約伯倫理 第 187 章

Neither David's nor Jeremiah's imprecations are to be taken according to the letter. — But if we first examine other curses in the sacred word, we shall more subtly trace out this which was uttered by the mouth of blessed Job. For what is it that David, who to those repaying him evil rendered not evil, when Saul and Jonathan fell in battle, cursed the mountains of Gilboa, saying: 'Ye mountains of Gilboa, let neither dew nor rain come upon you, neither let there be fields of firstfruits, for there was cast away the shield of Saul, as though he had not been anointed with oil' (2 Sam. 1:21)? What is it that Jeremiah, when he saw his preaching hindered by the hardness of his hearers, curses, saying: 'Cursed be the man that told my father, saying:

A man-child is born to thee' (Jer. 20:15)? What then did the mountains of Gilboa transgress by the dying of Saul, that upon them neither dew nor rain should fall, and that the word of the sentence should dry them of every sprouting shoot of greenness? But because Gilboa is interpreted 'a flowing down,' and by Saul the anointed and dead the death of our Mediator is expressed, not without cause are the proud hearts of the Jews signified by the mountains of Gilboa, which, while they flow down into the desires of this world, mingled themselves in the death of Christ, that is, of the Anointed. And because in them the anointed king dies bodily, they themselves are dried of all the dew of grace. Of whom it is also well said: 'That they may not be able to be fields of firstfruits.'

For the proud minds of the Hebrews bear no first fruits, because, at the coming of the Redeemer, remaining for the greatest part in perfidy, they refused to follow the beginnings of faith. For holy Church, made fruitful in her firstfruits by the multitude of the Gentiles, will scarcely at the world's end receive those Jews whom she shall find; and gathering the last, she will set them as it were the remnants of the harvest. Of which remnants indeed Isaiah says: 'Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved' (Isa. 10:22 acc. LXX; Rom. 9:27).

Yet the mountains of Gilboa can for this reason be cursed by the mouth of the prophet, that while, with the earth withering, no fruit springs up, the possessors of the land may be smitten with the loss of barrenness, so that they themselves receive the sentence of cursing, who by their own iniquity demanding it had deserved to receive among themselves the death of their king. But what is it that from the Prophet a sentence of cursing was received by that man who announced Jeremiah's nativity to his father? This indeed is so much the fuller of a greater inner mystery, as outwardly it is void of human reason. For if something outwardly rational had perchance sounded forth, it would by no means kindle us to the study of the inner understanding.

Therefore it intimates something to us the more fully within, the more it displays nothing rational without. For if the prophet came forth from his mother's womb to be afflicted in this world, what did the messenger of his birth transgress? But what is signified by the person of the wavering prophet, save the mutability of the human race, coming by the desert of its punishment? And what by his father, save this world out of which we are born, is expressed? And who is that man who announces our birth to the father, save the ancient enemy, who, when he considers us wavering in our thoughts, incites the minds of the wicked, who are pre-eminent by the authority of this world, to the persuasion of our deceiving;

and when he has beheld us doing weak things, extols them with praises as though they were strong, and speaks of us as of male children born, when he congratulates himself that we have stood forth as corrupters of truth through falsehood? Therefore he announces to the father that a male is born, when he demonstrates to this world one whom he has persuaded to become a corrupter of innocence. For when it is said to any sinner and proud man, 'Thou hast done like a man,' what else is meant but that a male is born in the world? Rightly, therefore, is the man cursed who announces that a male is born, because by his very announcement the reprobate joy of our corrupter is indicated.

By these curses of holy Scripture, therefore, we learn what we should inquire into in the voice of cursing in blessed Job, lest the reader, not understanding, should presume to refute the words of him whom God rewards after his wounds and words. Since therefore we have in some measure distinguished these things which were to be searched out in the preface, let us now, expounding the words of the history, pursue them.