Oration XVI. On His Father’s Silence, Because of the Plague of Hail.

 1.  Why do you infringe upon the approved order of things?  Why would you do violence to a tongue which is under obligation to the law?  Why do you ch

 2.  I have not yet alluded to the true and first wisdom, for which our wonderful husbandman and shepherd is conspicuous.  The first wisdom is a life w

 3.  Fairer in my eyes, is the beauty which we can gaze upon than that which is painted in words:  of more value the wealth which our hands can hold, t

 4.  Do not thou, therefore, restrain a tongue whose noble utterances and fruits have been many, which has begotten many children of righteousness—yea,

 5.  Tell us whence come such blows and scourges, and what account we can give of them.  Is it some disordered and irregular motion or some unguided cu

 6.  Terrible is an unfruitful season, and the loss of the crops.  It could not be otherwise, when men are already rejoicing in their hopes, and counti

 7.  I know the glittering sword, and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to naught, to make childless, and to spare neither flesh

 8.  What shall we do in the day of visitation, with which one of the Prophets terrifies me, whether that of the righteous sentence of God against us,

 9.  But then what advocate shall we have?  What pretext?  What false excuse?  What plausible artifice?  What device contrary to the truth will impose

 10.  What are we to do now, my brethren, when crushed, cast down, and drunken but not with strong drink nor with wine, which excites and obfuscates bu

 11.  Perchance He will say to me, who am not reformed even by blows, I know that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, the heedless is he

 12.  Far be it from me that I should ever, among other chastisements, be thus reproached by Him Who is good, but walks contrary to me in fury because

 13.  With these words I invoke mercy:  and if it were possible to propitiate His wrath with whole burnt offerings or sacrifices, I would not even have

 14.  Come then, all of you, my brethren, let us worship and fall down, and weep before the Lord our Maker let us appoint a public mourning, in our va

 15.  Let us be assured that to do no wrong is really superhuman, and belongs to God alone.  I say nothing about the Angels, that we may give no room f

 16.  It is a fearful thing, my brethren, to fall into the hands of a living God, and fearful is the face of the Lord against them that do evil,

 17.  Only let us recognise the purpose of the evil.  Why have the crops withered, our storehouses been emptied, the pastures of our flocks failed, the

 18.  One of us has oppressed the poor, and wrested from him his portion of land, and wrongly encroached upon his landmark by fraud or violence, and jo

 19.  What shall be said to this by those of us who are buyers and sellers of corn, and watch the hardships of the seasons, in order to grow prosperous

 20.  Join with us, thou divine and sacred person, in considering these questions, with the store of experience, that source of wisdom, which thou hast

7.  I know the glittering sword,42    Ezek. xxi. 9. and the blade made drunk in heaven, bidden to slay, to bring to naught, to make childless, and to spare neither flesh, nor marrow, nor bones.  I know Him, Who, though free from passion, meets us like a bear robbed of her whelps, like a leopard in the way of the Assyrians,43    Hos. xiii. 7, 8. not only those of that day, but if anyone now is an Assyrian in wickedness:  nor is it possible to escape the might and speed of His wrath when He watches over our impieties, and His jealousy,44    Isai. xxvi. 11 (LXX.). which knoweth to devour His adversaries, pursues His enemies to the death.45    Hos. viii. 3.  I know the emptying, the making void, the making waste, the melting of the heart, and knocking of the knees together,46    Nahum ii. 10. such are the punishments of the ungodly.  I do not dwell on the judgments to come, to which indulgence in this world delivers us, as it is better to be punished and cleansed now than to be transmitted to the torment to come, when it is the time of chastisement, not of cleansing.  For as he who remembers God here is conqueror of death (as David47    Ps. vi. 5 (LXX.). has most excellently sung) so the departed have not in the grave confession and restoration; for God has confined life and action to this world, and to the future the scrutiny of what has been done.

Ζʹ. Οἶδα στιλβουμένην ῥομφαίαν, καὶ μεθύουσαν μάχαιραν ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, σφάζειν, ἐξουθενεῖν, ἀτεκνοῦν κελευομένην, ἕως σαρκῶν, καὶ μυελῶν, καὶ ὀστέων μὴ φείδεσθαι. Οἶδα, ὡς ἄρκτον ἀπορουμένην, τὸν ἀπαθῆ, καὶ ὡς πάρδαλιν ἀπαντῶντα κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν Ἀσσυρίων, οὐ τῶν τότε μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴ τις νῦν τὴν κακίαν Ἀσσύριος: καὶ οὐκ ἐνὸν φυγεῖν τὸ κράτος τῆς ὀργῆς αὐτοῦ καὶ τὸ τάχος, ὅταν γρηγορήσῃ ἐπὶ τὰ ἀσεβήματα ἡμῶν, καὶ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτοῦ καταδιώκῃ ζῆλος, ἐσθίειν εἰδὼς τοὺς ὑπεναντίους. Οἶδα ἐκτιναγμὸν, καὶ ἀνατιναγμὸν, καὶ βρασμὸν, καὶ καρδίας θραυσμὸν, καὶ παράλυσιν γονάτων, καὶ τοιαῦτα ὄντα τὰ τῶν ἀσεβῶν ἐπιτίμια: ἐῶ γὰρ λέγειν τὰ ἐκεῖθεν δικαιωτήρια, οἷς ἡ ἐνταῦθα φειδὼ παραδίδωσιν, ὡς βέλτιον εἶναι νῦν παιδευθῆναι καὶ καθαρθῆναι, ἢ τῇ ἐκεῖθεν βασάνῳ παραπεμφθῆναι, ἡνίκα κολάσεως καιρὸς, οὐ καθάρσεως. Ὥσπερ γὰρ θανάτου κρείττων ὁ ἐνταῦθα Θεοῦ μνημονεύων, καὶ κάλλιστα τῷ θείῳ Δαβὶδ τοῦτο πεφιλοσόφηται: οὕτως οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν ᾅδῃ τοῖς ἀπελθοῦσιν ἐξομολόγησις καὶ διόρθωσις. Συνέκλεισε γὰρ ὁ Θεὸς ἐνταῦθα μὲν καὶ βίον καὶ πρᾶξιν, ἐκεῖ δὲ τὴν τῶν πεπραγμένων ἐξέτασιν.