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And after three verses: An enemy is known by his lips, when he has plotted deceits in his heart. When he lowers his voice, do not believe him: for there are seven wickednesses in his heart. He who covers hatred deceitfully—his malice shall be revealed in the assembly. He who digs a pit shall fall into it, and he who rolls a stone, it returns upon him. A lying tongue does not love truth, and a slippery mouth works ruin. Do not boast of tomorrow, not knowing what the coming day may bring forth. Let a stranger praise you and not your own mouth, an outsider and not your own lips. And after four verses: Open reproof is better than hidden love. The wounds of one who loves are better than the deceitful kisses of one who hates. And after six verses:
Do not forsake your friend and your father's friend. And after eighteen verses: Hell and perdition are never filled: likewise the eyes of men are insatiable. As silver is tested in the smelting-pot and gold in the furnace, so a man is tested by the mouth of him who praises him. Though you should pound a fool in a mortar, as with a pestle striking pearl-barley from above, his folly shall not be taken from him. And after twenty verses: A poor man who slanders the poor is like a violent rain in which famine is prepared. Those who forsake the law praise the wicked, but those who keep it are kindled against him. Evil men do not consider judgment, but those who seek the Lord perceive all things. Better is a poor man who walks in his simplicity than a rich man in crooked ways.
And after two verses: He who heaps up riches by usury and interest gathers them for one who will be generous to the poor. He who turns away his ear not to hear the law—his very prayer shall be execrable. He who deceives the righteous into an evil way shall fall in his own destruction, and the simple shall possess his goods. And after four verses: He who conceals his crimes shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them shall obtain mercy. Blessed is the man who is always fearful, but he who is of a hard mind shall fall into evil. Again after twelve verses: A faithful man shall be greatly praised, but he who hastens to be rich shall not be innocent. He who regards the face in judgment does not do well; such a man deserts the truth even for a morsel of bread.
The man who hastens to be rich and envies others does not know that want shall come upon him. He who reproves a man shall afterward find more favor with him than he who deceives with the flatteries of the tongue. He who takes anything from his father and mother and says, 'This is no sin,' is a partaker with a murderer. He who boasts and puffs himself up stirs up quarrels, but he who hopes in the Lord shall be healed. He who trusts in his own heart is a fool, but he who walks wisely shall be saved. He who gives to the poor shall not be in want, but he who despises the suppliant shall endure penury. And after ten verses: A man who speaks with flattering and feigned words to his friend spreads a net for his steps. And after twenty-five verses: A servant cannot be instructed by words:
For he understands what you say, yet scorns to answer. Have you seen a man quick to speak? There is more hope of a fool than of correcting him. And four verses later: Humiliation follows the proud man, and glory shall lift up him that is humble in spirit. He who shares with a thief hates his own soul; he hears one adjuring him, yet gives no evidence. He who fears man shall quickly fall; he who trusts in the Lord shall be raised up. Many seek the face of a prince, but judgment upon each man goes forth from the Lord. The just abhor a wicked man, and the wicked abhor those who are in the straight way. And fourteen verses later: Two things I have asked of You; deny them not to me before I die: vanity and lying words put far from me; beggary and riches give me not:
grant me only what is needful for my sustenance, lest perhaps being filled I be enticed to deny You and say, Who is the Lord? or lest in want I steal and take in vain the name of my God. Accuse not a servant to his master, lest perhaps he curse you and you fall. And a little later: Open your mouth, discern what is just, and judge the needy and the poor. Let this suffice concerning the Proverbs. Then, examining another book of Solomon that is called Ecclesiastes, we shall in like manner show whatever we find in it that is fitting for this work. VIII. ON ECCLESIASTES. Receive but a little. And I saw that wisdom excels folly as far as light differs from darkness. The wise man's eyes are in his head; the fool walks in darkness. And somewhat after:
Keep your foot when you enter the house of God; for obedience is far better than the sacrifices of fools who know not that they do evil. Be not rash to utter anything, nor let your heart be swift to bring forth a word before God; for God is in heaven and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few. Many cares are followed by dreams, and in many words folly is found. If you have vowed anything to God, delay not to pay it; for an unfaithful and foolish promise displeases Him. But whatever you vow, pay it; and it is far better not to vow than after a vow not to render what was promised. Give not your mouth to make your flesh to sin, neither say before the angel, There is no providence:
lest perhaps God, being angry at your word, scatter all the works of your hands. Where there are many dreams, there are many vanities and words without number; but you, fear God. And six verses later: The covetous man is not satisfied with money, and he who loves riches shall reap no fruit from them. And somewhat after: It is better to go to the house of mourning than to the house of feasting; for in the former the end of all men is set before us, and the living considers what shall come to pass. Anger is better than laughter, for by the sadness of the countenance the offender's soul is corrected. The heart of the wise is where sadness is, and the heart of fools where mirth is. It is better to be rebuked by a wise man than to be deceived by the flattery of fools; for as the crackling of burning thorns under a pot, so is the laughter of a fool.
And four verses later: The patient man is better than the arrogant. Be not swift to be angry, for anger rests in the bosom of a fool. Say not, What do you suppose is the cause that former times were better than these now are? for such a question is foolish. And three verses later: But learning and wisdom have this advantage, that they give life to their possessor. And somewhat after: I observe the mouth of the king and the precepts of the oath of God. Hasten not to depart from his face, and continue not in an evil work. And a little after: Because, he says, the sinner does evil a hundred times and is upheld by patience, I have known that it shall be well with those who fear God, who reverence His face.
It shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall his days be prolonged; but those who fear not the face of God shall pass away like a shadow. And after some space: I said that wisdom is better than strength. And four verses later: Wisdom is better than weapons of war; and he who sins in one thing shall lose many good things. And two verses later: More precious is wisdom and a little glory for a season than folly. And thirteen verses later: He who digs a pit shall fall into it; and he who breaks down a hedge, a serpent shall bite him. He who removes stones shall be hurt by them; and he who cleaves wood shall be wounded by it. If the iron be blunt, and this not as before but dulled, it is sharpened with much labor; and wisdom follows after diligence.
If a serpent bite in silence, he who secretly slanders is nothing less. The words of a wise man's mouth are grace, but the lips of a fool shall cast him headlong. And a little after: Rejoice therefore, young man, in your youth, and let your heart be glad in the days of your youth; and walk in the ways of your heart and in the sight of your eyes; and know that for all these things God will bring you into judgment. Remove anger from your heart, put away malice from your flesh; for youth and pleasure are vain. Remember your Creator in the days of your youth. And thirty-three verses later: Fear God and keep His commandments. There remains that book of Solomon whose title is the Song of Songs.
But what can we transfer from that book into this work, since the whole of it, in figurative speech, commends the holy loves of Christ and the Church, and utters them with prophetic loftiness? Yet in it, though it be most difficult to understand, we can nonetheless easily perceive how greatly that divine love, divinely inspired, is to be desired and how highly to be prized; seeing that it is not there said once, but in one place and another is repeated a second and a third time. IX. ON THE SONG OF SONGS. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the roes and the harts of the fields, that you stir not up nor make my beloved to awake until she herself will. I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, by the powers and the strength of the field, if you rouse up love, until it will.
For the Church, in which we too surely are, exhorts her daughters with these words—that is, herself as constituted in many members. She is the most fruitful field of God, whose powers and strengths are great, to which the martyrs, by loving Christ, attained. For to what point does He wish the love of His beloved in this present life to be raised, save to that point which He Himself taught by His word and to which He exhorted by His example, saying: Greater love has no man than this, that he lay down his soul for his friends—and what He said He did in deed? Wherefore, lest this should seem to pertain to Him alone, John says in his epistle: As Christ laid down His soul for us, so we also ought to lay down our souls for the brethren. This, then, is: until it will.
It is read also in the same Song: Set love in order within me. Christ Himself too says there: You are fair, my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem. And elsewhere: How fair you are and how comely, dearest, in delights! And in another place: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, jealousy hard as hell. And one verse later: Many waters could not quench love, neither shall floods overwhelm it. If a man should give all the substance of his house for love, he would despise it as nothing. X. ON THE BOOK OF JOB. They that knew Him know not His day. Others have removed the boundaries, plundered the flocks, and carried them off.
They have driven away the ass of the fatherless and taken the widow's ox for a pledge. And five verses later: They reap a field that is not their own, and gather the vintage of the vineyard of him whom they have oppressed by force. They send men away naked, taking their garments, who have no covering in the cold. And three verses later: The plunderers have done violence to the fatherless and stripped the poor common people. From the naked, and those going about without clothing and hungry, they have taken the ears of corn. And two verses later: They have made men groan out of the cities, and the soul of the wounded has cried out, and God does not suffer it to go unavenged. They themselves were rebels against the light; they knew not His ways, nor did they return by His paths. And twenty-one verses later: Let him be broken like an unfruitful tree.
For he fed the barren woman that bears not, and did no good to the widow; he brought down the strong man in his strength. And somewhat after: The ear that heard blessed me, and the eye that saw bore witness to me, that I had delivered the poor man who cried out and the fatherless who had no helper. The blessing of him who was ready to perish came upon me, and I comforted the heart of the widow. I put on righteousness and clothed myself with it as with a garment, and with my judgment as with a diadem. I was an eye to the blind and a foot to the lame. I was a father to the poor; and the cause which I knew not I diligently searched out. I broke the jaws of the wicked man, and out of his teeth I plucked the prey. And somewhat after:
If I have walked in vanity and my foot has hastened to deceit, let Him weigh me in a just balance, and let God know my integrity. If my step has turned aside from the way, and if my eye has followed my heart, and if any stain has cleaved to my hands. And two verses later: If my heart has been deceived over a woman, and if I have lain in wait at the door of my friend. And two verses later: For this is a crime and a most grievous iniquity; it is a fire that devours unto destruction and roots out all my produce. If I have despised to undergo judgment with my manservant and my maidservant, when they contended against me? And six verses later: If I have denied the poor what they wanted, and have made the eyes of the widow to wait.
If I have eaten my morsel alone and the fatherless has not eaten of it—for from my infancy compassion grew up with me, and it came forth with me from my mother's womb; if I have despised the perishing because he had no garment, and the poor without covering; if his sides have not blessed me, and if he was not warmed with the fleeces of my sheep; if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless, even when I saw myself superior in the gates. And after some verses: If I have thought gold my strength, and said to the fine gold, You are my confidence; if I have rejoiced over my great riches and because my hand had found much? And six verses later: If I have been glad at the ruin of him who hated me, and rejoiced that evil had found him? And four verses later:
The stranger did not lodge outside; my door was open to the traveler. If I have hidden my sin as a man does, and concealed my iniquity in my bosom? If I feared an exceeding multitude, and the contempt of my neighbors terrified me, so that I rather kept silence, nor went out of the door? Who will grant me a hearer, that the Almighty may hear my desire, and that He who judges may Himself write the book: that I might carry it on my shoulder and put it about me like a crown? At every one of my steps I would declare it, and offer it as to a prince. If my land has cried out against me, and its furrows have wept together, if I have eaten its fruits without money and afflicted the soul of the tillers. Now, then, let us gather from the books of the Prophets what things are needful for this work:
and first from those Prophets who, because of the brevity of their volumes, are called the Minor. Therefore in the prophet Hosea we find these things. XI. ON THE BOOK OF HOSEA. Receive but a little. Hear the word of the Lord, children of Israel, for the Lord has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. For there is no truth and no mercy, and there is no knowledge of God in the land. Cursing and lying and murder and theft and adultery have overflowed, and blood has touched blood. And twelve verses later: Because you have rejected knowledge, I will reject you, that you shall not exercise the priesthood to Me. And fifteen verses later: Because they have forsaken the Lord in not keeping His law. Fornication and wine and drunkenness take away the heart. And sixteen verses later:
For they themselves consorted with harlots and sacrificed with the effeminate, and the people that has no understanding shall be beaten. If you play the harlot, Israel, let not at least Judah offend. And enter not into Gilgal, and go not up to Bethaven, neither swear, The Lord lives! And eighteen verses later: They will not set their thoughts toward the Lord their God; for the spirit of fornication is in their midst, and they have not known the Lord. And sixty-one verses later: Your judgments shall go forth as light. For I desired mercy and not sacrifice, and the knowledge of God more than holocausts. And somewhat after: Sow to yourselves in righteousness, and reap in the measure of mercy; break up for yourselves fresh ground:
and it is time to seek the Lord, when He comes who has taught you righteousness. And seventy-eight verses later: And you shall turn to the Lord your God; keep mercy and judgment, and hope in the Lord your God always. And forty-one verses later: But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt; and you shall know no god besides Me, and there is no savior except Me. And thirty-nine verses later: Turn, Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have fallen in your iniquity. Take with you words and turn to the Lord; say to Him: Take away all iniquity and receive the good, and we will render the calves of our lips. XII. ON THE BOOK OF JOEL. Awake, you drunkards, and weep, and howl, all you who drink wine in sweetness:
for it is cut off from your mouth. For a nation has come up upon My land, strong and innumerable. And somewhat after: Now therefore, says the Lord, turn to Me with all your heart, in fasting and in weeping and in mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments, and turn to the Lord your God, for He is kind and merciful. XIII. ON THE BOOK OF AMOS. Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Judah, and for four, I will not turn away his punishment; because they have cast off the law of the Lord and have not kept His commandments; for their idols deceived them, after which their fathers went. And two verses later: Thus says the Lord: For three transgressions of Israel, and for four, I will not turn away his punishment:
because they have sold the righteous for silver, and the poor for a pair of shoes. They crush the heads of the poor upon the dust of the earth and turn aside the way of the humble; and a son and his father have gone in to the same girl, to profane My holy name. And one verse later: And they drank, he says, the wine of the condemned in the house of their god. And somewhat after: For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me, and you shall live. And three verses later: Seek the Lord, and live. And eight verses later: They have hated him that rebukes in the gate, and have abhorred him that speaks uprightly. Therefore, because you plundered the poor and took choice spoil from him. And three verses later: For I have known your many crimes and your grievous sins.
they are enemies of the just, taking bribes, and pressing down the poor in the gate. And two verses later: Seek good and not evil, that you may live; and the Lord God of hosts shall be with you, as you have said. Hate evil and love good, and establish judgment in the gate; it may be that the Lord God of hosts will have mercy on the remnant of Joseph. And fifty verses later: You that sleep on beds of ivory and are wanton on your couches, who eat the lamb out of the flock and the calf out of the midst of the herd; who sing to the sound of the psaltery: like David they thought to have instruments of song; drinking wine in bowls and anointed with the best ointment: and they were nothing grieved over the affliction of Joseph. And somewhat after:
Hear this, you that trample upon the poor and make the needy of the land to fail, saying: When will the month be over, that we may sell our wares; and the sabbath, that we may open the grain: to make the measure small and increase the shekel and set up deceitful balances: that we may possess the needy for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes, and sell the refuse of the grain? XIV. ON THE BOOK OF MICAH. Woe to you that devise what is unprofitable and work evil upon your beds: in the morning light they do it, because their hand is against God. And they have coveted fields and taken them by violence, and seized houses: and they oppressed a man and his house, a man and his heritage. And somewhat after:
Hear this, you princes of the house of Jacob and judges of the house of Israel, who abhor judgment and pervert all that is right; who build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity. Her princes judged for bribes, and her priests taught for hire, and her prophets divined for money; and they leaned upon the Lord, saying: Is not God in our midst? No evils shall come upon us. Again, somewhat after: I will show you, O man, what is good, and what the Lord requires of you: surely to do judgment and to love mercy and to walk carefully with your God. And three verses later: There is yet fire in the house of the wicked, treasures of iniquity, and a scant measure full of wrath.
Shall I justify the wicked balances and the deceitful weights of the bag? By which her rich men are filled with iniquity, and her inhabitants have spoken lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. And twelve verses later: Woe is me, for I have become as one who gathers in autumn the clusters of the vintage. There is no cluster to eat; my soul desired the early figs. The holy man has perished from the earth, and there is none upright among men; all lie in wait for blood, each hunts his brother to the death. The evil of their hands they call good; the prince demands, and the judge is for a reward, and the great man has spoken the desire of his soul. XV. ON THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK. Judgment has been given against me, and contradiction more powerful.
For this reason the law is slackened, and judgment does not attain to its end; because the wicked prevails against the just, therefore perverse judgment goes forth. And a little after: But the just shall live by his faith; and as wine deceives him who drinks it, so shall it be with the proud man, and he shall not be honored. And after some space: What profit is a graven image, that its maker has carved it, a molten thing and a false image, that its maker has trusted in the figment to make dumb idols? Woe to him that says to wood, Awake; Arise, to the silent stone: shall it be able to teach? Behold, this is covered with gold and silver, and there is no breath at all in its bowels. But the Lord is in His holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before His face. XVI.
ON THE BOOK OF ZEPHANIAH. I will destroy, He says, from this place the remnants of Baal and the names of the temple-keepers together with the priests; and those who worship the host of heaven upon the housetops, and who worship and swear by the Lord and swear by Milcom; and those who turn away from following the Lord and who have not sought the Lord nor inquired after Him. Be silent before the face of the Lord, for the day of the Lord is near. And sixteen verses later: And it shall come to pass in that time, I will search Jerusalem with lamps and will visit upon the men that are settled in their dregs, who say in their hearts: The Lord will not do good, and will not do evil. And eighteen verses later:
Gather yourselves together, assemble, O nation not worthy to be loved, before the decree bring forth the day passing like dust, before the anger of the Lord's fury come upon you, before the day of the Lord's fury come upon you. Seek the Lord, all you meek of the earth, who have wrought His judgment; seek the just, seek the meek, if by any means you may be hidden in the day of the Lord's fury. And somewhat after: And I will leave in your midst a poor and needy people, and the remnant of Israel shall hope in the name of the Lord; they shall not do iniquity, nor speak lies, and no deceitful tongue shall be found in their mouth. XVII. ON THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH. When he spoke of the scroll which he saw in the spirit: And he said to me:
This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth: for every thief, as it is written there, shall be judged, and everyone that swears shall likewise be judged from this. I will bring it forth, says the Lord of hosts, and it shall come to the house of the thief and to the house of him that swears falsely by My name; and it shall abide in the midst of his house and consume it, both its timber and its stones. And somewhat after: And the word of the Lord came to Zechariah, saying: Thus says the Lord of hosts: Judge true judgment, and show mercy and compassion, every man to his brother; and oppress not the widow and the fatherless and the stranger and the poor, and let no man devise evil against his brother in his heart. Again somewhat after:
Speak the truth, every man with his neighbor; execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates; and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his friend; and love not a false oath. For all these are things that I hate, says the Lord. XVIII. ON THE BOOK OF MALACHI. A son honors his father, and a servant his master: if then I am a father, where is My honor? and if I am a master, where is My fear? says the Lord of hosts. And a little after: I have made you contemptible and base before all peoples, according as you have not kept My ways and have shown partiality in the law. Have we not all one father? Has not one God created us?
Why then does each of us despise his brother, violating the covenant of our fathers? Judah has transgressed, and abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem: for Judah has profaned the sanctification of the Lord, which He loved, and has taken the daughter of a strange god. May the Lord destroy the man that does this, both master and disciple, from the tents of Jacob, and him that offers a gift to the Lord of hosts. And this again you have done: you covered the altar of the Lord with tears, with weeping and moaning, so that I no longer regard the sacrifice, nor accept anything acceptable from your hand. And you have said: For what cause? Because the Lord has been a witness between you and the wife of your youth, whom you have despised:
and she is your partner and the wife of your covenant. Did not One make her, and is she not the residue of His spirit? And what does each one seek but the seed of God? Keep therefore your spirit, and despise not the wife of your youth. When you have held her in hatred, put her away, says the Lord God of Israel; but iniquity shall cover his garment, says the Lord of hosts. Keep your spirit, and do not despise. You have wearied the Lord with your words, and you have said: Wherein have we wearied Him? In this—when you said: Everyone that does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and such please Him; or else, where is the day of judgment? And fifteen verses later:
And I will come near to you, He says, in judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers and the adulterers and the perjurers, and against those who defraud the hired laborer of his wages, and oppress widows and the fatherless and the stranger, and have not feared Me, says the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord, and I change not; and you, the sons of Jacob, are not consumed. For from the days of your fathers you have departed from My statutes and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. And fifteen verses later: Your words have prevailed against Me, says the Lord. And you have said: What have we spoken? You have said: Vain is he that serves God; and what profit is it that we have kept His precepts and that we have walked sorrowful before the Lord of hosts?