Fragments on Genesis 117–137

from the earth.” The Lord destroys the ungodly, and their food as well, which is Sodomitic and harmful; among it is also a vine, of which it is written: “For their vine is from the vine of Sodom, and their tendril from Gomorrah.” [Gen 19:26] “And his wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.” It profited Lot's wife nothing to have been taken by the hand by the angels, even though she went out of Sodom, since she turned back. [Gen 20:4] “But Abimelech did not touch her.” “Did not touch” has emphasis, like “It is good for a man not to touch a woman”; that is, even without intercourse, not in any other way, with passion, to look at or to touch a woman. God, however, did not allow Abimelech to touch her; perhaps he does not allow anyone who thinks loftily to touch her, for such a thing is God-given. [Gen 22:5] “And Abraham said to his servants: Sit here with the donkey; the boy and I will go on as far as there, and when we have worshipped we will return to you.” He said this reckoning that God is able to raise even from the dead. [Gen 22:6] “And Abraham took the wood of the whole burnt offering and laid it on Isaac his son.” For Christ, carrying his own cross on his shoulders, suffered outside the gate, not forced into the passion by human strength, but by his own will and the will of God the Father. [Gen 22:20–21] “Behold, Milcah too has borne sons to Nahor your brother: Uz the firstborn,” and so on. They interpret Milcah “queen”; Uz “counselling”; Nahor “rest of light”; Buz “despised”; Kemuel “resurrection of God”; of the Syrians, “lofty”; Chesed “falsehood”; Hazo “seeing”; Pildash “fall of the needy” or “fall of poverty”; Jidlaph “abundance of hand” or “take a hand”; Bethuel “dweller of God” or “daughter of God”; Rebekah “patience”; Reumah “expected vision”; Tebah “chewing the cud”; Tahash “silence”; Maacah “empty bowel.” [Gen 24:13] “Behold, I stand by the spring of water.” Therefore we must strive to stand by the spring, so that the words “They have forsaken me, the spring of living water” may not apply to us too. [Gen 24:14] “And the virgin to whom I say, Lower

your jar,” and so on. The words befit the elder of Abraham's household and suit the ruler of all his possessions; and see what wisdom, what a sign he sets. [Gen 24:21] “And the man was observing her and kept silent, to know whether the Lord had prospered his way or not.” From this we can be taught that it is good for one who prays not to pray with a voice heard by the senses, but in the heart, to him who examines hearts and kidneys. [Gen 24:62] “And Isaac was going through the desert by the well of the vision.” A fitting journey for the saint: going through the desert because of his great withdrawal, and by the well of the vision because of his contemplation of the things concerning God. [Gen 24:63] “And Isaac went out into the plain toward evening to converse.” One who is going to converse about divine things must go out from earthly things; this is what it has now called “conversing.” It is not added with whom, fittingly, since such converse is not held with human beings, but either with God, or of a man with himself. [Of the same.] And “toward evening” is a symbol that one can hardly, on coming to old age, converse about the more divine things with comprehension. [Gen 25:1–2] “And Abraham again took a wife, whose name was Keturah; and she bore him Zimran,” and so on. From the children of Keturah came very many nations, which inhabited the Troglodyte desert, and Arabia Felix, and the land that stretches beyond it, and Midianitis, and the city of Midian, lying beside the desert beyond Arabia, opposite Paran, east of the Red Sea. From this the nation of the Midianites takes its name, from Midian, son of Abraham and Keturah; so that it is clear from this that Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, was a descendant of Abraham and a kinsman of Moses. [Of the same.] Keturah is interpreted “smaller”

or “…”; Ishbak “release” or “…”; Shuah “good people”; … “turning away”; Teman “their failings” or “being completed”; Dedan “sufficient judgment” or “solitude”; Reuel “strong friend” or “shepherding of God”; Adbeel “serving God”; Asshurim “settled” or “directing”; Letushim “hammer-smiths”; Ephah “needy” or “lacking”; Epher “dust” or “…” or “ashes”; Hanoch “your grace”; Abida “height of my father”; Ephron “dust” or “earthy” or “ashes”; Zohar “midday”; Dumah “silence”; Mamre “from vision”; Massa “lifting up”; Ishmael “hearing of God”; Hadad “measure being emptied”; Nebaioth “prophecy”; Tema “completion”; Kedar “darkening”; Jetur “banished”; Adbeel “serving God”; Naphish “refreshment”; Mishma “attention” or “hearing”; Kedemah “the one in front”; Mibsam “from spices”; Havilah “in labour”; Shur “wall.” [Gen 26:2–3] “Dwell in the land of which I tell you, and sojourn in this land, and I will be with you and will bless you.” If, where one ought to dwell by God's command, one sojourns, God is with him and blesses him; but if, where one ought only to sojourn, one dwells, God is not with him, nor will he bless him. [Gen 26:5] “Because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my ordinances and my statutes and my laws.” If the law according to Moses had not yet been written, yet Abraham kept what is mentioned, he kept them as “Gentiles who do not have the law, and do by nature the things of the law, showing the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness,” as the Apostle says. [Gen 26:19] “And Isaac's servants dug in the valley of Gerar and found there a well of living water.” Everyone who prays to be a child of Isaac must strive to understand these wells and to dig them in himself. [Gen 26:22] “And moving on from there he dug another well, and

they did not quarrel over it.” By not resisting those who wronged him he shows that he was truly guileless. Hence God, accepting him for his forbearance, appears to him and promises him land, so that he might not lose heart because, as a stranger and sojourner, he lay exposed to those who wished to wrong him, fulfilling each time what is said, “If they persecute you.” [Gen 27:22] “And he said: The voice is the voice of Jacob.” Recognizing the pious word, which would not have been said by Esau, “What the Lord your God delivered before me,” Isaac said, “The voice is the voice of Jacob.” [Gen 27:27] “And he said: Behold, the smell of my son is like the smell of a full field which the Lord has blessed.” Clearly the smell was not perceptible. For what smell could be compared to the smell of a field? But perhaps it was such as the Apostle had when he said: “We are the fragrance of Christ to God in every place.” I think that each virtue has its own fragrance, which completes the virtues. And conversely, vices are foul-smelling, according to the one who said: “My wounds stank and festered.” It befits the Lord to bless the field of the virtues that is fragrant to him. [Gen 27:42–43] “And she said to him: Behold, Esau your brother threatens to kill you; now therefore, child, hear my voice, and rise and flee to Mesopotamia.” We learn from this that we must run away from those who plot against us and flee persecutions, even if we are counted worthy of visions, as Jacob was. And one may take courage on seeing what followed for Jacob as he fled from Esau: he was counted worthy of visions, and became the father of twelve tribes; and on returning from the flight caused by the persecution, he becomes Israel instead of Jacob. [Gen 28:1] “You shall not take a wife from the daughters of Canaan.” The daughters of Canaan are wicked, not in Esau's eyes, but in the eyes of Isaac his father. [Gen 29:31] “And the Lord God, seeing that Leah was hated, opened her womb.” He opens the womb at the birth of saints; and according to the spiritual law he opens the womb of a soul, so that the one who is to be his mother may bring forth the Word of God. [Of the same.] For she who was elder in time first bore to God the synagogue and multitude of the Jews. [Gen 30:27] “And Laban said to him: If I have found favour before you, I would have taken omens; for God has blessed me at your coming.” There is no augury in Jacob; but Laban says, “I would have taken omens,” as one estranged from Jacob's choice; yet he was not wholly estranged from it, since he added to “I would have taken omens” the words “for God has blessed me at your coming.”

[Gen 30:37] “And Jacob took for himself a green rod of storax, and of walnut, and of plane.” The three rods are symbolically either the three powers of the soul, the rational, the spirited, and the desiring; or the three contemplations, of bodies, of incorporeal beings, and of the Holy Trinity; or, more generally, by the walnut he hinted at the practical life, by the storax at the contemplative, and by the plane at this world and the contemplation of it. Peeling off its green signifies renunciation of it: the green of the practical life is the love of pleasure; that of contemplation, being occupied with bodies; as for the green in the two other interpretations, test it yourself. [Gen 31:3] “And the Lord said to Jacob: Return to the land of your father and to your kindred, and I will be with you.” When Jacob had borne fruit and become rich while living outside his kindred, then the Lord said to him, “Return to the land of your father.” Something of this kind must be understood to be said by the Lord when we come to our departure, about to go away to our fathers. And he gives a prize to the one who returns to the land of his father and to his kindred. I think that the Lord was present to him in sleep. [Gen 31:7] “And your father cheated me and changed my wages of the ten lambs.” Aquila said “ten numbers,” Symmachus “ten times in number.” He meant, then, as the Hebrew says: Laban broke his agreements with Jacob ten times, because what was born in Jacob's name was very many, and he looked on him with envy; which the two versions made clear. [Gen 31:41] “And you cheated me of my wages of ten lambs.” Of lambs Scripture makes no mention at all; “which he agreed to give me”: nowhere does it appear that he agreed, but it is evident from what Jacob himself says. For just as Scripture does not show Lamech killing, but when he is questioned it becomes evident from his account what had happened, so also here. Often, then, Scripture has made known through someone's account what it did not relate when it was being done. [Gen 31:38] “Your sheep and your goats were not barren; I did not eat the rams of your sheep.” The frankness of a good shepherd appears in these words, and is to be emulated. Let those in the flocks and herds, then, bear spiritual fruits; and let us not devour the rich of the flock. Since his gods were not found, he makes an agreement with the divine Jacob; and the world, when it cast off the falsely named gods, became a friend of Christ. [Gen 31:46] “And Jacob said to his brothers: Gather stones; and they gathered stones.” And in

Ecclesiastes it is written: “A time to throw stones and a time to gather stones.” They are gathered by the command of Jacob, who was a type of Christ, so that the building may be completed on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ our Lord himself being the cornerstone, from living stones, when it becomes a spiritual house, a holy priesthood. [Gen 31:55] “And Laban turned back and went away to his place.” For the wicked man the place is near because of his vice; but for one who travels by way of progress, since the place is far off, the toil is not small. [Gen 32:1] “And the angels of God met him.” The Lord says, “I am the way.” Angels of God, then, meet the one who travels this way. [Gen 32:4] “And he commanded them, saying: Thus you shall say to my lord Esau: Thus says your servant Jacob: I have sojourned with Laban.” Out of respect he calls his elder brother his lord, without hypocrisy. Besides, “a submissive answer turns away wrath.” And as a man he was afraid, but trusting in God he did not flee, but prayed. [Gen 32:22] “He crossed the ford of the Jabbok.” The Jabbok is a river of Arabia, now called the Iambikes. [Gen 32:24] “And Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him,” and so on. Who else could he be who is called at once man and God, wrestling and contending with Jacob, than the holy Word of God, who spoke to the fathers in many parts and in many ways, who is called Lord and God, who also blessed Jacob and named him Israel, adding, “for you have prevailed with God”? In this way the men of that time saw the Word of God, as also our Lord's apostles, who said: “What was from the beginning, we have seen with our eyes, and beheld, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life.” Having beheld this Word and Life, Jacob too adds: “For I have seen God face to face.” [Gen 37:3] “And Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age; and he made him a many-coloured tunic.” The many-coloured tunic is the best habit, adorned with the virtues. [Gen 37:4] “And his brothers, seeing that their father loved him more than all his sons, hated him and could not speak anything peaceable to him.” The one who hates is unable to say anything peaceable to the one he hates. Let us put away hatred, then, so that we may be able to speak peaceable things.

[Gen 37:36] “And the Midianites sold Joseph into Egypt to Petephres, the eunuch of Pharaoh, the chief cook.” In this place Petephres is called Phoutiphar by Aquila and Symmachus, and in another place Phoutiphare. The interpretation of the present name is set beside the word …; the exposition of the other will appear in what follows. [Gen 38:9] “And Onan, knowing that the seed would not be his, when he went in to his brother's wife, poured it out on the ground.” Everyone who sows to the flesh and stores up the works of the flesh on the earth is like Onan; therefore he too is put to death by God. [Gen 39:2] “And the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a man who succeeded.” Like one shooting at a target, he directed his ruling faculty and always hit the mark. Scripture uses this word in many places. [Gen 39:5] “And the Lord blessed the house of the Egyptian because of Joseph.” Because of the saint who is in an Egyptian's house, the house is blessed, and the possessions, and the field of the Egyptian. But this is not a spiritual blessing. [Gen 40:1] “And after these things the chief cupbearer of the king of Egypt and the chief baker sinned against their lord, the king of Egypt.” I think that something corresponding to “They sinned against the king of Egypt” might be said of the martyrs: that they sin against the intelligible king of Egypt, but not against God. For they seem to sin against the law of the world, which is contrary to the law of God. [Gen 40:15] “For I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews, and here I have done nothing.” By “Here I have done nothing” he hints that he did none of the native Egyptian things; and lying with one's master's wife was also an Egyptian deed. [Gen 40:18] “And Joseph answered and said to him: This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days.” And above it was said, “The three stems are three days.” So “three days” is shown both by stems and by baskets, Providence using for the showing of three days examples proper to the life of each. You will find such things in the other Scriptures too: the same thing shown by examples that seem different. [Gen 40:20] “And it came to pass on the third day, it was Pharaoh's birthday, and he made a feast for all his servants.” One of those before us observed that he is wicked who honours the things of birth and welcomes the day of his birth; and we

confirm the account, finding the like also in the case of Herod, since the daughter of Herodias danced and John's head was cut off; and nowhere does a righteous man appear keeping his birthday. [Gen 41:1] “And it came to pass after two years of days, Pharaoh saw a dream. He thought he stood upon the river,” and so on. The one who trusts in flowing and unstable things thought he stood upon the river, from which what seem to be the goods of happiness come up when his cows are fat; but these are certainly devoured by the worse. With “he thought” you will compare “I thought we were binding sheaves.” And on the second dream: “As if,” he says, “the sun and the moon and the stars were bowing down to me.” And again the chief cupbearer: “In my sleep,” he says, “there was …” [Of the same.] The narrating voice of Scripture says, “He thought he stood upon the river,” not “by the bank of the river”; but Pharaoh says, “I thought I stood by the bank of the river,” not “upon the river.” The affairs in Egypt, however, those of worldly things, beginning from more pleasant things, of which the plenty is a symbol, end in something more bitter, of which the plenty and the famine are a type. Something similar can be observed in the story of the rich man. For he had, as it were, the seven years of plenty, receiving his good things in his life, clothed in purple and fine linen and making merry splendidly every day; but it ends for him in the opposite, receiving evils after his departure from here. You might see such things also in those who walk the broad and spacious way, whose end is destruction; but for those whose beginning is the narrow and afflicted way, the end is life. Therefore, woe to those who are full, for they will hunger; and to those who laugh, for they will weep. Blessed are those who mourn and weep, for they will be comforted. [Gen 41:2] “And behold, as it were out of the river came up seven cows,” and so on. Pharaoh's dreams were of cows and ears of grain; for the means by which the earth is tilled, and what it bears, became signs for the king foretelling plenty and barrenness. [Gen 41:5] “And Pharaoh woke and dreamed a second time; and behold, seven ears came up on one stem, choice and good.” Joseph saw not ears but sheaves; the Egyptian not sheaves but ears. And again, the chief cupbearer sees the three stems as three days, while the king sees the seven ears on one stem as the continuity of the seven years; so the interpretation of the one word “stem” differs. If, then, someone explains Scripture otherwise, let him not be thought to force it. And it should be further observed that in the case of the

plenty seven ears came up on one stem, but in the case of the famine seven ears indeed, but no longer on one stem; another translator says “on one stalk.” [Gen 41:8] “And it was morning, and his soul was troubled, and he sent and called all the interpreters of Egypt and all its wise men.” How he called the interpreters and wise men of all Egypt must be inquired at the same time with regard to the letter; and, with regard to the higher sense, whether Pharaoh needs Egyptian interpreters as wiser. We say “of all Egypt” as following from “all the interpreters of Egypt and all its wise men.” [Gen 41:8] “And Pharaoh told them his dream, and there was no one who interpreted it to Pharaoh.” I do not think that they were wholly silent, but rather that they said everything except the very interpretation of the dreams. But someone will say: How did Pharaoh know whether the interpreters and wise men of Egypt hit the mark in interpreting the dreams or not? To this the Hebrew said that Pharaoh, on seeing the dream, also saw its interpretation, which then fell from his memory. Hearing each of them speak, he did not recall what he knew he had seen. For this reason he was amazed at Joseph and at once advanced him, so that all Egypt, its grain, and the safety of the Egyptians were entrusted to him; since, as soon as Joseph explained the dreams, Pharaoh was reminded that they were the same as had been shown to him before. [Gen 41:16] “And Joseph answered Pharaoh and said: Without God the answer of salvation will not be given to Pharaoh.” Joseph is sensible in that he begins from God. Observe that to the woman he said, “And shall I do this evil thing and sin before God?” And to the eunuchs in the prison he says, “Is not their interpretation through God?” [Gen 41:38] “And Pharaoh said to all his servants: Shall we find such a man, who has the Spirit of God in himself?” Pharaoh, seeing something greater than human, that the solution of the dream which had fallen from his memory had been made plain by Joseph, said that he had the Spirit of God in himself. [Of the same.] Even Pharaoh was compelled to speak of one God; and with this agrees what was given above about the solution of the dream. [Gen 41:43] “And a herald proclaimed before him.” The Hebrew has “Abrech,” which properly signifies “tender father.” Fittingly he called a tender father the

Joseph, since, being tender in age, he showed himself to the Egyptians as a father, a saving rule. The word signifies nothing other than “to kneel”; for the herald's call is plain. [Gen 41:45] “And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Psonthomphanech.” Psonthomphanech is interpreted “to whom the future was revealed.” Aquila has Saphnath Phanech; Symmachus Saphthphane, “he revealed hidden things.” “And he gave him Asenath, daughter of Petephres, priest of Heliopolis, as wife.” “Phoutiphar” is the name of the father of the woman married to Joseph. Someone will suppose that this man is other than the one who bought Joseph. The Hebrews, however, have not taken it so; on the basis of an apocryphal writing they say that he is the same man, who became both Joseph's master and his father-in-law. And they say that this Asenath accused her mother before her father of having plotted against Joseph, not of having been plotted against; and that he gave her to Joseph, eager to show the Egyptians too that no such sin had been committed against his house. [Gen 41:51] “And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God has made me forget all my toils and all that was my father's.” To forget all one's toils, God having brought it about, is clearly good; but whether Joseph also forgot everything that was his father Jacob's, and God did this to him, must be inquired. For God does not make Joseph forget Jacob's words and his own sonship; unless perhaps it means his toils, so that “toils” is understood with both: all my toils and all my father's toils. [Gen 41:52] “The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has increased me in the land of my humiliation.” In a mystical sense, the spiritual Egypt is the land of the righteous man's humiliation; hence the Apostle speaks of “the body of our humiliation,” and the Psalms say, “Our life was humbled to the dust,” and again, “You humbled us in a place of affliction.” [Gen 42:6] “And Joseph was ruler of Egypt; he sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down to him with their face to the ground.” Because the sons of Jacob were not “people of the land,” he did not sell to them, but … the money twice. For it was fitting that the sons of Israel should receive the grain as a gift. [Of the same.] Gracefully, of the same persons, when they buy it says “sons of Israel,” but when they bow down, “Joseph's brothers.” … Benjamin … Joseph bows down … neither Esau nor … Therefore the temple comes to be in his portion.

[Gen 42:21] “Yes, for we are in sins concerning our brother, because we overlooked the anguish of his soul when he begged us.” “He begged” is among the things passed over in silence; for it is not recorded how he begged. [Gen 42:22] “Reuben answered and said to them: Did I not speak to you, saying, Do not wrong the boy? And you did not listen to me. And behold, his blood is required.” In what was said above, Joseph was sold to the Ishmaelites while Reuben was not present; and after he had been sold Reuben returned to the pit and did not see Joseph in the pit, and tore his clothes, and returned to his brothers and said, “The boy is not; and I, where shall I go?” And he does not appear to have learned from his brothers about Joseph, that he had been sold. Perhaps, then, thinking that he had been killed, he now says, “Behold, his blood is required.” [Gen 43:8] “And Judah said to Israel his father: Send the boy with me, and we will rise and go, that we may live.” Perhaps he prophesies that Benjamin was to be with the tribe of Judah. [Gen 43:9] “And I will take charge of him; from my hand require him, if I do not bring him to you,” and so on. Reckoning that nothing that can befall a human being would befall Benjamin, Judah makes the promise to his father prophetically, I think. [Gen 43:11] “Take of the fruits of the land in your vessels, and carry down to the man gifts: of resin, and of honey, incense and myrrh, and terebinth and nuts.” From the fruits of the land gifts are brought to Joseph which Egypt does not have: resin, honey, incense, myrrh, terebinth, nuts. And above, too, the camels were laden with incense, resin, and myrrh, but not also with honey and terebinth and nuts. [Of the same.] The Midianites bring down three kinds into Egypt with Joseph; the sons of Jacob add three others and bring them to Joseph. But the seed of Abraham brings both the first and the second. And it was fitting that the lesser should be brought by the illegitimate children of Abraham and the greater by the legitimate, since Egypt needed these. [Gen 43:18] “They said: Because of the money returned in our sacks at the beginning we are being brought in, to bring a false charge against us and attack us, to take us as slaves, and our donkeys.” It is unconvincing that men who thought themselves in such a crisis should worry about the donkeys, unless it is meant allegorically. [Gen 43:23] “And he said to them: Peace be to you, do not fear.” The man over Joseph's house seems to have said this because he had been helped toward the worship of God by Joseph. [Gen 43:34] “And Benjamin's portion was made greater than the portions