Fragments on Proverbs 229–247

… there will be one flock and one shepherd. [Prov 24:25] Those who reprove and examine their deeds by confession, and the thoughts of the better mind, will appear exalted before the Lord, proclaimed before all; and upon them will come, in the present age, the good blessing of their deeds and works and the intelligible contemplation of wisdom; and in the age to come, the distribution of rewards from the Lord. [Prov 24:27] The one who walks after God's commandments is built up for righteousness and holiness; for with wisdom a house is built, in soul and body, for God to dwell in; but wisdom will not enter a soul that devises evil. [Prov 24:30–31] For whether thorns or cattle destroy the field, unless there is someone to weed and guard it; so too the foolish man; wickedness is what spurs him on toward what brings the kingdom. The fence is the freedom from passion of the rational soul, formed from the practical virtues; and it is dug down and destroyed by the choice of the fool. [Prov 30:15–16] Corruption loves these things: Hades, love, and the harlot woman; for these have neither limit nor satiety. And there are three things that will be filled; and the fourth was not satisfied to say "Enough": Hades and the love of a woman, and the earth not filled with water; and water and fire did not say "It is enough". The earth always receives the seeds; whatever you sow, it desires. So too death and fire destroy what they desire. Such too is poverty; these things are consuming. Such too are sloth and idleness. Since someone may wonder why Hades has no satiety, though it consumes the human being, that is why, he says, these too have no satiety, nor do they stop anywhere. See to what he has compared sexual immorality: to Hades. [Prov 30:17] These ravens feed the righteous mystically, but punish the unrighteous, digging out the eyes of injustice, because they mocked the Father and God of all, and dishonoured the ancient knowledge that bore them. The eye of the Father is the law given us by him in righteousness. And those who dig out the eyes of the ungodly he called ravens, and those who devour him whole he named eagles, because the ones have been entrusted with partial purification and the others with complete purification; for God wishes even the ungodly to be saved. [Prov 30:31] The cock, the bird, is among us called alektor; and among the hens that live with it it is well known; the flocks of fowl follow it, perhaps because all go about it for the pleasure it gives; and it is brave toward all of them in love. So too the orders of angels toward the God of all, not only by fear, but also

by love, yield when he wishes them to understand his command and do it. So too it naturally is with the souls of the righteous: for to as many as are subject to his command he is pleased to make known not only the mysteries and depths laid up in the Scriptures, but also whatever is to happen in life to people, from people and from demons; he gives foreknowledge either through vision of the mind by the grace of the divine Spirit, or through initiation by an angel, or through revelation by a vision. [Prov 31:4] Here he calls the righteous rulers, who have power against the demons and the passions, which he called temper. Let them not drink of the sour wine of the heretics, which makes the mind drunk and clouds the senses, and which has something against the knowledge of God's wisdom; lest, having drunk, they forget the wisdom of God and can no longer judge rightly and understand the contemplation of knowledge, or help themselves and the weaker in soul. [Prov 31:6–7] To those in pain and despair over their sins, give to drink from the vineyard of the Lord unto drunkenness, that is, fasting, prayer, self-control, confession and all that makes the soul glad; and to those at the beginning, give the pains of sin to drink their fill, so that, having drunk, they may forget the poverty that comes from the demons. For the one who is drunk with the knowledge of the Lord forgets the practice of pains. [Prov 31:9] He calls poor the one deprived of knowledge, and weak the one unclean with sins. [Prov 25:5] The one who by a spiritual word kills the old man, corrupted according to the desires of deceit, sets his mind right in righteousness, which is called the throne of God; for wisdom, knowledge and righteousness by nature sit nowhere else than in a rational nature; and all these are Christ. [Prov 25:6–7] Appear as you are, and do not boast; but be silent among the wise, and listen among the elders. Do not say, "I will set my throne above the stars, and I will be like the Most High"; do not love the first places of the chief seat, but look to the last place; for it is better that it be said to you, "Come up to me," than that you be sent down to the last place with shame before the face of a ruler. Do not proclaim yourself prudent, nor reckon yourself righteous; for it is better that it be said of you: "Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name above every name." [Prov 25:9] "Back" means what has gone before; and our friend is God, who became man out of friendship for us; for he himself said to the disciples: "No longer do I call you servants, but friends." [Prov 25:10] When the friend, Christ, reproaches you over

your sin, so that you may keep away from it, do not despise him, but withdraw and return to your first self-control, that is, to the love of God for humankind. [Prov 25:10a] By "grace" he means the commandments of God, and by "friendship" love toward God and neighbour. Let the one who loves God keep them in himself, so that he may not become a reproach before him when he renders to each according to his worth. And the Saviour in the Gospels says to the Jews who had believed in him: "If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples"; and the truth has set us free from the curse of the law. If, then, friendship sets free, and the Saviour sets free, Christ is the truth and the friendship; and so all who have the knowledge of Christ are friends of one another. So it is in this friendship alone that the friends of one person are also friends of others. The one who has been taught about the virtues and practises them guards his own things in a way easy to settle. [Prov 25:12] Put a precious sardius into a golden earring, and the wisdom of the Lord into a mind free from passion and obedient to the Lord. [Prov 25:13] Just as water flowing from snow at harvest helps in the heat and refreshes from the burning, so is God to those who receive knowledge, wisdom and his commands; and as heat melts snow, so the exhortation of a righteous man melts the wickedness of the soul. [Prov 25:14] Just as winds and clouds are most conspicuous to sailors, so that they may not be shipwrecked, so for those in the wisdom of God false knowledge is conspicuous, so that they may not perish with those who boast in it. [Prov 25:15] Just as bones are strength and security of vigour to the body, so the virtues are by nature to the soul; and the soul that is not guarded breaks these bones by sins. Some have called the angry soul "soft", which breaks its own spiritual bones toward God, which by nature say: "Lord, Lord, who is like you?" [Prov 25:19] The way of the evil one is wickedness, and the foot of the lawless is lawlessness; and it will perish on the day of judgment. By "way" the habit, and by "foot" the activity, will be understood. [Prov 25:20] Just as vinegar on a wound that is beginning to fester is harmful, though it is a food for sweetness, so is passion to one who has given himself to virtue and made a beginning. For the passion that falls upon the heart is wickedness; by its absence some are called free from passion. Grief is the corruptible deprivation of corruptible pleasure; but praiseworthy grief is grief at being deprived of the virtues and the knowledge of God. [Prov 25:21–22] Here by bread he means the solid food of the commandments for the soul, and by drink he indicates divine knowledge; by coals of fire the gifts of the all-holy Spirit, which burn and cleanse the wrinkles of human beings; for once the seraph touched Isaiah's lips with a coal of fire; and he, cleansed, "Learn righteousness,"

he cried out to all. For through this kindness and good-doing, cleansing his ruling part, you will make the fire-bearing graces of the Holy Spirit compel him not only to accept you, but you will also make him your imitator in every good work, as one who has become your patron with all who are friends of God. [Prov 25:23] He has called the devil a shameless face, who provokes the soul to wickedness and raises up evil thoughts in the soul, as the north wind raises clouds; and everywhere Solomon calls the mind the tongue. It is not good, then, to respect this face in judgment. [Prov 25:26] Here, then, a righteous mind falls before Satan when it receives an impure thought or a false doctrine; and one would stop up the spring of wisdom by turning away from its knowledge and fouling the outlet of the knowledge of God. The thoughts of the mind are called sometimes falls, sometimes risings, sometimes a seat, sometimes standing, and others walking; some of them are called stumbling blocks; others hard and soft, fragrant and foul-smelling, sweet and bitter, smooth, straight and crooked; and again some are called thorns and thistles, others light and darkness, life and death; others sickness and health; and others again are named falsehood and truth; and Scripture gives many other names to the soul and its thoughts. A few may be mentioned out of many; they are these: mind, soul, heart, man, husband, woman, slave, servant, father, son, spirit, eye, mouth, lips, tongue, throat, belly, bosom, arm, finger, nostril, sheep, kid, shepherd, and many other names of the soul, which cannot now be set out one by one. [Prov 25:28] Here he has called counsel the inclination of the heart toward the better; when someone, without calling on God's help within himself, does something good after deliberation, but begins self-willed and boastful, what he undertakes will not be accomplished but will collapse, because he has not walled himself about with God's help for counsel. [Prov 26:3] Here he calls a horse the person quick to learn wisdom and receptive of righteousness: he whips him with riddles; for the ass a goad: to prick the slow with hard words that instil fear; and for a senseless nation, to be struck with a rod: he determines that senseless servants are to be kept in subjection; for the rod is a symbol of punishment. [Prov 26:6] "From his own feet," and so on. Here he calls the servants feet. The master brings reproach on himself from them when he sends words by a foolish messenger, whether of counsel, or wisdom, or embassy, or alliance, or words of sympathy. For the fool is defeated in everything; and the Lord in the Gospels says: "Do not give what is holy to the dogs, nor throw your pearls before swine."

[Prov 26:7] Take away the evil way of the fool, and put false knowledge far from him. [Prov 26:8] The one who shares knowledge with a fool is like one who fixes a worthless stone in a golden sling, or who stones someone with a precious stone from a sling. [Prov 26:10] If the frenzy of the foolish, by which they stood outside of God, is broken, they become pure again and come to God; for "all flesh will see the salvation of God." One must note here that he has called "flesh of fools" the souls made gross by wickedness; so too the Lord says: "My Spirit shall not remain in these people, because they are flesh." [Prov 26:11] The one who has cast off his wickedness and turned back to it again, he says, is like a dog eating its own vomit; such was Lot's wife, and such was the man to whom the unclean spirit returned. [Prov 26:17] This saying should be used against those who vote some unworthy persons into the priesthood or the clergy. For the righteous judgment and the freedom of the church were not established by any of us; they are not ours but Christ's, for whose sake he judged it right to give himself up to slaughter and to shed his blood for her. So too everyone who desires to have the helm of the church entrusted to him must give himself up, and take hold of the tail of the evil one, and set free those under his wickedness, and bring them to the knowledge of Christ. [Prov 26:20] As fire in wood, so in evil thoughts the temper of the mind toward the passions flourishes and burns; but where there is no double-tempered, that is, double-minded person, but one belongs either to God or to mammon, the one will be quieted by the other: either God's command will conquer, and the evil one's will melt away and make peace with wickedness; or, if he chooses both, he will fall from life and be deprived even of temporary things. [Prov 26:24–26] Here he calls the lips thoughts. The one who does not open the lips of the mind against the evil one, confessing to God the evils that the evil one sowed in him against God, but hides them, covers his heart with grief, thinking in his folly that he has no sin in these, not knowing God's compassion: that to those who thus endure and declare these things to him he gives crowns, as to those who contend each day for him. [Prov 27:7] "Mocks" means "rejoices": for a pure soul, delighting in the knowledge of the Scriptures, rejoices to be filled; but an impure soul surely thinks false knowledge true. [Prov 27:8] Or the place of the heart is virtue and knowledge; estranged from these a person falls into wickedness and ignorance and becomes a slave of sin by doing it; for, inasmuch as he is rational, his place is virtue.

[Prov 27:9] A mind free from passion delights in many things: wisdom, knowledge and hymnody; but a passionate mind is broken in ignorance and wickedness and comes to a great fall hard to heal. [Prov 27:10] Our friend, and the friend of the fathers of old and of those after us, is God; for he himself said: "They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and dug for themselves broken cisterns." Here the brother is Christ, by grace. Do not go into your brother's house unfortunately, without the commandments he has given us as authority to enter his house, that is, the kingdom of heaven; for such was the man who came into the wedding without a wedding garment; bound hand and foot, he was cast out of the wedding. Or here our brother is the choir of the angels; for by the nature of the angels, before his transgression and fall, the devil belonged to the angels and to us. And our friend is God; it is better to live near and close to our nearer and true God and friend than to yield, as to a brother, to the devil, who has made himself far from him, so as to perish with him. Better is the one who is joined to me through true knowledge than the one joined to me only through nature. The house of a person is virtue; if, then, he does not care for it earnestly, he falls away from it in the time of temptation. [Prov 27:18] The fig tree here is the righteousness of God; those who plant it in themselves and give transplants to others will eat its fruit from the hand of the Lord, who alone is righteous and awards righteousness; and ranking with himself those who have kept his righteousness, he distributes the righteousness that also makes angels righteous, in the unchangeable brightness of righteousness. The one who keeps the word of the Lord keeps the Lord in his heart, so as to be inseparable from him; and he will be honoured not only here by the angels, but also in the age to come by the Creator of the angels. [Prov 27:22] That is, you will not turn the fool from his folly by dishonouring him, but by teaching him what dishonour folly brings; for reproof to a person's face makes the sinner more shameless. [Prov 27:27] Of the words of God, some have been written for the life of sons, others for that of servants. [Prov 28:3] If there is a man brave in impieties, there is also one brave in virtues; and if the one brave in impieties slanders the poor, the one brave in virtues comforts the poor. So everyone who urges the poor to join in impieties slanders them before God, that is, accuses them in turn, so that they may perish with him. The violent rain not only destroys the fruit, but also levels the face of the earth that bears the fruit; but there is also a peaceful rain, which makes

the face of the earth glad, and feeds and gives life to the fruits in it; the violent one kills people through the loss of the fruits, but the peaceful one gives life through the fruits. [Prov 28:4] There is a lawless law and a righteous law: the lawless destroys those who obey it; but the righteous not only grants length of days but also brings the kingdom of heaven to those who submit to it, because it is God's. Everyone who loves God loves his law and does what the law requires; and everyone who does the law acquires freedom from passion and the knowledge of God. And if those who love the law set a wall about themselves, the wall here signifies freedom from passion and the knowledge of God, which alone by nature guard the rational nature. [Prov 28:8] If the wealth of the ungodly is wickedness, and wise men will destroy it, it is clear that the righteous and wise destroy wickedness by bringing the impure back to virtue through spiritual teaching. [Prov 28:9] It is not the law that abhors someone's prayer, but God who gave the law, when someone turns aside his ear and does not listen to the law; as Paul too says, "And the Scripture, foreseeing what was to come," instead of "the one who gave the Scripture foresaw what was to come." [Prov 28:13] The one who does not declare to the Lord God, or to a God-loving person, the evils sown in his heart by the evil one will not prosper in the victory over the evil one; but the one who declares them will be loved by God and his angels. And James says: "Confess your sins to one another, so that you may be healed"; and the Psalmist said: "I will declare my lawlessness against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart." [Prov 28:16] The revenues of the evil king are the vices and false doctrines; for those ruled by him bring these to him as revenue. And those who obey the evil one are slandered before God, because they are subject not to God but to his enemy, the devil. Since God hates the devil for his evil works, he in turn, through his works, slanders people before God. But the one who hates to wrong his soul will live the long time of the endless age. [Prov 28:17] Here he calls the devil the man guilty of murder; and the one who stands surety for injustice stands surety for Satan, who promises him that he will repay the fruits of injustice. The lawless nation is the doctrines of the demons, which the instructed son does not obey; and he calls the mind the son. The one who restrains his mind so as not to be cast into the wickedness of the evil nation obtains for his

own soul an incorruptible ornament for the neck from the hand of the Lord. [Prov 28:19] The one who cleanses himself from the passions and works the commandments of God will be filled with the soul-nourishing bread of wisdom and the knowledge of God; but the one who pursues leisure so as not to do the commandments of God will be filled with poverty. [Prov 28:22] Those who are merciful now, having received mercy from God in the age to come and having become angels, will rule over the envious and the rich ungodly. Such a dignity the Lord also promised to give his disciples, to sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The throne is that on which the mind sits, full of spiritual knowledge, leading back those who have strayed from piety; and "judging" here signifies teaching, as in "Open your mouth with the word of God, and judge all things soundly," that is, teach. At the same time one must know this: that the merciful man who has prevailed over the envious will not himself become envious, but will rather make the envious man merciful. [Prov 28:28] If the ungodly put away their being ungodly, they will become righteous; for "destruction" here signifies the removal of ungodliness. So too the Lord, having "destroyed" Matthew from the tax office, gave him righteousness as a gift. For the righteous are multiplied when the ungodly abandon their ungodliness and become righteous with the righteous; and the righteous groan and are pained when they see the ungodly standing in the place of ungodliness and not repenting. [Prov 29:1] Better is the man who reproves in the instruction and admonition of the Lord than the one who with a hard heart urges and promises to share with him the enjoyment of evil; for when he is suddenly inflamed with the appetite of the passions, death, which comes upon all, coming upon them as his fellow workers, there is no healing for their soul. He did not say that when the flame has stopped there will be no healing, but that while he is burning there will be no healing, as one who clearly has the kindling of the passions, wood, grass, straw; since health naturally comes to those who are burned after the cautery. [Prov 29:2] When the righteous are praised by the Lord on the day of judgment, the peoples of their portion will rejoice; but all who are under the rulers and authorities and the world-rulers of this world will surely groan then. [Prov 29:3] Here he calls God the father. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, seeing those who are named after Christ, who follow and imitate him in deed, word and wisdom, rejoices over them. The shepherd is a good mind that has thoughts free of passion. If so, then a kid is a passionate thought, and a sheep a thought free of passion. That is why the Lord sets the kids

on the left and the sheep on the right, calling kids those who have passionate thoughts. So too he called those who have the tares "tares", and those who have the wheat "wheat", naming them from their worst or their best disposition. Such too is what is said by Paul … love. [Prov 29:4] Christ raises up the rational nature through his commandments; but the lawless Antichrist provokes the human race to destruction. [Prov 29:9] In every case judging is called teaching; for the one who judges between two or more about one matter teaches what is just and to abstain from injustice; and in the same way, with respect to virtues and everything good, judging is said to be teaching. And here by "a wise man judges nations" he means Peter, who taught the world faith and piety toward Christ, and Paul, and the other teachers after them; and by the base man, those like Theudas and Judas and the man of Samosata, and those of like mind with them. Of the base man David says: "And they will laugh at him and say: Behold the man who did not make God his helper." [Prov 29:10] The men of blood are the demons, who killed those living in Christ by shedding their blood; but the upright will seek his soul: these are those who wish to do and understand what is to be done and understood. [Prov 29:11] Truly the fool has an unrestrained temper; but this man dispenses it in part, that is, being angry at just matters. This is to be said to the simpler; but to the earnest: he is the one who consumes his temper by long-suffering, little by little. [Prov 29:18] To those who have kept the law the Lord will be an interpreter in the kingdom; but for those who have transgressed there will be no interpreter, but there will be a punisher. [Prov 29:19] That no one is hard by nature is shown by "For even if he understands, he will not obey"; for one hard by nature would never understand anything rightly. I say this because of Pharaoh, who was hardened against Israel and was instructed not by words but by scourges. [Prov 29:21] If living luxuriously causes one to sin, and everyone who commits sin is a slave of sin, then everyone who lives luxuriously is a slave of sin; and on the last day he will be pained not a little over himself. [Prov 29:23] The Lord humbles the insolent, but gives glory to the humble. He calls wickedness insolence; and wickedness brings insolence and the humiliation of destruction on those who practise it, on the day of judgment; but the humble-minded

the glory with which they glorified God in hymns and in keeping his commandments will glorify; for the glory of God is to do his commandments, as the Lord himself says: "Those who glorify me I will glorify"; but wickedness brings insolence on the rational soul. [Prov 29:24] By the thief he means none other than the devil; and the one who shares with him, that is, who keeps part of God's commands and does part of the evil one's, hates his own soul; for the devil, having stolen him little by little and then completely, will sacrifice him to himself. "For the thief," he says, "comes only to steal and sacrifice and destroy." He has called the law an oath: for just as an oath sets God in the soul, so the law brings God into the soul; and just as perjury takes God out of the soul, so lawlessness casts God out of it. If, then, he says, when the law has been set before them and they have heard it, they do not declare their sins, because they fear and are ashamed before people, they will be tripped up to destruction. So David too says: "I said, I will declare my lawlessness against myself to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my heart"; and: "Tell your sins first, so that you may be justified"; and again Solomon says: "He who covers his impiety will not prosper; but he who declares and reproves will be loved." [Prov 29:26] As many of us as keep the commandments serve the angels; for they are our leaders, who took us from the beginning, when the Most High divided the nations and set the boundaries of the nations according to the number of his angels. And by serving the angels who lead us, in the will of the Lord, there will be justice for us from the Lord at the judgment on that day when he will judge the world in righteousness, since the Father has given all judgment to the Son. [Prov 31:10] Courage is the best habit of the rational soul, by which it has prevailed over the opposing enemies. [Prov 31:11] Having conquered the opposing power, we strip it of its spoils by learning the teachings about it, so that, having made its evils plain, not only the simpler may remain unsnared, but also those who were carried off may easily escape from it. [Prov 31:13] The soul spins wool and flax when it exercises itself in the teachings about animate and inanimate things; or examines the teachings about practical and natural things; or draws to itself the contemplation of bodies and incorporeal things by the habit of the practical life. [Prov 31:15] Or else the Sun of righteousness, the bridegroom, finds the soul that rises by night awake, and surely praying not to fall into temptation, saying: "I kept watch and became like a sparrow alone on a housetop." The food of the soul is meditation on the divine words; the works are the virtues;