Homilies on the Psalms — Homily 22 — Psalm 77 (LXX; MT 78), Homily V: vv. 30–37 (the quails and the wrath)
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. 409–419. Psalms are numbered as in the Septuagint. This English translation is released into the public domain.On the 77th Psalm, Homily 5
1. Then the people desired a desire in the desert. They spoke ill of the heavenly bread of God, but praised the foods of the Egyptians, and they said of the manna that it was empty bread. God sent them the quail, after threatening that they would eat it not for one day, nor for two, nor for five days, but for so long that they would be sated and the eating of meat would come out through their nostrils. For God, the lover of humankind, wished to cleanse their soul of desire. Now desire is cleansed and cast out not when someone lacks what is desired; rather, when he partakes of what is desired, he lays the desire aside. Something of this kind happens with us too. For while we are still worthless we desire certain foods as pleasant, as more costly; then, once we have used these foods that we desired for several days, we lay aside our desire for them. "Of all things", you see, "there is satiety": not only "of sleep", but of foods too there is satiety.
See, then, the dispensation of God. Seeing a people given to desire, and wishing to cleanse it of desire, he saw that it is not cleansed by a word of teaching but is cleansed when the desire itself becomes surfeited, and so he sent what was desired. He knew that if they obtained what they desired for one day they would still desire it, and even after two days they crave it again; but if they partake of what they desire for more days, so that they turn away from what they desire, they check their desire. So he gave them what they desired in abundance for thirty days. They ate with desire; they were sated. For because of the insatiability of their desire they ate so much that it turned to cholera for them. When this happened to them, they died, and their soul went out pure of desire. God brought this about in order to cleanse them by the mode of cleansing that was possible.
2. But when I came to the passage and compared spiritual things with spiritual, I found that the people ate quail twice. Once was when they had just come out of the land of Egypt. The second time, as is recorded in Numbers, was when they spoke ill of the bread of God and called it empty. Why, then, when they ate the quail the first time, did no "wrath go up upon them", while at the second time such a thing happened? Seeking by myself, and wishing to find and receive it from God, I conceived something like this.
Every man uses certain bodily things, at times necessarily, at other times not necessarily. He uses them necessarily when he is intent on the better things, and not necessarily when he has turned away from the better things and becomes wholly given to the bodily. These things, then, seem to be shown by both of the passages concerning the account of the quail. For the first time they ate quail without having spoken ill of the bread of God. They ate quail while they had the manna, and they did not despise it in order to eat the meat. Something of this kind, then, we too experience in bodily things while we do spiritual things: we eat manna, as it were, and out of necessity we eat the quail given by God, and not out of desires. For when we do not do the spiritual things, being wholly given to the desire for evil things, speaking ill of the manna and turned away from divine things, then desire arises in us. Therefore it is written not of what happened the first time but of what happened the second time: "while the food was still in their mouth, the wrath of God also went up upon them".
3. At the same time I also inquire into the words "wrath of God went up upon them", for perhaps what is indicated is mystical. So long as a man who prays to be a man of God does not sin, the wrath lies below. But if he sins, he himself comes to be below, and the wrath climbs up upon him. "And the wrath of God went up upon them": "went up", as though it were somewhere below.
Concerning the wrath of God, let whoever is able examine together what is written in the first book of Chronicles and in the second of Kingdoms, so that he may find what the wrath of God is, which God is also recorded in Exodus to send forth. For no one "sends forth" a passion that is in his own soul. But if "wrath is sent forth", it is something other and not a passion of God, but something capable of being sent forth. And you will seek what this wrath is that is sent forth, of which the Apostle also speaks, to those able to understand: "we were by nature children of wrath, as also the rest". This wrath, then, having gone up upon them, "killed among their fat ones". He did not say that it killed the people, or that it killed many of the people. That is how some suppose it who did not understand "fat ones" (πίοσιν), and they have made the text read: "it killed among the greater number of them" (πλείοσιν). But what he said is: "it killed among their fat ones".
First we wish to persuade the hearer that the copy which says "it killed among the greater number of them" is in error. For first, the other versions do not have the equivalent of "the greater number", but "among the sleeker of them", and the Hebrew itself has it so. And if "among the greater number" were written, you can understand nothing consistent with the letter: "six hundred thousand came out of the land of Egypt, and three thousand five hundred". If, then, "it killed among the greater number of them", clearly fewer were left. So it is not "among the greater number of them", but "among their fat ones", and he necessarily added "among their fat ones". But perhaps it was not the whole people that sinned that sin ("they desired a desire" in the desert); rather, some sinned more and some less, and perhaps some did not sin at all. Those, then, who sinned became fat from the meats, and they received back their sin. Therefore it is written that "it killed" not "among their lean ones" nor "among their thin ones", but "among their fat ones", those who bore in their flesh the traces of what was desired.
4. "Among", then, "the fat ones he killed; the chosen of Israel", however, he did not kill, but he "fettered" them: that is, he turned them back and hindered their course toward wickedness. "In all these things they sinned still, and did not believe in his wonders, and their days failed in vanity, and their years with haste". The sins of those who journeyed then are the sins of those who are always journeying. For as they, journeying toward the holy land after they had come out of Egypt, fell into sins, so most of us, having come out of bodily things and professing in word to follow God, and journeying as toward the promises, commit sins in the interval.
And "in all these things they sinned still and did not believe in his wonders". This happens with us too, and we still sin. For after coming out of Egypt, after being helped by God, we often do not believe in the wonders. For example, let each of us examine his disposition in his own conscience: whether unbelief has never come upon him, whether doubt about the doctrines has never come, or whether he remains faithful, assenting to the word of God without disputings. If, then, unbelief does arise at some time, this is what is recorded in the words "and they did not believe in his wonders". And what has been said with precision? For he did not say, "they did not believe in all his wonders", but "they did not believe in his wonders". For when you say of someone that he is a believer, you will find that while he believes these things, he does not believe others.
5. "And they did not believe", then, "in" all "his wonders, and their days failed in vanity": come, let us consider this. A man rises at dawn after tending his poor body with sleep, and he spends the whole day either in divine works and words and thoughts, or in worldly and bodily ones. You will find that most people spend the whole day in bodily affairs, not spiritual ones, and in worldly affairs. When, then, someone spends the day in bodily affairs, he spends it "in vanity". But when he spends it so only at intervals, he spends it not only "in vanity" but also in something good. And may it be that most of us do not pass the whole day "in vanity", but that the lesser part is spent "in vanity" and the greatest part not "in vanity"!
For the hours of the assembly are not "in vanity", the hours of prayer are not "in vanity", and the hours of visiting one's neighbor are not "in vanity". It is not "in vanity" when, with zeal and not being slothful, we are zealous for our neighbor. But it is "in vanity" when I pull down my barns and build larger ones and say to my soul: "Soul, you have goods laid up for many years; take your rest, eat, drink, be merry". It is "in vanity" when our soul moves among worldly cares and anxieties as among thorns and is wounded, as the Apostle says in one of his epistles about such people, in this way: "in the vanity of the mind, being darkened in understanding".
It is possible, then, also not to be in vanity of the mind. For this is so when the mind, having prepared itself for understanding God and understanding the things of God, and having sought skill in understanding, seeks the things that tend toward salvation. But when it seeks how it may do business more skillfully so as to increase wealth, and how it may make its possessions greater, this is vanity of the mind. When someone deliberates not how he will understand Scripture, not how he will do a good work, not how he may find out a perplexing wording from the divine Scriptures, he does such things in vanity. We have learned, then, that "in vanity their days failed" reaches not only to those of that time but also to those who always let their days fail in vanity and spend their seasons so. Let us therefore try no longer to make our days "in vanity", but to make our days pass filled with good works, divine words and saving thoughts. For thus what follows will not be ours either: "and their years with haste" failed.
6. The years of the sinner are hastened, but the years of the righteous man are not hastened nor pursued. For it is recorded that there is "an angel of the Lord pursuing them", that is, the sinners. The righteous man, then, is not hastened: that is, no angel of wickedness presses upon him, pursuing and hastening him. And so that you may understand more precisely the words "and their years with haste", look, I pray you, at the taskmasters in Egypt: in what manner they compel them to make haste and pass the day in the clay, in the brickmaking, in the straw. For there pass for them "the years with haste", the haste over the works of Pharaoh. Something of this kind we too experience when our days fail "in vanity". For since the year is made of days, our years also fail when the days that pass "in vanity" pass "with haste". For the whole year passes for us "with haste", with days of works of vanity.
Then there are the things that happen to those who journey, not then only but now also: at times we sin, and at other times, hearing divine words, we run back to righteousness. Something of this kind is recorded to have happened to the people after the sin. For after "In all these things they sinned still, and did not believe in his wonders, and their days failed in vanity, and their years with haste", it is written: "When he was killing them, then they sought him out and turned back and rose at dawn to God, and they remembered that God is their helper and God the Most High is the redeemer of their souls".
7. We must consider, then, what is being said here that contributes to our conversion. "When", then, he says, "he was killing them, then they sought him out". For the one who is slain seeks out God: for "I", he says, "will kill and will make alive". It is God's work to kill me insofar as I am a sinner, so that when he kills me, insofar as I am a sinner, he may make me alive. And I shall seek God after dying to sin. Therefore it is written: "When he was killing them, then they sought him out". For example, if God kills each one insofar as he is an adulterer, insofar as a fornicator, insofar as an idolater, insofar as he is faithless, then, once the death of sin has come about, he can seek God. But so long as he is not slain, but lives to sin, he cannot both live to sin and seek God. Therefore let us pray that the Lord may kill us too, and let us say: "if we died with him, we shall also live with him".
We who pray to be men of the church understand these things piously concerning the sacred writings. We say nothing bitter, nor do we accuse God in the words "I will kill and I will make alive, I will strike and I will heal". Rather, we say of God that, as good, he kills to sin and makes alive to virtue. "For whom the Lord loves he disciplines, and he scourges every son whom he receives". But those from the heresies seek also to be accusers of God and wish to have their portion with the devil, who wishes to slander even God. They hear "I will kill" but no longer "I will make alive"; they hear "I will strike" but no longer "I will heal"; and they snatch away guileless souls into heretical godlessness. For so do the Marcions, so the Valentinuses, so the Basilideses, and all who introduce another God besides the God of the law: by misinterpreting, they "deceive the hearts of the innocent". But let us, as the word wills, hear "I will kill and I will make alive". For whom "will I make alive" but the one whom "I kill"? Or whom "will I heal" but the one whom "I strike"? "For he himself causes pain and restores again; he struck, and his hands healed". "When", you see, "he was killing them, then they sought him out". Since God is good, may he kill me, so that I may seek him out!
8. "And they turned back and rose at dawn to God". Nor did they put off coming to God, but "they rose at dawn", so as to say: "From the night my spirit rises at dawn toward you, O God". For as soon as the Sun of righteousness rises for me and becomes spiritual for me, I rise at dawn toward God. And you will find many such things in the prophets, for example: "I was sending my prophets at dawn". For "at dawn" (ὄρθρου) is not added there idly. It is there because, as soon as the word of God or the visitation of God has risen in their souls, the prophets are sent forth to the people, proclaiming the word of the light of truth. "And they rose at dawn to God": and so that you too may rise at dawn toward God, hear the Apostle teaching you and saying: "The night is far advanced, and the day has drawn near. Let us walk becomingly as in the day, not in revelings and drunkenness, not in debauchery and licentiousness". And again: "We are not of the night nor of darkness, but we are sons of the day and sons of light". Let us too, then, pray that the light may rise for us, so that we may rise at dawn toward God.
"And they remembered that God is their helper". Because of sin they had forgotten God, that he was their helper; afterwards they remembered it, "and that God the Most High is their redeemer". He redeemed them by killing them, and after this he made them alive: "and they loved him with their mouth". See the succession of those who neither sin altogether nor act rightly altogether, but at times sin and at other times turn back, and then enter into sins again. For hear how he told the things of sin, and he told the things of conversion; again he tells the things of sin, and so he describes our uneven life. After saying "And they turned back and rose at dawn to God, and they remembered that God is their helper, and God the Most High is their redeemer", he again accuses them and says: "They loved him with their mouth and with their tongue they lied to him, but their heart was not straight with him, nor were they found faithful in his covenant".
These things too are said to us so that we may be trained to love God not with lips, not with the tongue, but with the heart, as it is written. For it is not written, "You shall love the Lord God with all your mouth and with all your lips", but "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart".
For see, he wants the depth and the root of love to be in the heart. But also "with all", he says, "your soul and with all your strength". For he does not want us to have a superficial love, as the love of the worthless is superficial, of whom it is written: "They loved him with their mouth and with their tongue they lied to him". For lying with the tongue to God himself follows upon the love that is of the mouth.
"But their heart was not straight with him", whereas the heart ought to be straight and not crooked. And who makes the heart crooked but wickedness, the dragon, the serpent, the runaway from God? Of him it is written: "He will bring the holy sword upon the dragon, the crooked serpent". God, then, makes the heart straight, and his Word makes our soul straight toward the Father; but the opposing power makes the heart crooked and turns us aside from straightness.
Therefore, if we sin, "we are not found faithful in his covenant". Just so, again, if our heart is straight, we are found faithful in the covenant of God and obtain the spiritual, heavenly blessings in the covenant, in Christ Jesus, to whom belong the glory and the might to the ages of ages. Amen.
On the 77th Psalm, Tome 1