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its own nature, but from the wisdom of God who fashioned all things. When I was heavily laden in my ways. That is: laden with fruit from every side. When the Lord watched over my house. Do you see that this is what he desired, to show the oversight and providence of God? 29:6a When my ways flowed with butter, 6b and my mountains flowed with milk. Do you see that he nowhere mentions unjust or excessive wealth, but that which is useful and reasonable? 29:7a When I went out early into the city, 7b and my seat was set in the squares. He speaks of his boldness and former dignity, then his glory. 29:8a When the young men saw me, they hid themselves, 8b and all the elders rose up, 29:9a the powerful stopped speaking 9b and put a finger to their mouths. It seems to me that he strikes at these also and alludes to them as those who tread upon him, saying, "Before this I was fearsome," he says, "and glorious." 29:10a And those who heard of me blessed me 10b and their tongue stuck to their throat, 29:11a because the ear heard and blessed me, 11b and the eye saw me and turned away. 29:12a For I delivered the poor from the hand of the powerful, 12b and I helped the orphan, who had no helper. 151 Why did they bless him? He speaks of his achievements: For I delivered, he says, the poor from the hand of the powerful. But first entrusting his oversight and protection to God, then he boasts in the Lord. 29:13a May the blessing of him who was perishing come upon me, 13b and the mouth of the widow blessed me. 29:14a And I had put on righteousness, 14b and I clothed myself with judgment as with a double cloak. 29:15a I was an eye to the blind, 15b and a foot to the lame; 29:16a I was a father to the powerless. 16b And the cause which I did not know, I investigated. 29:17a I broke the jaws of the unjust, 17b and from between their teeth I snatched the prey. 29:18a I said: My age will grow old 18b like the trunk of a palm tree, and I will live a long time. "Not because I acted with this hope, but because I expected from this a long old age from a good conscience and good hopes." For I delivered, he says, the poor from the hand of the powerful. See how he is not proud of his abstinence from evil, nor of his sacrifices like the Jews, but of this, which God wills: Judge, he says, for the orphan and justify the widow. See how he is not puffed up, but uses his power for what is necessary, being a common harbor and refuge for those in need. He was a common father and protector; he did not use his wealth for injustice, nor his glory for arrogance, nor his wisdom for wickedness, but to deliver those who were caught from the terrible things that held them. And I helped the orphan, who had no helper. See how he says these things with restraint. The mouth, he says, of the widow blessed me. Know that their kind is somehow ungrateful, 152 not from their own nature or choice, but from the necessity of poverty, and it is a difficult thing to praise a benefactor. For it is a furnace of poverty. And I had put on, he says, righteousness. For there are those who preside over others, but they themselves often do wrong; but this man was not so. He was so continually in a righteous life, that even when you hear of God, that he has a garment of righteousness, you should not think of garments concerning the incorporeal nature; for neither did this man have these garments. And I clothed myself with judgment as with a double cloak. "Thus I adorned myself, although others find the matter difficult, are annoyed, and consider it burdensome and heavy; but not I," he says, "but just as someone might be adorned with a double cloak, so I too continually, not today yes, tomorrow no longer, but just as it is necessary to always have one's garments, so also these matters." And yet who appointed him a judge? He became a judge self-appointed by virtue itself, just like Moses. Men should have been like this; but since they abandoned virtue, God appointed authorities. Do you see the matter lying in nature, I mean the protective role? Since what law, tell me, instructed this man? Who compelled him? Who gave the vote? Who raised him to the throne? I was an eye, he says, to the blind, and a foot to the lame. He did not say: "I lightened the calamity" nor "I took away the sensation of the maiming,"

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οἰκείαν φύσιν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὴν σοφίαν τοῦ τὰ πάντα τεκτηναμένου θεοῦ. ὅτε ἤμην ἐπιβρίθων ὁδοῖς. τουτέστιν· πάντοθεν τῷ καρπῷ βρίθων. ὅτε ὁ κύριος ἐπισκοπὴν ἐποιεῖτο τοῦ οἴκου μου. ὁρᾷς, ὅτι τοῦτο ἐπεθύμει, τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν καὶ τὴν πρόνοιαν δεῖξαι τοῦ θεοῦ; 29,6a ὅτε ἐχέοντό μου αἱ ὁδοὶ βουτύρῳ, 6b τὰ δὲ ὄρη μου ἐχέοντο γάλακτι. ὁρᾷς, ὅτι οὐδαμοῦ πλούτου μέμνηται ἀδίκου οὐδὲ περιττοῦ, ἀλλὰ τοῦ χρησίμου καὶ λόγον ἔχοντος; 29,7a ὅτε ἐξεπορευόμην ὄρθριος ἐν πόλει, 7b ἐν δὲ πλατείαις ἐτίθετό μου ὁ δίφρος. τὴν παρρησίαν λέγει καὶ τὴν ἀξίαν τὴν προτέραν, εἶτα τὴν δόξαν. 29,8a ἰδόντες δέ με νεανίσκοι ἐκρύβησαν, 8b πρεσβῦται δὲ πάντες ἐπανέστησαν, 29,9a ἁδροὶ δὲ ἐπαύσαντο λαλοῦντες 9b δάκτυλον θέντες ἐπὶ στόματι αὐτῶν. ἐμοὶ δοκεῖ καὶ τούτους πλήττειν καὶ αἰνίττεσθαι ἅτε ἐπεμβαίνοντας αὐτῷ, ὅτι «πρὸ τούτου φοβερὸς ἤμην», φησίν, «καὶ ἐπίδοξος.» 29,10a οἱ δὲ ἀκούσαντες περὶ ἐμοῦ ἐμακάρισάν με 10b καὶ γλῶσσα αὐτῶν τῷ λάρυγγι αὐτῶν ἐκολλήθη, 29,11a ὅτι οὖς ἤκουσε καὶ ἐμακάρισέ με, 11b ὀφθαλμὸς δέ με ἰδὼν ἐξέκλινεν. 29,12a διέσωσα γὰρ πτωχὸν ἐκ χειρὸς δυνάστου, 12b καὶ ὀρφανῷ, ᾧ οὐχ ὑπῆρχε βοηθός, ἐβοήθησα. 151 τίνος ἕνεκεν ἐμακάριζον αὐτόν; λέγει αὐτοῦ τὰ κατορθώματα· διέσωσα γάρ, φησίν, πτωχὸν ἐκ χειρὸς δυνάστου. ἀλλὰ πρῶτον ἀναθεὶς τῷ θεῷ τὴν ἐπισκοπὴν καὶ τὴν φυλακὴν αὐτοῦ, τότε καυχᾶται ἐν κυρίῳ. 29,13a εὐλογία ἀπολλυμένου ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἔλθοι, 13b στόμα δὲ χήρας εὐλόγησέ με. 29,14a δικαιοσύνην δὲ ἐνεδεδύκειν, 14b ἠμφιασάμην δὲ κρίμα ἴσα διπλοΐδι. 29,15a ὀφθαλμὸς ἤμην τυφλῶν, 15b ποὺς δὲ χωλῶν· 29,16a ἐγὼ ἤμην πατὴρ ἀδυνάτων. 16b δίκην δέ, ἣν οὐκ ᾔδειν, ἐξιχνίασα. 29,17a συνέτριψα μύλας ἀδίκων, 17b ἐκ δὲ μέσου ὀδόντων ἅρπαγμα ἐξήρπασα. 29,18a εἶπον· ἡλικία μου γηράσει 18b ὥσπερ στέλεχος φοίνικος, πολὺν δὲ χρόνον βιώσω. «οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ταύτῃ τῇ ἐλπίδι ἐποίουν, ἀλλ' ὅτι προσεδόκων ἐκ τούτου γῆρας μακρὸν ἀπὸ συνειδότος καλοῦ καὶ χρηστῶν ἐλπίδων.» διέσωσα γάρ, φησίν, πτωχὸν ἐκ χειρὸς δυνάστου. ὅρα αὐτὸν οὐκ ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν κακῶν ἀποχῇ μέγα φρονοῦντα, οὐκ ἐπὶ ταῖς θυσίαις καθάπερ οἱ Ἰουδαῖοι, ἀλλ' ἐπὶ τούτῳ, ᾧ βούλεται ὁ θεός· κρίνατε, φησίν, ὀρφανῷ καὶ δικαιώσατε χήραν· ὅρα αὐτὸν οὐκ ἐπαιρόμενον, ἀλλὰ τῇ δυνάμει πρὸς τὸ δέον χρώμενον λιμένα κοινὸν ὄντα καὶ καταφυγὴν τῶν ἐν ἀνάγκῃ. κοινὸς πατὴρ καὶ προστάτης ἦν· οὐ πρὸς ἀδικίαν ἐκέχρητο τῷ πλούτῳ, οὐ πρὸς ἀλαζονείαν τῇ δόξῃ, οὐ πρὸς κακουργίαν τῇ σοφίᾳ, ἀλλ' ὥστε ἀπαλλάττειν τῶν κατεχόντων δεινῶν τοὺς ἁλισκομένους. καὶ ὀρφανῷ, ᾧ οὐκ ἦν βοηθός, ἐβοήθησα. ὅρα αὐτὸν καὶ αὐτὰ μεθ' ὑποστολῆς λέγοντα. στόμα δέ, φησίν, χήρας εὐλόγησέ με. ἴστε δέ, ὅτι ἀχάριστόν πως 152 τὸ γένος ἐστίν, οὐ παρὰ τὴν οἰκείαν φύσιν οὐδὲ προαίρεσιν, ἀλλὰ παρὰ τὴν ἀνάγκην τῆς πενίας, καὶ πρᾶγμα δύσκολον ἐπαινέσαι τὸν εὖ ποιοῦντα. κάμινος γὰρ πτωχείας ἐστίν. δικαιοσύνην δέ, φησίν, ἐνεδεδύκειν. εἰσὶ γάρ, οἳ ἑτέρων μὲν προΐστανται, αὐτοὶ δὲ ἀδικοῦσι πολλάκις· ἀλλ' οὗτος οὐχ οὕτως. οὕτω διηνεκῶς ἦν ἐν τῷ δικαίῳ βίῳ, ὥστε καὶ περὶ θεοῦ ὅταν ἀκούσῃς, ὅτι ἱμάτιον ἔχει δικαιοσύνης, μὴ νομίσῃς ἱμάτια περὶ τὴν ἀσώματον φύσιν· οὐδὲ γὰρ οὗτος ταῦτα εἶχε τὰ ἱμάτια. ἠμφιασάμην δὲ κρίμα ἴσα διπλοΐδι. «οὕτως ἐνεκαλλωπιζόμην, καίτοι ἕτεροι τὸ πρᾶγμα δυσκολαίνουσιν, ἀγανακτοῦσιν, φορτικὸν εἶναι καὶ βαρὺ νομίζουσιν· ἀλλ' οὐκ ἐγώ», φησίν, «ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἂν εἴ τις ἐπὶ διπλοΐδι καλλωπίζοιτο, οὕτω καὶ ἐγὼ διηνεκῶς, οὐχὶ σήμερον μέν, αὔριον δὲ οὐκέτι, ἀλλ' ὥσπερ ἀνάγκη τὰ ἱμάτια διὰ παντὸς ἔχειν, οὕτω καὶ τὰ πράγματα.» καίτοι τίς αὐτὸν κατέστησε δικαστήν; αὐτοχειροτόνητος κριτὴς παρὰ τῆς ἀρετῆς γέγονεν αὐτῆς καθάπερ Μωυσῆς. τοιούτους εἶναι ἐχρῆν τοὺς ἀνθρώπους· ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ ἐγκατέλιπον τὴν ἀρετήν, ἔταξεν ὁ θεὸς ἐξουσίας. ὁρᾷς ἐν τῇ φύσει τὸ πρᾶγμα κείμενον, τὸ προστατικὸν λέγω; ἐπεὶ ποῖος, εἰπέ μοι, νόμος τοῦτον ἐπαίδευσεν; τίς κατηνάγκασεν; τίς τὴν ψῆφον ἔδωκεν; τίς ἐπὶ τὸν θρόνον ἀνεβίβασεν; ὀφθαλμὸς ἤμην, φησίν, τυφλῶν, ποὺς δὲ χωλῶν. οὐκ εἶπεν· «ἐπεκούφισα τὴν συμφοράν» οὐδὲ «τῆς πηρώσεως τὴν αἴσθησιν ἀνῄρουν»,