詩篇註釋 第 15 章 第 2/2 段

And for what reason, then, have you used these? Why do you arm yourself, and handle both bow and sword? Because God so commanded;

for this very reason I make use of them, yet I cast the whole upon Him.

Thus were they taught to war against their sensible enemies, being fenced about by the help from above; and thus also against the spiritual foes. And you too, therefore, when you make war against the devil, say:

'I do not take courage in my weapons';

that is to say, not in my own strength, nor in my own righteous deeds, but in the mercy of God.

'It is not in our righteous deeds that we cast our supplication for mercy before You.'

'For You saved us from those who afflict us, and put to shame those who hate us.'

To tell of the things of old, he says, and the things of our forefathers? We ourselves hold many pledges of Your providence, and we are able to recount splendid trophies, and victories one upon another, marvellous and beyond all expectation.

For this reason he said, 'Thou hast put to shame,' showing that Thou didst not simply deliver us, nor simply snatch us away, but together with the shame of those who came against us.

In God shall we be praised all the day long;

and in Thy name will we give thanks for ever.

We hymn God every single day.

For the things of the victory, he says, have passed away, but the things of thanksgiving remain with us.

For by 'all the day long' he means one's whole life.

For we do not cease to hymn Thee and to glory in Thy alliance and aid.

For this is our glory, this our boast; in this we vie in honour before all men;

not that we possess a great and wondrous city, nor that we are foremost in victory, nor that we prevail by strength of body;

but that we have the true God—in this we boast;

not only when Thou dost help us, but even when Thou dost forsake us.

For this is what 'all the day long' means;

even as Paul also says,

'But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of Christ.'

For there is not, there is no other glory like this.

Wherefore again he said, 'And not only so, but we also glory in God.'

For nothing is equal to this boast.

Let no one, then, be high-minded on account of wealth;

let no one on account of any of the things of this life, but on this alone—on having God as Master.

This is better than all freedom, this is more excellent than the very heavens.

For if to be heard of this man or that has often brought a man boasting among men, consider how great a glory it brings to be heard of God.

Wherefore Paul also set this down in place of a great dignity, saying,

'And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh.'

But the Hebrew renders this word as 'Selah.'

'But now Thou hast cast us off and put us to shame.'

Another rendering: 'But besides these things Thou hast cast us away.'

'And Thou, O God, wilt not go forth with our hosts.'

Another rendering: 'And Thou goest not forth before us in our campaigns.'

For upon being cast off, shame immediately follows, and being exposed to all so as to suffer evil.

By 'hosts' here he means their armies, since in these lies the king's power; and this too God has wisely ordered, so that there might be a bond between the ruler and the ruled.

For the king has need of his subjects, and these of their protector, and they have been established in great need of one another.

So that there might be no arrogance, God has often arranged that the great should have need of the small.

This He has done even in the case of inanimate things.

For instance, a little pebble placed beneath has often steadied a tottering column, and a small rudder guides a ship of ten thousand tons' burden and delivers it from danger.

And what is 'Although Thou hast cast us off'? It means: even having suffered such things, he says, we do not depart from Thee, but glorify Thee, hymn Thee, and take pride in Thee.

'Thou hast turned us back before our enemies.'

'And they that hate us spoiled us for themselves.'

Another says, 'Thou hast made us the lowest before every adversary.'

See how he heightens the terrors by his words and dramatizes the calamity, showing that even if they were exceedingly sinful, yet they have paid a sufficient penalty.

This too the young men did out of abundance of spirit in the furnace, singing then and saying:

You have delivered us into the hands of lawless enemies, of the most hateful, of apostates, and to a king unjust and most wicked above all the earth.

We have been made small beyond all the nations, and we are lowly in all the earth.

This too is what he signifies here, as if all but saying:

We have become more dishonored than all, since we have been stripped bare of Your providence;

and the calamities did not even halt at this, but we became plunder for our foes, who parcelled us out among themselves at their own pleasure.

They plundered us for themselves, that is, since there was no one who could prevent it.

You have given us like sheep for slaughter, and among the nations You have scattered us.

Another version says, You have winnowed us.

What does 'like sheep for slaughter' mean? It means: having made us easy to assail, having shown us to be of no account.

For there are also sheep kept for breeding, those fit for procreation;

but the others, on account of old age or barrenness, are useful only for food.

And what is indeed harder still: to be divided out among the nations as well—which was to them heavier than all—namely, not even to be able to keep the Law there with exactness, and to have fallen away from their ancestral polity.

And not into one nation only, he says, but everywhere; and we are ready for one thing alone, namely to suffer ill, but to defend ourselves or to lift up our hands against them we have not even the strength.

For this is what the image of the sheep signifies.

You have sold Your people without price.

Another version says, For no wealth.

And there was no abundance in the exchange for us.

And You did not set their price high.

What he means is something like this:

for indeed the saying seems exceedingly obscure; but give heed, that you may sing psalms with understanding.

What then is being said? It sets forth their cheapness and worthlessness.

As being worth nothing, as cheap and contemptible, so You abandoned us.

And this he says from human custom.

For it is our habit to give away what is dishonored and cheap even without price;

but those things we set much store by, even if we sell them, we sell for a great price;

but those for which we have little regard, these we even hand over for nothing.

Of thankless household slaves, at any rate, some sell them for half their value, and others hand them over receiving nothing at all.

But if to let a thing go for a lesser price shows the cheapness of what is sold,

then to receive no price at all, but to give without price, shows it far more.

Just as if some man should part with his own possessions without price, so did You also abandon us as though we were of no honor; You utterly despised us.

This indeed he also makes plain in what he adds, saying:

And there was no abundance in the exchange for us;

that is, in the purchase-price of us.

Wherefore another version also says, In the pricing of us;

that is, in the sale of us.

For we often give a household slave, and receive silver or gold.

You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and a derision to those round about us.

Another says, A spectacle to those round about us.

You have made us a byword among the nations.

Grievous is this punishment and unbearable, especially to be reproached by the ungodly, to suffer these things at the hands of enemies, and to have those who trample upon them encircling them round about, and to be beset on every side by those who revile.

But what is a parable? It is a byword, a reproach.

For those round about were certain foul and unfeeling men, who not only showed no pity, but even heaped reproaches upon them; and this above all was what stung them.

And here he seems to me to be speaking of the Arabs, those who dwelt as neighbours beside them.

'A shaking of the head among the peoples.'

Either he means this, that 'Thou hast removed us from our place'; or else, through the gesture of the shaking of the head, he indicates the drunken insolence of one who greatly exults over them.

'All the day long my shame is before me.'

'And the confusion of my face hath covered me, because of the voice of him that reproacheth and speaketh against me.'

Another version says, 'And of him that blasphemeth.'

'Because of the presence of the enemy and persecutor.'

These things stung them more than their punishments did.

For since they had ever and continually enjoyed prosperity, and had prevailed over their enemies, then were the mouths of all opened against them, now that they had fallen and been tripped up, and could not so much as lift up their heads, but endured unceasing punishment.

'All these things are come upon us, yet have we not forgotten Thee, neither have we dealt falsely in Thy covenant.'

Another version: 'Neither have we dealt deceitfully with Thy compact.'

'Contrary to the rest,' he says, 'have we come.'

For those men were tripped up even before the terrors came;

'but we,' he says, 'even after the terrors have stood firm, holding our resolve unturned.'

encouraging those who were with them.

Wherefore indeed, when Daniel and the three children said:

'We have not dealt falsely in Thy covenant;'

lifting up the spirits of their fellow-soldiers.

'For if we have suffered the greatest things,' he says, 'and are the descendants of those who received great benefits, and in our calamities we have not turned aside, there will be for us a great hope of salvation.'

Therefore, as I said from the beginning, this I say also now: that in the manner of a prayer they anoint and stir up their own spirits, as though they were saying to themselves:

'For what reason have you despaired of salvation? We have God as the one who presides over us;'

'even if in anything we have sinned, we have paid a sufficient penalty;'

'in our trials we have stood nobly;'

'we have as our guide the One who ever presides even over sinners;'

'wherefore on every side we must look for a good end.'

But what is the meaning of, 'We have not dealt falsely in Thy covenant'? That is to say, 'We have not been unfaithful concerning these things which were entrusted to us, but have kept them with all exactness.'

For it is indeed the greatest injustice, when one transgresses the law that defends him, the law that does not even suffer him to be wronged by his neighbours, and that restrains wickedness;

when he acts thanklessly toward the One who bestows so many good things.

'And our heart hath not turned back.'

Another version says, 'It hath not withdrawn.'

'And Thou hast not turned aside our paths from Thy way.'

Another version says, 'Neither did that which upholds us swerve aside.'

Another: 'And our heart hath not turned back, and Thou hast not made our steps to swerve.'

What he said before, this he says here too: that in so great a storm of evils they were not shaken even a little.

For just as the law leads forward, so lawlessness removes one backward;

and just as the law bids one walk the straight path, so lawlessness removes a man into the desert and the trackless waste.

Therefore by 'way' he here means the law.

And as for 'Thou hast turned aside,' which is what the other versions say;

Neither have those things that hold us upright been turned aside from thy way.

«Vatte ashurenu minni orach» (the Hebrew of the verse).

But if one should choose to interpret according to the Seventy, and not according to the others, the phrase, 'Thou hast turned aside our paths from thy way,' means this: that 'Thou hast removed us far from thy temple, and hast caused us to be in a foreign land';

which did not allow the acts of divine service to be performed.

'For thou hast humbled us in a place of affliction,'

'and the shadow of death hath covered us.'

Another translator says, 'Thou hast covered us over.'

This, it seems to me, is the recompense answering to what went before, in which they recount their evils, saying, 'The shame of my face hath covered me, at the voice of him that reproacheth and slandereth';

If, however, one should take it as referring to the phrase, 'Thou hast turned aside our paths from thy way,' then here it has a logical sequence according to the sense which we have stated.

For it makes clear how he thrust them out from their own paths—I mean, from their manner of life and their ordinances—namely, by leading them away into desert places, and abandoning them in the midst of enemies.

For this is the meaning of, 'The shadow of death hath covered us';

speaking of the perils that give birth to death, and near to which deaths lie, even as the Scripture also calls them the pangs of death and the gates of hades.

And by means of the 'shadow' and the 'covering' he here sets forth the inescapability of these terrors, which admit of no dissolution to be found, nor are able to grant even a little breathing-space.

'If we have forgotten the name of our God, and if we have stretched out our hands to a strange god, shall not God search this out? For he himself knoweth the secrets of the heart.'

This is the mark of grateful servants, to remain serving their master even while suffering ill;

these are the lessons of true wisdom.

Here they also instruct their hearers not to play the hypocrite, but to serve God with the whole heart.

'For he knoweth,' he says, 'the hidden things of the mind.'

And these things they say in order to make them fearful, so that they might do nothing amiss.

Behold also the great increase of virtue;

'For thy sake are we killed all the day long;'

'we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.'

For it is indeed a great thing to remain serving God, and not to leap away to another;

but it is far greater, while continual deaths and daily perils press upon one, to preserve such a love.

And consider what a kind of true wisdom this is, seeing that Paul too employed it, when he enumerated the snowstorm of apostolic perils in his Epistle to the Romans.

Of how many crowns, then, would these men be worthy, when in the Old Covenant they are seen to have attained to the measure of the contests in the New? For that which Paul says, 'I die daily,' this these men also fulfilled—not in actual experience, nor in the end result, but in their resolve.

But why does he say, 'For thy sake'? Because it was in our power, he says, to change sides, and to forsake our ancestral manner of life, and to be in safety;

but we choose rather to suffer ill and to keep our ancestral ways, than to enjoy peace after falling away from our ancestral inheritance.

'We are counted as sheep for the slaughter.'

'Thus easily,' he says, 'do they slay us.'

And here he also displays their gentleness.

But nevertheless, though thus set forth for slaughter, we remain holding a resolve that cannot be turned aside.

Here too it is worthy to be amazed at the power of God, in that he preserved those who were thus set forth as sheep for the slaughter, and though they died daily, he did not permit them to fall into death.

'Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord?' Another says, 'Why art thou as one sleeping?' Another, 'Rouse thyself up.'

'Arise, and cast us not off for ever.'

'Why turnest thou away thy face?' Another, 'Thou hidest.'

'Dost thou forget our poverty and our affliction?' Another, 'Our misery?' And what he means is this:

for these things come to pass not through any weakness of thine, but through thy forbearance.

For by 'sleep' he here means the stillness, and by 'arising' the recompense, and by 'face' the succour, the providence, the watchful care, the alliance in battle.

'Why dost thou forget our poverty?' Behold again their gratitude.

He did not say, 'Of our good deeds';

he did not say, 'Of our unshaken resolve';

he did not say, 'Of a soul proven in temptations';

but when they make a defense on their own behalf, they put forward those things;

but when they seek an ally, from the very grounds by which the condemned are judged, from these they ask to be saved.

'Since we have paid the penalty,' he says, 'since we have suffered the uttermost.'

This too Paul does often, and others of the prophets as well.

And these things they said, knowing as yet nothing about hell, nor about the kingdom, nor having been taught to reflect on such matters, and yet they bore everything with ease.

'For our soul has been brought down to the dust;'

'our belly cleaves to the earth.'

'You forget our poverty;'

that is, our affliction; henceforth he speaks of the affliction.

'We have perished, we have been buried, we are in no better state than the dead.'

And one might rightly say too that the soul of those who cling fast to present things has been brought down to the dust, and that the belly of the gluttonous has cleaved to the earth.

For indeed the man who is bound fast by lust, and who gapes after the mire, and who enslaves the incorporeal power within him to the ashes, might well be said to suffer these very things.

For what else is the beauty of the body but dust and clay—nay rather, something even more unsightly than these? And if you disbelieve, go examine the tombs of men, and you will see the clay and the dust.

For when the face puts off this present life, then it appears as what it truly is;

nay rather, even before death itself.

For when old age comes on, when sickness falls upon it, then you will see what it really is;

but as a wise Craftsman, He caused an inconceivable beauty to arise even out of mean material—not that you should

commit fornication, but that He might afford you a proof of His own wisdom.

Do not therefore insult the Artificer, nor make the work of His wisdom an occasion for licentiousness and fornication.

Admire the fair form only so far, only to the point of glorifying the Artificer; but do not go further, salving your passion.

Therefore one ought to worship Him who made it, and not to insult Him.

If someone, tell me, taking a golden statue of a person and a royal image, should defile it with filth and other such things, would he not pay the uttermost penalty? And if the man who is thankless in human affairs is liable to so great a punishment, what will he suffer who has clothed the work of God in such great dishonor—and especially when the one who does these things is plainly seen to have a wife? For do not plead to me the desire of nature.

For it is on this account that marriage was permitted, that you might not advance beyond your own proper bounds.

For consider how great a punishment you will be worthy of.

For God provided beforehand both for your rest and for your honor, that you might both release the frenzy of nature through your wife, and do this without danger, and be freed from all unseemliness.

But do you, out of sheer excess, insult Him who thus provides for you? For tell me, if He had not been willing to ordain marriage by law, how great a compulsion would you have endured? How great a chastisement? You ought therefore to give thanks and to glorify Him, because He cut away for you the greater part of your labors, devising no ordinary consolation; yet you insult Him thanklessly, and act shamelessly, and overstep the appointed bounds, and disgrace His glory. Do you not hear Paul crying out even now, and shouting in the midst, 'Flee fornication'—nay rather, Christ, who moves that man's soul? Why do you scrutinize another's beauty? Why do you busy yourself with a face that is not yours? Why do you rush over the precipices? Why do you cast yourself into the nets? Wall up your eyes, hedge round your sight, set a law for your eyes.

Hear Christ threatening, and judging the unchaste look as equal to adultery.

What profit is there in the pleasure, when it breeds a worm? when it breeds unceasing fear? when it breeds undying punishment for the one who has done it? How much better it is, having endured for a little while the violence that comes from our own reasonings, to be at ease forever, than, having gratified for a little our unseemly desires, to be punished everlastingly? Do not, my children, do not act thus;

not good is the report which I hear concerning you.

I know against whom the word is directed—not against all;

but wherever it finds the wound, there it applies the remedy.

Why do you insult marriage? Why do you wrong the marriage-bed? Why do you outrage your own member? Why do you disgrace your glory? Cut off the passion, do away with the indulgences.

Luxury and drunkenness are the springs of fornication.

If you do not use your ease as you ought, He will bring affliction upon you.

Hear what the Jews suffered when they committed fornication—they who had not partaken of the body of Christ, who had not enjoyed the spiritual table: 'Neither let us commit fornication,' he says, 'as some of them committed, and there fell in one day twenty-three thousand.'

'Arise, O Lord, help us, and redeem us for Your name's sake.'

Another version: 'Stand up, taking hold of us, and deliver us for the sake of Your mercy.'

See where they enclosed their plea. After countless right deeds of their own, on what ground do they claim to be saved? From mercy, from lovingkindness, for the sake of the name of God.

After countless right deeds of their own, on what ground do they claim to be saved? From mercy, from lovingkindness, for the sake of the name of God.

What does 'For your name's sake' mean? That it may not be profaned—which He Himself also often says: 'I act for the sake of my name.'

Did you see the humility and the contrite mind? And on what ground do they claim to be saved? From lovingkindness, from mercy.

As though they were destitute of good deeds, as though they possessed no title to salvation—and yet, abounding in so many labors and dangers, they referred the whole to God.

Let us also, who are under grace, imitate these men, and send up glory to God, to whom be the glory unto the ages of ages.