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resists counsels. He means to say, that both my soul and my body long for you and desire you, just as one who is thirsty desires the sweetest and clearest water. "In a desert land, and impassable, and waterless. [3] So have I appeared to you in the holy place." I received no harm from the wilderness; but as if standing by your sacred tabernacle itself, so I offer hymnody to you. For "in the holy place" means the tabernacle. For the divine temple had not yet been built. "To see your power and your glory." But I stand by you, imagining your ineffable power. For since your nature is unattainable, from the things done by you I take the starting points for my doxology. [But the people who have believed from the Gentiles would continuously say: Thus in the holy place have I appeared to you; that is, in the temple; in which you are sacrificed without being sacrificed, and are divided without being divided, and are spent while remaining unspent.] 4. "Because your mercy is better than life, my lips will praise you." Above all the life of the rich, and of the powerful, both the carefree and the full of care, both the luxurious and the dissolute, I choose your mercy, and I move my lips in hymnody to you. 5. "Thus I will bless you in my life; in your name I will lift up my hands." And this I will continue to do throughout my whole life; praising with my tongue, and stretching out my hands, and asking for your love for mankind. 6. "Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness." And I consider your hymnody the fatness of the soul; and I think it becomes fat and well-nourished. For lasting luxury and delight is the study of your oracles. "And my mouth will praise you with lips of rejoicing." For which reason I will offer the hymn to you with all eagerness, knowing the gain from it. 7, 8. "If I remembered you on my bed, in the morning watches I would meditate on you. Because you have been my helper, and in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice." But Symmachus interpreted this thus: I remember you upon my bed; in every watch I meditated on you; and being sheltered under your wings, I gave praise. By watches he means the night watches; for those entrusted to keep watch divide the nighttime, and they do this succeeding one another. 80.1340 And some divide it into three, others into four. And the Lord came to the holy apostles in the fourth watch of the night. Therefore, the divine David says that even while lying on my bed, I put off the sweetest sleep, having your meditation in every watch; and with hymns I repaid the benefactions that have come to me. For as with a certain shelter of wings, you guard me with your invincible providence. [And this very thing the people from the gentiles who have believed surely remembers on their bed, praising the Savior of all in the morning watch. "Because you yourself became a helper, and in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice." And the same person might rightly call the Old and New Testaments wings, through which being sheltered and nourished and rejoicing through the regeneration of the font, he was brought to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.] 9. "My soul has clung close behind you." Not even for a short time, he says, can I turn my thought from your memory; but burning with a warm affection, as with a certain glue by memory I am bound to your love. Then he shows the fruit of this love. "Your right hand has upheld me." For seeing me so disposed, you deem me worthy of your providence. 10. "But they have sought my soul in vain." They are eager to destroy me, though I have done them no wrong. "They will go down into the lowest parts of the earth." But I know that they will be given over to death. Then he also prophesies the manner of their end. 11. "They shall be delivered to the hands of the sword." They will suffer this from a warlike right hand. "They shall be portions for foxes." And this, he says, they will not suffer at the hands of some powerful enemies; but by the neighboring foreigners; who, in the manner of foxes, sometimes attack, but often and continuously being driven out, they flee. And the immediate thought suggests that of those who fall in war, the greater part are not even

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ἀντιτείνει βουλεύμασιν. Βούλεται δὲ εἰπεῖν, ὅτι Καὶ ἡ ψυχή μου, καὶ τὸ σῶμά μου, ἱμείρεταί σου καὶ ποθεῖ σε, καθάπερ ὁ διψῶν ὕδωρ ἥδιστόν τε καὶ διειδέστατον. "Ἐν γῇ ἐρήμῳ, καὶ ἀβάτῳ, καὶ ἀνύδρῳ. [γʹ.] Οὕ τως ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ ὤφθην σοι." Οὐδεμίαν ἀπὸ τῆς ἐρημίας βλάβην εἰσεδεξάμην· ἀλλ' ὡς παρ' αὐτὴν ἑστηκὼς τὴν ἱεράν σου σκηνὴν, οὕτως σοι τὴν ὑμνῳδίαν προσφέρω. Τὸ γὰρ ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ τὴν σκηνὴν λέγει. Οὐδέπω γὰρ ὁ θεῖος νεὼς ᾠκοδόμητο. "Τοῦ ἰδεῖν τὴν δύναμίν σου, καὶ τὴν δόξαν σου." Παρίσταμαι δέ σοι, τὴν ἄῤῥητον φανταζόμενος δύναμιν. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ἡ σὴ φύσις ἀνέφικτος, ἀπὸ τῶν ὑπὸ σοῦ γινο μένων λαμβάνω τῆς δοξολογίας τὰς ἀφορμάς. [ ̔Ο δὲ ἐξ ἐθνῶν πεπιστευκὼς λαὸς διηνεκῶς ἂν εἴποι· Οὕτως ἐν τῷ ἁγίῳ ὤφθην σοι· τουτέστιν ἐν τῷ ναῷ· ἐν ᾧ θύῃ ἀθύτως καὶ μερίζῃ ἀμερίστως καὶ ἐκδαπανᾷ μένων ἀδαπάνητος.] δʹ. "Ὅτι κρεῖσσον τὸ ἔλεός σου ὑπὲρ ζωὰς, τὰ χείλη μου ἐπαινέσουσί σε." Πάσης τῆς ζωῆς τῆς τῶν πλουτούντων, καὶ τῆς τῶν δυναστευόντων, καὶ ἀφρόντιδος, καὶ πολυφρόντιδος, καὶ ἁβροδιαίτου, καὶ ἀνειμένης, τὸν σὸν ἔλεον προαιροῦμαι, καὶ εἰς τὴν σὴν ὑμνῳδίαν τὰ χείλη κινῶ. εʹ. "Οὕτως εὐλογήσω σε ἐν τῇ ζωῇ μου· ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί σου ἀρῶ τὰς χεῖράς μου." Τοῦτο δὲ παρὰ πάντα μου τὸν βίον διατελέσω ποιῶν· ὑμνῶν μὲν τῇ γλώττῃ, τὰς δὲ χεῖρας ἐκτείνων, καὶ τὴν σὴν φιλανθρωπίαν αἰτῶν. ʹ. "Ὡς ἐκ στέατος καὶ πιότητος, ἐμπλησθείη ἡ ψυχή μου." Τὴν δὲ σὴν ὑμνῳδίαν πιότητα ὑπολαμβάνω ψυχῆς· καὶ πιμελῆ καὶ εὐτραφῆ ταύτην οἶμαι γίνεσθαι. Χλιδὴ γὰρ μόνιμος, καὶ τρυφὴ, τῶν σῶν λογίων ἡ μελέτη. "Καὶ χείλη ἀγαλλιάσεως αἰνέσει τὸ στόμα μου." Οὗ δὴ χάριν μετὰ πάσης σοι προθυμίας προσοίσω τὸν ὕμνον, τὸ ἐντεῦθεν ἐπι στάμενος κέρδος. ζʹ, ηʹ. "Εἰ ἐμνημόνευόν σου ἐπὶ τῆς στρωμνῆς μου, ἐν τοῖς ὄρθροις ἐμελέτων εἰς σέ. Ὅτι ἐγενή θης βοηθός μου, καὶ ἐν τῇ σκέπῃ τῶν πτερύγων σου ἀγαλλιάσομαι." Τοῦτο δὲ ὁ Σύμμαχος οὕτως ἡρμήνευ σεν· Ἀναμιμνήσκομαί σου ἐπὶ τῆς στρωμνῆς μου· καθ' ἑκάστην φυλακὴν ἐμελέτων σε· καὶ σκεπόμενος ἐν ταῖς πτέρυξί σου, εὐφήμουν. Φυλακὰς δὲ λέγει τὰς νυκτερινάς· διαιρούμενοι γὰρ 80.1340 τὸν νυκτερινὸν καιρὸν οἱ φυλάττειν πεπιστευμένοι, τοῦτο δρῶσι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς διαδεχόμενοι. Καὶ οἱ μὲν τριχῆ διαιροῦσιν, οἱ δὲ τετραχῆ. Καὶ ὁ Κύριος τετάρτῃ φυλακῇ τῆς νυκτὸς πρὸς τοὺς ἱεροὺς ἀπο στόλους ἐλήλυθε. Λέγει τοίνυν ὁ θεῖος ∆αβὶδ, ὅτι Καὶ ἐπὶ στρωμνῆς κατακείμενος, τὸν ἥδιστον ὕπνον ἀνεβαλλόμην, καθ' ἑκάστην φυλακὴν τὴν σὴν ἔχων μελέτην· καὶ ὕμνοις τὰς εἰς ἐμὲ γεγε νημένας ἠμειβόμην εὐεργεσίας. Οἷον γάρ τινι πτερύγων σκέπῃ, τῇ ἀμάχῳ με προμηθείᾳ φυλάτ τεις. [Καὶ τοῦτο δὲ αὐτὸ ὁ ἐξ ἐθνῶν λαὸς πεπι στευκὼς μνημονεύει πάντως ἐπὶ τῆς στρωμνῆς, ἐν τῷ ὄρθρῳ ἀνυμνῶν τὸν τῶν ὅλων Σωτῆρα. "Ὅτι ἐγενήθης αὐτὸς βοηθὸς, καὶ ἐν τῇ σκέπῃ τῶν πτερύ γων σου ἀγαλλιάσομαι." Πτέρυγας δὲ δικαίως ἂν εἴποι ὁ αὐτὸς παλαιάν τε καὶ νέαν διαθήκην, δι' ἧς σκεπόμενος καὶ τρεφόμενος καὶ ἀγαλλιώμενος διὰ τῆς τοῦ λουτροῦ παλιγγενεσίας προήχθη εἰς ἄνδρα τέλειον, εἰς μέτρον ἡλικίας τοῦ πληρώματος τοῦ Χριστοῦ.] θʹ. "Ἐκολλήθη ἡ ψυχή μου ὀπίσω σου." Οὐδὲ πρὸς βραχὺ, φησὶ, τὸν ἐμὸν λογισμὸν τῆς σῆς ἀπο στῆσαι δύναμαι μνήμης· ἀλλὰ φίλτρῳ θερμῷ πυρευό μενος, οἷόν τινι κόλλῃ τῇ μνήμῃ τῷ σῷ πόθῳ προσδέδεμαι. Εἶτα δείκνυσι τὸν τοῦ πόθου καρπόν. "Ἐμοῦ δὲ ἀντελάβετο ἡ δεξιά σου." Οὕτω γάρ με διακείμενον ὁρῶν, τῆς σῆς ἀξιοῖς προμηθείας. ιʹ. "Αὐτοὶ δὲ εἰς μάτην ἐζήτησαν τὴν ψυχήν μου." Οὐδὲν ἠδικηκότα με σπουδάζουσιν ἀνελεῖν. "Εἰσελεύσονται εἰς τὰ κατώτατα τῆς γῆς." Ἀλλ' οἶδα ὡς θανάτῳ παραδοθήσονται. Εἶτα καὶ τὸν τρόπον προθεσπίζει τῆς τελευτῆς. ιαʹ. "Παραδοθήσονται εἰς χεῖρας ῥομφαίας." Ὑπὸ πολεμικῆς τοῦτο πείσονται δεξιᾶς. "Μερίδες ἀλωπέκων ἔσονται." Καὶ τοῦτο, φησὶν, οὐχ ὑπὸ δυνατῶν τινων ὑποστήσονται πολεμίων· ἀλλ' ὑπὸ τῶν προσοίκων ἀλλοφύλων· οἳ δίκην ἀλωπέκων, ποτὲ μὲν ἐπίασι, θαμὰ δὲ καὶ συνεχῶς ἐξελαυνό μενοι φεύγουσιν. Αἰνίττεται δὲ τὸ πρόχειρον νόημα, ὡς τῶν ἐν τῷ πολέμῳ πεσόντων οἱ πλείους οὐδὲ