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he who wished to curse was able to utter no voice that was grievous and dissonant, but to turn the curse into a blessing. What we mean is that the blame of slander does not attach to those who live according to virtue. 2.296 For how will the one who possesses nothing be reviled for greed? And how will someone murmur about the profligacy of one who is withdrawn and lives apart, or the anger of the gentle, or the pride of the humble-minded, or any other blameworthy thing of those who are known by their opposites, whose purpose is to render their life unassailable by blame, so that, as the Apostle says, he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having nothing to say? For this reason the voice of him who was hired to curse says: How shall I curse whom the Lord has not cursed? That is: how shall I revile one who has not given the material for slander, whose life is invulnerable to vice because he looks to God? 2.297 Nevertheless, since the inventor of evil failed in this, he did not cease entirely from his design against those he plotted against, but turns his device to his own wrestling, again luring nature to evil through pleasure. For in truth, pleasure, put forth as a kind of bait for every vice, easily draws the more gluttonous souls to the hook of destruction. And most of all, somehow through intemperate pleasure nature is unguardedly dragged away to evil. 2.298 Which is what also happened then. For those who had prevailed with weapons and had shown every assault of iron to be weaker than their own strength and had utterly routed the phalanx of the enemy, were wounded by the arrows of women through pleasure. And they became stronger than the men, but weaker than the women. For as soon as the women were seen by them, putting forth their forms instead of weapons, they at once forgot the tone of their manliness, dissolving their spirit into pleasure. 2.299 And they were in that state in which it is likely for those to be who have raged with lawless intercourse with foreigners. And intimacy with evil was an estrangement from the alliance of the good. For immediately the Divine became hostile to them. But Phinehas the zealot did not wait for the sin to be cleansed by the decree from above. But he himself became at once judge and executioner.

2.300 For being moved to wrath against those who had raged, he did the work of a priest, cleansing the sin with blood, not the blood of some innocent animal that had no part in the pollution of licentiousness, but of those joined to one another in vice, upon whom the spear-point, passing through the two bodies at once, stopped the motion of divine justice, mingling pleasure with the death of the sinners. 2.301 And the story seems to me to lay down a certain counsel profitable for the soul for men, through which we are taught that although there are many passions that contend against the reasonings of men, no other passion has such strength against us as to be compared to the disease of pleasure. For the fact that those Israelites—who were shown to be stronger than the Egyptian cavalry, and prevailed over the Amalekites, and appeared terrible to the nation after them, and after this overpowered the phalanx of the Midianites—that these were at once enslaved to the disease at the sight of foreign women, shows nothing other, as has been said, than that pleasure is an enemy of ours that is hard to fight and hard to contend against, 2.302 which, having overcome by its appearance those who were invincible with weapons, raised up a trophy of dishonor against them, inscribing their shame with the light as witness. For she showed them to be brute beasts through herself, whom the bestial and irrational impulse toward licentiousness persuaded to forget human nature, not even concealing their pollution, but parading in the dishonor of their passion and glorying in the defilement of their shame, like swine openly wallowing in the mire of impurity in one another's sight. 2.303 What then are we taught by the narrative? That having learned how much strength for evil the

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καταρᾶσθαι βουλόμενον μηδεμίαν δύνασθαι προΐεσθαι φωνὴν λυπηράν τε καὶ ἀπεμφαίνουσαν, ἀλλὰ τρέπειν τὴν κατάραν εἰς εὐλογίαν. Ὃ δὲ νοοῦμεν τοιοῦτόν ἐστιν ὅτι τῶν κατ' ἀρετὴν ζώντων ὁ τῆς λοιδορίας μῶμος οὐχ ἅπτεται. 2.296 Πῶς γὰρ ἐπὶ πλεονεξίᾳ ὁ ἀκτήμων λοιδορηθήσεται; πῶς δέ τις ἐπιθρυλλή σει τὴν ἀσωτίαν τῷ ἀνακεχωρημένῳ καὶ ἰδιάζοντι, ἢ τὸν θυμὸν τῷ πράῳ, ἢ τὸν τῦφον τῷ μετριόφρονι, ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν ἐπιμώμων τοῖς ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων γινωσκομένοις, οἷς ὁ σκοπός ἐστιν ἄληπτον παρέχειν τῷ μώμῳ τὸν βίον, ἵνα, καθώς φησιν ὁ Ἀπόστολος, ὁ ἐξ ἐναντίας ἐντραπῇ μηδὲν ἔχων λέγειν; ∆ιὰ τοῦτό φησιν ἡ φωνὴ τοῦ εἰς κατάραν παρειλημ μένου· πῶς ἀράσομαι ὃν μὴ ἀρᾶται Κύριος; τουτέστι· πῶς λοιδορήσομαι τῷ μὴ δεδωκότι τῆς λοιδορίας τὴν ὕλην, ᾧ διὰ τὸ πρὸς τὸν Θεὸν βλέπειν ἄτρωτός ἐστιν εἰς κακίαν ὁ βίος; 2.297 Οὐ μήν, ἐπειδὴ τούτου διήμαρτεν ὁ τῆς κακίας εὑρετής, καθόλου τῆς κατὰ τῶν ἐπιβουλευομένων ἐπινοίας ἐπαύσατο, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὸ ἴδιον πάλαισμα τὴν ἐπίνοιαν τρέπει, πάλιν δι' ἡδονῆς πρὸς τὸ κακὸν δελεάζων τὴν φύσιν. Ὄντως γὰρ πάσης κακίας οἷόν τι δέλεαρ ἡ ἡδονὴ προβληθεῖσα εὐκόλως τὰς λιχνοτέρας ψυχὰς ἐπὶ τὸ ἄγκιστρον τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐφέλκεται. Μάλιστα δέ πως διὰ τῆς ἀκολάστου ἡδονῆς ἀφυλάκτως ἡ φύσις πρὸς τὸ κακὸν παρασύρεται. 2.298 Ὃ δὴ καὶ τότε ἐγένετο. Οἱ γὰρ τῶν ὅπλων ὑπερισχύσαντες καὶ πᾶσαν τὴν ἐκ σιδήρου προσβολὴν ἀσθενεστέραν τῆς ἰδίας δυνάμεως δείξαντες καὶ κατὰ κράτος τὴν φάλαγγα τῶν ἀντικειμένων τρεψάμενοι, τοῖς γυναικείοις βέλεσι δι' ἡδονῆς κατετρώθησαν. Καὶ τῶν μὲν ἀνδρῶν κρείττους, τῶν δὲ γυναικῶν ἥττους ἐγένοντο. Ὁμοῦ τε γὰρ ὤφθησαν αὐτοῖς αἱ γυναῖκες ἀντὶ ὅπλων τὰς μορφὰς προβαλλόμεναι, καὶ παραχρῆμα τοῦ τόνου τῆς ἀνδρείας λήθην ἐλάμβανον τὸν θυμὸν εἰς ἡδονὴν διαλύσαντες. 2.299 Καὶ οἱ μὲν ἦσαν ἐν τούτοις, ἐν οἷς εἰκὸς εἶναι τοὺς τῇ ἀθέσμῳ μίξει τῶν ἀλλοφύλων ἐπιλυσσήσαντας. Ἡ δὲ πρὸς τὸ κακὸν οἰκειότης τῆς τοῦ καλοῦ συμμαχίας ἀλλοτρίωσις ἦν. Εὐθὺς γὰρ αὐτοῖς ἐξεπο λεμώθη τὸ Θεῖον. Ἀλλ' οὐκ ἀνέμεινεν ὁ ζηλωτὴς Φινεὲς τῇ ἄνωθεν ψήφῳ καθαρθῆναι τὴν ἁμαρτίαν. Ἀλλ' αὐτὸς ἐγένετο δικαστὴς ἅμα καὶ δήμιος.

2.300 Κινηθεὶς γὰρ εἰς τὴν κατὰ τῶν λελυσσηκότων ὀργήν, τὸ τοῦ ἱερέως ἔργον ἐποίησεν αἵματι καθαρίσας τὴν ἁμαρτίαν, αἵματι οὐκ ἀναιτίου τινὸς ζῴου τοῦ μηδὲν μετεσχηκότος τοῦ τῆς ἀκολασίας μιάσματος, ἀλλὰ τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ συνεζευγμένων ἀλλήλοις, ἐφ' ὧν ἡ αἰχμὴ κατὰ ταὐτὸν τῶν δύο σωμάτων διεξελθοῦσα ἔστησε τὴν τῆς θείας δίκης κίνησιν, τῷ θανάτῳ τῶν ἡμαρτηκότων τὴν ἡδονὴν καταμίξασα. 2.301 ∆οκεῖ δέ μοι συμβουλήν τινα ψυχωφελῆ κατατίθεσθαι τοῖς ἀνθρώποις ἡ ἱστορία, δι' ἧς διδασκόμεθα ὅτι πολλῶν ὄντων παθῶν ἃ τοὺς λογισμοὺς τῶν ἀνθρώπων καταγωνίζεται οὐδεμίαν καθ' ἡμῶν ἰσχὺν ἕτερον πάθος ἔχει τοσαύτην, ὡς πρὸς τὴν νόσον τῆς ἡδονῆς ἐξισοῦσθαι. Τὸ γὰρ ἀθρόως τοὺς Ἰσραηλίτας ἐκείνους, τοὺς καὶ τῆς Αἰγυπτίας ἵππου κρείττους ἐπιδειχθέντας καὶ τῶν Ἀμαληκιτῶν ὑπερσχόντας καὶ τῷ μετ' αὐτοὺς ἔθνει φοβεροὺς φανέντας καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα τῆς τῶν Μαδιανιτῶν ὑπερισχύσαντας φάλαγγος, τούτους ὁμοῦ τῇ θέᾳ τῶν ἀλλοφύλων γυναικῶν καταδουλωθῆναι τῇ νόσῳ οὐδὲν ἕτερον, καθὼς εἴρηται, δείκνυσιν ἢ τὸ δύσμαχον εἶναί τινα καὶ δυσανταγώνιστον πολέμιον ἡμῶν τὴν ἡδονήν, 2.302 ἣ τῶν ἀηττήτων τοῖς ὅπλοις ὁμοῦ τῷ φανῆναι κατα κρατήσασα τὸ τῆς ἀτιμίας ἤγειρε κατ' αὐτῶν τρόπαιον, ὑπὸ μάρτυρι τῷ φωτὶ τὴν αἰσχύνην αὐτῶν στηλιτεύσασα. Βοσκήματα γὰρ δι' ἑαυτῆς τοὺς ἀνθρώπους ἀπέδειξεν, οὓς ἡ κτηνώδης καὶ ἄλογος πρὸς τὴν ἀκολασίαν ὁρμὴ ἐκλάθεσθαι τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ἀνέπεισε φύσεως, μηδ' ἐπι κρυπτομένους τὸ ἄγος, ἀλλ' ἐμπομπεύοντας τῇ ἀτιμίᾳ τοῦ πάθους καὶ ἐγκαλλωπιζομένους τῷ τῆς αἰσχύνης μιάσματι, συῶν δίκην ἀναφανδὸν ἐν ταῖς ἀλλήλων ὄψεσι τῷ τῆς ἀκαθαρσίας βορβόρῳ ἐγκαλινδουμένους. 2.303 Τί οὖν τῷ διηγήματι παιδευόμεθα; Τὸ μαθόντας ἡμᾶς ὅσην ἰσχὺν πρὸς τὸ κακὸν ἡ τῆς