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certainly through the dogs the archetypal dog, the flesh-eating and man-slaying, as the scripture says. And what follows in the psalm describes the dog-like life. For he says that instead of a bark a certain sound is produced by their mouth, and he says that instead of dog's teeth a sword has been hidden on their lips, saying thus in these words: Behold, they shall speak out with their mouth, and a sword is on their lips. But these terrible things are a laughing matter to those who have God in themselves. For you, he says, O Lord, will laugh at them; but I will keep my strength for you. and after a little he foretells the dispensation determined by God for his own creation. for he says: Do not kill them, but bring them down from the height of wickedness to the level and smooth ground of the life according to God. which indeed both Paul the great and John the Baptist did. in Paul, on the one hand, with every high thing that is raised up against the divine knowledge being cast down; and by John, on the other hand, according to the prophecy of Isaiah, with every mountain and hill being brought down to what is low. through which we learn that there will not be an annihilation of men, so that the divine work 5.175 may not be rendered useless by being destroyed into non-existence. But instead of them sin will be destroyed and will be reduced to non-being. For the sin, he says, of their mouth and the word of their lips. and pride and cursing and falsehood in the wrath of the consummation will not exist. when these no longer exist, They shall know, he says, that God is Lord of Jacob and of the ends of the earth. For with wickedness left nowhere, the Lord will certainly be master of the ends, with the sin now reigning over the many being removed. Then again he repeats the same saying about those returning at evening and hungering like a dog and going around the city, showing, I think, through the repetition of the saying that in either case, men, according to both the evil and the better, in whatever state they may now be, in the same they will also be hereafter. For he who now through impiety walks about in a circle and does not live in the city nor keeps the human character in his own life, but is made bestial through his choice and has become a dog, this one then also, having fallen from the city above, will be punished in a famine of good things. But the victor over the adversaries and who goes forward (as the psalmist says somewhere else) from strength to strength and exchanges victory for victory, I will sing, he says, of your strength, and in the morning I will rejoice in your mercy, because you have become my helper and my refuge, and to you is due glory for ever and ever. Amen.

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δὲ πάντως διὰ τῶν κυνῶν τὸν ἀρχέγονον κύνα τὸν σαρκοβόρον τε καὶ ἀνθρωποκτόνον, καθώς φησιν ἡ γραφή. Καὶ τὰ ἐφεξῆς τοῦ ψαλμοῦ διαγράφει τὴν κυνώδη ζωήν. ἀντὶ γὰρ τῆς ὑλακῆς φθόγγον τινὰ διὰ στόματος αὐτῶν γενέσθαι λέγει, καὶ ἀντὶ τῶν κυνοδόντων ῥομφαίαν τοῖς χείλεσιν ὑποκεκρύφθαι φησίν, οὕτω λέγων τοῖς ῥήμασιν· Ἰδοὺ ἀποφθέγξονται ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτῶν καὶ ῥομφαία ἐν τοῖς χείλεσιν αὐτῶν. ἀλλὰ τὰ φοβερὰ ταῦτα τοῖς τὸν θεὸν ἐν ἑαυτοῖς ἔχουσι γέλως ἐστίν. Σὺ γάρ, φησίν, κύριε, ἐκγελάσῃ αὐτούς· ἐγὼ δὲ τὸ κράτος μου πρὸς σὲ φυλάξω. καὶ μετ' ὀλίγα προμηνύει τὴν ὁρισθεῖσαν ὑπὸ τοῦ θεοῦ ἐπὶ τοῦ ἰδίου πλάσματος οἰκονομίαν. φησὶ γάρ· Μὴ ἀποκτείνῃς αὐτούς, ἀλλὰ κατάγαγε αὐτοὺς ἀπὸ τοῦ ὕψους τῆς κακίας εἰς τὸ ἐπίπεδόν τε καὶ ὁμαλὸν τῆς κατὰ θεὸν πολιτείας. ὅπερ δὴ καὶ Παῦλος ὁ μέγας καὶ ὁ βαπτιστὴς Ἰωάννης ἐποίησεν. ἐν Παύλῳ μὲν καθαιρουμένου παντὸς ὑψώματος τοῦ κατὰ τῆς θείας γνώσεως ἐπαιρομένου· ὑπὸ δὲ Ἰωάννου κατὰ τὴν προφητείαν Ἠσαίου παντὸς ὄρους καὶ βουνοῦ πρὸς τὸ ταπεινὸν κατασπωμένου. δι' ὧν μανθάνομεν ὅτι τῶν μὲν ἀνθρώπων ἀφανισμὸς οὐκ ἔσται, ἵνα μὴ τὸ θεῖον ἔργον 5.175 ἀχρειωθῇ τῷ ἀνυπάρκτῳ ἀφανιζόμενον. ἀλλ' ἀντ' αὐτῶν ἀπολεῖται ἡ ἁμαρτία καὶ εἰς τὸ μὴ ὂν περιστήσεται. Ἁμαρτία γάρ, φησίν, στόματος αὐτῶν καὶ λόγος χειλέων αὐτῶν. καὶ ὑπερηφανία καὶ ἀρὰ καὶ ψεῦδος Ἐν τῇ ὀργῇ τῆς συντελείας οὐκ ὑπάρξουσιν. ὧν μηκέτι ὄντων, Γνώσονται, φησίν, ὅτι ὁ θεὸς δεσπόζει τοῦ Ἰακὼβ καὶ τῶν περάτων τῆς γῆς. μηδαμοῦ γὰρ ὑπολειφθείσης κακίας, πάντως ἔσται τῶν περάτων δεσπότης ὁ κύριος, τῆς νῦν βασιλευούσης τῶν πολλῶν ἁμαρτίας ἐκ ποδῶν γενομένης. εἶτα πάλιν τὸν αὐτὸν ἐπαναλαμβάνει λόγον περὶ τῶν ἐπιστρεφόντων εἰς ἑσπέραν καὶ λιμωττόντων ὡς κύων καὶ ἐν κύκλῳ περιερχομένων τὴν πόλιν, δηλῶν, οἶμαι, διὰ τῆς τοῦ λόγου ἐπαναλήψεως ὅτι καθ' ἑκάτερον οἱ ἄνθρωποι κατά τε τὸ πονηρὸν καὶ τὸ κρεῖττον, ἐν οἷς ἂν νῦν γένωνται, ἐν τοῖς αὐτοῖς καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα γενήσονται. ὁ γὰρ νῦν δι' ἀσεβείας κύκλῳ περιπατῶν καὶ μὴ ἐμβιοτεύων τῇ πόλει μηδὲ τὸν ἀνθρώπινον ἐπὶ τοῦ ἰδίου βίου χαρακτῆρα φυλάσσων, ἀλλὰ ἀποθηριούμενος διὰ τῆς προαιρέσεως καὶ κύων γενόμενος οὗτος καὶ τότε τῆς ἄνω πόλεως ἐκπεσὼν ἐν λιμῷ τῶν ἀγαθῶν κολασθήσεται. ὁ δὲ νικητὴς τῶν ἐναντίων καὶ προϊὼν (καθώς φησιν ἑτέρωθί που ὁ ψαλμῳδός) ἐκ δυνάμεως εἰς δύναμιν καὶ νίκην νίκῃ διαμειβόμενος, Ἄισομαι, λέγει, τῇ δυνάμει σου, καὶ ἀγαλλιάσομαι τὸ πρωὶ τὸ ἔλεός σου, ὅτι ἐγενήθης ἀντιλήπτωρ μου καὶ καταφυγή μου, καί σοι πρέπει ἡ δόξα εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων. ἀμήν.