Habakkuk 1

First, Chromatius, most learned of bishops, it is fitting for us to know that among the Greeks and Latins the name of the prophet is read corruptly as Ambacum, who among the Hebrews is called Habakkuk, and it is interpreted embrace, or, to render it more expressively in Greek, περίληψις, that is, embracing. Next, that where the Seventy translators and Symmachus and Theodotion translated λῆμμα, that is, assumption, in the Hebrew there stands massa, which Aquila translated as weight; on this we have argued more fully in the prophet Nahum. Massa, moreover, is never set at the head of a title except when what is seen is heavy and full of weight and toil. Hence the present prophecy too must have something of severity, so that, as in Nahum the weight that was seen against Nineveh, the city of the Assyrians, was heavy, so in this one also it may be asked for whom the weight is that is revealed to the prophet's sight. Now there are four prophets in the volume of the twelve prophets, of whom three have at the beginning the title λῆμμα, that is, weight: Nahum, Habakkuk and Malachi. Zechariah, moreover, sets two titles of this kind, in the middle and near the end, of which one is: The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of Damascus his rest; the other at the end: The burden of the word of the Lord upon Israel. On Nahum, through your prayers, a book has already been published; on Zechariah and Malachi, if life keeps me company, there will be a discussion. Now we have Habakkuk in hand, who, either because he is beloved of the Lord, is called embracing, or, because he comes to grips with God in contest and wrestling and — so to speak — in an embrace, has received the name of one who embraces, that is, of one who wrestles. For no one has dared with so bold a voice to challenge God to a dispute about justice and to say to him: Why, in human affairs and in the πολιτείᾳ (commonwealth) of this world, does so great an iniquity of things hold sway? Shall I cry out to you, suffering violence, and will you not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and toil to see? The law is torn apart, and judgment does not come through to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just; therefore perverse judgment goes forth. Do you see that it is a rash voice, and in a way that of a blasphemer, to challenge one's Creator to judgment in this way, and for a fragile vessel to argue against the potter why it was made thus or thus? This too must be noticed: that the assumption or weight, which we have already said are heavy things, is the vision of the prophet; and, against the perverse doctrine of Montanus, he understands what he sees, and he neither speaks like a madman nor, in the manner of raving women, gives forth sound without mind. Hence the Apostle also commands that, if while others are prophesying something has been revealed to another, those who were speaking first should be silent. And immediately: For God, he says, is not of dissension, but of peace. From this it is understood that when someone falls silent by his own will and gives place to another to speak, he can both speak and be silent when he wishes. But he who speaks in ecstasy, that is, unwillingly, has neither silence nor speech in his own power. Learn this also — since you once and for all demand of me forcefully that I interpret the history for you as a kind of steps and ladders for one striving toward higher things —: that the prophecy is against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, king of the Chaldeans, so that, just as the earlier prophet Nahum, whom Habakkuk follows, had a prophecy against Nineveh and the Assyrians, who laid waste the ten tribes which were called Israel, so Habakkuk has a prophecy against Babylon and Nebuchadnezzar, by whom Judah and Jerusalem and the temple were overthrown. And so that you may know that Habakkuk lived at the time when the two tribes which were called Judah had already been led into captivity, Daniel can teach you, to whom Habakkuk is sent with a meal into the lions' den, although among the Hebrews this very history is not read. Therefore, whether one accepts that scripture or does not accept it, either way it is on our side: for either he accepts it, and then the book of Habakkuk is composed after the event had taken place; or he does not accept it, and Habakkuk writes as a prophet the things that he knows are to come.

How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? Shall I cry aloud to you, suffering violence, and will you not save? Why have you shown me iniquity and grief, to see plunder and injustice against me? LXX: How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? Shall I cry aloud to you, suffering violence, and will you not save? Why have you shown me toils and griefs, to see misery and impiety? Meanwhile, according to the letter, the prophet complains against God: why does Nebuchadnezzar lay waste the temple and Judah; why is Jerusalem, once the city of the Lord, destroyed? Why does the people cry out and is not heard? Why does it cry aloud to the Lord, oppressed by the Chaldeans, and is not saved? Why, too, has the prophet himself, or the people in whose person he now speaks, lived for this and been brought this far, to see the iniquity of the enemies and his own toil? Why does injustice prevail against him? And he says this out of anguish of mind, not knowing that gold is refined in fire, and that the three boys came out of the furnace purer than they went in. But we can also take it generally: that the prophet, speaking in the person of human impatience, seeing sinners abounding and possessing riches in the world, their sons like a new plantation in their youth, and their daughters adorned like the likeness of the temple, their storehouses full, overflowing from this into that, their sheep fruitful and multiplied in their ways, and the other things that are written more fully in Psalm 143 (144), bursts out into a complaining voice full of grief. Why do you look upon the despisers, and keep silent while the wicked tramples down one more just than himself, and you make men like the fish of the sea, and like creeping things that have no leader? Something of this kind we read also in Psalm 72 (73): But my feet were almost moved, my steps had almost slipped, and the rest. And again in the same psalm: And if there is knowledge in the Most High. For behold, the sinners, abounding in the world, have obtained riches, and the rest, as far as my hands. But they say these things not knowing the unsearchable judgments of God and the depth of the riches of his wisdom and knowledge, and that God does not see as man sees. Man looks only at present things; God knows the things to come and the eternal. And it is as if a sick man, burning with fever, were to ask for cold water and say to the physician: I suffer violence, I am tormented, I burn, I am dying; how long, physician, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? And the most wise and most merciful physician were to answer him: I know at what time I ought to give what you ask; I do not take pity now, because that mercy is cruelty, and your will asks against yourself. So also the Lord our God, knowing the weights and measures of his clemency, sometimes does not hear the one who cries out, in order to test him, and to stir him the more to ask, and, as if refining him in the fire, to make him more just and purer. Understanding this, the Apostle, according to the fact that he obtained mercy from the Lord, says: Let us not fail in tribulations, and he blesses God at all times, and knows that he who perseveres to the end, he shall be saved. And he glories in toil and grief. And with Jeremiah he says: I will call upon tribulation and misery. So that, just as another calls upon God, so the holy man and unconquered warrior, in order to exercise and prove himself, longs for tribulation and misery to come.

It is not as though bringing a censure against God that the prophet says this. Rather, he speaks this way as it is the custom with people who are in some sort of trouble or who are righteously indignant with those responsible to present the injustice of what is being done under the guise of censure. Blessed David also says in like manner, "Why, O Lord, do you keep your distance? Why do you look down on us in good times and in bad? When the godless act disdainfully, the poor person is inflamed," and so on, saying this not to censure God but to express indignation with those responsible for it and at a loss as to how they are not quickly called to account.

And judgment has come about, and contradiction is the stronger.

Because of this the law is torn apart, and judgment does not come through to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just; therefore perverse judgment goes forth. LXX: Against me judgment has come about, and the judge takes; therefore the law is torn apart, and judgment does not come through to the end, because the wicked prevails against the just; therefore perverse judgment goes forth. The prophet or the people is still speaking to the Lord: that judgment was given against him not by truth but by power, and that he obtained nothing from the law and justice. Hence the judgment itself did not have its end. Now the end of judgment is to judge justly. And why he dares to say this he shows in what follows, saying: Because the wicked Nebuchadnezzar prevailed against the just Judah; and that this is the reason why he said that judgment did not come through to the end, because it is unjust and perverse that Josiah, a just king, should be slaughtered by the Egyptian king, that Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah should be slaves, and the Babylonian emperor should rule, and Belshazzar, among his harlots and concubines, should drink from the bowls of God. These things the prophet says about the state of his own times — for we follow even the lowliness of the history, since you once wished it —. But according to the LXX, it is the common complaint of the saints to God: why unjust judgment is passed against them, and they shed innocent blood in persecutions; and if ever they have stood before the tribunal of secular judges, the judge, having taken bribes, condemns the innocent and frees the guilty. This indeed can be said not only of the judges of the world but sometimes also of the leaders of the churches: that for the sake of bribes they tear the law apart and do not bring judgment through to the end, and the wicked prevails against the just, and in judgment the sin of the rich man is defended rather than the truth of the poor man. Hence the complaint that perverse judgment goes forth; but we ought not to be troubled over this inequality of things, seeing that even at the beginning of the world the just Abel was killed by the wicked Cain, and afterwards, while Jacob was in exile, Esau reigned in his father's house; and the Egyptians afflict the children of Israel with clay and brick; and the Lord, against whom the complaint is now directed, is crucified by the Jews, and Barabbas the robber is chosen. The day will fail me if I wish to enumerate how in this world, while the wicked prevail, the just are oppressed.

For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption: But he, whom God raised again, saw no corruption. Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins: And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you, which is spoken of in the prophets; Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish: for I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you. [Habakkuk 1:5] And when the Jews were gone out of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might be preached to them the next sabbath. Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.

This is Habakkuk the ninth in order, who was also privileged to speak concerning the resurrection of Christ in these terms: Behold, ye despisers, and regard, and wonder marvellously, and vanish for ever, because I work a work in your days which ye will not believe though it be told you. This passage Paul cited at Antioch of Pisidia as having reference to the resurrection of the Lord Christ.

He remained Lord of all things even when he came, for the divine economy, in the form of a slave, and this is why the mystery of Christ is truly wonderful. Indeed God the Father said to the Jews through one of the prophets, "Look on this, you scoffers, be struck with wonder and disappear, for I am doing a work in your days, a work in which you will not believe even if one were to explain it to you."

Look among the nations and see, and marvel, and be astounded, for a work has been done in your days which no one will believe when it is told. LXX: See, you despisers, and look, and marvel at marvels and perish, for I work a work in your days which you will not believe if anyone tells it. Symmachus, for what we have said, For a work has been done in your days, translated: For a work will be done in your days, the rest likewise. Again, at the beginning of the chapter, where in the Hebrew is written rau baggoim, and we translated Look among the nations, and the LXX put See, you despisers, while Aquila and Symmachus and Theodotion agree with our translation, in a certain other edition, ἀνωνύμη (anonymous), I found: You will see the slanderers; and in another, likewise without the author's title: You will see those who turn aside. Therefore, to the earlier complaints of the prophet, who protests and says, How long, O Lord, shall I cry out, and you will not hear? and the rest up to the end of this opening, the voice of the Lord answering is brought in: that he should see this iniquity, which he thinks is done in Israel alone, among the nations; and that not, as the prophet supposed, Judah and Jerusalem alone have been handed over to the Chaldeans, but all the nations round about; and that he would grow so strong, and would fall afterwards, that if anyone foretold what is to come, it would seem incredible because of the greatness of the thing. But this too that the LXX and the other translators have given, See, you despisers, or you will see the slanderers and those who turn aside, agrees with the sense of this place; and by the very word are rebuked the audacity and contempt toward the Lord of those in whose person the prophet had cried out: why they dared to despise the majesty of God, and to speak rashly, and, as far as lies in them, to slander the providence of God, and to turn away from the Lord, accusing him of iniquity. You will see, therefore, you despisers, and then you will marvel, and you will count all your complaint as nothing, when you have perceived what I do in your days, lest perhaps you say: What does the future concern us? A work that will be so great, and will crush all your protest, that if anyone now foretold that it would be, you would not easily lend belief. But what this work is, is shown in what follows.

Now let us come to the LXX, so that, setting out each sentence, we may fit to it the allegorical interpretation. Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, which walks over the breadth of the earth, to possess tents not its own. God threatens the despisers and slanderers of his providence that he will raise up the Chaldeans, who are interpreted as it were demons; signifying either the most wicked angels, who minister to his fury and wrath and to the tribulation he brings upon sinners, or the souls of the most wicked men, through whom he torments those who deserve it. Now these Chaldeans are a bitter and swift nation, not sparing and quickly fulfilling what has been commanded them. And it walks over the breadth of the earth — for wide and spacious is the way that leads to death —, along which that rich man in the Gospel also walked, who shone in purple, and those of whom it is said: Who sleep on beds of ivory, and abound in luxuries on their couches. Who eat suckling calves from the herds, and drink refined wine, and are anointed with the finest ointments; who, because they walk on the wide way, are called the breadth of the earth, which is trodden by the footsteps of the Chaldeans. For they would not walk along the strait and narrow way that leads to life, along which Paul walked, glorying in tribulations and distresses. And the Chaldeans walk over the breadth of the earth to possess tents not their own. For every rational soul, although through its own vice and fault it has become a lodging of the Chaldeans, is nevertheless by nature a tent of God. And although in the Gospel the most wicked demon says, I will go into my house from which I came out, he is not to be believed; for no rational creature was made for this, to be a dwelling of a demon.

For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, walking over the breadth of the earth, to possess tents not its own. It is dreadful and terrible; from itself is judgment, and its burden will go forth. Its horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and its horsemen will spread abroad; for its horsemen will come from afar, they will fly like an eagle hastening to eat. All will come for plunder; their face is a burning wind; and it will gather captivity like sand. And he will triumph over kings, and tyrants will be his laughingstock; he will laugh at every fortress, and will heap up a mound, and will take it. Then the spirit will be changed, and he will pass through and fall; this is his strength, that of his god. LXX: For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, which walks over the breadth of the earth, to possess tents not its own. It is terrible and illustrious; from itself will be its judgment, and its assumption will go forth from itself. And its horses will leap beyond leopards, and will be swifter than the wolves of Arabia, and its horsemen will ride, and will come with a rush from far away; and they will fly like an eagle ready to eat. Consummation will come upon the wicked, who resist their faces from the opposite side; and it will gather captivity like sand; and he will take delight in kings, and tyrants are his sport; and he will make sport of every fortress, and will cast up a mound, and will take it; then he will change his spirit and pass through, and will be propitiated; this is the strength of my God. What I had said to you, Look among the nations, and see, and wonder, and be astounded, for a work will be done in your days which no one will believe when it is told: this is what the following discourse describes: Behold, I will raise up Nebuchadnezzar and the Chaldeans, a most warlike and swift nation, to whose strength and boldness in making war almost all the Greeks who have written barbarian histories are witnesses. This nation is not content with its own borders, but, running to and fro, it roams over the breadth of the earth. And this is its work: not to work the land with the plowshare, but to live by plunder and the sword, and to possess cities not its own; before it lays a hand on them, before it bursts out into war, it carries terror in its countenance.

But as for what he says, From itself judgment and its burden will go forth, for which Symmachus translated, It will judge for itself, and will go forth by its own decree, it is to be understood either thus: it will appoint rulers from its own nation, and its power and its sword will have no attendants from other nations; or certainly: as it has done, so it will be done to it; and it will be laid waste just as it laid waste.

There follows: It is terrible and illustrious; from him will be its judgment, and its assumption will go forth from him. The Chaldean is terrible because of the many and varied punishments he brings upon the despisers; illustrious, because he takes to himself the glory of divinity. And through his oracles and false responses, and the cures of diseases which he himself had sent in, he seems illustrious among the ignorant and the despisers of God. For the judgment and punishment of the despiser will be from him, that is, from himself, or from the Chaldean. For according to the Apostle they will be handed over to him for punishment, that they may learn not to blaspheme; and whoever repents and is converted to God will go forth from him, though before he was held in his hands and was the assumption of the Chaldean. If ever we see that someone has served the devil for a long time, and afterwards has been converted to God, let us say of him: And his assumption has gone forth from him.

The horses also and the horsemen, who will come from afar, will be so quick to pursue and to lay everything waste that they will surpass leopards and evening wolves. For wolves are said to be fiercer as night draws near, roused to madness by hunger the whole day. The horsemen, then, will fly, not to fight, since no one will resist, but to range about like the eagle, to which everything among flying creatures is subject, hastening to devour.

For whoever repent and forsake the demons, to whom, like horses, they formerly offered their backs to be sat upon, and with the swiftness of leopards and of wolves at evening have thrown off and dashed down their riders, and have come with an empty and light back to carry him who, meek and poor, mounted the foal of an ass, these, as if hurrying from afar, and not content with running and rushing, will take to flight, and will come like an eagle, to feed on the flesh of the word of God and to satisfy the hunger of so long a time. For in what is said, Καὶ ἐξιππάζονται οἱ ἱππεῖς αὐτοῦ, which we too translated, And its horsemen will be ridden, according to the sense we set out above, Symmachus translated: Its horsemen will be poured out, that is, they will fall and be dashed to the ground. Now they are rightly called wolves of Arabia, that is, of evening and of the west, in whom a most wicked way of life has set, and who, once placed in darkness, abandon the evening with all their stride; and when they have left it, and have flown, ready to eat the flesh of the word of God, then consummation will come upon the wicked, that is, upon the Chaldeans, who resisted the faces of the penitent so that they might not return to their Lord. Wherefore consummation will come upon the wicked, who resist their faces from the opposite side.

And just as at the blast of a burning wind all green things wither, so at the sight of them all things will be laid waste; and so great will be the number of captives and of plunder that, by ὑπερβολὴν (hyperbole), it could even be made equal to the sand.

And when these have been consumed, and the captivity snatched from their hands, then the divine word will gather like sand the captivity of the Chaldeans, and will take delight in kings, and tyrants will be its sport, seeing that the devil, once most powerful, and his kingdoms — showing which to the Savior also, he says, All these I will give you, if you fall down and worship me —, have been destroyed by his coming; for it is the delight of prudence and the pleasure of wisdom when folly is destroyed, and the once great power of tyrants, overcome and cast down, is turned into derision. For not the dragon alone, who is the beginning of the Lord's creation, made a sport for the angels, was formed to be held in sport by the Lord; nor will God give him alone, like a sparrow to a little child; but if anyone else also is cruel and of a tyrannical mind, he will be handed over to the word of God for derision.

He too, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, will reign over the whole world, and, triumphing over kings before his chariot, he will hold them in derision and count them among his amusements; and he will be of such great power and pride that he will strive to overcome nature and to take the most strongly fortified cities by the might of his army. For he will come to Tyre, and, throwing a mound into the sea, he will make a peninsula of the island, and land will provide an entrance into the city between the waves of the sea. For this reason he will both laugh at every fortress, and heap up a mound, and take it, that is, the fortress, or Tyre; and this indeed is clearly shown in Ezekiel, where it is said: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, subjected his army to great labor against Tyre. Every head was bald, and every shoulder stripped of hair, and no wages were given to him and to his army against Tyre; and for the work in which he served against it.

And it says: He will make sport of every fortress. But what other fortress is there, except that of which the Apostle speaks: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty for God for the destruction of fortresses, destroying thoughts, and every height that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God. If therefore there are any fortifications, either in discourses which promise that they have a height and greatness contrary to the truth, or in all the glory and riches and strength that is praised in the world, all will be destroyed, and the word of God will make sport of every fortress. And it will cast up a mound, and will take it by the mound and the earthly things it brings forward, convicting it of fragility in those things in which it formerly seemed to itself to have some strength.

And when he has heaped up a mound, and nothing has stood in the way of his strength, then his spirit will be changed into pride, and, believing himself to be God, he will set up a golden image in Babylon, which he will compel all the nations to worship. When he has done this, he will pass into the form of a beast, and afterwards will fall; for which Aquila and Symmachus translated καὶ πλημμελήσει, that is, and he will offend; holy Scripture having this custom, that it puts uasam, that is, he will offend, for what means: he will cease to be what he had been. We also have something of this kind in the idiom of our own language, when we say: The army has been beaten, for what means: it has been killed and cut down; and: The vineyard and the field have sinned, for what means: the vintage and the crops have had no yield. But what is said at the end of the chapter, This is his strength, that of his god, is to be read εἰρωνικῶς (ironically), so that the sense is: This is his strength, which Bel his god gave him. To his worship he compelled all nations, even by written decree and the threat of death, with a most savage command. These things according to the Hebrew.

And when this has been fulfilled, then the spirit will be turned, and will by no means punish as it had punished before, but, passing through the sinners, it will pray for them and reconcile them to their former Lord; in all of which is shown the strength of our God, which has accomplished such great things. You see how rugged the places are, and opposed to the truth of the history; and how the things we interpreted according to the letter concerning the Chaldeans now seem, according to tropology, to sound the clemency and liberty of those who have escaped from the hands of the Chaldeans. The history is strict and has no freedom to wander. Tropology is free, and bounded only by these laws: that it follow the piety of understanding and the context of the discourse, and not be violent in joining things that are greatly contrary to one another.

Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have set him for judgment, and you have established him strong, that you might chastise. LXX: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And shall we not die? O Lord, you have set him for judgment; and he has formed me, that I might reprove in his discipline. Symmachus more plainly: Are you not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One, so that we should not die? O Lord, you have set him to judge, you have appointed him strong to chastise. To the complaint of the prophet, who said: How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and you will not hear? God had answered, saying: Look among the nations and see; and after this preface he had added: Behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation. And when the whole description was complete, whether of Nebuchadnezzar or of the devil, he recalls at the end: Then his spirit will be changed, and he will pass through, and he will fall; this is his strength, of his god. The prophet, hearing and understanding this, that Nebuchadnezzar against Judah, or the devil against believers, receives power for this reason, that he may chastise them, and that after the chastisement he himself also may be punished at the end, answered the Lord: Are you then, O Lord my God, my Holy One — and he says this with the feeling of one who coaxes and repents —, you who created us from the beginning? By whose mercy we subsist up to now? For I did not know that our adversaries could do so much, nor had I known that Nebuchadnezzar, or the devil of this world, had received power over all the nations as well. As far, therefore, as his strength is concerned, none of us can resist him. But as far as your mercy is concerned, all that we live is yours, that we have not been slain by him and led on to the works of death. For you, O Lord, have set him to judge, that he himself may be enemy and avenger, and that through him you may chastise whoever has sinned against you. But since we have once interpreted the Chaldeans as the demons, and Nebuchadnezzar as their king, the devil, we ought briefly to touch upon the description of the devil and his power, so that the prophet may justly say: O Lord, you have set him for judgment, and you have established him strong, that you might chastise. A nation of demons is raised up against the unbelievers and the despisers, bitter for punishing, and present everywhere. It walks also wherever the breadth of the earth extends, to possess men in whom Christ ought to have dwelt. It is horrible and terrible, and can hardly be overcome by anyone, nor is it broken until, weighed down by the greatness of its sins and the weight of its iniquity, it has come to the consummation. Its horses and horsemen, in the likeness of leopards and wolves, will always thirst for blood, and they will long for plunder; they will feign absence, and while they are not expected, they will come swiftly from afar. They will fly like an eagle, which, lifting up its flight, wants to set its nest among the stars of heaven, and always hastens to the prey. And in Ezekiel too the devil is described under the figure of Nebuchadnezzar and of the king of Egypt. There is none of the demons who spares; all will come hastening to the prey; before their face is a burning wind; whatever they look upon, whatever meets their gaze, they will long to burn and destroy. But the king will be most mighty in the midst of the captives, and he will receive their number, like the sand of the sea, from his attendants on every side, and he himself will triumph over kings, and tyrants will be his laughingstock. For he will deceive many saints by his tripping up, and those who seemed to themselves most mighty, and to exercise a tyranny against the demons and to cast them out of possessed bodies, he will subject to his servitude and count as a joke. But he himself, most strong, having gathered a band and assembled an army of the lost, will laugh at every fortress, and whatever is strong he will strive to overthrow. For he will heap up a mound, that is, he will surround it with earthworks, and when the earth has been heaped up, he will easily take every fortress. But after so great a victory his spirit will be changed, and his mouth will pass through even to heaven, and making himself God, he will begin to blaspheme his Creator. When he has done this, he will fall, and his ruin will show how strong his divinity was, and the pretense of the idols under whose images he was subjugating men to his worship. The prophet, therefore, hearing these things, that the king of this world is so great and of such a kind that he gathers captives like the sand of the sea and triumphs over kings; and that tyrants are his laughingstock, and he laughs at every fortress, and first heaps up a mound and afterwards takes it; and that he is of such great pride that he dares to resist against his Creator and to make himself as a god — the prophet, who before was speaking boldly to the Lord, and had declared that he himself, or his people, or those in whose person he was complaining, were just — now bursts out into words of coaxing and says: Are you then from the beginning, O Lord my God, my Holy One? And that we do not die, nor are taken by so great an enemy, is of your clemency. For you, O Lord, have appointed him as an executioner, and you have made him strong, so that either no one or hardly anyone can resist his strength. Moreover, according to the LXX, what is said at the end, And he has formed me, that I might reprove in his discipline, can be referred to the person of the prophet, so that the sense is: But I have been inspired as a prophet for this reason, that I may reprove those who transgress and teach the discipline of the Lord. Some think it is said of the Lord, who was formed by the Father, and assumed a body, for this reason, that he might instruct men in the doctrine of God the Father. But how far this disagrees with the context of what goes before, and with the tenor of the whole passage, will be not so much my judgment as the reader's.

But if we wish to understand it generally, of providence, the prophet asking: Why does the devil have so much power in the world, and, while God rules, another exercises tyranny? — the sense will be of this kind, and this exposition will be joined to what goes before: I know, O Lord my God, my Holy One, that because you provide and defend, we do not die, and I know that you have set the adversary for this reason, that through him, as through an executioner, you might chastise sinners and not slay them. I know that nothing unjust pleases you, and that your eyes are pure from all iniquity, and that you cannot look upon the sorrows of those who have been subjected to injustice. Yet I cannot find the cause why the unjust Cain kills the just Abel, and you are silent. Why, while the whale rages and devours everything, not only the smaller fish but also your own Jonah himself is devoured? Why does the wicked conquer, and the just is conquered? Nor do I say this as though I knew of anyone being justified in your sight and being without sin, or as though I were ignorant of human frailty; but just as Sodom and Gomorrah are just in comparison with Jerusalem, and the publican in the Gospel becomes more just by comparison with the Pharisee, so too this one who is oppressed by the devil is indeed a sinner, but he is more just than the one who oppresses him. Why, then, is there no measure, nor weight, so that, if once the just is oppressed and subjected, he may be subjected not to the wicked but to one more just than himself? Shall I say that anything happens without you, and that against your will the wicked can do so much? To think this is blasphemous. Since, therefore, you are the ruler and Lord of the universe, it must be you who do what cannot happen without you. And he says these things, not because the prophet himself thinks so, as I have testified above, but because he expresses human impatience in his own person; just as we often see the Apostle take upon himself the various opinions of men, and now say: But I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and taking me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members. And, as though he were a beginner: Brothers, I do not consider that I have laid hold of it, and: We know in part, and we prophesy in part. And again, as though he were perfect: As many, therefore, as are perfect, let us be of this mind, when surely it does not belong to one and the same man to say that he knows in part and that he is perfect. And lest perhaps you think that this is not the Apostle's custom but our own argument, he himself says to the Corinthians: But these things, brothers, I have transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us.

Your eyes are pure, so that you may not see evil, and you will not be able to look upon iniquity. Why do you not look upon those who do iniquitous things, and are silent while the wicked devours one more just than himself. And you will make men like the fish of the sea, and like a creeping thing that has no prince? LXX: The eye is pure, so that it may not see evils, and you will not be able to look upon sorrow. Why do you look upon the despisers, will you be silent when the wicked has devoured one more just than himself? And you will make men like the fish of the sea, and like creeping things that have no leader. Jeremiah too says something of this kind to God: You are just, O Lord, I confess; yet I will speak judgments to you: Why is it that the way of the wicked prospers; that all abound who transgress and do wrong? You planted them and they have taken root, they have begotten sons and have borne fruit; you are near to their mouth, and far from their reins. Therefore Habakkuk also, in the same thought: Pure, he says, O Lord, are your eyes, and I know that you do not willingly look upon what is evil and unjust, nor can anyone doubt your justice. Yet why do you suffer the Babylonians to vaunt themselves with such great cruelty, and Israel, the just, to be oppressed by the wicked Nebuchadnezzar? Not that the one who is oppressed is perfectly just, but that he is more just than the one who oppresses him. And just as fish that have no prince, and irrational beasts, and the multitude of creeping things, being without providence, are subject to the stronger, and whoever is more powerful in strength rules over the other, so among men, a rational animal, made in your likeness, reason will have no force, nor merits, but bodily strength and irrational might.

"For the Lord does not desire to look upon wrongs, for he, the almighty one, observes all those who perform lawless deeds, and he will save me; and do you plead before him, if you can praise him, as it is possible even now." Not only did the Lord not countenance wrongs, but he did not even wish to see them, as another prophet said: "You who are of purer eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wrong." You see, what providence, what protection, what comprehension! Even if he does not take vengeance, he nevertheless abhors actions.

Otherwise, how can God so hold men as the fish of the sea, and as creeping things that have no prince, when the angels of each one daily see the face of the Father who is in heaven, and the angel of the Lord encamps round about those who fear him, and delivers them? Just as, therefore, among men the providence of God runs even through each individual, so in the other animals we can understand a general dispensation, indeed, and order, and course of things. For example, how the multitude of fish is born and lives in the waters, how creeping things and four-footed beasts arise on the earth, and by what foods they are nourished. But it is absurd to bring down the majesty of God to this, that he should know at each moment how many gnats are born, or how many die, what multitude of bugs and fleas and flies there is on the earth, how many fish swim about in the water, and which of the smaller ought to yield as prey to the larger. Let us not be such foolish flatterers of God that, while we drag his power down even to the lowest things, we do injury to ourselves, saying that there is the same providence for rational as for irrational things. Hence that apocryphal book is to be condemned for its folly, in which it is written that a certain angel named Tyri presides over creeping things, and that in this likeness proper angels have been assigned to the fish too, and the trees, and all the beasts, to guard them.

You see, even if it is the wicked who perish, nevertheless the souls of good people are likely to show compassion when they see people being punished. And you will find each of the good people and the inspired writers making earnest supplication for them, as for example the patriarch did for the Sodomites and the inspired writers all continued to do. One, for instance, said, "Woe is me, Lord; are you wiping out the remnant of Israel?" Another said, "Will you make people like the fish of the sea, deprived of a leader?" So since without even this the good man was troubled in mind and sick at heart, the Lord, in case the sight of these things should cast Noah into deeper depression, locked him in the ark as though in a prison, lest he have a sight of these events and be terror-struck. In his care for him, therefore, the loving God does not allow him to view the torrent of water or see the disaster occurring that involved the destruction of the world.

He lifted up the whole with a hook, he dragged it in his dragnet, and gathered it into his net; over this he will rejoice and exult. Therefore he will sacrifice to his dragnet, and offer sacrifice to his net; because through them his portion has been made fat, and his food choice. For this reason, therefore, he spreads out his dragnet, and never ceases always to slay the nations. LXX: He lifted up the consummation with a hook, and drew it in his net, and gathered it in his dragnets. For this reason he will rejoice and be glad; therefore he will sacrifice to his dragnet, and burn incense to his net, because through them he has made his portion fat, and his foods are choice. Therefore he spreads out his net, and never ceases always to slay the nations. Because above he had named fish, saying: And you will make men like the fish of the sea, and like a creeping thing, which is said more expressively in the Hebrew remes, that is, κινούμενον, namely everything that can be moved, for that reason he keeps the μεταφοράν (metaphor) of fish in the rest, so that, as a fisherman casts a hook, and a net and a dragnet, so that what the hook could not, the net may catch, and what has escaped the net may be surrounded by the wider dragnets, so too the king of Babylon laid waste all things and made the whole race of men his prey. Moreover, what he says: He will rejoice and be glad, and will sacrifice to his dragnet, and offer sacrifice to his net, signifies the idol which he made in the plain of Dura and the image of Bel, to which, as to a great dragnet, he sacrificed the fattest victims, compelling all the nations he had conquered to its worship. For believing that through them, that is, through his idols, he had been made fat, and had his portion, that is, all riches, he subjugated to his rule even all the princes and kings, as great fish, whom he calls choice foods. And because he has once been sated with a most abundant catch, and has filled his dragnet, that is, his army, therefore he never ceases to slay the nations, that is, always to fight and to butcher. Moreover, according to the Seventy, the wicked devil — who oppresses the just, and holds men as the fish of the sea, and lays all things waste as creeping things that have no leader — sent his hook, opposed to that hook by which, through the apostle Peter, the first fish was caught, in whose mouth a stater was found. And Adam stuck to his hook, and he drew him out of paradise with his net, and covered him with his dragnets, with various and manifold snares and deceits. Therefore he will rejoice, and he will think his traps to be more than the command of the Lord. And he will sacrifice not to the hook — which is understood as perverse speech, and set still at the beginning —, but to his net, because in it he caught the fattest victims. And: Through one man very many were made sinners; and in Adam we all died, and all the saints afterwards were cast out of paradise together with him. Hence also his foods are choice, as according to the psalmist: That he may seek his food from God, wishing to overthrow the prophets and apostles. And because he first deceived man, he never ceases daily to slay the whole human race. But it can also be taken of the perverse and manifold doctrine of the heretics, that they too, with their hook, and their net, and their dragnets, catch very many fish and seize many creeping things, and for that reason rejoice, and adore as God their speech, by which they have been able to deceive and persuade, and worship it, and polish it; they serve it with every art, that speech through which they know that so many victims have been slain by them, and so many of the mighty and of the saints have been deceived, whom Scripture now names the fat portion and the choice foods. Therefore, in the likeness of beasts, which, once they have tasted blood, always thirst for it, they spread out their net, and this is all their zeal, to kill not a few, as at the beginning, but more. He has no doubt about the slaughter of many nations who has seen so great a multitude of heresies and perverse doctrines caught by the hook, the net and the dragnets of the devil; and yet the end of their capture is destruction.

The entire life of the saints is engaged in this war, for there happens in them what is written: "The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh." They, indeed, fight, but they are not overcome. What shall I say about wicked, carnal and dissipated souls who do not struggle but are carried along in subjection? Because they follow willingly, and of their own accord [they] devote themselves to wicked deeds. With such souls the devil does not condescend to fight at all, because they never or only with difficulty oppose his counsels. But with the saints he has daily struggles, because it is written of him, "His food is rich." This, I repeat, is the life of the saints, and in this war people are always in danger until they die. But what are the saints going to say at the end, that is, in the triumph of victory? "O death, where is your victory?" This will be the word of the triumphant. "O death, where is your sting? The sting of death is sin," and death arises from its consequences. Sin is like a scorpion: it stings us, and we are dead. But when is it that we may say, "O death, where is your victory?" This is not promised to us in this life but at the resurrection. Then it will be granted to the saints neither to wish to sin nor to be able to do so at all.

Although, in general, this inflation of pride attacks many people, there are none who have to fear it more than those who have reached the perfection of virtues of the spirit or copious riches and highest offices in the flesh. It becomes all the greater in their cases, because the one who shows pride is greater. It is not content to destroy lowly and common people, but it is also present in the wiles of the greatest. The higher their rank, the deeper their fall. Hence Scripture also has this to say about the same spirit of pride: "And his food," it says, "is rich." It attacks people who are select and lofty. It suggests to them that they are great, that they need nothing, that whatever they do, think or say is all due to their wisdom and their prudence. If something turns out well for them under God's direction, they straightaway claim that it was due to their own strength and their own industry, and they shout, "I did this," "I said it," "I thought it," and as if everyone were stunned, they seize the glory of God and offer themselves to be admired in his likeness. By a righteous sentence, God withdraws his protection from them, as the apostle says, "He has given them up to a reprobate sense, so that they do not do or think what is fitting," because, when they recognize the providence of God in all matters, they do not magnify God or offer thanks, but they boast of themselves and turn aside in their own idle thoughts. Though they claim to be wise, they are foolish; though they boast that they are firm, unconquered, powerful, they are weak, conquered and powerless.