,

Christ, as the head of the whole body, for the name David, when interpreted, means 'Contempt', who is the Word and Son of God, who for my sake took on the form of a servant and became a reproach of men who disbelieve the truth and the contempt of a people full of sins, the good shepherd who lays down his life for us, the sheep, who killed the lion and the bear, I mean, having driven out anger and desire from nature, which tear apart the form of the divine image in us according to the Word, the ruddy one, because of the suffering of death, with beautiful eyes, that is, with the glory of the higher principles of providence and judgment—for the eyes of the Word would be judgment and providence, through which, even while suffering for us, He undertakes the oversight of all—the slayer of the intelligible and arrogant Goliath, I mean the devil, who was five cubits in stature because of (14B_410> the passion of the fivefold sense within us—for the devil has the magnitude of his stature in evil raised to such an extent, to the degree that the power of sensation is extended passionately in us toward sensible things—the king of the true Israel that sees God, even if Saul, the old people according to the law, rages, being consumed with envy on account of unbelief—for he does not bear the deprivation of temporary glory—, from whom my king David, even while being pursued, takes away the spear and the flask of water, that is, the power of practical virtue and the grace of gnostic contemplation (even if he again lends these things to those who cross over to him according to faith, for the sake of those of the Jews who are to inherit salvation, who accept the preaching of the kingdom), from whom again, while he was sitting in the cave for the discharge of his excrement, the corner of his cloak is taken away, that is, the height of decency according to moral philosophy or the lofty meaning of the covering of legal symbols and riddles, judging it not worthy nor yet just for the people of the Jews, sitting as in a cave in this age or in the dark letter of the law, to be corrupted by its misuse, who are truly earthly and lovers of the body and who define the divine promises of incorruptible things by the corruption of passing things, to have the intelligible comeliness of the mystical legal ordinances, like the corner of a cloak.

This is the intelligible David, the true shepherd and king and destroyer of opposing powers, a shepherd of those still pursuing practical philosophy and grazing on natural contemplation like grass, but a king of those who have renewed the beauty of the given image to its archetype by spiritual laws and words and who stand immediately present in mind before the great king (14B_412> of the ages and who reflect, as it is lawful to say, the unapproachable beauty.

Therefore, all the saints from the beginning of the age are the sons of this David, having been born of him in the Spirit. And the tombs of these sons are the memorials of their life on earth according to God. And the ascent of these tombs is the height of their knowledge and love of God, where all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem bury, establishing in the worthy place of the blessed abode both the modes of practice and the principles of knowledge which inhabit true contemplation, the mind that has laudably died to all existing things, to sensible things by the laying aside of activity according to sense, and to intelligible things by the cessation of intellectual motion.

Therefore, Hezekiah, interpreted as 'strength of God', as a mind strong in practice and most brilliant in knowledge, they bury when he has died, that is, when he has departed in his will from all beings and has come to be with the one who is beyond beings, all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, that is, his practice according to virtue and his true contemplation according to knowledge, in the ascent of the tombs of the sons of David, in the height, I say

Χριστός, ὡς κεφαλὴ τοῦ παντὸς σώματος, Ἐξουδένωσις γὰρ ἑρμηνευόμενον δηλοῖ τοῦ ∆αβὶδ τὸ ὄνομα, ὅς ἐστιν ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ Λόγος καὶ Υἱός, ὁ δι᾽ ἐμὲ τὴν δουλικὴν μορφὴν ὑποδὺς καὶ γενόμενος ὄνειδος ἀνθρώπων ἀπιστούντων τῇ ἀληθείᾳ καὶ ἐξουδένωμα λαοῦ πλήρους ἁμαρτιῶν, ὁ ποιμὴν ὁ καλὸς ὁ τιθεὶς τὴν ψυχὴν ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν τῶν προβάτων, ὁ ἀποκτείνας τὸν λέοντα καὶ τὴν ἄρκον, τὸν θυμὸν λέγω καὶ τὴν ἐπιθυμίαν ἐξηλώσας τῆς φύσεως, τὰ σπαράττοντα τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν κατὰ τὸν λόγον θείας εἰκόνος τὴν μορφήν, ὁ πυρράκης, διὰ τὸ πάθημα τοῦ θανάτου, μετὰ κάλλους ὀφθαλμῶν, τουτέστι μετὰ δόξης τῶν κατὰ πρόνοιαν καὶ κρίσιν ὑψηλοτέρων λόγωνὀφθαλμοὶ γὰρ τοῦ Λόγου ἡ κρίσις ἂν εἴη καὶ ἡ πρόνοια, δι᾽ ὧν καὶ πάσχων ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ποιεῖται τοῦ παντὸς τὴν ἐπισκοπήν, ὁ τοῦ νοητοῦ Γολιὰθ καὶ ὑπερηφάνου, φημὶ δὲ τοῦ διαβόλου, σφαγεύς, τοῦ πεντάπηχυν ἔχοντος τὴν ἡλικίαν διὰ (14Β_410> τὴν ἐμπάθειαν τῆς ἐν ἡμῖν πενταπλῆς αἰσθήσεωςἐπὶ τοσοῦτον γὰρ ἔχει τὸ μέγεθος τῆς κατὰ κακίαν ἡλικίας ὑψούμενον ὁ διάβολος, ἐφ᾽ ὅσον τοῖς αἰσθητοῖς ἐμπαθῶς ἐν ἡμῖν ἡ τῆς αἰσθήσεως ἐπεκτείνεται δύναμις, ὁ βασιλεὺς τοῦ ἀληθινοῦ Ἰσραὴλ καὶ ὁρῶντος Θεόν, κἂν Σαούλ, ὁ παλαιὸς κατὰ τὸν νόμον λαός, μαίνεται φθόνῳ διὰ τὴν ἀπιστίαν τηκόμενοςοὐ φέρει γὰρ τῆς προσκαίρου δόξης τὴν στέρησιν , οὖ ἀφαιρεῖται τὸ δόρυ καὶ τοῦ ὕδατος τὸν φακὸν ∆αβὶδ ὁ ἐμὸς βασιλεὺς καὶ διωκόμενος, τουτέστι τὸ κράτος τῆς πρακτικῆς ἀρετῆς καὶ τὴν χάριν τῆς γνωστικῆς θεωρίας (κἂν πάλιν ταῦτα κιχρῶν δίδωσι τοῖς πρὸς αὐτὸν κατὰ τὴν πίστιν διαβαίνουσι διὰ τοὺς ἐξ Ἰουδαίων μέλλοντας κληρονομεῖν σωτηρίαν, δεχομένους τῆς βασιλείας τὸ κήρυγμα), οὗπερ πάλιν ἐν τῷ σπηλαίῳ πρὸς τὴν τῶν περιττωμάτων ἀποβολὴν καθημένου τὸ τῆς διπλοΐδος ἀφαιρεῖται πτερύγιον, τουτέστι τὸ ὕψος τῆς κατὰ τὴν ἠθικὴν φιλοσοφίαν εὐσχημοσύνης ἢ τὸ ἐν νοήμασιν ὑψηλὸν τῆς τῶν νομικῶν συμβόλων καὶ αἰνιγμάτων περιβολῆς, οὐκ ἄξιον οὔτε μὴν δίκαιον κρίνας εἰς φθορὰν τῇ ἀποχρήσει τὸν ὡς ἐν σπηλαίῳ τῷ αἰῶνι τούτῳ ἢ τῷ σκοτεινῷ τοῦ νόμου γράμματι καθήμενον λαὸν τῶν Ἰουδαίων, τὸν γήϊνον ὄντως καὶ φιλοσώματον καὶ τῇ φθορᾷ τῶν παρερχομένων περιγράφοντα τὰς θείας τῶν ἀφθάρτων ἐπαγγελίας, ἔχειν τῆς μυστικῆς τῶν νομικῶν διαταγμάτων, καθάπερ διπλοΐδος πτερύγιον, τὴν νοουμένην εὐπρέπειαν.

Οὗτός ἐστι ∆αβὶδ ὁ νοητός, ὁ ἀληθινὸς ποιμὴν καὶ βασιλεὺς καὶ τῶν ἀντικειμένων ἀναιρέτης δυνάμεων, ποιμὴν μὲν τῶν ἔτι τὴν πρακτικὴν μετερχομένων φιλοσοφίαν καὶ πόας δίκην νεμομένων τὴν φυσικὴν θεωρίαν, βασιλεὺς δὲ τῶν νόμοις καὶ λόγοις πνευματικοῖς ἀνακαινισάντων πρὸς τὸ ἀρχέτυπον τῆς δοθείσης εἰκόνος τὸ κάλλος καὶ αὐτῷ τῷ μεγάλῳ βασιλεῖ (14Β_412> τῶν αἰώνων ἀμέσως κατὰ νοῦν παρισταμένων καὶ τὸ ἀπρόσιτον κάλλος, ὡς θέμις εἰπεῖν, ἐσοπτριζομένων.

Υἱοὶ μὲν οὖν τούτου τοῦ ∆αβὶδ τυγχάνουσι πάντες οἱ ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος ἅγιοι, ἐξ αὐτοῦ γεννηθέντες ἐν Πνεύματι. Τάφοι δὲ τούτων τῶν υἱῶν εἰσιν αἱ μνῆμαι τῆς κατὰ Θεὸν αὐτῶν ἐπὶ γῆς πολιτείας. Ἀνάβασις δὲ τούτων τῶν τάφων ἐστὶ τὸ ὕψος τῆς αὐτῶν περὶ Θεὸν γνώσεως καὶ ἀγάπης, ἔνθα πᾶς Ἰούδα καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλὴμ θάπτουσι, ἐνιδρύοντες ἐν τῷ κατ᾽ ἀξίαν τόπῳ τῆς μακαρίας μονῆς οἵ τε κατὰ πρᾶξιν τρόποι καὶ οἱ τὴν ἀληθῆ θεωρίαν οἰκοῦντες λόγοι τῆς γνώσεως, τὸν τοῖς οὖσιν ἅπασιν ἐπαινετῶς ἀποθανόντα νοῦν, τοῖς μὲν αἰσθητοῖς τῇ ἀποθέσει τῆς κατ᾽ αἴσθησιν ἐνεργείας, τοῖς δὲ νοητοῖς τῇ τῆς νοερᾶς ἀποπαύσει κινήσεως.

Τὸν τοίνυν Ἐζεκίαν, κράτος Θεοῦ ἑρμηνευόμενον, ὡς νοῦν κραταιὸν περὶ πρᾶξιν καὶ περὶ γνῶσιν λαμπρότατον, θάπτουσιν ἀποθανόντα, τουτέστι πάντων τῶν ὄντων κατὰ τὴν γνώμην ἀπογενόμενον καὶ πρὸς τὸν ὑπὲρ τὰ ὄντα γενόμενον, πᾶς Ἰούδα καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες Ἱερουσαλήμ, ἡ κατ᾽ ἀρετὴν πρᾶξις αὐτοῦ δηλονότι καὶ ἡ κατὰ τὴν γνῶσιν ἀληθὴς θεωρία, ἐν ἀναβάσει τάφων υἱῶν ∆αβίδ, ἐν τῷ ὕψει λέγω