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my hope in the Lord. This shows that, in a certain way, he who clings to him through hope grows together with God and becomes one with him.

CHAPTER 7

Since such an ascent to the height has occurred in the third section, he who has been so far lifted up in thought, again taking hold of the next degree, becomes greater and higher than himself, in the fourth part as if, according to Paul, crossing a third heaven and having become higher than the heights previously traversed. For these things are received no longer by the common man, but by him who has already been joined and united to God. And so the word says, beginning the next part: A prayer of Moses, the man of God; for such a one is this already, as to no longer be instructed by the law, but to become an introducer of the law to others; such as was that sublime Moses, of whom we hear, who willingly shook off the royal dignity like some dust gathered on the soles of his feet; who for forty years removed himself from the 5.44 company of men and, living alone with himself alone, through quietness gazed intently and without distraction on the vision of invisible things; who after this was illumined by the ineffable light and freed the foundation of his soul from the skin-like and dead covering; who wore down the Egyptian army and tyrant with successive plagues, and freed Israel from tyranny through fire and water; for whom, after Egypt, all time was one continuous day, the night never being blackened with darkness; for after the daily course, another light, newly created from a cloud, succeeded the rays of its beams, so that while the sun set for them according to its necessary cycle, the light remained both continuous and without successor, as the radiance from the pillar took over without interruption the rays of the sun's beams; who sweetened the bitter and undrinkable water with the wood and transformed the rock into a spring for the thirsty; who exchanged earthly food for heavenly; who saw keenly in the divine darkness and saw in it the invisible one; who recounted the tent not made with hands and worthily understood the adornment of the priesthood; who received the divinely made tablets and, when they were shattered, inscribed them again; who bore on his face the symbols of the divine power that had appeared to him, and by the radiance from him, as if by certain rays of beams, turned away the gazes of those who unworthily encountered him; who by fire and chasm condemned those who rebelled against the priesthood and destroyed those who committed outrage against the divine grace; who changed the sorcery of Balaam into piety; whose end of life is recorded as more sublime; who was on the summit of the mountain 5.45, leaving behind no trace, nor memorial of earthly burden in his life; who did not have the character of his beauty altered by time, but preserved in his mutable nature the unchangeable in beauty. This is he who begins for us the fourth ascent and lifts up with himself the one who has already become great through the three previously accomplished ascents. For he who has come to be at this height stands in a way on the border of the mutable and immutable nature, and fittingly mediates between the extremes, offering supplications to God on behalf of those who have been changed by sin, and conveying the mercy from the authority which is above to those in need of mercy, so that by this we might also learn, that the more one stands apart from what is lowly and earthly, the more one is brought into fellowship with the nature that surpasses all understanding; and he imitates the divine through good deeds, doing that which is proper to the divine nature; I mean, to do good to everything in need of beneficence, insofar as it is in need of good deeds. Such, then, we have understood to be the meaning of this psalmody, of which the

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κυρίῳ τὴν ἐλπίδα μου. τοῦτο δεικνύς, ὅτι συμφύεται τρόπον τινὰ τῷ θεῷ ὁ πρὸς αὐτὸν διὰ τῶν ἐλπίδων κολλώμενος καὶ ἓν πρὸς ἐκεῖνον γενόμενος.

ΚΕΦΑΛΑΙΟΝ Ζʹ

Τοιαύτης τοίνυν γενομένης ἐν τῷ τρίτῳ τμήματι τῆς ἐπὶ τὸ ὕψος ἀνόδου ὁ

ἐπὶ τοσοῦτον ἀναληφθεὶς τὴν διάνοιαν πάλιν τοῦ ὑπερκειμένου βαθμοῦ λαβόμενος γίνεται αὐτὸς ἑαυτοῦ μείζων καὶ ὑψηλότερος, ἐν τῷ τετάρτῳ μέρει οἱονεὶ τρίτον τινὰ κατὰ τὸν Παῦλον διαβὰς οὐρανὸν καὶ τῶν προδιηνυσμένων ὑψωμάτων γεγονὼς ὑψηλότερος. δια δέχεται γὰρ ταῦτα οὐκέτι ὁ κοινὸς ἄνθρωπος, ἀλλ' ὁ προσ κολληθεὶς ἤδη καὶ συνημμένος θεῷ. φησὶ δὲ οὕτως ὁ λόγος τοῦ ἐφεξῆς μέρους ἀρχόμενος· Προσευχὴ τῷ Μωυσῇ ἀνθρώπῳ τοῦ θεοῦ· τοιοῦτος γὰρ ἤδη οὗτος, ὡς μηκέτι παιδαγωγεῖσθαι νόμῳ, ἀλλ' εἰσηγητὴς ἑτέροις γίνεσθαι νόμου· οἷος ἦν Μωυσῆς ἐκεῖνος ὁ ὑψηλός, ὃν ἀκούομεν, ὁ τὴν βασιλικὴν ἀξίαν καθάπερ τινὰ κόνιν περισπασθεῖσαν τῇ βάσει τῶν ποδῶν ἑκουσίως ἐκτιναξάμενος· ὁ τεσσαράκοντα ἔτεσι τῆς μετὰ 5.44 τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἐπιμιξίας ἑαυτὸν ἀποικίσας καὶ μόνος μόνῳ συζῶν ἑαυτῷ καὶ διὰ ἡσυχίας ἀμετεωρίστως τῇ θεωρίᾳ τῶν ἀοράτων ἐνατενίζων· ὁ τῷ φωτὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τῷ ἀρρήτῳ καταυγασθεὶς καὶ τῆς δερματίνης τε καὶ νεκρᾶς περιβολῆς ἐκλύσας τῆς ψυχῆς τὴν βάσιν· ὁ τὸν Αἰγύπτιον στρατόν τε καὶ τύραννον ταῖς ἐπαλλήλοις ἐκτρίψας πληγαῖς, τὸν δὲ Ἰσραὴλ ἐλευθερώσας τῆς τυραννίδος διὰ τοῦ φωτὸς καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος· ᾧ μετὰ τὴν Αἴγυπτον ὁ χρόνος ἅπας μία κατὰ τὸ συνεχὲς ἡμέρα ἦν, οὐδέποτε τῆς νυκτὸς μελαινομένης τῷ ζόφῳ· διεδέχετο γὰρ μετὰ τὸν ἡμερήσιον δρόμον τὰς τῶν ἀκτίνων αὐγὰς ἕτερον φῶς ἐκ νεφέλης καινοτομούμενον, ὥστε τὸν μὲν ἥλιον κατὰ τὴν ἀναγκαίαν περίοδον αὐτοῖς ἐπιδύεσθαι, τὸ δὲ φῶς συνεχές τε μένειν καὶ ἀδιάδοχον τῆς ἐκ τοῦ στύλου λαμπηδόνος ἀδιαστάτως τὰς αὐγὰς τῶν ἡλιακῶν ἀκτίνων ἐκδεχομένης· ὁ τὸ πικρόν τε καὶ ἄποτον ὕδωρ ἡδύνας τῷ ξύλῳ καὶ τὴν πέτραν εἰς πηγὴν τοῖς διψῶσι μεταποιήσας· ὁ τῆς γηΐνης τροφῆς τὴν οὐράνιον διαμειψάμενος· ὁ ἐν τῷ θείῳ γνόφῳ ὀξυωπῶν καὶ βλέπων ἐν αὐτῷ τὸν ἀόρατον· ὁ τὴν σκηνὴν τὴν ἀχειροποίητον ἱστορήσας καὶ τὸν ἱερωσύνης κόσμον ἀξίως κατανοήσας· ὁ τὰς θεοτεύκτους πλάκας δεξάμενος καὶ συντριβείσας πάλιν ἀναχαράξας· ὁ τῆς ἐμφανισθείσης αὐτῷ θείας δυνάμεως ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου φέρων τὰ σύμβολα, καὶ τῇ ἐξ αὐτοῦ λαμπηδόνι οἷόν τισιν ἀκτίνων αὐγαῖς τῶν ἀναξίως ἐντυγ χανόντων ἀποστρέφων τὰς ὄψεις· ὁ πυρὶ καὶ χάσματι τοὺς ἐπαναστάντας τῇ ἱερωσύνῃ καταδικάσας καὶ τοὺς εἰς τὴν θείαν χάριν ὑβρίσαντας ἐξαφανίσας· ὁ τὴν γοητείαν τοῦ Βαλαὰμ μεταβαλὼν εἰς εὐσέβειαν· οὗ ἡ τελευτὴ τῆς ζωῆς ἱστόρηται ὑψηλοτέρα· ὁ ἐπὶ τῆς ἀκρωρείας τοῦ ὄρους 5.45 γενόμενος, καὶ μηδὲν ἴχνος, μηδὲ μνημόσυνον τῆς γηΐνης ἀχθηδόνος τῷ βίῳ ὑπολειπόμενος· ὁ μὴ παραλλάξας τὸν χαρακτῆρα τοῦ κάλλους ὑπὸ τοῦ χρόνου, ἀλλὰ διασώσας ἐν τῇ τρεπτῇ φύσει τὸ ἐν καλῷ ἀναλλοίωτον. οὗτός ἐστιν ὁ τῆς τετάρτης κατάρχων ἡμῖν ἀναβάσεως καὶ συνεπαίρων ἑαυτῷ τὸν διὰ τῶν τριῶν ἤδη τῶν προδιηνυσμένων ἀνόδων μέγαν γενόμενον. ὁ γὰρ ἐν τούτῳ τῷ ὕψει γενόμενος μεθόριος τρόπον τινὰ τῆς τρεπτῆς τε καὶ ἀτρέπτου φύσεως ἵσταται, καὶ μεσιτεύει καταλλήλως τοῖς ἄκροις, τῷ μὲν θεῷ ἱκετηρίας ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀλλοιωθέντων ἐξ ἁμαρτίας προσάγων, τῆς δὲ ὑπερκειμένης ἐξουσίας τὸν ἔλεον ἐπὶ τοὺς δεομένους τοῦ ἐλέου διαπορθμεύων, ὡς ἂν καὶ διὰ τούτου μάθοιμεν, ὅτι ὅσῳ τις πλέον τῶν χθαμαλῶν τε καὶ γηΐνων ἀφίσταται, τοσούτῳ μᾶλλον προσοικειοῦται τῇ πάντα νοῦν ὑπερεχούσῃ φύσει· καὶ μιμεῖται δι' εὐποιΐας τὸ θεῖον, ἐκεῖνο ποιῶν ὃ τῆς θείας ἐστὶ φύσεως ἴδιον· λέγω δὲ τὸ εὐεργετεῖν πᾶν τὸ εὐεργεσίας δεόμενον, ὅσον ἐπιδεὲς τῆς εὐποιΐας ἐστί. Τοιαύτην δὴ κατελάβομεν τῆς ψαλμῳδίας ταύτης τὴν ἔννοιαν, ἧς ἡ