Expositio in Proverbia

 the things that have fallen, that is, from the pretext of Uriah. How then does Solomon say before: “He who rejoices 17.165 at another's destruction wi

 would have difficulty, just as the desire for money a pure mind draws near to wisdom since it knows well but the impure will be far from it. Adam i

 but here, that he names the mind a good gift, on account of the one who unjustly receives gifts in his bosom, and is not prospered for those unjust g

 of virtue And this persuades me, in a small way, that the rich man being judged in Hades for his wickedness was not completely given over to every ev

 to you, You shall not be angry. It must be noted here that he calls the natural harmonious movement of the ant, wisdom for indeed one wiser than a wi

 for he was the lamp that was burning and shining a light, the New Testament For I, he says, am the light of the world a refutation of evil things,

 of the kemphos fish in the sea, flying in schools here and there which the sailors, having baited a many-hooked line, catch and not only does it not

 come to the introductions but when they become wise, and are strengthened, reprove them. And Christ, when his disciples were still young, did not rep

 of the evil one. But the impious who sin will not only fall from the kingdom, but they will inhabit the fire and not the earth. Instead of, he is full

 be not silent to me, says David, and I will be like those who go down into the pit. A lawless man will be passed over in silence by God, that is, he w

 sinning. Here he calls the senses ways but he who guards them, keeps his own soul from death unto life for life is the Holy Trinity that gives life

 afflicted, distressed? And how will the unbeliever not have an obol, when many unbelievers are clothed with much wealth, I mean kings and rulers of th

 the love of God for humanity which also brings us to God the Father himself, as sons weaned, and desiring spiritual solid food so that just as his S

 your eyes, say: for many, even without having begun virtue, not only advise others to act rightly, but also compel and exhort them. Here he says man

 body is profitable to the foolish man for he will trample it underfoot, being a pleasure-loving pig and by sensible luxury his flesh will be moved t

 that is, to imitate the virtues of the righteous and prophets who shone in the six ages before the coming of Christ, who also feed the widow and orpha

 of the Lord, is the knowledge of the Lord, and the light of the Lord is the breath of men, therefore the knowledge of the Lord is the breath of men b

 He calls the mind a horse, which is warred against by the devil, and which wars in return For you will mount, he says, upon your horses and your rid

 he slanders us to God, taking from us the virtues which he has not given us, so also we slander him taking from him the vices which we have not given

 But do not enter into the land of those who have orphaned themselves from God, who possess wickedness as the property of demons, on account of which t

 but vice diminishes virtue, and virtue obviously corrupts vice and this will happen in the age to come, until vice ceases for shall be defiled, in

 earth-born nations, and having strengthened them with virtues in faith in him, Christ the God, and having stored up the heavenly water that which flo

 is, the law given to us by him in righteousness and those who gouge out the eyes of the impious, he called ravens but those who devour him whole, he

 of lands, he keeps his own justly. Cast a precious sardius into a golden earring, and the wisdom of the Lord into a dispassionate and obedient mind to

 defines servants or those under his hand for the rod is a symbol of punishment. From his own feet, etc. Here he calls servants 'feet' and from them

 to the devil who made it, to yield as to a brother, so as to be destroyed with him. -Better is he who is joined to me through true knowledge, than he

 lawless, are the doctrines of demons, which the instructed son does not obey and by son he means the mind but he who restrains his mind from being c

 of blood are the demons, who killed those living in Christ by the shedding of blood but the upright will seek out his soul these are they who wish t

 a soul of abundance for its bodily house. He says that the soul of the diligent man has the Church as a tree of knowledge and a tree of life of knowl

body is profitable to the foolish man; for he will trample it underfoot, being a pleasure-loving pig; and by sensible luxury his flesh will be moved toward passions, and will hurl blasphemies against God; even if free from slavery, he will do this. If he who boasts rightly, boasts in the Lord, and our Lord is wisdom, he who boasts rightly, boasts in wisdom; the boast, therefore, of the long-suffering and merciful, is wisdom and the knowledge of him; and he comes upon the lawless, delivering them from evil, now possibly, but in the age to come, necessarily. Our Lord is a consuming fire and a raging lion; but towards sinners he is burning and consuming, like wood, grass, stubble, the flesh that wars against the spirit; but light and dew towards those who do right, showing them the reasons for things that have come to be, and extinguishing the fiery darts of the evil one, and cooling the burning heat that comes from action. The unclean soul, he named a courtesan; and its wage, he has called its state, from which prayers do not become pure. To teach one's sons about virtue and knowledge of God, is for the fathers; but to give wisdom to the children, is for the Lord; for here he calls wisdom a woman; for "love wisdom," he says, "and she will keep you; honor her, that she may embrace you." The commandments, in relation to God who commanded them, are called commandments; but in relation to the mind that travels in them, they are called ways; and he who keeps them, guards his own soul from death to life; but he who despises them, will die the endless death. With respect to sensible things it is so; but as the sun is exceedingly superior to the moon, so is the one who pities those in poverty of virtues and wins them back in the discipline and instruction of the Lord; but giving a gift to God, he called the 17.209 purity of the heart; for according to the proportion of our impassibility we are deemed worthy of knowledge by God. What he says concerning things in this life is of this sort; but I think, that the great loss contains the deprivation of the contemplation of things that have come to be; and the addition to the soul, the obliteration of the natural concepts about God, it having fallen completely into irrationality; And the Savior also in the Gospels says: What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, but loses and forfeits his soul? Here the loss signifies the ignorance of things corporeal and incorporeal; while the forfeiture represents the ultimate irrationality. If the fear of the Lord is life for a man, and the fear of the Lord is wisdom and instruction, then the life of man is wisdom and instruction; to know wisdom and instruction, therefore, is to know Christ and his teaching; therefore the fearless one will be in evil and ignorance, in which Christ is not; therefore those who live in evil and ignorance do not consider the fear of God within themselves, not hoping for mercy upon themselves; nor is Christ in them, because they are unwilling. He who does not live rightly, unjustly hides his hands in his soul, not wishing to cultivate his own land, that is, the body; nor to be filled with spiritual bread; for the practical virtues have the role of hands, which bring the bread to our mouth, the one who came down from heaven and gives life to the world through divine wisdom and knowledge. If their wine is the fury of dragons, and wine is intemperate, then fury is intemperate, making men intemperate; and wrath is insolent; for it comes from boiling fury; but if the Nazarites according to the law abstain from wine, then it is legislated that the Nazarites be without fury. Here he has openly called Christ king; for he who provokes him through sins, sins against his own soul. Just as the foolish man is not ashamed of reproach, so is he who borrows grain to sow at harvest-time; since it is a given that from his farm it will be repaid to the lender, even if the borrower should happen to die. -If it is possible at harvest-time to borrow grain from those who have worked their own land for the six years,

σῶμα συμφέρει τῷ ἄφρονι· τὴν μὲν γὰρ καταπατήσει τοῖς ποσὶ, χοῖρος φιλήδονος ὤν· ὑπὸ δὲ τῆς αἰσθητῆς τρυ φῆς ἡ σὰρξ αὐτοῦ πρὸς πάθη κινηθήσεται, καὶ κατὰ Θεοῦ βλασφημίας ῥίψει· εἰ καὶ ἀπὸ δούλων ἐλεύθε ρος, τοῦτο ποιήσει. Εἰ ὁ καυχώμενος ὀρθῶς, ἐν Κυρίῳ καυχᾶται, ὁ δὲ Κύριος ἡμῶν σοφία ἐστὶν, ὁ καυχώμενος ὀρθῶς, ἐν σοφίᾳ καυχᾶται· τὸ καύχημα τοίνυν τοῦ μακροθύ μου καὶ ἐλεήμονος, ἐστὶν ἡ σοφία καὶ ἡ γνῶσις αὐ τοῦ· ἐπέρχεται δὲ τοῖς παρανόμοις ἀπαλλάττων αὐ τοὺς κακίας, νῦν μὲν ἐνδεχομένως, ἐν δὲ τῷ μέλλοντι αἰῶνι ἀναγκαίως. Ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν πῦρ μὲν καταναλίσκον καὶ λέων ὀργιζόμενος· πρὸς δὲ τοὺς ἁμαρτάνοντας κατακαῖον καὶ ἀναλίσκον, ὡς ξύλα χόρτων καλάμην, τὴν στρα τευομένην σάρκα κατὰ τοῦ πνεύματος· φῶς δὲ καὶ δρόσος πρὸς τοὺς κατορθοῦντας, δεικνὺς αὐτοῖς τῶν γεγονότων τοὺς λόγους, καὶ κατασβεννύων τὰ πεπυ ρωμένα βέλη τοῦ πονηροῦ, καὶ περιψύχων τὸν ἐκ τῆς πράξεως συμβαίνοντα καύσωνα. Τὴν ἀκάθαρτον ψυχὴν, ἑταίραν ὠνόμασε· καὶ ταύ της τὸ μίσθωμα, τὴν κατάστασιν εἴρηκεν αὐτῆς, ἀφ' ἧς οὐ καθαραὶ γίνονται προσευχαί. Τὸ μὲν διδάσκειν τοὺς υἱοὺς περὶ ἀρετῆς καὶ γνώ σεως τοῦ Θεοῦ, τῶν πατέρων ἐστίν· τὸ δὲ σοφίαν δοῦναι τοῖς παισὶ, τοῦ Κυρίου ἐστί· γυναῖκα γὰρ ἐν ταῦθα τὴν σοφίαν λέγει· ἐράσθητι γὰρ, φησὶ, τῆς σο φίας, καὶ τηρήσει σε· τίμησον αὐτὴν, ἵνα σε περι λάβῃ. Αἱ ἐντολαὶ, ὡς πρὸς μὲν τὸν ἐντειλάμενον Θεὸν, καλοῦνται ἐντολαί· ὡς δὲ πρὸς τὸν ὁδεύοντα νοῦν ἐν αὐταῖς, καλοῦνται ὁδοί· καὶ ὁ μὲν φυλάσσων, τηρεῖ ἐκ θανάτου πρὸς ζωὴν τὴν ψυχὴν ἑαυτοῦ· ὁ δὲ κα ταφρονῶν, τὸν ἀπέραντον θάνατον θανεῖται. Ἐπὶ μὲν τῶν αἰσθητῶν οὕτως ἔχει· ὅσον δὲ ὁ ἥλιος τῆς σελήνης ὑπερφυὴς, τοσοῦτον ὁ ἐλεῶν τοὺς ἐν πτωχείᾳ ἀρετῶν καὶ ἀνακτώμενος αὐτοὺς ἐν παιδείᾳ καὶ νουθεσίᾳ Κυρίου· δόμα δὲ διδόναι τῷ Θεῷ, τὴν 17.209 καθαρότητα τῆς καρδίας ὠνόμασε· κατὰ ἀναλογίαν γὰρ τῆς ἀπαθείας ἡμῶν καταξιούμεθα γνώσεως ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Ὃ λέγει τοιοῦτόν ἐστι περὶ τῶν ἐν τῷ βίῳ· ἐγὼ δὲ νομίζω, τὴν μὲν πολλὴν ζημίαν, στέρησιν περιέχειν τῆς θεωρίας τῶν γεγονότων· τὴν δὲ προσθήκην τῆς ψυχῆς, ἀφανισμὸν τῶν φυσικῶν περὶ Θεοῦ ἐννοιῶν, παντάπασιν αὐτῆς εἰς ἀλογίαν καταπεσούσης· καὶ ὁ Σωτὴρ δὲ ἐν τοῖς Εὐαγγελίοις φησί· Τί ὠφεληθήσεται ἄνθρωπος, ἐὰν τὸν κόσμον ὅλον κερδήσῃ, τὴν δὲ ψυχὴν αὐτοῦ ἀπολέσῃ καὶ ζημιωθῇ; Ἐνταῦθα ἡ ἀπώ λεια τὴν ἄγνοιαν σωμάτων καὶ ἀσωμάτων ἐμφαίνει· ἡ δὲ ζημία τὴν ἐσχάτην ἀλογίαν παρίστησιν. Εἰ φόβος Κυρίου εἰς ζωὴν ἀνδρὶ, φόβος δὲ Κυρίου σοφία καὶ παιδεία, ἡ ζωὴ τοῦ ἀνδρὸς ἄρα σοφία ἐστὶ καὶ παιδεία· τὸ οὖν γνῶναι σοφίαν καὶ παιδείαν, γνῶναί ἐστι τὸν Χριστὸν καὶ τὴν αὐτοῦ διδασκαλίαν· ὁ οὖν ἄφοβος ἔσται ἐν κακίᾳ καὶ ἀγνωσίᾳ, ἐν αἷς οὐκ ἔστιν ὁ Χριστός· οἱ οὖν ἐν κακίᾳ καὶ ἀγνωσίᾳ ζῶντες, οὐκ ἐπισκέπτονται ἐν αὐτοῖς τὸν φόβον τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τὸ ἔλεος ἐφ' ἑαυτοῖς μὴ ἐλπίζοντες· οὐδὲ Χριστός ἐστιν ἐν αὐτοῖς, παρὰ τὸ μὴ θέλειν αὐτούς. Ὁ μὴ ὀρθῶς βιοὺς, κρύπτει ἐν τῇ ψυχῇ αὐτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας ἀδίκως, τὴν ἑαυτοῦ γῆν ἐργάσασθαι μὴ βου λόμενος, τουτέστι τὸ σῶμα· μηδὲ ἐμπλησθῆναι ἄρ των ψυχικῶν· αἱ γὰρ πρακτικαὶ ἀρεταὶ, χειρῶν ἔχουσι λόγον, αἱ τὸν ἄρτον τῷ στόματι ἡμῶν προσφέρουσαι, τὸν ἀπὸ τῶν οὐρανῶν καταβάντα, καὶ ζωὴν διδόντα τῷ κόσμῳ δι' ἐνθέου σοφίας καὶ γνώσεως. Εἰ θυμὸς δρακόντων ὁ οἶνος αὐτῶν, ἀκόλαστον δὲ ὁ οἶνος, ἀκόλαστος ἄρα ὁ θυμὸς, ἀκολάστους ποιῶν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· καὶ ὑβριστικὸν ἡ ὀργή· γίνεται γὰρ ἀπὸ ζέοντος θυμοῦ· εἰ δὲ οἴνου οἱ Ναζαραῖοι κατὰ τὸν νόμον ἀπέχονται, θυμοῦ ἄρα τοὺς Ναζαραίους ἐκτὸς εἶναι νενομοθέτηται. Ἐνταῦθα τὸν Χριστὸν ἄντικρυς εἴρηκε βασιλέα· ὁ γὰρ τοῦτον διὰ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν παροξύνων, ἁμαρτάνει εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ ψυχήν. Ὥσπερ ὁ ἄφρων τὸ ὄνειδος οὐκ αἰσχύνεται, οὕτως ὁ δανεισάμενος σῖτον σπεῖραι ἐν ἀμητῷ· ἤδη ὅτι ἐκ τοῦ γεωργίου αὐτοῦ ἀποδοθήσεται τῷ δανείσαντι, κἂν τύχῃ ἀποθανεῖν τὸν δανεισθέντα. -Εἰ ἔστιν ἐν ἀμη τῷ σῖτον δανείσασθαι παρὰ τῶν ἐργασαμένων ἐν τοῖς ἒξ ἔτεσι τὴν ἑαυτῶν γῆν,