約伯倫理 第 717 章

Verse 14. — 'His bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within.' — The glory in which the hypocrite delights is turned into the gall of asps. — What bread is in the belly, this is the satiety of temporal delight in the mind. Let the hypocrite therefore now be satiated with the praise heaped upon him, let him delight in honours; his bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within, because the satiety of transitory delight shall be turned into bitterness at the end of retribution; and that which here was believed to be the praise of glory is recognized to have been the gall of asps, that is, the persuasion of malignant spirits. For then the wicked see that they were infected with the venom of the ancient serpent, when, delivered up to avenging flames, they are tormented together with that same persuader of theirs.

This bread therefore tastes one thing in the mouth, but another in the belly, because the gladness of transitory delight is sweet when it is here as it were dealt with by chewing; but it grows bitter in the belly, because the gladness, once finished, is swallowed down unto punishment. [Old Version VI.] — The hypocrite desires to be instructed in the mysteries of Sacred Scripture, not that he may live by them, but that he may be exalted. — Or certainly, because by 'bread' the understanding of Sacred Scripture is not unfittingly taken — which refreshes the mind and furnishes it with the strength for good work — and the hypocrite very often is zealous even to be instructed in the mysteries of the sacred discourse; yet not that he may live by them, but that he may appear to other men how learned he is;

his bread in his belly shall be turned into the gall of asps within, because, while he glories in the knowledge of the sacred law, he turns the draught of life into for himself a draught of poison; and thence the reprobate dies, whence he seemed to be instructed unto life. Nor is this unfittingly taken, that sometimes the hypocrite, while he is zealous for the word of doctrine unto display, being blinded by the divine judgment, wrongly understands that very word which he wickedly seeks. But when he falls into the error of heresy, it happens to him that, as if by the gall of asps, so the unhappy man dies of bread; and he finds death in his own doctrine, because in the words of life he in no way sought life.

But it often comes to pass that, even if the hypocrite rightly understands the words of divine admonition, because he in no way keeps them in his work, he loses these also before he finishes the course of his present life, so that he loses to know what by knowing he was unwilling to do. Whence it is also added: