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So also the Father, having the Son in himself, reveals him to the one no longer wishing to have knowledge through flesh and blood but from God. 1247 Ps 143,5.6 The preceding text can signify the Savior's advent from Mary, when, having bowed the heavens which are his handiwork, he came down in order to proceed from her. Then, since having come down for the benefit of all things, he overthrew the harmful and destructive invisible demons of men along with all their host, he is said to have touched them on account of their arrogance and pride, which are called mountains. Then, since it was not gold and silver that were cleansed and brightened by the application of fire in them, but thorns and thistles and wood and hay and stubble, they were made to smoke from the touch of him who came to cast fire upon the earth. And he scattered them, who were in agreement and gathered for wickedness, with a flash of lightning. And lightning is the manifestation of the divine Word, stirring to fear those who perceive it. But also, having sent forth arrows, he confounded them. And by the arrows he signifies the punishments of God, as Job also says, 'With his arrows he has shot me down,' and 'For the arrows of the Lord are in my body, whose poison drinks up my blood.' But if one also refers these things to the second coming of the Lord with glory, he will find the sequence of the preceding verses even more fitting. But if some arrogant men, who are considered to be mountains on account of this insolence of their arrogance, were to slander providence, saying that it does not exist at all, on the grounds that God, being in his high place, does not care for nor have any concern for men at all, the one wishing to bring them to a perception that God also cares for the things on earth would pray, saying to the Lord: 'Bow your heavens, in which alone they say you are, come down by your providential Word, painfully touching them so that all material things in them, being consumed by fire, result in smoke.' Consequently, the things that follow will also have their interpretation according to this thought. 1248 Ps 143,7.8 Those who have fallen away from having God as father are alien sons, by having become the offspring of vipers or of the devil. These alien sons, that is, are both in thought and in deed harmful and destructive, first to themselves, and then also to those who follow them. Therefore, both through what they say and concerning what they think impiously and godlessly, their mouth is said to speak vanity; and through their practice of forbidden things, their practical power, which they suppose to be a right hand, thinking to act commendably, is full of injustice. These things, therefore, which they vainly utter and concerning which they are impiously and godlessly disposed, happen to be many waters; for through what they teach, they wish to imitate the one who said, 'If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink,' and, 'Whoever drinks of the water that I will give him, it will become in him a spring of water leaping up to eternal life.' And see in these things that the water which Jesus gives is one; and this was the Spirit whom those who believed in him were to receive. The waters of the heterodox, through which they imitate the watering by the Lord, are many, because they happen to be various and discordant and are not referred to one end; for both the ends and the beginnings of their opinions are different. 'Send forth,' therefore, says the psalmist, 'the creative and protective hand of all things, in order to deliver and rescue me from the many waters and from the hand of the alien sons'; for 'alien' must be taken in common with respect to both sons and waters. It is possible to say that being rescued 'from many waters' means from the wicked powers and from the devil, the king of all those in such waters, and to be delivered 'from the hand of alien sons' means from those who are worked by men. 1249 Ps 143,9b.10 The ten-stringed psaltery is composed and harmonized from the operation of the decalogue; for each of the ten commandments is a string musically arranged in the whole instrument. You will understand kings, he says, also to be the

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ουτω καὶ ὁ πατὴρ ἐν ἑαυτῷ εχων τὸν υἱὸν ἀποκαλύπτει αὐτὸν τῷ μηκέτι διὰ σαρκὸς καὶ αιματος ἀλλ' ἐκ θεοῦ γνῶσιν εχειν θέλοντι. 1247 Ps 143,5.6 ∆ύναται δὲ σημαίνειν τὰ προκείμενα τὴν ἐκ Μαρίας τοῦ σωτῆρος ἐπιδημίαν, οτε κλίνας τοὺς οὐρανοὺς οντας αὐτοῦ ποίημα κατῆλθεν ἐπὶ τῷ ἐξ αὐτῆς προελθεῖν. ειτ' ἐπεὶ κατελθὼν ἐπ' εὐεργεσίᾳ τῶν ολων τοὺς βλαπτικοὺς καὶ λυμεῶνας τῶν ἀνθρώπων ἀοράτους δαίμονας ἀνέτρεψεν αμα πάσῃ τῇ αὐτῶν στρατιᾷ, ηφθαι λέγεται αὐτῶν διὰ τὸ ἀλαζονικὸν καὶ ὑπερήφανον ὀρῶν καλουμένων. ειτ' ἐπεὶ μὴ χρυσὸς καὶ αργυρος τὰ καθαιρόμενα καὶ φαιδρυνόμενα τῇ πυρὸς προσβολῇ ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλλ' ακανθαι καὶ τρίβολοι ξύλα τε καὶ χόρτος καὶ καλάμη, ἐκαπνίσθησαν ἐκ τοῦ ηφθαι αὐτῶν τὸν ἐληλυθότα πῦρ βαλεῖν ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς. ̓Εσκόρπισε δὲ αὐτοὺς ἐκλάμψει ἀστραπῆς ὁμονοοῦντας καὶ συναγομένους ἐπὶ κακίᾳ. ἀστραπὴ δὲ ἡ τοῦ θείου λόγου φανέρωσις, εἰς φόβον διεγείρουσα τοὺς ἀντιλαμβανομένους αὐτῆς. ἀλλὰ καὶ βέλη ἐξαποστείλας συνετάραξεν αὐτούς. διὰ δὲ τῶν βελῶν σημαίνει τὰς θεοῦ κολάσεις, ὡς καί φησιν ὁ ̓Ιὼβ Βέλεσιν αὐτοῦ κατηκόντισέ με, καὶ Τὰ βέλη γὰρ κυρίου ἐν τῷ σώματί μού ἐστιν, ων ὁ θύμος αὐτῶν ἐκπίνει μου τὸ αιμα. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τὴν δευτέραν μετὰ δόξης τοῦ κυρίου παρουσίαν ἀνάγει τις ταῦτα, μᾶλλον τὴν ἀκολουθίαν τῶν προκειμένων στίχων εὑρήσει. Εἰ δὲ καὶ ὑπερήφανοί τινες ὡς διὰ τὸ θράσος τοῦτο τῆς ἀλαζονείας ορη ειναι νομιζόμενοι διαβάλλοιεν τὴν πρόνοιαν μηδ' ολως ειναι αὐτὴν λέγοντες τῷ τὸν θεὸν μὲν οντα ἐν τῇ αὐτοῦ περιωπῇ μὴ κήδεσθαι δὲ μηδ' ολως φροντίζειν τῶν ἀνθρώπων, ευχοιτο αν ὁ εἰς αισθησιν ἀγαγεῖν αὐτοὺς βουλόμενος τοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς φροντίζειν τὸν θεόν, τῷ κυρίῳ λέγων· Κλίνας τοὺς οὐρανούς σου ἐν οις μόνοις ειναί σε λέγουσι κατάβηθι τῷ προνοητικῷ σου λόγῳ, ἐπιπόνως ἁπτόμενος αὐτῶν ὡς τὰ ὑλικὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτοῖς συμφλεχθέντα ἀποτελέσαι καπνόν. ἑπομένως δὲ καὶ τὰ ἑξῆς κατὰ ταύτην τὴν διάνοιαν εξει τὴν ἐξήγησιν. 1248 Ps 143,7.8 Οἱ ἐκπεσόντες τοῦ εχειν τὸν θεὸν πατέρα υἱοὶ ἀλλότριοί εἰσι τῷ ἐχιδνῶν γέννημα γεγονέναι η τοῦ διαβόλου. ουτοι δηλαδὴ οἱ ἀλλότριοι υἱοὶ καὶ νοήσει καὶ πράξει ἐπιβλαβεῖς καὶ λυμεῶνές εἰσι, προηγουμένως μὲν ἑαυτῶν, επειτα δὲ καὶ τῶν ἀκολουθούντων αὐτοῖς. οθεν καὶ δι' ων λέγουσι καὶ περὶ ων φρονοῦσιν ἀθέως καὶ ἀσεβῶς τὸ στόμα αὐτῶν ματαιότητα λαλεῖν λέγεται, δι' ων δὲ πράττουσιν ἀπηγορευμένων ἡ πρακτικὴ αὐτῶν δύναμις, ην νομίζουσι δεξιὰν ειναι οἰόμενοι ἐπαινετῶς ἐνεργεῖν, ἀδικίας ἐστὶ πλήρης. ταῦτα ουν α ματαίως προφέρουσι καὶ ὑπὲρ ων ἀθέως καὶ ἀσεβῶς διάκεινται υδατα τυγχάνει πολλά· μιμεῖσθαι γὰρ δι' ων διδάσκουσι βούλονται τὸν εἰπόντα Ει τις διψᾷ, ἐρχέσθω πρός με καὶ πινέτω, καὶ Ος αν πίῃ ἐκ τοῦ υδατος ου ἐγὼ δώσω αὐτῷ γενήσεται ἐν αὐτῷ πηγὴ υδατος ἀλλομένου εἰς ζωὴν αἰώνιον. Καὶ ορα γε ἐν τούτοις ὡς ἑνὸς οντος υδατος ου δίδωσι ̓Ιησοῦς· τοῦτο δὲ ην τὸ πνεῦμα ο ημελλον λαμβάνειν οἱ πιστεύοντες εἰς αὐτόν. τὰ υδατα τῶν ἑτεροδόξων δι' ων μιμοῦνται τὸν ὑπὸ τοῦ κυρίου ποτισμὸν πολλά ἐστι διὰ τὸ ποικίλα καὶ ἀσύμφωνα τυγχάνειν καὶ μὴ πρὸς εν ἀναφέρεσθαι τέλος· διάφορα γὰρ καὶ τὰ τέλη καὶ αἱ ἀρχαὶ τῶν φρονημάτων αὐτῶν. ̓Εξαπόστειλον τοίνυν, φησὶν ὁ ψαλμῳδός, τὴν ποιητικὴν καὶ φυλακτικὴν τῶν ολων χεῖρα ἐπὶ τῷ ἐξελέσθαι καὶ ῥύσασθαί με ἐκ τῶν πολλῶν ὑδάτων καὶ τῆς χειρὸς τῶν ἀλλοτρίων υἱῶν· κατὰ κοινοῦ γὰρ τὸ ἀλλότριον ληπτέον κατά τε υἱῶν καὶ ὑδάτων. ∆υνατὸν δὲ τὸ ἐξ ὑδάτων πολλῶν ῥυσθῆναι εἰπεῖν τῶν πονηρῶν δυνάμεων καὶ τοῦ διαβόλου τοῦ βασιλέως πάντων τῶν ἐν τοιούτοις υδασιν, ἐξαιρεθῆναι δὲ καὶ ἐκ χειρὸς τῶν ἀλλοτρίων υἱῶν τῶν ἐνεργουμένων ὑπὸ τῶν ἀνθρώπων. 1249 Ps 143,9b.10 Σύγκειται καὶ συνήρμοσται τὸ δεκάχορδον ψαλτήριον ἐξ ἐνεργείας τῆς δεκαλόγου· ἑκάστη γὰρ τῶν δέκα ἐντολῶν χορδή ἐστι μουσικῶς συντεθειμένη ἐν ολῳ τῷ ὀργάνῳ. Βασιλεῖς δὲ νοήσεις, φησίν, καὶ τοὺς