Verse 19. 'Consider the paths of Teman, the ways of Saba, and wait a little.' 39. Some are ensnared in the world's nets under the name of honorableness. Among these are those who bear the care of household affairs, or who love their kinsfolk inordinately. For Teman is interpreted 'the south wind,' and Saba 'a net.' What is here designated by the south wind, which loosens the limbs breathed upon with its warmth, but the loose relaxation of living? And what by the net, but the entanglement of action? For those who, with dissolute mind, crave the things that are eternal, lest they should go forth to God with free step, bind themselves by their own inordinate exertions; and while they entangle themselves in the loose deeds of their manner of life, they set their feet, as it were, in the meshes of a net, there to remain.
For as, a little above, we said that some are drawn back to faults already conquered through certain open and unconquered vices, so some return to the things they had left through certain things that are cloaked either under the name of honorableness or under the honor of praise. For there are very many who now do not crave what belongs to another, and who, in the begun love of quiet, are divided from the quarrels of this world; they thirst to be instructed in the sacred eloquences, they desire to have leisure for the heavenly contemplations; nor yet do they, with perfect liberty of mind, forsake the care of household affairs—which, while they often serve it lawfully, they are entangled even in the unlawful quarrels of this world; and while they desire studiously to guard earthly things, they forsake the rest of the heart, which they were seeking;
and while the fleeting substance is protected by continual provision, the word of divine knowledge conceived in the mind is scattered, because, according to the sentence of the Truth (Matt. 23; Mark 4; Luke 8), the thorns choke the sprung-up seed, when the importunate anxieties of earthly things expel the word of God from the memory. With dissolved steps, therefore, they walk in the net, who, while they do not perfectly forsake the world, bind themselves in walking, so that they may not walk. 40.
And there are very many who not only do not crave what belongs to another, but even relinquish all that they had possessed in the world, despise their own selves, seek no glory of the present life, separate themselves from the actions of this world, and trample down almost whatever of prosperity has smiled upon them. Yet still, bound by the chain of carnal kinship, while they inordinately serve the love of relationship, they often return, through the effect of kinships, to those things which they had already subdued even with their own contempt. And while they love the kinsfolk of the flesh more than is necessary, broken outwardly, they are divided from the Father of the heart.
For we often see certain men who, as far as regards their own pursuit, no longer have the desires of the present life, and have left the world both in deed and in profession; yet nevertheless, on account of the inordinate affections of their kinsfolk, they burst into law-courts, have leisure for the quarrels of earthly affairs, relinquish the liberty of inmost quiet, and repair within themselves the studies of the world that had long since been destroyed. Whither, then, do these men walk but in the net—men whom the perfection of life, already begun, had loosed from the present age, but whom the inordinate love of earthly kinship binds? 41. We ought, for God's sake, to despise our kinsfolk, to hate them, to know them not.
For those who follow the reward of the eternal promise with strict zeal and with unfaltering steps, just as they despise their own selves for the love of God, so they set behind them all things by which they perceive themselves to be hindered; and since for God's sake it is needful that they should serve all men whom they can, for God's sake they refuse private services even to their kinsfolk. Hence it is that a certain man, when he said, 'Suffer me first to go and bury my father' (Matt. 8:21), straightway heard from the mouth of Truth, 'Let the dead bury their dead, but go thou and preach the kingdom of God' (Ibid., 22).
In this matter it must be noted that, since the chosen disciple is restrained from burying his parent, it is not lawful, out of carnal affection, to render to a dead father that dutiful service which for the Lord's sake is owed even to strangers. Hence again Truth says: 'If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own soul also, he cannot be my disciple' (Luke 14:26).
In this passage, seeing that under the hatred of our kinsfolk the hatred even of our own soul is also introduced, it is plainly shown that we are commanded to hate our kinsfolk in the same way as we hate our own selves; namely, that by carrying them off to eternal things, and by setting aside their carnal favour when it hinders, we may learn with a tempered art of discretion both to love them fittingly and to hate them wholesomely, so that a man may know how hatred should arise through love, in order that we may be able more truly to love them through that hatred. Hence again it is said through Moses: 'Who said unto his father and to his mother, I know you not; and to his brethren, I regard you not; neither did they acknowledge their own children: these have kept thy word and thy covenant, and have observed thy judgments' (Deut. 33:9).
For he seeks to know God more intimately who, out of the love of piety, desires not to know those whom he has known after the flesh. For divine knowledge is diminished with grievous loss if it is shared with the knowledge of the flesh. Everyone, therefore, must become a stranger to his kinsfolk and neighbours, if he wishes to be more truly joined to the Parent of all; so that he may love those the more solidly whom for God's sake he profitably neglects, the more he ignores in them the dissoluble affection of carnal bond. 42. We ought to profit our kinsfolk more than others, provided that thereby our own progress toward God be in no way retarded. We ought indeed to be kindly disposed toward them, yet not to turn aside from the journey that leads to God.
We ought indeed also in temporal matters to profit more than others those to whom we are more nearly joined, for the flame too spreads the fire to the objects placed near it, yet first of all it burns where it is kindled. We ought to acknowledge the bond of earthly kinship; yet nevertheless to ignore this when it hinders the course of the mind, so that the faithful soul, kindled in divine zeal, may neither despise those who are joined to it in its inmost affections, and yet, ordering these rightly within itself, may transcend them by the love of things above.
With diligent care, therefore, it must be provided that the favour of the flesh do not creep in and turn aside the step of the heart from the right way, lest it impede the force of heavenly love and press down the rising mind with a weight laid upon it. For every man ought so to have compassion on the needs of his kinsfolk that yet, through that compassion, he may not suffer the force of his own intention to be hindered; that affection may indeed fill the inward parts of the mind, yet may not turn it away from its spiritual purpose. For holy men do not fail to love their kinsfolk according to the flesh in supplying their necessities, but by the love of spiritual things they overcome that very love within themselves, so that they may temper it with the dry restraint of discretion, in order that through it they may not swerve from the right way even in the least or smallest degree.
These men are well signified to us by the figure of the kine which, drawing the ark of the Lord toward the mountains, go forward with affection and yet with steadfast resolve at once, as it is written: 'They took two milch kine that had calves, and yoked them to the cart, and shut up their calves at home, and laid the ark of God upon the cart' (1 Sam. 6:10). And a little after: 'The kine went straight in the way that leadeth to Bethshemesh, and went along by one way, going and lowing, and turned not aside neither to the right hand nor to the left' (Ibid., 12). For behold, though their calves were shut up at home, the kine which are bound under the ark of the Lord to the cart moan and go forward, giving lowings from their inmost being, and yet turn not their steps aside from the way.
They feel love indeed through compassion, but they do not afterward bend back their necks. Even so, so it is needful that those should advance who, set under the yoke of the sacred law, already bear the ark of the Lord through inward knowledge; so that, by the very fact that they suffer with the necessities of their kinsfolk, they may not swerve from the journey of righteousness once begun. Bethshemesh, indeed, is interpreted 'the house of the sun.' To go, therefore, with the ark of the Lord set upon it toward Bethshemesh, is to draw near with heavenly knowledge to the dwelling-place of eternal light. But then do we truly make for Bethshemesh, when, walking the way of righteousness, we do not, even for affection toward our offspring, turn aside to the neighbouring edges of error.
Their favour indeed ought to hold our mind, but ought not to bend it back, lest this same mind either, if it be untouched by affection, be hard; or, being more deeply touched, if it be bent, be slackened. 43. The favour of kinsfolk ought to hold, ought not to bend back. It is fitting to gaze upon blessed Job, in whom the yoke of divine fear had worn down the neck of his heart, with how great a restraint of discretion he bears the ark of the divine decree. For, having lost his calves, he moans, since, hearing of the death of his children, he fell to the ground with shaven head (Job 1:20); but yet he goes forward moaning on the right way, since his mouth in its groaning is opened to the praises of God, when he straightway says: 'The Lord gave, the Lord hath taken away, as it pleased the Lord, so is it done;'
'blessed be the name of the Lord' (Ibid., 21). But undiscerning minds know not this rule of living, and, in proportion as they carelessly seek after the ways of God, so much the more foolishly do they turn back to the paths of the world. 44. The losses caused by lukewarmness, when seen in others, are wont to move the devout. Rightly, therefore, the holy man, after the paths of Teman, mentions the ways of Sheba, because those whom the south wind of reprobate lukewarmness has loosed, these the net of entanglement surely holds. But describing well the deeds of the wicked, he admonishes us to consider these things, because in acting perversely we love our deeds, yet, seen in others, we judge them; and what we deem in ourselves less to be judged, we recognize how base it is in the action of others; and so it comes to pass that the mind returns to itself, and blushes to do what it reproves.
For as a foul face is displeasing when seen in a mirror, so the mind sees in its very self what it turns away from, when it beholds a life like its own. He says therefore: 'Consider the paths of Teman, the ways of Sheba, and wait a little.' As if he plainly said: 'Attend to the losses of another's lukewarmness, and then you shall the more firmly take up hope of eternal things, if with the right eye of the heart you see what displeases in others.' 45. How profitably the brevity of this life is attended to. And it is well said: 'Wait a little.' For often, while the brevity of the present life is loved as though it were to endure long, the mind is broken away from eternal hope, and, delighted with present things, is beaten back by the darkness of its own despair.
And while he thinks that a long span still remains for him to live, suddenly forsaking life, he finds eternity, which he can no longer avoid. Hence it is that it is said by a certain wise man: 'Woe to them that have lost patience' (Ecclus. 2:16). They lose patience, namely, who, while they reckon that they will long tarry among visible things, forsake the hope of things invisible. And while the mind is fixed on present things, life is ended; and suddenly they arrive at unforeseen torments, which, deceived by their own presumptions, they believed either would never touch them, or only late. Hence Truth says: 'Watch therefore, for ye know not the day nor the hour' (Matt. 25:13). Hence again it is written: 'The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night' (1 Thess.
5:2). For because, in drawing near to snatch away the soul, it is by no means perceived, it is compared to a thief in the night. So much the more, therefore, ought it to be feared as though always coming, the less its coming can be foreknown by us. Whence also holy men, because they ceaselessly regard the brevity of life, live as though dying daily; and they prepare themselves the more solidly for the things that abide, the more they always weigh, from its end, that things transitory are as nothing. Hence indeed the Psalmist, beholding the life of the sinner flee with swift course, says: 'Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be' (Ps. 36[37]:10). Hence again he says: 'Man's days are as grass' (Ps. 102[103]:15). Hence Isaiah says: 'All flesh is grass, and all the glory thereof as the flower of the field' (Isa. 40:6).
Hence James rebukes the minds of the presumptuous, saying: 'What is your life? It is a vapour that appeareth for a little time' (James 4:14). Rightly, therefore, it is said: 'Wait a little,' because both that which follows without end is immense, and whatever is bounded is but little. For it ought not to seem long to us which by the course of its own time hastens toward not-being; which, while it is led on through moments, its very moments that pass by drive it forward; and whence it seems to be held, thence it is impelled so that it be not held. And well does blessed Job, after that, despising the brevity of the present life, has brought forward his words, straightway rise up against the wicked in the voice of all the elect, adding: