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with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquity. And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my hands he will repay me. He then goes on to list what his righteousness was, and how he had cleansed his hands. Because I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. Because all his judgments are before me, and his statutes he has not put away from me. And I will be blameless with him, and I will keep myself from my iniquity. Since, therefore, I have procured these things for myself, he says, after the sin, and have gathered for myself so many remedies, it is with good reason that I repeat the same saying in a second discourse: that, because of what has been said, And the Lord will repay me according to my righteousness, and according to the cleanness of my hands in the sight of his eyes; but instead of, in the sight of his eyes, Symmachus has, before his eyes. For I was not eager to show my cleanness to the eyes of men, nor to please the many, but I made every effort for my cleanness to be before the eyes of the judge himself. With the holy thou wilt be holy, and with the innocent man thou wilt be innocent; and with the elect thou wilt be elect, and with the perverse thou wilt be perverted. For thou wilt save a humble people, and wilt humble the eyes of the proud. Perhaps prophetically he alludes to the apostolic choir as a humble people, or, according to Aquila, poor, or, according to Symmachus, meek; and the proud as those formerly exalted, the chief priests and teachers and rulers of the people of the circumcision? whom, having formerly used proud eyes against our Savior, God has humbled, in all things saving his own humble and poor and meek people, the people of our Savior's apostles and disciples. For thou wilt light my lamp, O Lord, my God, thou wilt enlighten my darkness. For by thee I shall be delivered from temptation, and by my God I shall leap over a wall. But seeking for the lamp of David, I found it in the 131st psalm, There will I make a horn to bud for David; I have prepared a lamp for my 23.180 Christ. And what could the lamp prepared for Christ from the seed of David be other than the offspring according to the flesh born from the succession of David, whom Christ used, having been born in him, and shone forth to all men the flashes of his power and the risings of his light? Wherefore also in the preceding verses David says prophetically: For thou wilt light my lamp, O Lord. For you yourself, he says, O Lord, being the true light, having once been ineffably united to the lamp to be born from me, will enlighten it; but you will also then completely remove the darkness that was once in me, so that not even the memory of it comes to my mind. And I know well that, having been deemed worthy of power and strength from you, I will mount the wall in the heavens; and being in safety, I will then obtain salvation from you. Or: I will go over and leap over all the strongholds of the enemies and the fences and the wall, with which they hasten to surround me to shut me in. My God, his way is blameless; the oracles of the Lord are tried by fire, he is a defender of all who hope in him. For who is God but the Lord? or who is God but our God? He declares his administration to be blameless, that is, irreproachable, and the economy of his providence. But also his oracles are tried by fire, that is, tested and proven; it is not possible to scrutinize them; nor to find in them anything of foreign matter interpolated, such as are the things with the wise of this age; participating sometimes in a certain appearance, but filled with all atheism and impiety. What then do the fiery oracles of the Lord teach? that he is a defender of all who hope in him; and that not

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μετ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ φυλάξομαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας μου. Καὶ ἀνταποδώσει μοι Κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου, καὶ κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα τῶν χειρῶν μου ἀνταποδώσει μοι. ∆ιεξέρχεται ἑξῆς καταλέγων τίς ἦν ἡ δικαιοσύνη αὐτοῦ, καὶ ὅπως ἀπεκάθηρεν ἑαυτοῦ τὰς χεῖρας. Ὅτι ἐφύλαξα τὰς ὁδοὺς Κυρίου, καὶ οὐκ ἠσέβησα ἀπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ μου. Ὅτι πάντα τὰ κρίματα αὐτοῦ ἐνώπιόν μου, καὶ τὰ δικαιώματα αὐτοῦ οὐκ ἀπέστησεν ἀπ' ἐμοῦ. Καὶ ἔσομαι ἄμωμος μετ' αὐτοῦ, καὶ φυλάξομαι ἀπὸ τῆς ἀνομίας μου. Ἐπεὶ τοίνυν ταῦτα ἐπορισάμην ἐμαυτῷ, φησὶ, μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, καὶ τοσαύτας συνήγαγον ἐμαυτῷ θεραπείας, εἰκότως πάλιν ἐπαναλαβὼν τὸν αὐτὸν ἐν δευτέρῳ λόγον φημί· ὅτι, διὰ τὰ προλεχθέντα, Καὶ ἀνταποδώσει μοι Κύριος κατὰ τὴν δικαιοσύνην μου, καὶ κατὰ τὴν καθαριότητα τῶν χειρῶν μου ἐνώπιον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ· ἀντὶ δὲ τοῦ, ἐνώπιον τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ, ὁ Σύμμαχος, τὴν ἀντικρὺ τῶν ὀφθαλμῶν αὐτοῦ, ἐξέδωκεν. Οὐ γὰρ ἀνθρώπων ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐσπούδαζον τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ καθαριότητα δεικνύναι, οὐδὲ ὥστε ἀρέσκειν τοῖς πολλοῖς, ἀλλ' ἀντικρὺ τῶν αὐτοῦ τοῦ κριτοῦ ὀφθαλμῶν πᾶσαν ἐποιούμην σπουδὴν τῆς ἐμαυτοῦ καθαρότητος. Μετὰ ὁσίου ὅσιος ἔσῃ, καὶ μετὰ ἀνδρὸς ἀθώου ἀθῶος ἔσῃ· καὶ μετὰ ἐκλεκτοῦ ἐκλεκτὸς ἔσῃ, καὶ μετὰ στρεβλοῦ διαστρέψεις. Ὅτι σὺ λαὸν ταπεινὸν σώσεις, καὶ ὀφθαλμοὺς ὑπερηφάνων ταπεινώσεις. Μήποτε προφητικῶς λαὸν μὲν ταπεινὸν, ἢ, κατὰ τὸν Ἀκύλαν, πένητα, ἢ, κατὰ τὸν Σύμμαχον, πρᾶον τὸν χορὸν αἰνίττεται τὸν ἀποστολικόν· ὑπερηφάνους δὲ τοὺς πάλαι ἐπηρμένους, τοὺς ἀρχιερέας καὶ διδασκάλους καὶ ἄρχοντας τοῦ ἐκ περιτομῆς λαοῦ; οὓς πάλαι ὀφθαλμοῖς ὑπερηφάνοις κατὰ τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν κεχρημένους ἐταπείνωσεν ὁ Θεὸς, ἐν πᾶσι σώσας τὸν αὑτοῦ ταπεινὸν καὶ πένητα καὶ πρᾶον, τὸν τοῦ Σωτῆρος ἡμῶν ἀποστόλων τε καὶ μαθητῶν λαόν. Ὅτι σὺ φωτιεῖς τὸν λύχνον μου, Κύριε, ὁ Θεός μου, φωτιεῖς τὸ σκότος μου. Ὅτι ἐν σοὶ ῥυσθήσομαι ἀπὸ τοῦ πειρατηρίου, καὶ ἐν τῷ Θεῷ μου ὑπερβήσομαι τεῖχος. Ζητῶν δὲ τὸν λύχνον τοῦ ∆αυῒδ εὗρον ἐν ρλαʹ ψαλμῷ φερόμενον τὸ, Ἐκεῖ ἐξανατελῶ κέρας τῷ ∆αυΐδ· ἡτοίμασα λύχνον τῷ 23.180 Χριστῷ μου. Λύχνος δὲ ἑτοιμαζόμενος τῷ Χριστῷ ἐκ σπέρματος ∆αυῒδ τίς ἂν γένοιτο ἢ τὸ γέννημα τὸ κατὰ σάρκα γενόμενον ἐκ διαδοχῆς ∆αυῒδ, ᾧ κέχρηται ὁ Χριστὸς ἐν αὐτῷ γενόμενος, καὶ τὰς τῆς δυνάμεως αὐτοῦ μαρμαρυγὰς καὶ τοῦ φωτὸς τὰς ἀνατολὰς πᾶσιν ἐξέλαμψεν ἀνθρώποις; ∆ιὸ καὶ ἐν τοῖς προκειμένοις προφητικῶς φησιν ὁ ∆αυΐδ· Ὅτι σὺ φωτιεῖς λύχνον μου, Κύριε. Σὺ γὰρ αὐτὸς, φησὶν, ὁ Κύριος, τὸ φῶς τὸ ἀληθινὸν τυγχάνων, ἑνωθείς ποτε ἀποῤῥήτως τῷ ἐξ ἐμοῦ γενησομένῳ λύχνῳ, φωτιεῖς αὐτόν· ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ἐγγενόμενόν μοί ποτε σκότος τότε παντελῶς περιελεῖς, ὡς μηδὲ μνήμην αὐτοῦ ἀνιέναι ἐπὶ τὴν ἐμὴν διάνοιαν. Εὖ δὲ οἶδα, ὅτι, καὶ τῆς παρὰ σοῦ δυνάμεως καὶ ἰσχύος καταξιωθεὶς, ἐπιβήσομαι τοῦ ἐν οὐρανοῖς τείχους· ἐν ἀσφαλεῖ τε γενόμενος, τότε τῆς παρὰ σοὶ τεύξομαι σωτηρίας. Ἤ· Ὑπερβήσομαι καὶ ὑπερπηδήσω πάντα τὰ τῶν ἐχθρῶν ὀχυρώματα καὶ τοὺς φραγμοὺς καὶ τὸ τεῖχος, ὃ περιβάλλειν μοι εἰς τὸ ἀποκλεῖσαι σπεύδονται. Ὁ Θεός μου, ἄμωμος ἡ ὁδὸς αὐτοῦ· τὰ λόγια Κυρίου πεπυρωμένα, ὑπερασπιστής ἐστι πάντων τῶν ἐλπιζόντων ἐπ' αὐτόν. Ὅτι τίς Θεὸς πλὴν τοῦ Κυρίου; ἢ τίς Θεὸς πλὴν τοῦ Θεοῦ ἡμῶν; Ἄμωμον εἶναι ἀποφαίνεται, τουτέστιν ἀνεπίληπτον τὴν διοίκησιν αὐτοῦ, καὶ τὴν τῆς προνοίας οἰκονομίαν. Ἀλλὰ καὶ τὰ λόγια αὐτοῦ πεπυρωμένα, τουτέστι βεβασανισμένα καὶ δεδοκιμασμένα· οὐκ ἔστι τε αὐτοῖς ἐπισκέψαι· οὐδὲ ἀλλοτρίας ὕλης παρεμβεβλημένον τι ἐν αὐτοῖς εὑρεῖν, ὁποῖα τὰ παρὰ τοῖς σοφοῖς τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου τυγχάνει· μετέχοντα μέν τινος ἔσθ' ὅτε φαντασίας, πάσης δὲ ἀθεότητος καὶ δυσσεβείας πεπληρωμένα. Τί οὖν τὰ πεπυρωμένα λόγια τοῦ Κυρίου διδάσκει; ὡς ὑπερασπιστής ἐστι πάντων τῶν ἐλπιζόντων ἐπ' αὐτόν· καὶ ὅτι οὐκ