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he leads those who have wandered onto the path. And this same one also becomes a city of habitation, as the apostle says, that In him we live and move and have our being. He rightly brings in the exhortatory voice of thanksgiving, that those who have obtained these things, Let them give thanks to the Lord for his mercies and for his wonders 5.56 to the sons of men, that is, let them not hide the good deed in silence with ingratitude, but let them proclaim the grace with thanksgiving, because he made the soul, which was empty of good things, full. For, he says, he satisfied the empty soul, and the hungry soul he filled with good things. Again, in another way he brings the misfortune of our nature into view, and he recounts the divine love for humanity, through which nature is refashioned for the better. What he says is of this sort: that humanity departed from the light and bent down toward sin and was no longer in the upright state and was estranged from true life. For, he says, those sitting in darkness and the shadow of death, bound in poverty and iron. For it was immovable from evil, being held by a heavy fetter. And the fetter is the poverty of what is good, like some iron molded around their hearts. The cause of all these things was the disobedience of the divine law and the rejection of the counsel of the Most High. For he indicates these things by saying, Because they rebelled against the words of God and provoked the counsel of the Most High. Accordingly, labor and humiliation naturally await the life of such people, labor because they were separated from nourishment, and humiliation because they did not wish to remain with the Most High. For, he says, their heart was humbled with labors. And the separation from power is nothing other than weakness; for what help could be found without power? Therefore he says, They became weak, and there was no one to help. But again a single voice refashioned the misfortunes into gladness. For, he says, they cried to the Lord in their affliction, 5.57 and he saved them out of their distresses. He makes the darkness disappear, he dissolves death, he breaks the bonds. For, he says, he brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death, and broke their bonds in two. Therefore, he says, let grace be proclaimed through praise, because the inescapable guard of death was dissolved, which was secured by bronze gates and iron bars, as the prophet says. For such was the strength concerning death considered to be, until the power of death was made to disappear by the presence of true life, because everything that came within it remained inescapable, being held as if by certain iron bars and gates not to be worn down, but, He shattered, he says, bronze gates and broke iron bars, and this is to make the way of their lawlessness disappear and for life to be refashioned toward piety. This making disappear of those gates is for life to be reformed toward righteousness. For, he says, he helped them out of the way of their lawlessness. Again in another way he presents human misery in his discourse. And he expresses this thought, that lawlessness is a humiliation, and he says this well; for a saying of another prophet also agrees with such a thought, who says that lawlessness sits upon a talent of lead, indicating that wickedness is something heavy and downward-tending, dragging down into its own pit 5.58 the one who is on high through likeness to the divine; for he says that, Because of their lawlessness they were humbled. And because of this they turned away from that all-powerful nourishment, about which the word says to the first <men>, that, From every tree in paradise you may freely eat. For just as there he names "every tree" the fullness of every good, so here the word names the true and all-powerful food "all food," the turning away from which produces the weakness that ends in death. And he speaks thus, that Their soul abhorred all food, and they drew near to the gates of death. And again the voice to God turns the misfortune back into a festival. For, he says, they cried to the Lord in their affliction and from their distresses

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πεπλανη μένους ἐπὶ τὴν ὁδὸν ἄγει. ὁ δὲ αὐτὸς οὗτος καὶ πόλις γίνεται κατοικητηρίου, καθώς φησιν ὁ ἀπόστολος ὅτι Ἐν αὐτῷ ζῶμεν καὶ κινούμεθα καὶ ἐσμέν. καλῶς ἐπάγει τὴν προτρε πτικὴν τῆς εὐχαριστίας φωνήν, ὅτι οἱ τούτων τετυχηκότες Ἐξομολογησάσθωσαν τῷ κυρίῳ τὰ ἐλέη αὐτοῦ καὶ τὰ θαυμά 5.56 σια αὐτοῦ τοῖς υἱοῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων, τουτέστι μὴ σιωπῇ τὴν εὐεργεσίαν ἐν ἀγνωμοσύνῃ κρυπτέτωσαν, ἀλλὰ διαβοάτωσαν ἐν εὐχαριστίᾳ τὴν χάριν, ὅτι κενὴν οὖσαν τῶν ἀγαθῶν τὴν ψυχὴν πλήρη ἐποίησεν. Ἐχόρτασε γάρ, φησίν, ψυχὴν κενὴν καὶ ψυχὴν πεινῶσαν ἐνέπλησεν ἀγαθῶν. πάλιν ἑτέρῳ τρόπῳ τὴν συμφορὰν τῆς φύσεως ὑπ' ὄψιν ἄγει, καὶ τὴν θείαν ἐκδιηγεῖται φιλανθρωπίαν, δι' ἧς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἡ φύσις μετασκευάζεται. ἃ δὲ λέγει τοιαῦτά ἐστιν· ὅτι ἀπέστη τοῦ φωτὸς τὸ ἀνθρώπινον καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἁμαρτίαν συνώκλασε καὶ οὐκέτι ἦν ἐν τῷ ὀρθίῳ τοῦ σχήματος καὶ τῆς ὄντως ἀπεξενώθη ζωῆς. Καθημένους γάρ, φησίν, ἐν σκότει καὶ σκιᾷ θανάτου, πεπεδημένους ἐν πτωχείᾳ καὶ σιδήρῳ. ἀκίνητον γὰρ ἦν ἀπὸ τοῦ κακοῦ τῇ βαρείᾳ κατεχό μενον πέδῃ. πέδη δὲ ἡ τοῦ καλοῦ πτωχεία ἐστίν, οἷόν τις σίδηρος περιτυπωθεὶς ταῖς καρδίαις. πάντων δὲ τούτων ὑπόθεσις ἦν ἡ τοῦ θείου νόμου παρακοὴ καὶ ἡ τῆς βουλῆς τοῦ ὑψίστου ἀθέτησις. ταῦτα γὰρ σημαίνει λέγων, Ὅτι παρεπίκραναν τὰ λόγια τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν βουλὴν τοῦ ὑψί στου παρώξυναν. ἐπὶ τούτοις κατὰ τὸ εἰκὸς κόπος καὶ ταπείνωσις τὴν ζωὴν τῶν τοιούτων ἐκδέχεται, κόπος μὲν ὅτι τῆς τροφῆς ἐχωρίσθησαν, ταπείνωσις δὲ ὅτι ἐν τῷ ὑψίστῳ διαμεῖναι οὐκ ἠβουλήθησαν. Ἐταπεινώθη γάρ, φησί, ἐν κόποις ἡ καρδία αὐτῶν. ὁ δὲ χωρισμὸς τῆς δυνάμεως οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ ἀσθένεια· τίς γὰρ ἂν χωρὶς δυνάμεως εὑρεθείη βοήθεια; διό φησιν Ἠσθένησαν καὶ οὐκ ἦν ὁ βοηθῶν. ἀλλὰ πάλιν μία φωνὴ πρὸς εὐφροσύνην τὰς συμφορὰς μετεσκεύασεν. Ἐκέκραξαν γάρ, φησί, πρὸς κύριον ἐν τῷ θλί 5.57 βεσθαι αὐτούς, καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἀναγκῶν αὐτῶν ἔσωσεν αὐτούς. ἀφανίζει τὸ σκότος, διαλύει τὸν θάνατον, τὰ δεσμὰ διαρρήγνυ σιν. Ἐξήγαγεν γάρ, φησίν, αὐτοὺς ἐκ σκότους καὶ σκιᾶς θανάτου, καὶ τοὺς δεσμοὺς αὐτῶν διέρρηξεν. οὐκοῦν ἀνακηρυττέσθω, φησί, δι' εὐφημίας ἡ χάρις, ὅτι ἡ ἄφυκτος τοῦ θανάτου φρουρὰ διελύθη, ἡ ταῖς χαλκαῖς πύλαις καὶ τοῖς σιδηροῖς ἠσφαλισμένη μοχλοῖς, καθώς φησιν ὁ προφήτης. τοιαύτη γάρ τις ἡ περὶ τὸν θάνατον ἰσχὺς ἐνομίζετο, ἕως οὔπω τῇ παρουσίᾳ τῆς ὄντως ζωῆς ἐξηφανίσθη τοῦ θανάτου τὸ κράτος, ὅτι πᾶν τὸ ἐντὸς ἐκείνου γενόμενον ὥσπερ τισὶ μοχλοῖς σιδηροῖς καὶ πύλαις ἀτρίπτοις κρατούμενον ἀναπό δραστον ἔμενεν, ἀλλὰ Συνέτριψε, φησί, πύλας χαλκᾶς καὶ μοχλοὺς σιδηροῦς συνέθλασε, τοῦτο δέ ἐστι τὸ τὴν ὁδὸν τῆς ἀνομίας αὐτῶν ἀφανίσαι καὶ μετασκευασθῆναι τὴν ζωὴν πρὸς εὐσέβειαν. οὗτος ὁ ἀφανισμὸς τῶν πυλῶν ἐκείνων ἐστὶ τὸ εἰς δικαιοσύνην μεταρρυθμισθῆναι τὸν βίον. Ἀντελά βετο γάρ, φησίν, αὐτῶν ἐξ ὁδοῦ ἀνομίας αὐτῶν. Πάλιν ἑτέρως τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην ἀθλιότητα τῷ λόγῳ παρίστη σι. λέγει δὲ τὴν διάνοιαν ταύτην, ὅτι ταπείνωσίς ἐστιν ἡ ἀνομία καὶ καλῶς τὸ τοιοῦτόν φησιν· συμφέρεται γάρ τις καὶ ἄλλου προφήτου λόγος τῷ τοιούτῳ νοήματι, ὅς φησιν Ἐπὶ τάλαντον μολίβδου καθῆσθαι τὴν ἀνομίαν, ἐνδεικνύμενος ὅτι βαρεῖά τίς ἐστι καὶ κατωφερὴς ἡ κακία, τὸν ἐν ὑψηλοῖς διὰ τὴν πρὸς τὸ θεῖον ὁμοίωσιν ὄντα εἰς τὸν βόθυνον ἑαυτῆς 5.58 συγκαθέλκουσα· φησὶ γάρ, ὅτι ∆ιὰ τὰς ἀνομίας αὐτῶν ἐταπει νώθησαν. καὶ διὰ τοῦτο τὴν παντοδύναμον ἐκείνην τροφὴν ἀπε στράφησαν, περὶ ἧς λέγει πρὸς τοὺς πρώτους <ἀνθρώπους> ὁ λόγος, ὅτι Ἀπὸ παντὸς ξύλου τοῦ ἐν τῷ παραδείσῳ βρώσει φαγῇ. ὡς γὰρ ἐκεῖ πᾶν ξύλον ὀνομάζει τὸ πλήρωμα παντὸς ἀγαθοῦ, οὕτως ἐνταῦθα τὴν ἀληθῆ καὶ παντοδύναμον βρῶσιν πᾶν βρῶμα ὀνομάζει ὁ λόγος, οὗ ἡ ἀποστροφὴ ποιεῖ τὴν ἀσθένειαν τὴν εἰς θάνατον λήγουσαν. λέγει δὲ οὕτως, ὅτι Πᾶν βρῶμα ἐβδελύξατο ἡ ψυχὴ αὐτῶν καὶ ἤγγισαν ἕως τῶν πυλῶν τοῦ θανάτου. καὶ πάλιν ἡ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν φωνὴ εἰς πανήγυριν τὴν συμφορὰν ἀναστρέφει. Ἐκέκραξαν γάρ, φησί, πρὸς κύριον ἐν τῷ θλίβεσθαι αὐτοὺς καὶ ἐκ τῶν ἀναγκῶν