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swimming in foul-smelling things, and confined in a dark and narrow place, he preserves, and saves, and brings to perfection, and leads out into the light, and offers the fountains of milk, and frees from scheming demons, and, to speak concisely, imparts a father's providence. And the prophetic word did not make mention of these things simply, but to teach that the God of all not only rewards the fruits of the righteous, but also begins the benefaction, and creates those who are not, and having formed them, takes care of them, and after full age awaits the fruits of righteousness, and then again inundates the good with benefactions. "I was humbled, and he saved me." But Symmachus has it thus: I was weakened, and he saved me. For if infants who have not yet received knowledge of him meet with such care from him, much more does he impart salvation to those who sincerely call upon him. At once, therefore, seeing us humbled by misfortunes, he deemed us worthy of his own help. 7. "Return, my soul, to your rest, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you." They encourage themselves, and incite themselves to courage, showing the multitude of divine benefactions, and they teach themselves that even if they should accept death for piety's sake, they will be transferred to a pleasant and griefless life. For he called that life rest. And what follows also makes this clear. 8, 9. "For he has delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from stumbling. I will please the Lord in the land of the living." And by land of the living he does not mean the present life, in which there are lamentations, and wailings, and sicknesses, and deaths, and sins, and calamities, but the life that is free from all these things, in which the possession of virtue is without hardship, and the wealth of righteousness accrues without toils. For those who wish to gather it here with toils will multiply it many times over without toils; therefore they offer a hymn of thanksgiving, as their eyes have been freed from weeping, and their feet have escaped the slippery life, and their soul has been able to escape the death of sin; and they teach themselves to bear nobly the assaults of painful things, and to despise death, as a griefless life succeeds death. 80.1801

INTERPRETATION OF THE 115TH PSALM. Alleluia. The Hebrew and the other interpreters, and indeed also the Syrian,

join this to the preceding ones; for it holds to the same thought; and having divided the ninth psalm in two, by the joining of these psalms they keep the same number of psalms. Nevertheless, it has the same subject. For those who made mention there of the land of the living, and having placed this as a conclusion, here begin by saying: 1. "I believed, therefore I spoke." For I did not see that land with the eyes of the body, but faith has made it manifest to me. "But I was greatly humbled. [2] And I said in my ecstasy: Every man is a liar." But Aquila has it thus: I said in my amazement: Every man is a delusion. But Theodotion: Every man fails. But Symmachus: And I said in my distress: Every man disappoints. And I have not simply set down all the interpretations, but wishing to show that he calls human prosperity a lie, since it flows away as quickly as possible, and has nothing lasting. For having beheld this sudden change, he says, and having remembered our former good fortune, and seeing the successive calamities, I said in my distress, Nothing is permanent, nor stable; but one is disappointed, and misses one's hope, trusting in present things as if they were lasting. This, indeed, he said in the thirty-eighth psalm: "Surely all is vanity, every man who lives." These things also the wise Solomon, having been taught, although through all

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δυσωδέσιν ἐννηχόμενα, καὶ ἐν ζοφώδει, καὶ ἐν στενῷ καθειργ μένα χωρίῳ διατηρεῖ, καὶ σώζει, καὶ τελεσιουργεῖ, καὶ εἰς φῶς ἐξάγει, καὶ τὰς τοῦ γάλακτος ὀρέγει πηγὰς, καὶ τῶν ἐπιβουλευόντων δαιμόνων ἐλευθεροῖ, καὶ συλλήβδην εἰπεῖν, πατρικῆς μεταδίδωσι προμη θείας. Οὐχ ἁπλῶς δὲ τὴν τούτων ὁ προφητικὸς λό γος ἐποιήσατο μνήμην, ἀλλὰ διδάσκων, ὡς οὐκ ἀμεί βεται μόνον ὁ τῶν ὅλων Θεὸς τοὺς τῶν δικαίων καρ ποὺς, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἄρχει τῆς εὐεργεσίας, καὶ δημιουρ γεῖ τοὺς οὐκ ὄντας, καὶ διαπλάσας ἐπιμελεῖται, καὶ μετὰ τὴν τελείαν ἡλικίαν ἀναμένει τοὺς τῆς δικαιο σύνης καρποὺς, καὶ πάλιν τότε ταῖς εὐεργεσίαις τοὺς ἀγαθοὺς ἐπικλύζει. "Ἐταπεινώθην, καὶ ἔσωσέ με." Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος οὕτως· Ἠτόνησα καὶ ἔσωσέ με. Εἰ γὰρ τὰ νήπια τὰ μηδέπω τὴν αὐτοῦ γνῶ σιν δεξάμενα τοσαύτης παρ' αὐτοῦ τυγχάνει κηδε μονίας, πολλῷ μᾶλλον τοῖς εἰλικρινῶς αὐτὸν ἐπικα λουμένοις μεταδίδωσι σωτηρίας. Αὐτίκα τοίνυν ἡμᾶς ταῖς συμφοραῖς ταπεινωθέντας ἰδὼν τῆς οἰκείας ἐπι κουρίας ἠξίωσεν. ζʹ. "Ἐπίστρεψον, ψυχή μου, εἰς τὴν ἀνάπαυσίν σου, ὅτι Κύριος εὐηργέτησέ σε." Παραθαῤῥύνουσιν ἑαυτοὺς, καὶ παραθήγουσιν εἰς ἀνδρείαν, τῶν θείων εὐεργεσιῶν ὑποδεικνύντες τὸ πλῆθος, καὶ διδά σκουσι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς, ὅτι κἂν τὸν ὑπὲρ εὐσεβείας καταδέξωνται θάνατον, εἰς τὸν θυμήρη καὶ ἄλυπον μετατεθήσονται βίον. Ἀνάπαυσιν γὰρ ἐκεῖνον ἐκά λεσε. ∆ηλοῖ δὲ τοῦτο καὶ τὰ ἐπιφερόμενα. ηʹ, θʹ. "Ὅτι ἐξείλετο τὴν ψυχήν μου ἐκ θανά του, τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου ἀπὸ δακρύων, καὶ τοὺς πό δας μου ἀπὸ ὀλισθήματος. Εὐαρεστήσω ἐνώπιον Κυρίου ἐν χώρᾳ ζώντων." Χώραν δὲ ζώντων, οὐ τὸν παρόντα βίον καλεῖ, ἐν ᾧ θρῆνοι, καὶ ὀδυρμοὶ, καὶ νόσοι, καὶ θάνατοι, καὶ ἁμαρτίαι, καὶ συμφοραὶ, ἀλλὰ τὸν τούτων ἁπάντων ἀπηλλαγμένον βίον, ἐν ᾧ ἀταλαίπωρος τῆς ἀρετῆς ἡ κτῆσις, καὶ δίχα πόνων ὁ τῆς δικαιοσύνης προσγίνεται πλοῦτος. Οἱ γὰρ μετὰ πόνων ἐνταῦθα τοῦτον θελόμενοι συναγεῖραι, πολ λαπλασιάσουσιν αὐτὸν πόνων χωρίς· τὸν χαριστή ριον τοίνυν ὕμνον προσφέρουσιν, ὡς τῶν μὲν ὀφ θαλμῶν τοῦ δακρύειν ἀπαλλαγέντων, τῶν δὲ ποδῶν τὸν ὀλισθηρὸν βίον διαφευγόντων, τῆς δὲ ψυχῆς διαδράναι δυνηθείσης τῆς ἁμαρτίας τὸν θάνατον· καὶ διδάσκουσι σφᾶς αὐτοὺς ἐνεγκεῖν γενναίως τὰς τῶν ἀλγεινῶν προσβολὰς, καὶ τοῦ θανάτου καταφρο νῆσαι, ὡς ζωῆς ἀλύπου διαδεχομένης τὸν θάνα τον. 80.1801

ΕΡΜΗΝ. ΤΟΥ ΡΙΕʹ ΨΑΛΜΟΥ. Ἀλληλούϊα. Ἑβραῖος καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ἑρμηνευταὶ, καὶ μέντοι καὶ ὁ Σύρος,

τοῦτον τοῖς προτε ταγμένοις συνάπτουσι· καὶ γὰρ τῆς αὐτῆς ἔχεται διανοίας· καὶ τὸν ἔννατον διχῆ διελόντες, τῇ τῶν δε τῶν ψαλμῶν συναφῇ τὸν ἴσον τῶν ψαλμῶν φυλάτ τουσιν ἀριθμόν. Τὴν αὐτὴν δὲ ὅμως ὑπόθεσιν ἔχει. Οἱ γὰρ τῆς τῶν ζώντων χώρας ἐκεῖ μνημονεύσαντες, καὶ τοῦτο τεθεικότες ἀκροτελεύτιον, ἐνταῦθα ἀρχό μενοι λέγουσιν· αʹ. "Ἐπίστευσα, διὸ ἐλάλησα." Οὐ γὰρ τοῖς τοῦ σώματος ὀφθαλμοῖς ἐκείνην ἐθεασάμην τὴν χώραν, ἀλλὰ κατάδηλόν μοι ταύτην ἡ πίστις πεποίηκεν. "Ἐγὼ δὲ ἐταπεινώθην σφόδρα. [βʹ] Ἐγὼ δὲ εἶπα ἐν τῇ ἐκστάσει μου· Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ψεύστης." Ὁ δὲ Ἀκύλας οὕτως· Ἐγὼ εἶπαἐν τῷ θαμβεῖσθαί με· Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος διά ψευσμα. Ὁ δὲ Θεοδοτίων· Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ἐκλεί πει. Ὁ δὲ Σύμμαχος· Καὶ εἶπον ἀδημονῶν· Πᾶς ἄνθρωπος διαψεύδεται. Οὐχ ἁπλῶς δὲ πάσας τέ θεικα τὰς ἑρμηνείας, ἀλλὰ δεῖξαι βουλόμενος, ὡς τὴν ἀνθρωπίνην εὐημερίαν ψεῦδος καλεῖ, διαῤῥέου σαν ὅτι τάχιστα, καὶ διαρκὲς οὐδὲν ἔχουσαν. Τὴν γὰρ ἀθρόαν ταύτην, φησὶ, μεταβολὴν θεασάμενος, καὶ τῆς προτέρας ἡμῶν ἀναμνησθεὶς εὐκληρίας, καὶ τὰς ἐπαλλήλους ὁρῶν συμφορὰς, εἶπον ἀδημονῶν, Μόνι μον οὐδὲν, οὐδὲ σταθερόν· ἀλλὰ διαψεύδεται, καὶ τῆς ἐλπίδος διαμαρτάνει, τοῖς παροῦσιν ὡς διαρ κέσι θαῤῥῶν. Τοῦτο μὲν ἐν τῷ τριακοστῷ καὶ ὀγ δόῳ ἔφη ψαλμῷ· "Πλὴν τὰ σύμπαντα ματαιότης, πᾶς ἄνθρωπος ζῶν." Ταῦτα καὶ ὁ σοφὸς παιδευ θεὶς Σολομὼν, καίτοι διὰ πάσης