詩篇註釋 第 1 章 第 20/34 段

This was said at the time when he had come together with her;

Unjust witnesses, then, are those who say against someone things which do not belong to him.

When the evil man turned aside from me, I did not know it.

They repaid me evil for good, and bereavement to my soul.

They ought to have known that I was not persuaded to their advantage, nor did I know the things they ask;

As far as it lay with me, therefore, they shall not be punished on my account.

Thus we have also expounded the saying of the Gospel:

'Be well-disposed toward thine adversary while thou art with him in the way.'

And since the account of good-will is this:

Goodwill is the wishing of good things to one's neighbour for that person's own sake — for often I wish good things to be granted to him precisely that I may obtain something from him in return.

They therefore wished to punish me, who had done them no wrong at all, but had even furnished them an occasion of salvation.

Such, then, is also that which is said by Jacob to Laban:

Recognize whether anything of yours is with me, and take it.

I want nothing of what is yours; I bear you goodwill; I give you back what is yours.

In return for the good things which I did for them.

And I did good things for them, so that they should not be brought into a position of being punished on my account, since I did not yield to them.

Would not Susanna too have said concerning the elders that:

They wished to drag me down into adultery;

I had done some good thing for them;

as far as it lay with me, did they not, in their sin, seek to make me childless? In a common way they were requiting me;

just as they requited me with evil things in return for good, so also did they requite my soul with childlessness.

The offspring of the soul? — Right reasonings, and most excellent deeds.

From fear of you we conceived in the womb, and travailed, and gave birth.

But I, while they were harassing me, would put on sackcloth.

He named their wickedness, and the reason for his wishing to render him childless, as a 'harassment,' like the one who spoke of 'sophistical vexations.'

They harass me rather than harm me.

Nevertheless I would clothe myself in sackcloth, both that I might not be caught by them, being abandoned, and for their sakes, that they might cease from their insolence against me;

I would clothe myself in a certain austere manner of life; I bore a sign of repentance, on the one hand that I might not be harmed by the harassment, on the other that those men might not be worn down further.

But it is far more for the good, if they should also cease.

And I humbled my soul with fasting.

Not only did I put on sackcloth — that is, austerity of life — but also with fasting I humbled my soul, both in the literal sense and in the archetypal sense, no longer nourishing myself on any of those painful things.

And the historical sense too often serves for assistance;

for we have seen many things set right by fasting — the city of the Ninevites' not falling into destruction, the nation of the Jews' being saved from Haman.

And my prayer shall return into my own bosom.

By the name 'bosom,' in many Scriptures, the ruling faculty and the mind are signified, as when it says:

into their bosom shall all things be turned back upon the unrighteous.

I have given their ways upon their own heads;

for again, the heads signify the ruling faculty;

his trouble shall return upon his own head.

The holy one prays that good things may come to pass.

And prayer is nothing other than the asking of good things from God.

Whenever anyone obtains those good things for which he was praying, his prayer has returned into his own bosom.

It was not cast out and left outside — where the voice is sent up and scattered into the air — but it brought back the things he asked for.

And this is what it means for his prayer not to have been sent up in vain, but to have brought into the heart of the one who prayed the things he asked of him who fills your desire with good things.

He who desires these things is filled with them.

This is the contempt in the land of Egypt, in their bosom.

The wife who is in your bosom, whom you cherish, who is of one mind with you, who thinks together with you.

And my prayer shall return into my own bosom.

He who asks good things from God prays.

Whenever he obtains what he asks, his prayer has returned into his bosom, into his ruling faculty.

And I have adduced from many texts that the ruling faculty is often signified by the name 'bosom':

this is their contempt in the land of Egypt, into their bosom.

into their bosom come all things upon the unrighteous.

And the bosom denotes intimate closeness.

Thus indeed also in the bosom of Abraham he found his rest, having the same courage and endurance as he; and that phrase:

as with a neighbour, as with our own brother, so I bore myself pleasingly.

No one has any pretext for being angry with me; no one takes from me any occasion for showing enmity toward me;

for toward each one I was thus, as toward a neighbour, as a brother, and so I bore myself pleasingly through love of fellows, love of comrades, love of brothers.

as one mourning and downcast, so I humbled myself.

Thus I humbled myself for their sakes.

Those whom I took to be neighbours and brothers were gathering against me, waging war on me, as at the beginning of the psalm:

Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; make war on those who make war on me.

To me indeed they would speak peaceable things, but in anger they devised deceits.

For this reason, as one mourning over them and downcast because of them, so I humbled myself;

for if they had provided me the things that gladden, I would have been exalted, I would have rejoiced, I would have been radiant with cheerfulness.

This 'so I humbled myself'? — If someone has a son who is cherished and longed for, and sees him burning with fever, he is humbled, since he sees him afflicted, not living the way he wished him to live.

Since, then, I was furnishing occasions for virtue, treating them as neighbours and brothers, but they showed themselves enemies and foemen, I was humbled over them, when I ought to have rejoiced over them.

What do you suppose Paul felt about Hymenaeus and Alexander — was he not humbled, seeing them making shipwreck concerning the faith? Was he not previously so disposed toward them; did he not love them, did he not give them occasions toward blessedness? But if the words are spoken in the person of the Saviour, he can say these things concerning Judas and concerning the whole people of the Hebrews.

And they rejoiced against me, and were gathered together.

But do you wish to know that to be dejected over sinners is a humbling? Paul writes to the Corinthians;

rousing them to repentance, he says:

lest, when I come, my God humble me before you.

The holy one is exalted whenever he sees those benefited by him becoming better.

And a father rejoicing and gladdened over his children is exalted.

If they had preserved the love which I preserved toward them, toward me, I would not have been humbled, but even exalted, having them as fellows, having them as partakers.

And they rejoiced against me, and were gathered together.

But I was so disposed toward them, out of my inmost bowels, most as my very own;

yet they, on the contrary, being gathered against me, rejoiced — or rather, having rejoiced against me, were gathered together — that they might bring upon me some further evil and grievous thing.

Scourges were gathered against me, and I knew it not.

I said in the readings that preceded, taking one of the psalms, that the same afflictions are for some men scourges, but for others contests, when the text was set before us that says:

'Many are the scourges of the sinner.'

Here 'scourges' can also mean the evil powers.

'They gathered together, and I did not know it.'

This saying is similar in manner to the one that reads:

'When the wicked man turned aside from me, I did not know it.'

I gave him no place, being persuaded by the apostolic counsel which says:

'Do not give place to the devil.'

It is told of one of the ancient philosophers that he was scourged in order that he might speak against his own city, that he might accuse his fellow citizens.

Taking care lest, even unwillingly, he should blurt out something, he bit his own tongue, cut it off, and cast it at the one who was forcing him.

That man could not say, 'I did not know it,'

for he came within a little of knowing it, had he not procured his safety by other means.

Isaiah was sawn asunder with a wooden saw.

And observe indeed the malice of Manasseh the apostate, who fell into idolatry.

And since the idol which he himself had set up fell down when Isaiah looked upon it, along with certain other matters, he brought forward accusers and laid two charges against him.

Whereas Moses says, 'No one has seen my face and lived,' this man says that he saw the Lord of Sabaoth seated upon a throne.

But had they examined the matter carefully, they would have recognized his calumny.

He did not at all say that he even saw his face.

'He saw' — so that, even according to the mere wording, we may show them to be false accusers.

This charge, then, they laid against him, and a second, namely that:

the rulers of the discerning race, of the holy priesthood, of the royal people, he called 'rulers of Sodom'; and the people whom God loved, whom God honoured, he called 'the people of Gomorrah.'

On account of these two charges they slandered him, although they knew beforehand that these things were not spoken by him in that sense; but when the idol fell down, in order that they might not appear to be avenging the god that had proved to be no god, they instead fastened some charge upon him.

'Scourges gathered together against me, and I did not know it.'

And consider the malice of Manasseh:

in order that Isaiah might remain a long time under torment, he sawed him with a wooden saw, so that his flesh, being torn by those teeth of the saw, might produce a greater and more prolonged agony.

'Because they bring punishments as upon an evildoer, and in this respect they are scourges? — But I did not know them as scourges;

for I contended and was crowned by means of them.'

But at that time I was being tested by them, to see whether I was such a man as those who punished me supposed.

And somehow, gently, those who wrought the slander against Susanna also scourged her;

for she had fallen into such great fear as to say:

if they had brought forward their evil deeds against her as against one taken in adultery, they would have been scourges.

Let virtue, then, be to the saints as isinglass.

Let fire be brought against it, such as the burnings of shameful passion.

He did not know that the present is a burning, that is, he did not experience it; but the isinglass, being bodily, is consumed by the fire, and then the fire lays hold of the one who had been anointed and not harmed before.

But because virtue is fireproof, that which is as it were isinglass abides always, and the fire never has power against the one who possesses virtue.

'He made the Most High his refuge, and shall a scourge not draw near to his dwelling?' — We have found many who were scourged and died in the scourging.

If, then, we should say that the one scourged with the perceptible scourges does not feel their pains, there is no struggle.

This is no great thing, and anyone could endure it.

But 'they did not know,' even though the scourges were forcing them to be tested by them and to do something contrary to their will.

Behold, the examples of Susanna have been made plain; let that of Joseph also be taken.

As against an unchaste person the scourges were applied, and neither of them knew anything.

Naboth was plotted against and scourged as one who had blessed God — as the devil said, meaning 'blasphemed' — and he did not know it.

For did he forswear his piety toward God?

Is it not said by way of a figurative expression:

'He shall hide you from the scourge of the tongue'? What is the scourge of the tongue? — Do not take it in a perceptible sense.

It is a false word, a calumny.

So too the evil powers, since they lay hold rather of the scourges of the governing faculty of one who has been unguarded against them, are called 'scourges.'

And because these scourges are of such a kind, 'they gathered together.'

And to be gathered together is against some rational being.

'They were divided, and were not pricked in heart.'

Concord in evil things is a great vice; it is harmful.

Once, then, those who came from the east and came to the plain of Shinar, where also Nebuchadnezzar raised up his image, were of one accord.

And see that this is a bad thing.

And it is interpreted as 'a gnashing of teeth.'

But often 'teeth' are taken in place of 'words';

'The teeth of sinners, at any rate, he broke,' and surely we do not say that these mean the perceptible molars;

for such a thing has never been recorded.

'The molars of the lions the Lord shattered.'

He does not say these things concerning perceptible quadrupeds and wild beasts, but concerning men of such a sort.

Concord in evil things, therefore, is a most base thing.

But the scattering of these and their division is something good.

When men are of one mind, by the sparing mercy of God they were scattered — as, for instance, the Sadducees and Pharisees once conspired against Paul, when they even brought him into the barracks, and the tribune handed him over to them so that, forsooth, they might determine something concerning him.

But they were eager, having seized him, to do away with him.

And they themselves had requested that he be brought and stand upon the steps.

Perceiving that the one party was of the Sadducees and the other of the Pharisees, he said something that dissolved and split apart their concord:

'Concerning the resurrection of the dead I am being judged this day'; and they were divided, so that some said:

'He says nothing amiss'; but the pressing on —

if they had been pricked in heart as a result of this division, they would no longer have plotted against Paul.

They were not pricked in heart, then; they did not know the cause of the division.

And David too, at any rate, prays somewhere and says:

And divide their tongues.

For their tongues are then divided asunder, whenever they begin to say contradictory things while contending with one another.

This, at any rate, befell the elders in the case of Susanna as well.

Their tongues were divided: the first said one thing and the second said another.

Had they been pricked to compunction, they would have ceased from their accusation and would not have persisted in what they had asserted.

They were therefore split apart, but were not pricked to compunction.

He who split them apart did so that they might be pricked to compunction and repent.

But they themselves did not recognize the cause of their splitting apart and of their division.

The phrase 'they were not pricked to compunction'—it means they did not repent.

To be pricked to compunction is to set aside one's former reasoning and one's original disposition.

Take note, then: when Ahab came to a sense of the things that had passed, God says to Elijah:

'Did you see how Ahab was pricked to compunction? For he turned back weeping.'

And this change of his He called his compunction.

'That my glory may sing praise to you and I may not be pricked with remorse'—that is, I may not have cause to regret.

But in the case of others it happens that they are pricked with compunction over the things not rightly done.

They tested me, they mocked me with mockery.

Though they ought to have been pricked to compunction and cast off their anger against me, yet they even attacked, set upon, tested, and mocked me.

Nevertheless, even though they tested me, they did not find me such as they wished; I did not enter into temptation, I was not caught in the snares of their testing.

For by this too is that saying interpreted:

'Bring us not into temptation.'

They mocked me, they held me in contempt.

And again, standing firm with courage, I showed their mockery to be nothing.

They gnashed their teeth against me.

A man gnashes his teeth sometimes against another, and sometimes against himself, whenever he is filled with regret at having fallen into distress on account of what he has done.

'There shall be the weeping and the gnashing of teeth.'

For since they come to know that they are being punished on account of their own impieties and sins, being filled with regret they weep and gnash their teeth.

Wherefore 'he gnashed his teeth against me' is said concerning the devil, and concerning the wicked here as follows:

They gnashed their teeth against me.

Having failed of what they were bent upon, they gnashed their teeth, as having done evil in vain, or having fallen into the very trial of the things they meant to do, suffering what they wished to inflict upon another.

Must one, then, take 'the teeth' as referring to words? If it signifies regret and the anger of those who did not accomplish what they had set out to do, we take it thus: that 'they gnashed their teeth,' so that the gnashing of teeth signifies their regret—either regret, or the pain that came upon them through having failed of their aim.

But if you wish to understand 'the teeth' in another way, it is not from this literal text.

For it is often possible to derive a true contemplation, though not indeed from this particular text.

And on account of its being true, those who are unable to smooth out the meanings to fit the words accept it.

The teeth of the soul are often said to be its masticating faculties.

And with these masticating faculties, which break down the food fine, if one uses them fittingly, one eats the bread of life, the fruit of the tree of life, the flesh of Jesus.

But if one uses them ill, one eats the flesh of the dragon.

And the flesh of the dragon is godless doctrines; they are great sins.

For just as the body of Jesus is filled out from doctrines, as he says:

'Vainly puffed up by the striving of a fleshly mind, and not holding fast the Head, from whom the whole body, being fitted together, grows with the growth that is of God.'

He who has a fleshly mind—that is, he who receives things in a fleshly and sensible manner—has his mind vainly puffed up, being flesh, and does not hold fast the Head of the doctrines, does not hold fast the Savior himself, who is the Head of the doctrines.

And the great matters of what is spoken concerning God are the Head of such a body, from which the body, being fitted together through every joint and ligament, grows with the growth that is of God.

In this way, then, we too, whenever many discourses and many chapters have their reference to one thing, say that the discourse has been made into a body.

If we take it that they are the masticating faculties of the soul, we are indeed saying something true, but not to the point at hand.

But if you also take this—that certain persons sometimes use these masticating faculties treacherously, according to the saying:

'But if you bite and devour one another,' and:

'Those who devour Israel with open mouth'—these too carry with them punishment, and it can also be understood in this way, that:

They gnashed their teeth against me:

These teeth they gnashed, and on account of this they shall undergo the crushing of them:

'For you have broken the teeth of sinners.'

Lord, when will you look upon it? When will you visit, so as to restrain them and to set me outside their harms? For 'you will look upon' and 'you will see' we have often said signify long-suffering, the keeping silent for a time.

Lord, when will you look down? For if you look down, you will both benefit me by regarding me and having mercy on me, and you will set them outside their zeal for evil, so that neither shall I be harmed by them, nor shall they remain any longer in the beast-like malice which they still practice.

Restore my soul from their evil-doing.

He spoke of many foes pressing upon him and grievously afflicting him in many ways.

And from the very beginning of the psalm this is presented:

'Judge, O Lord, those who wrong me; make war on those who make war on me,' and what follows:

'And how long, O Lord, will you look on? They gnashed their teeth against me.'

'Scourges were gathered against me, and I knew it not.'

Set my soul outside their reach:

For this the term 'restoration' calls to mind.

No one who goes to a place where he has never been is said to be restored, but rather he who comes back from some homeland to another homeland, or from one place to another.

They wished to ensnare my soul, which is holy, and to subject it to corruption.

And it is then restored from the evil-doing of the wicked, when it suffers nothing at their hands, when it is not made like them.

Susanna was brought up in chastity and was exceedingly chaste, having been instructed according to the law of Moses.

As far as it lay with the elders who set upon her, she was convicted of adultery.

She too made her plea, saying:

'Restore my soul; lead it back into the same chastity, away from the evil-doing of these men.'

These same things will everyone say who is plotted against.

And the soul of the martyrs, too, was restored, having been tried in nothing.

That 'to be restored' signifies this, in one of the psalms he says:

'You are the one who restores my inheritance to me.'

According to this sense we say that the man was restored to Paradise, because an entrance was granted to him there, when the penitent heard:

'Today you shall be with me in Paradise.'

'Restore, then, my soul.'

They have done evil to such a degree that they have become like wild beasts against me.

'My only one from the lions.'

'Restore my only one from the lions.'

He calls his own soul his 'only one.'

He had it as an only one, he had it as the sole one.

'Since, therefore, it is an only one to me.'

God made man upright, and created it after his own image and likeness.

When it abides in that condition according to which it was created, it does not come to be outside itself; it does not go beyond itself.

Since, then, it is the person of the Saviour who says this, the soul which Jesus had belonged to no one else.

But our souls become the possession of those who prevail over us;

for by whatever a man is overcome, to that also he is enslaved.

And indeed it is possible to pass over from the true Lord to other masters, and from some to others, whenever discordant sins are committed;

for the one who has repented is restored from the wickedness of those who had wrapped it about into evil.

Since, therefore, the soul of Jesus was tempted in all things according to our likeness, yet without sin, it never belonged to any other than to him who took it up.

For this reason he calls it his own 'only one.'

But we must also explain 'my only one' in this way:

all souls become the Saviour's;

receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of souls.

Concerning salvation, then, is the prophet's inquiry and search.

Those, then, who receive salvation as the end of their faith belong to the Saviour;

for they are his members, and they all constitute his body.

But this one alone is his in a manner different from those others;

for he chose to have it as an instrument and a temple, that through it he might render forth his operations, and through it salvation.

So indeed, even when it came to be in Hades, it was not held fast there;

and the word 'only-begotten' often signifies 'sole.'

Now Aetius the Arian, the father of Eunomius, the one who cast him into the pit, used to say:

'How great a thing,' he says, 'do men bestow upon Christ when they grant that he is only-begotten of God!

For others too are only-begotten: the world is only-begotten, the sun, the earth.'

It is not the same thing to be called 'only-begotten,' and 'an only-begotten offspring,' and 'an only-begotten child.'

Jesus alone, therefore, is called the only-begotten Son;

'We beheld his glory, glory as of an only-begotten from the Father.'

And the only-begotten child from the Father is only-begotten.

'For God so loved his world as to give his only-begotten Son.'

He never called him simply 'only-begotten,' but 'only-begotten Son.'

'Because he has not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.'

If, then, some created thing were 'only,' as you say, only-begotten—but neither is any work only-begotten (for there are also other works of God)—it is not an only-begotten creature.

When, therefore, the holy one says:

'Look upon me and have mercy on me, for I am only-begotten and poor,' this means: 'I am alone.'

'I even was left alone, and they seek to take my soul from me'—he might be called 'only-begotten,' yet not 'son' or 'child.'

'My only one from the lions'—that is, from the cruel-hearted, from those who have been made savage against me.

'Deliver and redeem my soul, which is an only one to me;'

for this alone knew no sin, this alone was tempted in all things without sin.

How was it restored?—It did not come to be in sins, but, so far as regards the cruelty of those pressing upon it, it feared lest it should suffer this.

Now we speak from the person of the holy man.

And the examples are plain: that of Susanna and that of Joseph.

The devil himself also has his devices, sophistical designs, which only he and every earnest man is able to know.

'We are not ignorant of his designs.'

'His designs'—his stratagems, his very cunning schemes, his sophistical designs, by which he wishes to outgeneral us.

For to be seized with fear was altogether but a pre-passion.

But he wishes to be free even of the pre-passion;

for he did not say 'from my own wickedness.'

Into freedom from fear?—Not because he is now being terrified did he say:

'Restore me into freedom from fear, into a state of having no longer even a pre-passion.'

'I have a perception that I am troubled.'

'Restore, then, my soul.'

'...my [soul], and why do you trouble me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise him;'

he conversed with his own mind;

'Why are you cast down, and why do you trouble me? You have near at hand the one who can still the turmoil.'

As if one were to say to a man both fevered and enfeebled:

'Why do you lament so? A physician is at hand who is able to rid you of the fever.'

'Hope, then, in God, for I shall praise him.'

When it persuaded itself to hope in God, it was restored from the fear and the turmoil—which fear and which turmoil had arisen from the wickedness of evil powers and of the devil himself.

'My only one from the lions.'

These very evildoers he named 'lions'—those wishing to wage war, those setting upon him and coming against him like scourges.

Since it was tempted in all things without sin according to our likeness, we grant to it a pre-passion.

But the pre-passion is not sin;

for if you do not grant this, you introduce another substance of soul, and it has neither renown nor is it worthy of praises and crowns, having remained unshaken.

You have, at any rate, in the Gospel that:

He began to be greatly amazed and deeply distressed.

For is not this 'beginning' something other than the pre-passion?

This beginning is, in this very respect, a beginning only; it has nothing that follows upon it.

This alone, before the choice of evils, chose the good.

The essence of the rational being is receptive of those things which it is by nature fitted to receive.

It is receptive of anger, desire, grief, agitation, and fear.

Whenever something arises that stirs up fear, the rational essence is altogether agitated.

But sometimes it immediately checks the agitation, so that nothing follows upon it.

This they call a pre-passion.

Do you say that a man and a quality are the same thing? — If I say that a man has died, do I not mean the man of a certain quality, such as the just man?

The death of the just man is not necessarily the separation of the soul from the body, but the ceasing to be just.

Often, being ignorant of the false opinions of the impious, we fall into them.

And having fallen into those opinions, we lose the right opinion.

How can you say that I have not understood? I do not grant that he is just.

But if another should understand it as has been said, and grant that he is just, then the same man is both just and unjust.

Hear, then, why I spoke of another opinion, that of the followers of Protagoras — and Protagoras was a sophist:

He says that for existing things being consists in appearing.

I appear to you who are present as sitting;

but to one who is absent I do not appear as sitting;

it is uncertain whether I am sitting or not sitting.

And they say that all existing things consist in appearing:

for instance, I see the moon, but another does not see it;

it is uncertain whether it exists or does not exist.

To me who am healthy there comes the perception that honey is sweet, but to another, if he is feverish, that it is bitter;

it is therefore uncertain whether it is bitter or sweet.

And in this way they wish to lay down as doctrine the impossibility of apprehension.

If, then, we too should say that:

since it does not appear so to me — by whatever reasoning he has spoken — I regard him as unjust and impious;

while if it appears so to another — by whatever reasoning he has spoken — he appears to that man to be just and pious.

And yet another, again, does not even attend to what has been said by him;

he is neither pious nor impious, and so we fall into the opinion of Protagoras.

One must first understand the matters, and only so either pass judgment or not pass judgment.

He who has said that a man neither speaks rightly nor is of sound mind — what meaning of the words does he assign? For indeed:

How then does Job speak? — If I should say:

Let the day perish on which I was born; let that begetting be destroyed;

for I have come from a better state into a worse.

For it is profitable to someone that the evil should perish.

It is as when Jeremiah speaks concerning the people of the Hebrews — and each of the Hebrews taken captive would also say:

Let the day of the captivity perish — he does not mean this, that:

Let that day, he says, not be; let it depart;

for does it still subsist? He was a hundred and forty-eight years old when he said these things.

How could that day on which he was born still remain? For it passes away and cannot be brought back.

For does anyone pray that that day, which came to pass so many years ago, should come round again? He therefore curses the begetting of the flesh, the begetting of this perishable life.

Does he then not sin? — He who reviles Satan does not sin.