Moralia in Job 243

Verse 10. — The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the lions' whelps are broken. The allegorical sense. — 41. In the Scriptures diverse things are figured by the same object. — Because the nature of each single thing is composed of diversity, in sacred discourse diverse things are lawfully figured by any given object. For the lion has strength, and it also has savagery. By its strength, therefore, it signifies the Lord; by its savagery, the devil. For hence it is said of the Lord: The lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered (Rev. 5:5). Hence it is written of the devil: Your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour (1 Pet. 5:8). But by the name of the lioness sometimes the holy Church, sometimes Babylon is designated.

For inasmuch as she is bold against adversities, the Church is called a lioness; as is approved by the words of that same blessed Job, who, indicating Judea as forsaken by the Church, says: The sons of merchants have not trodden it, nor has the lioness passed through it (Job 28:8). But sometimes by the name of lioness the city of this world, that is, Babylon, is expressed, which rages against the life of the innocent with the monstrousness of cruelty, which, allied to the ancient foe as to a most savage lion, conceives the seeds of his perverse persuasion, and begets from herself reprobate sons after his likeness, as it were cruel whelps. And the whelps of lions are any reprobate whatsoever, begotten unto a wicked life by the error of malignant spirits:

who all together at once make up that whole city of the world which we have called Babylon, and yet each of them singly is called a son of Babylon, as though not a lioness, but the whelps of the lioness. For just as the whole is at once called Zion, the Church, but the sons of Zion are each of the saints singly recorded, so also the sons of Babylon are each of the reprobate singly, and all the reprobate at once are called that same Babylon. 42. The saints fear temptations; heretics, secure of their own sanctity, despise them. — But holy men, as long as they are in this life, guard themselves with anxious circumspection, lest the lion prowling about should snatch them away by his snares, that is, lest the ancient foe under some image of virtue should slay them;

lest the voice of the lioness din in their ears, that is, lest the glory of Babylon turn the mind away from the love of the heavenly homeland; lest the teeth of the lions' whelps bite, that is, lest the persuasion of the reprobate grow strong in the heart. But on the contrary, the heretics are now as it were secure concerning their sanctity, because they suppose that by the merits of their life they have overcome all things. Whence now it is said: The roaring of the lion, and the voice of the lioness, and the teeth of the lions' whelps are broken. As if it were plainly said: We are for this reason worn away by no scourges, because by the merits of our life, overcoming them, we tread down both the strength of the ancient foe, and the desire of earthly glory, and the persuasions of all the reprobate. Whence it is still further added: