Latin original · 37 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 59:415–59:451 (1230 verses in all)
As to his prescribing of what aromatic spices the thymiama, that is, the incense, is to be made, and saying that it is 'a work of the perfumer, compounded after the manner of a perfumer,' we ought not on this account to think that an ointment is made, that is, something with which anything may be anointed, but, as has been said, a thymiama or incense which is to be placed upon that altar of incense, where it was not permitted to sacrifice, and which was within, in the holy of holies. 'And you shall grind some of it small and place it opposite the testimonies, from which I will be made known to you thence. The holy of holies shall this incense be to you.' Behold again this incense, because it was placed within upon the altar of incense which was within, is called the holy of holies; and the tabernacle of the testimony is properly called that very inner place where the ark was, though a distinction is indeed made when he says: 'from which I will be made known to you thence.'
For thus he had first said concerning the mercy-seat, which is certainly within, that is, within the veil above the ark. What does it mean that, when he commanded Bezalel to be employed for making the works of the tabernacle, he said that he had filled him with a divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge, to devise in every work and to work as an architect, and so forth? Are these works too, which seem to pertain to craftsmanship, to be attributed to the gift of the Holy Spirit? Or was this too said significatively, so that these things pertain to the divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge which are signified by these things? Yet even here, though he is said to be filled with this divine spirit of wisdom and understanding and knowledge, the Holy Spirit is not yet read of.
What does it mean that, when he was commanding concerning the keeping of the sabbath, he said, 'an eternal covenant in me, and to the sons of Israel'? He did not say, 'between me and the sons of Israel.' Is it because the sabbath signifies rest, and there is no rest for us except in him? For assuredly by 'the sons of Israel' he means his whole people, that is, the seed of Abraham. And there is an Israel according to the flesh and according to the spirit; for if Israel were to be spoken of only from the descent of the flesh, the Apostle would not say, 'Behold Israel according to the flesh.' Wherein he assuredly signifies that there is an Israel according to the spirit, who is a Jew in secret and by the circumcision of the heart. So then it is perhaps better distinguished thus:
'an eternal covenant in me,' so that then there is another sense: 'and to the sons of Israel it is an eternal sign,' that is, a sign of an eternal thing, as the rock was Christ, because the rock signified Christ. It is therefore not to be joined thus: 'an eternal covenant in me and to the sons of Israel,' as though this covenant were in God and in the sons of Israel; but: 'an eternal covenant in me'—because in him eternal rest was promised—'and to the sons of Israel it is an eternal sign,' because the sons of Israel received a sign to be observed, by which eternal rest is signified to the true Israelites, that is, to the sons of the promise, who shall see God face to face as he is.
'And he gave to Moses, as soon as he ceased speaking to him on Mount Sinai, two tablets of the testimony, tablets of stone written by the finger of God.' Although God spoke so many things, yet only two stone tablets are given to Moses, which are called the tablets of the testimony that were to be in the ark. No doubt all the other things which God commanded are understood to depend on those ten commandments which were written on the two tablets, if they are diligently sought and well understood; just as these same ten commandments in turn depend on those two, namely the love of God and of neighbor, on which the whole law hangs, and the prophets.
As to his commanding that earrings be taken from the ears of the wives and daughters of Aaron, from which he might make them gods, it is not absurdly understood that he willed to command difficult things, so that in this way he might recall them from that intention; yet that thing itself was done with difficulty, so that there was gold for making the idol. This I thought was to be noted on account of those who are grieved if any such thing is by divine command to be done, or with an even mind to be borne, for the sake of eternal life. The Lord, indicating to Moses what the people had made of the calf—that is, of the idol which they had made from their own gold—says that they said: 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' That they said this is not read, but God shows that this was their mind.
For they bore in their heart the sentence of these words, which could not be hidden from God. 'And the Lord was appeased concerning the evil (malitia) which he said he would do to his people.' By 'evil' here he willed 'punishment' to be understood, as it is: 'and their departure was reckoned an evil.' According to this, both good and evil are said to be from God—not according to the malice by which men are evil. For God is not evil; but on the evil he brings evils, because he is just. Moses indeed seems, in anger, to have dashed to pieces and broken the tablets of the testimony written by the finger of God; yet by a great mystery the repetition of the covenant was figured, since the old was to be abolished and a new one established.
It is indeed to be noted with how great a supplication to God he labored on behalf of the people, he who had shown himself so severe in punishing them. But as to his having ground to pieces the molten calf cast into the fire and scattered it into the water, which he gave the people to drink, what this seems to us to signify, we have already written elsewhere in the work Against Faustus the Manichaean. 'And they gave it to me; and I cast it into the fire, and this calf came out.' He spoke by way of abridgment, not saying that he himself had formed it so that the molten calf came out. Or did he, out of fear, lie by way of excuse, as though he himself had cast into the fire the gold that was to perish, and, without his doing it, the form of the calf came out?
But we ought not to believe that he said this with such a mind, because neither could it be hidden from Moses what was in the man with whom God spoke, nor did he reprove his brother for a lie. 'And when Moses had seen that the people were scattered—for Aaron had scattered them, so that they came into rejoicing for their adversaries.' It is to be noted how all that evil which the people did is attributed to Aaron himself, in that he consented to them in doing what they had wickedly asked. For it was rather said, 'Aaron scattered them,' because he yielded to them, than that they scattered themselves, who demanded so great an evil. When Moses says to the Lord: 'I pray, Lord, this people has sinned a great sin, and they have made for themselves gods of gold.'
'And now, if indeed thou forgivest them their sin, forgive it; but if not, blot me out of thy book which thou hast written.' He said this in confidence, that the conclusion might be drawn from what follows: that is, since God would not blot Moses out of his book, He would forgive the people that sin. Yet we must observe how great an evil Moses perceived in that sin, since he believed it had to be expiated by so great a slaughter—he who so loved them that he poured out those words to God on their behalf.
It is rightly asked why, when Aaron was said above to have let the people run loose, no punishment fell upon him—neither when Moses commanded to be slain everyone whom the armed Levites, going to the gate and returning, should encounter, nor afterward when there came to pass what Scripture says: 'And the Lord smote the people because of the making of the calf which Aaron made'—especially since here too this very point is driven home by repetition. For it was not said, 'And the Lord smote the people because of the making of the calf which they made,' but 'which Aaron made.' And yet Aaron was not smitten; nay more, that which God had commanded concerning his priesthood before his sin was fulfilled. But He commanded that both he and his sons should be washed;
and so they were ordained to the priesthood. Thus He knows whom He spares unto a change for the better, and whom He spares for a season, though He foreknows that such a one will not be changed for the better; and whom He does not spare, so that he may be changed for the better; and whom He does not spare, so as not even to await his change. And all this comes back to what the Apostle exclaims: 'How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out.' 'Go, get thee up hence, thou and thy people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt.' God, being angry, seems to say, 'thou and thy people whom thou hast brought up'; otherwise He would have said, 'thou and my people whom I brought up out of the land of Egypt.' But they, when they demanded the idol, spoke thus:
'As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what has become of him.' They had failed in their deliverance by setting it upon a man. This is thrown back at them in the same manner when it is said, 'thou and thy people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt'—which is a charge against them, not against Moses. For Moses wanted nothing else than that they should place their hope not in him but in the Lord, and should believe, in thanksgiving, that they had been freed from that servitude by the Lord's mercy. Yet his merit before God, as of a most faithful servant, was so great through God's grace that God said to him: 'Let me alone, and in the heat of my wrath I will consume them.' Whether this belongs to one commanding, when He says 'Let me alone,' or to one, as it were, entreating, either seems absurd.
For if God was commanding, then the servant, in not obeying, was disobedient; and it was not fitting that God should ask this of a servant as though for a favor, especially since He could crush them even against his will. Therefore the sense there is plain, namely, that by these words God signified that this people had very great advantage with Him, because they were so loved by that man whom the Lord so loved—so that we might be admonished that, when our own demerits weigh us down lest we be loved by God, we can be relieved before Him by the merits of those whom He loves. For when it is said by the Almighty to a man, 'Let me alone, and I will consume them,' what else is being said than: 'I would consume them, were they not loved by thee'? Thus, then, 'Let me alone' was said as if it were said:
'Cease to love them, and I will consume them, because thy love for them intervenes so that I do not do it.' But one would have had to obey the Lord if He said, 'Cease to love them'—had He said this by way of commanding and not rather by way of admonishing and expressing what it was that held Him back from their punishment. Nor yet, even with this intervention, did He leave the people without the scourge of discipline. For in some way, so that Moses himself might love them thus, God loved them more secretly, while He openly terrified them with His voice. When God says to Moses: 'Go, get thee up hence, thou and thy people whom thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, into the land which I swore to Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, saying:
I will give it to your seed,' then straightway, as though still speaking to Moses himself, by a hidden turn (which in Greek is called 'apostrophe'), He now speaks to the people themselves, saying: 'And at the same time I will send my angel before thee, and he shall cast out the Canaanite and the Amorite and the Hittite and the Perizzite and the Girgashite and the Hivite and the Jebusite, and he shall bring thee into a land flowing with milk and honey. For I will not go up with thee, because thou art a stiff-necked people, lest I destroy thee in the way.' Great and wondrous is the depth of the mystery, as though an angel could have greater mercy than the Lord—the angel who would spare a stiff-necked people, whom God, if He were with them, would Himself not spare.
And yet, even through His angel—being in a certain way absent from them, though He can nowhere be absent—He says that He will fulfill what He swore to their fathers, as if here too showing that He does this for the reason that He promised it to those righteous fathers, not because these were worthy. What then did He signify, unless perhaps that He is not with them because they are stiff-necked, since only humility and piety can receive Him as gracious and salutary? But for God to be with stiff-necked men is nothing else than to be present by taking vengeance and by punishing; whence, when He is not present to the wicked in that manner, He does it by sparing. To this belongs what is said: 'Turn away thy face from my sins'—for if He turns it away, He overturns;
'for as wax melts before the fire, so let sinners perish before the face of God.' And Moses said to the Lord: 'Behold, thou sayest to me, Lead up this people; but thou hast not shown me whom thou wilt send with me. Yet thou hast said to me, I know thee above all, and thou hast grace with me. If then I have found grace in thy sight, show me thyself, that I may plainly see thee, that I may be one finding grace before thee, and that I may know that this nation is thy people.' What the Greek has as 'gnōstōs' certain Latin translators have rendered 'manifestly,' whereas Scripture did not say 'phanerōs.' It could therefore perhaps more aptly be said: 'If I have found grace in thy sight, show me thyself, that I may knowingly see thee.'
By which words Moses sufficiently shows that he did not, even in that great intimacy of converse, see God as he desired to see Him, since all those visions of God which were presented to the sight of mortals, and from which there came a sound whereby the hearing of mortals was reached, were displayed in such a form as God willed, an assumed appearance which He willed, so that in them the divine nature itself was in no way perceived by any bodily sense—that nature which is invisible, wholly everywhere, and contained in no place. And because on two commandments—that is, the love of God and of neighbor—the whole law hangs, therefore Moses was showing his desire in both: namely in the love of God, where he says:
'If I have found grace in thy sight, show me thyself, that I may plainly see thee, that I may be one finding grace in thy sight'; and in the love of neighbor, where he says: 'and that I may know that this nation is thy people.' What is it that God says to Moses: 'Because I know thee above all'? Does God know some things more and some things less? Or is it according to what is said to certain ones in the Gospel: 'I know you not'? For according to that knowledge, whereby God is said to know the things that please Him, and not to know the things that displease Him—not because He is ignorant of them, but because He does not approve of them (just as an art is rightly said not to know faults, though it perceives faults)—God knew Moses above all, because Moses pleased God above all.
Is it to be noted that Moses himself had earlier said to God, 'Thou hast said to me, I know thee above all,' whereas God is read to have said this to him only after he himself said it to God, and is not read to have said it before—so that we may understand that not all the things which God spoke with him are written? But it must be inquired more diligently in the earlier parts of Scripture whether it is truly so. When Moses had said to the Lord, 'Show me thy glory,' the Lord answered him: 'I will pass before thee in my glory, and I will call upon the name of the Lord in thy sight; and I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy'—though a little before He had said: 'I myself will go before, and I will give thee rest.'
Moses seems to have taken 'I will go before thee' as though He would not be present with him and the people on the journey, and therefore he says: 'If thou thyself dost not come with us, bring us not up hence,' and so forth. But God did not deny him even this, saying: 'This word also which thou hast spoken I will do.' How is it, then, that when Moses had said to Him, 'Show me thy glory,' He again seems to say, as one about to go before and not to be present together with them, 'I will pass before thee'—unless because this is something different? For He is understood to speak and say 'I will pass before thee' concerning Him of whom the Gospel says: 'When the hour was come that Jesus should pass out of this world to the Father'; which passing-over is also said to be interpreted as Pascha. This, therefore, is altogether a great prophecy.
For He Himself, before all the saints, passed over to the Father out of this world, to prepare for them the mansions of the kingdom of heaven, which He will give them in the resurrection of the dead, since, being about to pass over before all, He became the firstborn from the dead. But He commends His grace exceedingly in this very thing when He says: 'And I will call upon the name of the Lord in thy sight'—as it were in the sight of the people of Israel, whose type Moses bore when he heard these things. For in the sight of that very nation, everywhere dispersed, the Lord Christ is called upon among all the nations. But He said 'I will call,' not 'I shall be called,' putting the active verb for the passive by an unusual manner of speech, in which no doubt a great meaning lies hidden.
For perhaps He wished thus to signify that He Himself does this, that is, that it comes to pass by His grace, that the Lord is called upon among all the nations. But as to what He added: 'And I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy,' there He shows more expressly the calling by which He has called us into His kingdom and glory, not according to our merits, but according to His mercy. For since He was promising that He would bring in the nations, saying, 'I will call upon the name of the Lord in thy sight,' He commended that He does this mercifully, as the Apostle says: 'For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers; and that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy.'
This, then, was foretold: 'And I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy.' By which words He forbade man to glory as it were on the merits of his own virtues, so that he who glories may glory in the Lord. For He did not say, 'I will have mercy on such and such,' but 'on whom I have had mercy,' so that He might show that no one, by his own preceding good works, has merited the mercy of so great a calling. For indeed 'Christ died for the ungodly.' But whether He wished to repeat this same thing when He added, 'I will show mercy to whom I have shown mercy'—or, as others have translated, 'on whom I have had compassion'—or whether there is some difference, I do not know.
For what in the Greek tongue was said by two words, 'eleēsō' and 'oikteirēsō'—which seem to signify one and the same thing—the Latin could not express by different words, and so repeated the same mercy in different modes. But if it were said, 'I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,' or 'I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy,' it would not seem to be said with sufficient elegance. And yet the very sense there is stronger, namely that God showed by this repetition either the firmness of His own mercy—as 'Amen, amen,' as 'Let it be, let it be,' as the repetition of Pharaoh's dream, and many like things—or that He foretold in this manner that He would show mercy upon both peoples, that is, the Gentiles and the Hebrews.
This the Apostle states thus: 'For as ye in times past did not believe God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, even so have these also now not believed in your mercy, that they also may obtain mercy. For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all.' Then, after this commendation of His mercy, He answered to that which had been said to Him: 'Show me thy glory'—or to what Moses had asked above, saying, 'Show me thyself, that I may plainly see thee': 'Thou canst not,' He said, 'see my face.'
'For man shall not see my face and live,' showing that to this life, which is passed in the mortal senses of corruptible flesh, God cannot appear as He is; that is, He can be seen as He is in that life where, in order that one may live, one must die to this life. Again, with the article of Scripture interposed saying 'And the Lord said,' it follows and He speaks: 'Behold, a place with me.' For what place is not with God, who is nowhere absent? But He signifies the Church by saying, 'Behold, a place with me,' commending as it were His temple; 'and thou shalt stand,' He says, 'upon the rock'—because 'upon this rock,' said the Lord, 'I will build my Church'—'as soon as my glory shall pass over,' that is:
as soon as my glory shall pass over, thou shalt stand upon the rock; because after the passing-over of Christ, that is, after the passion and resurrection of Christ, the faithful people stood upon the rock. 'And I will set thee,' He says, 'in a cleft of the rock': He signifies a most firm defense. But others have translated 'in a watchtower of the rock'; yet the Greek has 'opēn.' This we more rightly interpret as an opening or cleft. 'And I will cover thee with my hand over thee, until I pass by; and I will take away my hand, and then thou shalt see my back parts, but my face shall not be seen by thee.' When He had already said, 'Thou shalt stand upon the rock, as soon as my glory shall pass over'—where it is understood that He promised stability upon the rock after His passing-over—how is it to be taken what He says:
'I will set thee in a cleft of the rock and I will cover thee with my hand over thee, until I pass by; and I will take away my hand, and then thou shalt see my back parts'? As though, He being now placed in the rock, He covers him with His hand and then passes by, whereas he cannot be in the rock except after His passing-over. But a recapitulation of a matter passed over is to be understood, such as Scripture is wont to use in many places. For afterward He said what in the order of time is prior. That order is as follows: 'I will cover thee with my hand over thee, until I pass by; and then thou shalt see my back parts, for my face shall not be seen by thee; and thou shalt stand upon the rock as soon as my glory shall pass over, and I will set thee in a cleft of the rock.'
For this came to pass in those whom the person of Moses then signified, that is, the Israelites, who afterward believed in the Lord Jesus, as the Acts of the Apostles indicate—that is, as soon as His glory passed over. For after He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven, when the Holy Spirit had been sent from above and the apostles spoke with the tongues of all nations, many of those who had crucified Christ were pricked in heart. Because they had not known Him and had crucified the Lord of glory, blindness in part came upon Israel, as had been said: 'I will cover thee with my hand, until I pass by.' Whence the psalm says:
'For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me'—calling it 'day' when Christ was working divine miracles, and 'night' when He was dying as a man, when even those wavered who had believed in the day. This, then, is 'when I have passed over, then thou shalt see my back parts': I shall pass over from this world to the Father; afterward they shall believe in me whose type thou bearest. For then, pricked in heart, they said: 'What shall we do?' And they were commanded by the apostles to do penance and to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, that their sins might be forgiven them. This follows in that psalm, when it had been said, 'Day and night thy hand was heavy upon me'—that is, so that I did not recognize;
for if they had recognized, they would never have crucified the Lord of glory—there follows and is joined: 'I was turned into anguish while the thorn was fixed,' that is, while I was pricked in heart. Then he added: 'I acknowledged my sin, and my iniquity I did not cover up': after they saw with how great a crime they had crucified Christ. And because they received counsel to do penance and to receive remission of sins in baptism, 'I said,' he says, 'I will pronounce against myself my transgression to the Lord, and thou didst forgive the ungodliness of my heart.'
That this was rather a prophecy than something the Lord spoke to Moses, the very matter sufficiently indicates, since concerning the rock or its cleft, and the placing of His hand upon him, and the vision of His back parts, nothing afterward is read to have followed in visible deed. For presently Scripture adds, with the article interposed: 'And the Lord said to Moses,' although the same Lord was certainly speaking those things also which are above. And from there it weaves in what the Lord next says: 'Hew thee two tablets of stone like the first,' and so forth. What is it that was said of the Lord: 'And He will not purify the guilty,' except 'He will not call him innocent'? God, when Moses was again about to inscribe two stone tablets on the mountain, says among other things:
'In the sight of all thy people I will do glorious things.' He does not yet deign to say, 'in the sight of all my people.' Or did He say 'thy people' in the way it would be said to any man of that same people—that is, 'of which people thou art'—just as we say 'thy city,' not the city over which thou rulest or which thou hast founded, but that of which thou art a citizen? For so also a little later He says: 'all the people among whom thou art.' In what other way was it said than 'thy people'? But that He did not say 'in whom thou art' is the custom of speech. What is it that is said to Moses: 'Take heed to thyself, lest ever thou make a covenant with those who dwell upon the earth'? For the Greek does not have 'lest thou make,' but 'lest he make.' Or perhaps He wished to say it to him concerning the people of which he himself was the leader?
But he himself did not lead the people into that land where He forbids a covenant to be made with those who dwelt in it. It is therefore a wondrous manner of speech, and hitherto untried or unnoticed—if indeed it is a manner of speech and not some other sense. When God, speaking to Moses, was commanding that, the land being given into their power, all idolatry should be overthrown and strange gods not be worshiped, He says: 'For the Lord God, jealous in name, is a jealous God'—that is: the very name whereby He is called Lord God is jealous, because He is a jealous God. This God does not do by any fault of human disturbance, being always and in every way unchangeable and tranquil; but by this word He indicates that His own people will not with impunity commit fornication through strange gods.
For the word is drawn by the trope of metaphor from marital jealousy, whereby a man guards the chastity of his wife—which is of profit to us, not to God. For who by such a kind of fornication could harm God? But he harms himself most of all, so that he perishes. This God forbids with the gravest terror, calling Himself jealous; to whom it is said in the psalm: 'Thou hast destroyed everyone who commits fornication away from thee; but for me it is good to cleave to God.' Then it follows: 'Lest perchance thou make a covenant with those who dwell upon the earth, and they commit fornication after their gods.' What is it He says: 'Thou shalt not be seen empty in my sight'? As the surrounding matters of which He speaks indicate, God said 'in my sight' in His tabernacle. But this is 'thou shalt not be seen by Him empty': thou shalt never enter without some gift.