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is our peace, who made both one, and broke down the middle wall of partition." And the Lord himself says to the holy apostles: "My peace I give to you, my peace I leave to you." Therefore, this psalm prophesies His kingdom, and the peace established by Him, and the salvation of the nations. And since He is both God and man, being the one always, and assuming the other for our sake, the prophecy teaches both; and it says that He has, as God, authority over all things; but that He receives this, as man, from His own Father. "O God, give your judgment to the king, and your righteousness to the king's son." And the Lord Christ is both a king and a king's son. Therefore the prophecy calls Him both a king and a king's son; so also the patriarch Jacob names him a lion and a lion's cub; "For a lion's cub," he says, "Judah, from my shoot, my son, you have gone up; you crouched down, you have slept as a lion, and as a cub, who shall rouse him?" For not only is He a king, but also a king's son. For both as God He was begotten of the King of all, God, and as man, He has as an ancestor King David. The prophetic word asks that righteousness be given to Him, as a man, from God. Then it teaches the reason. 80.1432 βʹ. "To judge your people with righteousness, and your poor with judgment." For He will free those held in the poverty of sin from the slavery of the evil tyrant; having judged him justly and those held by him. γʹ. "Let the mountains receive peace for the people, and the hills righteousness." It is a personification showing the change of all things. Thus narrating the exodus of the people he said: "The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs of the flock." Nevertheless, we see the change of the mountains and the hills; for instead of the impiety that formerly existed in them, those who have embraced the angelic life bear the fruit of evangelical righteousness in them; and making intercessions on behalf of men, they bring about divine reconciliations. δʹ. "He shall judge the poor of the people, and shall save the children of the needy, and shall humble the slanderer." The devil is rightly called a slanderer; for he slandered God, saying out of envy that He had forbidden the partaking of the tree; and against Job he used the same falsehoods, saying: "Does Job fear God for nothing? For touch, he says, all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face." In the eighth psalm he called him an enemy and an avenger, but here a slanderer. But the Lord humbled and destroyed this one; and He deemed those tyrannized by him worthy of freedom and salvation. εʹ. "And he shall continue with the sun; and before the moon, for generations of generations." He who accomplishes all these things, he says, has neither a beginning of days, to speak apostolically, nor an end of life. For He was begotten of the Father before the moon for generations of generations, that is, pre-existing creation by some infinite generations. But also "he shall continue with the sun;" instead of, He will have a lasting existence; not because the sun has a lasting existence; but not finding a more lasting image, and knowing this one to be distinguished, and the creator of times and days, he compared to it the change of things from darkness into light. Since the Lord Christ himself is also called the sun of righteousness. 80.1433 ʹ. "He shall come down like rain upon a fleece; and as a drop that falls upon the earth." Through these things he clearly showed us the human birth which happened without a sound, and very quietly and mystically. For just as a fleece receiving rain makes no sound, and dewy drops falling on the earth provide no sensation to the ears; so was the Lord's conception; not even the betrothed who lived with her perceiving it. For later, after the conception, suspecting some impropriety, he wished to put her away secretly; but he learned through an angel that the birth was spiritual, and not human. ζʹ. "In his days shall righteousness spring up." And

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ἐστιν ἡ εἰρήνη ἡμῶν, ὁ ποιή σας τὰ ἀμφότερα ἓν, καὶ τὸ μεσότοιχον τοῦ φραγμοῦ λύσας." Καὶ αὐτὸς δὲ ὁ Κύριος τοῖς ἱεροῖς ἀποστό λοις φησί· "Τὴν ἐμὴν εἰρήνην δίδωμι ὑμῖν, τὴν ἐμὴν εἰρήνην ἀφίημι ὑμῖν." Τὴν αὐτοῦ τοίνυν βασι λείαν, καὶ τὴν ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κατορθωθεῖσαν εἰρήνην, καὶ τῶν ἐθνῶν τὴν σωτηρίαν, οὗτος ὁ ψαλμὸς προ θεσπίζει. Καὶ ἐπειδὴ καὶ Θεός ἐστι, καὶ ἄνθρω πος, τὸ μὲν ὢν ἀεὶ, τὸ δὲ δι' ἡμᾶς προσλαβὼν, ἀμφό τερα ἡ προφητεία διδάσκει· καί φησιν, αὐτὸν μὲν ἔχειν, ὡς Θεὸν, ἁπάντων τὴν ἐξουσίαν· λαμβά νειν δὲ ταύτην, καὶ ὡς ἄνθρωπον, παρὰ τοῦ οἰ κείου Πατρός. "Ὁ Θεὸς, τὸ κρῖμά σου τῷ βασιλεῖ δὸς, καὶ τὴν δικαιοσύνην σου τῷ υἱῷ τοῦ βασι λέως." Καὶ βασιλεύς ἐστι, καὶ υἱὸς βασιλέως ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστός. ∆ιὸ καὶ βασιλέα αὐτὸν, καὶ υἱὸν βασιλέως ἡ προφητεία καλεῖ· οὕτω καὶ λέοντα αὐτὸν ὁ πατριάρχης Ἰακὼβ καὶ σκύμνον λέοντος ὀνομάζει· "Σκύμνος γὰρ λέοντος, φησὶν, Ἰούδα, ἐκ βλαστοῦ μου, υἱέ μου, ἀνέβης· ἀναπεσὼν ἐκοιμήθης ὡς λέων, καὶ ὡς σκύμνος, τίς ἐγερεῖ αὐτόν;" Οὐ γὰρ μόνον βασιλεύς ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ βασιλέως υἱός. Καὶ γὰρ ὡς Θεὸς ἐκ τοῦ παμβασιλέως ἐγεννήθη Θεοῦ, καὶ ὡς ἄνθρωπος, πρόγονον ἔχει τὸν βασιλέα ∆αβίδ. Τούτῳ ὁ προφητικὸς λόγος, ὡς ἀνθρώπῳ, δοθῆναι παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τὴν δικαιοσύνην παρακαλεῖ. Εἶτα τὴν αἰτίαν διδάσκει. 80.1432 βʹ. "Κρίνειν τὸν λαόν σου ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ, καὶ τοὺς πτωχούς σου ἐν κρίσει." Τοὺς γὰρ πτωχείᾳ τῆς ἁμαρτίας κατεχομένους τῆς τοῦ πονηροῦ τυράν νου δουλείας ἐλευθερώσει· δικαίως αὐτῷ καὶ τοῖς ὑπ' αὐτοῦ κατεχομένοις δικάσας. γʹ. "Ἀναλαβέτω τὰ ὄρη εἰρήνην τῷ λαῷ, καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ δικαιοσύνην." Προσωποποιία ἐστὶ τὴν πάντων δεικνῦσα μεταβολήν. Οὕτω τοῦ λαοῦ τὴν ἔξοδον διηγούμενος ἔφη· "Τὰ ὄρη ἐσκίρτησαν ὡσεὶ κριοὶ, καὶ οἱ βουνοὶ ὡς ἀρνία προβάτων." Ὁρῶμεν δὲ ὅμως καὶ τῶν ὀρῶν καὶ τῶν βουνῶν τὴν μεταβολήν· ἀντὶ γὰρ τῆς πάλαι πολιτευσαμένης ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀσε βείας, οἱ τὸν ἀγγελικὸν ἀσπασάμενοι βίον τὴν εὐαγ γελικὴν ἐν αὐτοῖς δικαιοσύνην καρποῦνται· καὶ τὰς ὑπὲρ τῶν ἀνθρώπων πρεσβείας ποιούμενοι, τὰς θείας καταλλαγὰς πραγματεύονται. δʹ. "Κρινεῖ τοὺς πτωχοὺς τοῦ λαοῦ, καὶ σώσει τοὺς υἱοὺς τῶν πενήτων, καὶ ταπεινώσει συκοφάν την." Εἰκότως ὁ διάβολος κέκληται συκοφάντης· τόν τε γὰρ Θεὸν ἐσυκοφάντησε, διὰ φθόνον φήσας κεκωλυκέναι τὴν τοῦ ξύλου μετάληψιν· καὶ κατὰ τοῦ Ἰὼβ ταῖς αὐταῖς ψευδολογίαις ἐχρήσατο, φήσας· "Μὴ δωρεὰν σέβεται Ἰὼβ τὸν Θεόν; Ἅψαι γὰρ, φησὶ, πάντων ὧν ἔχει, ἦ μὴν εἰς πρόσωπόν σε εὐ λογήσει." Τοῦτον ἐν τῷ ὀγδόῳ ψαλμῷ ἐχθρὸν καὶ ἐκδικητὴν ὠνόμασεν, ἐνταῦθα δὲ συκοφάντην. Ἀλλὰ τοῦτον μὲν ὁ ∆εσπότης ἐταπείνωσε καὶ κατέλυσε· τοὺς δὲ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ τυραννουμένους ἐλευθερίας καὶ σωτηρίας ἠξίωσε. εʹ. "Καὶ συμπαραμενεῖ τῷ ἡλίῳ· καὶ πρὸ τῆς σελήνης γενεᾶς γενεῶν." Ὁ ταῦτα, φησὶν, ἅπαντα κατορθῶν, οὔτε ἀρχὴν ἡμερῶν, ἀποστολικῶς εἰ πεῖν, οὔτε ζωῆς τέλος ἔχει. Ἐγεννήθη μὲν γὰρ ἐκ τοῦ Πατρὸς πρὸ τῆς σελήνης γενεᾶς γενεῶν, του τέστιν, ἀπείροις τισὶ γενεαῖς προϋπάρχων τῆς κτίσεως. Ἀλλὰ καὶ "συμπαραμενεῖ τῷ ἡλίῳ·" ἀντὶ τοῦ, διαρκὲς ἕξει τὸ εἶναι· οὐκ ἐπειδὴ ὁ ἥλιος διαρκὲς ἔχει τὸ εἶναι· ἀλλ' εἰκόνα διαρκεστέ ραν οὐχ εὑρὼν, ἐπίσημον δὲ τοῦτον εἰδὼς, καὶ χρόνων καὶ ἡμερῶν ∆ημιουργὸν, τούτῳ παρέβαλε τὴν ἀπὸ σκότους εἰς φῶς τῶν πραγμάτων μεταβολήν. Ἐπειδὴ καὶ αὐτὸς ὁ ∆εσπότης Χριστὸς ἥλιος δι καιοσύνης ὠνόμασται. 80.1433 ʹ. "Καταβήσεται ὡς ὑετὸς ἐπὶ πόκον· καὶ ὡσεὶ σταγὼν ἡ στάζουσα ἐπὶ τὴν γῆν." ∆ιὰ τούτων σα φῶς ἡμῖν τὴν ἀνθρωπείαν ὑπέδειξε γέννησιν ἀψοφητὶ γεγενημένην, καὶ λίαν ἡσύχως καὶ μυ στικῶς. Καθάπερ γὰρ πόκος δεχόμενος ὑετὸν, οὐδένα κτύπον ἀποτελεῖ, καὶ ψεκάδες εἰς γῆν δροσώδεις φε ρόμεναι, αἴσθησιν ταῖς ἀκοαῖς οὐδεμίαν παρέχουσιν· οὕτως ἡ δεσποτικὴ γεγένηται σύλληψις· οὐδὲ τοῦ συνοικοῦντος αἰσθομένου μνηστῆρος. Ὕστερον γὰρ, μετὰ τὴν κύησιν ἀτοπίαν ὑποτοπήσας τινὰ, ἠβου λήθη λάθρα ἀπολῦσαι αὐτήν· ἀλλὰ δι' ἀγγέλου μεμά θηκεν ὡς πνευματικὸς ὁ τόκος, καὶ οὐκ ἀνθρώπινος. ζʹ. "Ἀνατελεῖ ἐν ταῖς ἡμέραις αὐτοῦ δικαιο σύνη." Καὶ