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he draws upon mercy for an alliance, but being on high, as if from some high watchtower, he shouts rebukingly to those below living in the hollow foothills of human life, saying these things: O men, what are you saying and doing? Is what you say righteousness? Do you bring forth judgment with uprightness? And indeed I see that your hearts are on earth, and every motion of the heart is a deed and not a thought. For as soon as evil is formed in the mind, the deed is interwoven with the thoughts through the hands. These things I have set forth for the sake of clarity, paraphrasing slightly the words of the psalm, which are as follows: If indeed you speak righteousness, judge uprightly, O sons of men. For even in your heart you work iniquity on the earth, your hands weave injustice. 5.162 Then, complaining on behalf of those who have fallen from salvation, he adds the following words: The sinners, he says, were estranged from the womb, and from the belly they went astray. You would know what is said by examining what is the first womb of human constitution, and what belly conceived humanity. For I think it is none other than the love for mankind and goodness of God, from which we were both formed and born. For he said, "Let us make man in our image and after our likeness," who formed their hearts individually. And again he says, "I have begotten and exalted sons, but they have rejected me." And it is possible to collect countless such sayings from the holy scripture, through which one recognizes what belly formed us and what womb brought us forth into the light through birth. Looking at these things, therefore, he who complains laments over the destruction of the apostates; for the voice with which he bewails the sinners is clearly a lament. How were the sinners, he says, estranged from the womb? how did they wander from the belly, honoring the lie before the truth, whose anger bears a likeness to the father of the lie, the first serpent? Like that of a deaf asp, he says, that stops its ears, which will not listen to the voice of charmers, nor to the charm chanted by a wise enchanter. For the experts in these matters observed this nature in the beast: that when it is inflamed with anger, it holds its breath in its throat and does not let it out, swelling up like a wineskin from the breath held within, 5.163 so that everything remains idle and ineffective against it, whatever charms for beasts were discovered by a certain natural antipathy by those wise in such matters. And through these things he gives us to understand that the heart of those held in wickedness remains deaf to the therapy brought to them by their teachers. And the whole sequence of the psalmody is brought forth as a lament by him who groans over the destruction of the wretched. For he proclaims beforehand what will happen to them, saying, "God will break their teeth in their mouth." What teeth, if not clearly those that eat the fruit of disobedience, the servants of the pleasures of the belly (which he called weapons and arrows in the preceding psalmody), by which the word of truth is torn to pieces? "And the molars of the lions," he says, "the Lord has shattered." You would know whom he called lions, if you would learn the characteristics of these beasts. For they say that lions have crooked eyes, whose nature is carnivorous and fond of blood. And you surely know the riddle of the crookedness of the eyes of those not looking straight, and of the foulness of the breath of those who use their mouth for blasphemy and for this reason have an affinity for the stench of sin. And whatever is signified by the breath, that flesh and blood, which especially nourishes the nature of lions, these things are cast out from the kingdom of God. For in the time of the honor of the worthy, "These," he says, "will be brought to nothing," flowing away together with the unstable nature of the material things to which they attached themselves during their life. "For they will be brought to nothing," he says, "like 5.164 water that runs by." For the evil archer against our souls, he who [sends] the fiery darts of sin against the

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ἔλεον εἰς συμμαχίαν ἐφέλκεται, ἀλλ' ἄνω γενόμενος, ὥσπερ ἔκ τινος ὑψηλῆς σκοπιᾶς, τοῖς κάτω κατὰ τὰ κοῖλα τῆς τοῦ βίου τῶν ἀνθρώπων ὑπωρείας διάγουσιν ἐλεγκτικῶς ἐμβοᾷ ταῦτα λέγων· Ὦ ἄνθρωποι, τί λαλεῖτε καὶ πράσσετε; ἆρα δικαιοσύνη ἐστὶ τὸ λαλούμενον; ἆρα δι' εὐθύτητος τὴν κρίσιν προσάγετε; καὶ μὴν ὁρῶ ὅτι ἐν γῇ μὲν ὑμῶν εἰσιν αἱ καρδίαι, καὶ πᾶν ἐγκάρδιον κίνημα ἔργον ἐστὶ καὶ οὐχὶ νόημα. εὐθὺς γὰρ ὁμοῦ τῷ συστῆναι τὸ κακὸν ἐν τῇ διανοίᾳ συμπλέκεται τὸ ἔργον διὰ τῶν χειρῶν τοῖς νοήμασιν. ταῦτα σαφηνείας χάριν μικρόν τι παραφράσας τῆς ψαλμικῆς λέξεως ἐξεθέμην τὰ ῥήματα ἔχοντα οὕτως· Εἰ ἀληθῶς ἄρα δικαιοσύνην λαλεῖτε, εὐθείας κρίνετε, υἱοὶ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. καὶ γὰρ ἐν καρδίᾳ ἀνομίας ἐργάζεσθε ἐν τῇ γῇ, ἀδικίαν αἱ χεῖρες ὑμῶν συμπλέκουσιν. 5.162 εἶτα ἐπάγει σχετλιάζων ὑπὲρ τῶν τῆς σωτηρίας ἐκπεπτω κότων τὰς μετὰ ταῦτα φωνὰς Ἀπηλλοτριώθησαν, λέγων, οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας, καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς γαστρὸς ἐπλανήθησαν. Γνοίης δ' ἂν τὸ λεγόμενον ἐξετάσας τίς ἡ πρώτη τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης συστάσεως μήτρα, καὶ τίς γαστὴρ ἡ κυοφορήσασα τὸ ἀνθρώπινον. οἶμαι γὰρ μὴ ἄλλην εἶναί τινα παρὰ τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ φιλανθρωπίαν καὶ ἀγαθότητα, ἀφ' ἧς ἐπλάσθημέν τε καὶ ἐγεννήθημεν. εἶπεν γὰρ Ποιήσωμεν ἄνθρωπον κατ' εἰκόνα ἡμετέραν καὶ καθ' ὁμοίωσιν ὁ πλάσας καταμόνας τὰς καρδίας αὐτῶν. καὶ πάλιν φησὶν Υἱοὺς ἐγέννησα καὶ ὕψωσα, αὐτοὶ δέ με ἠθέτησαν. καὶ μυρίας ἔστι τοιαύτας φωνὰς ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας γραφῆς ἀναλέξασθαι, δι' ὧν ἐπιγινώσκεται τίς ἡ πλάσασα ἡμᾶς γαστὴρ καὶ τίς ἡ μήτρα ἡ εἰς φῶς προαγαγοῦσα διὰ γεννήσεως. πρὸς ταῦτα οὖν βλέπων ὁ σχετλιάζων ἐπὶ τῇ ἀπωλείᾳ τῶν ἀφεστηκότων ὀδύρεται· θρῆνος γὰρ ἄντικρύς ἐστιν ἡ φωνὴ δι' ἧς τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ὀλοφύρεται. Πῶς ἠλλοτριώθησαν, λέγων, οἱ ἁμαρτωλοὶ ἀπὸ μήτρας; πῶς ἀπὸ τῆς γαστρὸς ἐπλανήθησαν τὸ ψεῦδος πρὸ τῆς ἀληθείας τιμήσαντες, ὧν ὁ θυμὸς πρὸς τὸν πατέρα τοῦ ψεύδους τὸν πρῶτον ὄφιν ἔχει τὴν ὁμοιότητα; Ὡσεὶ ἀσπίδος, φησίν, κωφῆς καὶ βυούσης τὰ ὦτα αὐτῆς, ἥτις οὐκ εἰσακούσεται φωνὴν ἐπᾳδόντων, φαρμακοῦται φαρμακευο μένη παρὰ σοφοῦ. ταύτην γὰρ ἐνεῖδον τοῦ θηρίου τὴν φύσιν οἱ περὶ ταῦτα σοφοί· ὅτι θυμῷ διαπιμπραμένη ἀποκρατεῖ τὸ πνεῦμα τῇ φάρυγγι καὶ οὐ προΐεται ἀσκοῦ δίκην τῇ τοῦ 5.163 πνεύματος ἐναπολήψει περιοιδαίνουσα, ὡς πάντα ἐπ' αὐτῆς ἀργὰ μένειν καὶ ἄπρακτα, ὅσα θηρίων θέλγητρα διά τινος φυσικῆς ἀντιπαθείας παρὰ τῶν τὰ τοιαῦτα σοφῶν ἐξηυρέθη. νοεῖν δὲ δίδωσι διὰ τούτων ὅτι ἀνήκοος μένει τῶν ἐν κακίᾳ κεκρατημένων ἡ καρδία, τῆς παρὰ τῶν διδασκάλων ἐπαγο μένης αὐτοῖς θεραπείας. καὶ πᾶσα δὲ ἡ τῆς ψαλμῳδίας ἀκο λουθία διὰ θρήνου προῆκται τῷ τῇ ἀπωλείᾳ τῶν δειλαίων ἐπιστενάζοντι. προαναφωνεῖ γὰρ κατ' αὐτῶν τὸ ἐσόμενον λέγων Ὁ θεὸς συντρίψει τοὺς ὀδόντας αὐτῶν ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν. ποίους ὀδόντας, ἢ δηλαδὴ τοὺς τοῦ καρποῦ τῆς παρακοῆς βρωτῆρας, τοὺς τῶν ἡδονῶν τῆς γαστρὸς ὑπηρέτας (οὓς ὅπλα καὶ βέλη διὰ τῆς προλαβούσης ψαλμῳδίας ὠνόμα σεν), δι' ὧν ὁ τῆς ἀληθείας λόγος κατασπαράσσεται; Καὶ τὰς μύλας τῶν λεόντων, φησί, συνέθλασεν ὁ κύριος. γνοίης δ' ἂν τίνας ὠνόμασε λέοντας, εἰ μάθοις τῶν θηρίων τούτων τὰ ἰδιώματα. λέγουσι γὰρ εἶναι τοὺς λέοντας ἐνδιαστρόφους τὸ ὄμμα, ὧν σαρκοβόρος ἡ φύσις καὶ τῷ αἵματι φίλη. οἶδας δὲ πάντως τὸ αἴνιγμα τῆς τῶν ὀμμάτων διαστροφῆς τῶν μὴ πρὸς τὸ εὐθὺ βλεπόντων, καὶ τῆς ἀηδίας τοῦ ἄσθματος τῶν εἰς βλασφημίαν κεχρημένων τῷ στόματι καὶ διὰ τοῦτο συγγενῶς ἐχόντων πρὸς τὴν τῆς ἁμαρτίας δυσωδίαν. καὶ ὅσα νοεῖται διὰ τοῦ ἄσθματος, ὅτι σὰρξ καὶ αἷμα, ὅπερ μάλιστα τρέφει τῶν λεόντων τὴν φύσιν, ταῦτα εἰς τὴν τοῦ θεοῦ βασιλείαν ἀπόβλητα. ἐν γὰρ τῷ καιρῷ τῆς τῶν ἀξίων τιμῆς, Οὗτοι, φησίν, ἐξουδενωθήσονται, τῇ ἀστάτῳ φύσει τῶν ὑλικῶν πραγμάτων οἷς προσῳκειώθησαν κατὰ τὸν βίον συγκαταρρέοντες. Ἐξουδενωθήσονται γάρ, φησίν, ὡς 5.164 ὕδωρ διαπορευόμενον. ὁ γὰρ πονηρὸς κατὰ τῶν ψυχῶν ἡμῶν τοξότης, ὁ τὰ πεπυρωμένα βέλη τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατὰ τῆς