that is, mountains of food. For he called food prey also in Psalm 131, saying, *Blessing I will bless her prey*, which indeed Symmachus in that place said *provisions*. And in *He gave food to those who fear him* in Psalm 110, Aquila and Symmachus said *prey*. Therefore, the mountains of the land flowing with milk and honey he calls mountains of prey and of food, from which he says God will be seen manifest and beyond magnitude. and then the arrogant suffered the aforesaid things, not even finding their hands to do anything, as if being overcome by slumber. For you struck them with amazement, defending your people and the places consecrated to you, so as to fit *A horse is a vain thing for safety*, and *Some in chariots and horses, but we will call upon the name of the Lord our God; they were entangled and fell, but we have risen and been set upright*. The same thing as the entanglement and the fall is here indicated through the drowsiness and stupor. 119a Ps 75,11 But Symmachus translated thus: *For the wrath of man shall confess to you, a remnant of wrath being girded*. Since indeed the irascible man, acting all things angrily and toward wrath, not toward justice, is subject to confession and changes of mind concerning the things in which he sins. For wrath is prone to sin, daring even to murder, so that the reasoning left in the soul after it brings on strong repentances, enveloping the whole soul for the things not rightly done and said through wrath.
120a Ps 76 arg. From the preceding one up to the 82nd, the difficult and the painful
the account recounts concerning the people and so relates the following things to brighter matters. And he says in the present psalm that there was a long time in which the nation was disdained, sufficient to take away also the hope of help from God, unless one, remembering the former things, might be strengthened in the hope of future good things. 121A Ps 76,2.3 So indeed even in the 72nd, having spoken well piously beforehand, he thus introduces weak reasonings coming upon men in longer afflictions. And now for he first gives thanks to the God who received his supplications, recounting his persistent prayer and the stretching out of his hands through whole nights. 122a Ps 76,17-19 Of your power, he says, appearing, the whole was moved, and the waters were in travail with fear, and a tumultuous struggle held the abysses. And from above waters were sent forth from clouds, and clouds ran through the air with a great sound, and arrows from heaven were brought down; and sounds of thunder occurred throughout the aerial circle of the running clouds, and lightnings illuminated the world and stirred up an earthquake in the land. And these things are indicative of the fearful wonders that appeared both in Egypt and in the wilderness and in Judea. Since Egypt also was struck by hail brought down with fire, and the waters of the Red Sea yielded as if contracting with some fear. And thunders broke forth in the air and hailstones were brought down also against the Canaanites in the war against the Jews. And it is manifest that lightnings also flashed forth. And as for saying the thunder sounded in a wheel, another says when *He bound the axles of the chariots and brought them down into the sea with their leaders*. 123a Ps 76,19 He suggests to us an aerial circle, in which the stars are whirled about just as oxen circle a threshing floor. For it is not possible to find a spherical heaven according to the Greek account in the divine oracles, so that we might conceive of a wheel-like circuit above and below the earth. For the divine scriptures present water under the earth, not heaven, and waters above heaven lying like a limit. For he says, *Stretching out the heaven like a curtain, who covers his upper chambers with waters*. And the sun is said to run from one end to the other, from east to west, and not the least part of it runs back from the west during the day; and *He who established*, he says, *heaven*
16
τουτέστιν ὄρη τροφῆς. τὴν γὰρ τροφὴν θήραν καὶ ἐν τῷ ΡΛΑ κέκληκε λέγων Τὴν θήραν αὐτῆς εὐλογῶν εὐλογήσω, ὃ δὴ Σίτησιν ἐν ἐκείνῳ Σύμμαχος εἴρηκεν. ἐν δὲ τῷ Τροφὴν ἔδωκε τοῖς φοβουμένοις αὐτὸν ἐν ΡΙ θήραν Ἀκύλας ἔφη καὶ Σύμμαχος. τὰ οὖν ὄρη τῆς γῆς τῆς ῥεούσης γάλα καὶ μέλι θήρας καὶ τροφῆς ὄρη καλεῖ ἐξ ὧν ἐπιφανῆ καὶ ὑπὲρ μεγέθη τὸν θεὸν ὀφθήσεσθαί φησιν. καὶ τότε τοὺς ὑπερηφάνους παθεῖν τὰ προκείμενα μηδὲ εἰς τὸ ποιεῖν τι τὰς χεῖρας εὑρήσοντας οἱονεὶ νυσταγμῷ καταφερομένους. ἐξέπληξας γὰρ αὐτοὺς τοῦ σοῦ λαοῦ καὶ τῶν σοι καθιερωμένων ὑπερασπίζων χωρίων ὡς ἁρμόσαι τὸ Ψευδὴς ἵππος εἰς σωτηρίαν, καὶ τὸ Οὗτοι ἐν ἅρμασι καὶ ἵπποις, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἐν ὀνόματι κυρίου θεοῦ ἡμῶν ἐπικαλεσόμεθα· αὐτοὶ συνεποδίστησαν καὶ ἔπεσαν, ἡμεῖς δὲ ἀνέστημεν καὶ ἀνωρθώθημεν. ταὐτὸν δὲ τῷ συμποδισμῷ καὶ τῇ πτώσει διὰ τῆς καταφορᾶς καὶ καρώσεως ἐνταῦθα δεδήλωται. 119a Ps 75,11 Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτως ἡρμήνευσεν· Θυμὸς γὰρ ἀνθρώπου ἐξομολογήσεταί σοι, λείψανον θυμοῦ περιζωσθέν. ἐπεὶ ὅ γε θυμώδης καὶ ὀργίλως καὶ πρὸς ὀργὴν ἅπαντα πράττων οὐ πρὸς τὸ δίκαιον, ἐξομολόγησιν ὑπόκειται καὶ μεταγνώσεσιν περὶ ὧν ἐξαμαρτάνει. εὔκολον γὰρ εἰς ἁμάρτημα θυμὸς, μέχρι καὶ αὐτοῦ φόνου τολμηρός, ὥστε ὁ μετ' αὐτὸν ὑπολειπόμενος ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ λογισμὸς ἰσχυρὰς ἐπιφέρει μετανοίας περιβαλλούσας ἅπασαν τὴν ψυχὴν ἐπὶ τοῖς οὐκ ὀρθῶς διὰ τοῦ θυμοῦ πεπραγμένοις καὶ εἰρημένοις.
120a Ps 76 arg. Ἀπὸ τοῦ προκειμένου μέχρι τοῦ ΠΒ τὰ χαλεπὰ καὶ τὰ ὀδυνηρὰ
περὶ τοῦ λαοῦ διέξεισιν ὁ λόγος καὶ οὕτως εἰς φαιδρότερα καταλέγει τὰ ἑξῆς. λέγει δὲ ἐν τῷ νυνὶ ψαλμῷ χρόνον εἶναι πολὺν ἐν ᾧ τὸ ἔθνος ὑπερῶπται ἱκανὸν περιελεῖν καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τῆς παρὰ θεοῦ βοηθείας, εἰ μὴ τῶν προτέρων τις μνημονεύσας εἰς τὴν ἐλπίδα τῶν μελλόντων ἀγαθῶν ἐπιρρωσθείη. 121A Ps 76,2.3 Οὕτω δὴ κἂν τῷ ΟΒ προευφημήσας εὐσεβῶς, οὕτως εἰσάγει λογισμοὺς ἀσθενεῖς ἐπιόντας ἀνθρώποις ἐν ταῖς μακροτέραις κακώσεσιν. καὶ νῦν γὰρ χάριν πρῶτον ὁμολογεῖ τῷ τὰς ἱκετείας δεξαμένῳ θεῷ, τὴν ἐπίμονον εὐχὴν διηγούμενος καὶ τὴν δι' ὅλων νυκτῶν ἔκτασιν τῶν χειρῶν. 122a Ps 76,17-19 Τῆς σῆς δυνάμεως, φησίν, ἐπιφαινομένης ἐκινεῖτο τὸ πᾶν ὕδατά τε ὤδινεν ἐν φόβῳ καὶ τὰς ἀβύσσους εἶχεν ἀγὼν ταραχώδης. ἠφίετο δὲ καὶ ἄνωθεν ἐκ νεφῶν ὕδατα καὶ νέφη δι' αἰθέρος ἔτρεχεν σὺν ἤχῳ πολλῷ καὶ τὰ ἐξ οὐρανοῦ βέλη κατεφέρετο· καὶ βροντῆς ἦχοι κατὰ τὸν αἰθέριον κύκλον ἐγίνοντο τῶν νεφελῶν διατρεχουσῶν, καὶ ἀστραπαὶ τὴν οἰκουμένην κατηύγαζον καὶ σεισμὸν ἀνεκίνει τὴν γῆν. ταῦτα δὲ τῶν τε κατ' Αἴγυπτον καὶ τῶν κατὰ τὴν ἔρημον καὶ τῶν ἐν Ἰουδαίᾳ φανέντων φοβερῶν θαυμάτων ἐστὶ μηνυτικά. ἐπεὶ καὶ Αἴγυπτος ἐβλήθη χαλάζῃ μετὰ πυρὸς καταφερομένῃ, καὶ τῆς ἐρυθρᾶς θαλάσσης εἷξεν ὕδατα καθάπερ εἰ φόβῳ τινὶ συστελλόμενα. βρονταὶ δὲ ἐρράγησαν ἐν αἰθέρι καὶ χάλαζαι κατηνέχθησαν καὶ κατὰ Χαναναίων ἐν τῷ πρὸς Ἰουδαίους πολέμῳ. πρόδηλον δὲ ὅτι καὶ ἀστραπαὶ συνεξέλαμπον. τὸ δὲ τὴν βροντὴν ἐν τροχῷ λέγειν ἠχεῖσαι ἄλλος μέν φησιν ἡνίκα Συνέδησεν τοὺς ἄξονας τῶν ἁρμάτων καὶ κατήγαγεν εἰς θάλασσαν μετὰ τῶν προστάτων αὐτῶν. 123a Ps 76,19 Κύκλον ἡμῖν αἰθέριον ὑποβάλλει καθ' ὃν τὰ ἄστρα ὑποδινεῖται καθάπερ ἅλωνα βόες περιελίττοντες. σφαιροειδῆ γὰρ οὐρανὸν κατὰ τὸν Ἑλλήνων λόγον οὐκ ἔστιν ἐν τοῖς θείοις λογίοις εὑρεῖν, ἵν' ὑπὲρ γῆς τε καὶ ὑπὸ γῆς τὴν τροχοειδῆ περιφορὰν ἐννοήσωμεν. ὕδωρ γὰρ ὑπὸ γῆν, οὐκ οὐρανόν, αἱ θεῖαι γραφαὶ παριστᾶσι καὶ ὑπὲρ οὐρανὸν δὲ ὕδατα τέλους δίκην ὑποκείμεναι. Ἐκτείνων γάρ φησι τὸν οὐρανὸν ὡσεὶ δέρριν ὁ στεγάζων ἐν ὕδασι τὰ ὑπερῷα αὐτοῦ. ἀπ' ἄκρου τε εἰς ἄκρον ἥλιον διαθεῖν, ἀπ' ἀνατολῆς εἰς δύσιν, λέγεται καὶ οὐχὶ μέρος ἐλάχιστον αὐτοῦ τῆς ἡμέρας ἐκ δύσεως ἀνατρέχειν· καὶ Ὁ στήσας φησὶν οὐρανόν
16