Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 5 — Psalm 36 (LXX; MT 37), Homily III: vv. 14–22
Greek source: Origen's homilies on the Psalms, preserved in a single manuscript (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Cod. graec. 314, 12th century), from the reading text of L. Perrone et al. (eds.), Die neuen Psalmenhomilien. Eine kritische Edition des Codex Monacensis Graecus 314, Origenes Werke XIII (GCS NF 19; Berlin, 2015), pp. 139–156. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. Rufinus's Latin translation of this homily is Homilies on Psalms 36–38, Homily 3. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the Thirty-Sixth Psalm, Homily 3
1. Earlier, the other day, we were speaking about the sword and the bows of the impious, and about the whole armor of God, and that all human beings are armed, all human beings, that is. Now I add what was lacking in the discourse: those who are already able not to sin and to act rightly – for children use neither the whole armor of God nor the whole armor of the devil – but those who already, in speaking and acting and thinking, either sin or perceive what is fitting and carry it out, these in every case have, when they sin, the whole armor of the devil and the weapons of injustice, but when they act well, the whole armor of God. Each of the items in the whole armor of God had also been spoken of one by one, and from there we pass over in our discourse to distinguishing, one at a time and from the opposites, what things are in the whole armor of the devil.
"The sword", then, "the sinners have drawn"; and we were taking up what concerns the sword of the sinners and the blade of the righteous. The Apostle said, at any rate: "and the blade of the Spirit, which is the word of God". Therefore, if the Spirit, which "is the word of God" – for the word of God is spiritual – is the blade of the righteous man, it is clear that the opposing spirit and the word of sin is the blade of the sinner. This word, then, or this spirit, the sinner has, as long as he is silent, as it were in the scabbard, as if someone were to have a sword in his own scabbard. But when, not content with the habit of wickedness, though he ought to restrain it and check its deeds, he goes, whether by impulse or even to the point of doing the contrary things, then he draws the sword.
And if you wish to understand from an example how "the sinners have drawn the sword", observe pagans fighting and speaking unlawful words to one another with anger and strife. For then you will apply the letter to them and say: "the sinners have drawn the sword". But if I too, who am said to be a believer, open my mouth to reckless words, blasphemies, slanders, false witness and the rest, then besides their not justifying me I am even condemned, and I too, though I am named a believer, draw the sword as a sinner at the moment when one sins.
It is good, then, not to have a sword of sin, and second best, if one has it, not to draw it but to make it keep quiet. For something paradoxical comes from not drawing the sword of sin: it does not only rust or grow blunt but is even used up; for when the sword of sin lies idle, it vanishes completely. And it is the Lord's purpose to make sin vanish. If, then, we are blessed in not using sin nor drawing the sword from its scabbard, let us use up sin entirely, and we shall have no need, not of fire, not of the punishment of darkness, not of the things said by way of threat to be stored up for those who have lived wickedly. But if we do not listen to words that turn us back and heal us, it is clear that the fire awaits us, so that we may come to that fire where the work of each is tested. For each one's work, "of what sort it is the fire itself will test". "If anyone's work which he built on remains, he will receive a reward", and what follows, so that I may not use the same texts again. Yet all of us must come to that fire. Even if Paul comes to the fire, still Paul hears: "even if you pass through fire, the flame will not burn you up". Even if Peter comes to the fire, still the fire does not touch him. But if someone is a sinner, he comes to the fire like Paul and Peter, but he does not pass through into the fire like Paul and Peter. And just as the Hebrews came to the Red Sea, and the Egyptians came too, but the Hebrews crossed over into the Red Sea while the Egyptians were drowned in it, in the same way we shall be drowned like the Egyptians in the river or the lake of fire when we have the sins that come from the command of Pharaoh. But like the Hebrews we shall pass through, with the fire standing as a wall on our right and on our left, if, hearing the words of God, we believe him and his law, and follow the pillar of fire and the cloud of light.
2. "The sword", then, "the sinners have drawn, they have bent their bow". The Apostle did not name bows. Rather, in describing the whole armor of God he did not mention bows, so that from the opposites, as we did the other day, we might come to the bows of the sinners. I look, then, for a Scripture that gives me starting points for an explanation of "they have bent their bows". From the Psalms I find this text: "behold, the sinners have bent a bow, they have prepared arrows for the quiver, to shoot down in the moonless night the upright in heart". The heart of the venom-shooters, then, is filled like the quiver of the impious one. For each has fashioned arrows according to his own sin; then the sinner has a bow proportionate to these arrows, and he bends a bow, prepares arrows "for the quiver, to shoot down". Where? "In the moonless night". For these archers are not in light but in darkness. And whom do they shoot? "The upright in heart". At the same time it is made clear that the discourse is not about sinful human beings but about powers. For it is they who wish "to shoot down in the moonless night the upright in heart". Therefore let all who wish to be upright in heart keep watch night and day, since those "have prepared to shoot down", and "have prepared to shoot down" with bows and arrows; and let them guard their own heart with all vigilance.
3. Now perhaps I find something newer for the passage, so that I may not always make full use of the same things, but so that through the renewal of the mind second things may be found in addition to the first. I say, then, that just as the Savior is an arrow of God, according to what is said: "he has made me like a chosen arrow", and in proportion to the Savior Moses and the other prophets are arrows of God, and the apostles of Christ and the righteous, wounding with a chosen arrow so that the one wounded may say: "I am wounded with love", so, in proportion to the chosen arrow, the Antichrist would be an arrow of the evil one, and in proportion to the arrows under Christ would be the arrows of the evil one, such as the false prophets and the false apostles. I say that all the righteous too, being imitators of Christ, are chosen arrows for God, serving for the benefit and salvation of human beings. So, then, all sinners are arrows of the devil. If, then, a sinner ever does something against you or says something against you, pity him for having offered himself as such, so that the evil one might use him as an arrow against you. But guard yourself, and take up "the shield of faith", so that you may be able "to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one".
And perhaps, in support of the interpretation given, I can offer an explanation of "so that you may be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one". Look at a woman plotting against you: is she not a flaming arrow, with fire in her mouth to speak and burn you, fire in her hand (for she touches you and wounds you), fire in her whole body, in all her soul? So if you see another man angry against you and provoking you to sin, see him as a flaming arrow of the evil one, sharpened and loosed against you from the bows of the devil. And if you see another doing whatever it may be in order to provoke you in wickedness, to challenge you to sin, see perceptibly that all these are arrows of the evil one.
The arrows of God are few, but the evil one has many arrows: the populaces, whole armies, whole cities are the arrows of the evil one. Would that the evil one reached only that far, to make those men his arrows! But now I fear both for those here and for myself, lest the devil, using me to make others stumble, should wish to use me against the soul of human beings. For the one who stumbles on account of either a false brother or a pagan stumbles because he has been wounded. And wounded by what, if not by the flaming arrow which the devil sent from his own bow?
And just as God "sets a bow in the cloud" to stop the storm, so that no flood may come, so by contrast the evil one uses a bow, not to stop a storm but to stop the calm in the soul, to quench peace, to stir up war and make a storm. For if you see someone troubled and disturbed by passions, do not hesitate to say that the devil has set his bow: he has loosed an arrow at such a man, so as to wound "the upright in heart"; but those armed with the whole armor of God will not be wounded.
4. And so "the sword the sinners have drawn", "they have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy". Something was said the other day about the poor and needy as well; and it is especially the poor and the needy whom they cast down. But it can also be explained a second way: "to slaughter the upright in heart" was not enough, and there is a plot against the upright in heart; in proportion to the upright in heart we must try to give an explanation for the poor and needy. Perhaps, then, the poor and needy are brothers of the upright in heart. For they are the poor who are called blessed by Jesus, about whom he says: "blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God".
"The sword", then, "the sinners have drawn", "they have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy, to slaughter the upright in heart". If you see someone who has been made to stumble, and see him held fast by sin, see that this man has been slaughtered and his blood is flowing; for his vital power has perished. And if it is said in Genesis: "the blood of your souls I will require from every brother and from every beast", do not think that it is said about such blood so much as about intelligible blood. For when you make someone stumble, and the blood of the one made to stumble is poured out, and his vital power is poured forth and perishes, the blood will be required from the brother. And why from a beast? When a believer makes you stumble, the brother is the one from whom the blood is required: it is your brother who pours out your blood. For this reason it is said: "from the hand of a brother I will require the blood". But when a savage and wicked and opposing power, and a human being alien to the faith of the Christians, wishes to harm you and is able to pour out the blood of your soul, it is a beast from whom, in the second place, the Lord requires your blood. For it is not first from a beast, but first from a brother: he pours out the blood of his brother, and that blood which is poured out is required. You see it in Ezekiel too: the word says that there is a watchman appointed by God, and it says that the watchman, if he does these things, is not liable for the blood of the one who heard and sinned; but if he does not do what is commanded, it says that he is liable for the sin of the one who has perished. For "his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman". For this reason we are all afraid lest someone's blood be required from us. But the watchman must fear more, since the prophet said specifically: "his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman".
These things were said on account of "they have bent their bow to cast down the poor and needy". For it was necessary to take up the explanation again and, after the simpler one, to speak more deeply. "To slaughter the upright in heart": it was necessary to present the one being slaughtered, whose blood is poured out, or the one who is liable for his blood.
5. But let us see what happens to these sinners who use both the sword of the devil and the bows of the evil one: "may their sword enter into their heart and their bows be broken". This opposing spirit, this wicked word, which the unjust man brings forth against a human being "to slaughter the upright in heart", then comes back upon the one who wounded, and something happens analogous to what is said by the righteous. What is said? Say: "your peace will return upon you". So if the sword of the impious wishes "to slaughter the upright in heart", but the upright in heart guards himself, "may their sword enter into their heart"; and so "may the bows also be broken".
6. "Better is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners". Having spoken about the sinner, he adds for instruction the teaching about the sinner, so that seeing it we may guard against being sinners, and he says this: "better is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners". The wording, taken on its face, has something useful for the more simple, which we shall present first; but it also has something said in a hidden way for those who know how to hear Scripture more deeply. The simpler sense, then, is this. Righteous and unjust both earn a living, and both righteous and unjust take thought to have what they need. But the righteous do not seek so much what serves need as what serves righteousness. Either they do not procure what they need where it could be procured unjustly, or they procure it without injustice, tinging what is procured with righteousness. The unjust, however, all of them without regard for what is just, are wholly bent on gain, on how they may acquire much, not asking whether they will acquire it honorably, whether with righteousness, whether so as to remain blameless at the judgment seat of Christ. And though they seek this of necessity in the matter of acquiring, they do not take righteousness along with an acquiring that does injustice. Two things, then, being set before us, a little gain with righteousness and much with injustice, "better is a little" something "to the righteous than much wealth of sinners", and for the most part acquisition comes from injustice. Hence I think that the Savior, as Savior, said that mammon is of injustice, in the words: "make friends for yourselves by means of the mammon of injustice".
So much for the letter; but let us also see the hidden sense. We have particular need of it, we who seem to be occupied with the word, and again the simpler among those who have believed. There are some in life who have been educated in the education of the world and have come to know many learned disciplines of this age, so that their diction is evidently not that of an unlettered man, but, if anyone's is, that of a lover of letters. At times one can find such men filled with all evils: rich in this uttered word, rich in learned disciplines, but poor in righteousness and poor in good deeds. Often, at any rate, I have known rhetors and grammarians and those who profess philosophy and dialectic who are not only idolaters but also men who lie with men, fornicators and adulterers. But one can also see the church's actor, a believer but in a way unlettered: he cannot even open his mouth, but he fears God. Trained by fear, he does not sin but abstains from sins, as the wise man of this age does not abstain. Comparing both of these with one another, then, the word says: "better is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners", so that the wealth of sinners may be "the wisdom of this age", in which the people of this age are rich. And "a little", moreover, "to the righteous", when a man is righteous with few little words and does not quite know how to stand up for the word: "better", then, "is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners".
If, however, someone is able both to have wealth and to have, not the wealth of a sinner, but the wealth of a righteous man, and that not a little, then the one rich in good works excels the one poor in words, who is nevertheless called righteous because of his good purpose and the works he has been able to accomplish. If, then, it is said: "better is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners", do not think that "a little to the righteous", according to the tropology, extends to every word; for where then is the text "in every word and all knowledge"? Rather, this is by comparison with those of this age, both unbelievers and those who are believers but unlettered: "better", then, "is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners". But above both is the wealth of the righteous, which is much. Perhaps the rich Abraham is a symbol; but the wealth of Paul was no longer a symbol, when, being himself much richer, he says about others: "you were enriched in every word and all knowledge"; and again about others, "to be rich in good works". Paul, then, was rich "in every word and all knowledge" and every good work. And "every word" means this: he had a word on Genesis, on Exodus, on Leviticus, on Numbers, on Deuteronomy, and so in order on the old Scriptures and on the Gospel ones. That man, then, was rich "in every word". For there is someone who is rich not "in every word" but in a particular one. For example, whoever expounds the Gospel competently but is untrained in the Law is rich in one word, the Gospel word, if he is capable. If someone is rich in expounding the Law but not likewise the apostles, he is not rich in every word but in every word of the Law. If, however, someone has prepared himself for the whole of the Scriptures, so as to be ready to give an account of all the Scriptures and to live according to the true word in all the Scriptures, he is rich in every work and in every word, and to this wealth belongs the text "the ransom of a man's soul is his own wealth". And concerning the opposite poverty: "but the poor man does not withstand a threat". "Better", then, "is a little to the righteous than much wealth of sinners".
7. "For the arms of sinners will be broken". Who can stop at the wording, even if he strains to because of his lack of learning? For some of the things written can move even the very lowly man and the one who does not wish to rise from the letter; they can shame even the one who has made up his mind in advance: "the arms of sinners", then, "will be broken". And does the holy one threaten the witnesses, or at any rate the sinners, that their arms will be broken, and elsewhere say "break the arm of the sinner and the wicked"? Does he mean this, that this arm of the sinner is broken? But we do not see this happening at all; anything rather than this occurs. But if you see the vigor and the strength of the impious man broken, so that he cannot stretch out his hand to a good deed (for it is broken), you will see that "the arms of sinners will be broken" has been fulfilled, and that the one who breaks the arms of sinners is the devil. For he breaks them, and this is what he wishes: when God's soldiers are noble, to break their arm. This can be what is indicated in "for the arms of sinners will be broken".
But in the words "break the arm of the sinner and the wicked", which are spoken in prayer to God, the text needs yet another interpretation, although even there the man of sense will not set aside the earlier interpretation given. For he will say that just as the devil says to the Lord: "stretch out your hand and touch all that he has; surely he will bless you to your face", and he receives the authority, and Job says: for "the hand of the Lord is what has touched me", so, for one who has made clear how those things are said in Job, both the words of the prayer that says: "break the arm of the sinner and the wicked", and what was given for "the arms of sinners will be broken", can also be made clear.
8. "But the Lord upholds the righteous". The weak need someone to uphold them; and every human being is weak, every human being, as far as it lies with himself, falls. Here, then, it is written: "the Lord upholds the righteous". And in another psalm: "the Lord upholds all who are falling and sets upright all who have been dashed down". Only let us be sober and keep watch, if ever we perceive that we are about to fall, and let us pray to God, and he will send the word that upholds you.
9. "The Lord knows the days of the blameless, and their inheritance will be forever". According to the Scriptures, as we have often observed and said, the Lord does not know all things but only good things; for he does not know evil things, since they are unworthy of his knowledge. We cited: "if anyone" among you "is a prophet or spiritual, let him acknowledge that what I write to you is of God; but if anyone does not know, he is not known". We also used: "but now, having known God, or rather having been known by God". We cited: "the Lord knew those who are his, and let everyone who names the name of the Lord depart from injustice". Surely, even if the impiety of sinners should ever be found to be known, yet for the most part what is known is good! If so, the Lord does not know the days of sinners but those of the blameless. For the days of the blameless are worthy of the knowledge of God.
It is simpler, then, to say that the days of the blameless are the days of the righteous man in this age. For each of us makes his day for himself either fine or wicked: to the one who sins, his day is a sinner's day, but to the one who acts rightly, a righteous man's day. So the same day is for me a sinner's day when I sin, but for the righteous a righteous man's day when I act rightly. "The Lord knows", then, "the days of the blameless". But I pass over in the discourse to the true and spiritual things and say: these days are evil, according to what is said: "for the days are evil". But the good days are other days, and these are the days of the blameless. It is these, then, that the Lord knows, the days of those whose "inheritance also will be forever". For in those days the righteous will inherit the promises forever.
10. And "they will not be put to shame in an evil time". He called the time of judgment an evil time because of the multitude of those who sin, because of the many who are punished. Only, then, "the righteous will not be put to shame in an evil time", when the resurrection takes place and they rise, "some to life, others to reproach and eternal shame". But the righteous have something else too: "in days of famine they will be filled". We must first explain what the days of famine are. God threatens somewhere through the prophet and says: "days are coming upon the land, and I will send out a famine upon the land, not a famine of bread nor a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the word of the Lord; and they will go about from the east to the west to hear the word of the Lord and will not find it". Therefore there is famine at times, when there are none who speak the word of God, as now there is famine among the Jews. For where are prophets? Where are the wise? Where are the diviners? Where are the captains of fifty? Where are wise counselors? Where are wise hearers? The Lord will take away all of them "from Judea and from Jerusalem".
And in our case too there is fear lest famine is already coming upon us as well. For just as, in the bodily sense, it seems to the many, even to those who read the Law, that famine comes in the days of sinners and plenty in the days of the righteous, so, if you hear what is said and do what is commanded, there will be no barrenness or famine; but God will give not one or two but more clouds, so that "if a revelation is made to another who is sitting, the first may be silent". Would that there might be many workmen who need not be ashamed, rightly cutting "the word of truth", so that cloud may give way to cloud, and the cloud, being ensouled, may say to another cloud: "I give you your turn; now you give your rain", and then that one, after giving the rain, may in turn give its turn to another cloud. For just as, in the case of the vineyard that stands for the people, as it is written in Isaiah, he commands "the clouds not to rain" on the vineyard "a shower", and God will command it, so there is fear lest we too, if, though watered quite continually by the clouds that God gives us, we do not bear fruits suited to the words but throw what is said behind us, he will command the clouds now too "not to rain" a shower upon the vineyard. And "the one who understands in that time" will sit and "will keep silent, for it is an evil time". These things are my preludes to "in days of famine they will also be filled".
I wish, then, having spoken about the famine that is true and worse, famine in the spiritual sense, to show how the righteous man is filled in days of famine. I take the narrative about Elijah. There was famine in the time of Elijah's prophecy, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and the people were starving, but Elijah was not starving. Rather, at times an angel fed him and he went in "the strength of that food forty days and forty nights"; at other times "ravens" came and "brought him loaves in the morning and meat in the evening". And again, after he had drunk water from the brook, he comes to Sarepta of Sidonia, to a widow woman, in a time of famine; and since he was righteous, he did not suffer the barrenness of the famine, but everywhere there was plenty of food for the righteous man. At the same time there was famine for the sinners, but for Elijah, since he was righteous, there was no famine. So then, even if famine should ever come upon a whole church, which God forbid, the righteous man will not suffer famine. For understanding and loving learning, practicing and meditating on the law of the Lord "day and night", and living according to the word, he will enjoy the spiritual food, as Elijah then did, according to the narrative, in a time of famine.
"They will not be put to shame", then, the righteous, "in an evil time, and in days of famine they will be filled". Someone will say that "in an evil time" applies to the present, because the days are evil, and in order that God may rescue us from this present evil age. But, analogously to "they will not be put to shame in an evil time" as it was applied to the passage about judgment, one will explain in the same way "in days of famine they will also be filled". The Savior says somewhere: "night is coming when" no longer "can anyone work", and he is speaking of what comes after this age: that at the time of the punishment of the impious a night sets in and no one works any longer, but each can then be nourished from the works he has gathered. So, then, in days of famine, in an evil time, when the sinners are punished, the righteous will be filled. For just as in the desert those of the people gathered manna on the six days, and on the sixth day they gathered not for one day only but also what was enough for the next, and each ate from what he gathered on the sixth day, so the sojourn of my Lord Jesus Christ is, as it were, a sixth day: the time of his passion, the time of the dispensation in this age. On this sixth day let us gather the manna double, so that it may suffice for us both as we are nourished now and when a Sabbath rest remains for the people of God. For if we do not gather the food double, enough for the present and enough also for the age to come, in days of famine we shall not be filled.
But then, when the righteous man is filled in days of famine, "the sinners will perish, and the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they are glorified and exalted, vanishing like smoke have vanished". The word teaches us not to seek worldly glories. For as soon as they are glorified, all who are glorified in the way of this age, in consulships and governorships and offices, "vanishing like smoke have vanished" when they are exalted. And consider the first things and the former times, whether it was not when they were exalted that they then like "smoke vanished". Just so, then, the enemies of the Lord, as soon as they were glorified and exalted, "vanishing like smoke have vanished"; but the friends of the Lord, as soon as they were dishonored and humbled by human beings, rose up, were exalted, were lifted high. For everyone who humbles himself will be exalted, as, on the contrary, everyone who exalts himself will be humbled.
11. Then he says the next words, which need explanation: "the sinner borrows and will not repay, but the righteous man has compassion and gives". This again, if we take it according to the letter, is false. For many sinners borrow money and pay it back with interest, while also making a profit themselves and producing a yield from the money they borrowed. Yet the prophet declared, saying: "the sinner borrows and will not repay". But if you consider who the lender is and who the borrower, and look for a sinner who borrows and does not pay back, you will see how "the sinner borrows and will not repay". For example, if Paul teaches and the hearers stand firm, Paul lends, and the hearers borrow the genuine silver from the mouth of Paul. But if the borrower is righteous, he pays back the interest and says: "you have given me a mina, behold, I have made ten minas"; if he is righteous: "you gave me a mina, see, I have made five", "you gave me five talents, see, I have ten", "you gave me two, see, four". But if a sinner is to repay, he does not return what he borrowed but spends all that he borrowed.
Just now all of you are borrowing. For these are the loans, and these words are silver. For "the words of the Lord are pure words, silver fired, genuine, purified in the earth sevenfold". If I teach badly, my silver is counterfeit, according to what is said: "the silver" you have "is counterfeit"; if I teach well, my silver (not mine, but the Lord's) is genuine. It is permitted to lend the Lord's silver, but it is not permitted for me to lend my own silver. For if I lend, the word of the Lord forbids lending from one's own. Who, then, is the one who lends his own, and who the one who lends the Lord's? And it is permitted to lend the Lord's things, but not one's own. If you see Valentinus begetting words and teaching his own things, say that he is lending his own and falling under a curse; so too if it is Basilides, so too if Marcion. But if you see someone speaking, not his own things but God's, and daring to say truly: "or do you seek proof of the Christ who speaks in me?", know that such a man does lend, but not his own things: he lends the Lord's. When, at any rate, he gave the mina, or gave the five talents and the two and the one, and my Lord Jesus Christ says to them (for he is the lord in the parable) "go, trade until I return", he entrusted them with lending the Lord's money. Would that I too may borrow the prophetic things, borrow the Gospel things and the apostolic, and, as the borrower, may I be not a sinner, so that I may not be punished, but righteous, able to pay back with interest, by my way of life, the principal of the words I have heard.
"The sinner borrows", then, "and will not repay". If you have borrowed the teachings on self-control, pay back the teachings on self-control; if you are a sinner, you borrow, but you do not pay back. If you borrow the teachings on righteousness, pay them back. You hear about righteousness: pay it back through action. But if you are a sinner, you borrow the teachings on righteousness but do not pay them back. It is better not to borrow at all in the first place, especially from the Lord's treasury, than to lose the king's money. "The sinner borrows", then, "and will not repay, but the righteous man has compassion and gives": he not only lends but also has compassion and gives.
12. "For those who bless him will inherit the land, but those who curse him will be utterly destroyed". "Those who bless", then, the Lord, the righteous, "will inherit the land": the good land, the land that does not stand in the relation of a center and a point. For this land is not large; but they will inherit that one, which flows with milk and honey. They will inherit that land where the true good things are. For "those who bless the Lord will inherit the land, but those who curse him will be utterly destroyed".
It is no ordinary danger to curse the righteous man and to revile the righteous man. "Those who bless" the Lord "will inherit the land", and "those who curse" the righteous man "will be utterly destroyed". For the Lord says to the righteous man: "I will be an enemy to your enemies and will oppose those who oppose you". There is danger, then, of final destruction in our laying a curse on the righteous man, since on that day Jesus is going to say about the reviled righteous man not only "I was hungry and you did not give me to eat" and what follows, but also: "I was bearing it and you were reviling". And someone who reviled, not realizing that it was Christ he reviled, will say: "Lord, when did I revile you, Christ, Son of God?" And Christ answers and will say: "But you reviled this man, you spoke ill of this man; you reviled me. And you ought to have understood that such a thing followed: you fed this man, you fed me; you gave this man drink, you gave me drink; you clothed me if you clothed this man when he was naked; you reviled this man, you reviled me; you blessed this man, you blessed me". For this reason let us entreat God that he may grant us always to bless God and the righteous, and never to open a mouth of sin against them, lest we be utterly destroyed, but that we may be justified in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.