Moralia in Job 1343

The first and nobler creature was the angel who fell. As if He openly said: For this reason he is strong enough for so many things, because in the nature of things, in creating him, the Maker made him first in substance. For what do we understand by the ways of God but His actions? Of which He says through the prophet: My thoughts are not as your ways (Isaiah 55:8). And Behemoth is called the beginning of the ways of God, because indeed when the Maker, creating, brought all things into being, He first made him whom He made more eminent than the other angels. The prophet beholds the eminence of his primacy when he says: The cedars in the paradise of God were not higher than he; the fir trees did not equal his summit;

the plane trees were not equal to his branches; no tree of the paradise of God was made like to him and to his beauty, for he was beautiful in his many and thick branches (Ezekiel 31:8-9). For what can be understood by the cedars, the firs, and the planes, but those lofty ranks of heavenly virtues, planted in the greenness of eternal gladness? Which, although they were created exalted, were nevertheless neither set before this one nor made equal to him. He is said to be beautiful in his many and thick branches, because, being set before the other legions, so great a beauty rendered him fairer, as great as the multitude of angels placed beneath him adorned him.

This tree in the paradise of God had as it were as many thick branches as it had legions of the higher spirits placed beneath itself. Who therefore, when he sinned, was condemned without pardon, because he had been created great beyond comparison. Hence again it is said to him through the same prophet: You were the seal of the likeness of God, full of wisdom and perfect in beauty; you were in the delights of the paradise of God (Ezekiel 28:12-13). For being about to say many things concerning his greatness, He embraced all in the first word. For what good did he not have, if he was the seal of the likeness of God? For from the seal of a ring such a likeness is expressed by image as is essentially had in the same seal.

And although man was created to the likeness of God (Genesis 1:27), yet, attributing as it were something greater to the angel, He does not say that he was created to the likeness of God, but calls him the very seal of the likeness of God, so that, the more subtle he is in nature, the more fully the likeness of God is believed to be expressed in him. His primacy in the nine orders of angels. What Cherub signifies. Hence it is that the same prophet, still intimating the power of his primacy, adds: Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, the topaz, and the jasper, the chrysolite, the onyx, and the beryl, the sapphire, the carbuncle, and the emerald (Ezekiel 28:13). He named nine kinds of stones, because indeed there are nine orders of angels.

For when, through the sacred words themselves, the angels, archangels, thrones, dominions, virtues, principalities, powers, cherubim, and seraphim are mentioned in open narration, it is shown how great are the distinctions of the heavenly citizens. Yet by these this Behemoth is described to have been covered, because he had them as a garment for his adornment, for by transcending their brightness he was, by comparison with them, the brighter. Of whose description there it still adds: Gold was the work of your beauty, and your perforations were prepared in the day that you were created (ibid., v. 13). Gold was the work of his beauty, because he shone white with the brightness of wisdom, which he received well-created.

But perforations are made in the stones so that, bound by gold, they may be joined in the composition of the ornament, and by no means fall apart from one another, whom the gold poured between binds by filling the perforations. Of this stone, therefore, the perforations were prepared in the day of his creation, because he was created capable of charity. If he had wished to be filled with it, he could have adhered to the standing angels as stones set in the ornament of the king. For if he had offered himself penetrable to the gold of charity, associated with the holy angels, he would have remained a stone fixed in the royal ornament, as we have said. This stone therefore had perforations, but through the vice of pride they were not filled with the gold of charity.

For because they are bound with gold lest they fall, therefore this one fell, because, though perforated by the hand of the craftsman, he scorned to be bound by the bonds of love. But now the other stones, which had likewise been perforated like this one, are bound by charity penetrating one another, and by this gift, this one falling, they have merited that they should never now be loosed from the royal ornament by falling. Still beholding the loftiness of his primacy, the same prophet adds: You were the extended and protecting cherub in the holy mountain of God, you walked perfect in the midst of the fiery stones (Ezekiel 28:14). For Cherub is interpreted as fulness of knowledge; and therefore this one is called Cherub, because it is not doubted that he surpassed all in knowledge.

Who walked perfect in the midst of the fiery stones, because among the hearts of angels kindled with the fire of charity, he stood forth bright with the glory of his condition. Whom He well calls extended and protecting. For everything that we protect by extending, we overshadow. And because by comparison of his brightness he is believed to have overshadowed the brightness of the others, he himself is declared to have been extended and protecting. For he covered the rest as it were by overshadowing, he who transcended their greatness by a greater excellence. What therefore is called there beautiful in many branches, what there the seal of likeness, what there the cherub, what there the protector, this here by the Lord's voice this Behemoth is called the beginning of the ways of God.

From the fall of the angel let man learn not to be proud. Concerning whom He therefore intimates such wondrous things—in what he was and what he lost—that He may show to the terrified man what he himself, if he is proud, is destined to suffer for the fault of his elation, if He was unwilling to spare in striking the one whom in creating He raised into the glory of so great a brightness. Let man therefore consider what, being exalted on earth, he deserves, if even an angel, set before the angels, is cast down in heaven. Whence it is also well said through the prophet: My sword is inebriated in heaven (Isaiah 34:5). As if He openly said: Weigh with what wrath I shall strike the proud of the earth, if I did not spare to smite even those whom I created in heaven beside Myself, for the vice of their elation.

Having therefore heard so many powers of the ancient enemy, having known so great a greatness of his condition, who would not collapse in immense dread? Who would not succumb, stricken with despair? But because the power of our enemy, having been shown, represses our elation, the Lord also cherishes our infirmity by the disclosed dispensation of His grace. Whence, when He had called him the beginning of His ways, He immediately added: