Homilies on the Psalms

Homilies on the Psalms

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Homily 59, on Psalm 149

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Presbyteri Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos, Anecdota Maredsolana III (Maredsoli, 1897) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). Psalm 149 has been read, which has at its beginning: Sing to the Lord a new song. The holy presbyter has said that both the ninety-fifth psalm and the ninety-seventh have the same beginnings. The ninety-fifth psalm is headed with this title: A Psalm of David, when the house was being built after the captivity. The house of Christ is built after the captivity, that is, after repentance. Since, therefore, he said in the first one, Sing to the Lord a new song, so that a new people might sing a new song — and he put it well — let us run through the rest. Let Israel rejoice in him who made him. Let that man rejoice who sees God with the mind: for Israel is interpreted as "one seeing God with the mind." And let the sons of Zion exult in their king. Let the sons of the Church, the sons of the new people, exult in their king: in Christ, who reigns over them. You see how lightly we touch upon each of the highest points.

2 Let them praise his name in the choir. Wherever there is a choir, there diverse voices are gathered together into one song. For just as diverse strings produce the one sound of a song, so also diverse voices — that is, when they have been gathered together at once — make the choir of the Lord. Let them praise his name in the choir: where there is dissension, where there is envy, there is no choir. Let them praise his name in the choir: let them sing praise to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. Let this choir have a song, and have a timbrel and a psaltery. Let us crucify our bodies to Christ, and with such a timbrel let us sing to God. Let them sing praise to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. A timbrel does not have flesh, but a skin: and we, as long as we are fleshly, are not a timbrel. It is not a timbrel unless it has no flesh, unless it is stretched taut: a timbrel cannot be shrunken, but stretched out. And let sins not shrink us up, but let righteousness stretch us wide. Let us run through the rest. Let them sing praise to him on the timbrel and the psaltery. What we say in the choir, let us say this on the psaltery. The psaltery properly is a kind of musical instrument, which is like a lyre. It has a resemblance to a lyre, but it is not a lyre.

3 Between the psaltery and the lyre there is this difference: the lyre is struck below, whereas the psaltery is struck above, which in the common word is called polyphthongon (many-toned). This, then, is the psaltery. Here, therefore, it is enjoined upon us that in the new song we should not sing to the Lord from below on the lyre, but from above, that is, on the psaltery. For the Lord is well pleased with his people, and he will exalt the meek in salvation. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall possess the earth. If, therefore, it is said there, Blessed are the meek — that is, the gentle — for they shall possess the earth; and here it is said, And he will exalt the meek in salvation; and these meek shall possess the earth by inheritance: therefore this earth is not below, but is above. For what does he say? He will exalt the meek in salvation. For if these meek were to possess the earth that is below, he would not say, He will exalt.

4 The saints shall exult in glory. In what glory? "Arise, my glory; arise, psaltery and lyre: I will arise at dawn." In glory. "For the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" — that is, he had not yet been crucified. Scripture says this, The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not been glorified, that is, he had not been crucified. The saints shall exult in glory. Why do I say all this? Because it is said, The saints shall exult in glory. This, then, is what I say: the saints shall exult in the cross. "But far be it from me to glory, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ." Behold, in the voice of the apostle the prophecy is fulfilled. Let the saints exult in glory. Let them rejoice in their beds. "I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will drench my couch." That belongs to the sinner, that belongs to the penitent; but this which is said, They shall rejoice in their beds, pertains to the saints, pertains to the just. Which of us rejoices in his bed? Who does not fight with his own flesh? When I have lain awake on my little bed, I do not rejoice, but I fight: I do not sigh for the kingdom of heaven, but I fight with the flesh. The burning of the flesh I drench with tears, and I quench it. For this reason it is said, I will wash my bed every night; with my tears I will drench my couch. My little bed, which burns with lust, is quenched with tears. Happy are those of whom it is said, They shall rejoice in their beds.

5 The exaltations of God are in their throat. Surely he who cries out does not cry out in the throat, but on the lips: that is, he does not cry out in the throat, but cries out on the lips. And how does he say here, The exaltations of God are in their throat? "Crying out in our hearts, Abba, Father." The voice that cries out to God is not of the lips, but is of the heart. Finally, the Lord says to Moses: "Why do you cry out to me?" And certainly Moses had said nothing. And two-edged swords are in their hands. These who exult in their beds — it is said of the saints, it is said of perfect men — what else do they have? And two-edged swords are in their hands. Two-edged swords. The swords of the saints are two-edged. We read in the Apocalypse of John, which is read in the churches and is received — for it is not held among the apocryphal scriptures, but among the ecclesiastical — it is said there, then, of the Lord Savior: "And a sword, he says, sharp on both sides went forth from his mouth." You see, therefore, that these saints received those two-edged swords, which they have in their hands, from the mouth of the Lord. The Lord, therefore, gives a sword from his mouth to his disciples: a two-edged sword, that is, the word of his teaching. A two-edged sword: both according to history and according to allegory, both according to the letter and according to the spirit. A two-edged sword: which both kills adversaries and defends its own. A two-edged sword. This two-edged sword has two edges: it speaks both of the present age and of the age to come: and here it kills adversaries, and in heaven it opens the kingdoms of heaven. Why do the saints have these swords?

6 To execute, he says, vengeance upon the nations. Oh, if only I too might have that two-edged sword, that I might execute vengeance upon the nations, that I might slay the various peoples, that I might slay Arius, that I might slay Eunomius, that I might slay Manichaeus, that I might slay all the heresies! And see what he says, To execute vengeance upon the nations. That they may be killed? that they may perish? He does not say this. Rebukes among the peoples. Rebuke, that the peoples may be saved, that those who have been led astray by evil teachers may be saved. But the peoples cannot be set free unless the teachers have been bound. Whence it follows: 7 To bind their kings in fetters. Do you wish the peoples to be set free? bind the teachers. To bind the kings. He did not call them teachers, but kings: for they reign by the miseries of those people. To bind their kings in fetters. He put it well, in fetters: lest the teachers should run about too much, lest they deceive many, but let them be bound and stand still. And their nobles in iron chains. Their nobles. You may see them saying among the heretics: This man is learned, that one works signs, this one casts out demons. The saints of the Lord, who have the two-edged swords — that is, of two edges, both of the Old and of the New Testament — bind those teachers, and shackle their feet, so that they cannot run. And their nobles in iron chains. They bind, they do not kill; they do not slay, but they bind. They fetter the hands, and lead them captive to the Church in iron chains. These chains are made only from the testimonies of the scriptures, when I join testimony to testimony. If you wish that these chains not be broken, let them not be single, but woven together from this side and that. "A threefold cord is not broken." But why is all this done?

8 That they may execute upon them the judgment that is written. What is the judgment that is written? That those who at first had denied God may afterward return through repentance. The judgment that is written: that they may loose their captives, that those whom they had bound, those whom they had led bound out of the Church, they may afterward set free in the Church. That they may execute upon them the judgment that is written. I speak in simpler words. That they may execute upon them the judgment that is written: that is, that they may so judge them as it has been set forth in the holy scriptures. This is the glory for all his saints. Truly it is not glory where there is gold, where there is silver, where there are jewels, where there are silken garments. Whoever has these swords, what else does he need? See what he says, This is the glory for all his saints. Let us ask the Lord that we may have this glory: that a sword going forth from the mouth of our Savior may arm our hands, and that we may be able to say: "Blessed be the Lord my God, who teaches my hands for the fight, and my fingers for the war." He who has this broadsword does not fear the sword of the world. He who has this sword does not fear the sword of the world. I tell you a new thing. Frequently the sword of this world grants that sword: frequently it happens that the sword of the world bestows that sword upon us. For if we do not fear this one, we receive that one. Let us therefore give thanks to him who has this sword, and let us bless him for ever and ever. Amen.

Homily 60, on Psalm 10 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). 2 What the phrase "unto the end" signifies — for which Symmachus rendered ἐπινίκιον (a song of victory), while Aquila and the sixth edition rendered τῷ νικοποιῷ (to the giver of victory) — has been discussed more fully above. Now let us return to the order of the tenth psalm: a number which is both an end and a beginning, in which every reckoning is rolled around, and to which the decalogue also — that is, the first law — is owed. The just man too, on account of the Lord's money doubled in the Gospel, received cities of this number to govern. And, to bring in something rather curious: from this the name of Jesus, that is, of the Savior, begins, and that ineffable name of four letters among the Hebrews takes its start from here, being written with ioth, he, vau, he; into which, through its tens, the hundredth number unrolls, and again the thousandth grows through ten hundreds, and as far as human reason can proceed, always this number is both an end and a beginning, according to that sense: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. In the Lord I trust; how do you say to my soul: Flee away to the mountains like a sparrow? Those who eat the raw flesh of the lamb and follow the letter that kills would have this psalm understood of the person of David, when he fled from the face of Saul and was compelled to dwell in the deserts of Judah.

3 And they say that it is spoken by him thus: Although Saul and all his army do not permit me to dwell in my homeland, and I flit or run to and fro, here and there, wandering and roving after the manner of birds and beasts, yet I have God as my protector, in whom trusting I shall not fear your snares. And in truth, if only the beginning be read, their exposition does not appear frivolous. But what follows — "For they have destroyed the things which you have perfected" — and the rest down to the end does not agree with this exposition. Therefore the spiritual man, who judges all things and is himself judged by no one, says that this psalm was sung by our Lord and Savior according to a twofold understanding: either he was speaking to the angels who ministered to him, or to the adverse powers, which desired to mock and terrify him. If to the angels, this is the sense: Why do you exhort me to return to heavenly things, and, leaving behind earthly and lowly things, to dwell in my mountains, because of the snares of the devil and all his army, which you behold stirred up against me? Why do you wish that I take up the wings of my deity, and desert human converse, and dwell secure in the heavens, when I have come for this purpose: that in the Lord — that is, having confidence in my own divinity — I may overcome my exulting adversaries?

4 But if his speech is to the adverse powers, it is to be understood thus: In vain do you think that I am to be terrified by your voices and by the wedge of battle drawn up against me, since I have come for this purpose: that I may fight, and by fighting overcome — as is also shown by the very title of the psalm, according to Aquila and Symmachus. Furthermore, another (since this psalm has nothing so special that it cannot also be understood under the person of any just man) will indeed accept the holy intention of those who refer the psalm to Christ, but will also assert that the whole context can be understood from the person of the prophet — that is, of the just man. In the Lord I trust; how do you say to my soul: Flee away to the mountains like a sparrow? The crafty adversary both tempted the Lord and Savior in the wilderness, and wishes all the saints to depart from the land of Judah and to dwell in the desert of the virtues, that there he may more easily strike them down. But even his very counsel is deceitful: for he does not exhort that one take the wings of the dove — a bird gentle, simple, and domestic, said to lack gall, and which is offered for the Lord in the temple — but the wings of a sparrow, a bird chattering and roving, which after the rearing of its young knows nothing of the fidelity of wedlock;

5 although Aquila and Symmachus rendered "bird" generally in place of "sparrow. By the mountains, however, we can understand those of which it is said in another place, "Draw near to the eternal mountains," and in the second psalm of the steps, "I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains from whence help shall come to me": and to which, after the abomination of desolation shall stand in the holy place, we ought to migrate. For behold, the sinners have bent the bow, they have prepared their arrows in the quiver, that they may shoot in the dark the upright of heart. For which it is written in the Hebrew, "For behold, the impious have bent the bow, they have set the arrow upon the string, that they may strike in the dark the upright of heart. Therefore, he says, you wish me to migrate to the mountains, because the sinners, or the impious, burning, have prepared arrows, which must be repelled with the shield of faith. And in their quivers they have darts to strike the just, not in the day, not in the faintly-lit night, when the darkness is tempered by the solace of the moon, but when the night is full, and the darkness is palpable — that is, ψηλαφητὸν σκότος (touchable darkness, psēlaphēton skotos). Know that for this very reason I do not heed your counsels: because the adversaries are prepared for battle, and desire to wound not so much me, whom they cannot overcome, as my just ones;

6 and since I have come from heaven for their salvation, I ought not to leave them orphans. For behold, as you say, they have set their arrow upon the string, and they wish to capture my boys, the sons of my ripening youth, my little young men, with the sweet enticements of pleasures. For all the strength of the devil is in the loin: for which cause also, when Jacob wrestled with me in the struggle, I made his γλαφυρόν (sinew, glaphyron) wither — that is, dry up. Since, therefore, they wish to strike the upright of heart in the darkness, let my just man speak and say: "Your word is a lamp to my feet, O Lord, and a light to my paths. But I, standing in the battle-line and placed in array, do not forsake the contest once begun, especially when you say that they have bent the bow, prepared arrows in the quiver, wish to wound my saints in the darkness, and yet have not yet been able to strike. For they have bent the bow, they have prepared arrows in the quiver, that they may shoot in the dark the upright of heart. Since, then, they are thus prepared, I will set myself in the midst, I will receive their arrows, that my servants may not grieve at my grief, may be healed by my wounds, may not suffer while I suffer, and may say: "O Lord, you have crowned us as with a shield of your good will. But it can also be understood otherwise:

7 that the heretical or adverse powers, through the dogmas of the heretics, have aimed their blasphemies, and desire to deceive my just ones with varied fraud. For they are archers who, through the occasion of their darkness — which they understand as hidden mysteries — wish to strike the upright hearts of the just. Therefore I and my saints must migrate to the sublime testimonies of the Scriptures, as it is also written in the Gospel: "If he strike you on the right cheek, offer him the other also. He does not say, offer him the left, but the other — that is, the other right — because the just man has nothing left-handed in himself. If, he says, he confounds you in one testimony of the Scriptures, do you overcome him from another, and fulfill that which is written in another psalm: "Deep calls to deep at the voice of your cataracts": so that each Testament may be a defense to the other in turn, and in such a way the snare of the heretics may be broken by the opposing of the other right hand, and by migration to the mountains, and by the calling of deep to deep. For they have destroyed the things which you have perfected. And this too those who above still speak either to any just man or to the Lord: Therefore you must return to the heavenly things, because both the adversaries are so bravely prepared for the fight, and whatever you build up, they demolish.

8 For daily they undermine your precepts and the law written in the hearts of believers, and by persuading diverse things they overturn them. But what did the just man do? This is understood in various ways. Either concerning the person of the just man, in this manner: While they strive to destroy the laws of God, the just man has done nothing worthy of ruin, and in vain suffers their snares; or certainly, while they oppose and attempt to destroy God's commandments, the just man does this one thing only: that he implore the help of him who dwells in his holy temple, whose throne is in heaven, and whose eyes look upon the poor man, that he may rescue him from the snares prepared. But concerning the person of God in this manner: Although the adversaries are prepared for battle, and lie in wait in secret like a lion in his den, that in hidden places they may kill the innocent and destroy the temple of God, yet the Lord dwells in his holy temple, and never is either temple or throne wanting to him, because as some fall others rise. Whence in what follows it is written: The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's seat is in heaven. By the seat — that is, the throne of God — let us, according to the custom of the Scriptures, understand the kingdom, as in that place: "God shall give him the throne of David his father. And elsewhere: "With justice is the throne of dominion prepared. And:

9 "When a just king shall sit upon the throne. The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's seat is in heaven. Before the bodily temple was built by Solomon, the prophet knows the spiritual temple of the Lord and his throne in heaven. Whereupon it is asked, how it is said elsewhere, "Heaven is my throne. When the throne of the Lord is in heaven, his throne is encompassed by heaven, and the throne of the Lord is in a part of heaven; when heaven is the throne of the Lord, the whole heaven is turned into the throne of the Lord. From which, according to the ἀναγωγήν (higher spiritual sense, anagōgē), the Lord dwelling in his holy temple — that is, in the soul of the believer — dwells either in a part of it or in the whole. When we are still imperfect, and there is in us both something good and something evil, God dwells only in a part of our soul, that is, in heaven. But when we are consummate and perfect, we are wholly turned into a dwelling-place of God, and we are made heaven, his throne. But the temple of God, properly, is understood either as our Lord and Savior, who says, "I am in the Father and the Father in me": or as that man who was assumed by the Savior, or generally the Church, or specially each one of the saints. His eyes look upon the poor man, his eyelids question the sons of men.

10 Against those who understand the wrath and fury of God simply, let us set forth the eyelids and eyes of the Lord. For if they understand those things ἀνθρωποπαθῶς (after the manner of human passions, anthrōpopathōs), they will be compelled to take these things likewise. But if it is absurd to place eyes and eyelids in the almighty Lord, they will equally be compelled to seek some spiritual interpretation for wrath also and fury. For it is exceedingly unfitting not to understand both those and these alike, either spiritually or carnally. Whence in this place it is to be perceived that the just man does not dread the assault of the adversaries, having God as his helper, who beholds and sees all things, and does not permit his poor man to be deceived by their frauds and wounded by their darts. The poor man: that one of whom it is said above, "To you the poor man is left. And at the same time it is to be observed, that God opens his eyes, bringing an open judgment, to the lowly with help, though he be one and poor, and always watches over him with his regard. But where he is judge, and those who are judged are sons of men (for they do not deserve to be called sons of God), there he does not look with his eyes, but examines with his eyelids, in a manner half-closing them and dissembling, and unwilling to know what he knows. "For if you, Lord, will mark iniquity, who shall endure?

11 Varro relates that eyelids (palpebrae) are so called from the fact that they move and quiver (palpitent), that is, ὀνοματοποιῶς (by onomatopoeia, onomatopoiōs). The Lord questions the just and the impious: but he who loves iniquity hates his own soul. For which it is better written in the Hebrew: "The Lord tests the just, but the impious and the one who loves iniquity — his soul hates him. So that the sense is joined with the foregoing: In vain are the adversaries prepared, that they may shoot in the dark the upright of heart, and so on; because the Lord is a just judge, and nothing can be hidden from him, and he does both: that he both prove his just ones by tempting them, and hate those who are impious. The impious and the one who loves iniquity — his soul hates him: that is, he hates them with his whole heart and his whole soul. But let us understand "soul" in accordance with the eyes and eyelids, according to that: "My soul hates your new moons and feast days and sabbaths. Furthermore, according to those who say, with the Septuagint, The Lord questions the just and the impious, the sense is far different: that he himself is the judge of the just and the impious, and that the impious are to be judged in this, that by loving iniquity they hate their own soul. And in a certain way the last part of a syllogism is knit together, which is called the conclusion.

12 For although a man may deny that he hates his own soul, yet from the fact that he loves iniquity, he is convicted of hating it. As Solomon also says in the Proverbs: "He who rejects discipline hates himself. But if he who loves iniquity hates his own soul, contrariwise he who loves justice loves his own soul, according to that: "He who possesses prudence loves himself. Whence also the Savior says: "He who loves me keeps my commandments. For he himself is justice. Nor indeed is it to be thought, according to the Septuagint interpreters, that something contrary is now said — The Lord questions the just and the impious — to that which is written in the first psalm, "Therefore the impious shall not rise again in the judgment": because just as there is a difference among the just, so also among the impious; and just as the just, differing among themselves, possess mansions, so also the impious who are perfect in malice and iniquity and who fight with their whole mind against the Lord shall not rise again in the judgment; but other impious ones, who are sometimes understood as sinners, because they are of lesser malice, are reserved for God's judgment. He shall rain snares upon sinners.

13 There is no doubt but that the Lord does this even for the sake of the sinners themselves, so that those who were badly abusing their liberty, being ensnared in the Lord's snares, may walk in the right path as if under his bridle, and may be able to advance through him who says, "I am the way. Whence also fishermen are sent, and hunters, in Jeremiah, that they may hold with their nets the fish that wander and toss about in the depths, and may capture unto salvation the beasts straying about on all the mountains and hills. Therefore it is not, as many suppose, punishments that are promised to sinners from this little verse and from those that follow, but remedies. Fire, brimstone, and the spirit of storms is the portion of their cup. It is said to Babylon: "You have coals of fire, you shall sit upon them, and they shall be for a help to you. The brimstone rouses the fire of these coals into a flame; which flame is fanned by the rushing wind, by the whirlwind of the tempest, so that whatever is filthy in our gold, and whatever — according to the prophecy of Ezekiel — consuming the silver in us, the bronze, the tin, and the lead, may reduce us into gold. Whence also it is written in Isaiah: "The Lord shall wash away the filth of the sons and daughters of Zion, and shall cleanse the blood from their midst by the spirit of judgment and the spirit of burning.

14 And in Malachi: "Behold, the Lord enters in like the fire of the smelting-furnace and like the herb of the fullers, and he shall sit smelting his people like gold and silver. The cup of sinners is full of fire, brimstone, and the spirit of tempest. "A cup of pure wine full of mixture," from which "all the sinners of the earth shall drink. I judge that from this cup of fire and brimstone Sodom had drunk, and therefore it is prophesied concerning her through Ezekiel: "Sodom shall be restored to her former state. And in the Gospel: "It shall be more tolerable for the land of the Sodomites. "For the Lord will not take vengeance twice upon the same thing. Whence also Lazarus, who had received his sins in his lifetime, and had drunk the cup of the Lord's fury, in the bosom of Abraham drinks that cup of which it is written: "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. Jerusalem too had drunk the cup of punishments for her remedy; whence it is said to her: "Rise up, rise up, Jerusalem, you who have drunk the cup of ruin, the goblet of fury. And Jeremiah received this same cup of pure wine from the hand of the Lord, that he might give it to Jerusalem to drink, and to all the nations round about; who, drinking, vomit, and fall down, and, their pride broken, are laid low in repentance. For the Lord is just and has loved justices;

15 his countenance has beheld equity. For which the Hebrew has: "For the Lord is just and loves justice; their faces shall behold equity. The Lord, he says, is just for the causes stated above: because he both, leaving the just man in the present age to temptations, does not punish but proves him, and his soul hates the impious man who loves injustice. For it is one thing to sin overcome by the necessity of the flesh, another to pass over into the disposition of the sinner. Whence also such men, whose heart is impenitent, the soul of God hates. And because he rains snares upon sinners, and gives them to drink the goblet of torments which they deserve, God himself, being just, loves justices. For just as there is one true God, even if there are many gods who are so called by participation in him, and there is one only-begotten Son of God, while others are called so by adoption; so also there is one true justice, as is written in the beginning of the Proverbs, but from communication of it the Lord loves many things called justices. But in that he says, His countenance — that is, God's — has beheld equity, so that the sense is, He judges the things that are right; in the Hebrew, according to that understanding, it is said:

16 Those very ones who shall be judged, both the just and the impious and sinners, shall behold the justice of God, and their faces shall contemplate the equity of the Lord, and they shall say, "You are just, O Lord, and your judgment is right."

Homily 61, on Psalm 15 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). 2 An inscription of a title, to David himself. In place of this the fifth edition put the Hebrew word itself, "MACTHAM David," which Aquila translated as "of the humble and simple David," and Symmachus as "of the humble and unstained David. And Aquila himself again, in the fifty-fifth psalm and in the rest as far as the fifty-ninth, rendered this very thing so as to say "of the humble and perfect David. From this we understand that one word signifies both "simple" and "unstained" and "perfect," yet in such a way that humility is always set before each of them; for among the Hebrews it is compounded of two whole words, so that, just as we say "almighty" (omnipotens), enclosing two words in one utterance, so also the word MACTHAM in the syllable which is called MAC shows humility without ambiguity, while in the following one which is called THAM it signifies the three things we mentioned above. Now there are six psalms, unless we are mistaken, which are headed by this title: the fifteenth psalm, and the fifty-fifth, and the fifty-sixth, and the fifty-seventh, and the fifty-eighth, and the fifty-ninth. All of these refer to the dispensation and passion of our Lord and Savior; and although in their headings they have among themselves certain things added, or removed, or varied, yet in this one phrase they agree, namely, in "the inscription of a title," which here stands alone by itself only in the fifteenth psalm.

3 For in the remaining five certain historical notices too are prefixed, so that the prophecy concerning the Lord Savior might be shown not only in word but also in deed. And I think there are six psalms containing this mystery and headed with such a title for this reason, that the Savior, crucified for all on the sixth day of the world, dying and rising again, left us this as it were the title of his victory; so that we may inscribe upon our hearts these psalms which are marked with these headings, and press into them the words of God, and that our minds may be mindful of the Lord's death; so that, just as Jacob made a monument for Rachel and it remains to this day, so we may mark in our heart the memorial and remembrance of his passion. Nor indeed let that be thought contrary to our exposition which the Lord commanded in the Law: "You shall not make for yourself a monument, things which the Lord your God hates"; but to the singular number "a monument" he joined a plural of the neuter gender, saying, "things which the Lord your God hates," that is, you shall not do such works as remain for your condemnation forever. For these things the Lord your God hates.

4 If perchance, through our negligence, he who oversows tares should erect such monuments in the land of promise, the clear-sighted ones (dioratikoi), namely the teachers, command the children of Israel to overthrow them and undermine them and banish them from the land that flows with milk and honey. Such a monument Absalom too built for himself, an empty tomb, which remains to this day for the disgrace and testimony of the parricide. Into such a monument Lot's wife too was turned, because she wished to look not at what lay ahead but behind her back. After this it is asked why the Seventy translators wished to translate otherwise than it stands in the Hebrew and in the other editions. This can be understood from many other passages too, but especially from the heading of the ninth psalm. For whereas among the Hebrews it is headed LAMANASSE ALMUTH LABEN, which Symmachus translates "the triumph of the youth of the son," but the fifth edition "the triumph of the flowering youth of the son," the Seventy translators, unwilling to disclose so openly to King Ptolemy and to the Gentiles the passion and resurrection of the Savior, translated "Unto the end, for the hidden things of the son"; and by the very title showing that certain hidden things lay concealed which they were unwilling to translate.

5 So now too, because humility, simplicity, spotlessness, and perfection pointed not to a man (for there is no one who would dare to head himself with such a title) but to the Son of God, therefore they chose to translate "stelographia" (stēlographian), that is, a thing worthy to be marked with an inscription; so that we might understand one thing shut up in the title, and another uttered aloud in the word. Now a title is also placed for brave men upon their tombs in memory of their former courage, and for those who fell for their fatherland, and wherever there are trophies and victories, and where public laws are inscribed. The interpretation of all of which is easier when applied to the person of the Lord Savior. Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in you; I said to the Lord: You are my God, for you have no need of my goods. If one apostle were to interpret this psalm, if two, the authority even of one and of two would be great. But now (a thing written of no other of the psalms) we have found concerning this in the Acts of the Apostles that Peter, together with the apostles of Christ—when Matthias had already been taken in as one of the twelve in place of Judas—expounding it lifted up his voice, and after many words said:

6 "Men and brethren, let it be permitted to speak boldly to you concerning the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is among us to this very day. Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn to him with an oath that from the fruit of his loins one would sit upon his throne, foreseeing this he spoke of the resurrection of Christ, that he was neither left in hell, nor did his flesh see corruption. This Jesus God has raised up, of which we all are witnesses. Since then all the apostles alike have referred this psalm to the Lord Savior, we, who wish to be Christians, must surely follow their opinion. And no wonder that he who was equal to God and humbled himself, taking the form of a servant, now speaks with the words of a servant. Hence in the very title he is inscribed as humble and simple and unstained and perfect; because he who needed no one's help humbled himself so far as to entreat the Lord on our behalf, on behalf of the Church, that is, on behalf of his own body. And in very truth it is great humility—for God to pray for men, for the Lord to pray for servants, for the Holy One to pray for sinners:

7 so that he not only says that he himself is clothed and given drink and visited in his servants, but even, when they have prayed and have been heard, confesses that he himself has prayed and been heard. Therefore, taking on a human body, he saw the hostile powers, he saw too the army of the devil, drawn up in a wedge-formation against him, doing battle; and therefore he now says: Preserve me, O Lord; for unless you preserve my body, the Church which hopes in you, they who guard her keep watch in vain. But what follows—"I said to the Lord, You are my God"—he directs his speech to the apostles and to the disciples and to us, if indeed we deserve to be disciples, teaching what he has said to the Lord of the universe. What, then, does he say he has spoken to the Lord? "You are my Lord": that is, you who are the Lord of all have become peculiarly mine, that is, the Lord of my own. He was the Lord of all even in the Old Testament, since he had created all things; but he became peculiarly the Lord of the saints, saying: "I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. As, then, you are theirs, so you are now especially my Lord, because you deign to be the Lord of my own. And the reason why he is his Lord is added: For you have no need of my goods.

8 For God almighty has no need of a man's goods, nor do our virtues contribute to God's advancement, since God receives no increase: but whatever we labor at and strive for, he receives and requires it of us for this reason, that he may restore to us what he has received. For that man too in the Gospel who from one mina had made ten minas not only received back what he had given, but was even granted the other mina, which another could not multiply. It is said also to Job: "What does it profit the Lord, if you make your way blameless? Other masters, however powerful they may be, cannot yet say to their servants, "We have no need of your works": for indeed they make full use of their service. But God alone is a Lord who needs the service of his servants only for this, that he may have occasion to give more. And at the same time we are taught that if the Savior prays for us (for he did indeed pray also for the apostles in the Gospel, and therefore permitted those whom he had earlier urged to keep watch to sleep), we surely ought all the more to pray for ourselves: because, although we run, yet without him we cannot arrive at our goal, according to the interpretation of Symmachus and of the fifth edition, who said "My good is not apart from you"; so that this translation may be referred to that saying:

9 "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain who build it. Unless the Lord guard the city, he keeps watch in vain who guards it. To the saints who are in his land, he made all his wishes wonderful in them. In place of which it is written in the Hebrew: "To the saints who are in the land, and to my exalted ones, is all my will in them. These goods of which you have no need, O Father, my saints do need—the saints in whom I have made all my wishes to be wonderful. But I made my wishes wonderful not outside them, but in them: so that, while each one is corrected, and understands both who he was before and who he has now begun to be, my wonderful wishes may be brought about in them; yet only if, going out from Egypt and crossing the desert, they are able to enter the land of promise, which land is the beginning of the land of the living. Nor is this at once contrary to it—that wonders are said to be done only in the land of God—namely that in the field of Tanis, that is, in Egypt, wonders were done. For there is a great distance between the wonders done by Moses and those done by Jesus. There one flees from Egypt, here one enters into Judea; there lord Pharaoh is avoided, here those who are to serve are taken captive;

10 there frogs and gnats and soot and hail and darkness are employed among the wonders, here command is given to the sun and to the moon; there God goes before the people in a pillar of cloud and of fire, here the Savior himself comes to meet them holding a sword and declaring that he will fight for his army. Do you see how the wonders that were in the land of promise are greater than those done in Egypt or in the desert? But we may understand the land of God as the Church, since to the saints who are in the Church all the wishes of God seem to be wonderful; for to those who are outside the Church nothing seems wonderful which by its own nature is wondrous. Let us therefore be in the land of God, and let us be transformed into the image of the Savior, and he will make all his wishes wonderful in us. Their infirmities have been multiplied; afterward they made haste. Whose infirmities have been multiplied? Surely those of the saints who above are recorded as being in the land of the Lord. When they were foolish, unbelieving, straying, and serving various desires and pleasures, passing their lives in greed and envy, their infirmities were being multiplied. But when they were washed and were sanctified and, turned to repentance, abandoned their past sins, then they made haste.

11 I have read in the Epistle of Barnabas (if anyone is pleased to accept testimony from it) that God chose apostles who were more wicked than every sin. And surely, if they were more worthless than all sinners, their infirmities were nonetheless being multiplied in them; but see how quickly they afterward withdrew from them. To Peter and to his brother Andrew it is said: "Come and follow me. Likewise to James and John, who leave both their father and the boat and the net. Matthew rises up from the tax-booth, and at once is an apostle. Zacchaeus comes down from the tree, and is holy. Paul, persecuting the Church, suddenly believes, is washed, teaches, is subjected to persecutions, is beheaded. What is swifter than this conversion? The people of the Gentiles too, before they were converted to the Lord and heard through Isaiah, "Drink this first, do it quickly," was in all infirmities—or, as Symmachus translated, "hardships," or, as more fittingly Theodotion and the fifth edition, "idols. But when the cults of idols had been multiplied, believing at the first word of the apostles, it was quickly converted to the Lord. Which indeed Aquila too, translating "diaponēmata" (laborious things), according to his custom signifies as idols. For in the Hebrew it says ASABOTH, the very same word that is placed also there: "The idols of the Gentiles are silver and gold. Further, in that he says "proikisamenōn," which the Seventy had rendered "they made haste," he seems to me to show a lofty meaning:

12 namely that the apostles, or the people of the Gentiles, after they were converted to the faith of Christ, and the Lord had forgiven them their sins (for this is what "proikisamenōn" means, that as by a "proikia"—that is, as a free gift—their vices were reversed), their "diaponēmata," that is, their pains, were increased in them, since they knew in how great a sea's waters they had been and from what an abyss they had been freed; according to that which is written in Ecclesiastes: "He who adds knowledge, adds sorrow. And Paul: "I who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God. But it can also be discussed otherwise, since "strength is made perfect in weakness"; and when an apostle is weaker, then he is stronger. We too, if we wish to come quickly to the Lord, ought to multiply our infirmities, so that, made weak in the flesh, we may be stronger in the spirit. I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods. Clearly he who speaks is the Savior. For who else could say, "I will not gather their assemblies out of bloods"? But "their"—understand it either of the nations or of the apostles. If of the nations, this will be the meaning: Although they are guilty of blood, and have perpetrated many crimes, yet because after their infirmities they hastened to me, their assemblies will be pure and utterly foreign to blood. If of the apostles, this will be the meaning:

13 They will by no means offer me victims as in the old Law, but there will be the spiritual religion of the New Testament. But according to a higher understanding, this must be said: That the Lord will abhor the man of bloods and the deceitful one; and the blood of the wicked is required from the hand of the watchman who has refused to preach the coming wrath of God; and whoever shall scandalize the least, he will slay him; and those whose hands are full of blood—it is certain that they cannot be gathered into the synagogues of the Lord, who must first be purged by the spirit of burning. As for "the synagogues of the Lord," let us understand either the churches in the present, or, as I think better, the various dwellings with the Father in the heavens, which he will not be able to enter who has been sprinkled with the gore of sins. Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips. The saints, whose infirmities have been multiplied, and whose assemblies I will not gather out of bloods, because they hastened to me—I will by no means call them by their former names, but by new ones: that is, after I have washed them in my fountain, I will not call them, as before, sons of men, but sons of God. Or otherwise: I will change, he says, their names, and out of Simon I will make Peter, because upon his rock my Church is founded;

14 out of the sons of Zebedee, sons of thunder, for I am about to entrust to them the sublime mysteries of my Gospel. And not only to these, but to Abraham too of old and to Sarah were their names changed; nor is it fitting that those whose life is different from their former manner of living should keep the same names. But another will interpret this—"Nor will I be mindful of their names through my lips"—thus: I will not name them lightly and as it were in passing, but I will hold them in the depth of my heart, I will keep them in my soul. So that, just as it is said to the unbelieving people, "This people honors me with its lips, but its heart is far from me," so, on the contrary, the Lord names his saints not with the lips only, but holds them with the inmost affection of his mind. The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup: it is you who will restore my inheritance to me. Our Savior in the Scriptures is called both high priest and king. High priest, in this: "You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. King, as in that place: "But I have been established as king by him over Zion, his holy mountain. According, then, to the fact that he is a priest, the Lord is his portion. For it is written in the Law:

15 "To the sons of Levi you shall not give an inheritance in the midst of the children of Israel, for I am their portion, says the Lord. Hence from Jesus they received no portion in the land of Judah, but were dispersed throughout the tribes, that prophecy being fulfilled: "I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel. But if the Levites had no portion except the Lord, how much more does this one who is high priest, and who dares to say "The Father abiding in me does his works," have the Father as his special and proper portion. But according to the fact that he is king, it is said to him: "Ask of me, and I will give you the nations as your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession. And note how elegantly the wording is measured in both cases. Of the Father it is said, "You are the portion of my inheritance. "You are," he says, not "you were": for the Son always remained in the Father, and the Father in the Son. But of the nations, "You," he says, "will restore to me my inheritance": for they ceased to be the Lord's inheritance when their infirmities were multiplied, and their assemblies were being gathered out of bloods. Although some think that the lower verse too should be referred to God the Father, so that the meaning is:

16 Because I emptied myself, taking the form of a servant, and came down from my majesty to the earth, restore to me my inheritance; that is, yourself, in whom I always was, and glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world was made. For you will not give me any new possession, but you will restore my inheritance, namely the divinity and nature of God, which I seemed not to have for the reason that I had taken the form of a man. Further, in that he says "and of my cup," it is doubtful to no one that in the Scriptures the cup is sometimes taken for a longed-for drink and joy, as in that place, "How excellent is your inebriating cup," and elsewhere, "I will take the cup of salvation, and I will call upon the name of the Lord. So that, just as our Savior is our food and drink (for indeed we feed on his flesh and drink of his blood), so of that man who was assumed by the Savior the food and cup is the Father, that is, the one common divinity with God the Father. The cords have fallen to me in excellent places: for indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. In place of that one people, I have possessed the whole world as my inheritance; and from the world, not just anyone, but the strong. For this is what "in excellent places" means, which in Greek is said "among the strong":

17 according to that, "The Lord is my strength and my refuge and my deliverer," and in another place, "The Lord is my strength and my praise. If, then, anyone is excellent and strong, he is of the Lord's inheritance. Hence that Theophilus, "friend" or "lover of God," because he was such as to request that a Gospel be written to him, is called "kratistos," that is, excellent, strong: which was more simply translated by the Latins as "most excellent Theophilus. Further, the measuring-cord is used in the division of fields, and wherever possessions are distributed, or a census of earthly revenues is conducted, land is divided, as also in Joshua the son of Nun. An angel holding a measuring-cord is shown to the prophet who is about to build Jerusalem, so that first of all he may measure the extent of the city by reason and order, and thereafter build up what has been measured. And in the canticle of Deuteronomy we read: "The Lord's portion became his people Jacob, the cord of his inheritance Israel. In the second book of Kingdoms too, when David overcame the Moabites, the Scripture records two cords set apart for putting to death, and two for keeping alive. But what it means that of the Moabites some are set apart for death, others for life, Orpah shows, and Ruth: of whom the one, turned back to the idols and to her ancient homeland, is destined for death;

18 the other, following her mother-in-law—whose name means "sweet"—says, "Your people is my people, and your God is my God. And so we too, if we wish to be of the Lord's inheritance and of his cord, let us be strong and robust, and let us say: "I can do all things in Christ who has strengthened me. Let there be nothing weak in us, nothing feeble, nothing that the heir would not deign to receive. Since indeed Christ glories in his saints, and says: For indeed my inheritance is excellent to me. Do you wish to know that the Savior's inheritance was excellent? Consider Peter, look at Paul, all the apostles and saints, since indeed they believed throughout the whole world, and you will see the inheritance of Christ, and an excellent one. In place of which Aquila translated: "For indeed my inheritance is most beautiful to me. So that it may be that which is said in the Song of Songs: "You are wholly beautiful, my love, and there is no spot in you. And again: "Behold, you are fair, my near one, behold, you are fair, your eyes are doves. You who are fair and strong, when you have become like him of whom it is sung, "In your beauty and your comeliness," you will hear from the Bridegroom: "Forget your people and your father's house, and the King will desire your beauty. I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding: moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me.

19 He who speaks below, "My flesh shall rest in hope, for you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption," consistently now too says: I will bless the Lord who has given me understanding, moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me. For he who is Wisdom, how does he receive understanding? But because "Jesus advanced in age and wisdom and grace before God and men," the Son was instructed not so much by the Father as the man was instructed by his own divinity. Hence too, concerning him who flowered from the root of Jesse, there is the prophet's oracle: "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding. Which indeed, for beating back the madness of the Arian heresy, Aquila and Theodotion translated better, saying: "I will bless the Lord my counselor"; so that the Father did not so much give the Son wisdom and understanding which he did not have before, as join his own counsel to the Son's judgment. So that, just as in Proverbs Wisdom says that she was a counselor to God when he rejoiced in the completed world, and she rejoiced in herself daily; so also that same Wisdom, in the fact that he assumed a human body, that he died and rose again, shows that he was not without the Father's counsel, but according to that saying, "That I might do your will, my God, I willed it.

20 But this too which follows, "Moreover even until night my reins have instructed me," must be taken thus, that we understand "reins" for hidden thoughts and deep affection, which is properly an idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures. For as far as is in my memory, neither in any of the philosophers nor among the rhetoricians, nor among the poets, nor even among the physicians themselves, who promise a knowledge of the nature of bodies, do I recall ever having read that "reins" are put for the understanding and for deep thought. But Scripture uses this custom, so that when it wishes to indicate something secret and hidden or mystical, it says, "God who searches hearts and reins"; so that, since the heart is secret, the reins are the more secret parts of the heart. In Wisdom too, which is inscribed with the title of Solomon, I have found written: "God is the witness of his reins, and the true beholder of his heart, and the hearer of his tongue. In the book of the Patriarchs too, although it is counted among the apocrypha, I found it thus, that as the gall was created for anger, so the reins for cleverness and for shrewdness. But "panourgia," that is, cleverness, may be taken either in a good or in a bad sense: in a good sense, according to Proverbs, "That he may give," it says, "shrewdness to the innocent, and to the younger boy sense and understanding";

21 in a bad sense, as in the apostle, "But I fear lest, as the serpent seduced Eve by his shrewdness, your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. What he says, then, is this: my instruction and deep thought and the inner affection of the heart was not only with me in the heavenly places, but even while I dwelt in the night of this world and in darkness, it was engaged with me in the man, and instructed me, and was never absent from me, so that whatever the weakness of the flesh could not do, divine thought and power might accomplish. Or at least thus: my reins instructed me, who possess the inner wisdom of divinity, by which I was taught, when the passion was imminent, not to yield to human frailty through the terror of the cross. Moreover, what else does this declare (since the Savior's life is our example) but that he, not only waking but even sleeping, was free from every sin, and remained pure from every phantasm of the flesh: so that the saints too, who desire to be like their Lord and Master, may guard their heart with all watchfulness, and be overcome not only when waking, but not even in sleep—that is, not only by day, but not even by night. This too must be noted, that he said, "Moreover even until night my reins have rebuked me":

22 to show that before night came, or before the Savior himself began to be in the night, he was always instructed by his own wisdom. There is another interpretation: because divine Scripture always speaks of God's powers after the likeness of human limbs—for example, when it says he has feet, eyes, ears, hands, and other things of this kind—that here "reins" should be taken for the places of the seed; so that, just as the beginning of men and the element of human flesh is founded in the seed, so our judgments too, and the beginnings of our thoughts, have their reins: so that, before we handle anything either in deed or in word, silent thought may hold this in its own movement and consider it within itself. So that the meaning is: our Lord and Savior could not sin—not only in deed and word, but not even in thought or in the beginnings of thoughts, which they call "propatheiai" (pre-passions)—he whom the Word of God was daily instructing. Not that God is one and the man another; but so that one and the same Son of Man and Son of God may now, as man, pray, now, as Lord, hear. I foresaw the Lord in my sight always: for he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. In place of what we read in Latin, "I foresaw," and what in Greek is written "proōrōmēn," it stands better in the Hebrew SEBETHI, which we may render "I set before myself. So that it means:

23 I set the Lord before me always at my right hand, and I could be overthrown by no fraud of my enemies. And at the same time consider that it is in our power to set the Lord before our eyes. He who is just and is like the Savior places God at his right hand, and says, "Because he is at my right hand, that I may not be moved. But he places him at the right hand for this reason, that he has before his eyes the one whom he follows as he goes before. But he who is a sinner casts the word of the Lord behind his back, and the Lord becomes for him at the left hand. And when the devil has looked at him on the left of the sinner, he at once moves to the sinner's right, so as to possess the place of God: and that is fulfilled which is written of Judas: "Let the devil stand at his right hand. Why this is put not as in narration but as in prayer belongs to another place to discuss. For the Lord Savior, then, or through the Lord for his saints, God always stands at the right hand. But the just man has no left hand, and wherever he turns, "the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and will deliver them. Do you wish to know that the just man has no left hand?

24 When Moses, in the type of the cross, lifted both his hands to heaven, it is not written, "Aaron was at his right and Hur at his left," but that on this side stood Aaron and on that side Hur. In the book of Judges too, that leader Ehud, whose mystery is manifold and great, who had a sword upon his thigh, and had cut off desires, and had also run through with his blade his very fat and gross adversary, is for that reason written "amphoterodexios," that is, having both hands as a right hand, whom in Latin we may call "ambidextrous. Someone may object: If the just man has no left hand, how is Wisdom written to have both a right hand and a left? A diligent reader will very easily judge how great is the difference between the right hand of Wisdom and the left, when he has noticed what things are said to be in her right and what in her left. For it is said: "Length of eternity and years of life are in her right hand, but in her left hand riches and glory. You see eternal time and perpetual life placed in Wisdom's right hand; but the carnal things which pass away, which flee off while they are thought to be held—that is, riches and glory—placed in her left hand, according to that, that on the day of judgment some will stand at the right, and others at the left:

25 the lambs, that is, and the saints at his right, but the goats and the sinners at his left. But perhaps an inquisitive reader will object this too: how we can assert that God stands at the right of the just man, and the devil at the left of the sinner, when concerning our Lord it is read in Zechariah, "And the devil was standing at his right hand to oppose him. Let him, then, who objects this read also what follows: that when the devil was standing at his right hand, Jesus had filthy garments. Rightly did he who had taken up our sins and was bearing our offenses have the devil at his right hand, not so much for himself as for the filthy garments. And at the same time let him consider that it is not said, "The devil was standing as victor and triumphing," but as still set in the contest and in the battle-line and in doubt—indeed, when he had not yet begun to fight. For it follows, "That he might oppose him. But the devil was opposing him, as we said, because he had filthy garments from our sins.

26 But after he heard, "May the Lord who chose Jerusalem rebuke you," he did not stand at the right, but went behind his back and under his feet, and at once Jesus the great priest receives the ankle-length robe (poderis), and is clothed in white vesture, and, royal dignity being joined to him—that is, Zerubbabel being coupled with him—builds the Church, and constructs the spiritual Jerusalem. 27 Because of this my heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced. This that he says, "Because of this," must be joined to what precedes, so that he says the cause of his gladness, or exultation, was this, that he always had God before his eyes, and, with him standing at his right hand, was never moved; and so let the order be: My heart has been glad and my tongue has rejoiced, rendering a hymn to the Father for the salvation of men, because, while I stood and endured the death of the cross, the Lord was set at my right hand. This passage also tells against those who reckon that the members which are set forth in the Scriptures must always be understood bodily. For let them answer how a tongue by itself can rejoice, or how a tongue, as if perceiving and understanding, can have its own gladness. Since indeed he does not say, "the tongue rejoiced," but "my tongue rejoiced. Understand, then, of the tongue as of the other members too, namely that it has all its effects, according to that saying of Solomon: "In the hand of the tongue are death and life. But in place of what is read in the Acts of the Apostles and in the common edition, "My tongue rejoiced," it must be known that in the other editions, and among the Seventy themselves too, it is not "tongue" that is put, but "glory," which in Hebrew is called CHABOD. For "tongue" is called LASON.

28 And I think that, because the glory of the orator is in the praise of his speech, just as the glory of the physician is in the industry of the medical art, and the athlete's glory is his strength, and the glory of the other arts is to fulfill what they know: therefore the tongue, through which what is felt is uttered, has been put for "glory. Or at least the glory of that man who was assumed by Christ must be understood, the one concerning whom it is said elsewhere, "My glory, and the lifter-up of my head. Or his glory must be understood as the apostles, because they glorified him in the whole world: just as we call an ample flock the glory of the shepherd, and learned disciples the glory of the master, and strong armies the glory of the general. Further, as to what John says, "We saw his glory, glory as of the only-begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth," and what is written in another place, "Arise, my glory, arise": let us understand that to be the Savior's glory which the apostles saw in the humility of his flesh, so that they gazed with keener eyes not on what appeared, but on what lay hidden in the body.

29 Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. For you will not leave my soul in hell, nor will you give your holy one to see corruption. It is superfluous to wish to treat of those things which have been explained by the apostles. We therefore say these things, which were passed over by them as being, as it were, of lesser importance: that he said, "My flesh shall dwell in hope," for this reason, that the Savior descended to the dead with the hope of rising again at once. And he did not say "shall dwell," or "shall rest," as is read in the Latin manuscripts, but "kataskēnōsei," that is, "shall sojourn," so that the meaning is: It will tarry there a little while, and will see the underworld in passing, and his soul too will not be left in hell. "For I have power to lay down my soul, and I have power to take it up again. Nor will it be granted by the Father to see corruption. But he said "to see" for "to suffer," according to that idiom (idiōma) of the Scriptures: "Who is the man that lives, and shall not see death? And elsewhere: "He who, though he had not known sin, was made sin for us. And at the same time note that the Lord had both flesh and soul: the flesh which was laid in the tomb, and the soul which descended to the underworld.

30 And as the flesh without the soul was perfect flesh, so also the soul without the flesh was a perfect soul, and lacked no function of its own nature which the human soul is wont to have apart from sin. This is against the new heresy. And at the same time, because some argue variously, from the fact that the Lord entered with the doors shut, that the same flesh did not rise which had died, let them hear what the Lord himself here recalls. Moreover my flesh too shall rest in hope. Surely, when the Savior had died and suffered, that flesh was laid in the tomb which had also been alive; that flesh, then, also rose again, which had lain lifeless and dead in the tomb. But if the same flesh rose, how do some argue that a certain spiritual and great flesh, and not our own, rose in the Lord? Nor do we say this in such a way as to deny that the body of Christ took on that glory which we believe that we saints too shall receive. For then this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. But as, before he suffered, when transformed and glorified on the mountain he had assuredly the same flesh which he had also had down below, though of another glory;

31 so also after the resurrection there was in him flesh of the same nature which had been before the passion, but of a more glorified and more august appearance, that being fulfilled which Paul says: "And so from now on we know no one according to the flesh; and even if we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so. I am compelled in this place to say that word of the apostle: "O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God: how unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways! God the Son, God the Word, so long as he was in the heavens, and men had not so sinned that he himself should descend to them, dwelt simple and uncompounded with the angels, thrones, dominions, and the other powers. But when he descended to men, namely those who were framed of soul and body, he too came compounded, lest the compounded ones should be unable to bear the simple. Again, because souls without bodies were being held in the underworld, souls which in their nature are simple, so, the flesh itself being left behind, it was not God the Word, not the compounded man, but the soul that descended to the underworld: so that, just as each place had need of him, he might so be perceived by the inhabitants of that region.

32 I know that many, since the body of Christ is the Church, and we are its members, according to anagogy (anagōgēn) understand as the flesh of Christ those who are lower, and as the soul those who are more perfect; or at least as the flesh those who follow the literal history, as the soul those who ascend to spiritual understanding. 33 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will fill me with gladness with your countenance: delights are at your right hand unto the end. Because his flesh did not see corruption, and his soul was not left in hell, now after the resurrection, ascending to the heavens as victor, in the person of that man who had risen, he says, "You have made known to me the ways of life": that is, I have learned how men are freed from the underworld, by what means they may attain eternal life. And at the same time consider that he who is the Way and the Life said that he had learned the ways of life, that is, how men may attain to him who said that he is the Way and the Life. And I think that, just as he himself is the Truth, and, speaking to the Jews, "If you abide in my word, you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free," he speaks as it were of another truth; so, since he himself is the Life, he speaks as it were of another life, and since he himself is the Way, he says that other ways were shown to him—or, as it is read in the Hebrew, "the way": namely, that the flesh which he had taken, and in his flesh the whole race of men, might rejoice that those things which belonged to the divinity of the Son were made known to it.

34 For which reason he says that he rejoices, and has exultation with the Father (for this is what "with your countenance" means, according to that, "You will make him glad with joy with your countenance"), and full and perfect gladness and ineffable delight, when he shall sit at the Father's right hand, and shall have fulfilled, "The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Son sits at the Father's right hand in the majesty of one reigning; and because he had seen his first martyr Stephen battling against the Jews, he rose from his throne and stood at the Father's right hand, as if he too were fighting for the martyr. This is the delight, this the pleasure at the end of the dispensation, or of the victory: for in place of "end" Aquila and Theodotion and all the editions, except Symmachus and the Seventy, translated "victory"; because he suffered, and rose again, and as victor pierced through to the heavens, for this reason: that he might set man at the right hand of the Lord. It must also be noted that in this place where we read, "You will fill me with gladness," Theodotion said "Seven gladnesses," and "With your countenance is delight at your right hand. To the victor"; and Aquila and Symmachus translated "A fullness of gladnesses with your face," or "in your presence," and the rest. It is asked, then, why Theodotion said "seven" for "fullness.

35 This indeed he will easily know who has at least a small acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue. For the word SABA, as we have also said in the book of Hebrew Questions, signifies four things: fullness and satiety, an oath, and seven. Since, therefore, it is ambiguous, Theodotion, knowing that there are diverse graces of the Spirit with God, thought that, for the fitness of the passage, "seven" ought rather to be translated than "fullness," "satiety," and "oath"; so as to show that with God there are the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of fortitude, the Spirit of knowledge and of piety, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord: which are truly the seven full gladnesses—not for others, but for him who has deserved to be delighted forever at the right hand of the Lord. For this reason some suppose that seven heavens were named by the philosophers, and seven wandering stars called. Further, Symmachus, where we read, "Delight is at your right hand unto the end," says, "Strength is at your right hand forever": showing that he who is full of virtues will remain continually with God.

Homily 62, on Psalm 82 (Alternate Series)

1 Latin source: Germanus Morin (ed.), Sancti Hieronymi Tractatus sive Homiliae in Psalmos quattuordecim (alternate series), Anecdota Maredsolana III, Pars III (Maredsoli, 1903) — public domain. Psalm numbering follows the Septuagint/Vulgate (Morin). O God, who shall be like you? None shall be like you. Do not keep silent, nor be restrained, O God. It is a man of the Church who speaks, from whose belly flow rivers of living water. For he sees that the harvest is great and the laborers few: a vast multitude of believers, and only a modest teaching from the masters; many heretics, many adversaries, and few warriors to do battle for Christ. Do not keep silent, nor be restrained, O God. Why this? For behold, your enemies have made a din. The heretics speak out, and the men of the Church keep silent; they make a noise, and we are quiet; they blaspheme, and we do not bark back. For behold, your enemies have made a din. Beautifully did he say, they have made a din: for it is not speech adorned for building up, but only a disordered clamor for tearing down. And those who hate you have lifted up their head. So great is the multitude of the heretics, and so small the number of those who believe in you.

2 Against your people they have devised a malicious plan. This they speak, that they may snatch away from your Church. They have plotted against your holy ones. Each day they think of nothing else, save how they may deceive the men of the Church and trip them up. They have said, Come, let us destroy them out of the nation. I see a strange thing. So great is the multitude of the heretics, and such the diversity of their teachings, that their opinions differ among themselves, and yet they agree in this alone — in their hatred of us. For just as Herod and Pilate were enemies, and, acting against Christ, they made peace, and their concord was worse than their enmity had been; so these too fall out wickedly and league together yet more wickedly. Against your covenant they have made their arrangements. You spoke through the prophets; and they through Manichaeus, Marcion, Arius, and Valentinus. The tents of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites. Since once we have begun, leaving behind the lowliness of the literal history, to raise our understanding to a higher manner of the spiritual meaning's exposition... For the history is a simple one, in which the Jewish people speaks against the other nations that were fighting against it. But whatever was done, was done as a type of us. Israel was attacked, and its victory profited us. Let us see, then, who they are that fight against the Church. The tents of the Edomites. The Edomites are interpreted as "earthly." Beautifully did he say, tents: for they have no foundations nor houses, but tents, seats forever unstable. And of the Edomites and the Ishmaelites. The Ishmaelites are interpreted as "as if hearing." Beautifully did he say, as if hearing: for they do not hear God, but pass on by.

3 Moab and the Hagarenes, Gebal and Ammon. Each single name holds its single sacred meaning: for as many words, so many mysteries. Moab, which is interpreted, "from the father": for they are not in the father, but from the father, because they have forsaken their former father. And the Hagarenes, who are interpreted "proselytes" and "newcomers," who were formerly citizens and afterward became strangers: for they are not of the household, but are aliens, seeing that they assail the house of the father. Gebal, which is interpreted "empty valley." They are not of the mountains, but of the valley: for they have no taste for the things above, but for the things below; they are not of heaven, but wholly of the earth. Therefore he said, empty valley, because there is also a valley that is not empty: for whoever is humble, and casts himself down for Christ's sake, that one is a valley and a plain — not empty, but good. Ammon, and Amalek. Ammon indeed is interpreted "a false people." Therefore it is said of the heretics, a false people: for they do not follow him who says "I am the truth," but they follow him who is the prince of lying. And Amalek, who is interpreted "licking": for they suffer nothing to remain standing in the Church, but lick up all its foundations. They do not eat the words of the Scriptures, but lick the earth like a serpent.

4 And the foreigners with those who dwell in Tyre. In place of what we have as "foreigners," in the Hebrew is written Philistim, which is interpreted "the cup of the draught," because they are made drunk from the cup of Babylon, as Jeremiah says: "The golden cup of Babylon, making all the earth drunk." See what he says, the golden cup of Babylon. Babylon is interpreted "confusion"; but the golden cup is the doctrines of the philosophers and the eloquence of the orators. For who has not been led astray by the philosophers? Who has not been seduced by the orators of this world? A golden cup they have — outwardly the splendor of eloquence; and inwardly poisons are stored, which could not be hidden unless they were concealed under the appearance of gold. You see indeed the honey of eloquence, and you do not suspect the deadly poisons. The foreigners with those who dwell in Tyre. Tyre is interpreted "narrowness." For truly there is narrowness there, and not the breadth which is Christ, as the Apostle also says to the Corinthians: "You are not straitened in us, but you are straitened in your own bowels."

5 For Assur also came with them. They went before, and he follows. Let us see who this is that follows. Assur indeed is interpreted "the devil": truly so, because he is both the enemy and the avenger, as is written in the eighth psalm, "That you may destroy the enemy and the defender." He himself makes us sin, and he himself accuses us for punishment. For Assur came together with them. They have the devil as their prince, they have him as their emperor: not Josiah the righteous king rules over them, but the Assyrian. They became a help to the sons of Lot. Lot is interpreted "turning aside," which is understood, from God, like the Jewish people: because all the heretics agree with the Jews in blasphemies. There are many things that might be said, but the hour shuts us out: for it is a long task to run through them one by one. For who could easily say, Do to them as to Midian and Sisera, as to Jabin at the torrent of Kishon. They perished at Endor, they became like the dung of the earth. Make their princes like Oreb and Zeb and Zebee and Salmana: all their princes who said, Let us possess for ourselves as an inheritance the sanctuary of God? They thought themselves to be men of the Church, and claimed the Church for themselves.

6 My God, set them like a wheel. Let them not be stable, but forever uncertain: that they may have no seat, and be forever rolled about unstably. For just as a wheel is not of itself stable, so also the heretics do not stand firm in their opinion, but forever change their doctrines. Like stubble before the face of the wind. Eleven punishments he asks against them, because they have denied the mysteries of the eleven apostles. But let the prudent reader say: How will you divide one verse into two? And you do violence to the Scripture: you say eleven apostles, when we know that the Lord and Savior had twelve disciples. For this reason, then, we set down the number eleven, because Judas the traitor, who had been the twelfth, departed from the number. My God, set them like a wheel. You have one plague: count therefore more carefully the rest that follow. Like stubble before the face of the wind: behold the second. Like fire which burns a forest: behold the third. Like a flame burning the mountains: the fourth. So will you pursue them in your tempest: the fifth. And in your anger you will confound them: the sixth. Fill their faces with shame: the seventh. And let them seek your name, O Lord: the eighth. Let them be ashamed and troubled forever and ever: the ninth. And let them be confounded and perish: the tenth. And let them know that your name is Lord: the eleventh. You alone are the Most High over all the earth.

7 Thus far it is wrath: what follows is now mercy. And in your anger you will trouble them. He did not say, kill, but, trouble them, that they may return to you: behold the sixth. Fill their faces with shame: not with punishment, lest, shut out by death, they be unable to return to the Lord. Fill their faces with shame, not with punishment. Why then do you not kill them? The divine word explains: That they may seek your name, O Lord. For if they seek, they will also find. Those who have been led astray by the heretics will be turned back to the Lord: behold the seventh. Let them be confounded and perish. He who blushes for his sins is next to being without sin: behold the eighth. Let the prudent reader say: This is contrary to the interpretation you have given. And let them perish. For those who are confounded to this end, that they may be saved — how shall they perish? Let them perish, let them perish, he says, the heretics, and let the men of the Church be saved. It is as if you were to say, Let this adulterer perish — not that you wish the adulterer to perish, but that the adultery may perish in him; nor, when the adulterer is saved, is the adulterer saved, but the righteous and chaste man. That you may know this to be the meaning we have stated, the Holy Spirit himself speaks thus: Let them be confounded and perish. How let them perish?

8 That they may know that your name is Lord. Let them perish in error, let them be saved in the truth. You alone are the Most High in all the earth. Not the conventicles of the heretics, not the aeons of Valentinus and his innumerable days, not Basilides who asserts three hundred and sixty-five gods; not, he says, the innumerable multitude of false gods, but you alone are the Most High in all the earth. To whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.