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a flower imperceptibly passes to another color, fittingly mixing the outermost rays of the colors with each other, so it is possible to see also the ray of the thought of this psalmody at its very end being mixed in sequence with the brilliance of the introduction of the adjacent psalm; so that the middle ground between them escapes notice, as the thought is automatically carried down from this one to the psalmody that lies beyond. For he who, like a fruitful olive tree, is rooted in the house of God and has confirmed in himself the firm and immovable nature of the foundation of faith and has extended the hope of the divine oil through thanksgiving to the infinity of the ages, uses anger against those who are foolish, the chief point of whose foolishness is to say that the one who truly is, the one who is over all and in all, does not exist. For, he says, when such and so many things are the case (first it shows God's providence for men, on which the certainty of hopes is so unchangeable that desire, being co-extended with the eternity of the 5.137 ages, does not weary), how does *The fool say in his heart: There is no God?* They have become corrupt and abominable in such practices of thought. For a falling away from the one who truly is is truly a corruption and dissolution of what exists. For how could someone be in being, if not in the one who is? And how could someone remain in the one who is, if not believing that the one who is, is? But the one who truly is is certainly God, as the vision of the theophany testifies to the great Moses. Therefore, he who casts out of his own mind the being of God by saying that He does not exist, has corrupted his own being, having come to be outside of the one who is. For this reason, it says, that since they turned away from God, they all at once became useless, like a rejected vessel condemned as useless. But what is useless for the good clearly demonstrates its suitability for evil through its incompatibility with the better. Since therefore on this account the Lord *looked down from heaven upon the sons of men;* and such a word foretells the Lord's association among men, when the whole obedient populace followed those who led the way to unbelief, the priests and Pharisees and scribes; for they were the ones tearing and devouring the people with their own blasphemous teeth; for this reason it says that *There they will fear with a fear where there was no fear*, they who eat my people as they eat bread, suffering something similar to the affliction of those who fear water. For whom, if the water could somehow be accepted, it will be a remedy for the suffering of the one who is sick; but they somehow fear what is set before them for salvation and are alienated from the one who saves, preparing destruction for themselves out of fear of not being destroyed. Thus 5.138 they too, though the fount shouted to them: *If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink*, with the senses of their soul preoccupied by the rage of unbelief, they feared a fear where there was no fear, turning away from the drink of salvation, not knowing that God is in the generation of the righteous, the one who gives salvation from Zion to Israel and who brings back the captivity of his people to himself from the one who wickedly took us captive through sin, when the true Israelite and spiritual Jacob comes to be in gladness and exultation. The thought of the psalmody, then, as it is possible to discover by proceeding through the very words of the psalmody, is of this kind. And the inscription of the psalm agrees with the thought. For the inscription signifies that the word of the psalmody is a song of victory, taking place through a dance with understanding; *To the end*, it says, *for Maeleth, of understanding, for David*; and Maeleth is interpreted as 'dance'. And instead of *To the end*, other interpreters have rendered it *a song of victory*. Again, as the course proceeds through what follows, it fits the enigmas of the history to the thoughts found through progress, whenever that Doeg the Edomite becomes powerless against us, he who pastures in himself the ambiguous nature of mules. And this has been said also in what has gone before, that sin through this animal

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ἄνθει λεληθότως πρὸς τὸ ἑτερόχρουν μεταβαίνει, προσφυῶς τὰς ἄκρας τῶν χρωμάτων αὐγὰς ἀλλήλαις καταμιγνύουσα, οὕτως ἔστιν ἰδεῖν καὶ τῆς ψαλμῳδίας ταύτης κατὰ τὸ ἄκρον τὴν τοῦ νοήματος ἀκτῖνα τῷ προοιμίῳ τῆς τοῦ παρακειμένου ψαλμοῦ λαμπηδόνος δι' ἀκολούθου προσμιγνυμένην· ὥστε λανθάνειν τὸ μέσον τούτων, αὐτομάτως τῆς διανοίας ἀπὸ τούτου πρὸς τὴν ὑπερκειμένην ψαλμῳδίαν κατενεχθείσης. ὁ γὰρ ὡς ἐλαία κατάκαρπος ῥιζωθεὶς ἐν τῷ οἴκῳ τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὸ ἑδραῖόν τε καὶ ἀμετακίνητον τοῦ κατὰ τὴν πίστιν στερεώματος ἐν ἑαυτῷ βεβαιώσας καὶ τὴν ἐλπίδα τοῦ θείου ἐλαίου δι' εὐχαριστίας τῇ ἀπειρίᾳ τῶν αἰώνων συμπαρατείνας θυμῷ χρῆται κατὰ τῶν ἀφραινόντων, ὧν κεφάλαιον τῆς ἀφροσύνης τὸ τὸν ἀληθῶς ὄντα, τὸν ἐπὶ πάντων καὶ ἐν πᾶσιν, τοῦτον μὴ εἶναι λέγειν. τοιούτων γάρ, φησίν, καὶ τοσούτων ὄντων (πρῶτον τοῦ θεοῦ δείκνυσι τὴν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθρώπων προμήθειαν· ἐφ' οὗ τὸ τῶν ἐλπίδων βέβαιον οὕτως ἀμετάθετόν ἐστιν, ὡς μὴ κάμνειν τῇ ἀϊδιότητι τῶν 5.137 αἰώνων τὸν πόθον συνεκτεινόμενον), πῶς Λέγει ὁ ἄφρων ἐν τῇ καρδίᾳ αὐτοῦ· Οὐκ ἔστι θεός; διεφθάρησαν καὶ ἐβδελύχθησαν ἐν τοῖς τοιούτοις τῆς διανοίας ἐπιτηδεύμασιν. Φθορὰ γάρ ἐστιν ὡς ἀληθῶς καὶ διάλυσις τοῦ συνεστῶτος ἡ τοῦ ὄντως ὄντος ἀπόπτωσις. πῶς γὰρ ἄν τις ἐν τῷ εἶναι εἴη, μὴ ἐν τῷ ὄντι ὤν; πῶς δ' ἄν τις μένοι ἐν τῷ ὄντι, μὴ πιστεύων τῷ ὄντι ὅτι ἔστιν; ὁ δὲ ἀληθῶς ὢν θεός ἐστι πάντως, καθὼς τῷ μεγάλῳ Μωυσεῖ ἡ ὀπτασία τῆς θεοφανείας μαρτύρεται. ὁ οὖν ἐκβάλλων τῆς ἑαυτοῦ διανοίας τοῦ θεοῦ τὸ εἶναι ἐκ τοῦ ἐκεῖνον μὴ εἶναι λέγειν ἑαυτοῦ τὸ εἶναι διέφθει ρεν ἔξω τοῦ ὄντος γενόμενος. διὰ τοῦτό φησιν, ἐπειδὴ ἀπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐξέκλιναν, εὐθὺς ἠχρειώθησαν οἱ πάντες, οἷόν τι σκεῦος ἀπόβλητον καταγνωσθὲν ἀχρηστίαν. τὸ δὲ τῷ καλῷ ἄχρηστον τὴν πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ἐπιτηδειότητα διὰ τῆς πρὸς τὸ κρεῖττον ἀναρμοστίας σαφῶς ἐπιδείκνυσιν. ἐπεὶ οὖν διὰ ταῦτα ὁ κύριος Ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ ἐπὶ τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων διέκυψεν· ὁ δὲ τοιοῦτος λόγος τὴν ἐν ἀνθρώποις τοῦ κυρίου συναναστροφὴν προμηνύει, ὅτε τοῖς προκαθηγουμένοις πρὸς τὴν ἀπιστίαν τοῖς ἱερεῦσίν τε καὶ Φαρισαίοις καὶ γραμματεῦ σιν ἅπαν ἐπηκολούθησε τὸ ὑπήκοον· ἐκεῖνοι γὰρ ἦσαν οἱ τοῖς βλασφήμοις ἑαυτῶν ὀδοῦσι τὸν λαὸν σπαράσσοντές τε καὶ διεσθίοντες· διὰ τοῦτό φησιν ὅτι Ἐκεῖ φοβηθήσονται φόβον, οὗ οὐκ ἦν φόβος, οἱ ἐσθίοντες τὸν λαόν μου βρώσει ἄρτου, ὅμοιον πάσχοντες τῷ πάθει τῶν ὑδροφοβούντων. οἷς εἴ πως δυνηθείη παραδεχθῆναι τὸ ὕδωρ, ἰαματικὸν ἔσται τοῦ πάθους τῷ κάμνοντι· ἀλλὰ φοβοῦνταί πως τὸ ἐπὶ σωτηρίᾳ προκείμενον καὶ ἀλλοτριοῦνται τοῦ σῴζοντος, φόβῳ τοῦ μὴ ἀπολέσθαι κατασκευάζοντες ἑαυτοῖς τὴν ἀπώλειαν. οὕτως 5.138 κἀκεῖνοι, τῆς πηγῆς αὐτοῖς ἐμβοώσης· Εἴ τις διψᾷ, ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω, τῇ λύσσῃ τῆς ἀπιστίας προκατειλημμένοι τὰ τῆς ψυχῆς αἰσθητήρια, ἐφοβοῦντο φόβον, οὗ οὐκ ἦν φόβος, τὸ ποτὸν τῆς σωτηρίας ἀποστρεφόμενοι, οὐκ εἰδότες ὅτι ἐν γενεᾷ δικαίων ὁ θεὸς γίνεται, ὁ διδοὺς ἐκ Σιὼν τὸ σωτήριον τῷ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ τὴν αἰχμαλωσίαν τοῦ λαοῦ αὐτοῦ ἀπὸ τοῦ πονηρῶς διὰ τῆς ἁμαρτίας ἡμᾶς αἰχμαλωτίσαντος πάλιν πρὸς ἑαυτὸν ἐπιστρέφων, ὅτε γίνεται ἐν εὐφροσύνῃ καὶ ἀγαλλιάματι ὁ ἀληθινὸς Ἰσραηλίτης καὶ ὁ πνευματικὸς Ἰακώβ. ἡ μὲν οὖν διάνοια τῆς ψαλμῳδίας, καθὼς ἔξεστιν εὑρεῖν δι' αὐτῶν προϊόντα τῶν λέξεων τῆς ψαλμῳδίας, τοιαύτη. ἡ δὲ ἐπιγραφὴ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ συμβαίνει πρὸς τὴν διάνοιαν. ἐπινίκιον γὰρ εἶναι τὸν λόγον τῆς ψαλμῳδίας ἡ ἐπιγραφὴ σημαίνει διὰ χορείας ἐν συνέσει γινόμενον· Εἰς τὸ τέλος γάρ, φησίν, ὑπὲρ Μαελέθ, συνέσεως τῷ ∆αβίδ· χορεία δὲ τῷ Μαελὲθ ἑρμηνεύεται. καὶ ἀντὶ τοῦ Εἰς τὸ τέλος ἕτεροι τῶν ἑρμηνέων ἐπινίκιον ἐκδεδώκασιν. Πάλιν διὰ τῶν ἀκολούθων προϊὼν ὁ δρόμος, καταλλήλως τοῖς διὰ τῆς προκοπῆς εὑρισκομένοις νοήμασιν ἐφαρμόζει τὰ τῆς ἱστορίας αἰνίγματα, ὅταν ἄπρακτος γένηται καθ' ἡμῶν ὁ ∆ωὴκ ἐκεῖνος ὁ Ἰδουμαῖος τὴν ἐπαμφοτερίζουσαν τῶν ἡμιόνων φύσιν ἐν ἑαυτῷ νομεύων. εἴρηται δὲ τοῦτο καὶ ἐν τοῖς φθάσασιν, ὅτι ἡ ἁμαρτία διὰ τοῦ ζῴου τούτου