, that earth flowing with milk and honey, where are those good things which are truly good; that they shall possess who bless the righteous, but those who curse him shall be exterminated. And to you it sometimes seems a small thing to speak evil of the saints, and it is very light for you to say of the servants of God, "That one is such and such, that one dissembles, and that one loves the world, but that one is an impostor"—do you not hear that those who curse the righteous shall be exterminated? Or if this seems small to you, hear elsewhere God saying to the righteous: "I will be an enemy to your enemies, and I will oppose your adversaries". You see how great a peril it is to be an enemy to the righteous, or to speak evil of the saints. For if we truly believe that which the Lord said of each one of his servants, that "I was hungry, and you did not give me to eat", and the things which he adds and says, that whoever did it to one of my least, did it to me, it is consequent that he say this too: You who cursed me, disparaged me, and spoke false things against me, and accused me. And if we shall say: Lord, when did we curse you, or when did we disparage you, or when did we speak false things against you? then he will say to us: "Amen I say to you, that what you did to one of my least, you did to me". For just as, giving to eat to one of these, you did it to me, and giving to drink to one of these, you gave to me, and just as, clothing one of these, you clothed me; so, cursing one of these, you cursed me, and if you blessed or honored one of these, you blessed me, and you honored me, as also elsewhere he nonetheless says: "He who receives you, receives me"; and: "He who spurns you, spurns me". Therefore let us restrain our tongue, and let us admire the servants of the Lord, and let us bless the righteous, and let us never disparage them, nor open our mouth to speak evil, lest perhaps we be exterminated, but let us bless, that we too may obtain a blessing through Christ our Lord, to whom be glory and power unto the ages of ages. Amen.