Thursday of the Fourth Week of Lent

These are the families of Noah according to their peoples and nations. From these were the nations divided on the earth after the flood. Let the diligent reader review in order the names of the men or peoples who are said to have been born from the three sons, and they will be found to number seventy-one: namely, thirteen from Japheth, thirty-one from Ham, twenty-six from Shem, from whom they are believed to have filled the world with as many languages and nations, or rather seventy-two, as clearer tradition holds, since there was one among them from whom afterward two nations and peoples were born; unless perhaps it is to be understood that there are two Asshurs, who created two peoples: one who, having gone out from the land of Shinar, built Nineveh, and the other a son of Shem; and thus the number of seventy-two nations is completed. Neither does it seem irrelevant that the Lord therefore sent seventy-two disciples to preach, because there were as many nations and languages to whom the word of preaching was to be committed, just as he first chose twelve apostles for the same number of tribes of Israel to be called to faith; so afterward he designated seventy-two teachers to indicate the salvation of all nations, which were encompassed by the same number.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. Because having anticipated saying that the sons of Noah had divided the earth according to clans, languages, territories, and nations, it returns to show how humans were separated from each other: where it is most clear that as long as the human race served its Creator with due humility, it also harmonized with itself in peaceful charity. But once it raised its neck against its Author in pride, it was soon justly punished and could not have peace even with itself. How great the human happiness could have been even after being cast out of paradise, if only they then wanted to serve their Creator humbly, is testified by the grace of our Lord, the Creator and Redeemer, who gave the knowledge of all languages to His disciples faithfully adhering to Him by sending the Spirit from above; thus by the wondrous transformation of the right hand of the Most High, just as here, through the division of languages due to pride, the nations were dispersed throughout the world, so there, due to the merit of humility, the diversity of languages brought together, people collected from every nation under heaven resonated with one unvarying confession and faith in the praises and greatness of God; and deservedly so, this city, in which languages were divided and nations dispersed, is called Babylon, that is, Confusion; the other is called Jerusalem, that is, Vision of Peace, in which, through the united languages of all nations in the praise of God, concord was made. But these things later. Meanwhile, let us see the text of the letter.

Now the whole earth had one language and the same words, as long as men remained in the East: but when they moved from the East, soon because of the words or deeds of pride, they were separated from each other and were expelled further from their Creator. The region of the East from which the world is accustomed to receive the light of the stars rightly signifies Him who said: I am the light of the world; whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life (John 8:12): in whom as long as men remain, they are of one language and the same speech: for there is certainly one confession of faith, the same purity of action, common charity, and hope of eternal things: for all who persevere in Christ are enlightened. But those who withdraw from the contemplation of true light can have neither peace with the Lord nor among themselves: for just as there is one norm of faith, so there is not one and the same norm of infidelity; but one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, in whom is the salvation of the elect: but there are many lords of the reprobate, various winding paths of perfidy, various filths of pollution, various gods of the nations, to whom all the wretched are led to one destruction of damnation: which the figure of those two cities well signified, when, with tongues divided in Babylon, no one could recognize the voice of his neighbor. Moreover, in Jerusalem, with tongues united by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the faithful, even of all foreigners who had come, were able to understand the voice and all together in one bond of charity and faith praise the same God and Lord.

VI. Then all they that had been divided and dwelt upon the earth gathered together there after, and dwelt together; and they set forth from the East and found a plain in the land of Babylon: and there they dwelt, and they said every man to his neighbour: Behold, it will come to pass that we shall be scattered every man. from his brother, and in the latter days we shall be fighting one against another. Now, therefore, come and let us build for ourselves a tower, the head whereof shall reach unto heaven, and we shall make us a name and a renown upon the earth.

2. And they said everyone to his neighbour: Let us take bricks (lit. stones), and let us, each one, write our names upon the bricks and burn them with fire: and that which is thoroughly burned shall be for mortar and brick. (Perhaps, that which is not thoroughly burned shall be for mortar, and that which is, for brick.)

3. And they took every man their bricks, saving 12 men, which would not take them, and these are their names: Abraham, Nachor, Loth, Ruge, Tenute, Zaba, Armodath, Iobab, Esar, Abimahel, Saba, Auphin.

4. And the people of the land laid hands on them and brought them before their princes and said: These are the men that have transgressed our counsels and will not walk in our ways. And the princes said unto them: Wherefore would ye not set every man your bricks with the people of the land? And they answered and said: We will not set bricks with you, neither will we be joined with your desire. One Lord know we, and him do we worship. And if ye should cast us into the fire with your bricks, we will not consent to you.

5. And the princes were wroth and said: As they have said, so do unto them, and if they consent not to set bricks with you, ye shall burn them with fire together with your bricks.

6. Then answered Jectan which was the first prince of the captains: Not so, but there shall be given them a space of 7 days. And it shall be, if they repent of their evil counsels, and will set bricks along with us, they shall live; but if not, let them be burned according to your word. But he sought how he might save them out of the hands of the people; for he was of their tribe, and he served God.

7. And when he had thus said he took them and shut them up in the king's house: and when it was evening the prince commanded 50 mighty men of valour to be called unto him, and said unto them: Go forth and take to-night these men that are shut up in mine house, and put provision for them from my house upon 10 beasts, and the men bring ye to me, and their provision together with the beasts take ye to the mountains and wait for them there: and know this, that if any man shall know what I have said unto you, I will burn you with fire.

8. And the men set forth and did all that their prince commanded them, and took the men from his house by night; and took provision and put it upon beasts and took them to the hill country as he commanded them.

9. And the prince called unto him those 12 men and said to them: Be of good courage and fear not, for ye shall not die. For God in whom ye trust is mighty, and therefore be ye stablished in him, for he will deliver you and save you. And now lo, I have commanded So men to take [you with] provision from my house, and go before you into the hill country and wait for you in the valley: and I will give you other 50 men which shall guide you thither: go ye therefore and hide yourselves there in the valley, having water to drink that floweth down from the rocks: hold yourselves there for 30 days, until the anger of the people of the land be appeased and until God send his wrath upon them and break them. For I know that the counsel of iniquity which they have agreed to perform shall not stand, for their thought is vain. And it shall be when 7 days are expired and they shall seek for you, I will say unto them: They have gone forth and have broken the door of the prison wherein they were shut up and have fled by night, and I have sent 100 men to seek them. So will I turn them from their madness that is upon them.

10. And there answered him 11 of the men saying: Thy servants have found favour in thy sight, in that we are set free out of the hands of these proud men.

11. But Abram only kept silence, and the prince said unto him: Wherefore answerest thou not me, Abram, servant of God? Abram answered and said: Lo, I flee away to-day into the hill country, and if I escape the fire, wild beasts will come out of the mountains and devour us. Or our victuals will fail and we shall die of hunger; and we shall be found fleeing from the people of the land and shall fall in our sins. And now, as he liveth in whom I trust, I will not remove from my place wherein they have put me: and if there be any sin of mine so that I be indeed burned, the will of God be done. And the prince said unto him: Thy blood be upon thy head, if thou refuse to go forth with these. But if thou consent, thou shall be delivered. Yet if thou wilt abide, abide as thou art. And Abram said: I will not go forth, but I will abide here.

12. And the prince took those 11 men and sent other 50 with them, and commanded them saying: Wait, ye also, in the hill country for 15 days with those 50 which were sent before you; and after that ye shall return and say We have not found them, as I said to the former ones. And know that if any man transgress one of all these words that I have spoken unto you, he shall be burned with fire. So the men went forth, and he took Abram by himself and shut him up where he had been shut up aforetime.

13. And after 7 days were passed, the people were gathered together and spake unto their prince saying: Restore us the men which would not consent unto us, that we may burn them with fire. And they sent captains to bring them, and they found them not, save Abram only. And they gathered all of them to their prince saying: The men whom ye shut up are fled and have escaped that which we counselled.

14. And Phenech and Nemroth said unto Jectan: Where are the men whom thou didst shut up? But he said: They have broken prison and fled by night: but I have sent 100 men to seek them, and commanded them if they find them that they should not only burn them with fire but give their bodies to the fowls of the heaven and so destroy them.

15. Then said they: This fellow which is found alone, let us burn him. And they took Abram and brought him before their princes and said to him: Where are they that were with thee? And he said: Verily at night I slept, and when I awaked I found them not.

16. And they took him and built a furnace and kindled it with fire, and put bricks burned with fire into the furnace. Then Jectan the prince being amazed (lit. melted) in his mind took Abram and put him with the bricks into the furnace of fire.

17. But God stirred up a great earthquake, and the fire gushed forth of the furnace and brake out into flames and sparks of fire and consumed all them that stood round about in sight of the furnace; and all they that were burned in that day were 83,500. But upon Abram was there not any the least hurt by the burning of the fire.

18. And Abram arose out of the furnace, and the fiery furnace fell down, and Abram was saved. And he went unto the 11 men that were hid in the hill country and told them all that had befallen him, and they came down with him out of the hill country rejoicing in the name of the Lord, and no man met them to affright them that day. And they called that place by the name of Abram, and in the tongue of the Chaldeans Deli, which is being interpreted, God.

And in the three and thirtieth jubilee, in the first year in the second week, Peleg took to himself a wife, whose name was Lomna the daughter of Sina'ar, and she bare him a son in the fourth year of this week, and he called his name Reu; for he said: 'Behold the children of men have become evil through the wicked purpose of building for themselves a city and a tower in the land of Shinar.' For they departed from the land of Ararat eastward to Shinar; for in his days they built the city and the tower, saying, 'Go to, let us ascend thereby into heaven.' And they began to build, and in the fourth week they made brick with fire, and the bricks served them for stone, and the clay with which they cemented them together was asphalt which comes out of the sea, and out of the fountains of water in the land of Shinar. And they built it: forty and three years were they building it; its breadth was 203 bricks, and the height (of a brick) was the third of one; its height amounted to 5433 cubits and 2 palms, and (the extent of one wall was) thirteen stades (and of the other thirty stades). And the Lord our God said unto us: Behold, they are one people, and (this) they begin to do, and now nothing will be withholden from them. Go to, let us go down and confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech, and they may be dispersed into cities and nations, and one purpose will no longer abide with them till the day of judgment.' And the Lord descended, and we descended with him to see the city and the tower which the children of men had built. And he confounded their language, and they no longer understood one another's speech, and they ceased then to build the city and the tower. For this reason the whole land of Shinar is called Babel, because the Lord did there confound all the language of the children of men, and from thence they were dispersed into their cities, each according to his language and his nation. And the Lord sent a mighty wind against the tower and overthrew it upon the earth, and behold it was between Asshur and Babylon in the land of Shinar, and they called its name 'Overthrow'. In the fourth week in the first year in the beginning thereof in the four and thirtieth jubilee, were they dispersed from the land of Shinar.

AGAIN, whereas Moses wrote an account of the building of the tower, and how from one language men passed into the confusion of many dialects, the author just before mentioned, in his work entitled Of Assyrian History, bears the like testimony, speaking as follows:

[ABYDENUS] 'But there are some who say that the men who first arose out of the earth, being puffed up by their strength and great stature, and proudly thinking that they were better than the gods, raised a huge tower, where Babylon now stands: and when they were already nearer to heaven, the winds came to the help of the gods, and overthrew their structure upon them, the ruins of which were called Babylon. And being up to that time of one tongue, they received from the gods a confused language; and afterwards war arose between Cronos and Titan.

[JOSEPHUS] 'And the place in which they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of what at first was clear in their language. For the Hebrews call confusion "Babel." '

And if any one cites the confusion of tongues that took place at the building of the tower, as contradicting what I have said, not even there is God spoken of as creating men's languages, but as confounding the existing one, that all might not hear all. For when all lived together and were not as yet divided by various differences of race, the aggregate of men dwelt together with one language among them; but when by the Divine will it was decreed that all the earth should be replenished by mankind, then, their community of tongue being broken up, men were dispersed in various directions and adopted this and that form of speech and language, possessing a certain bond of union in similarity of tongue, not indeed disagreeing from others in their knowledge of things, but differing in the character of their names. For a stone or a stick does not seem one thing to one man and another to another, but the different peoples call them by different names. So that our position remains unshaken, that human language is the invention of the human mind or understanding. For from the beginning, as long as all men had the same language, we see from Holy Scripture that men received no teaching of God's words, nor, when men were separated into various differences of language, did a Divine enactment prescribe how each man should talk. But God, willing that men should speak different languages, gave human nature full liberty to formulate arbitrary sounds, so as to render their meaning more intelligible. Accordingly, Moses, who lived many generations after the building of the tower, uses one of the subsequent languages in his historical narrative of the creation, and attributes certain words to God, relating these things in his own tongue in which he had been brought up, and with which he was familiar, not changing the names for God by foreign peculiarities and turns of speech, in order by the strangeness and novelty of the expressions to prove them the words of God Himself.

And they arose and came from the land of the east; and, as they went through the land, they chanced upon the land of Shinar, which was exceeding broad; where they took in hand to build a tower. They sought means thereby to go up to heaven, and be able to leave their work as a memorial to those men who should come after them. And the building was made with burnt bricks and bitumen: and the boldness of their audacity went forward, as they were all of one mind and consent, and by means of one speech they served the purpose of their desires. But that the work should advance no further, God divided their tongues, that they should no longer be able to understand one another. And so they were scattered and planted out, and took possession of the world, and dwelt in groups and companies each according to his language: whence came the diverse tribes and various languages upon the earth. So then, whereas three races of men took possession of the earth, and one of them was under the curse, and two under the blessing, the blessing first of all came to Shem, whose race dwelt in the east and held the land of the Chaldeans.

1. Now the sons of Noah were three, - Shem, Japhet, and Ham, born one hundred years before the Deluge. These first of all descended from the mountains into the plains, and fixed their habitation there; and persuaded others who were greatly afraid of the lower grounds on account of the flood, and so were very loath to come down from the higher places, to venture to follow their examples. Now the plain in which they first dwelt was called Shinar. God also commanded them to send colonies abroad, for the thorough peopling of the earth, that they might not raise seditions among themselves, but might cultivate a great part of the earth, and enjoy its fruits after a plentiful manner. But they were so ill instructed that they did not obey God; for which reason they fell into calamities, and were made sensible, by experience, of what sin they had been guilty: for when they flourished with a numerous youth, God admonished them again to send out colonies; but they, imagining the prosperity they enjoyed was not derived from the favor of God, but supposing that their own power was the proper cause of the plentiful condition they were in, did not obey him. Nay, they added to this their disobedience to the Divine will, the suspicion that they were therefore ordered to send out separate colonies, that, being divided asunder, they might the more easily be Oppressed.

2. Now it was Nimrod who excited them to such an affront and contempt of God. He was the grandson of Ham, the son of Noah, a bold man, and of great strength of hand. He persuaded them not to ascribe it to God, as if it was through his means they were happy, but to believe that it was their own courage which procured that happiness. He also gradually changed the government into tyranny, seeing no other way of turning men from the fear of God, but to bring them into a constant dependence on his power. He also said he would be revenged on God, if he should have a mind to drown the world again; for that he would build a tower too high for the waters to be able to reach! and that he would avenge himself on God for destroying their forefathers!

3. Now the multitude were very ready to follow the determination of Nimrod, and to esteem it a piece of cowardice to submit to God; and they built a tower, neither sparing any pains, nor being in any degree negligent about the work: and, by reason of the multitude of hands employed in it, it grew very high, sooner than any one could expect; but the thickness of it was so great, and it was so strongly built, that thereby its great height seemed, upon the view, to be less than it really was. It was built of burnt brick, cemented together with mortar, made of bitumen, that it might not be liable to admit water. When God saw that they acted so madly, he did not resolve to destroy them utterly, since they were not grown wiser by the destruction of the former sinners; but he caused a tumult among them, by producing in them diverse languages, and causing that, through the multitude of those languages, they should not be able to understand one another. The place wherein they built the tower is now called Babylon, because of the confusion of that language which they readily understood before; for the Hebrews mean by the word Babel, confusion. The Sibyl also makes mention of this tower, and of the confusion of the language, when she says thus: "When all men were of one language, some of them built a high tower, as if they would thereby ascend up to heaven, but the gods sent storms of wind and overthrew the tower, and gave every one his peculiar language; and for this reason it was that the city was called Babylon." But as to the plan of Shinar, in the country of Babylonia, Hestiaeus mentions it, when he says thus: "Such of the priests as were saved, took the sacred vessels of Jupiter Enyalius, and came to Shinar of Babylonia."

But I do not understand how he can imagine the overturning of the tower (of Babel) to have happened with a similar object to that of the deluge, which effected a purification of the earth, according to the accounts both of Jews and Christians. For, in order that the narrative contained in Genesis respecting the tower may be held to convey no secret meaning, but, as Celsus supposes, may be taken as true to the letter, the event does not on such a view appear to have taken place for the purpose of purifying the earth; unless, indeed, he imagines that the so-called confusion of tongues is such a purificatory process. But on this point, he who has the opportunity will treat more seasonably when his object is to show not only what is the meaning of the narrative in its historical connection, but what metaphorical meaning may be deduced from it. Seeing that he imagines, however, that Moses, who wrote the account of the tower, and the confusion of tongues, has perverted the story of the sons of Aloeus, and referred it to the tower, we must remark that I do not think any one prior to the time of Homer has mentioned the sons of Aloeus, while I am persuaded that what is related about the tower has been recorded by Moses as being much older not only than Homer, but even than the invention of letters among the Greeks. Who, then, are the perverters of each other's narratives? Whether do they who relate the story of the Aloadæ pervert the history of the time, or he who wrote the account of the tower and the confusion of tongues the story of the Aloadæ? Now to impartial hearers Moses appears to be more ancient than Homer. The destruction by fire, moreover, of Sodom and Gomorrha on account of their sins, related by Moses in Genesis, is compared by Celsus to the story of Phæthon — all these statements of his resulting from one blunder, viz., his not attending to the (greater) antiquity of Moses. For they who relate the story of Phæthon seem to be younger even than Homer, who, again, is much younger than Moses. We do not deny, then, that the purificatory fire and the destruction of the world took place in order that evil might be swept away, and all things be renewed; for we assert that we have learned these things from the sacred books of the prophets. But since, as we have said in the preceding pages, the prophets, in uttering many predictions regarding future events, show that they have spoken the truth concerning many things that are past, and thus give evidence of the indwelling of the Divine Spirit, it is manifest that, with respect to things still future, we should repose faith in them, or rather in the Divine Spirit that is in them.

But when the threatenings of the mighty God Are fulfilled, which he threatened mortals once, When in Assyrian land they built a tower;-- 120 (And they all spoke one language, and resolved To mount aloft into the starry heaven; But on the air the Immortal straightway put A mighty force; and then winds from above Cast down the great tower and stirred mortals up 125 To wrangling with each other; therefore men Gave to that city the name of Babylon);-- Now when the tower fell and the tongues of men Turned to all sorts of sounds, straightway all earth Was filled with men and kingdoms were divided;

And as they journeyed from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. It appears from these words that even the first humans held the region of the East; thus it should be considered the head of the world, not only because the light of the stars rises from there, but also because the human race first inhabited it.

Departing from the East, they found a plain in which to dwell, because withdrawing from the light of righteousness, the reprobate found for themselves the broad ways of the world in which they might remain with a fickle mind; and this in the stench of carnal vices. For Shinar, as we have said, is interpreted as their stench: And what is meant by the land of Shinar, except the rotten lust of carnal slothfulness, in which whoever does not avoid dwelling, that is, persisting with a secure and fixed intention, soon by the increasing wickedness, also provoke their neighbors to the injury of the Creator and nefarious acts. For it follows that one said to his neighbor: Come, let us make bricks, and bake them with fire. They then inflame one another to make bricks, with which they would build the city of Nimrod on the plain of Shinar; because indeed, the entire multitude of the impious serves the devil with filthy, sordid, and earthly works, and they build for him not any other city than themselves by living wickedly: but on the other hand, the city of Jerusalem, in which David and Solomon, that is, the strong in hand and peaceful reigns, is not built of bricks, but of stone: not on a plain, but on a mountain, as its king says to it: Behold, I will lay your stones in order, and lay your foundations with sapphires (Isa. LIV, 11). And of which the Prophet says: Mount Zion, the sides of the north, the city of the great King (Psalm. LXVII, 3): because evidently the city of the devil consists of the transgressors and tyrants, which the name Nimrod signifies, that is, the entire multitude of the reprobate, who wander about through the flowing corruption of the present life. But the Church, indeed, the city of Christ, is built of living stones, that is, souls strong in faith and action, about which its wise architect, speaking of its king, said: Coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen and honored by God; you also, as living stones, are being built up (I Pet. II, 4): and not in the plain of Shinar, but on the holy mountain of the Lord: because the chosen ones strive not to relax in the weak pleasures of carnal things, but rather to bind and elevate themselves to higher desires: hence they say our citizenship is in heaven (Phil. III, 20).

"When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there." Notice how the human race, instead of managing to keep to its own boundaries, always longs for more and reaches out for greater things. This is what the human race has lost in particular, not being prepared to recognize the limitations of its own condition but always lusting after more, entertaining ambitions beyond its capacity. In this regard, too, when people who chase after the things of the world acquire for themselves much wealth and status, they lose sight of their own nature, as it were, and aspire to such heights that they topple into the very depths. You could see this happening every day without others being any the wiser from the sight of it. Instead, they pause for a while but immediately lose all recollection of it and take the same road as the others and fall over the same precipice. This is exactly what you can see happening to these people in the present instance: "When they traveled from the east, they found open country in the land of Sennar [Shinar] and settled there." See how in gradual stages it teaches us the instability of their attitude. When they saw the open country (the text says), they packed up and left their previous dwelling and settled down there.

And one said to his neighbor: Come, let us make bricks and bake them with fire, and they had bricks for stones and bitumen for mortar. Perhaps, therefore, they used bricks for stones and bitumen for mortar because in those regions the supply of stones, from which such a great work could be completed, was lacking; or because they knew that a wall of bricks could more strongly resist the danger of fires. Bitumen, however, is made from trees, and it is also made from the earth or waters; whence it is written later about the land of Sodom. The woodland valley had many bitumen pits; and the Dead Sea is called the Asphalt Lake in Greek, that is, the Bitumen Lake; because bitumen floating on it is usually collected, which more clearly suggests that the walls of Babylon were constructed from it.

But as they mold clay into bricks, which are usually made with equal square sides, hence also taking their name, it shows the composition and ornamentation of secular eloquence, through which the proud city of the devil, either in deceptive philosophy or heretical craftiness, seems to be raised much for a time; but in the examination of the strict judge, it will be evident how condemnable and worthy of confusion it is.

They baked the bricks they had made with fire. Indeed, that fire of which it is said: "all adulterers, their hearts are like an oven" (Hosea 7:4), and about which Isaiah says: "Behold, all you who kindle a fire, encircled with flames, walk in the light of your fire and in the flames you have kindled" (Isaiah 50:11). For this fire is indeed the love of vices and the desire for human favor, with which, once they have been found, the foolish teachers of the deceived strive to confirm and harden the doctrines of falsehood so much that they cannot be overcome by any struggle of truth and heavenly doctrine; but nevertheless, with the army of truth prevailing, as Scripture says, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great" (Revelation 18:2), with a twofold fall, having been cast down in the present through the manifestation of truth, and to be condemned in the future by the judgment of ultimate severity. Of such cities, the Israelite people once made from clay and brick in Egypt, because even they, not yet educated by the hearing of the law, served vices and errors, and expressed the form of those in their works, who, still in the obscure deceptions of unclean spirits, by whose harsh Egyptian commands they were oppressed, had learned neither faith nor hope of acquiring the heavenly homeland; and thus they knew only to cling to and be subject to the allurements of this world. But the bitumen with which the builders of Babylon used in place of mortar, which was taken from the ground or pits, certainly shows the intention of earthly and base pleasure, with which the people of this age fortify all their works, as those who, having no hope or knowledge of heavenly goods, direct themselves to seeking the joys that are in the heavens, and thus everything they do is carried out for the sake of temporary gratification or favor: against which it is rightly read that the masons made the temple of the Lord: indeed, mortar is made from stones burned and turned into ashes, which are acted upon by fire, so that what were once singly firm and strong become softened with the addition of whiteness, and, infused with water, are better connected to each other, and the stones placed in the wall can connect others, themselves too quickly regaining better firmness, which they seemed to have lost for a short time. Who then are to be understood by the mortar but those who, being diligently baked in the furnace of temporal tribulations, have first in themselves changed all the darkness of vices into the whiteness of virtues, saying to their Creator: "You will wash me and I will be whiter than snow" (Psalm 51:7); then also strive to whiten their neighbors with their exhortations or examples and bind each other with the bond of love? Of whom it is rightly said: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God" (Matthew 5:9); who the more they are softened, humbled by the flame of tribulations, the stronger they become in strengthening and maintaining the hearts of their neighbors in tribulations. And indeed, the temple is built from white stone, as David said to Solomon when he gave him expenses and showed him the measurements for making the temple: "but also marble from Paros in abundance he provided" (1 Chronicles 29:2), because indeed the Church of Christ is gathered from souls chosen for their firmness in faith and brilliant action. Indeed, marble from the island of Paros is known to be of strong ability and a candid color; but the builders of Babylon, having no abundance or concern of this material, glue their bricks with bitumen from pits: because they try to fortify the whiteness of innocence, the strength of faith, the harmony of brotherhood with the arguments of disputations.

This city named "Confusion" was none other than Babylon, to whose marvelous construction pagan history brings testimonies. For Babylon means "confusion." It would seem that the founder of the city was the giant Nimrod, as was noticed above. In mentioning him, the Scripture tells us that Babylon was the head of his kingdom, meaning at the head of all the other cities, the capital where the government of the kingdom had its seat. However, the city never reached the kind of completion that the pride of impious men had dreamed. The actual plan called for an immense height—it was meant to reach the sky. This perhaps refers to one of its towers, which was to be higher than all the others, or perhaps the word tower may mean all the towers much as "horse" can mean thousands of horsemen.

After the flood, as if striving to fortify themselves against God, as if there could be anything high for God or anything secure for pride, certain proud men built a tower, ostensibly so that they might not be destroyed by a flood if one came later. For they had heard and recalled that all iniquity had been destroyed by the flood. They were unwilling to abstain from iniquity. They sought the height of a tower against a flood; they built a lofty tower. God saw their pride, and he caused this disorder to be sent upon them, that they might speak but not understand one another, and tongues became different through pride.

And they said: Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower, whose top may reach heaven, and let us make a name for ourselves before we are scattered over the face of the whole earth. When it says whose top, it refers not to the city but to the tower, that is, the citadel, which they planned to make higher than the other walls in a more elevated place. Truly, it is amazing with what intention they planned to raise the top of their tower up to heaven, and yet at the same time claimed they would be divided over the entire earth; unless they foolishly and most arrogantly thought to divide themselves throughout the world in such a way that if they should be discontented with earthly habitation, or if a flood of water again threatened the earth, they might seek the upper regions of the air or the sky through this tower.

Come, he said, let us build ourselves a city and a tower whose top may reach to heaven. The wicked teachers make a city for themselves when, having left the heavenly city, whose architect and builder is God—that is, the holy Church—they gather their own assemblies. All the reprobates make a city for themselves when, neglecting the protection of God's commandments, they follow the thoughts and desires of their own hearts in their actions or words. They build the city of Babylon when they perform works worthy of confusion. They also make a tower whose top may reach to heaven when, to the injury of their Creator, they exercise impious tongues; when, according to the voice of the Psalmist, they speak iniquity against the Most High, when they set their mouth against heaven, which the heathens do by worshipping many gods, the heretics by polluting the faith of the one God with errors, the Jews by denying Christ the Son of God, false Catholics by profaning the true faith with evil deeds or schisms. To all these, the Psalmist's cry to the Lord fits: Their pride rises always against you (Psalm 73:23), that is, it rises to you in the remembrance of your just judgment. But since the pride of the wicked rises to heaven like the top of a cursed tower, it is right that the Creator of heaven, descending, should destroy the unanimous works of the wicked, and first offer them this benefit, that not having the capacity to complete what they began, they may not be condemned more gravely for eternity; then that, having their harmful conspiracy torn apart and dissension among them, they may do less harm to the good. This He once did by descending from heaven Himself: this He does daily through His preachers in the Church: for He confounds the proud languages of the Jews, who, against the grace of the Gospel which He preached, unanimously rebel, as if all with one lip; and retarding them from impious conquests, He scattered them over the whole world. He also precipitates and divides, through Catholic doctors, the tongues of heretics, and, dissociating them from each other, prevents them from raising the gates of Hell against His Church. For there is no heresy which is not attacked by other heretics; no sect of secular philosophy which is not rebutted by other equally foolish philosophical sects; thus it happens that while the reprobates have confused tongues among themselves, such that none can understand the voice of his neighbor with the same understanding, they prove that the name of Babylon, that is, confusion, fits them, and they harm less the vision of peace in which the Church glories. For it is evident that the more the wicked teachers or evil workers are separated from each other in dissenting spirit, the more space they provide for the Church to gather.

They foolishly began to build a tower that touched the stars and thought they might be able to climb the skies with it. But God, seeing that their work proceeded because they spoke the same language, intervened and caused them to speak different languages. Then he scattered them by isolating them in the islands of the earth, so that nations speaking different tongues arose.

The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of Adam were building. The old translation has for the sons of Adam the sons of men, that is, not the sons of God, but those who, living according to man, deserved to hear from the Lord: "I said, you are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High; but you will die like men" (Psalm 81:6). However, God does not move from a place, who is always wholly everywhere; but He is said to descend when He does something on earth which, done wonderfully beyond the usual course of nature, shows His presence in some way; nor does He learn by seeing in time, who can never be ignorant of anything; but He is said to see and know in time, that which He makes to be seen and known. Therefore, the city was not thus seen as God made it to be seen, when He showed how much it displeased Him; although it can be understood that God descended to that city, because His angels had descended, in whom He dwells, so that what follows: "And He said: Behold, the people is one, and they all have one language," and the rest, and then added: "Come, let us go down, and there confound their language," might be a recapitulation, showing how what was said, "the Lord came down," was done; for if He had already descended, what does "come, let us descend" mean, which is understood to have been said to the angels, unless because He had descended through the angels, who were descending in the angels?

Moses represents God as descending to the tower that the sons of men were building, seeking to inspect it and saying, "Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another's speech." Who do the heretics think was the God that descended to the tower in this passage and then sought to visit these men? Was he God the Father? In that case, God is enclosed in a place. If so, how then does he embrace all things? Or is it possible that he speaks of an angel descending with other angels and saying, "Come, let us go down quickly, and there confuse their language"? On the contrary, we note in Deuteronomy that it was God who recounted these things and God who spoke, where it is written: "When he scattered abroad the sons of Adam, he set up the boundaries of the people according to the number of the angels of God." Therefore the Father did not descend, nor did an angel command these things, as the narrative clearly indicates. Accordingly, the only remaining conclusion is that he descended of whom the apostle Paul says, "He who descended, he it is who ascended also above all heavens, that he might fill all things," that is, the Son of God, the Word of God.

Behold, he said, the people are one and they all have one language; and they have begun to do this, and they will not desist from their thoughts until they complete them in action. There is a great difference in sinning between those who so despise God's commandments that they still have among themselves just admirers and worshippers, and those who all with unanimous consent contradict heavenly commands. There is also a great difference between those who sin, for example, in their youth, intending to do penance for their committed sins later in old age, and those who carry no intention of correction for the evils they do. Therefore, to show here the unanimity of the sinners, the invisible Judge says: Behold, the people are one and they all have one language; and he adds their unrepentant intention: They have begun to do this, and they will not desist from their thoughts until they complete them in action; to whom aptly fits the beginning of the thirteenth psalm, in which it is said: The fool has said in his heart, There is no God (Psalm 13:1), that is, Nimrod the contriver of the infamous work; and hence about the workmen of the doomed city: They are corrupt and have become abominable (ibid.). These words which we discuss, the internal Judge speaks to the ministers of virtues in an incomprehensible order to us: His speaking to them is to show His own invisible secrets to their hearts, so that in the contemplation of truth they read whatever they ought to do; for what is said as if to those who hear is inspired to those who see; therefore, when God infused into their hearts the verdict of retribution against human pride, He says:

It is conceivable that here there may have been an allusion to the Trinity, if we suppose that the Father said to the Son and the Holy Spirit, "Come, let us descend and confound their tongue." The supposition is sound. But if so, we must rule out the possibility that angels were meant. And surely it is more proper for the angels to come to God unbidden, moved by grace, that is, by the thoughts that make them devoutly submissive to unchanging truth, as to the eternal law that rules their heavenly court. The angels are not their own criterion of truth, but, depending on creative truth, they move unbidden toward it as toward a fountain of life from which they must imbibe what they do not have of themselves. And their motion is without change, since they keep coming, never to depart.

Come, let us go down and there confuse their language. It is said to those who were present: Come, because indeed this itself never decreases from divine contemplation, and it is always to increase in divine contemplation; and never to withdraw from the heart is always to come by a certain stable motion. To whom he also says: Let us go down and confuse their language there. Angels ascend in that they see the Creator, angels descend in that they press the creature lifting itself illicitly with an examination of strictness. Therefore, to say: Let us go down and confuse their languages, is to show them in Himself that which is rightly read, and to inspire by the force of the inner vision the judgments to be displayed to their minds by hidden motions. And well He did not say: Come, and going down confuse; but let us confuse their language there, showing thus that He operates through His ministers, so that they are also co-workers of God, as the Apostle says: For we are God's fellow workers.

He says, let us confuse their language there, so that everyone may not hear the voice of his neighbor. Justly is the evil intent punished, even to which the effect does not succeed; because indeed the dominion of command is in the language, pride is condemned there, so that he who did not wish to understand to obey the command of God was not understood by a man giving commands.

But after some time had elapsed, He is again found using an expression more distinctly plural when He says: Come, let us go down and confound their language—an expression which can no longer be thought applicable to two only, but to three or more.

For the writers of Chaldaean history as being more ancient, and living farther east, have mentioned in their works both the deluge and the building of the Tower, since they saw that Tower with their own eyes under the process of construction, being no doubt well aware that the men of that time, in fear of another flood, erected it for themselves as a place of refuge and safety.

This in fact is the way the Lord is accustomed to behave. This is what he did in the beginning in the case of the [first] woman as well. She had abused the status conferred on her, and for that reason he subjected her to her husband. Again, too, in the case of Adam, since he drew no advantage from the great ease he enjoyed and from life in the garden but rather rendered himself liable to punishment through the fall, God drove him out of the garden and inflicted on him everlasting punishment in the words "thorns and thistles let the earth yield." So when the people in the present case, who had been dignified with similarity of language, used the privilege given them for evil purposes, he put a stop to the impulse of their wickedness through creating differences in language. "Let us confuse their speech," he says, "so that they will be unable to understand one another's language." His purpose was that, just as similarity of language achieved their living together, so difference in language might cause dispersal among them.

And so the Lord scattered them from that place over all the earth, and they ceased to build the city; and therefore it was called Babel, because there the language of the whole earth was confused. Rightly was the language confused for dispersion, because it had wickedly conspired in nefarious speech: the power of language was taken from the proud leaders, so that they could not teach the evils they had begun to their subjects in contempt of God, and thus the judgment of divine severity was turned into an aid for human utility, so that by keeping silent they would stop the work which they had perversely gathered to insist upon: and so with the Lord descending and seeing the city of pride, Babylon, that is, confusion, it happened to be named: which contrarily, the city of truth has both the name and the state; for it is called Jerusalem, that is, Vision of Peace, in which the Lord, seeing the assembly of the faithful and humble in spirit, sent the grace of the Holy Spirit, who would grant them the knowledge of all languages, with which, imbued, they would unanimously call all people who were in different languages to the construction of that same holy city, that is, the Church of Christ; and those who had humbly listened to the truth would sublimely open their mouths to proclaim the knowledge of the truth to the whole world. However, it should be noted that although the Scripture says that having been scattered through the world, the builders ceased from building the city; it does not say that it was ceased from being inhabited: from which it should be gathered that, with others descending and ceasing from structure, Nimrod, the author of the work, remained there with his house and family, until, from his own offspring, he could rule more greatly and more powerfully add other cities to his kingdom. For indeed, if I am not mistaken, it cannot otherwise be understood what was said above about him: But the beginning of his kingdom was Babylon, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh in the land of Shinar: although it is said that Ninus or Semiramis his wife later made the same city of Babylon greater and more august in time; hence that poet's saying that Semiramis once surrounded the city with baked brick walls; and especially Nebuchadnezzar accumulating its ornaments from the spoils of Jerusalem: whence he himself proudly said: Is this not great Babylon that I have built for the house of the kingdom, in the might of my power, and for the glory of my majesty? Of whose greatness and decoration Jerome thus narrates: "Babylon was very powerful, and situated in the plains, it extended sixteen thousand paces from corner to corner of the wall, that is, it encompasses sixty-three in circumference, as Herodotus relates (Book I), and many others who wrote Greek histories. The citadel, that is, its capitol is the tower which was built after the flood, said to occupy four thousand paces. Orosius in his histories (Book I, chap. 6) similarly mentions it: This [city], visible from all sides in the plain expanse, most fertile by the nature of the place, arranged quadrangularly with equal walls in the appearance of a camp, the strength and magnitude of its walls is scarcely credible in report, that is, fifty cubits in width, four times as high: moreover, its circumference is four hundred eighty stades, the wall built with baked bricks and mixed with bitumen, surrounded outside by a wide ditch that flows like a river. In front of the walls, a hundred bronze gates: the width at the top of the walls on either side includes the dwellings of the defenders, and spaced in the middle it accommodates chariots. The houses inside are four stories high, wonderful in threatening height." But since in the spiritual sense Babylon is the city of the devil, that is, the entire multitude of reprobate humans, who are the builders of Babylon except the masters of errors, who either introduce a cult contrary to the truth of divinity, or attack the known faith of the truth with evil deeds or words?

It is likely that they lost their common language when they received these new languages. For if their original language had not perished their first deed would not have come to nothing. It was when they lost their original language, which was lost by all the nations, with one exception, that their first building came to nought. In addition, because of their new languages, which made them foreigners to each other and incapable of understanding one another, war broke out among them on account of the divisions that the languages brought among them. Thus war broke out among those who had been building that fortified city out of fear of others. And all those who had been keeping themselves away from the city were scattered throughout the entire earth. It was Nimrod who scattered them. It was also he who seized Babel and became its first ruler. If Nimrod had not scattered them each to his own place, he would not have been able to take that place where they all had lived before.

Just as when holy men live together, it is a great grace and blessing; so, likewise, that congregation is the worst kind when sinners dwell together. The more sinners there are at one time, the worse they are. Indeed, when the tower was being built up against God, those who were building it were disbanded for their own welfare. The conspiracy was evil. The dispersion was of true benefit even to those who were dispersed.

There are many people even today who in imitation of them want to be remembered for such achievements, by building splendid homes, baths, porches and avenues. I mean, if you were to ask each of them why they toil and labor and lay out such great expense to no good purpose, you would hear nothing but these very words. They would be seeking to ensure that their memory survives in perpetuity and to have it said that "this is the house belonging to so-and-so," "this is the property of so-and-so." This, on the contrary, is worthy not of commemoration but of condemnation. For hard upon those words come other remarks equivalent to countless accusations—"belonging to so-and-so the grasping miser, despoiler of widows and orphans." So such behavior is calculated not to earn remembrance but to encounter unremitting accusations, achieve notoriety after death and incite the tongues of onlookers to calumny and condemnation of the person who acquired these goods. But if you are anxious for undying reputation, I will show you the way to succeed in being remembered for every achievement and also, along with an excellent name, to provide yourself with great confidence in the age to come. How then will you manage both to be remembered day after day and also become the recipient of tributes even after passing from one life to the next? If you give away these goods of yours into the hands of the poor, letting go of precious stones, magnificent homes, properties and baths.

If desire is fulfilled, it delights the soul, etc. Every desire, whether good or bad, when it anticipates affection, delights the soul; but the foolish, who enjoy only carnal desires, detest those who, for the love of heavenly things, despise lower entertainments.

He who walks with the wise will be wise, etc. To walk with the wise is to imitate the actions of the wise. Therefore, however simple and rustic one may be, who cannot comprehend the secrets of wisdom, if he nevertheless follows the examples of the wise by living, he will rightly be counted among the wise. But he who loves the foolish, not because of their nature, since they are men, but because of their foolishness, whether as mimes or actors, or such like, not to correct by instructing, but to make them worse by favoring: such a one, though he seems wise by wit and doctrine, will be held worthy of the mark and condemnation of fools.

A good man leaves an inheritance to his children, etc. We often see good men die without children, indeed promising greater rewards from the Lord to those who have preferred the chastity of virginity to the procreation of children, yet also the substance of the just being taken by sinners. For the Apostle glories in those who received the seizure of their goods with joy. Hence, it must be understood spiritually that the good and just Lord, who, after his passion ascending into heaven, left the apostles and their successors as heirs of his doctrine, to whose faith a multitude of peoples were converted, who were the substance of the devil. For he entered the house of the same wicked adversary and, breaking him with greater strength, plundered his arms in which he trusted and distributed his spoils, as he testifies in the Gospel. Or certainly, the substance of the sinner was kept for the just when the kingdom of God was taken from the Jews and given to a nation producing its fruits.

"A good man will inherit children's children." The verb "he will inherit" does not mean that he will take the inheritance from his sons; in fact, this would be the greatest curse. Rather, it means the opposite, that is, that he will transmit his riches to his posterity and will leave behind descendants. But the property of the ungodly is not transmitted to their sons but to those who can use them properly. Another interpretation may be: the mind, almost like a parent, generates good thoughts; and these become parents of similar actions.

Many foods are in the fresh fields of the fathers, etc. He acts without proper judgment who is diligently occupied with amassing riches and does not himself dispense these accumulated riches to the poor for the redemption of his soul, but reserves them to be dispensed by others after him, as it is said in the superior verse by the letter: And the substance of the sinner is stored up for the just, especially when victuals abound for him from the right of paternal inheritance, and there is no necessity incumbent on him to gather any moneys. This is indeed what he says, Many foods are in the fresh fields of the fathers. But in the spiritual sense, there are many foods of heavenly nourishment in the sayings and examples of venerable fathers, and he acts without reason who eagerly reading, meditating, and expounding upon these, serves not his own salvation by this, but rather others, while he himself deviates from what he reads, either by evil deeds or by the impiety of heretical sense. Such a one, in the fresh fields of the fathers, that is, in the works or sayings of the fathers well cultivated by optimal institution, acquires support not for himself, but for others, those namely who reading his treatises find through them the spiritual sense, by which they are inwardly refreshed... The preceding verse was thus translated by ancient interpreters: Just men will enjoy riches for many years; but the wicked will perish quickly.

Then the provident guide of the soul has regard to this, that he may circumscribe her pleasures and cut off her desires, that she may not delight herself in them. That father's corrections are profitable, who spares not the rod, that he may render his son's soul obedient to salutary precepts. For he visits with a rod, as we read, I will visit their offences with the rod. And so he who smites the soul of the Israelites with a rod on the cheek, by this Divine punishment instructs her in the discipline of patience. But no man need despair who is chastised and corrected, for he who loveth his son chastiseth him. Let no man therefore despair of a remedy.

You fathers, educate your children in the Lord, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and teach them such trades as are agreeable and suitable to the Lord, lest they by such opportunity become extravagant and continue without punishment from their parents, and so become slack before their time and go astray from that which is good. Therefore do not be afraid to reprove them and to teach them wisdom with severity. For your corrections will not kill them but rather preserve them.… [Thus Solomon says,] "He that spares his rod hates his son," and afterwards, "Beat his sides while he is an infant, lest he be hardened and disobey you." He, therefore, who neglects to admonish and instruct his own son, hates his own child. Teach, therefore, your children the word of the Lord. Bring them under with cutting stripes, and make them subject from infancy, teaching them the holy Scriptures, which are Christian and divine, and delivering to them every sacred writing, "not giving them such liberty that they get the mastery" and act against your opinion. Do not permit them to club together with peer groups. For so they will be turned to disorderly ways and will fall into fornication. And if this happens by the carelessness of their parents, those who gave them birth will be guilty of their souls. For if the offending children get into the company of debauched persons by the negligence of those who gave them life, they will not be punished alone by themselves, but their parents also will be condemned on their account. For this cause, endeavor at the time when they are of an age fit for marriage, to join them in wedlock and settle them together, lest in the heat and fervor of their age their course of life become dissolute and you be required to give an account by the Lord God in the day of judgment. .

"He that spares the rod hates his son." For, give us a person who with right faith and true understanding can say with all the energy of his heart, "My soul thirsts for God, for the living God: when shall I come and appear before God?" For such a person there is no need of the terror of hell, to say nothing of temporal punishments or imperial laws, seeing that with him it is so indispensable a blessing to cleave to the Lord that he not only dreads being parted from that happiness as a heavy punishment but can scarcely even bear delay in its attainment. But yet, before the good sons can say they have "a desire to depart, and to be with Christ," many must first be recalled to their Lord by the stripes of temporal scourging, like evil servants, and in some degree like good-for-nothing fugitives.

He who spares the rod hates his son, etc. For both a good father teaches his son, and a catholic teacher instructs his disciple, lest he deflects to iniquity, solicitously.

You fathers, educate your children in the Lord, bringing them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, and teach them such trades as are agreeable and suitable to the Lord, lest they by such opportunity become extravagant and continue without punishment from their parents, and so become slack before their time and go astray from that which is good. Therefore do not be afraid to reprove them and to teach them wisdom with severity. For your corrections will not kill them but rather preserve them.… [Thus Solomon says,] "He that spares his rod hates his son," and afterwards, "Beat his sides while he is an infant, lest he be hardened and disobey you." He, therefore, who neglects to admonish and instruct his own son, hates his own child. Teach, therefore, your children the word of the Lord. Bring them under with cutting stripes, and make them subject from infancy, teaching them the holy Scriptures, which are Christian and divine, and delivering to them every sacred writing, "not giving them such liberty that they get the mastery" and act against your opinion. Do not permit them to club together with peer groups. For so they will be turned to disorderly ways and will fall into fornication. And if this happens by the carelessness of their parents, those who gave them birth will be guilty of their souls. For if the offending children get into the company of debauched persons by the negligence of those who gave them life, they will not be punished alone by themselves, but their parents also will be condemned on their account. For this cause, endeavor at the time when they are of an age fit for marriage, to join them in wedlock and settle them together, lest in the heat and fervor of their age their course of life become dissolute and you be required to give an account by the Lord God in the day of judgment.

But the righteous eats and fills his soul, etc. The righteous receive the foods of wisdom, which are found to have sprung in the fresh fields of the fathers, that is, in the works and words of preceding just men, and they transfer these to the profit of their soul by living well. The belly of the wicked, that is, the capacity of the sense of heretics, is insatiable; for, as the Apostle says, Ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth (II Tim. III). Why, indeed, they do not deserve to be filled with knowledge, unless it is because, not being replenished with the foods of paternal instruction, they gather these for others without judgment?

We have been created, not to eat and drink but to come to the knowledge of God. "The just man," Scripture says, "eats and fills his soul; but the belly of the wicked is ever in want," ever hungry with a greed that cannot be quenched.

We must consider the food promised in the law as the food of the soul, which is to satisfy not both parts of a person's nature but the soul only. And the words of the gospel, although probably containing a deeper meaning, may yet be taken in their more simple and obvious sense, as teaching us not to be disturbed with anxieties about our food and clothing, but, while living in plainness, and desiring only what is needful, to put our trust in the providence of God.

If you take [this verse] according to the literal sense that "when the just person eats he will fill his soul but the souls of the impious will be in poverty," it will appear false. For the souls of the impious take food with eagerness and strive after "satiety," but the just meanwhile are hungry. Finally, Paul was just, and he said, "Up to this hour we are hungry, and thirsty, and naked, and we are beaten with fists." And again he says, "In hunger and thirst, in many fastings." And how does Solomon say, "when the just eats he will satisfy his soul"? But if you consider how "the just person" always and "without interruption" eats from "the living bread" and fills his soul and satisfies it with heavenly food which is the Word of God and his wisdom, you will find how the just person "eats his bread in abundance" from the blessing of God.

A wise woman will build her house, etc. And each faithful soul, and the universal Church throughout the world, builds her mansion in the heavenly homeland through good deeds; but the wicked, by living badly and sometimes openly resisting, dissipate what has been well ordered by the good. But why the foolish tear apart the acts of the wise is shown in the following words, as it is said:

And it was also said, "A wise woman builds a house, but the foolish will destroy it with her hands." This means that the wise woman encourages her neighbor in the fear of God and the love which is in her heart toward her sister and her sisters. But, on the other hand, the foolish woman will destroy them by her words full of bitterness, hatred, wickedness and scorn, even as it is written, "A rod of scorn is in the mouth of the foolish," and that means you.

"The wise women built up their homes." The church built its house with its patience and hope in Christ, that is, it has roused and restored those entering it with its doctrine and faith. "The foolish destroyed it with her own hand." This is the heresy which becomes the cause for their eternal death.

Walking in a right path, and fearing God, etc. For religion is an abomination to sinners. It seems foolish to the unbelievers when the faithful, due to the fear of God, not only cast away fear but also deride the torments of those who kill the body. About whom it is aptly added:

"He who walks straight, fears the Lord." Not just any fear makes people walk straight, but the fear of God.… A life provided with virtue is quite illustrious, but the addition of fear makes persons more religious.

What judgment harder than that of our hearts, whereby each one stands convicted and accuses himself of the injury that he has wrongfully done against his brother? This the Scriptures speak of very plainly, saying, "Out of the mouth of fools there is a rod for wrongdoing." Folly, then, is condemned because it causes wrongdoing. Ought we not rather to avoid this, than death, or loss, or want, or exile or sickness? Who would not think some blemish of body or loss of inheritance far less than some blemish of soul or loss of reputation?

In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride, etc. Because the foolish through their idle talk afflict the humble whom they despise; but the same humble in spirit fortify themselves by the doctrine of wisdom so as not to be deceived.

But it is the peculiar way with haughty preachers, that they are more desirous of strictly reproving their hearers even when distressed, than to cherish them in a kindly manner. For they study more to chide and reprove faults, than to encourage goodness with praise. For they are anxious to appear superior to other people, and they are better pleased when anger raises their feelings than when charity brings them down. They ever wish to find something, to smite sharply with reproof. Whence it is written, "In the mouth of the foolish is a rod of pride," because in truth he knows how to smite sharply, but not to sympathize with humility.

Where there are no oxen, the crib is empty, etc. These are connected with the preceding. For the oxen signify catholic teachers; the crib, the listeners of the assemblies; the crops, the fruits of good works. Therefore, it is in vain that the proud swell and uneducated eloquence strikes the ears and hearts of their subjects, because where there are no learned preachers, the crowd of common people gathers in vain to hear. But where many acts of virtue appear, it is most evident that it is not a heretic who babbled in vain, but he labored for the fruit of the word, who both ruminates the word with a chaste mouth and knows to walk the path of truth with the straight foot of discretion. Nor is it to be wondered at why we said that listeners are signified in the crib, since the ox is fed from the crib, and the teacher usually nourishes the hearers with the word. But it is to be noted that the crib is filled from the labor of the ox, and the ox itself is refreshed from its own fruit from the crib, because the faithful preacher both refreshes the hearers with the word and is himself refreshed with the same nourishment by the Lord; as is figured in the work of Elijah, who is both fed by and feeds the widow of Zarephath whom he sustains.

These things we have said concerning those that in truth have been martyrs for Christ, but not concerning false martyrs, concerning whom the oracle speaks, "The name of the ungodly is extinguished." For "a faithful witness will not lie, but an unjust witness inflames lies." For he that departs this life in his testimony without lying, for the sake of the truth, is a faithful martyr, worthy to be believed in such things wherein he strove for the word of truth by his own blood. .

These things we have said concerning those that in truth have been martyrs for Christ, but not concerning false martyrs, concerning whom the oracle speaks, "The name of the ungodly is extinguished." For "a faithful witness will not lie, but an unjust witness inflames lies." For he that departs this life in his testimony without lying, for the sake of the truth, is a faithful martyr, worthy to be believed in such things wherein he strove for the word of truth by his own blood.

The mocker seeks wisdom, etc. Caiaphas, who said to the Lord, "I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ"; because he sought badly, he did not deserve to find what he sought. But the disciples, who humbly submitted to the hearing of the truth, receiving the grace of the Spirit, not only deserved to know Christ the Son of God but also to understand the hidden things of the Scriptures. But then the doctrine of the prudent was easy when Cornelius with his household and others like him, humbly hearing the word, immediately believed, and receiving the Holy Spirit, spoke in all tongues. Now also, whoever is prudent, while being catechized, easily grasps the doctrine of the catholic faith; which the heretics, because they seek perversely, never truly find at all.

When you renounce Satan, trampling underfoot every covenant with him, then you annul that ancient "league with hell," and God's paradise opens before you, that Eden, planted in the east, from which for his transgression our first father was banished.

(Verse 14, 15). Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you mockers who rule over my people in Jerusalem. For you have said: We have made a covenant with death, and with the grave we have made a pact. When the overwhelming whip passes through, it will not come to us, for we have made falsehood our refuge, and we have hidden behind deceit. LXX: Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you men, and leaders of this people in Jerusalem, who are in distress: For you have said: We have made a pact with the grave, and with death we have made a covenant. If the storm passes through, it will not come to us, because we have made falsehood our refuge, and we will be protected by deceit. As we stated above, the leaders of the Jews are accustomed to mock the prophets by saying: Command, re-command; wait, re-wait, and other similar things, by which it is shown that they did not believe in the words of the prophets, but held their prophecies in contempt. The present chapter proves this, through which they are called mocking men. These are the scribes and Pharisees who rule over the people of God in Jerusalem, whom the Seventy call troubled men, and the leaders of the people of Jerusalem. For they said not in word, but in deed: We are like the other nations, we have a pact and covenant with hell and with death: once we have despaired of salvation. Certainly captivity will come after a long time, they will say to you: Yet a little while, yet a little while: wait and wait again. Therefore, when we are dead, we will not feel this scourge of captivity and this storm. For once we believed in falsehood, that is, we had hope in vain in God and in His Law. And so we were protected by a lie, because we avoided impending captivity. The Hebrew word Sot (), Aquila and Symmachus interpreted as a whip, the LXX as a storm; Chasab () also translated it as a lie, in which the Jews hoped, according to the Gospel of John, the father is the devil.

What, then, are the burdens that he censures? None but those which they were accumulating of their own accord, when they taught for commandments the doctrines of men; for the sake of private advantage joining house to house, so as to deprive their neighbor of his own; cajoling the people, loving gifts, pursuing rewards, robbing the poor of the right of judgment, that they might have the widow for a prey and the fatherless for a spoil. Of these Isaiah also says, "woe to them that are strong in Jerusalem!"

646. Wherefore. Here he excludes remedy. And first, he sets out two remedies; second, he excludes both from them: and I will set (Isa 28:17). Concerning the first, he sets out two remedies.

"He has become my help and my protector unto salvation." They are said to be helpers who grant us their cooperation through specific acts. Protectors, however, are those who defend us with their power. Protection can take a variety of forms. For some, God is a protection, but deception becomes a protection for others, who lie about themselves, as Isaiah said: "We have established deception as our hope, and we are protected by lies."

One in which they trusted, namely, a covenant with idols; hence he places the covenant: we have entered into a league with death, that is, with the devil: will he make a covenant with you, and will you take him to be a servant for ever? (Job 40:23); and the fruit of the covenant: the overflowing scourge, that is, persecution; we have placed our hope in lies, that is, in idols, because you prophets tell lies: they are not in the labor of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men (Ps 72[73]:5).

Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious. To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner, And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed. [Isaiah 28:16] But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light: Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

The foundation of justice therefore is faith, for the hearts of the just dwell on faith. And the just man that accuses himself builds justice on faith, for his justice becomes plain when he confesses the truth. So the Lord says through Isaiah: "Behold, I lay a stone for a foundation in Zion." This means Christ as the foundation of the church. For Christ is the object of faith to all; but the church is as it were the outward form of justice; it is the common right of all.

Therefore, with the exception of this cornerstone, I do not see how people are to be built into a house of God, to contain God dwelling in them, without being born again, which cannot happen before they are born.

To the one group, the infant at birth is shown as the chief cornerstone announced by the prophet; to the other group he is manifested at the very outset of his career. He has already begun to weld together in himself the two walls originally set in different directions, bringing shepherds from Judea and magi from the East.

A stone anointed; why a stone? "Behold, I lay in Zion a stone, elect, precious; and he that believes on him shall not be confounded." Why anointed? Because Christ comes from "anointing" (chrisma).

Here is what one believes with the heart unto justice and makes confession of with the mouth unto salvation. But you're afraid to confess it, in case people taunt you with it; and not ones who have not come to believe, because they too believe it inwardly. But in case those who are ashamed to confess it should taunt you with it, listen to what comes next. For Scripture says, "Nobody who believes in him shall be put to shame." Reflect on all this; stick to it all. This is prey, food not for the belly but for the intelligence.

Christ is the foundation of this faith. For other foundation no one can lay, but that which has been laid, which is Christ Jesus. For He is the cornerstone of which Isaiah and Peter speak: See, I am laying a stone in Sion, a stone that has been tested, a precious cornerstone as a sure foundation. And the Apostle: You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.

Was his tomb made with hands? Does it rise above the ground, like the tombs of kings? Was the sepulcher made of stones joined together? And what is laid upon it? Tell us exactly, O prophets, about his tomb also, where it lies, and where we shall look for it. But they answer, "Look upon the solid rock which you have hewn," look and see.… I, who am "the chief corner stone, chosen, precious," lie for a while within a stone, I, who am "a stone of stumbling" to the Jews but of salvation to them that believe.

And again the prophet says, "Since as a mighty stone He is laid for crushing, behold I cast down for the foundations of Zion a stone, precious, elect, a corner-stone, honourable." Next, what says He? "And he who shall trust in it shall live for ever." Is our hope, then, upon a stone? Far from it. But [the language is used] inasmuch as He laid his flesh [as a foundation] with power; for He says, "And He placed me as a firm rock."

Who can the cornerstone be other than the one who is the living and precious stone supporting two structures with his teaching making them one? He established the building of Moses, which was to remain until his day, and then he joined on to one side our building of the gospel. This is why he is called the cornerstone.

Jacob, hastening to seek a bride, met Rachel unexpectedly at the well. And a great stone lay upon the well, which a multitude of shepherds were [accustomed] to roll away when they came together and then gave water to themselves and to their flocks. But Jacob alone rolls away the stone and waters the flocks of his spouse. The thing is, I think, a dark saying, a shadow of what should come. For what is the stone that is laid but Christ? For of him Isaiah says, "And I will lay in the foundations of Zion a costly stone, precious, elect"; and Daniel likewise, "A stone was cut out but not by hand," that is, Christ was born without a man.

This cornerstone joins together both walls and restores two peoples to unity, concerning which God said through Isaiah: "Behold, I will lay a cornerstone in Zion as its foundation, elect and precious; the one who believes in it will not be ashamed." It was his will to build further upon this cornerstone and other cornerstones, so that the apostle Paul would be able to say boldly, "built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets, with Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone."

Peter also spoke confidently about this stone of assistance: "This is the stone rejected by you builders, which was made the cornerstone." And Isaiah said, "Behold, I will lay a cornerstone in Zion as its foundation, elect and precious; the one who believes in it will not be ashamed.""Therefore I say to you that the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to the people who produce its fruit." As I have said, the kingdom of God is often to be understood as sacred Scripture, which the Lord removed from the Jews and gave to us that we might produce its fruits. This is the vineyard that was given to the tenant farmers and vinedressers who did no work in it; possessing the Scriptures in name only, they will lose the fruits of the vineyard. "Whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but the one upon whom it falls will be destroyed." It is one thing to offend Christ through evil deeds but another thing to deny him. The sinner who nevertheless still believes in him is the one who falls on the stone and is broken but not altogether destroyed, for he is preserved for salvation through patience. But the one upon whom it falls, that is, the one upon whom the stone itself rushes, is the one who denies Christ inwardly. He is destroyed so completely that not even a shard with which to draw a little water will remain.

(Verse 16). Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will send in the foundations of Zion a tested, corner, precious stone, founded on a foundation: he who believes shall not hurry. LXX: Therefore, thus says the Lord: Behold, I will lay in Zion a precious stone, a chosen, cornerstone, and whoever believes in it will not be put to shame.

I had said, he says, to you: Listen to the word of the Lord, men who mock, or troubled rulers of my people, and do not have a covenant with death, nor an agreement with the underworld, who, despising my commandments, have put your hope in lies, and boasting, or rather despairing, say: with lies we will be protected. Therefore, the merciful and compassionate Lord, patient and greatly merciful (Ps. 145), says that he will send an elected, tested, precious, and corner stone into the foundations of Zion for those who do not want it. About which the Apostle also speaks: Like a wise architect, I have laid the foundation (I Cor. III, 10); and again: For no one can lay any other foundation than the one that's been laid, which is Christ Jesus (Ibid., 11). This stone is truly and again called a stone, just as in Leviticus, a man is called man twice and a corner stone, because it has united the people of the Circumcision and the Gentiles, about which it is also said in the psalm: The stone which the builders rejected, has become the head of the corner (Ps. CXVII, 22). But these are the builders and masons, who are now called deceivers and leaders of the people who are in Jerusalem. Concerning this stone, we read in Daniel that it was cut from a mountain without hands, and it filled the whole earth (Dan. II): because the divine dispensation of the divine seed assumed a human body, and the fullness of Divinity dwelt in it bodily. Upon this stone, which is also called rock, Christ built the Church, and according to the Hebrew, he established the foundation on a firm rock, on which anyone who believes will not be put to shame, or, according to the Hebrew, will not hasten, lest the coming of Christ appear slow to him. For if it delays according to Habakkuk, let no one despair: for it will surely come, and it will fulfill its promises (Hab. II).

Your stone is one that ruin follows and the disastrous collapse of tumbling towers; but our stone, laid by the hand of God, builds up, strengthens, lifts, fortifies and adorns the grace of the restored work with the splendor of everlasting immortality.For Isaiah says of this at the behest of the Holy Spirit: "Thus says the Lord: Behold, I lay a stone for the foundations of Zion, a precious stone, elect, a chief cornerstone, honored, and he that shall believe in it shall not be confounded."

And if in reading the Scripture you stumble on a good thought that is a "stumbling stone and a rock of offense," blame yourself. For do not despair that this "stumbling stone and rock of offense" have meanings so as to fulfill the saying, "And the one who believes will not be put to shame." Believe first, and you will discover much holy aid beneath the supposed offense. For if we ourselves receive the commandment not to speak a "careless word as we will render an account of it on the day of judgment," and if we earnestly aspire, as far as possible, to make it so that every word coming out of our mouth works both on us who speak it and on those who hear it, what else is there need to understand about the prophets than that every word spoken through their mouth was one which works? And do not be amazed if every word spoken by the prophets works a work which is fitting for a word. For I think that every extraordinary letter written in the words of God works, and there is not "an iota or one dot" written in the Scripture which does not work in those who know to use the power of the Scriptures.

Therefore, brothers, we should be careful neither to give scandal to others nor to take it ourselves when another gives it. It is scandal that troubles the senses, perturbs the mind, confuses our judgment otherwise sharp. It is a scandal that changed an angel into the devil, an apostle into a traitor; that brought sin into the world and allured humankind to death.… Scandal tempts the saints, fatigues the cautious, throws down the incautious, disturbs all things, confuses all people.… He uttered a warning to keep anyone else from coming to this, by saying, "It is impossible that scandals should not come; but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung about his neck and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin."Why a millstone and not an ordinary stone? Because, while a millstone is grinding the grain, and pouring out the flour and separating the bran from the meal, it is simultaneously furnishing bread to those who are dutifully toiling. Rightly, therefore, is a millstone tied to the neck of the person who chooses to be a minister of scandal rather than of peace; the very same thing that should have drawn him to life may drag him down to death. For [such a person] has changed those senses given to aid him toward life into a stumbling block bringing death. Then they persuaded him to see something else, and hear, feel and relish something else than was in Christ and in his saving knowledge. In this way he has encompassed the cornerstone, the stone symbolizing help, the stone cut out without hands, that is, Christ, and he has turned it into a stumbling for the weak.

And it is seemly for us first of all to uproot wickedness, and then to lay in ourselves the foundation of the edifice of virtues, in order that the rock may receive our foundation, as it is written, and that on a sure stone may be our building, even as it is said. And in this respect we should be like unto the physicians of our nature who, until they have removed and cleansed the matter from the sore, do not lay upon it the plaster which buildeth up and maketh to grow the living flesh; and so must it be with us also when we have uprooted the matter of the lust of the belly, and have made accusations against its filthy and loathsome forms.

Isaiah wrote, "Behold, I lay a cornerstone in Zion as its foundation, elect and precious; he who believes in it will not be ashamed." The cornerstone is Christ, who, when Nathaniel came to him, explained what Jacob had seen in his dream: "You will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man." For the Christ who descended "is the same one who ascends above all the heavens that he might fill everything." But he lays a narrow path that leads to life.

For Moses describeth the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach; That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. [Isaiah 28:16] For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Second is the remedy which God prepares for the saints, namely Christ: behold I will lay a stone in the foundations of Zion: the stone which the builders rejected; the same is become the head of the corner (Ps 117[118]:22); he that believes, let him not hasten, but wait for it: if it make any delay, wait for it (Hab 2:3), and this against the blasphemies of the wicked.

The Judge wishes to have mercy on you and to share his own compassion, but on condition that he finds you humble after sin, contrite, lamenting much for your evil deeds, announcing publicly without shame sins committed secretly, begging the brothers to labor with you in reparation. In short, if he sees that you are worthy of pity, he provides his mercy for you ungrudgingly. But if he sees your heart unrepentant, your mind proud, your disbelief of the future life and your fearlessness of the judgment, then he desires the judgment for you. [This is like] a reasonable and kind doctor [who] tries at first with hot applications and soft poultices to reduce a tumor. But, when he sees that the mass is rigidly and obstinately resisting, casting away the olive oil and the gentle method of treatment, he prefers henceforth the use of the knife. Therefore [God] loves mercy in the case of those repenting, but he also loves judgment in the case of the unyielding. Isaiah says some such thing, too, to God: "Your mercy in measure." For he compares the mercy with the judgment of him who gives compensation by scale and number and weight according to the deserts of each.

Discourse awhile on our present heavy blow, about the just judgments of God, whether we grasp their meaning or are ignorant of their great depth. How again "mercy is put in the balance," as holy Isaiah declares. For goodness is not without discernment, as the first laborers in the vineyard fancied, because they could not perceive any distinction between those who were paid alike. [Perceive] how anger, which is called "the cup in the hand of the Lord" and "the cup of falling which is drained," is in proportion to transgressions, even though he shows mercy to every one according to what they are due and dilutes with compassion the unmixed draught of his wrath. For he inclines from severity to indulgence toward those who accept chastisement with fear, and who after a slight affliction conceive and are in pain with conversion, and bring forth the perfect spirit of salvation. But nevertheless he reserves the dregs, the last drop of his anger, that he may pour it out entire upon those who, instead of being healed by his kindness, grow obdurate, like the hard-hearted Pharaoh, that bitter taskmaster, who is set forth as an example of the power of God over the ungodly.

(Verses 17-18). And I will put judgment in the balance, and justice in the measure: and hail will overthrow the hope of lies, and the covering waters will flood. And your covenant with death shall be abolished, and your pact with Hell shall not stand; when the overflowing scourge passes through, you shall be trampled. LXX: And I will set judgment as hope; but my mercy as a burden, and those who believe in vain falsehood, for the storm will not pass through us, and it will not take away from us the testament of death, and your hope will not remain in hell. If the coming storm passes, you will be trampled by it.

And God also promises to put judgment in Him: For the Father does not judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son (John V, 22). And justice or mercy in measure, in order to render to each according to his works, and to temper justice and mercy with each other, according to what we also read in the Psalms: Mercy and truth have met each other: justice and peace have kissed (Ps. LXXXIV, 11). He also says that your hope and falsehood, that is, the devil, the father of all falsehood, will overthrow the hailstorm of my punishments. And the protection, under which you thought you would be safe, a powerful storm and a multitude of waters will destroy, so that the friendship and treaty that you had with death and with Hell, that is, with the devil, may perish eternally. And the whip or storm, of which you said: 'When the overwhelming whip passes, it will not come upon us' - it will come, and you will be trodden down by it, that is, you will suffer all the torments that you believed you would never endure in despair.

647. And I will set. Here he excludes both of these remedies, and first, the first remedy, second, the second remedy: for the bed is straitened (Isa 28:20). Concerning the first, he does three things: first, he sets out the just judgment of exclusion: I will set judgment in weight: you have made all things in number and measure (Wis 11:21); second, he excludes the covenant, and hail, of tribulation, shall overturn the hope of falsehood; and he sets out four things against all that had been mentioned above: the hope of the hypocrite shall perish (Job 8:13).

Every time is suitable for your ablution, since any time may be your death. With Paul I shout to you with that loud voice, "Behold now is the accepted time; behold now is the day of salvation";56 and that now does not point to any one time but is every present moment. And again "Awake, you that sleep, and Christ shall give you light," dispelling the darkness of sin. For as Isaiah says, "In the night hope is evil," and it is more profitable to be received in the morning.

Now righteous people conceive a dread of God before his indignation is stirred up against them; they fear him at rest, lest they should feel him as moved. But, on the other hand, the wicked then for the first time fear to be smitten when they are under the rod, and terror then rouses them from the sleep of their insensibility when vengeance is troubling them. And hence it is said by the prophet, "And only the vexing alone shall supply understanding to the hearing." For when they have begun to be stricken in vengeance for the contempt and neglect of God's precepts, then they understand the thing that they heard.

(Verse 19). When it passes by, it will seize you; for it will pass through in the morning, in the day and at night, and its vexation will only give understanding to the ear. LXX: When it passes, it will lift you up in the morning, it will pass in the morning; day and night there will be the worst of hope. Learn to listen, you who are in tribulation: we cannot fight, for we ourselves are weak to be gathered.

For always the wrath of the Lord will fall upon you, and you will feel it both in times of prosperity and adversity, and cruel death will ravage you. What shall I say about punishments? Fear of punishments alone and the dread of torments will correct you for salvation, and will make you understand your evils. And when you have been tormented, then you will know that my Prophets have spoken the truth.

According to the Hebrew. Furthermore, as for what is read in the LXX: Learn to hear, you who are troubled: we cannot fight, but we ourselves are weak so that we may gather together. I completely do not know the meaning of this, and how it is connected to the previous context. Unless perhaps the divine speech speaks to the leaders of the people and encourages them to have hope in God, and not in death and hell, and teaches them to listen to the prophecies of the prophets, and they respond that they cannot fight against opposing powers due to the weakness of their strength, nor gather among the people of God.

Third, the fruit of the exclusion, and vexation alone, above: Lord, they have sought after you in distress (Isa 26:16).

"The glory of the God of Israel was there" not to delight the neighborhood but to annihilate the "idol of jealousy" and the temple by his very presence. Hence the destruction of the city and the temple followed shortly thereafter. It is also written in Isaiah that "a narrow bed cannot hold two persons, nor can a short blanket cover both," prefiguring that saying of the apostle: "What does Christ have in common with Belial, or the temple of God with an idol?"

(Verse 20). For the bed is too narrow for one to stretch out on, and the covering is too small to wrap oneself in.

And what follows: For the bed is made narrow, so that one falls out, and the short cloak cannot cover both, it has the sense which we read in the Apostle: You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of devils. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons (2 Corinthians 10:20, 21); and elsewhere: What fellowship does righteousness have with iniquity? What communion does light have with darkness? What agreement does Christ have with Belial? What part does a believer have with an unbeliever? What agreement does the temple of God have with idols (2 Corinthians 6:14, 15)? However, he speaks under the metaphor of a most chaste husband, who says to his adulterous wife: One bed cannot contain both me and an adulterer, and a short cloak cannot cover both a husband and an adulterer. Therefore, Jerusalem, to whom in Ezekiel under the guise of a wife speaking, her adulteries are spoken of (Ezek. XVI, 21), and whom in Hosea at the beginning is called a harlot and an adulteress (Hos. III), if you wish to be united with my embraces, cast away idols: if you serve idols, you cannot have me.

648. For the bed is straitened. Here he excludes the second remedy. And first, he sets out the impediment, which makes it so that the remedy will not profit them: straitened; he speaks according the likeness of an adulteress, who cannot have her husband and her lover in the same bed; just so, they cannot maintain the worship of idols and obtain divine help: you cannot be partakers of the table of the Lord and of the table of devils (1 Cor 10:21).

Hence Isaiah, contemplating our salvation and [Christ's] passion, well said: "That he may do his work, his strange work; that he may perform his work, his work is strange to him." For the work of God is to gather the souls that he created and call them back to the joys of the eternal light. But it is not the work [of] God in his essence to be flogged, to be smeared with spittle, to be crucified, to die and to be buried, but this is the work of a sinful person who deserved all these things for his sins. But [Jesus] himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And he who in his own nature always remains incomprehensible deigned to be comprehended in our nature and to be flogged, because if he had not assumed the attributes of our weakness he could never have raised us to the power of his fortitude.… And he does his strange work that he might do his proper work, because insofar as he bore our sins in infirmity he led us who are his creatures to the glory of his fortitude in which he lives and reigns with God the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, through ages of ages. Amen.

(Verse 21, 22.) For just as the Lord will stand on the mountain of divisions, and will be angry in the valley of Gibeon, to do his work, his strange work, to carry out his task, his alien task. And now do not mock: lest perhaps your chains be tightened. For I have heard from the Lord God of hosts a conclusion and an abbreviation over all the earth. LXX: As the mountain of the wicked rises, the Lord will arise, and it will be in the valley of Gibeon, when he does his work with fury, the work of bitterness and his fury he will use as if it were alien: and his bitterness as if it were foreign. And do not rejoice, neither let your bonds be strengthened, for I have heard from the Lord God of Hosts that the things which he will do upon the whole earth are consummated and abbreviated. The Lord has promised to place a precious stone in the foundations of Zion, in order to overturn falsehood and the hope of the wicked; and to abolish the covenant with death and the agreement with hell by a powerful storm. Because the princes did not want to accept Him, just as in the past against the Allophyli, when David reigned on the mountain of divisions, which in Hebrew is called Pharasim, the Lord brought down his adversaries, from where the place also received its name. And as in the valley of Gibeon, under the leadership of Joshua, when the confidence of the inhabitants in themselves spoke to God: Sun, stand still in Gibeon, and moon, in the valley of Aijalon ((or Elon)) (Joshua 10:12); and the sun stood still for the space of a whole day; and many of the foreign invaders perished: so the Lord will be angry with the wicked and the mockers, in order to accomplish His work. For it is not the work of the Lord to destroy those whom He has created; but to perform a work that belongs more to cruelty than to clemency. And again the same thing is repeated in other words, so that it may accomplish its work. It is not his task to punish sinners, but the stranger, and alien from him, that he may punish who is the Savior. Therefore, since the Lord is about to rise again from his patience, and will not spare: just as he did not spare on Mount Pharasim, and in the valley of Gibeon: I warn you, O mocking men, that you should not at all laugh at my prophets, and that you should not think that the things they proclaim are not going to happen, lest if you persist in mocking, the bonds of your sins may be tightened (For by the cords of his own sins each one is bound (Prov. V, 22), or lest the time of captivity may come upon you. Indeed, what the Lord delayed in time, the bonds, captivity, and punishments, or the final day of judgment, He is now about to fulfill, accomplish, and shorten. Therefore, as a prophet, I announce to you the things that I have known from the Lord God Almighty that will happen over the whole earth, so that you may prevent the impending wrath with repentance. According to the Septuagint, the Lord Himself is said to rise like a mountain of the wicked and to be present in the valley of Gibeon, in order to perform His works, which are all one work of bitterness: which should by no means be seen as blasphemous. For the Lord does not say that the mountain of the wicked will come, but that it is like a mountain, which appears to be very heavy to the wicked and those who endure them. Just as if one careless son and another sick son, the father and the doctor could be cruel if they restore them to health with beatings and cauterization. For the Lord will rise and will be in the valley of Gibeon, on account of those who, because of their sins, remain in a humble place, and because of the swelling of their souls, are raised up in pride. For Gabaon, the hill interprets: that it may do its works, which are works of bitterness; when forced to change mercy, it becomes bitter instead of sweet. Therefore, you who are about to suffer these things, do not now rejoice in that joy in which he rejoiced and was richly clothed in purple at the feast, while neglecting Lazarus the poor (Luke 16): lest your chains become stronger. For what the Lord is going to do and how he will fulfill his judgement, these things I have both heard and announced to you. And what it means: According to history, understand it as referring to the borders of Judea extending over all the land; according to allegory, understand it as referring to the entire world.

Second, he sets out the coming of the liberator, as in the mountain of divisions. He refers to the history which is found in 2 Kings 5; as in the valley, Joshua 10. Third, he excludes the help of mercy: that he may do his work, that is, that he may have mercy on us, as he did then, spoken interrogatively; and he responds: strange work: his tender mercies are over all his works (Ps 144[145]:9).

They do not understand that God grants to each period of time what is appropriate. As he commanded marriage in the law, so in the gospel does he recommend virginity. In the law, an eye is to be offered for an eye, but in the gospel, the other side of the cheek is to be offered to one's assailant. The former arrangement was for a weak people, whereas the latter is for the perfect. Nevertheless each order was adapted to its proper time. Yet it is not to be believed on the basis of this change that God is mutable. Instead, it should be proclaimed a miracle that while remaining immutable himself, God gave to each era its own distinctly appropriate order.Sins were of lesser guilt under the Old Testament because only a shadow of the truth, not truth itself, was present therein. For the higher precepts of the New Testament reveal that we are to forsake some of those things to which the people of the shadow of truth were bound. Previously, for instance, fornication and the taking of retribution for injuries were permitted without punishment. In the New Testament, however, they are condemned with severe punishments. The creed and the Lord's Prayer replace the whole law in sufficing to obtain the kingdom of heaven for the little ones of the church. For the entire breadth of Scripture is contained briefly in the Lord's Prayer and the creed. Thus does the prophet Isaiah say, "I heard from the Lord God of hosts about an abbreviation upon all the earth."

649. And now do not mock. Here he draws, as a conclusion, sound and wholesome counsel, and first, he prohibits mocking: do not mock; bonds, of captivity: he shall scorn the scorners (Prov 3:34); and he assigns the reason: for I have heard of the Lord the God of hosts a consumption and a cutting short upon all the earth.