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their thoughts, then most of all its harmfulness is shown. But these men, not even after fulfillment, but when they see their wealth swollen, their tombs erected, their vain buildings completed, when they should at last be filled with remorse and groan, even after these things, after the deed, after the fulfillment, they are then even more greatly diseased. Since, therefore, what is from them is gone, what is from God follows. 9. For just as those who condemn themselves for what they have sinned, anticipating it, ward off the sentence from God, as Paul also says: For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged; so those who are unrepentantly diseased, and sinning, yet not condemning themselves for what they have done amiss, with great vehemence draw upon themselves the punishment from God. Since, therefore, these men, either seizing what belongs to others, or spending their own possessions idly and in vain, which they ought to have spent on the poor, they spend on tombs, and worms, and moths, and do not repent of what has been done, but remain incurably diseased, hear what happens next. What then happens? They are given over to punishment from God; wherefore he added: Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; not indicating their tameness here by the name of sheep (for what could be more savage than they, who overlook the naked bodies of the poor, and bellies wasting with hunger, while they beautify 55.236 houses for corruption, and worm, and moth?), but the ease of their destruction, the sudden utter ruin, their being an easy prey to those who plot against them. For nothing is weaker than a man living with wickedness. Which these also will suffer; and thus they will be cut down, thus they will be utterly destroyed, and will depart into Hades readily, easily, swiftly, without a struggle, as if they were sheep being slaughtered. This is death, or rather a thing much more grievous than death. For after such a death, an immortal death will succeed for them, for this reason they are seen going nowhere to the bosom of Abraham, nor to any other place, but into Hades, the name for retribution, for punishment, for utter destruction. Both their end here is cheap and contemptible, and their sojourn there is full of punishment. Thus it is also our custom to say of those who are easily destroyed: So-and-so was slaughtered like a sheep. For since they lived as irrational beings, they also perish as irrational beings, having no good hope for the future; and not this only, but also to their harm: Death shall feed on them. Here it seems to me he means by death, the destruction there, the punishment, just as he says elsewhere: The soul that sinneth, it shall die; not signifying the annihilation of its being, but the punishment. And he persists in the metaphor of the word. For since he said sheep, he also showed their shepherd. And who is this? The venomous worm, the endless darkness, the unbreakable bonds, the gnashing of teeth. See them, therefore, being punished from all sides. In life, because they were hindered toward virtue, because they became slaves and captives of wickedness, and they toiled a superfluous and ridiculous toil; at their end, because they were destroyed simply and as it chanced; in the time after their end, because they are held fast forever by destruction. And the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning. Since many of the duller sort, and who have passed to the insensibility of stones, have no clear or distinct hope about the future, but gape at the present and at what is seen, he startles such people enigmatically. Then having hinted at the future in a few words, he again shifts his discourse to their cheapness and punishment that happens in the present life, showing their weakness, their cheapness, their contemptibleness, and that even if they are rich ten thousand times, even if they are clothed with power,

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τοὺς λογισμοὺς, τότε μάλιστα φαίνεται αὐτῆς τὸ βλαβερόν. Οὗτοι δὲ οὐδὲ μετὰ τὸ πληρῶσαι, ἀλλ' ὅταν ἴδωσι τὸν πλοῦτον ὀγκωθέντα, τοὺς τάφους ἐγηγερμένους, τὰς ματαίας οἰκοδομὰς ἀπηρτισμένας, δέον τότε γοῦν κατανυγῆναι καὶ στενάξαι, οἱ δὲ καὶ μετὰ ταῦτα, μετὰ τὸ ἔργον, μετὰ τὴν πλήρωσιν, τότε ἔτι μειζόνως νοσοῦσιν. Ἐπεὶ οὖν τὰ παρ' αὐτῶν οἴχεται, ἕπεται λοιπὸν τὰ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ. θʹ. Ὥσπερ γὰρ οἱ κατακρίνοντες ἑαυτοὺς ἐφ' οἷς ἁμαρτάνουσι, προλαμβάνοντες ἀποκρούονται τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ ψῆφον, καθάπερ καὶ Παῦλός φησιν· Εἰ γὰρ ἑαυτοὺς ἐκρίνομεν, οὐκ ἂν ἐκρινόμεθα· οὕτως οἱ νοσοῦντες ἀμετανόητα, καὶ ἁμαρτάνοντες, μὴ καταγινώσκοντες δὲ ὧν ἐπλημμέλησαν, μετὰ πολλῆς τῆς σφοδρότητος ἐπισπῶνται τὴν παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ τιμωρίαν ἑαυτοῖς. Ἐπεὶ οὖν καὶ οὗτοι ἢ τὰ ἀλλότρια ἁρπάζοντες, ἢ τὰ οἰκεῖα μάτην καὶ εἰκῆ δαπανῶντες, ἅπερ εἰς πένητας ἀναλίσκειν ἐχρῆν, εἰς τάφους, καὶ σκώληκας, καὶ σῆτας δαπανῶσι, καὶ οὐ μετανοοῦσιν ἐπὶ τῶν γεγενημένων, ἀλλὰ ἀνίατα μένουσι νοσοῦντες, ἄκουσον τί γίνεται λοιπόν. Τί δὴ οὖν γίνεται; Τιμωρίᾳ τῇ παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ δίδονται· διὸ ἐπήγαγεν· Ὡς πρόβατα ἐν ᾅδῃ ἔθεντο· θάνατος ποιμανεῖ αὐτούς· οὐ τὸ ἥμερον ἐνταῦθα διὰ ὀνόματος τῶν προβάτων δηλῶν τί γὰρ ἐκείνων ἀγριώτερον γένοιτ' ἂν, τῶν παρορώντων μὲν γυμνὰ σώματα πενήτων, καὶ γαστέρας τηκομένας λιμῷ, καλλωπι 55.236 ζόντων δὲ οἴκους φθορᾷ, καὶ σκώληκι, καὶ σητί;, ἀλλὰ τὸ εὔκολον αὐτῶν τῆς ἀπωλείας, τὴν ἐξ ἐπιδρομῆς πανωλεθρίαν, τὸ εὐχείρωτον τοῖς ἐπιβουλεύουσιν. Οὐδὲν γὰρ ἀσθενέστερον ἀνθρώπου κακίᾳ συζῶντος. Ὅπερ καὶ οὗτοι πείσονται· καὶ οὕτω κατακοπήσονται, οὕτως ἀπολοῦνται ἄρδην, καὶ εἰς τὸν ᾅδην ἀπελεύσονται ῥᾳδίως, εὐκόλως, συντόμως, ἀπονητὶ, ὡσανεὶ πρόβατα κατακοπτόμενα. Τοῦτο θάνατος, μᾶλλον δὲ πρᾶγμα θανάτου πολὺ χαλεπώτερον. Μετὰ γὰρ τὴν τοιαύτην τελευτὴν ἀθάνατος αὐτοὺς διαδέξεται θάνατος, διὰ τοῦτο οὐδαμοῦ εἰς κόλπους Ἀβραὰμ, οὐδὲ εἰς ἄλλο χωρίον φαίνονται ἀπιόντες, ἀλλ' εἰς τὸν ᾅδην, τὸ τῆς τιμωρίας, τὸ τῆς κολάσεως, τὸ τῆς πανωλεθρίας ὄνομα. Καὶ ἡ ἐνταῦθα αὐτῶν τελευτὴ εὐτελὴς, καὶ εὐκαταφρόνητος, καὶ ἡ ἐκεῖ διατριβὴ κολάσεως γέμουσα. Οὕτω καὶ ἡμῖν ἔθος λέγειν περὶ τῶν εὐκόλως ἀπολλυμένων· Ὡς πρόβατον ὁ δεῖνα ἐσφάγη. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ ὡς ἄλογα ἔζων, καὶ ὡς ἄλογα ἀπόλλυνται, οὐκ ἔχοντες περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἐλπίδα χρηστήν· καὶ οὐ τοῦτο μόνον, ἀλλ' ὅτι καὶ ἐπὶ κακῷ· Θάνατος ποιμανεῖ αὐτούς. Ἐνταῦθά μοι τὸν θάνατον δοκεῖ λέγειν, τὴν ἀπώλειαν τὴν ἐκεῖ, τὴν τιμωρίαν, καθάπερ καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ φησι· Ψυχὴ ἡ ἁμαρτάνουσα, αὕτη ἀπολεῖται· οὐ τὴν τοῦ εἶναι ἀναίρεσιν, ἀλλὰ τὴν τιμωρίαν παραδηλῶν. Καὶ ἐπιμένει τῇ μεταφορᾷ τῆς λέξεως. Ἐπειδὴ γὰρ εἶπε πρόβατα, ἔδειξεν αὐτῶν καὶ τὸν ποιμένα. Τίς δὲ οὗτος; Ὁ σκώληξ ὁ ἰοβόλος, τὸ σκότος τὸ ἀτελεύτητον, τὰ δεσμὰ τὰ ἄλυτα, ὁ βρυγμὸς τῶν ὀδόντων. Ὅρα τοίνυν αὐτοὺς πάντοθεν κολαζομένους. Ἐν τῇ ζωῇ, ὅτι πρὸς ἀρετὴν ἐνεποδίσθησαν, ὅτι κακίας ἐγένοντο δοῦλοι, καὶ αἰχμάλωτοι, καὶ περιττὸν ἐπόνησαν πόνον καὶ καταγέλαστον· ἐν τῇ τελευτῇ, ὅτι ἁπλῶς καὶ ὡς ἔτυχεν ἀπώλοντο· ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τῷ μετὰ τὴν τελευτὴν, ὅτι διαπαντὸς ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπωλείας κατέχονται. Καὶ κατακυριεύσουσιν αὐτῶν οἱ εὐθεῖς τὸ πρωΐ. Ἐπειδὴ πολλοὶ τῶν παχυτέρων, καὶ πρὸς ἀναισθησίαν λίθων ἐκβεβηκότων, οὐκ ἔχουσι περὶ τῶν μελλόντων ἐλπίδα σαφῆ, οὔτε τετρανωμένην, ἀλλὰ πρὸς τὰ παρόντα κεχήνασι καὶ πρὸς τὰ ὁρώμενα, καταπλήττει τοὺς τοιούτους αἰνιγματωδῶς. Εἶτα διὰ βραχέων τὰ μέλλοντα αἰνιξάμενος, πάλιν ἐπὶ τὴν ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ γινομένην αὐτῶν εὐτέλειαν καὶ τιμωρίαν μετατίθησι τὸν λόγον, δεικνὺς αὐτῶν τὸ ἀσθενὲς, τὸ εὐτελὲς, τὸ εὐκαταφρόνητον, καὶ ὅτι κἂν μυριάκις πλουτῶσι, κἂν δυναστείαν ὦσι περιβεβλημένοι,