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the pains of all human nature together after the sin. The prophecy of the psalm is fashioned into a supplication, offered both by these and by all in common to the man-loving God: and the prayer is fitting for the more pious. 2, 3. "O Lord, the God of my salvation, I have cried day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you." You, Master, I know as the Lord of my salvation; for this reason, night and day I beseech that my supplication be received. [For this he says in the following verses:] "Incline your ear to my entreaty." [And for what reason does he beseech in the following verses and say:] 80.1569 4. "For my soul is full of troubles, and my life has drawn near to Hades." I beseech you, having seen the multitude of evils surrounding me [drive them away;] for I am at the point of death itself, and I need your help, [stripped of which I am enslaved to sin. For this he says:] 5. "I was counted with them that go down into the pit." I have fallen into certain inescapable calamities, and I find no deliverance, but I am like those who have fallen into a pit and are unable to climb out. "I have become as a man without help." I am stripped of all providence and care. 6. "Free among the dead." And though I have not yet endured death, nor accepted the slavery of death, I count myself among the dead. "Like the wounded sleeping in the grave, of whom you are mindful no more, and they are cut off from your hand." To "I have become" these things are also connected. I have become as a man without help, free among the dead, and not yet having accepted the slavery of death. I have become like one wounded in war, and given over to burial. For Symmachus has said this thus: Like the wounded who lie in the grave, of whom you will no longer be mindful, who have been cut off by your hand. [For they, he says, were cut off from your providence; but your influence will arrive, so that I too may not fall into the same pit.] 7. "They laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness, and in the shadow of death." And these words are fitting both for those forced to live in Babylon, and for the entire nature of men. For they, serving wicked men, lived a painful life; and all men have fallen into all sorts of calamities after the sin. For after the transgression of the commandment came death, and grief, and tears, and wailings, and lamentations, widowhoods, and orphanhoods, and poverties, and hardships, and the other countless and indescribable things bringing darkness even to the living. [See what a great evil disobedience is; so that it not only separates from God, but also surrounds with so many evils.] 8. "Your wrath is heavy upon me; and you have brought all your billows over me." But Symmachus has it thus: Your wrath has pressed upon me, and with your storms you have afflicted me. You persist, he says, in punishing, and bringing upon me 80.1572 all sorts of assaults of calamities. From the metaphor of the shipwrecked, who receive many assaults of waves and many blasts of winds. 9. "You have put my acquaintances far from me." I am bereft of both companions and kinsmen; for those who were captives in Babylon, having accepted the yoke of slavery, were scattered, and deprived of the kinship and company of friends, they had no comfort from this. And all men living with impiety did not partake of the care from the angels. "They have made me an abomination to themselves;" that is, the enemies. "I was delivered up, and I did not go out." I find no deliverance from the evils that beset me. 10. "My eyes have grown weak from poverty." But Symmachus has it thus: My eye has wasted away from affliction. For I have worn out my eyes with tears, being compelled to weep by pain. "I have cried to you, O Lord, all the day long I have stretched out my hands to you." Therefore, provide one resource for deliverance from these terrible things: your providence, Master; for stretching out my hands always, I beseech you. But this posture reveals the bitter pain of the soul. For by need

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πάσης ὁμοῦ τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης φύσεως τὰς μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν ὀδύνας. Ἐσχημάτισται δὲ εἰς ἱκετείαν ἡ τοῦ ψαλμοῦ προφητεία, ὑπό τε τούτων, ὑπό τε κοινῇ πάντων προσφερομένη τῷ φιλαν θρώπῳ Θεῷ· ἁρμόττει δὲ τοῖς εὐσεβεστέροις ἡ προσευχή. βʹ, γʹ. "Κύριε, ὁ Θεὸς τῆς σωτηρίας μου, ἡμέρας ἐκέκραξα καὶ ἐν νυκτὶ ἐναντίον σου. Εἰσελθέτω ἐν ώπιόν σου ἡ προσευχή μου." Σὲ, ∆έσποτα, Κύριον οἶδα τῆς ἐμῆς σωτηρίας· διά τοι τοῦτο νύκτωρ καὶ μεθ' ἡμέραν ἀντιβολῶ τὴν ἐμὴν ἱκετείαν δεχθῆναι. [Τοῦτο γὰρ λέγει διὰ τῶν ἑξῆς·] "Κλῖνον τὸ οὖς σου εἰς τὴν δέησίν μου." [Καὶ τίνος ἕνεκεν ἀντι βολεῖ διὰ τῶν ἑξῆς καὶ λέγει·] 80.1569 δʹ. "Ὅτι ἐπλήσθη κακῶν ἡ ψυχή μου, καὶ ἡ ζωή μου τῷ ᾅδῃ ἤγγισεν." Τὸ πλῆθος ἀντιβολῶ σε τῶν περιστοιχιζόντων με θεωρήσας κακῶν [ἀπο σόβησον·] παρ' αὐτὸν γάρ εἰμι τὸν θάνατον, καὶ τῆς σῆς δέομαι βοηθείας, [ἧς γεγυμνωμένος δεδού λωμαι τῇ ἁμαρτίᾳ. Τοῦτο γὰρ λέγει·] εʹ. "Προσελογίσθην μετὰ τῶν καταβαινόντων εἰς λάκκον." Ἀφύκτοις τισὶ περιπέπτωκα συμφοραῖς, καὶ ἀπαλλαγὴν οὐδεμίαν εὑρίσκω, ἀλλ' ἔοικα τοῖς εἰς λάκκον ἐμπεπτωκόσι, καὶ ἀναβῆναι μὴ δυνα μένοις. "Ἐγενήθην ὡσεὶ ἄνθρωπος ἀβοήθη τος." Πάσης προνοίας καὶ κηδεμονίας γεγύ μνωμαι. ʹ. "Ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλεύθερος." Καὶ μηδέπω τὴν τελευτὴν ὑπομείνας, μηδὲ τοῦ θανάτου τὴν δουλείαν δεξάμενος, ἐμαυτὸν συναριθμῶ τοῖς ἐν νεκροῖς. "Ὡσεὶ τραυματίαι καθεύδοντες ἐν τάφῳ, ὧν οὐκ ἐμνήσθης ἔτι, καὶ αὐτοὶ ἐκ τῆς χειρός σου ἀπώσθη σαν." Τῷ Ἐγενήθην καὶ ταῦτα συντέτακται. Ἐγενήθην ὡσεὶ ἄνθρωπος ἀβοήθητος, ἐν νεκροῖς ἐλεύθερος, καὶ μηδέπω τοῦ θανάτου τὴν δουλείαν δεξάμενος. Ἐγενήθην ὡς τραυματίας ἐν πολέμῳ τετρωμένος, καὶ ταφῇ παραδεδομένος. Τοῦτο γὰρ οὕτως ὁ Σύμμαχος εἴρηκεν· Ὡς οἱ τετρωμένοι οἱ κείμενοι ἐν τάφῳ, ὧν οὐ μνημονεύσῃ οὐκ ἔτι, οἵ τινες ὑπὸ τῆς χεῖρός σου ἐξεκόπησαν. [̓Εκεῖνοι γὰρ, φησὶν, ὑπὸ τῆς προνοίας τῆς σῆς ἐξεκόπησαν· φθάσει δὲ ἡ σὴ ῥοπὴ, ἵνα μὴ τῷ αὐτῷ βόθρῳ κἀγὼ περιπέσω.] ζʹ. "Ἔθεντό με ἐν λάκκῳ κατωτάτῳ, ἐν σκο τεινοῖς, καὶ ἐν σκιᾷ θανάτου." Καὶ ταῦτα τοῖς ἐν Βαβυλῶνι διάγειν ἠναγκασμένοις ἁρμόττει τὰ ῥή ματα, καὶ πάσῃ τῶν ἀνθρώπων τῇ φύσει. Ἐκεῖνοί τε γὰρ πονηροῖς ἀνθρώποις δουλεύοντες ὀδυνηρὸν βίον ἔζων· καὶ ἅπαντες ἄνθρωποι παντοδαπαῖς μετὰ τὴν ἁμαρτίαν περιέπεσαν συμφοραῖς. Μετὰ γὰρ τὴν παράβασιν τῆς ἐντολῆς θάνατος, καὶ πένθος, καὶ δάκρυα, οἰμωγαί τε, καὶ ὀλοφύρσεις, χηρεῖαι, καὶ ὀρφανίαι, καὶ πενίαι, καὶ δυσκληρίαι, καὶ τ' ἄλλα μυρία καὶ δυσδιήγητα σκότον καὶ τοῖς ζῶσιν ἐπάγοντα. [Ὁρᾶτε πηλίκον κακὸν ἡ παρακοή· ὥστε μὴ μόνον Θεὸν χωρίσαι, ἀλλὰ καὶ τοσούτων κακῶν περιστοιχίζειν.] ηʹ. "Ἐπ' ἐμὲ ἐπεστηρίχθη ὁ θυμός σου· καὶ πάντας τοὺς μετεωρισμούς σου ἐπήγαγες ἐπ' ἐμέ." Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτως· Ἐμοὶ ἐπείσφρησεν ὁ θυμός σου, καὶ ταῖς καταιγίσι σου ἐκάκωσάς με. Ἐπιμένεις, φησὶ, τιμωρούμενος, καὶ παντοδαπάς 80.1572 μοι συμφορῶν προσβολὰς ἐπιφέρων. Ἐκ μετα φορᾶς τῶν ναυαγούντων, καὶ πολλὰς μὲν κυμάτων προσβολὰς, πολλὰς δὲ ἀνέμων ἐμβολὰς δεχομένων. θʹ. "Ἐμάκρυνας τοὺς γνωστούς μου." Ἔρημός εἰμι, καὶ συνήθων, καὶ συγγενῶν· οἱ μὲν γὰρ ἐν Βαβυλῶνι δορυάλωτοι, τῆς δουλείας δεξάμενοι τὸν ζυγὸν, ἐσκεδασμένοι, καὶ τῆς τῶν φίλων συγγενείας καὶ συνουσίας ἐστερημένοι, τὴν ἐντεῦθεν οὐκ εἶχον παραψυχήν. Πάντες δὲ ἄνθρωποι δυσσεβείᾳ συζῶν τες τῆς παρὰ τῶν ἀγγέλων κηδεμονίας οὐ μετελάγ χανον. "Ἔθεντό με βδέλυγμα ἑαυτοῖς·" τουτέστιν οἱ πολέμιοι. "Παρεδόθην, καὶ οὐκ ἐξεπορευόμην." Τῶν ἐπικειμένων μοι κακῶν ἀπαλλαγὴν οὐδεμίαν εὑρίσκω. ιʹ. "Οἱ ὀφθαλμοί μου ἠσθένησαν ἀπὸ πτωχείας." Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτως· Ὁ ὀφθαλμός μου ἐξέῤῥευσεν ἀπὸ τῆς κακώσεως. Εἰς δάκρυα γὰρ τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου κατεδαπάνησα, κλαίειν ὑπὸ τῆς ὀδύνης καταναγκαζόμενος. "Ἐκέκραξα πρὸς σὲ, Κύριε, ὅλην τὴν ἡμέραν διεπέτασα πρὸς σὲ τὰς χεῖράς μου." Ἕνα τοίνυν πόρον δὸς τῆς τῶν δεινῶν ἀπαλλαγῆς, τὴν σὴν, ∆έσποτα, προμήθειαν· ἐκ τείνων γὰρ ἀεὶ τὰς χεῖρας ἀντιβολῶ σε. Τὴν πι κρὰν δὲ τῆς ψυχῆς ὀδύνην τοῦτο τὸ σχῆμα δηλοῖ. Ὑπὸ γὰρ τῆς χρείας