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and now, having forced myself to say, being brought up from his mother's womb in piety, having the devil and his allies and bodyguards arrayed against him and warring against him, he was not in the least defeated by them. The "From my youth" can show that he is strong and strengthened by Christ, from which I have put off old age, having cast off the old man together with his deeds; having put on the new man, being warred against by the aforementioned enemies, I have never been overthrown by them, without ceasing and continuously conquering and routing them, with Israel as a witness. And it is no small boast to be warred against by the devil and those around him, which the wicked do not have; for they are his friends and subjects. But each one alone will say the "For they did not prevail against me," he who has received authority from the Word of God to tread upon serpents and scorpions and to trample the lion and the dragon. For having overcome all such things, with God crushing Satan under his feet, he will say "Often have they warred against me from my youth, for they did not prevail against me"; but I prevailed against them, being strengthened by the Lord. The sinners ploughed upon my back; they made long their iniquity. it is harmful and altogether precarious to have the enemies before one's face, who are powerful in thought and by merely being seen and coming into perception at all are able to harm and to destroy those who have perceived them in any way; therefore it is always fitting to turn away from them, putting them at one's back. For he who hastens toward God and virtue turns away from evil. For if the sinners ploughed upon his face and the other parts in front, they would have harmed the heart, striking it opportunely with wicked thoughts, and harming sight through destructive spectacles and the other senses through their proper objects of sense. But he has the sinners behind him who forgets the things which are behind, and reaches forth to the things which are before and walks after the Lord God; but he who follows the interpreted sinners turns away from the Lord, so that God says "They have turned to me their backs, and not their faces"; For each one of them, having hated instruction, has cast my words behind him, following the demons, the lovers of his heart. But "They made long their iniquity" shows the persistent wickedness of the sinners who plough upon the back of the righteous. For by weaving their sins like a chain, by adding others to the ones before, they make long their iniquity. Pronouncing such men wretched, the word said "Woe to them that draw their sins as with a long rope and their iniquities as with a heifer's yoke-strap." For their hands weave injustice and as adding sins upon sins they make long their own iniquity. The righteous Lord has cut asunder the necks of sinners. The righteous Lord cuts the neck which they do not submit to the good yoke. And he does this with a good intention, so that, having cast off their vigor and strength for evil things, they might be subjected to the Lord to whom all things are naked and laid open. 1177 Ps 128,5-8 And the wise of the world are also grass, because their promise is only for the present life, and grass of the housetops, because by what they do and think, they supposedly have surpassed the dwelling of human life. for this reason it is also grass that is easily withered, neither casting their roots into dry land (that is, things of sense), nor hastening to be an intelligible plant instead of grass. whence they are withered before being plucked up, the reaper not filling his hands with this grass, because of the unbelief which they have; "For the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment," and "He that believes not is condemned already." And not only his hands, but neither will the reaper fill his bosom with this grass, because they are not received first, indeed, into the bosom of Abraham, then, next, into the bosoms of the reaping angel; for he interpreted the reapers as angels the

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καὶ ηδη βιασάμενος εἰπεῖν μητρόθεν κατὰ θεοσέβειαν ἀναγόμενος διάβολον καὶ τοὺς συμμάχους καὶ δορυφόρους αὐτοῦ ἀντιπαρατεταγμένους καὶ προσπολεμοῦντας εχων οὐδὲ κατὰ ποσὸν ἡττήθη πρὸς αὐτῶν. τὸ ἰσχυρὸς καὶ ὑπὸ Χριστοῦ ἐνδυναμούμενος ειναι δηλοῦν δύναται τὸ ̓Εκ νεότητός μου, ἐξ ου ἀπεδυσάμην τὸ γῆρας, τὸν παλαιὸν ανθρωπον αμα ταῖς πράξεσιν αὐτοῦ ἀποβεβληκώς· ἐνδυσάμενος τὸν νέον ανθρωπον πρὸς τῶν εἰρημένων ἐχθρῶν πολεμούμενος οὐδεπώποτε ἀνετράπην ὑπ' αὐτῶν, ἀδιαστάτως καὶ συνεχῶς νικῶν καὶ τροπούμενος αὐτοὺς ἐπὶ μάρτυρι τῷ ̓Ισραήλ. καύχημα δὲ οὐ μικρὸν τὸ ὑπὸ διαβόλου καὶ τῶν ἀμφ' αὐτὸν πολεμεῖσθαι, τῶν φαύλων τοῦτ' οὐκ ἐχόντων· εἰσὶ γὰρ αὐτοῦ φίλοι καὶ ὑπήκοοι. πᾶς δὲ καὶ μόνος ἐρεῖ τὸ Καὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἠδυνήθησάν μοι ὁ ἐξουσίαν ὑπὸ θεοῦ λόγου λαβὼν πατεῖν ἐπάνω οφεων καὶ σκορπίων καὶ καταπατεῖν λέοντα καὶ δράκοντα. πάντων γὰρ περιγενόμενος τῶν τοιούτων, συντρίβοντος τοῦ θεοῦ τὸν Σατανᾶν ὑπὸ τοὺς πόδας αὐτοῦ, ἐρεῖ Πλεονάκις ἐπολέμησάν με ἐκ νεότητός μου, καὶ γὰρ οὐκ ἠδυνήθησάν μοι· ἐγὼ δ' ἠδυνήθην κατ' αὐτῶν ὑπὸ κυρίου ἐνδυναμούμενος. ̓Επὶ τῶν νώτων μου ἐτέκταινον οἱ ἁμαρτωλοί, ἐμάκρυναν τὴν ἀνομίαν αὐτῶν. ἐπιζήμιον καὶ πάνυ ἐπισφαλὲς εἰς πρόσωπον τοὺς πολεμίους εχειν κατὰ διάνοιαν ἱκανῶς εχοντας καὶ διὰ μόνου τοῦ βλέπεσθαι καὶ ολως εἰς αισθησιν ερχεσθαι βλάπτειν καὶ ἀναιρεῖν τοὺς ὁποσοῦν ᾐσθημένους αὐτῶν· οθεν ἀποστρέφεσθαι αὐτοὺς ἀεὶ προσήκει εἰς νῶτον αὐτοὺς βάλλοντα. ὁ γὰρ σπεύδων πρὸς θεὸν καὶ τὴν ἀρετὴν τὴν κακίαν ἀποστρέφεται. εἰ γὰρ ἐπὶ τοῦ προσώπου καὶ τῶν αλλων εμπροσθεν ἐτέκταινον οἱ ἁμαρτωλοί, εβλαψαν αν τὴν καρδίαν, καιρίως αὐτὴν πονηροῖς λογισμοῖς βάλλοντες καὶ τὴν οψιν διὰ θεαμάτων ὀλεθρίων καὶ τὰς λοιπὰς αἰσθήσεις βλάπτοντες διὰ τῶν οἰκείων αὐταῖς αἰσθητῶν. εχει δὲ ὀπίσω τοὺς ἁμαρτωλοὺς ὁ τῶν ὀπίσω ἐπιλανθανόμενος, τοῖς δὲ εμπροσθεν ἐπεκτεινόμενος καὶ ὀπίσω κυρίου τοῦ θεοῦ πορευόμενος· ὁ δὲ ἀκολουθῶν τοῖς ἑρμηνευθεῖσιν ἁμαρτωλοῖς τὸν κύριον ἀποστρέφεται, ὡς θεὸν εἰπεῖν Εστρεψαν ἐπ' ἐμὲ νῶτα καὶ οὐχὶ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν· μισήσας γὰρ εκαστος αὐτῶν παιδείαν ἐξέβαλε τοὺς λόγους μου εἰς τὰ ὀπίσω, ἀκολουθῶν τοῖς ἐρασταῖς τῆς καρδίας αὐτοῦ δαίμοσιν. ∆ηλοῖ δὲ τὴν ἐπίμονον κακίαν τῶν ἐπὶ τοῦ νώτου τῶν δικαίων τεκταινόντων ἁμαρτωλῶν τὸ ̓Εμάκρυναν τὴν ἀνομίαν αὐτῶν. σειρᾶς γὰρ δίκην τὰ ἁμαρτήματα πλέκοντες τῷ τοῖς προλαβοῦσιν ετερα προσλαμβάνειν μακρύνουσι τὴν ἀνομίαν αὐτῶν. ταλανίζων τοὺς τοιούτους ὁ λόγος ειπεν Οὐαὶ οἱ ἐπισπώμενοι τὰς ἁμαρτίας αὐτῶν ὡς σχοινίῳ μακρῷ καὶ ὡς ζυγῷ ἱμάντι δαμάλεως τὰς ἀνομίας αὐτῶν. ἀδικίαν γὰρ αἱ χεῖρες αὐτῶν συμπλέκουσι καὶ ὡς προστιθέντες ἁμαρτίας ἐφ' ἁμαρτίαις μακρύνουσι τὴν ἀνομίαν ἑαυτῶν. Κύριος δίκαιος συνέκοψεν αὐχένας ἁμαρτωλῶν. συγκόπτει τὸν αὐχένα ον οὐχ ὑποβάλλουσι τῷ χρηστῷ ζυγῷ ὁ δίκαιος κύριος. χρηστῇ δὲ προσθέσει τοῦτο ποιεῖ, οπως ἀποβαλόντες τὴν πρὸς τὰ φαῦλα εὐτονίαν καὶ ἰσχὺν ὑποταγῶσι τῷ κυρίῳ ῳ πάντα γυμνὰ καὶ τετραχηλισμένα ἐστί. 1177 Ps 128,5-8 Καὶ οἱ τοῦ κόσμου δὲ σοφοὶ καὶ αὐτοὶ χόρτος εἰσὶ τῷ καὶ αὐτῶν τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν μέχρι τῆς παρούσης ζωῆς ειναι καὶ χόρτος δωμάτων τῷ δῆθεν δι' ων πράττουσι καὶ φρονοῦσι τὴν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς οικησιν ὑπερβεβηκέναι. διὸ καὶ εὐξήραντος χόρτος ἐστίν, ουτ' εἰς χέρσον (τουτέστι τὰ αἰσθητά) τὰς ῥίζας βάλλοντες, ουτ' αυ ἀντὶ χόρτου νοητὴ φυτεία σπεύσαντες ειναι. οθεν πρὶν ἐκσπασθῆναι ξηραίνονται, οὐ πληροῦντος τὰς χεῖρας τοῦ θερίζοντος τούτου τοῦ χόρτου, δι' ην εχουσιν ἀπιστίαν· Οὐκ ἀναστήσονται γὰρ οἱ ἀσεβεῖς ἐν κρίσει, καὶ ̔Ο μὴ πιστεύων ηδη κέκριται. Οὐ μόνον δὲ χεῖρας ἀλλὰ οὐδὲ τὸν κόλπον ἑαυτοῦ πληρώσει τούτου τοῦ χόρτου ὁ θερίζων τῷ μὴ παραλαμβάνεσθαι αὐτοὺς πρῶτον μὲν εἰς κόλπον ̓Αβραάμ, ειθ' ἑξῆς εἰς κόλπους τοῦ θερίζοντος ἀγγέλου· τοὺς γὰρ θεριστὰς ἀγγέλους ἡρμήνευσεν ὁ