約伯倫理 第 729 章

Verse 24.—He shall flee from weapons of iron, and shall rush upon a bow of brass. 30. Avarice, guarding against temporal want, is condemned to perpetual and eternal torments.—It is to be known that avarice sometimes creeps in through pride, but sometimes through fear. For there are some who, while they long to appear more powerful, are inflamed to the coveting of others' goods. And there are some who, while they fear that the necessaries of support are lacking to them, relax the mind to avarice, and covet the goods of others, since they suspect that their own cannot suffice them. But all necessity is not unfitly called iron, because it tortures the life of the needy with the wound of grief, as it is written also of the necessities of him who, sold by his brethren, led an afflicted life:

«Iron passed through his soul» (Ps. 104:18). What then are weapons of iron, but the necessities of the present life, which press hard and pursue the life of the needy man? Rust indeed consumes iron, but brass is wont to be more difficult to consume. By iron therefore is figured present necessity, which is transitory, but by brass the eternal sentence. And because the judgment from on high is not heeded by the mind of the wicked, it is justly compared to a bow, since it smites as if from an ambush, while he who is smitten heeds it not. He shall flee therefore from weapons of iron, and shall rush upon a bow of brass, because while, fearing present necessities, he snatches many things through avarice, he sets himself before the rigorous strokes of the final judgment.

And when he flees from weapons of iron, he is found by the arrows of the brazen bow, because, foolishly guarding against temporal evils, he is smitten by the eternal sentence. For he who here flees the hardness of want with guilt, there finds the perpetuity of just retribution. [Old Div. XIII.] But before he is snatched to judgment, it is further shown what this wicked man here longs for. It follows: