LIBER EXODUS

• 183A

(RAB.) In the Pentateuch Exodus excels, in which nearly all the mysteries by which the Church is instructed are figuratively expressed. For by the bodily going out of the children of Israel from Egypt our bodily going out [corporalis; read spiritualis, "our spiritual going out"] from spiritual Egypt is signified. By the Red Sea, and the drowning of Pharaoh and of the Egyptians, the mystery of baptism and the destruction of spiritual enemies. By the immolation of the typical lamb, and of the deliverances of the Hebrews, the passion of the true Lamb and our redemption. From heaven manna is given, and water from the rock. This is the bread which came down from heaven (Joan. VI) and the teaching of Christ. On the mountain precepts and judgments are given to the people of God, that we may be made subject to heavenly disciplines. 183BThe tabernacle and its vessels are constructed, worship and sacrifices are commanded, by which the adornment of the Church and spiritual sacrifices are signified. The mystical unction and the fragrant compounds are prepared, by which the sanctification of the spirit and the perfumes of prayer are commended. Hence Paul says: All ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink, etc.

(I Cor. X.) Hence John also: These things were done, he says, that the Scripture might be fulfilled: You shall not break a bone of him (Joan. XIX).

(BED.) Veelle Semoth ( ואלה שמות ) in Hebrew; ἒξοδος in Greek; exodus, exitus or egressus in Latin.

VERS. 5.-- There were therefore all the souls of them that 183Ccame out of the thigh of Jacob, seventy, etc. Seventy souls, that is, seventy disciples, together with Jacob, that is, with Christ, enter into Egypt, that is, the world, being sent, namely, to preach. Otherwise: the seventy souls that entered Egypt are taken mystically in the number of remission, so that to this age, which is figured by Egypt, after so many sins the remission of sins may be granted.

VERS. 6, 7.-- And when he was dead, etc. (ISID. in Exod. ) So, after the true Joseph had tasted death for all, and had destroyed him who had the empire of death, the people of the faithful was multiplied. For unless the grain had died in the earth, it would have remained alone.

(ORIG., hom. 1, in Exod.) If Joseph die in thee, 183Dthat is, if thou take upon thee the mortification of Christ, and mortify thy members to sin, the children of Israel are multiplied in thee, namely, good and spiritual senses. For if the senses of the flesh be mortified, the senses of the soul grow, and as the vices die in thee the virtues are increased, and the earth multiplies thee in good works, which are ministered through the office of the body. The earth had multiplied Paul, who said: But to remain 184Ain the flesh is more needful for your sake. [Vulg. permanere autem in carne, necessarium propter vos, without magis, "to remain in the flesh is needful for you"] For while he remains on earth, that is, in his own flesh, the Church is multiplied by believing, by winning a people for God, and by preaching the Gospel from Jerusalem as far as Illyricum.

VERS. 8-10.-- Meanwhile there arose a new king over Egypt, etc. (ORIG.) Allegorically. This is the devil, who said in his heart: There is no God; who says to his own nation, that is, to the apostate angels: Behold the people of the children of Israel, those, namely, who are able to see God with the mind, is mightier than we: Come, let us oppress them wisely. The devil perceives that the people of Israel is great, and stronger than himself, because he has often engaged them and is often overcome. He knows that Jacob wrestled, and by the help of an angel prevailed against his adversary, and was strong 184Bwith God. He has felt the wrestlings of the other saints also, he has endured spiritual contests: he fears lest at some time war befall, and they consent to his adversaries, and, these being overcome [devicto eo], depart out of his land. It seems to me, from those things which had been shown to the patriarchs and prophets concerning the coming of Christ, that he perceives that One will come who will strip off his principalities and powers, and with confidence triumph over them and afflict them on the wood of the cross.

(RAB. in Exod., tom. II.) In the Chronicles of Eusebius and Jerome we read, etc., as far as and he perished in the Red Sea; there were many Pharaohs.

(ORIG. homil. 1.) Morally. First I wish to enquire who is the king in Egypt who knows Joseph, and who is he that knows him not. For while he was reigning who knew Joseph, the children of Israel are not said to be 184Cafflicted, nor consumed in clay and brick; nor were their males slain and their females kept alive; but only when he began to reign who had not known Joseph. If the Lord rules us, and the sense of our mind or soul is enlightened by God, remembering that Christ has risen from the dead, then in Egypt, that is, in our flesh, our spirit holds the kingdom with justice, and does not consume the children of Israel, that is, the rational senses or the virtues, in clay and brick, nor wear them away with earthly cares. If our sense should lose the memory of these things, and should not know Christ, then the wisdom of the flesh, which is an enemy to God, succeeds to the kingdom; it addresses its own nation, that is, the bodily pleasures, and, the leaders of the vices being called to council, deliberates against the children of Israel, how they may be circumvented, oppressed 184Dwith clay, and afflicted with brick; how the Egyptians may expose the males, rear the females, and build cities and fortified cities. Nor is it to be thought that the divine books relate the deeds of the Egyptians without cause; but the things that were written were written for our instruction (Rom. XV), so that thou who hearest these things, if perchance thou hast been baptized and numbered among the children of Israel, and hast received the Lord as king within thee, and after this hast willed to turn aside and to do the works 185Aof the world, to perform the doings of earth and to fulfil the offices of clay: know that there has arisen in thee another king, who knows not Joseph, the king of Egypt; he himself compels thee to his own works, to labour at brick and clay; he himself, with taskmasters and drivers set over thee, drives thee with scourges to earthly works, that thou mayest build him cities; he makes thee run about through the world and, out of covetousness, throw into confusion the elements of sea and of land; to beat upon the court with lawsuits and to weary thy kinsmen with quarrels over a scanty clod of earth; to lie in wait against chastity, to deceive innocence, to commit things foul at home, cruel abroad, and shameful within the conscience: in things of this kind know that thou art soldiering for the king of Egypt, which is to be driven by the spirit of this world.

VERS. 11-13.-- He set therefore over them, etc. (ORIG.) The devil, having called together his own nation, desires to oppress 185Bthe rational sense, which is now figuratively called Israel: he sets over them masters of works, who may compel them to learn the works of the flesh, according to that of Psalm CV: They were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works. He teaches them to build cities for Pharaoh: Phithom, which signifies the mouth of failing, or of the abyss; and Ramesses, which is the commotion of the moth, and On, that is, Heliopolis, which is called the city of the sun. The mouth fails when it speaks a lie apart from truth and from proofs. He was a liar from the beginning, and therefore he wills such cities to be built for himself: the mouth of the abyss, because the abyss of perdition is his place; his other city is the commotion of the moth: for he who follows him lays up treasure there where the moth destroys, and thieves dig through and steal (Matth. VI). He builds also the City of the Sun, under a false name transfiguring himself 185Cinto an angel of light. In these he occupies the minds which were made to see God. Yet he foresees that wars threaten him and the ripe destruction of his nation; therefore he says, The nation of Israel prevails over us, would that it might also perceive that we prevail over it: that is to say, that I may not receive the thoughts and the evil concupiscences which he sends in, but may repel the fiery darts with the shield of faith, and in all things that he shall suggest may say: Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written: Thou shalt adore the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve (Matth. IV). [Vulg. Vade Satana, without retro] But this also which he says, Lest perchance war befall us, and these consent with our adversaries — out of the prophetic voices he foresees that war will come upon him, and that he will be forsaken by the children of Israel, and that they will consent to his adversary and be added to 185Dthe Lord. This is what Jeremias says (cap. XVII). The partridge has cried out, she has gathered what she did not bring forth, she has made riches, and not in judgment: in the midst of his days they shall forsake him, and in his last days he shall be a fool. [Vulg. Perdix fovit quae non peperit… in dimidio dierum suorum derelinquet eas, et in novissimo suo erit insipiens, "The partridge hath hatched what she did not bring forth… in the midst of her days she shall leave them, and in her latter end she shall be foolish"] He understands therefore that he himself is the partridge who gathered what she did not bring forth; and that those whom he gathered without judgment will forsake him and will follow Christ, who begot them. He himself will remain a fool, when the whole creation shall have fled for refuge to its Maker and Parent; therefore he is indignant, saying: Lest they that fight against us go forth out of our land. He does not wish us to go out of his land, that we may always bear the image of the earthly: lest, having left him, we flee to him who has prepared the kingdom of heaven, leaving the image of the earthly and taking up the image of the heavenly. Therefore he appoints masters of works, who may teach 186Ahis arts and make us craftsmen of malice. And because there are many masters of malice whom Pharaoh has set over us, who command, exact, and extort earthly works: therefore, when Christ came, he made other teachers fighting against them, who, subjecting all their principalities and powers and virtues, might defend the children of Israel from violence, and might teach them Israelite works, and to see God with the mind; to leave the works of Pharaoh, to go out of the land of Egypt, to put off Egyptian manners and the whole old man with his deeds, and to put on the new, who is created according to God.

(ISID.) Israel signifies the Christian people, Pharaoh the devil: who lays upon them the most grievous yoke of clay and brick, that is, the servitude of earthly and miry work; with straw mingled in, that is, with light and irrational 186Bdeeds: so that, all being oppressed by the burden of sins, there may be none to destroy or to overcome his kingdom.

VERS. 15.-- And the king of Egypt spoke to the midwives, etc. (ORIG., hom. 2.) These things we detect not only in the world, which is spiritually called Egypt, but in each one of us: the prince of this world does not wish the males to be kept alive, but the females; by the female the flesh and the affection of the flesh is designated; but the man is the rational sense, and the intellectual spirit, which can lay hold of heavenly things, understand God, and seek the things that are above. Him the prince of Egypt hates and desires to slay; but he desires that the things which are of the flesh should live, and that those which pertain to bodily matter should not only live but be increased and cultivated: for he wills that all should savour of carnal things, should seek things temporal and those that are upon the earth; that no one 186Cshould lift up his eyes to heaven; that no one should ask whence he came hither; that no one should remember paradise his fatherland. When therefore thou shalt see men leading their life in pleasures, floating in luxury, giving their labour to banquets and unchastities, know that in these the king of Egypt slays the males and keeps the females alive. But if thou see one of a thousand turned to God, lifting his eyes upward, seeking things eternal, hating delights and luxury, loving continence: him, as a male, Pharaoh desires to slay, persecutes, and assails with a thousand engines; such men he hates, he does not suffer them to live in Egypt. Hence it is that in this world the servants of God are held in contempt, exposed to insults; hence hatreds and persecutions are stirred up against them.

To the midwives. (ORIG., ibid.) He strives also to corrupt the midwives. Of whom one was called Sephora, 186Dthat is, sparrow; the other Phua, namely, ruddy or modest; through these he seeks that the males be slain and the females kept alive: but the midwives feared God, and did not do as he had commanded them. The midwives have taught us, before our time, to hold a certain form of rational instruction. For midwives are physicians, and they cherish both males and females at their birth. Instruction therefore is the common rational knowledge, and it reaches almost every understanding, it instructs all and cherishes all. If anyone in it be of manly spirit, one who would seek heavenly things and follow after things divine, he would come, as one healed and made strong, the readier through these instructions to the understanding of things divine. For one of them is, as it were, a sparrow, which teaches loftier things and calls upward on the wings of rational teaching; 187Athe other, ruddy or modest, is moral, it composes manners, teaches modesty and honourableness. To me, however (since Scripture says of them that they feared God, and did not act according to the precept of the king of Egypt ), they seem to preserve the figure of both Testaments, and Sephora, who is interpreted sparrow, to suit the law, which is spiritual; but Phua, who is ruddy or modest, to indicate the Gospels, which are red with the blood of Christ and glow throughout the whole world with the gore of the passion. By these, therefore, the souls that are born in the Church are tended as by midwives, because from the Scriptures all the medicines of instruction are supplied. Yet Pharaoh attempts through these to slay the males, when he suggests heresies and depraved doctrines to those who are studious in the divine Scriptures. But the foundation of God stands 187Bunmoved. For the midwives fear God, that is, they teach the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom. Thus what follows is the more fittingly adapted, that because the midwives feared God, they made themselves houses. Which according to the letter has no consequence: for a house is not made for the reason that God is feared. But if thou see how the Scriptures of the New and the Old Testament, teaching the fear of God, make houses for the Church, and fill the whole world with houses of prayer, it will seem reasonably written. Thus therefore these midwives, because they fear God, that is, teach the fear of God, do not do the precept of the king of Egypt, but keep the males alive; nor yet is it said that they obeyed by keeping the females alive. But I say confidently, they do not keep the females alive. For neither are vices nor 187Cluxury taught in the Church, nor are sins nourished, which is what Pharaoh wishes when he bids the females be kept alive; but virtue alone is cultivated and nourished. But let us refer these things to each single person. If thou fearest God, thou wilt not do the precept of the king of Egypt: for he commands that thou live in delights and covet things present; thou, if thou fearest God and dost exhibit the office of a midwife, if thou desirest to profit thine own soul, keepest the males alive, that is, thou dost heal and cherish the inner man who is in thee, and through good acts and understandings dost gain eternal life.

VERS. 16-21.-- If it be a male, etc. (ISID.) Allegorically. Pharaoh bids the males be killed, the females live: so the devil, lest the strength of faith prevail, the virtues being slain, wills the vices to live, and strives to kill the strong and manly senses of the mind by which we savour of things divine, that is, 187Dreason, prudence, constancy, innocence, and faith; and that which is womanish, weak, frail and prone to vices he desires to survive, that is, ambition, violence, lust, wrathfulness, and things like these, which are the figure of women.

VERS. 19.-- Who answered, etc. (AUG. in Gen., tom. III.) It is asked whether such lies are approved by divine authority, etc., as far as but those whose conversation is already in heaven, I do not think ought to shape their measure of speech concerning truth and falsehood by the example of the midwives.

(GREG., Moral., lib. XXXVIII, cap. 2, 3.) A lie is above all things to be guarded against, etc., as far as for by sparing 188Athey endeavoured to cover the life of the infants, by lying, their own.

(AUG., in lib. de Locutionibus in Exod., tom. III.) And because the midwives feared God, etc., as far as so that what is consequently set forth concerning the wages to be fixed by Laban may seem to pertain to the making of that very house.

VERS. 22.-- Pharaoh therefore commanded, etc. (ORIG., homil. 2.) The Egyptians, whom Pharaoh here commanded to keep only the females alive, hated the males. For they hated the virtues, they nourished the vices. Now also the Egyptians lie in wait, if a male be born to the Hebrews, that they may slay him at once, unless they beware, keep watch, and hide him. Scripture relates that someone of the tribe of Levi begot a male, and saw that the infant was goodly 188Band hid him. Let us not, therefore, do our justice before men, but with the door shut let us pray to our Father in secret, and let not the left hand know what the right hand does, lest it be snatched away by the Egyptians, be set upon, be drowned in the waves. If I give alms because it is the work of God, I beget a male; but if I seek praise from men, and do not hide it, it is seized by the Egyptians, it is plunged into the river, and with so much labour and so much zeal I have begotten a male for the Egyptians.

Whatsoever is of the female (HIERON., in Ecclesiasten., c. 3). Wherever in the Scriptures a woman is read of, and the frailer sex, let us transfer it to the understanding of matter. Whence Pharaoh too does not wish males to be born, but females, who are near to matter; and, on the contrary, none of the saints is related, save very rarely, to have begotten daughters. And 188CSalphaat alone, who died in his sins, begot all daughters: Jacob is the father of one daughter, and on her account is brought into peril.

VERS. 1-5.-- He went out, etc. (RAB. in Exod., tom. II.) Hence Josephus says: But Amram, fearing lest, being seized, he should fall under the king's anger, etc., as far as or to lead out, as Moses was led out of the river.

Alleg. The parents of Moses, whose faith and works the natural law adorned (ID., ibid.), as far as she herself also is taught to blush to worship idols.

A man of the house, etc. (DIOD.) Not without design is the father of Moses passed over: for Christ also, whose type Moses bore, is without a father.

188DVERS. 2.-- And seeing, etc. (CHRYSOST., hom. 54 in Act. apost.). It is wonderful that not through those things which seem to be of safety, but plainly through their contraries, all things are done for us. Pharaoh ordered the boys to be cast into the river; unless the boys had been cast in, Moses would not have been saved: when he was being kept safe, he was not in honour; when he was exposed, then he was made to be in honour. A Jew threatened him, saying: Wilt thou kill me? and this profited him, that he might philosophize in solitude and live in safety.

(ORIG., hom. 2.) Allegorically. Pharaoh's daughter is the Church gathered from the Gentiles, to whom it is said by the prophet: Forget thy people, and thy father's house, for the king hath desired thy beauty (Psal. XLIV). [Vulg. Et concupiscet rex decorem tuum, "And the king shall desire thy comeliness"] 189AThis, therefore, is she who went out of her father's house and came to the waters, that she might be washed from the sins which she had contracted in her father's house: and at once she took on bowels of mercy, and had pity on the infant; and she, coming to the marsh, found Moses lying exposed by his own, and caused him to be nursed. He is nursed among his own, there he passes his infancy; being made stronger, he is brought to her and is adopted as a son. Moses signifies the law. The Church, therefore, coming to the waters of baptism, received the law shut up within the tibin and smeared with bitumen. Now the tibin is a kind of covering woven out of papyrus, and formed of rods or of the bark of trees. The law therefore lay shut up within coverings of this sort, smeared with pitch and bitumen, that is, with the base and foul understandings of the Jews; it lay soiled and forgotten until the Church should come from the Gentiles and take it up 189Bout of the miry and marshy places into the halls of wisdom and the royal roofs. Yet it passes its infancy among its own: for among those who do not understand it spiritually it is little, and an infant, and has the food of sucklings; when it comes to the Church, Moses is stronger and more robust; for the veil of the letter being removed, perfect food is found in the reading of him. The wages of the nursing she receives from Pharaoh's daughter, with whom the law is born and nursed. But what is it that the Synagogue receives from the Church? I think it is that which Moses says: I will lead you into emulation by that which is not a nation: by a foolish nation I will stir you up to wrath. [Vulg. Ego ad aemulationem vos adducam in non gentem : in gentem insipientem, in iram vos mittam, "I will bring you to emulation… I will send you into wrath"] The Synagogue therefore receives this wage from the Church, that it should no longer worship idols: for seeing the Gentiles so turned to God that they no longer know idols, it blushes any longer 189Cto worship idols. We also, if we have had Pharaoh for a father, if he begot us in evil works, when we shall have come to the waters, let us take up the law of God: let not the letters be foul to us as an obscure covering; let us eat those things of it which are small and of milk; let us take up those which are perfect, and let us store them within the royal roofs of the heart. We have a great and strong Moses: let us think nothing small of him, nothing base, but all magnificent, all excellent, all elegant: for all is great that is spiritual and of a lofty understanding.

VERS. 6-8.-- And seeing in it a little one, etc. (THEOD.) Mystically. This above all could betray him to her, for the Egyptians had not yet admitted such a mystery, although in a later time they observed the law of circumcision 189Din imitation of the Hebrews. Whence Jeremias: I will consider all that cut round the foreskin, the Egyptians and the sons of Edom. (Jer. IX) [Vulg. visitabo super omnem qui circumcisum habet praeputium, super Aegyptum, et super Juda, et super Edom, "I will visit upon everyone that hath the foreskin circumcised, upon Egypt, and upon Juda, and upon Edom"]

(ISID.) Moses, that is, Christ, is found by the faithful at the river of the laver and the water of baptism, etc., as far as and receiving him with religious observance they guard him.

VERS. 9-11.-- And when he was grown she delivered him, etc. (RAB.) Josephus relates that Pharaoh's daughter brought Moses, when grown, to her father, who set his own crown upon him, which Moses at once threw down, because he saw a graven image sculptured there. Whence the priest who was present wished to kill him, saying that Egypt was to be overthrown by him, as he had 190Areceived from the oracle of the demons. But Pharaoh's daughter delivered him. And when he was of full age, he was sent by Pharaoh against the Ethiopians. And since he knew that he would journey through deserts full of serpents, he took ibises, that is, Egyptian storks, and, having measured out his camp, brought them forward, that they might devour the serpents and put them to flight: and thus the army passed the night in safety. When therefore he had come to the city which he was to storm, the queen of the Ethiopians fell in love with him, and according to the agreement delivered the city to him and married him: hence it is that Aaron and Mary quarrelled against Moses on account of his Ethiopian wife.

VERS. 12.-- And when he had looked about this way and that. (Aug. Quaest. in Exod. ) Concerning this deed of Moses we have disputed sufficiently in that work which we wrote concerning the life of the patriarchs 190Bagainst Faustus: was the natural disposition in him praiseworthy, by which he committed this sin, as rich land is praised, before useful seeds are sown, by a certain wildness of useless herbs: or is the deed itself to be justified? Which does not seem so, because he as yet bore no lawful power, neither received from God nor ordained by human society: and yet, as Stephen says in the Acts of the Apostles, he thought his brethren understood that by him God would give them salvation; so that by this testimony Moses may seem to have been able to dare this, having been already divinely admonished (which Scripture in that place passes over in silence).

(ISID.) Allegorically. Moses, that is, Christ, slew the Egyptian, that is, the devil, who is injurious to us in this pilgrimage, by defending us, and in the sand 190Cburied him slain. For he lies hidden in those who have no stable foundation. But he builds the Church upon a rock, and likens those who hear his word and do it to a prudent man, who built his house upon the firm rock. But others he likens to a fool, who builds upon the sand.

VERS. 13.-- And going out the next day, etc. In this Moses bore the figure of Christ, who as the corner stone strove to make peace in himself between the discord of the two peoples. He who did the injury and despised the reconciler is the Jewish people, which rejected the preaching of Christ reconciling, and persisted an enemy of the believing people. Whence John IX: Be thou his disciple, we are the disciples of Moses.

VERS. 14-21.-- Moses feared, etc. (AUG.) If thus 190Dthis word has been divulged. Two things are to be noted in this expression: namely, that the sentence hangs and is so left; and then, that he put the word for the deed.

VERS. 22.-- Who bore, etc. Allegorically. Christ joined to himself the Church from the Gentiles, which by the gift of the sevenfold Spirit is one in the catholic faith. Whence: One is my dove; which bears a son who is called a stranger, and another who is God's help: for the saints are strangers upon the earth, but they never lack the help of God.

VERS. 23-25.-- But after much time, etc After Moses had taken a wife in the land of Madian, the king of Egypt died: because when Christ converted the nations throughout the world 191Ato the faith, the principality of the devil was destroyed.

Groaning. Unless the king of Egypt die in thee, thou dost not know thyself to be oppressed by the servitude of Egypt, and by the works of clay and brick; nor dost thou groan in heart, nor cry out to the Lord that he may free thee.

VERS. 2, 3.-- And there appeared to him. (ISID.) Allegorically. There was a flame in the bramble, and it was not burnt up. The bramble, the thorns of the sins of the Jews: the flame in the bramble, the word of God, that is, the law given to that people. But the flame does not burn up the bramble, because the law that was given does not consume their sins. Others understand by the flaming bramble the Church, which is set aflame by persecutions, and which, 191Bwhen the Lord speaks to her, is not burnt up. That the Lord appeared to Moses in the bramble shows that he appears to the faithful in the Church, and nowhere else. The Hebrews say that God appeared to Moses in a bramble for this reason, that the Jews might not be able to carve themselves an idol out of it. For God always cuts away the occasion of idolatry.

(GREG. lib. XXII Moral., cap. 20.) Moses, mingled with the Egyptians, was as it were awake to the world, and therefore did not hear the voice of the Lord: but when the Egyptian had been slain, after he fled into the desert, while he dwelt there forty years, he fell asleep to earthly tumults, and therefore he perceived the divine voice. For when the mind is lulled from outward things, the word of God penetrates more truly. For the throng of earthly thoughts, clamouring about it, closes the ear of the heart. For a man does not perfectly suffice for both things 191Cwhen he is divided, because if he opens his hearing outwardly, he grows deaf within.

VERS. 4.-- And the Lord seeing, etc. (GREG., praef. in Moral., c. 2.) The angel who is described as having appeared to Moses is recorded now as the Lord, now as an angel: an angel, because by speaking outwardly he serves; the Lord, because presiding inwardly he bestows the efficacy of speaking. For when he who speaks is governed from within, he is recorded both as an angel through his service, and as the Lord through his inspiration.

He called him out of the midst, etc. (GREG. lib. XXVIII Moral., c. 5.) Often God speaks through angels to earthly and to heavenly substances at once: as here, when he joined the fire and the bramble, and united one thing above and another below. Which is then only done, when something 191Dgreat is signified by the conjunction. For in addressing Moses through the kindled bramble, he showed that he would become a teacher of the people, one who should both receive the flame of the law and not shun the thorn of sin: so that from that people should come forth one who by the fire of the Godhead should take the sins of our flesh as it were the thorn of the bramble, and should preserve the substance of his humanity unconsumed in that very flame of the Godhead.

VERS. 5-7.-- Loose thy shoe, etc. (THEOD.) For two reasons he bids him loose his shoes: first, that he may render him more and more religious and reverent, so that he may receive his commands with trembling; then also he is taught by what reason the priests should minister in the tabernacle of God: for they discharged the priestly office with bare feet.

192A(ISID.) Because, namely, no one can worthily stand, or see God, unless he lay aside all things earthly and mortal. Otherwise, it was the custom of the ancients that if a bridegroom repudiated his bride, in sign of the repudiation he should be unshod. Therefore Moses is bidden to be unshod, and not to approach shod, as a bridegroom, to the Church, which is signified in the bramble; for this is to be reserved for Christ, who is the true bridegroom. Of whom John says: « Whose shoe's latchet I am not worthy to loose (Joan. I).

VERS. 6.-- I am the God, etc. (HILAR. lib. IV de Trinitate.) We must not speak of God otherwise than as he himself has spoken of himself to our understanding. It is an angel of God who appeared in the fire out of the bramble: and out of the bramble in the fire God speaks; thou hast the dispensation 192Bin the angel, because in the angel it is an office, not a nature; thou hast God in the name of nature, because the angel of God is God.

VERS. 7.-- I have seen the affliction, etc. (GREG., Moral. ) For minds scattered abroad it is hard for each to return to himself: because evil ways hold those once taken so delightfully, in proportion as what has pleased is not lawful. Because, when the gift of discipline does not stand in the way, no penalty of retribution is foreseen to terrify. But with the eyes of the heart closed the soul is cast headlong, and penetrates temporal evils the more securely, the more harshly it despairs of eternal goods. But this wickedness of the reprobate separates the life of the elect, as grains from chaff, and while it afflicts, it sets free: because while it presses violently, it compels men to hasten to things above; which in the Israelite 192Cpeople, when Moses called and Pharaoh raged, is signified. For Moses was sent to call, when Pharaoh pressed with hard works, so that the one by calling might draw, the other by raging might drive, that the people, basely fixed in servitude, might be moved either by being called or by being driven; this is done daily while, the heavenly rewards being preached, the reprobate are permitted to rage against the elect: so that those whom Egypt, that is, the present life, has oppressed by flattering, it may help by pressing; so that while God calls, torment may drive.

VERS. 8-13.-- And I will bring out of the land, etc. (GREG., homil. 32.) To a rude people something had to be promised concerning the present life, that it might be able to be more sturdily strengthened in the future. For if it did not receive small things, it would not believe great ones. God therefore by bestowing earthly things persuades to heavenly things also, 192Dso that receiving what it saw, it might hope for what it did not see.

Into a good and spacious land, in a land which flows with milk, [Vulg. in terram quae fluit lacte et melle, accusative in terram, "into a land which floweth with milk and honey"] etc. (Ibid.) Present prosperity is sometimes given that it may call to a better life, sometimes that it may more fully condemn for ever. Hence to the Israelites the land of Chanaan is promised, that they may at some time be called to hope for things eternal: because a rude people would not believe promises, unless it received something near at hand from the promiser. Not therefore by hope alone is it drawn to things, but sometimes by things to hope. Whence Psalm CIV: And he gave them the regions of the nations, and they possessed the labours of the peoples, that they might keep his justifications and seek after the law.

193AVERS. 14-16.-- He who is hath sent me to you, etc. Moses is sent to punish Pharaoh and at last to slay him: the law was sent to destroy the devil.

Jerome, writing to Marcella concerning the ten names of God, puts in the sixth place the name ehieh ( אהיה ), which is read in Exodus: He who is hath sent me to you. For God alone, who has no beginning, holds the name of true essence: which was spoken by an angel to Moses when he asked his name, because in comparison with him who truly is, because he is unchangeable, the things that are changeable are as though they were not; for what is said to have been, is not: and what is said will be, is not yet. But God only is, who knows not to have been, or to be about to be. And the Father alone with the Son and the Holy Spirit 193Btruly is. Compared with whose essence, our being is not; whence also we say: God lives, because the divine essence lives by a life which death does not possess.

VERS. 17-20.-- To a land flowing with milk and honey, etc. (AUG., Quaest. 4 in Exod.) Ought we to take this spiritually, because according to propriety this was not the land which was given to the Hebrews? Or is it a manner of speech by which the richness and sweetness of the land is praised?

VERS. 21.-- You shall not go out, etc. (AUG., ibid.) That the Lord commanded the Hebrews to take from the Egyptians vessels of silver and of gold, and raiment, and added, and you shall make spoil of them, [Vulg. et spoliabitis Aegyptum, "and you shall spoil Egypt"] the judgment of this command cannot be unjust. For it is a command of God, concerning which there was no judging, but obeying. For he himself 193Cknows how justly he commanded; it belongs to the servant to do obediently what he commanded.

VERS. 22.-- Vessels of silver. We ask silver and gold from the Egyptians, whereof to fashion a tabernacle for God, when we read the poets and the philosophers, that we may expound the divine Scripture more wisely and more eloquently.

VERS. 2-5.-- What is that which, etc. (GREG.) Moses is the Jewish people; the rod, the power of the Godhead; the serpent, Christ's mortality: for since death came by a serpent, by a serpent mortality is signified. Or because it is written in Matthew X: Be ye prudent as serpents; 193Dand because the highest prudence, that is, the wisdom of God, was made flesh, his mortality is rightly figured in the serpent. Whence John IV: As Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of man be lifted up. Moses held the rod, because the Jewish people, before the coming of the Redeemer, trusted in the power of God; he cast it upon the ground, because through the patriarchs and prophets it announced that God was to be made flesh; the rod is turned into a snake, because Christ, remaining God in himself, was made mortal in man. But Moses also, beholding the snake, was afraid and fled, because the Jewish people, when it saw Christ mortal, was terrified to believe him God. He is bidden to hold its tail, because the people which now refuses to believe will gather itself to the faith in the uttermost part of the Lord's body, that is, in the later time of the Church, 194Anamely at the end of the world; holding the tail of the snake, because him whom it had before despised as mortal, it will confess in the last part of the Church to be its own Redeemer. Presently the serpent returns into a rod, because as soon as the Jewish people shall have believed in Christ, he will presently appear unto judgment in the power of his Godhead: so that now the serpent is a rod, because he who on earth was a man despised will, coming from heaven, be seen as God above the angels.

(ISID.) The serpent persuaded man to death. Death therefore comes from the serpent; the rod in the serpent is Christ in death. Moses was afraid and fled: for when Christ was dead, the disciples were afraid, falling back from the hope in which they had been. He took hold of the tail, that is, of the hinder parts, and it was made a rod: because, first slain, afterwards, when all was accomplished, 194Bhe returned by rising again to that which he had been, where, death being swallowed up by life, nothing of the serpent appeared in him. Or the tail of the serpent is the end of the world, because thus the mortality of the Church is rolled onward through slippery times; some go, others come, by death, as it were by the serpent, through whom death was sown: but at the end of the world, as at the tail, we return to the hand of God, and being laid hold of we shall be restored; and when the last enemy, death, has been destroyed, we who rise again shall be at the right hand of God a rod of the kingdom.

VERS. 6, 8.-- . . . Put forth thy hand, etc. (PROCOP.) Some assert that that portent came to pass in order to show that the law is not laid down for the just man. Although afterwards he ratifies laws by what manner the disease of leprosy is to be examined and the unclean man declared, yet very many 194Claws are so delivered as though they were given to fools and to little children. So far does God accommodate himself to our weakness!

(ISID.) The hand is white, that is, unclean, for whiteness in the skin is leprosy, not fairness. For the very inheritance of God, that is, the people, being sent forth from him, was made unclean. Whence Psalm LXXIII: Why turnest thou away thy hand and thy right hand, etc. But the hand was called back into the bosom, and returned to its own colour: so the Jewish people, estranged from the bosom of God, remained unclean without; but being called back, it will return to its former colour when it shall have acknowledged the Saviour. For blindness in part hath happened in Israel (Rom. XI).

VERS. 9, 10.-- Take water, etc. (ISID.) The water signifies the people; whence Apocalypse XVII: The waters which thou sawest are peoples and nations. The people therefore is turned into 194Dblood, that is, into faith in the blood of Christ.

VERS. 10.-- I beseech thee, Lord, etc. (AUG. Quaest. in Exod. ) As to what Moses says to the Lord: I pray thee, Lord, I am not eloquent since yesterday nor since the day before, nor since thou hast begun to speak to thy servant, it is understood that he could believe himself to be made eloquent suddenly by the will of God, when he says: nor since thou hast begun to speak to thy servant, as though showing that it could have come to pass that one who had not been eloquent before yesterday and the day before should suddenly be made so from the time when the Lord began to speak with him.

(ORIG. homil. 3 in Exod.) While Moses was in Egypt, and was being instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, he was not of a slender voice, nor slow of tongue, nor did he declare 195Ahimself uneloquent. For he was, as regards the Egyptians, of a sonorous voice and of incomparable eloquence. But when he heard the voice of God and received the utterances of the Lord, he perceives his voice to be slender and thin and slow, and his tongue hindered, and he pronounces himself dumb, when he begins to know the true Word, which was in the beginning with God (Joan. I): for though an untaught man be compared with dumb animals, he will seem eloquent; but if with the learned and the eloquent, foolish and dumb. But if anyone should regard the word of God and the divine wisdom, weighing it far more highly than it is weighed among us, before God he will profess himself a dumb animal. Whence Psalm LXXII: As a beast of burden was I driven before thee. [Vulg. Ps 72:23 ut jumentum factus sum apud te, "as a beast of burden was I made before thee"] Since therefore he advanced so far in understanding as to know himself, which is a great part of wisdom, 195Bthe divine condescension rewarded him, saying: I will open thy mouth, etc. Blessed are they whose mouth God opens that they may speak. Whence Psalm LXXX: Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it. Likewise Paul says to the Ephesians VI: That speech may be given me in the opening of my mouth. The mouth, then, of those who speak true things God opens; the mouth of those who speak a lie, false witness, buffooneries, filthiness, and of whisperers too and detractors, and of those who speak idle things, the devil opens. Of Judas it is related in John XIII, that Satan entered into him, and put it into his heart to betray him. His mouth therefore he opened, that he might speak with the Pharisees how he might betray him for money received. Now it is no small grace to discern the mouth which God opens and that which the devil opens. God also opens the ears 195Cof the saints to hear the divine words; whence: The Lord will open my ear. He opens the eyes, as he opened the eyes of Agar, and she saw a well of living water; whence Eliseus: Open, Lord, the eyes of thy servant, that he may see, for there are more with us (IV Reg. VI). But the ear which is opened by the instruction of the Lord is sometimes open, sometimes shut; whence: Thou shalt not receive a vain hearing (Eccli. XLV). If vain, profane, filthy things are spoken, he who knows the instruction of the Lord shuts his ear and says: But I was as one dumb, who opened not his mouth, and as one deaf I heard not (Psal. XXXVII). But if the things spoken pertain to the profit of the soul, if the discourse is of God, if it teaches morals, invites to virtues, cuts away vices, let the ears lie open and the whole door of the soul. And it is to be noted that the law used the greatest moderation 195Din saying: Thou shalt not receive a vain hearing; it did not say, Thou shalt not hear; but, Thou shalt not receive. For we often hear vain things: for Marcion and Valentinus, and all who dispute against the Creator, speak vain things; yet we frequently hear them that we may contradict them, but we do not receive them, because the devil opens their mouth. May the Lord vouchsafe to open our mouth, that we may be able to refute the gainsayer, and to stop the mouth which the devil opens.

VERS. 11.-- Who made the mouth of man? etc. (AUG., Quaest. 8.) There are those who calumniate God, or rather the Scripture of the Old Testament, because God said that he made the dumb. What then do they say of Christ, who says openly in John X: I am come, that they who see not may see; 196Aand they who see may be made blind. And who, save one who does not know, would believe that anything can befall a man in respect of bodily defects which God does not will? But that he wills the whole justly no one doubts.

VERS. 12, 13.-- Go therefore, etc. (AUG.) Allegorically. As to what the Lord says to Moses: But now go thou, and I will open thy mouth and instruct thee what thou art to speak, [Vulg. Ex 4:12 Perge igitur, et ego ero in ore tuo: doceboque te quid loquaris, "Go therefore, and I will be in thy mouth, and I will teach thee what thou shalt speak"] it appears that not only the instruction of the mouth, but the very opening of it also, belongs to the grace of God. For he did not say, Open thy mouth, and I will instruct thee; but he promises both, I will open, and I will instruct. And in Psalm LXXX: Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it up. Where he signifies in man the will of receiving what God gives to him that wills, so that to the beginning of the will belongs, Open wide thy mouth, but to the grace of God, 196Band I will fill it.

VERS. 14.-- The Lord being angry with Moses, said, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 10 in Exod.) He seems, as to one distrusting, not to have given the fullest faculty, etc., as far as whose figure Moses bears as it were in the midst between God and Aaron, and Aaron between Moses and the people.

VERS. 15-18.-- And I will be in thy mouth and in his mouth, etc. (ORIG.) Not only to Moses is it promised that his mouth shall be opened by the Lord, but to Aaron also. For it is said: I will open thy mouth and his mouth, and I will instruct you what ye are to do.

VERS. 19.-- The Lord therefore said, etc. (AUG., Locut. in Gen., tom. III.) Now after many days the king of Egypt died. And the Lord said to Moses in 196CMadian: Go, proceed into Egypt, [Vulg. Ex 4:19 Vade, et revertere in Aegyptum, "Go, and return into Egypt"] etc. Many kinds of expression are to be noted in these words. For first he says: Go, proceed into Egypt, as though one were not enough; then, they are all dead who sought thy life, whereas the Scripture had said that only the king of Egypt was dead: of whom alone it had before been said that he sought to kill Moses. Or did he himself die last after the other enemies? And if it is so, it is not a manner of speech, but the sense.

VERS. 20.-- Moses therefore took, etc. (AUG., Quaest. 12 in Exod.) As to what is said, that Moses set his wife and his little ones upon a beast, that he might go into Egypt, but that afterwards Jethro his father-in-law met him there with them, when he had led the people out of Egypt: it is to be understood that, after that slaying which was to come 196Dfrom the angel, the wife of Moses or of the child returned with the little ones. For some have thought that the angel terrified him for this cause, lest the female sex should accompany him to the hindrance of the ministry divinely laid upon him.

VERS. 21-23.-- I will harden his heart. (AUG., Serm. 88.) What is, I will harden his heart, save that, when my grace shall have been absent, his own wickedness hardens him? Just as, whenever water is bound fast by exceeding cold, it is loosed when the heat of the sun comes upon it, and when the sun departs it is hardened again: so by the cold of sins the charity of many grows cold, and they are hardened as it were into ice; and when the warmth of the divine mercy shall have come upon them, they are loosed. This we recognize in Pharao, who, as often as 197Athe scourges were removed from him, hardened himself and raised himself up against God; as often as he was afflicted, he made supplication. There is not therefore iniquity in God. Whence it was not so much the power as the patience of God that made Pharao to be hardened. Which thing we too are wont to practise with our home-born servants, whom, when they sin frequently, we indulge, saying: I have made thee such as thou art, I by sparing thee have nourished thy insolence and thy negligence.

VERS. 24.-- The Lord met him, etc. (AUG., Quaest. 11 in Exod.) Another reading: And it came to pass on the way at the resting-place, an angel met him, and sought to kill him: and Sephora, taking a pebble, circumcised the foreskin of her son, and fell down at his feet and said: The blood of the circumcision of my child hath stood, and he departed from him because of this which she said: The blood of the 197Bcircumcision hath stood. First it is asked whom the angel wished to slay, etc., as far as by a great mystery, if I am not mistaken.

VERS. 25, 26.-- Thou art to me a spouse of blood, etc. According to history, the Gentile mother, wondering at the newness of the thing, could say to Moses: Thou art to me a spouse of blood; as if to say, the rite of thy nation compels me to shed the blood of my son, which among other nations is not the custom. But mystically Sephora signifies the Church from among the Gentiles, which strips the foreskin of her son, that is, of the Gentile people, with a most sharp stone, that is, with the teaching of the Holy Spirit, or with that rock of which it is said in II Corinthians X: Now the rock was Christ, that it may be cleansed from all defilement of flesh and spirit: And that he may put off the old man with his deeds (Col. III). For the blood of circumcision stands 197Cwhen this corruptible shall put on incorruption.

VERS. 27-31.-- And the Lord said, etc. (ORIG., hom. 32.) Aaron met Moses, and he went out of Egypt. But it matters where he meets Moses, whose mouth is to be opened by the Lord: and he meets him in the mount of God. Deservedly is his mouth opened who meets him in the mount of God. Peter, James and John in the mount deserved both to see the Lord Jesus transfigured, and Moses and Elias with him in glory. Thou also, unless thou shalt have ascended the mount of God, and there met Moses, that is, unless thou shalt have ascended the lofty ascent of the law, unless thou shalt have seized the summit of spiritual understanding, there is no door opened to thee by the Lord. If thou shalt have stood in the lowly place of the letter, thou hast not met Moses in the mount of God; God has not 197Dopened thy mouth, nor instructed thee what it behoves thee to speak; unless Aaron had met Moses in the mount, unless he had seen his understanding to be lofty, he would not speak to him the words of God, nor would he have delivered to him the power of the signs, nor have made him a sharer of so great a mystery.

VERS. 1.-- . . . . . Let my people go. (ORIG., hom. 3 in Exod.) Moses does not will that the people, being set in Egypt, should serve God, but that it should go out into the desert, and there serve him. For while a man remains in the dark deeds of the world, and is engaged in the obscurity of business, he cannot serve God. For ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matth. VI). We must go out therefore 198Afrom Egypt: the world must be left behind, not in place but in mind, if we wish to serve the Lord. Whence John says: Little children, love not the world, nor the things which are in the world (I Joan. II).

VERS. 2.-- Who is the Lord? He expresses the pride of the devil, who, scorning to be made subject to God, says: I will be like the Most High (Isa. XIV); and as though doubting of the Lord's nativity, says:

If thou be the Son of God, say that these stones be made bread (Matth. IV). But afterwards, as though under constraint, the demons cried out: Why art thou come to torment us before the time? We know that thou art the Son of God (Matth. VIII). After torments they know what before they had refused to know. Pharao also, when he had been scourged, asks that supplication be made for him to the Lord. Who is the lord, that I should hear his voice? etc. Thou seest 198Bwhat raw pride does; you will see a little later how much it profits under scourges; how much better a man is made when he has been beaten; he who now says, I know not the Lord, when he has been beaten will say: Pray to the Lord for me. Let no one therefore be so untaught in the divine discipline as to think the divine scourges a ruin and a penal destruction. Behold, even Pharao, most hardened, profits when he is beaten: for before the stripes he knows not the Lord, and when beaten he asks that supplication be made for him; and profiting under punishments, he knows how to acknowledge why he is punished. I know not, he says, the Lord. In the Gospel, being beaten, he amends this utterance, for the demons cried out: We know thee who thou art: thou art the Son of the living God. After the scourges he will let Israel go also, and will even urge it to depart. For there is no fellowship of light with darkness, no part of the faithful with the unbeliever (II Cor. VI).

198CVERS. 3.-- The God of the Hebrews hath called us, etc. (AUG. in Exod. ) It is asked how it is said to the people, etc., as far as that he may obtain a just judgment.

(ORIG.) Morally. We set out on a three days' journey from Egypt, if we so keep ourselves from every defilement of soul and of body and of spirit, that our whole spirit, and soul, and body may be preserved unto the day of Christ.

(ORIG.) We set out on a three days' journey from Egypt, if, taking away rational, moral and natural wisdom from worldly things, we turn them to the divine ordinances. We set out on a three days' journey from Egypt, if, purifying in ourselves things said, done or thought (for these are the three by which men can sin), 198Dwe are made clean of heart, that we may be able to see God. But the prince of Egypt, when he sees himself the more vehemently pressed to let the people of God go, desires in the second place to obtain that they go not farther off, that they may not set out for the whole three days, saying: Go not far away. He does not will the people of God to be far from him. For he wills that, if not in deed, at least in speech they should sin; if not in speech, at least in thought. He does not will that they should set out from him for the whole three days. He wills to possess in some of us one day, in others two, in others the whole three days. Blessed are they who withdraw from him the whole three days.

A journey of three days into the wilderness, and let us sacrifice to God, etc. (ISID.) We walk a journey of three days going out of Egypt, that we may come to the place where 199Awe ought to offer sacrifice to the Lord. This way is Christ, who says in John XIV: I am the way, the truth and the life. For whosoever shall have confessed Christ with the mouth, and believed with the heart that God raised him up on the third day, shall be saved, coming to the place in which a sacrifice of praise may be offered.

(STRAB.) A journey of three days, etc. At the third encampment, after they had crossed the Red Sea, they came to Ethan, which place is also called Mara, because of the bitter waters. Or of three days, that is, of three months, because in the third month after they went out of Egypt they came to Sina, where they sacrificed and received the law, where the tabernacle also was set up.

(ORIG., hom. 3 in Exod.) Now also Moses, whom we have with us (for we have Moses and 199Bthe prophets), that is, the law of God, wills to lead thee out of Egypt, if thou wilt hear it; it wills to set thee far from Pharao, to rescue thee from the work of clay and of straw: if only thou wilt hear, and understand spiritually; it does not will thee to remain in the deeds of the flesh and of darkness, but to go out to the desert, namely to a place empty of the disturbances and waves of the world, and to the quiet of silence. For the words of wisdom are learned in silence and quiet. In this place thou shalt be able to offer to the Lord the law of God, and to acknowledge the power of the divine voice. Therefore Moses desires to cast thee out of the waves of business and the noise of peoples, and out of Egypt, that is, out of the darkness of ignorance, that thou mayest hear the law of God and receive the light of knowledge.

VERS. 4-8.-- Why, Moses and Aaron, do ye stir up, 199Cetc. (ORIG., ibid.) While the people is with him, and works clay or brick, while it is occupied with straw, he does not think it to be perverted, but to walk rightly. But if it should say, I wish to go a three days' journey, and to serve the Lord, he says the people is perverted through Moses and Aaron. Today also, if Moses and Aaron, that is, the prophetic and the priestly word, should stir up a soul to the service of God, to go out of the world, to renounce all that it possesses, to attend to the law and the word of God: straightway thou wilt hear the friends and confederates of Pharao saying: See how men are seduced, and youths are perverted, that they may not labour, may not serve as soldiers, may not do anything that profits; leaving necessary things behind, they follow after trifles and idleness. What is it to serve God? They are unwilling to labour and seek occasions of idleness: these were then 199Dthe words of Pharao, these his friends speak now also, and not only with words, but they persecute with stripes as well. He commands the scribes of the Hebrews to be scourged, straw not to be given, work to be exacted; these things the fathers suffered, and now the people of God suffers them. They who have wholly given themselves over to the prince of this world prosper; all things, as they think, fall out happily: but to the servants of God even a small and lowly sustenance does not come. For these are the straws which were given by Pharao; whence certain men, being wearied, say to Pharao: Why dost thou afflict thy people? For being overcome by stripes they fall from the faith, and confess themselves to be the people of Pharao, for not all who are of Israel, these are Israelites.

VERS. 9-13.-- Let them be oppressed with works and let them fulfil 200Athem, etc. Mystically. From the time when Moses began to speak to Pharao the people of God is the more afflicted: from the time when the word of God comes into the soul, the devil rises up more sharply, and sends in greater vices. For before the word of God came, which should reprove vices, they endured in peace; but when it came, a great disturbance arises.

VERS. 14-20.-- And they were scourged who, etc. The children of Israel were more grievously worn down after they had determined to go out of Egypt; because they who wish to renounce the world and evil works are assailed by the devil with fiercer temptations.

VERS. 21.-- Let the Lord see, etc. (GREG. l. XXIX, Moral., cap. 14.) When the divine light illumines the human heart, as far as he grieves that he as it were stinks in the eyes of Pharao. 200B

Because to stink, etc. (ORIG. Hom. 3.) Allegorically. They speak truth, although they know it not, like Caiphas, who said: It is expedient that one should die for the people (Joan. XVIII); he knew not what he was saying. For as the Apostle says: We are the good odour of Christ, to some unto life, to others unto death, so the prophetic word is a sweet odour to them that believe; but to the doubting and unbelieving, and to those who confess themselves the people of Pharao, it is made an execrable odour. Moses himself also says to the Lord: From the time when I spoke with Pharao, thou hast afflicted thy people; because before the word of God is heard there is no tribulation or temptation: but when the trumpet of preaching shall have shown the signal of war, the battle of tribulations arises. From the time therefore when Moses and Aaron began to speak to Pharao, 200Cthe people of God is afflicted. From the time when the word of God has been uttered into thy soul, a contest is stirred up within thee of the virtues against the vices, which before endured within thee in peace. But when the word of God has begun to make the distinction between one thing and another, a great disturbance arises, and without treaty a war is born: because injustice does not agree with justice, nor drunkenness with sobriety, nor lying with truth. Therefore let us not be troubled if we seem an execrable odour to Pharao. For the execration of vice is called virtue. But as Moses stood before Pharao, let us also stand; let us not be bent, having our loins girt about with truth, and our feet shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace (Ephes. VI). And we stand confidently, we beseech the Lord that he set our feet upon a firm rock, lest our feet be moved. But let us stand, that is, 200Dlet us withstand, according to that of I Peter V: Whom resist ye, strong in faith: that Satan may quickly be crushed under our feet. For by how much the more steadfastly and bravely we stand, by so much the more weakly Pharao. But if we shall have begun to be weak or doubting, he will become stronger. For when Moses lifted up his hands, Amalec was overcome; when he let them down as though weary, he grew strong. Let us therefore in the power of the cross of Christ lift up our arms, and raise in prayer holy hands, that we may deserve the help of God. Hence James says: Resist the devil and he will fly from you (Jac. III). Let us act therefore that he may not only fly, but be crushed under our feet, extinguished in the depth of the abyss.

But if we withdraw from the Egypt of vices, 201Awe escape the waves of the world as it were by a solid path, through Jesus Christ.

VERS. 22, 23.-- Lord, why hast thou afflicted this people? (AUG.) These are not words of contumacy or of indignation, but of inquiry and of prayer, as appears from those things which the Lord answered. For he did not reprove his unbelief, but disclosed what he was about to do.

VERS. 3-6.--. . . And my name Adonai I did not show them. As to thee. For through the successions of the ages the increase of divine knowledge grew. The Lord appeared to Abraham; he spoke face to face with Moses; but David says in Psalm CXVIII: I have understood above the ancients, etc. The Apostles beheld the Son of God present, and asked whatever they wished, to whom 201Bit is also said in Luke II: Many kings and prophets, etc.

VERS. 7, 8.-- Out of the workhouse of the Egyptians. Ergastulum and ergasterium, that is, a workshop: namely where the accused were bound fast for the doing of works.

VERS. 9-11.-- They did not acquiesce in him, etc. Note the clemency of God: he is not believed by the children of Israel, and yet he ceases not to admonish. He is contemned by Pharao, and long-sufferingly he waits.

VERS. 12, 13.-- Behold the children, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 16 in Exod.) The LXX. Behold I am of a slender voice, and how shall Pharao hear me. Yet he does not seem to excuse himself for the slenderness of his voice on account of the multitude of the people, but on account of one man also: it is a marvel if he was of so slender a voice that he could not be heard even by one. Or 201Cperhaps the royal disdain did not permit them to speak from near at hand.

VERS. 14-19.-- These are the princes, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 15.) Scripture, wishing to show the origin of Moses, which his action required, began from the firstborn of Jacob, that is, from Ruben; thence to Simeon, thence to Levi: it did not go on further, because from Levi is Moses. And these are commemorated who had already been mentioned among those seventy-five with whom Israel had entered into Egypt. For God willed not the first, nor the second, but the third tribe, that is, the Levitical, to be the priestly one.

VERS 20.-- And Amram took to wife Jochabed, etc. (STRAB.) Amram is interpreted lofty father, who signifies Christ; Jochabed, the grace of God, 201Dwho signifies the Church: from Christ and the Church is born Moses, that is, the spiritual law, and Aaron, namely the true priesthood.

And he took, etc. She was of the tribe of Juda, sister of Naason, who was prince of the tribe of Juda in the desert: for it had not yet been commanded that each man, should take a wife from his own tribe. And these tribes, that is, the Levitical and the royal, were even then joined together, that it might be understood that Christ was to be king and priest from them.

VERS. 21-26.-- The sons also of Isaar, etc. (STRAB.) It is asked why Core, whom the earth swallowed alive for his iniquity, is written in the genealogy of the just? But it signifies that heretics will be with catholics in the Church

202AVERS. 27-30.-- This is Moses. (STRAB.) This Esdras adds of his own, who restored the whole library after the Babylonian captivity, all the books having been burnt by Nabuchodonosor; or Moses himself speaks of himself as of another.

VERS. 1-6.-- And the Lord said to Moses: Behold I have appointed thee lord, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 17 in Exod., tom III.) It is to be noted that when he was sent to the people, it was not said to him: Behold I have given thee as God to the people, and thy brother shall be thy prophet; but, thy brother shall speak for thee to the people. It was said also shall be thy mouth, and thou to him in those things which are unto God; it was not said, thou to him God. But to Pharao Moses is said to be given as god, and by analogy Aaron is given 202Bas prophet to Moses, but towards Pharao. Here it is intimated to us that the prophets of God speak those things which they hear from him; and that a prophet of God is nothing else than one who announces the words of God to men, who either cannot or do not deserve to hear God.

(GREG. hom. 8 super Ezech.) Sometimes God is spoken of by appellation, sometimes essentially. By appellation, as here: I have appointed thee god of Pharao. And elsewhere: Bring him unto the gods. And elsewhere: God hath stood in the synagogue of gods, etc. Essentially, as here: I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, which Paul, wishing to distinguish, says: Of whom Christ was born according to the flesh, who is God blessed for ever. [Vulg. Rom 9:5 qui est super omnia Deus benedictus in saecula, "who is over all things, God blessed for ever"] For by appellation God is said to be among all things, but essentially above all things; that therefore he might show 202CChrist to be naturally God, he recorded him to be not only God, but God above all things. For any just man whatever is God, but among all things, because by appellation: but Christ is above all things, because he is naturally God.

(AUG. Quaest. 18 in Exod.) God says continually, etc. as far as I will harden, that is, I will show how hard it is.

VERS. 7, 8.-- Now Moses was eighty years old, etc. (STRAB.) On account of circumcision, namely, which was commanded to be celebrated on the eighth day: for the number eighty has the same signification as the number eight which is less than it. Now Moses was eighty years old. When Moses and Aaron spoke to Pharao, Moses was eighty years old, but Aaron 202Deighty-three years old: because the law offered by preachers to the Gentiles taught spiritual circumcision, and they themselves were zealous to be perfectly cleansed, and so they preached the faith of the holy Trinity.

VERS. 9.-- When Pharao shall say to you, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 19 et 20.) Here there was no need of a voice, for the slenderness of which Aaron seemed to have been given to Moses, but the rod was to be cast down that it might become a dragon. Why then did Moses not do this himself, save because the mediation of Aaron between Moses and Pharao bears the figure of a great mystery. This also is to be noted, that it is written: Aaron cast down his rod: perhaps if it had said, he cast down the rod, there would be no question; but that it adds his own, whereas Moses had given it, is perhaps not said in vain. Or 203Awas that rod common to them both, so that if it were called the rod of either of them, it would be truly called so?

(STRAB.) The rod of Moses signifies Christ, who took flesh from a royal stock. Whence that same rod, turned into a snake, devoured all the rods of the sorcerers, because the death of Christ consumed our death.

(ORIG. hom. 4 in Exod.) The Apostle says in I Corinthians XIV: Be emulous of spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. Let us also try to take up the emulation of good things, but to await from the Lord the fulness of the gift. For for the one it is said in Psalm LXXX: Open thy mouth and I will fill it; [Vulg. Ps 80:11 Dilata os tuum, et implebo illud, "Open wide thy mouth, and I will fill it"] but for the other: Prick the eye, and it brings forth a tear; prick the heart, and it brings forth understanding. I think therefore that Moses coming to Egypt, and bearing the rod 203Bwith which he chastises and beats Egypt with ten plagues, is the law of God, by which it may reprove and amend the world with ten plagues, that is, with the ten commandments of the decalogue. The rod by which these things are done, and Egypt is subdued, and Pharao overcome, is the cross of Christ, through which the world and the prince of the world is overcome, that is, the devil, with the principalities and powers. The rod when cast down becomes a dragon or a serpent, and devours the serpents of the Egyptian magicians. But the serpent is wont to be set for wisdom or prudence; whence Matthew X: Be ye prudent as serpents, etc. And Genesis III: The serpent was more prudent than all the animals, [Vulg. Gen 3:1 serpens erat callidior cunctis animantibus terrae, "the serpent was more crafty than all the living things of the earth"] etc. The cross therefore of Christ, whose preaching seemed foolish, which Moses, that is, the law, contains (secundum illud Joan. V: De me enim ille scripsit ), after it was cast down upon the earth, that is, came to the faith of men, 203Cwas turned into wisdom, and into so great a wisdom as should devour all the wisdom of the Egyptians, that is, of this world. For behold how God made foolish the wisdom of this world, after he manifested Christ crucified to be the power and wisdom of God: and now the whole world has been laid hold of by him who said in I Corinthians III: I will take the wise in their own craftiness.

VERS. 10.-- And Aaron took, etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) And he took the rod before Pharao, etc., as far as: I will be thy death, O death, etc.

Which was turned into a snake. The law of Moses was as it were tasteless like a rod, but turned into a snake, that is, into spiritual understanding, it was made drinkable and 203Ddelightful.

VERS. 11.-- And Pharao called the wise men, etc. It is to be known that either by diabolical feignings they deluded the eyes of the beholders, so that things remaining in their own nature seemed to be something else; or, according to Augustine, the demons, although evil, have not lost their own nature: therefore while by their incantation the sorcerers attempt to effect something, they run through the world, and suddenly bring the seeds of those things of which the matter is in hand. And so from these, God permitting, they produce new species of things.

Similarly. In the first plague he says, when the water is turned into blood; and in the second, when the frogs boil forth; and in the third, when the gnats assail; in the fourth, when 204Athe dog-fly is brought forth; in the fifth, when the hand of the Lord is upon the cattle of the Egyptians, they are said to be like things.

VERS. 12.-- Dragons. They are so called Apo tou δέρκειν, that is, to see, because they see more sharply than other animals.

But it devoured, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 21.) If it had been said, The dragon of Aaron swallowed up their rods, it would be understood that the true dragon of Aaron had not swallowed up the phantom feignings, but the rods, etc., as far as but God alone is the true creator, who has implanted in things their very causes and seminal reasons.

VERS. 13, 14.-- And it was hardened, etc. God hardened the heart of Pharao, because he so hardened the devil after his sin that he is never softened by the compunction of repentance, as is said in Job XLI: His heart shall be hardened as a stone.

204BVERS. 15, 16.-- Go to him in the morning, behold he will go forth, etc. (ORIG. hom. 4.) First indeed Moses does not enter in to Pharao, but meets him as he goes out to the waters; but afterwards he enters in; after these things he neither enters in, but being summoned he approaches: because whether our contest with Pharao is in the word of God and in the assertion of religion, or whether we strive to snatch from him the souls he besets, and there is in us a wrestling in disputation, we ought not at the first onset to go in to the uttermost places of the questions, but we must meet the adversary, and at his own waters, that is, the authorities of the philosophers of the Gentiles, that we may first convict them and show that they have erred; then we must go in to the inner parts of the contest. For the Lord says: Unless a man first bind the strong one, he cannot 204Center into his house and plunder his vessels (Marc. XII). First therefore the strong one must be bound and constrained with the bonds of questions, and so we must enter in to plunder the vessels, and to free the souls which he had possessed by deception and fraud. And when we shall have done this often, and shall have stood against him, girt namely as to our loins with truth, and standing in the Lord, and acting manfully, the ancient and crafty artificer will feign himself conquered and to give way, that he may make us more negligent for the contest. He will feign repentance also, he will entreat us to depart, but not far off: he wishes us to be near to him in some part. But unless we withdraw farther from him, and cross the sea, and say in thought, in speech, and in deed: As far as the east is distant from the west, so far hath he removed our iniquities from us, 204Dwe cannot be saved. Let us therefore pray for the mercy of God, that he may snatch us also out of the land of Egypt, out of the power of darkness, and may sink Pharao with his army like lead in the most violent water. But let us, being set free, sing a hymn to the Lord with joy and exultation. For he is gloriously honoured, etc.

(ISID.) The plagues were wrought bodily in Egypt, but in us they are wrought spiritually. For Egypt is the figure of the world.

VERS. 17-19.-- The water of the river, etc. (STRAB.) The water turned into blood signifies worldly wisdom, in which everyone who has remained is slain, as a fish in blood. For worldly wisdom thinks it foolish 205Athat God should die for men; whosoever therefore shall have clung to it will not be able to live.

(ORIG.) The water of the river is turned into blood, to which they had delivered the children of the Hebrews to be slain, that it might render to the authors of the crime a cup of blood: and that by drinking they might feel the gore of the polluted flood which they had stained with parricidal slaughter. Allegorically also the waters of Egypt are the erring and slippery teachings of the philosophers, who deceived those little in sense and understanding: but when the cross of Christ showed the light of truth, they are exacted for the punishments of the slaying of their own and for the guilt of blood. Whence: All the blood which hath been shed upon the earth shall be required of this generation (Matth. XXIII).

VERS. 20, 21.-- Which was turned into blood, etc. (RAB.) The first precept is concerning the worship of one God: 205BThou shalt not have other gods before me [Vulg. Ex 20:3 reads Non habebis deos alienos coram me; Migne prints Non erunt tibi dii alii praeter me, the form Origen expounds, and the gloss's enumeration turns on it] : the first plague, the water turned into blood. Compare the first precept with the first plague: water, from which all things are generated, signifies the one God, from whom are all things; blood, mortal flesh. The water therefore was turned into blood, because they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of the image of corruptible man, and this change indeed takes place in the heart of the impious.

Into blood, etc. Because they who feel carnally about the causes of things are reproved by corrections of this sort, that from the quality of the punishments they may recognize their own error.

VERS. 22, 23.-- And the heart of Pharao was hardened. (AUG. Quaest. 22.) It seems that the heart of Pharao was hardened for this cause, that the enchanters of the Egyptians 205Cdid like things. But what follows teaches how great that hardening was, even when the enchanters failed.

VERS. 24, 25.-- And they dug, etc. Because the Gentile world, confounded by the meditation of secular philosophy, when it sees that there is nothing living nor wholesome in it, is zealous by searching to seek on every side a draught of wisdom, and finds it not, until it comes to him who says: He that thirsteth, let him come to me and drink (Joan. VII).

VERS. 2-6.-- Behold, I will strike all thy borders with frogs, etc. (STRAB.) There are three kinds of frogs: one of the river and vocal; another of that which is called the calamite, of which it is reported that if it be thrown into the mouth of a barking 205Ddog, the dog at once falls dumb; a third of that which is called the bramble-frog, because it lives among briars.

(ORIG.) Frogs signify the songs of the poets, which by an empty and inflated modulation, like the sounds and singing of frogs, have brought the fables of deception into the world; for that creature is good for nothing, save that it gives back the sound of its voice in shameless and importunate clamours.

(RAB.) The second precept: Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain. [Vulg. Ex 20:7 Non assumes nomen Domini Dei tui in vanum, "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain"] The name of God is truth, for he himself says: I am the truth. He who speaks truth, speaks of God; for he who speaks a lie, speaks of his own. For to speak truth is to speak rationally; to speak vanity is to make a din. The second 206Aprecept, therefore, is concerning the love of truth, to which the love of iniquity is contrary. Truth speaks, vanity clamours. Contrary to this is the second plague, the abundance of frogs, whose loquacity signifies vanity. The lovers of truth do not take the name of God in vain, because they do not withdraw from truth into vanity. But those who contradict the truth, and, deceived by vanity, deceive others, are frogs, bringing weariness to the ears, not food to minds. Hear men speaking rationally, psalm XVIII: There are no speeches nor languages whose voices are not heard. Hear the frogs: They have spoken vain things, every one to his neighbour, etc.

VERS. 7-9.-- And the magicians did so, etc. (AUG., quaest. 23.) It is asked whence they did it, if it had already 206Bbeen done everywhere. But there is a like question: whence did they turn water into blood, if all the water of Egypt had already been turned into blood? But it is to be understood that the region where the children of Israel dwelt had not been struck with such plagues, and thence the enchanters were able to draw water which they might turn into blood, or to bring forth frogs for the display of magical power; although they were also able to do it after those things had been checked. But Scripture in narrating joined together what could have been done afterwards.

VERS. 10-14.-- He answered: To-morrow. (THEOD.) Pharaoh, wishing to know whether the prayers of Moses and Aaron had any power with God (for he supposed that they rested through the night), said: To-morrow, that he himself, having gone out to the river, might see whether the frogs had ceased. 206CWherefore God, that Moses might be believed, not only made the frogs cease at that very time which Moses had appointed, but also commanded those which were upon the land to perish, lest they should think that the same had returned.

VERS. 15.-- But Pharaoh seeing, etc. (AUG. Quaest. 24.) Here it appears that Pharaoh was not hardened only because the enchanters did the like, etc., as far as he did not say gifts, or rewards, but thy judgments.

VERS. 16, 17.-- Stretch forth thy rod, etc. Mystically. Moses chastising Egypt with the rod signifies the law, which rebukes the world with the ten plagues of the commandments. The rod also, by which Egypt is corrected and Pharaoh overcome, is the cross of Christ, by which the world is conquered and the devil overcome, or triumphed over. The rod cast down becomes a serpent, which signifies wisdom, according to 206Dthat of Matthew X: Be ye wise as serpents, etc. The rod devoured the serpents of the magicians, and the cross of Christ, whose preaching seems foolishness, overcomes all the wisdom of the world. Whence: For he wrote of me (Joan. V). The rod cast upon the earth was turned into a serpent, because when the mystery of the cross came to the faith of men, it made the wisdom of the world foolish.

And let there be sciniphs, etc. (ORIG.) This creature is upheld by wings, flitting through the air, but so fine and minute that it escapes the sight of the eye, unless of one who sees keenly. Yet when it has settled upon the body, it bores with a most bitter sting, so that he who is not able to see it flying feels it stinging. This creature therefore is compared to the art of dialectic, 207Awhich bores souls with minute and subtle stings of words, and encompasses them with such craft that the man deceived neither sees nor understands whence he is deceived.

(RAB.) Morally. The third precept: Remember to sanctify the day of the sabbath. [Vulg. Ex 20:8 Memento ut diem sabbati sanctifices, "Remember that thou keep holy the sabbath day"] By which is intimated the leisure and tranquillity of mind which a good conscience makes. There is sanctification, because there is the Spirit of God. Whence: Upon whom shall my Spirit rest, save upon the humble and the quiet? etc. (Isa. LXVI). [Vulg. Is 66:2 ad quem autem respiciam, nisi ad pauperculum, et contritum spiritu, et trementem sermones meos, "but to whom shall I have respect, but to him that is poor and little, and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my words"] The restless, therefore, spring back from the Holy Spirit, provokers of quarrels, lovers of calumnies, nor do they admit the rest of the spiritual sabbath. Be thou therefore meek; let there be no tumult in thy heart, with phantasms flitting through corruption and stinging thee. Hear God saying in psalm XLV: Be still and 207Bsee that I am God. Thou through restlessness wilt not be still, and, blinded, thou demandest to see what thou canst not. For mark the contrary plague: the sciniphs were born in the land of Egypt out of the slime, flies namely most minute and most restless, flying without order, rushing into the eyes, and denying rest to men; while they are driven off, they return: so are the phantasms of the restless. Hold the precept, beware the plague.

VERS. 18.-- And there were sciniphs. Blood is the doctrine of the philosophers; frogs, the fictions of the poets; sciniphs, the sophisms of the dialecticians: all which have deceived the world.

VERS. 19.-- This is the finger of God, etc. (ISID. ex Aug. ep. 119.) At the third sign the magicians fail, saying: It is the finger of God: who had the type of heretics and their animosity. 207CWhence: As Jamnes and Mambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the faith, etc. (II Tim. III). But these, who through corruption of mind were restless, failed at the third sign, confessing that the Holy Spirit, who was in Moses, was against them. For the Spirit is set in the third place, who is the finger of God: and he, as when appeased he affords rest to the meek and humble of heart, so when angered he harries the unmeek and the proud with restlessness, which the most grievous flies signified, under which the magicians failed, saying: This is the finger of God, that they might not understand whence they were deceived.

(STRAB.) It is to be noted that the magicians were overcome at the third sign, because all perfidy and worldly wisdom, or philosophy, is overcome by faith in the Trinity. For although 207Dthey discovered philosophy and disputed concerning the fabric of the whole world, they were not able to attain to the knowledge of the Trinity. By the finger the Holy Spirit is understood, not that he is less than the Father and the Son, but because in a finger there are very many divisions, and through the Holy Spirit the division of graces is given.

(AUG., quaest. 25 in Exod., tom. III.) What the magicians said to Pharaoh, etc., as far as, although they were not silent concerning the Son.

VERS. 20.-- Thus saith the Lord, etc. (RAB.) The fourth precept: Honour thy father and thy mother. Contrary to this is the fourth plague, namely the cynomyia, that is, the dog-fly: it is doglike not to acknowledge one's parents; whence their whelps are born blind.

208AVERS. 21.-- Every kind of flies. (ISID.) Mystically. In the fourth place Egypt is struck with flies. Now the fly is an insolent and restless creature, in which are figured the insolent cares of carnal desires. But Egypt is struck with flies, because the hearts of those who love the world are smitten with the restlessnesses of desires. The Seventy set down cynomyia, that is, the dog-fly: by which doglike manners are signified, in which the pleasure of the human mind and the lust of the flesh are reproved. The forensic eloquence of men also can be signified by the dog-fly, men who like dogs tear one another.

(PROCOP.) God does not use great beasts in the storming of Egypt, but summons the ministry of the most contemptible little creatures and insects: namely, lest 208Bthe effect should be ascribed to the power of those beasts. To those abject and feeble little creatures he granted unconquerable strength, so far that Egypt despaired of being able to resist those little creatures, and cried out: This is the finger of God: For the whole world massed together will not bear the hand of God.

(ORIG.) The dog-fly is the sect of the heretics [ Al., Cynicorum], who, upon the remaining shamelessnesses of their deception, preach pleasure and lust as the highest good. Since therefore the world was first deceived by each of these, deservedly the word and law of God, at its coming, reproves with rebukes of this kind, that from the quality of the punishments they may know the qualities of their own error.

VERS. 22, 23.-- And I will make wonderful, etc. (AUG., quaest. 26.) This is to be understood to have been 208Cdone in the earlier signs also, that the land in which the people of God dwelt was vexed by no such plagues. But it was opportune that this should be set down openly there; whence now begin the signs which the magicians did not attempt to do the like of. For it is certain that the sciniphs had been everywhere in the kingdom of Pharaoh, but had not been in the land of Gessen or Gesen: there the magicians attempted to do the like, and were not able: until therefore they should fail, nothing was said concerning the separation of that land, but from the time when those things began to be done which they would not even dare to attempt.

VERS. 24, 25.-- And there came a most grievous fly, etc. (AUG., ibid.) The fly is put for the multitude of flies. For I know not how it is that, to the senses of men steeped in the custom of speaking, often more seems to be said by what is said in the singular than by what is said in the plural; 208Dfor example: There is a soldier there, than There are soldiers there; There is a fish there signifies more than There are fishes there.

VERS. 26-31.-- Abominations. The perverse Egyptians abominate good things, that is, the citizens of this world abominate sheep, that is, the simplicity of the good. For as the good abominate evils, so the evil abominate goods. Whence the good abominate the ungodly man, and the ungodly those who are in the right way.

(AUG. Quaest. 28.) Moses said that he wished to go into the desert where the Egyptians would not see their abominations. But this is to be understood as mystically signifying what we have said of the shepherds, who were abominable to the Egyptians; and therefore the Israelites 209Areceived a separate land in Egypt. For thus the sacrifices of the Israelites are abominations to the Egyptians, as the life of the just is to the wicked.

(STRAB.) Historically. The Egyptians abominate sheep and adore them because of Jupiter Ammon, who is painted with a ram's head. Likewise: the Egyptians worship the ox, which is consecrated to Apis, as the cow to Isis. For Apis was the greatest deity of the Egyptians, who once in the year at a fixed time appeared to their priests. And they, attending him with hymns and praises, prophesied like men frenzied.

(GREG., lib. XVIII Moral., c. 28, tom. II.) Egypt is struck with flies, etc., as far as Be still and see, that I am God.

VERS. 32.-- And it was made heavy, etc. (AUG., quaest. 209B29.) When the locust had been taken away, it was said of Pharaoh: Pharaoh made his own heart heavy at this time also, and would not let the people go. Certainly it is not said now, The heart of Pharaoh was made heavy, but Pharaoh made his own heart heavy. So assuredly in all the plagues. From the will of man is the origin of vices. But the hearts of men are moved by causes, some in this way, others in that, even by causes not diverse, often in a diverse manner, according to their own qualities, which come from their wills.

VERS. 1-6.-- And the Lord said to Moses, etc. (PROCOP.) Among the beasts horses are reckoned first, which are deceitful or false unto salvation. Then the unclean 209Cbeasts, which neither divide the hoof nor chew the cud, yet are yoked to the chariot. Next camels, which although on account of their chewing the cud they are reckoned as it were clean, yet, because their hoof is not cloven, are judged unclean. Nevertheless camels are declared to be partly of clean, partly of unclean condition. But since this plague was believed to be but little harmful, because of the vileness of the unclean animals, it passes on to oxen, and thence to the gentlest of animals, the sheep.

(ORIG., hom. 4.) In the fifth place Egypt is scourged with the slaughter of animals, or of cattle. In which the senselessness or folly of mortals is reproved, who like irrational cattle laid the worship and the name of God upon figures, not only of men but of beasts, stamped upon wood and stones: worshipping Ammon Jupiter in a ram, 209DAnubis in a dog, Apis in a bull, and the other monstrous gods which Egypt admires; so that in those to which they believed divine worship to belong, they might behold a pitiable punishment.

(RAB. in Exod., tom. II.) The fifth precept is: Thou shalt not commit adultery, etc., as far as mark the plague: if thou art a beast, at least fear to die.

VERS. 7.-- And it was made heavy, etc. (AUG., quaest. 30.) If the cattle of the Israelites had died, there would seem a fitting cause why his heart should be weighed down to the contempt of God, as though his magicians had slain the cattle of the Israelites; but from that whence he ought to have been moved to fear or to believe, it was made heavy, and that heaviness has gone forward even to this point.

210AVERS. 8.-- Take handfuls, etc. (AUG., quaest. 31.) Another reading: Take to you handfuls of ashes out of the furnace, and let Moses sprinkle it, etc. The earlier signs were done by the rod, which not Moses but Aaron stretched over the water, or struck upon the ground. But now, two signs having been interposed, namely of the dog-fly and the deaths of the cattle, where neither Aaron nor Moses work anything with the hand, it is said that Moses should sprinkle ashes toward heaven; both are bidden to take, but he to sprinkle, not upon the earth but toward heaven: as though Aaron (who had been given to the people) ought to strike the earth, or to stretch out his hand upon the water or upon the earth; but Moses, who was in those things which pertain to the Lord, is bidden to sprinkle the ashes. What of those two earlier signs, where neither Moses nor Aaron work anything 210Bwith the hand? What does the diversity itself mean? For neither is it nothing.

(RAB.) The sixth precept: Thou shalt not kill; the sixth plague, pustules upon the body, blisters boiling and swarming, the burnings of wounds and the ashes of the furnace. For murderers burn with anger, with madness. If thou couldst see the souls of murderers, thou wouldst bewail them more than the putrefying bodies of the ulcerated.

VERS. 9-12.-- (ORIG., ibid.) Wounds and blisters with burning are brought forth at the sixth stroke. In the ulcers a crafty and purulent malice is reproved; in the blisters a swelling and inflated pride; in the burning, anger and the madness of fury.

VERS. 13-15.-- And the Lord hardened the heart, etc. (ORIG., ibid.) Note that in the sixth plague it is not said, 210CThe heart of Pharaoh was hardened, but something more terrible is added; for it is written that the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh, etc. Again in the seventh, when hail and fire lay Egypt waste, the heart of Pharaoh is indeed hardened, but not by the Lord. But in the eighth, where the locust is brought forth, the Lord is said to harden the heart of Pharaoh. And in the ninth, when the darkness becomes palpable; and at last, when, the firstborn being destroyed, the Israelites had departed, it is thus said: And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt and of his servants, and he pursued them. And also, when Moses is sent from the land of Madian into Egypt and is commanded to do wonders, it is added: Thou shalt do them in the sight of Pharaoh: but I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, etc. Hence first 210Dit was said by the Lord: I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, etc. A second time also, the princes having been enumerated, it is said to Israel: I will harden the heart of Pharaoh, etc. Not in vain was that variety made, that now the Lord is said to have hardened the heart of Pharaoh, now that it was hardened of its own accord. I see Paul, as one understanding what difference there is between the heart of Pharaoh's having been hardened and the Lord's having hardened the heart of Pharaoh, saying in Romans II: Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness, and of patience, and of longsuffering? Knowest thou not that the benignity of God leadeth thee to penance, etc. Here without doubt he blames him who was hardened of his own accord. But elsewhere, as it were proposing a question upon this, he says: Therefore on whom he will he hath mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth, etc. He adds also to these: O man, thou who art, who repliest against God (Rom. IX). [Vulg. Rom 9:20 O homo, tu quis es, qui respondeas Deo, "O man, who art thou that repliest against God", which the Vulgate sets as a question; Migne's tu qui es puts a relative where the interrogative stood, and he prints the same verse with quis eleven lines below at 0211A] By which, concerning 211Ahim who is said to have been hardened by the Lord, he answers not so much by the solution of the question as by apostolic authority, because of the incapacity of his hearers, as he says elsewhere (II Cor. XII): And he heard secret words, which it is not granted to man to utter. Whence in what follows he deters the man who, not so much by the merit of his studies as by the lust of knowing, plunges himself too curiously [curiosus] into the more secret questions, saying in Romans IX: O man, who art thou that repliest against God.

(RAB.) The seventh precept: Thou shalt not steal; [Vulg. Ex 20:15 Non furtum facies, "Thou shalt not commit theft"; Migne's Non furaberis is the wording of Rom 13:9, not that of the Decalogue in Exodus] the seventh plague, hail upon the fruits. For no one has unjust gain without just loss. While thou stealest, thou gainest a garment, thou losest faith: gain visible, loss invisible: gain out of thy blindness, loss out of the Lord's cloud. For those who steal outwardly by evil desire 211Bare hailed upon inwardly out of judgment, and the field of their heart is laid waste.

VERS. 16, 17.-- And therefore have I set thee up, etc. (AUG., quaest. 32.) The Apostle set down these words, etc., as far as Pharaoh therefore was preserved for their profit.

VERS. 18.-- Behold I will cause it to rain to-morrow, etc. (ORIG.) Thus far the punishments are tempered to the world through the figures of its own errors: after these come stripes from on high.

VERS. 19-21.-- Send therefore now, etc. (AUG., quaest. 35 in Exod., tom. III.) God seems to forewarn of this not so much in indignation as in mercy, etc., as far as since God had threatened the death of the cattle, although Scripture has been silent of it.

(PROCOP.) Moreover it was brought about by divine providence 211Cthat the beasts should not all perish. For there was need of beasts to draw the chariots with which Pharaoh was afterwards to pursue the fugitives, that he might slaughter them in the wilderness. But divine providence governed the whole business otherwise.

VERS. 22.-- Stretch forth thy hand, etc. (PROCOP.) The reader is to be advised in this place that Moses is not bidden to do all the wonders with the rod, but only certain of them; certain also to foretell, as the gnats and the destruction of the beasts; certain to accomplish by the ministry of the hands, as when he takes soot from the furnace and stirs up the hail. But what is the cause of these things? Lest the common people should suppose that the rod had been made by magical superstition, and should assign to it those wondrous effects.

VERS. 23-29.-- And Moses stretched forth the rod, etc. 211D(ORIG., ubi supra. ) This also is to be noted, that Aaron is said to inflict certain stripes upon Pharaoh or upon Egypt, Moses certain, and certain the Lord himself. For in the first plague, where he turns the waters into blood, Aaron lifts up the rod and strikes the water. In the second he strikes the waters and brings forth frogs. In the third he stretches out his hand and strikes the dust of the earth with the rod, and there are made sciniphs. In the fourth the Lord is said to have done it, that the dog-fly should come. In the fifth also, when the cattle are destroyed, he is said to have done this thing. But in the sixth Moses sprinkles the ashes, and there are made ulcers and blisters. In the seventh he lifts his hand toward heaven and there are made thunders and hail, namely, etc. In the eighth likewise he stretches his hands toward heaven, and the Lord brings on a wind, and brings in 212Athe locusts. And in the ninth also he stretches his hand toward heaven, and there are made darkness and gloom. But in the tenth the end and completion of the whole work is administered by the Lord. For thus it is said: And the Lord struck every firstborn in the land of Egypt.

(IDEM.) There is another difference to be observed: for in the first plague, when the water is turned into blood, it is not yet said to Moses that he should go in to Pharaoh, but, go forth to meet him, etc. But in the second, the first having been ministered constantly and faithfully, it is said to him: Go in to Pharaoh, etc. But in the third the sciniphs are brought in, the magicians yield, confessing that this is the finger of God. But in the fourth Moses is bidden to watch in the morning, and to stand before Pharaoh as he goes forth to the waters, when the houses of the Egyptians are filled with the dog-fly. 212BIn the fifth, when the cattle are destroyed, he is bidden to go in to Pharaoh. In the sixth Pharaoh is despised, nor is it said that Moses and Aaron went in to him, because ulcers and blisters with burning were made even upon the magicians, and they could not resist Moses. In the seventh he is bidden to watch very early, and to stand before Pharaoh, when he brings forth hail and fire and thunders. In the eighth he is commanded to go in to him when the locust is brought forth. In the ninth again Pharaoh is despised, and Moses [Moses] is commanded to stretch his hands toward heaven, that palpable darkness may be made: nor does he go in, but he is called to Pharaoh. Likewise in the tenth, when the firstborn are destroyed, and he is compelled to go out of Egypt with haste.

And the Lord gave thunders, etc. (ID., homil., 4.) 212CSee the moderation of the divine correction: he does not scourge in silence, but gives voices, and sends doctrine from heaven, by which the chastised world may be able to acknowledge its own fault. He gives hail, by which the tender things of the vices, still being born, are laid waste. He gives fire also, knowing that there are thorns and thistles which had to be grazed down; of which the Lord says in Luke XII: I came to send fire in the earth (Luc. XII). By this fire the incitements of pleasure and of lust are consumed.

(IDEM.) There are many other things to be observed, in which the divine wisdom is shown. For at the first Pharaoh is not bent, when the water is turned into blood. At the second he seems a little softened: For he called Moses and Aaron, saying: Pray to the Lord for me, etc. At the third 212Dthe magicians yield, saying: This is the finger of God, etc. At the fourth, scourged by the dog-fly, he says: Go and sacrifice to the Lord your God, etc. At the fifth, where the slaughters of the cattle are said to be, he does not yield, but hardened himself the more. Likewise at the sixth, over the plague of ulcers. But at the seventh, when he is laid waste with hail and with fires, he called Moses and Aaron, saying: I have sinned this time also; the Lord is just, but I and my peoples are wicked, etc. At the eighth, when he was pressed with locusts, he hastily called Moses and Aaron, saying: I have sinned before the Lord your God, and against you. Take up my sin, and even now pray to the Lord your God. At the ninth, when he is overspread with darkness, he calls Moses and Aaron, saying: Go and serve the Lord your God. At the tenth, when the firstborn are destroyed, he calls them by night and says: 213AArise, go out from my people, you and the children of Israel, etc. And he adds: And bless me also. These things cannot be explained save by the same Spirit by which they were done, because, according to the Apostle (I Cor. XIV), the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets; therefore the sayings of the prophets are said to be subject, not to any whomsoever for the explaining of them, but to prophets.

VERS. 30-35.-- But I know that, etc. (AUG., quaest. 35 in Exod.) Pharaoh had been terrified by the crash of heaven and by the hail. Whence he begged Moses to pray for him, confessing his own iniquity and that of his people. But Moses was seeking another fear. For it is easy to fear punishment; but this is not to fear God, with that fear of piety, namely, of which Jacob says: Unless the God of my father Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had been present with 213Bme, thou wouldst now have sent me away empty (Gen. XXXI).

VERS. 1-3-- . . . For I have hardened his heart, etc. (AUG., quaest. 36 in Exod.) He did not say this as though God had need of anyone's malice, but it is thus to be understood, as if he should say: I have been patient over him and his servants, that I might not take them away, so that my signs might come upon them in order; for because the evil mind was becoming the more obstinate through the patience of God, for this, that I was patient over him, it is said, I have made his heart heavy. The plagues of the Egyptians are the instruction of the children of Israel, lest they be hardened in like manner, and suffer like things. When the pestilent man is punished, the little one shall be the wiser.

(ORIG.) The ten plagues with which Egypt is scourged through 213Cthe Israelites can be compared to the times of the Roman empire, because these things were done in a figure of us. The Christian and the Israelite people are of one God; the cause of both was one and made subject, the Synagogue to the Egyptians, the Church to the Romans. The Egyptians persecuted, and the Romans also persecuted. There Moses is contradicted ten times, here ten edicts against Christ. There diverse plagues of the Egyptians, here diverse calamities of the Romans. There first blood flows from the wells and rivers; here the first plague under Nero, that everywhere there was the blood of the dying, either corrupted by diseases in the City, or poured out by wars throughout the world. There the second plague, frogs in the inner chambers; famine almost destroyed the inhabitants: here under Domitian unbridled henchmen, at the command of a bloody 213Dprince, and want, dispersed almost all the Roman citizens. There the third plague, sciniphs, most savage little flies, which in midsummer fly in swarms through squalid places, and are borne with a burning bite into the hair of men and the bristles of cattle: here the third plague stirred up the Jews under Trajan, who, whereas before, being scattered, they were quiet as though they were not, being moved by a sudden heat, went about ravaging. Besides, many cities in those same times fell down by an earthquake. There the fourth plague, dog-flies, nurslings of rottenness, mothers of worms; here under Marcus Antoninus a pestilence poured into many provinces gave over to rottenness and to worms Italy and the city of Rome, and the army of the Romans scattered through diverse winter quarters and dissolved by death. There the fifth plague, of cattle and of beasts of burden: here under Severus the persecutor, by civil 214Awars, the very bowels and supports of the commonwealth, that is, the commons of the provinces and the legions of soldiers, were broken in pieces. There the sixth plague, swelling blisters and running ulcers: here the plague which followed the persecution of Maximinus, who had commanded that especially the bishops and clerics, the popular crowd being passed over, the chief men of the Churches, should be tortured; and, swelling frequently with anger and perfidy, it was exalted not through the slaughter of the common people, but through the wounds of dying princes and men of power. There the seventh plague, hail gathered in the air, which was destruction to men and to beasts: here under Gallus and Volusianus, who succeeded Decius the persecutor, a pestilence was poured through all the spaces of the Roman empire, and gave nearly the whole human race to death. There the eighth correction, locusts stirred up on every side: here nations stirred up on every side 214Blaid waste the Roman world with slaughters and burnings. There the ninth plague, darkness that might be handled, threatening more of peril than working it: here, while Aurelian the persecutor was decreeing, amid dreadful whirlwinds a terrible thunderbolt fell at his very feet, showing what so great an avenger would do, were he not patient; although within six months three emperors were slain, Aurelian, Tacitus and Florianus. There the tenth and last plague, the slaying of the firstborn: here the destruction of all the idols, which, being made first, they loved among the first. There the king proved the power of God, and felt it, and feared, and let the people of God go free: here also he did all these things, and even believed.

(IDEM.) There the people of God was not drawn back to servitude, nor here afterwards compelled to idolatry. There 214Cthe precious vessels of the Egyptians were handed over to the Hebrews: here the precious temples of the pagans passed over to the Church of the Christians.

(IDEM.) Upon the Egyptians, pursuing the Hebrews who had been let go after the ten plagues, the destruction of the sea rushed in: upon us also, as we journey, the persecution of the Gentiles remains, until we pass through the Red Sea, that is, the fire of judgment, with Christ as leader and as judge. But those who persecute Christians shall be drowned, with their king Antichrist, in the pool of eternal fire.

VERS. 4-12.-- Behold I will bring in the locust to-morrow, etc. (RAB.) The eighth precept: Thou shalt not bear false witness: [Vulg. Ex 20:16 Non loqueris contra proximum tuum falsum testimonium, "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour"] the eighth plague, the locust, a creature namely harmful with the tooth. For a false witness harms by biting and consumes by lying. Whence: If you bite 214Dand consume one another, take heed lest you be consumed one of another (Gal. V). [Vulg. Gal 5:15 comeditis, "devour"; the gloss's own verb two lines above is consumit, which follows Migne's reading and not the Vulgate's]

(ORIG.) hom. 4 in Exod.) I think that by this kind of plague the inconstancy of the human race, ever at variance and discordant with itself, is refuted. For the locust, although it has no king, according to the Scripture, leads an ordered army: but men, although they were made rational, were neither able to govern themselves in order, nor did they patiently bear the guidance of God who governs.

(STRAB.) By the locust, which has no king, is signified the rashness of those who, although punished with diverse penalties, always remain in their own hardness, as though they had no ruler.

215AThe locust. (ISID.) Locusts are taken for the mobility of levity, as souls wandering and leaping after the pleasure of the world.

VERS. 13-18.-- And Moses stretched forth the rod. (RAB.) Certain wonders are done through Moses, certain through Aaron, and certain through the Lord himself; that we may know that in some things we are to be cleansed through the sacrifices of the priests and the supplications of the pontiffs, whom the person of Aaron designates; in some to be amended through the knowledge of the law, which the office of Moses designates. But in the more difficult things we have need of the power of the Lord himself.

(GREG., lib. XXXI, Moral., cap. 20). The plagues of Egypt shown forth from heaven, etc., as far as when with empty praises they unnerve the works of certain men who are now as it were strong.

215BVERS. 19, 20.-- There remained not so much as one, etc. (AUG.) Scripture certainly recalled a benefit of God, in that he took away the locusts, and going on it said that the Lord had hardened the heart of Pharaoh, namely by his own benefit and patience, by which that man was becoming the more obstinate while he was being spared: as all evil hearts of men grow hard by ill using the patience of God.

VERS. 21.-- Stretch forth thy hand, etc. (AUG.) A third time it is said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand toward heaven, that the plague of darkness also might be made. But never was it said to Aaron that he should stretch his hands toward heaven. What therefore was said to Moses: Stretch forth thy hand over the land of Egypt, and let the locust come up upon the land, I believe this to be signified, that he who can do the greater can do the less also; but not at once that he to whom the lesser things are granted 215Ccan do the greater.

(ORIG.) The ninth plague is darkness, that the blindness of their mind may be reproved, or that they may understand that the reasons of the divine dispensation and providence are most obscure. For God hath put darkness his covert (Psal. XVII): and they, boldly and rashly searching it out, and asserting one thing from another, have been rolled down into the thick and palpable darkness of errors.

(STRAB.) By the darkness their folly [Judaeorum] is shown, who were afflicted and did not know to what end their punishments would come. Or also by the darkness is signified the secret of the divine judgment, by which he mercifully saves the just and justly condemns the ungodly.

215DVERS. 24-29.-- Only the sheep, etc. (AUG. in Locutionibus in Exod., l. 52.) The Greek has, besides sheep and oxen leave ye, and it is an unusual manner of speech, unless after a pause there be inserted, leave ye; and there be understood, these things, so that the sense may be: Go, besides sheep and oxen, and leave these things. For such an ellipsis is wont to be made often in the manners of speech of the Scriptures.

(RAB.) The ninth precept: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife: [Vulg. Ex 20:17 Non concupisces domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, neither shalt thou desire his wife"; Migne's wording here is that of Dt 5:21, not that of the Decalogue in Exodus] the ninth plague, thick darkness. For there is a certain adultery even in desiring another man's wife, when his own does not suffice a man, and he attempts another's also. Truly the darkness is thick; for nothing so grieves the sufferer, nothing does the doer so refuse to suffer: he who does this is truly blinded with a horrible fury.

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VERS. 2.-- Thou shalt tell therefore all the people, etc. (AUG., quaest. 94 in Exod., tom. III.) No one ought to take an example from this, etc., as far as that not even by this loss should those be smitten who had not been struck by the other plagues.

That every man ask, etc. (GREG., lib. XXVIII Moral., cap. 17.) Minds cleaving to the use of the carnal life, etc., as far as a greater fortitude of spirit is announced.

VERS. 3, 4.-- And the Lord will give favour to his people in the sight of the Egyptians, etc. Those, namely, who dwelt with the Hebrews in the land of Gessen, and for their sake had not been hurt by the nine plagues, and therefore loved them: by the tenth plague they were afflicted, when the Hebrews had departed from them.

216BVERS. 5, 6.-- And every firstborn shall die, etc. (ORIG. hom. 4) At the last the destruction of the firstborn is brought in, in which there is perhaps something above our understanding, which seems to have been committed by the Egyptians against the Church of the firstborn, which is enrolled in the heavens. Whence also the destroying angel is sent to this ministry, who spares those only who had both door-posts marked with the blood of the lamb. Again the firstborn of the Egyptians are destroyed: whether we call them principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, whom Christ by his coming led forth, that is, led captive and made captive, when he triumphed upon the wood of the cross; or the authors and inventors of false religions, which the truth of Christ has extinguished together with their authors. Principalities, and powers, 216Cand the rulers of these darknesses, are the firstborn of the Egyptians, which [ Al., qui] in the last plague, namely when the end of the world shall have come, when he shall separate the sheep from the goats, the grain from the chaff, shall be condemned, the licence of wandering and of tempting being lost.

(ORIG.) Morally. The soul, while it lives in this world in errors, in ignorance of the truth, is placed in Egypt: if the law of God has begun to draw near, it turns the waters into blood, that is, it turns the fluid and slippery life of youth to the blood of the Old or of the New Testament. Then the law draws out of it the vain and empty loquacity against the providence of God, like to the croaking of frogs. It purges also its malignant thoughts, and shakes off the stings of craftiness that are like to the biting of the sciniphs. The bites of lusts also, 216Dlike to the darts of the dog-fly, it drives away; and the folly and the understanding like to that of cattle, through which man, when he was in honour, did not understand, but was compared to senseless beasts, etc. (Psal. XLVIII.) It reproves the ulcers of sins, the swelling of arrogance, and extinguishes the burning of fury. After these it applies the voices of the sons of thunder, that is, the evangelical and apostolic doctrines, and the chastisement of hail, that it may restrain luxury and pleasures; and at the same time the fire of penitence, that it may say: Was not our heart burning within us (Luc. XXIV)? Nor does it fail to draw off from it the examples of the locusts, by which all its restless and turbid motions may be grazed down, that it may learn to do all things according to order. But when it shall have been sufficiently chastised for its manners, when it shall have perceived the author 217Aof the stripes, confessing that it is the finger of God, and shall have received a little of acknowledgment: then chiefly it sees the darkness of its own deeds and the gloom of its errors, and then it shall deserve that the firstborn of Egypt be destroyed in it. For every soul, when it shall have come to the fulness of age, and as it were the natural law shall have begun to defend its own rights within it, brings forth the first motions according to the desire of the flesh, which the inciting force has stirred up out of the tinder of concupiscence or of anger. Whence as a singular privilege the prophet says of Christ: He shall eat butter and honey; before he shall do or bring forth evil things, he shall choose the good (Isa. VII); [Vulg. Is 7:15 Butyrum et mel comedet, ut sciat reprobare malum, et eligere bonum, "He shall eat butter and honey, that he may know to refuse the evil and to choose the good"] since before the child knows good or evil, he shall resist malice, that he may choose that which is good. But David says of himself: The sins of my youth and my ignorances 217Bremember not (Psal. XXIV). Because therefore these first motions of the soul, brought forth according to the flesh, rush into sin, deservedly in the moral sense the firstborn of the Egyptians are set down as the first things, because they are extinguished if the conversation of the remaining life directs a more amended course. So therefore in the soul, which the divine law, having taken it up out of its errors, chastises, the firstborn of the Egyptians are destroyed, unless, enduring after all these things in unbelief, it refuse to be joined to the people of Israel, so as to come out of the deep and escape unharmed, but remain in iniquity, and go down as lead into the mightiest water. For iniquity, according to Zacharias (ZAC. V), sits upon a talent of lead: and therefore he who remains in iniquity is sunk like lead into the deep profondum.

217CVERS. 7.-- Among all, etc. (AUG. in libro Locutionum. ) It is a most elegant manner of speech: for by the dog he signified the last, whether of men or of cattle: thus he set forth how great a quiet there should be among the Hebrews, while the Egyptians cried out in bitter bereavement.

VERS. 9, 10.-- Pharaoh shall not hear you, etc. (AUG., quaest. 40 in Exod.) As though there had been need of the disobedience of Pharaoh that those signs might be multiplied: which were profitably done for the terrifying of the people of God, and for forming it to piety by that very discrimination. But this was of God, who used well the malice of that heart, not of Pharaoh, who ill abused the patience of God.

217DVERS. 2-4.-- This month, etc. (RAB.) This is April, which among the Hebrews is called Nisam, among the Macedonians Ξανθικός; and it is called Aprilis as it were aperilis, because then the earth is opened for the bringing forth of shoots, herbs and flowers: or Aprilis from Venus, as it were Aphroditis; for Venus in Greek is called Aphrodite. The Hebrews hold this month as the first, because the fifteenth of its Kalends was the first day of the world: the fourteenth, the second day; the thirteenth, the third; the twelfth, the fourth, on which the sun and the moon were made, and then was the first equinox; for the sun in the east and the moon in the west divided the sphere of the world equally.

(STRAB.) This is Nisan, according to the Hebrews, in which the world was made, whose full moon is always to be looked for after the vernal 218Aequinox: in which the people of Israel is freed from the servitude of Egypt, and the human race is snatched by the blood of Christ from the power of the devil. On the tenth day of the month the lamb is taken, on the fourteenth it is sacrificed: because in the law the passion of Christ is figured, and, the grace of the Gospel flashing forth, it is fulfilled; for the number ten, because of the decalogue, signifies the law, but the number four the four gospels.

VERS. 5, 6.-- And it shall be, etc. (AUG., quaest. 42 in Exod., tom. III.) That manner of speech may disturb a man, etc., as far as what was figured by that precept.

According to which rite, etc. Allegorically. Because Christ took flesh of the just and of sinners, that no one might despair of pardon. Or because Christ was a kid to the Jews, who said: This man is a sinner (Joan. 218BIX), but to us a lamb without spot. Or because he appeared in the likeness of sinful flesh and died for sin, whereas he had no sin (I Petr. II).

(STRAB.) On the tenth day of April he came to Jerusalem, and on the following day he was received by the crowds with branches of palms and with divine praises. Through the three remaining days he was watched by the Jews until the fourteenth day, that is, until the fifth day of the week, on which he supped with the apostles, and afterwards was betrayed.

VERS. 7.-- And they shall take of the blood thereof, etc. (GREG., homil. 22 in Evang., tom. II.) The blood is set on when it is drunk not only with the mouth of the body, but also with the mouth of the heart, etc., as far as because we bear the cross of his passion upon the forehead.

VERS. 8.-- And they shall eat the flesh, etc. (GREG., ibid.) 218CBy night we eat the lamb, etc., as far as for he offers praise out of leaven who prepares for God a sacrifice out of rapine.

With wild lettuces, etc. (GREG., ibid.) Wild lettuces are exceeding bitter, etc., as far as that he may know that all things are dispensed through the power of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 9-11.-- The head with the feet, etc. (GREG., ibid.) The head of Christ is God (I Cor. XI). To devour therefore the head of the lamb, etc., as far as let no one be sluggish on the journey of this life, lest he lose his place in the fatherland.

(GREG. NYSS., de Vita Mosis. ) By those wrappings of things he admonishes us that through these riddles we should be willing to consider and to understand that this our life is a certain passing over. For after we have entered upon it, we are always driven by a certain necessity toward the going out, 218Dfor which he wills us to be prepared with hands and feet and the remaining equipment for the journey. Lest therefore our feet be hurt by thorns on this steep journey of living, we ought to travel not with bare feet, but fortified with harder shoes. But the thorns, which, fixed in the feet, not only hold back and retard but also kill, are sins, from which the hardness of the shoes defends: namely a continent, spare and hard life, which weakens and breaks the points of the thorns, by which, from a small and slender beginning, sins so make their way onward to the things before them, that they slay utterly. To the leading of this life an ankle-length and flowing garment, that is, a voluptuous and vicious manner of living, which lies open most widely, is a hindrance: wherefore it is to be drawn in 219Awith a certain girdle and constrained, lest it flow about hither and thither. But the girdle is modesty and a careful manner of living, which admonishes us to use things for necessity, not for pleasure. The staff with which we drive off wild beasts, and by which we are sometimes supported, is hope. But the food set before us is only from the fire, since faith, which is signified by that food, ought to be most burning, possessing nothing moist or slippery.

Phase. In Hebrew it is Pesach פסח , in Greek Πάσχα, that is, a passing over; because it was first celebrated by the children of Israel as they went out of Egypt: we also must pass over from things transitory to things eternal, from things earthly to things heavenly.

VERS. 12, 13.-- In all the gods, etc. The Hebrews report that all the idols of Egypt were broken in pieces on that night, 219Band the temples also, either by an earthquake or by an inundation of the river Nile. But allegorically, as we go out of Egypt, the idols of errors fall down, and all the cultivation of perverse doctrines is shaken.

VERS. 14-17.-- And you shall have this day, etc. (AUG., in Exod. quaest. 43, tom. III.) And you shall keep this day in your generations as lawful, everlasting or eternal; which in Greek is called αἰὼνιον, is not to be taken thus, etc., as far as at every time of the present life simplicity is to be kept, malice to be shunned.

VERS. 18-20.-- In the first month, the fourteenth day, etc. (RAB.) Mystically. The evening of the fourteenth day of the first month, on which the Pasch is celebrated and the immolation of the lamb is accomplished, signifies the putting off of the old man and the beginning of the new, which is begun in baptism, 219Cthat figures the death of Christ. Whence: As many of us as are baptized in Christ Jesus, are baptized into his death, etc. (Gal. III). From the evening therefore of the fourteenth day of the first month until the evening of the twenty-first, a whole week namely, we are commanded [jubentur] to eat unleavened bread, because from the receiving of baptism until the end of life we ought to live simply and without guile. Whence Peter: Laying aside all malice and all guile and dissimulation, as newborn babes, etc. (I Petr. II).

VERS. 21.-- The ancients. Note that he communicates the commandments of God first not to boys, not to young men, but to the elders, because in the aged is wisdom, and in length of time prudence.

VERS. 22.-- And a bunch of hyssop, etc. (STRAB.) 219DHyssop is a lowly herb, growing upon rocks, purging the breast and the lung: and it signifies true humility, of which Christ afforded us the example in himself. We dip therefore the bunch of hyssop in the blood, when, mindful of the humility of Christ, we study to imitate him.

Dip it in the blood, etc. (AUG., quaest. 46 in Exod.) It is asked what blood he calls that which is beside the door, since he would have understood the blood of that lamb by whose immolation the Pasch is made. Or does he command that it be done in that manner consequently, although he has been silent of this, that the same lamb be slain beside the door? Or, which is the more credible, he therefore said of the blood which is beside the door, because he who is to anoint is about to set 220Abeside the door the very vessel in which he received the blood, that he may have it at hand while he dips.

VERS. 23-29.-- And he will not suffer the destroyer, etc. (STRAB.) Whether the smiter was a good angel or an evil one, it is not necessary to inquire: for whoever he was, he obeyed the command of the Lord. Yet it is to be known that evil angels are wont to work such plagues, by the permission of God.

The tenth precept is: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's goods, etc. [Vulg. Ex 20:17 Non concupisces domum proximi tui … nec omnia quae illius sunt, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house … nor any thing that is his"] Contrary to this is the tenth plague, the death of the firstborn. By another precept theft is forbidden, by which rapine also is condemned: for it is worse to snatch away by violence than by stealth. He therefore who wishes to take away openly or secretly has his own precept: but to covet a neighbour's goods, even if thou seek it by a just succession, 220Bis not lawful. For those who wish to possess other men's goods as it were justly, seek also to be heirs to them when they die. When thou praisest a thing left behind, as though the man possessed it by right, God condemns him who desires it unjustly. For thou who seekest to be made heir to another dost not wish that he should have heirs, among whom nothing is dearer than the firstborn. By right therefore art thou punished in thine own firstborn, thou who, by coveting other men's goods, seekest out as it were a shadow of right, and losest the firstborn of the heart, which are the better things. The firstborn indeed is faith. For no one does good things in whom faith has not gone before. All good works are spiritual sons, but among these faith is the firstborn. Whosoever therefore thou art that secretly covetest another's goods, thou losest faith within. For thou servest not by charity but by fraud, as one loving him whom thou desirest to die, that thou mayest succeed him.

220CVERS. 30-33.-- For there was not a house, etc. (AUG., quaest. 44 in Exod.) Since only the firstborn were dying, how was there no house in which there was not one dead? Or had this also been divinely provided, that in all the houses there should be firstborn, in whom the Egyptians should be struck, even those who dwelt in the land of Gessen? For here they were of men, or of animals, not of the land; that is, men and animals that were firstborn were dying, by a hidden and angelic stroke: not anything had been done in the earth or in the heaven, as the frog, or the locust, or the darkness. For since the land of Gessen had been free from such plagues, the benefit reached the Egyptians who dwelt in it with the Hebrews: but by this plague all were struck.

VERS. 34.-- The meal sprinkled, etc. (AUG.) 220DMystically. Without leaven the children of Israel set out from Egypt; that we, going out of this world, may cast away the leaven of malice and of wickedness, and feast in the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.

VERS. 35, 36.-- And they asked, etc. (AUG., quaest. 45.) This had already been done before the deaths of the firstborn. But now it is repeated by way of recapitulation, for it was narrated when it was done. For how could it now come about that these things should be lent amid so great a mourning: unless perhaps one should say that by this plague also those Egyptians were not struck who dwelt with the Hebrews.

Vessels of gold, etc. These signify the doctrines which are learned out of the very custom of the nations by no unprofitable study; or precious souls out of the nations, as 221Avessels of gold and of silver; with garments, that is, with bodies: which join themselves to the people of God, that once for all they may be freed out of this world as out of Egypt.

VERS. 37-45.-- And they set forward, etc. (ORIG. hom. 5 in Exod.). He who prepares to set out from Egypt, who desires to leave behind the dark deeds of the world and the darkness of errors, must first set out from Ramesse, which is interpreted the commotion of the moth. If thou wilt come to this, that God may be thy leader, and that the rock may follow which bestows spiritual meat and drink, go out from Ramesse, lest thou lay up treasure where the moth destroys and thieves dig through, etc.

If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me (Matth. VI): this is to set out from Ramesse, and to follow Christ.

221BFrom Ramesse to Socoth, etc. (ORIG. ibid.) Let us see what is the place of encampment to which they come. From Ramesse they came into Socoth, which is interpreted tabernacles. When therefore, leaving Egypt, thou hast shaken off the moths of every corruption and hast cast away the incitements of the vices, thou shalt dwell in tabernacles, by which, namely, we would not be unclothed but clothed upon. And the dwelling in tabernacles shows that he who hastens to God is unencumbered. But not even in this must one stand still: the camp must be moved from Socoth also, and one must hasten into Othon, which is interpreted signs to them, because here, namely, thou shalt hear that God goes before them by day in a pillar of cloud, and by night in a pillar of fire; not this in Ramesse, nor in Socoth, which are the second camp. The third are those in which the divine signs are wrought: this 221Cwas the three days to which Moses and Aaron were hastening, and Pharao contradicted them, saying: Go no further. He was unwilling that the children of Israel should reach the place of the signs, that they might be able to enjoy the mysteries of the third day. Whence Osee VI: God will raise us up after two days, and on the third day we shall rise again, and we shall live in his sight. [Vulg. Os 6:3 Vivificabit nos post duos dies; in die tertia suscitabit nos, et vivemus in conspectu ejus, "He will quicken us after two days: on the third day he will raise us up"] The first day is for us the passion of Christ; the second, that on which he descended into hell; the third, that on which he rose again: therefore on the third day he went before them by day in a pillar of cloud; but by night, in a pillar of fire. It is necessary therefore that they who are baptized in Christ should be baptized in his death, and be buried together with him, and on the third day rise again, whom, namely, he hath raised up with himself and hath made to sit in the heavenly places (Rom. VI).

About six hundred thousand, etc. (AUG., quaest. 47.) It is asked 221Dwhether the Hebrews came to so great a number through those years in Egypt, etc., as far as that is, after the death of Joseph they were oppressed with hard servitude.

VERS. 46-51.-- Nor of him, etc. The bone of Christ was not broken on the cross, because, seeing him already dead, they did not break his legs: or the strength of the Godhead in the flesh is not corrupted by blasphemy, because he is not mere man, but true God.

VERS. 2-8.-- Sanctify unto me every firstborn, etc. Because I slew all the firstborn of the Egyptians in your deliverance.

VERS. 9-12.-- And it shall be as a sign, etc. (AUG., quaest. 48 in Exod.). What is it that he says when he gives commandment concerning the pasch, 222Aetc., as far as otherwise grace would now be no longer grace.

VERS. 13-15.-- But every firstborn of man, etc. (CYRILL.) He commands the firstborn of men to be redeemed, that he may forbid manslaying: he who created all things that they might be incorruptible.

(GREG., lib. XXVII Moral., cap. 1.) The ass signifies uncleanness, the sheep innocence. Therefore to exchange the firstling of an ass for a sheep is to turn the beginnings of an unclean life into the simplicity of innocence, so that after the sinner has done those things which the Lord rejected as unclean, he may now by his doing bring forth those things which he may lay upon the sacrifice of God. For we are all born in sin, and conceived of the delight of the flesh, and have contracted original guilt to ourselves. Whence also by our own will we are entangled 222Bin sins. But he too who after the malice of the flesh is turned to the innocence of the heart exchanges the firstling of an ass for a sheep, that is, the malice of his former life. For he who ceases to be such as he was before, and, having laid hold of cleanness of the flesh, keeps innocence, has exchanged the firstling of the ass for a sheep in the offering of God.

VERS. 16.-- And as a thing hung up. The Jews, understanding this ill, used to bind little patches or phylacteries about their heads, in which they had the ten words written before their eyes.

VERS. 17.-- When therefore he had sent them out, etc. (GREG. lib. XXIV Moral. cap. 13). Often the converted, in the very entrance of their conversion, receive tranquillity of the flesh, gifts of prophecy, the teachings of doctrine, miracles of signs or the grace of healings. Afterward they are wearied by the hard 222Cprovings of temptations, from which they believed themselves to be free: because if in the beginning the bitterness of temptations were to beat upon them, they would easily return to the vices from which they have not far withdrawn. From those therefore who go out of Egypt wars near at hand are taken away: because to those who leave the world a certain tranquillity is first shown, lest, troubled in that very tenderness and beginning, they return to what they had left: first therefore they feel the sweetness of security, first they are nourished by the quiet of peace; but after the sweetness has been known they bear the contests of temptations the more tolerably, the more deeply they have known in God the things they love.

VERS. 18-20.-- God led them not, etc. (AUG., quaest. 49). Here it is shown that all things ought to be done which can rightly be done by counsel, for the avoiding of those things which 222Dare adverse, even when God is most openly a helper (Epist. ad Dam., tom. I).

And the children went up armed, etc. (HIERON.) Aquila, who translates word for word, not, as they suppose, from contentiousness, but from diligence, where the Seventy set, but in the fifth generation the children of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt, rendered, and the children of Israel went up armed out of the land of Egypt, although, in place of what we have called armed, it may, according to the ambiguity of the Greek speech, be understood equipped or furnished, on account of the household stuff wherewith they despoiled the Egyptians. But where the Seventy set in the fifth generation, they who have diligently inspected the books of the Hebrews report that not "fifth" but "five" is written, so that the sense may be: but five went up, 223Athe children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt; and because this seemed to be less understood, "generation" was added. But Aquila is said to have translated properly both in the rest and chiefly in this place, as all the benches of the synagogues agree.

(AUG., quaest. 53.) But in the fifth progeny, etc. Whether he means to reckon a progeny within a hundred years, etc., as far as Naason begot Salmon.

VERS. 21-22.-- And the Lord went before them, etc. (ORIG.) When the mystery of the third day has been received by thee, God will begin to lead thee forth and to show thee the way of salvation.

(GREG.) In the fire is terror, in the cloud the gentle soothing of a vision. The day is the life of the just man; the night, of the sinner. Whence Ephes. V: You were once darkness, but now 223Blight in the Lord, etc. [Vulg. Eph 5:8 Eratis enim aliquando tenebrae: nunc autem lux in Domino, "For you were heretofore darkness"] By day the pillar was shown by the cloud, and by night by the fire; because almighty God will appear both gentle to the just and terrible to the wicked. Coming to judgment, he soothes these by the mildness of his lenity, and terrifies those by the strictness of his justice. Otherwise: the pillar of cloud went before the people in the desert, and shone with the splendour of fire not by day, but by night: because Christ, affording leadership to his followers by the example of his own conversation, shone with no light to those who trusted in their own justice; but upon those who acknowledged the darkness of their sins he shed the fire of his love. Christ is the cloud and the pillar, because he is upright, and firm, and upholds our infirmity; because he shines by night and does not shine by day, that they who see not may see; and they who see may become blind (Joan. IX). The sacrament of Christ also 223Cis manifest as it were by day in the flesh as it were in a cloud: but in the judgment as it were in the terror of night; because then there will be great tribulation, and it will shine as fire to the just, and burn the unjust.

VERS. 2.-- Phihahiroth, which is between Magdalum, etc. (ORIG., hom. 5 in Exod.) Let us see what way is enjoined to be chosen. Turning back from Othon, he says, make your journey between Epauleum and Magdalum, which is over against Beelsephon, etc. Epauleum is interpreted a winding ascent, Magdalum a tower, Beelsephon the ascent of a watchtower, or having a watchtower. He believed perhaps that God would show a level and easy way, but it is an ascent, and a winding one. For the way by which one goes toward the virtues is not downhill, but the climb is narrow and difficult. 223DWhence Matthew VII: For the way which leadeth to life is strait and narrow. [Vulg. Mt 7:14 Quam angusta porta, et arcta via est, quae ducit ad vitam, "How narrow is the gate, and strait is the way that leadeth to life"] The journey therefore by which one goes forward is a winding ascent, and the ascent of a watchtower or having a watchtower. The ascent belongs to deeds, the watchtower to faith; it is shown therefore that both in deeds and in faith there is much difficulty, much labour: for many temptations meet us, many stumbling-blocks, when we would do the things that are God's. Then in faith thou wilt find many winding things, very many questions, the objections of heretics, the contradictions of unbelievers: this journey therefore must be made by those who follow the Lord. But there is also a tower on this road, of which it is said in Luke XIV: Which of you, wishing to build a tower, doth not first sit down and reckon the charges, whether he have wherewith to finish it? [Vulg. Lc 14:28 Quis enim ex vobis volens turrim aedificare, non prius sedens computat sumptus, qui necessarii sunt, si habeat ad perficiendum, "which are necessary, whether he have wherewith to finish it"] This then is 224Athe tower, high and lofty by these virtues; and Pharao, seeing it, says: These men are astray. With Pharao, he who follows God is said to go astray, because the way of wisdom is winding, having many difficulties and turnings. If thou confess one Father invisible, and his one only-begotten Jesus Christ, and one Holy Spirit, this seems winding, difficult and incredible among unbelievers. If thou say that the God of majesty was crucified and is the Son of man who came down from heaven, these things seem winding and difficult; and he who hears (unless he hear it with faith) says that these men are astray. But be thou fixed in this faith, knowing that God has shown thee this way of faith, who says: Taking up the camp from Othon, place it between Epauleum and Magdalum.

224BHe had been. (ORIG.) Fleeing Egypt thou comest to the ascent of works and of faith, and to the building of the tower: thou comest to the sea, and the waves of temptations meet thee. Whence II Tim. III: For they who will to live godly in Christ suffer persecution, [Vulg. 2Tim 3:12 Et omnes, qui pie volunt vivere in Christo Jesu, persecutionem patientur, "And all who will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution"] because our life upon earth is a temptation. But if thou follow Moses, that is, the law of God, Egypt pursues thee. But see what shall come to pass: There lifted himself up, he says, the angel of the Lord, who went before the camp of Israel, and he went away behind them. He lifted up also the pillar of cloud from before their face, and it stood behind them, and entered in between the camp of the Egyptians and Israel. [Vulg. Ex 14:19-20 Tollensque se angelus Dei, qui praecedebat castra Israel, abiit post eos: et cum eo pariter columna nubis, priora dimittens, post tergum stetit, inter castra Aegyptiorum et castra Israel, "the angel of God … and with him together the pillar of cloud, leaving the front, stood behind"] This pillar of cloud is made a wall to the people of God: on the Egyptians it lays darkness; the pillar of fire is not carried over to the Egyptians, that they may see the light: but the pillar of cloud, that they may remain in darkness, because they loved darkness, not 224Cthe light. And thou therefore, if thou withdraw from the Egyptians, if thou flee from the power of the demons, see how great helps are prepared for thee, provided thou remain strong in faith: let not the horsemen and chariots of the Egyptians terrify thee, nor do thou cry out against the law of God, that is, against Moses, saying: As though there were no sepulchres in Egypt, so hast thou led us forth. [Vulg. Ex 14:11 Forsitan non erant sepulchra in Aegypto, ideo tulisti nos ut moreremur in solitudine, "Perhaps there were no graves in Egypt, therefore thou hast taken us away"]

VERS. 11-12.-- Perhaps there were no sepulchres, etc? (ORIG., homil. 5 in Exod.) These are the words of a mind failing under temptation: blessed is he who so receives temptations that no thought of doubt creeps upon him. To Peter also it is said in Matthew XIII: O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt? These are the words of temptation and of frailty. Otherwise it is false, for it is better to die in the desert than to serve the Egyptians. For he who dies in 224Dthe desert, by this very thing, that he is separated from the Egyptians, that is, from the rulers of darkness and from the power of Satan, has had some profit, even if he could not attain to the whole. For it is better for one seeking the perfect life to die on the road than not even to set out. Whence the opinion of those seems to be false who, while they set forth the way of virtue as arduous and perilous, judge that it is not even to be begun. For it is better to die on the road than to be slain among the Egyptians and overwhelmed by false and bitter waves.

VERS. 13-14.-- For the Egyptians whom you now, etc. (AUG. quaest. 5 in Exod.) For as you have seen the Egyptians today, you shall not again see them any more unto eternal time. [Vulg. Ex 14:13 Aegyptios enim, quos nunc videtis, nequaquam ultra videbitis usque in sempiternum, "the Egyptians whom you now see, you shall see no more for ever"] But how are these words ververba to be taken, 225Asince the Israelites afterwards saw Egyptians? Or is it because those who then saw them did not see them further, since both they died who were pursuing, and these all, each on the day of his own death? For their descendants saw the descendants of those. Or is it to be understood, you shall not see them as today, that is, not as today pursuing and enemies, so that there may be no question even about the eternal time which he has here set down; because although both shall see one another at the time of the resurrection, yet not so as today.

VERS. 15-17.-- Why criest thou to me? etc. (GREG.) It is not our words that make voices before the ears of God, but our desires. For if we ask eternal life with the mouth and do not desire it with the heart, in crying out we are silent: but if we desire with the heart, though we are silent with the mouth, in keeping silence we cry. 225BWhence in the desert, when the people made a din with their voices, and Moses was silent from the noise of words, being silent he is heard, and it is said to him: Why criest thou to me? For in desire the secret cry does not reach human ears, but fills the divine.

(ORIG., ut supra. ) No voice of Moses is heard, and the Lord says: Why criest thou to me? I would gladly know how the saints cry to God without a voice. The Apostle to the Galatians IV says: For God will give the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying: Abba, Father. [Vulg. Gal 4:6 Quoniam autem estis filii, misit Deus Spiritum Filii sui in corda vestra, clamantem: Abba, Pater, "And because you are sons, God hath sent the Spirit of his Son into your hearts"] And he adds: the Spirit himself intercedeth for us with unspeakable groanings. [Vulg. Rom 8:26 sed ipse Spiritus postulat pro nobis gemitibus inenarrabilibus, "the Spirit himself asketh for us"] And again in Romans VIII: And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what the spirit desireth. So then, at the asking of the Holy Spirit, the cry of the saints is heard through silence. Moses is commanded to strike the sea with his rod, 225Cthat it may give way to the people of God as they enter, and that the waters which were feared, being made a wall on the right hand and on the left, may not only know no ruin, but may even afford a defence. The liquid takes on solidity, and the floor of the sea dries into dust: understand the goodness of the Creator; if thou obey his will, if thou follow his law, he compels the elements to serve thee against their nature. I have heard it handed down by our elders that for the several tribes there were made several divisions of the waters, and a way of its own for each. And this is shown from that which is said in Psalm CXXXV: Who divided the Red Sea into divisions, etc. And elsewhere, in Psalm LXVII: There is Benjamin the lesser in a stupor. The princes of Juda, their leaders; the princes of Zabulon and the princes of Nephthali: [Vulg. Ps 67:28 Ibi Benjamin adolescentulus, in mentis excessu; principes Juda, duces eorum; principes Zabulon, principes Nephthali, "There is Benjamin a youth, in ecstasy of mind"] an entrance seems to be enumerated proper to each tribe. The Apostle 225Dsays that a baptism was accomplished in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, so that thou who art baptized in Christ, in water and in the Spirit, mayest know that the Egyptians pursue thee and would call thee back to servitude, the rulers, namely, of the world, and the spiritual wickednesses which thou didst serve before. But thou goest down into the water, and comest out unharmed and risest up new, washed from the filth of thy sins, made ready to sing a new song. The Egyptians as they pursue are drowned in the deep, and if they seem to beseech Jesus not to drown them again in the deep.

(ID.) Otherwise, if thou flee Egypt, that is, the darkness of ignorance; if thou follow Moses, that is, the law of God, and the sea meet thee, that is, the waves of gainsayers, do thou also strike the struggling waves with the rod, that is, with the word 226Aof the law and with the vigilance of the Scriptures; open thyself a way by disputation through thy adversaries, and the waves will give place to the victor; and while they who before gainsaid stand amazed and fixed with astonishment, thou wilt cut a straight path of faith by the lawful lines of disputation, and thou wilt so far advance in the word of doctrine that thy hearers, whom thou hast instructed in the words of the law, will now rise up against the Egyptians like waves of the sea, and will not only assail but even overcome and extinguish them. For he extinguishes Egypt who does not the works of darkness, who lives not carnally, but spiritually; who either drives out filthy thoughts from his heart, or does not receive them at all, according to that of Ephesians VI: Taking the shield of faith, that you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the wicked one. [Vulg. Eph 6:16 in omnibus sumentes scutum fidei, in quo possitis omnia tela nequissimi ignea extinguere, "in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one"] In this way therefore we can even today see the Egyptians dead, and Pharao himself, 226Bif we live with so great faith that God crush Satan under our feet speedily through Jesus Christ.

VERS. 19-20.-- And the angel of God lifting himself up, etc. (STRAB.) The angel, who is interpreted messenger, signifies the teachers, who announce to us the precepts of life, and with the cloud, that is, the knowledge of the Scriptures, go before the camp of Israel, that is, the Church, because with the knowledge of the Scriptures they preside. When the Egyptians come upon them he goes back behind, because in the time of persecution they set themselves in front on behalf of their subjects. But the cloud was dark to the Egyptians, bright to the Hebrews.

VERS. 21-31.-- All the night, etc. Because through the whole time of this life, which the night signifies, the grace of the Holy Spirit makes the waters of baptism passable to the faithful, 226Cthat they may pass over from spiritual Egypt into the land of promise: but it chokes the army of the enemy.

(ISID.) The Red Sea signifies the baptism consecrated by the blood of Christ; the enemies following at the back die together with their king, because past sins are blotted out in baptism, and the devil is choked: the Egyptians press on as far as the sea, and sins as far as baptism. After the passage of the Red Sea the people sing, the enemies being drowned; and the faithful, coming up from the laver, their sins extinguished, chant a hymn, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, for gloriously, etc.

VERS. 1.-- Then sang Moses, etc. (ORIG., homil. 6 in Exod.) We read many canticles in the Scriptures, 226Dbut this is the first of them all, which, when the Egyptians and Pharao were drowned, is sung after the victory. For it is the custom of the saints, when the adversary is overcome (since they know that the victory was wrought not by their own strength but by the grace of God), to offer to God a hymn of glorifying. Yet as they sing they take timbrels in their hands, as is related of Mary and Aaron. And thou therefore, if thou hast crossed the Red Sea, if thou hast seen the Egyptians drowned and Pharao cast headlong into the deep, canst thankfully sing a hymn to God, and say: Let us sing to the Lord gloriously, etc. And thou wilt say this more worthily if thou have a timbrel in thy hand, that is, if thou have crucified thy flesh with its vices and concupiscences.

For gloriously, etc. (ORIG.) It is not enough, he is glorified; 227Afor it is one thing to be glorified, another to be gloriously glorified. For when Christ took flesh for us, he was glorified, who came to seek what had perished, yet not gloriously, because he had no comeliness nor beauty; he was glorified when he came to the cross and endured death; whence John XVII: Father, the hour is come, glorify thy Son, etc. [Vulg. Jo 17:1 Pater, venit hora: clarifica Filium tuum, "Father, the hour is come, clarify thy Son"] The passion of the cross therefore was also a glory, wherein he was glorified, yet not gloriously, but humbly; whence Philip. II: He humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And Wisdom II: Let us condemn him to a most shameful death. In these things therefore he was glorified concerning himself humbly, not gloriously; whence Luke XXIV: Because it behoved Christ to suffer, and so to enter into his glory. [Vulg. Lc 24:26 Nonne haec oportuit pati Christum, et ita intrare in gloriam suam?, "Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into his glory?"] When he shall come in the glory of the Father, and of the angels, 227Bto judge the earth, and shall slay the true Pharao, that is, the devil, with the spirit of his mouth, when he shall shine again in the majesty of the Father: then shall he be gloriously glorified, when all shall honour the Son as they honour the Father.

He is magnified, the horse and the rider he hath cast into the sea, etc. In the signs of Egypt. But he was gloriously magnified, because he drowned Pharao and his army. Or he was magnified in working miracles before the passion, in preaching, in dying on the cross: but he was gloriously magnified when he rose again a conqueror, the devil conquered, hell despoiled.

The horse, etc. (ORIG.) The men who pursue us are horses; and all who are born in the flesh are figuratively horses, and have their riders. There are those whom 227Cthe Lord mounts, and they go about the whole earth; of whom it is said in Habacuc III: Thy cavalry is salvation. [Vulg. Hab 3:8 Qui ascendes super equos tuos, et quadrigae tuae salvatio, "and thy chariots are salvation"] Others the devil and his angels mount. Judas was a horse, and while he had the Lord for his rider he was of the cavalry of salvation: for, sent with the other apostles, he gave health to the sick and soundness to the languishing; but when he laid himself down under the devil, who entered into him after the morsel, being made the horse of Satan and led by his reins he rode against the Lord. All persecutors therefore are neighing horses, but they have evil angels as riders by whom they are driven, and therefore they are fierce. If thou see thy persecutor raging beyond measure, know that he is being pricked by his rider, and therefore he is savage and truculent.

VERS. 2.-- This is my God, etc. (ORIG.) He therefore 227Dshall be both my God and the God of my father. Our Father, who made us and begat us, is Christ, who said in John XVI: I go to my Father, etc. [Vulg. Jo 16:28 vado ad Patrem, without meum] If therefore I acknowledge that he is my God, I will glorify him; if also that he is my father's, I will exalt him: for it is a higher understanding, how Christ, that he may bind together and unite the truth of the one God, calls him his God whom by nature he knows as Father.

VERS. 3.-- The Lord is as a man of war, etc. (ORIG.) Another reading: The Lord shall destroy wars. Amos IX: The Lord is his name. [Vulg. Am 9:6 Dominus nomen ejus, "The Lord is his name"; the wording printed is that of Jdt 16:3] He destroys not only visible battles, but those also which are ours against principalities, and powers, and the rulers of these darknesses.--The Lord indeed is his name, and there is no 228Acreature of which he is not Lord. The chariots of Pharao and his army he cast into the sea: the chosen riders, the ternistratores, he drowned in the Red Sea. [Vulg. Ex 15:4 currus Pharaonis et exercitum ejus projecit in mare: electi principes ejus submersi sunt in mari Rubro, "his chosen princes are drowned in the Red Sea"] Pharao, as being more powerful in malice and holding the kingdom of wickedness, drives chariots: it is not enough for him to mount one horse, but he drives many at once, and compels them with a twisted lash. Those whom thou seest fouler in luxury, more savage in cruelty, more loathsome in avarice, know that they are of the chariots of Pharao, which he yokes to his car: on these he is borne and flies over the open fields of crimes, with loosened reins. There are other chosen riders, chosen, that is, unto malice.

(ORIG.) They are called ternistratores for this reason, that there is a threefold way of sinning for men. For they sin in deed, in word and in thought. Therefore they are called ternistratores 228Bone by one, because they possess these three ways of sinning in us, and are ever on the watch and work by ambushes, that either the one may draw an evil word out of the wretched man, or the other wring out an iniquitous work, or the third snatch away a most wicked thought. Finally, where the seed of the word of God falls and perishes, a threefold place is described: by the wayside, among thorns, in stony ground. Contrariwise the good earth brings forth a threefold fruit, sixtyfold, hundredfold, thirtyfold (Matth. XIII). For there is also a threefold way of doing well, since something good is done either by work, or by thought, or by word; whence the Apostle says in I Cor. III: He who buildeth upon the foundation silver, gold, precious stones, [Vulg. 1Cor 3:12 Si quis autem superaedificat super fundamentum hoc, aurum, argentum, lapides pretiosos, "gold, silver, precious stones"] indicating a threefold way of good things; and calling the way of evil things wood, hay, stubble. These ternistratores therefore are wicked angels, 228Cwho keep watch in these ways, that they may drive anyone into sin; whom the Lord will plunge into the Red Sea, and will deliver over to fiery waves in the day of judgment, and cover with a sea of punishments.

VERS. 5, 6.-- They went down into the deep like a stone. (ORIG.) Because, namely, such men were not stones out of which the children of Abraham might be raised up, but such as loved the deep and liquid element, that is, the bitter and flowing pleasure of things present. Whence it is said of them: They were sunk like lead in most mighty water. [Vulg. Ex 15:10 submersi sunt quasi plumbum in aquis vehementibus, "they were drowned like lead in the mighty waters"] Sinners are heavy, and iniquity is read to sit upon a talent of lead: hence the wicked are drowned in the deep like lead, but the saints walk upon the waters, because they are light, 228Dand are not weighed down by the burden of sin. Christ walked upon the waters, who truly did no sin: Peter also walked, but doubted a little; for he had somewhat of lead, on account of which it is said to him in Matthew XIV: O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt? All therefore are saved by fire, that if perchance anything of the kind of lead has been admitted, the fire may boil it away and dissolve it, so that all may be made the best gold, since the gold of that land is the best which the saints are to possess; and as the furnace tries gold, so tribulation tries just men. All therefore must come to the melting-pot. For God sits and melts, and purges the sons of Juda. If any man bring many good works and little of iniquity, that little is dissolved and purged as by fire, and the whole remains pure gold. 229AIf any man bring more lead, more is burned away, that it may be the more boiled down; so that even if little, yet something of purified gold may remain; but he who comes wholly leaden is plunged like lead in most mighty water.

VERS. 7-10.-- Thou hast sent forth thy wrath, etc. (AUG. quaest. 55 in Exod.) Another reading: Thou hast sent forth thy spirit and the sea covered them, etc. Behold, now for the fifth time the Spirit of God is mentioned, etc., as far as Scripture only commanding, without the help of grace.

VERS. 11.-- Who is like to thee, etc. (ORIG., ut supra. ) He does not compare God to the images of the nations, nor to the demons who falsely claim to themselves the name of gods, but he calls those gods who are so named by grace and by participation of God, according to that of Psalm LXXXI: 229BI have said: You are gods. And in the same place: God hath stood in the assembly of gods. But these, although they are capable of God, and seem to be endowed with this name by grace, yet none is like to him in power or in nature; and as to what is said, we shall be like to him, this likeness is referred not to nature but to grace, as a picture is like to him whose image is expressed in it as to grace, but far unlike as to substance. For that is the appearance of flesh, and the comeliness of a living body; this is a dye of colours, and wax laid upon boards that lack sense. None therefore among gods is like to the Lord, invisible, namely, incorporeal, unchangeable, without beginning and without end. None is the creator of all things save the Father, creating all things through the Son, and sanctifying all things in the Holy Spirit.

229CVERS. 12, 13.-- Thou hast stretched forth, etc. (ORIG.) That moves me which he says: Thou hast stretched forth thy right hand and the earth swallowed them, [Vulg. Ex 15:12 Extendisti manum tuam, et devoravit eos terra, "Thou hast stretched forth thy hand"] as though the cause of their being swallowed by the earth was that he stretched forth his right hand. If thou consider how the Lord, lifted up on the cross, all the day stretched out his hand to a people not believing but contradicting, and how death for iniquity crushed the unbelieving people that cried out: Crucify, crucify him (Joan. XIX), thou wilt find how he stretched forth his right hand, and the earth swallowed them. Yet one must not altogether despair. For if he who has been swallowed come to himself, he can be vomited forth like Jonas. All of us the earth once swallowed and held in the inmost parts of hell: therefore Christ came down not only to the lands, but also to the lower parts of the earth: and there he found us swallowed up, and 229Dsitting in the shadow of death; and leading us out thence, not only to the earth, lest we be swallowed again, but he prepares also the kingdom of heaven.

(ORIG.) The earth swallows up the wicked even today, who always think of earth, do earthly things, speak of earth, wrangle, desire earth, place their hope in it, look not up to heaven, think not of things to come, fear not the judgment of God, nor desire his promises; when thou seest such a one, say ye that the earth has swallowed him: and if thou see any man given over to lust and to the pleasures of the body, in whom the mind avails nothing but desire possesses the whole, say thou that the earth has swallowed him.

VERS. 14, 15.-- They went up, etc. (ORIG.) The nations heard 230Aand were angry, sorrows took hold of the inhabitants of Philisthiim, etc. [Vulg. Ex 15:14 Ascenderunt populi, et irati sunt: dolores obtinuerunt habitatores Philisthiim, "The peoples went up, and were angry: sorrows laid hold of the inhabitants of Philisthiim"] As to the history, it is certain that none of these nations was present at the wonders: how then were the Philisthiim, and the Moabites, and Edom, and the remaining nations which he enumerates, terrified with terror or angered? But, spiritually, thou wilt find that the Philisthiim, that is, falling by the cup, and Edom, namely, the earthly one, tremble: and their princes run to and fro and quake, bound fast with sorrows, when they see their kingdoms, which are in hell, penetrated by him who descended into the lower parts of the earth, that he might snatch away those who were possessed by death. Hence they fear and tremble, because they have felt the greatness of his arm; hence also the inhabitants of Chanaan pined away, that is, the changeable and the moveable, when they saw their kingdoms shaken, and 230Bthe strong one bound. Let fear then come upon them, and trembling: the demons tremble and fear the cross of Christ, in which they were triumphed over, and their principalities and power were stripped from them. Fear therefore and trembling shall fall upon them, when they shall see in us the sign of the cross faithfully fixed, and the greatness of the arm which the Lord spread out upon the cross, as Isaias LXV says: All the day I have spread forth my hands to a people that believeth not, etc. [Vulg. Is 65:2 Expandi manus meas tota die ad populum incredulum, "I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people"; the wording printed is that of Rom 10:21] They will not fear thee otherwise, nor will the trembling of thee rush upon them, unless they see in thee the cross of Christ, so that thou mayest say: But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ (Gal. VI).

VERS. 15, 16.-- Let them become unmoveable as a stone, etc. (ORIG.) To be made as a stone is not to be a stone by nature. For nothing would be made save what it was not. This 230Cwe have said on account of those who say that Pharao or the Egyptians were of an evil nature, and were not brought into this from the freedom of choice; and who accuse God the Creator as cruel, as one who turns men into stones: he did not say, Let them become as stones, and then keep silence, but he appointed a time and a measure of the domination, namely, until thy people pass over. The former people, which was before us, was made as a hard and unbelieving stone, not that the nature of a stone should remain, but until the people pass over which the Lord has purchased. Whence Rom. XI: For blindness in part hath happened in Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles should come in, and then Israel should be saved; [Vulg. Rom 11:25-26 quia caecitas ex parte contigit in Israel, donec plenitudo gentium intraret, et sic omnis Israel salvus fieret, "and so all Israel should be saved"] which by unbelief was made as a stone, whence Matthew III: For God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham. But 230Dsince he is the creator of all things, how is he said to have purchased what there is no doubt is his own? For it is said in the canticle of Deuteronomy: Is not this the same Lord thy God, who made and created thee, and purchased thee? (Deut. XXXII.) [Vulg. Dt 32:6 numquid non ipse est pater tuus, qui possedit te, et fecit, et creavit te?, "Is not he thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee?"] For each man seems to acquire that which was not his own. Whence the heretics say of the Saviour that those whom he purchased were not his: for at a price given he bought men whom the Creator had made, and they say it is certain that everyone buys what is not his own. For the Apostle says in I Cor. VII: You are bought with a price. But hear the Prophet: For your sins you are sold, and for your iniquities have I put away your mother (Isa. L). [Vulg. Is 50:1 Ecce in iniquitatibus vestris venditi estis, et in sceleribus vestris dimisi matrem vestram, "Behold, for your iniquities you are sold, and for your wickednesses have I put away your mother"] We are therefore all creatures of God, but each is sold by his own sins, 231Aand departs from the Creator. We are God's, therefore, according to that we were created by him: but made servants of the devil, according to that we are sold by our own sins. But Christ coming redeemed us who served the devil, to whom we had sold ourselves by sinning; and thus he seems both to have received back his own, whom he created, and to have purchased strangers, who by sinning had acquired a strange master. But he is rightly said to have redeemed us, who gave his own blood for our price. But what did the devil give, that he should buy us? Manslaying is the devil's money, for he is a murderer from the beginning: thou hast done a manslaying, thou hast received the devil's money. The same is to be said of adultery, sacrilege, theft, false witness and the like: for with this money he buys and makes his own servants all who have received anything, however much, of this 231Brevenue of his.

VERS. 17.-- Thou shalt bring them in and plant them, etc. (ORIG.) The Lord will not have us planted in Egypt, nor in low and lowly places, but in the mountain of his inheritance. Of this planting the Prophet says in Psalm LXXIX: Thou hast brought a vineyard out of Egypt, thou hast cast out the nations and planted it: thou wast the guide of the way in its sight, and thou didst plant its roots, and it filled the earth. Its shadow covered the mountains, and its branches the cedars of God. [Vulg. Ps 79:10 plantasti radices ejus, et implevit terram, "thou didst plant its roots, and it filled the earth"; Migne prints replevit] Dost thou mark how God plants, and where? He plants not in valleys, but on mountains, in high and lofty places. For those whom he leads out of Egypt, that is, out of the world unto faith, he will not have set again in lowly places, but that their conversation be lofty, and that they dwell on mountains and on the heights, not creep along 231Cthe ground. He will not have his vineyard bear its fruits any longer cast down in a low place, but that the shoots be led upward, be set on high, become layered vines: and layered not upon lowly trees, but upon lofty and most high cedars of God, namely the prophets and apostles: to whom if we be joined, and the vine which God brought out of Egypt, and our shoots be spread through their branches, and being entwined with them we be made layers, bound one to another by the bonds of charity, we shall bring forth very much fruit. For every tree that maketh not good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire (Matth. III).

Thy most firm dwelling place, etc. (ORIG.) In the prepared habitation which thou hast prepared, O Lord. See the goodness of the merciful Lord: he will not bring thee to labour, he will not that thou thyself make thee a dwelling place; 231Dhe will now bring thee into a habitation already prepared. Whence John IV: Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labours.

Thy sanctuary, etc. (ORIG.) Thy holy place, O Lord, etc. [Vulg. Ex 15:17 sanctuarium tuum, Domine, "thy sanctuary, O Lord"] The tabernacle of God, or the temple, is called a holy place, because it sanctifies those who approach. In Hebrews IX this is said to be made not by the hand of men, but by the hand of God: for thy sake therefore God both plants and builds; he is made a husbandman and a builder, that nothing be wanting to thee. Whence the Apostle in I Cor. III: You are God's husbandry, God's building. What then is this holy place prepared not by the hand of men, but of God. Prov. IX: Wisdom hath built herself a house, that is, the flesh of Christ, not by the hand of man, that is, not 232Aby human work: the temple of the flesh is built in the Virgin, but the stone cut without hands grew, and became a great mountain (Dan. II): this is the holy place of the flesh assumed, and cut both without hands and without the work of men out of the mountain of human nature and the substance of flesh.

VERS. 18.-- The Lord shall reign, etc. (ORIG.) O Lord, who reignest unto the age and unto the age and yet further. [Vulg. Ex 15:18 Dominus regnabit in aeternum et ultra, "The Lord shall reign for ever and beyond"] As often as it is said unto the age, a length of time indeed is signified, but that there is some end; and if it is said unto another age, something longer is signified, but still an end is set: and as often as ages of ages are named, perhaps some term is signified which, though unknown to us, is yet appointed by God. But that he has here added and yet further, leaves no sense of any term 232Bor of an end: for whatsoever thou hast thought, in which thou supposest the end to stand, the prophetic word always says to thee, and yet further; as if it should say to thee, Thou thinkest the Lord will reign unto the age of the age, and yet further thou thinkest unto the ages of ages: and yet further, and whatsoever thou shalt have said of the spaces of his kingdom, the prophet always says to thee, and yet further.

VERS. 19.-- But the children of Israel, etc. (ORIG.) And thou, if thou art a son of Israel, thou canst walk on dry ground in the midst of the sea. If thou shalt be in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation, going as the light of the sun in the midst of sinners, the moisture of sin shall not soak thee, and as thou passest through this world no wave of lust shall bespatter thee, no heat of covetousness shall lash thee. He who is Egypt, and follows Pharao, is drowned in the waves of vices. 232CBut he who follows Christ, and walks as he walked, to him the water becomes a wall on the right hand and on the left. He himself goes forward by the middle way, over the dry ground he turns aside neither to the right hand nor to the left, until he come out to liberty, and sing a hymn of victory to the Lord, saying: Let us sing to the Lord, etc.

VERS. 20, 21.-- A timbrel. (STRAB.) According to Jerome it is a kind of trumpet having at the top a reed or a pipe; through which it renders a sounding voice. The choir, according to the same, is a simple skin with two hemlock pipes; through the one it is blown into, through the other it renders a sound: by both therefore is signified the narrow understanding of the old law. For how brief and how small it is, is shown from this, that it is carried by the hand of a woman. According to Cassiodorus a timbrel is a skin stretched 232Dbetween two pieces of wood: by which the maceration of the flesh is signified. But a choir is a multitude singing together, and it is called chorus as it were the song of those of one age. Because therefore in a choir all the voices sound equally, by it charity is signified, whereby we are all one in Christ. Whosoever therefore renders praises to God in jubilation, let him do this in the choir, that is, in charity, and in the timbrel, that is, in the mortification of the flesh. Whence Psalm CL: Praise ye him with timbrel and choir, etc.

VERS. 22.-- And Moses took Israel, etc. The baptized are led through the world as through a desert after the passage of the Red Sea, not yet having the promised country, but hoping and awaiting it through patience, 233Awhile they are wearied by laborious and perilous temptation. But lest they turn back in heart into Egypt, neither there does Christ forsake them: for that pillar too does not withdraw.

VERS. 23, 24.-- And they came, etc. (ORIG., hom. 6 in Exod.) After the passage of the Red Sea, after the choirs and the timbrels, after the triumphal hymns, one comes to Mara, that is, to water that is bitter, which the people could not drink; one comes to the peril of thirst. But Moses cried to the Lord, and he showed him a wood, by which the water was made sweet, and there God set for him justices and judgment; where, namely, there was bitterness, where there was thirst, and, what is heavier, in an abundance of waters, there was no other place more worthy and more fitting. Besides, as to what he says, God showed him a wood, and he cast it into the water, and it was made sweet, as though God could not 233Bmake the water sweet without a wood, or as though Moses did not know the wood. But if the law be taken according to the letter, it is bitter, and is itself Mara. For what is so bitter as that a child should receive the wound of circumcision on the eighth day, and that tender infancy should suffer the hardness of the iron? For the cup of the law is bitter to the people of God, not the people that was baptized in Moses in the cloud and in the sea, but that which in spirit and in water cannot drink and taste it, nor bear the bitterness of the victims, nor the observance of the sabbath. But if God show a wood to be cast into this bitterness, the water of the law becomes sweet and drinkable. Prov. III: Wisdom is a tree of life to all that embrace her. [Vulg. Pr 3:18 Lignum vitae est his qui apprehenderint eam, "She is a tree of life to them that lay hold on her"] If therefore the wood of the wisdom of Christ shall have been cast into the law, showing how circumcision is to be understood, 233Cand the sabbath, and the law of leprosy and the like, the bitterness of the law is turned into the sweetness of spiritual understanding, so that the people can drink which has left the idols and taken refuge with God. If it hear the law teaching about sacrifices, it at once shrinks back and cannot drink. Into this bitterness therefore, that is, into the letter of the law, God set justices and testimonies, as it were, namely, into a certain little vessel he shuts up [condidit] the treasures of his wisdom and knowledge. Whence: We have this treasure in earthen vessels (II Cor. III). That this water therefore may be drunk, God shows a wood to be cast into it, that he who drinks may not die, may not feel the bitterness. If therefore any man drink without the wood of life, that is, without the mystery of the cross, without the faith of Christ, without spiritual understanding, he shall die of the bitterness. Whence: The letter killeth, 233Dthat is, the water of Mara, if it be drunk unchanged and not turned into sweetness.

VERS. 25-27.-- Who showed him, etc. (AUG., Quaest. 57 in Exod.) There was a kind of wood that had this power: or could God have done it with any wood whatever, who was doing such great wonders? Yet what is said seems to signify, he showed him, as though it were already such; unless perhaps it was a place where no wood at all was to be found, so that this very thing was of the divine help, that the Lord showed him a wood where there was none, and by the wood made the waters sweet, prefiguring the glory and the grace of the cross. But even in such a wood who is to be praised save the Creator and the Shower of it.

There he appointed for him precepts. (ORIG., hom. 7 in Exod.) 234AWhy did he add: After God set for him justices and judgments, there he tempted him, saying: If thou wilt hear the voice of the Lord thy God. [Vulg. Ex 15:25 ibi constituit ei praecepta, atque judicia, et ibi tentavit eum, "there he appointed for him precepts and judgments, and there he tempted him"] He seems to expound why he gave justifications and judgments, namely that he might tempt them whether they would hear the voice of the Lord God, and keep his commandments. For as to the former people, what good or perfect thing could be commanded to them who murmured and gainsaid, who a little after, forgetting the wonders of God, turn to idols? Precepts therefore are given in which they may be tempted; whence: I gave you precepts and justifications that are not good, in which they shall not live (Ezech. XX). [Vulg. Ez 20:25 Ergo et ego dedi eis praecepta non bona, et judicia in quibus non vivent, "Therefore I also gave them precepts that were not good, and judgments in which they shall not live"] For being tempted in the precepts they are not found faithful, and therefore it was found that what was unto life was unto death for them. For the same thing, if it be kept, begets life; if it be not kept, death. To those therefore who keep them not 234Bthe commandments are called not good, and such as they shall not live in. But with the wood of the cross mingled in, being turned into sweetness and spiritually understood, the commandments of life have also been kept. All the languor which I laid upon Egypt I will not bring upon thee. He seems to say that if a man keep the commandments he shall suffer no sickness, that is, neither fevers, nor other bodily pains. But Job, altogether most just and full of all piety, is filled from the head to the feet with the worst ulcer. But the just do not have those infirmities which the Egyptians have. Egypt is the world: to love the world therefore and the things that are in the world is the Egyptian languor; to observe months, seasons, to cling to the courses of the stars, to serve the flesh, to give labour to luxury and to be at leisure for delights, is the Egyptian languor.

234CAnd they came, etc. (ORIG., ibid.) The people is not led into Elim before, where there were twelve fountains of waters, in which there was nothing of bitterness, but very great pleasantness from the thickness of the palm trees: but first it was led to the salt and bitter waters, which being sweetened by the wood shown by the Lord, one comes to the fountains. If we follow the history alone, it does not much edify us to know to what place they came first, to what second. But first the people is led to the letter of the law, from which, while it remains in its bitterness, it cannot withdraw. When therefore it has been sweetened by the wood of life, and spiritually understood, it passes from the Old Testament to the New, and to the twelve apostolic fountains, where are found seventy trees of palms. For not the twelve apostles alone 234Dpreached the faith of Christ, but seventy others also, through whom the world knew the palms of Christ's victory. It is not enough therefore for the people of God to drink the water of Mara, although sweetened by the wood of life; the Old Testament alone does not suffice for drinking, for one must come to the New, of which one drinks without scruple and without difficulty. The Jews also are even now at Mara, that is, at the bitter waters: for God has not yet shown them the wood by which they grow sweet, because unless they shall have believed, they shall not understand (Isa. VII). [Vulg. Is 7:9 Si non credideritis, non permanebitis, "If you will not believe, you shall not continue"]

VERS. 2.-- And all the congregation of Israel murmured, etc. (ORIG., homil. 7 in Exod.) O ungrateful 235Apeople! it desires Egypt, it that saw the Egyptians destroyed; and the flesh of Egypt, it that sees the flesh of the Egyptians given both to the fishes and to the birds! It murmurs against Moses, nay rather against God; but the first time pardon is granted, and the second, and perhaps the third: but if they do not cease, but persist, hear what follows, it is related in the book of Numbers (Num. XXI), and the same Apostle rehearses it, saying (I Cor. X): Neither do you murmur, as some of them murmured, and perished by the serpents. These things were written on account of us, upon whom the ends of the world are come. [Vulg. 1Cor 10:10 has et perierunt ab exterminatore, "and perished by the destroyer"; the serpents belong to v. 9, and v. 11 opens scripta sunt autem ad correptionem nostram] But if we do not cease to murmur and complain against God, we shall incur a like peril of offence, or a like example of it. For when we lay the blame upon the inclemency of the heavens, the unfruitfulness of the crops, the rarity of showers, and upon the prosperity of some and the unprosperity of others, 235Bwe murmur against God. But these things are pardoned at first, and are severely avenged upon those who persist, because serpents shall be sent upon them, that is, they shall be handed over to unclean and poisonous spirits, which by hidden bites feed upon the inner chambers of the heart.

(ORIG.) For the correction of those who read, the sin of the people is set down: that it murmured and was ungrateful for the divine benefits, when it had received the heavenly manna. In the second month, on the fifteenth day of the month, which is not written without reason. Recall the laws of the pasch which were spoken (Num. IX), and thou wilt find there that this is the time which is appointed for the keeping of a second pasch by those who have been unclean in soul, or taken up with business abroad. Those who had not been unclean in soul, or were not journeying far off, 235Ckept the pasch on the fourteenth day of the first month; but those far off on pilgrimage, and the unclean, keep the second pasch at this time, in which the manna came down from heaven. On the day on which the first pasch is kept, the manna does not come down, but on that on which the second is kept: the first pasch is that of the Jewish people; the second is ours. For we were unclean in soul, we who worshipped idols; and we were pilgrims, and far off, strangers and pilgrims from the testaments of God, etc. (Eph. II.) But manna is given from heaven, not on the day on which the first pasch is kept, but on that on which the second is: For the bread which came down from heaven (Joan. VI) did not come to those who were celebrating the first solemnity, but to us, who have received the second. For Christ our pasch is sacrificed, who as true man came down as bread from heaven (I Cor. V.) Let us see 235Dmeanwhile what is shown to have been done on this day: On the fourteenth day of the second month the people murmured, etc.

VERS. 3.-- We sat over the fleshpots, etc. They had flocks of sheep and herds of oxen, of which they could eat; but they burned with desire for the fish and the fowl in which Egypt abounds.

VERS. 4.-- Behold I will rain, etc. (ORIG., homil. 8 in Exod.) I should wish first to have a discourse upon this scripture with the Jews, to whom the oracles of God were entrusted, as to what seems to them of that which it says: For six days together you shall gather, but on the sixth day double. It appears therefore that that day is named the sixth which is set before the sabbath; but the sabbath is the seventh day. 236AI ask therefore on what day the manna began to be given? and I wish to compare our Lord's day with the sabbath of the Jews. For from Scripture it appears that on the Lord's day the manna is first given, gathered for six days together; on the seventh, which is the sabbath, there is a ceasing. Since therefore on the Lord's day God rained manna, and not on the sabbath, let the Jews understand that even then our Lord's day was preferred to their sabbath; and it was signified that on that day the grace of God did not come down from heaven to them, and that the heavenly bread, which is the word of God, did not reach them; whence Osee III: For many days the children of Israel shall sit without king, without prince, without victim, without sacrifice, without priest. [Vulg. Os 3:4 names instead sine altari, et sine ephod, et sine theraphim, "without altar, and without ephod, and without theraphim," and has no victim and no priest] But on our Lord's day the Lord always rains manna, that is, the heavenly words which are joyful to us. Those unhappy men sigh even 236Bafter manna as their fathers did, and do not deserve to receive it; for they cannot eat what is small like coriander seed, and white like hoar frost. For they perceive nothing in the word of God that is small, subtle and spiritual, but all of it fat and gross. For the heart of this people is grown gross. The interpretation also of this name sounds thus. For manna is interpreted What is this? The very force of the name invites to learning, so that when thou hearest the law of God recited, thou mayest always inquire and say to the teachers, What is this? Thou therefore, if thou wilt eat manna, and receive the word of God, know that it is small and very subtle, like coriander seed: for it has somewhat of the herb whereby it can nourish and refresh the weak. For he that is weak eateth herbs (Rom. XIV). For it has also somewhat of sharpness, and therefore is as hoar frost; 236Cbut of whiteness and sweetness very much. What is whiter, more splendid, than divine learning? what sweeter, more delightful, than the words of God, which are above honey and the honeycomb?

Loaves. The manna, namely: it is a manner of speech by which bread is put for food; and Scripture loves rather to say loaves in the plural than bread in the singular.

That I may prove. This proving is a testing, not a seducing to sin; nor are they proved for this reason, that God did not know: but he shows them to themselves, that they may become the more humble in asking help and in acknowledging the grace of God.

VERS. 5.-- But on the sixth day, etc. (ORIG., hom. 7.) On the sixth day let double be gathered into store, as much as may suffice also for the sabbath. The sixth day is this 236Dlife in which we now are, whence in six days God made this world; on this day therefore we ought to lay up as much as will suffice in the world to come. For if thou acquire here anything of good work, if thou lay up to thy credit anything of justice, of mercy and of piety, this will be food for thee in the world to come. For he who acquires here ten talents (Luc. XIX), there shall receive ten cities, and what a man shall sow, that also shall he reap (Gal. VI). The rich of this world lay up those things which are corrupted in this world, nay together with this world: but goods laid up remain until the morrow. And it is written. They who were unfaithful kept of the manna, and worms boiled forth out of it and it putrefied; but what was laid up for the day of the sabbath remained whole. And thou 237Atherefore, if for the sake of the present life and the love of the world thou lay up treasure, straightway worms boil forth, of which it is said in Isaias LXVI: Their worm dieth not; [Vulg. Is 66:24 has the future non morietur, "shall not die"; the present is the form of Mc 9:43-47] these are begotten by avarice and the blind greed of riches in those who have money, and who, seeing their brethren in need, shut up their bowels from them. Whence the Apostle (I Tim. VI) charges the rich not to be highminded, nor to trust in the uncertainty of riches, etc.; nor do worms come to be in us from any other source than from the manna, that is, the word of God. Whence John XV: If I had not come and spoken to them, etc. After the word of God has been received, therefore, if anyone sins, that very word is made a worm, which ever digs into his conscience and gnaws the secret places of his breast.

VERS. 6.--(ORIG.) In the evening you shall know, etc. Toward evening 237Byou shall know that I am the Lord; and in the morning you shall see the majesty of the Lord. Let the Jews answer me how the Lord is known toward evening, and his majesty seen in the morning? Where was he acknowledged toward evening, and his majesty seen in the morning? But this is not understood save in the Gospel (Matth. XXVIII), in which on the evening of the sabbath, which dawneth on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalen came and the other Mary to the sepulchre, and they found the stone rolled back from the monument, and an earthquake made, and the monuments opened, and the centurion and the guards of the sepulchre saying: Indeed this was the Son of God. The Lord was acknowledged in this evening, because he himself was the Lord: he was acknowledged in the power of the resurrection, and in the morning his glory was seen. When the other women had come on the first day of the week very early in the morning, they found angels 237Csitting at the sepulchre with great brightness, and saying: He is not here, but is risen from the dead. Come and see the place, etc. (Luc. XXIV.) His majesty therefore was seen in the morning, because the resurrection also was announced by angels.

VERS. 7-11.-- But what are we, etc. (AUG., quaest. 59 in Exod., tom. III.) They wished that they availed not so much as God, etc., as far as he showed the Holy Spirit to be God by adding, Acts V: Thou hast not lied to men, but to God.

VERS. 12-13.-- In the evening you shall eat flesh (ORIG., ut supra. ) Morally we can understand that for each one of us there is a morning and a beginning of the day, the time in which we are first enlightened and kindled to the light of faith. In this time we cannot eat 237Dthe flesh of the word, that is, we are not yet capable of perfect doctrine; but after long exercises, after very much progress, when we are already near to evening, that is, to the faith of perfection, then we are made capable of more solid food. Let us hasten therefore to receive the manna, which yields in the mouth what savour each one wills. Whence Matthew IX: Be it done to thee according to thy faith. [Vulg. Mt 9:29 has the plural secundum fidem vestram fiat vobis, "according to your faith be it done unto you"] And thou therefore, if thou receive with all faith and devotion the word of God which is preached in the Church, be it done to thee whatsoever thou desirest. If thou art in tribulation, it consoles thee, saying: A contrite and humbled heart God spurneth not (Psal. L) [Vulg. Ps 50:19 has non despicies, "thou wilt not despise," in the second person addressed to God]; if thou rejoicest for the hope to come, it heaps up joys for thee, saying: Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye just (Psal. XXXI); if thou art wrathful, it says: Cease from anger, and leave 238Aindignation (Psal. XXXVI) [Vulg. Ps 36:8 has derelinque furorem, "leave wrath"]; if thou art in griefs, it heals thee, saying: The Lord healeth all thy diseases (Matth. IV); if thou art consumed by poverty, it says in consolation: The Lord lifteth the needy from the earth, and raiseth up the poor out of the dunghill (Psal. CXII) [Vulg. Ps 112:7 has the participles suscitans a terra inopem, et de stercore erigens pauperem, "raising up the needy from the earth, and lifting the poor out of the dunghill"]. Yet if anyone receives it unfaithfully, and does not eat it, but hides it, worms boil forth out of it. Nor be thou troubled if the word of God is brought to this, that it is thought to be made a worm; for he himself says: I am a worm, and no man (Psal. XXI). For as he himself is the one who becomes to some a ruin, but to others a resurrection (Luc. II); so also is he the one who in the manna is made to the faithful the sweetness of honey, to the unfaithful a worm. For he is the word of God which convicts the minds of the wicked and pierces the conscience with the darts of correction. For he is the one who is made fire to those to whom he opens the Scriptures 238B, who say: Was not our heart burning within us? etc. (Luc. XXIV.) To others he is fire, in whom he burns up the thorns of the evil earth, that is, consumes evil thoughts in the heart; and therefore for sinners neither does the convicting worm ever die, nor is the burning fire quenched: but for the just and the faithful he remains sweet and pleasant. Whence it is said in psalm XXXIII: Taste and see, etc.

(ORIG., ubi supra. ) Another reading: In the evening you shall eat flesh, and in the morning you shall be filled with loaves. Let the Jews say what consequence there is, that in the evening they should eat flesh without loaves, or in the morning loaves without meat? what of the divine gift, what of the tempering of heavenly grace, is shown in this? Is this that wherein they can acknowledge God, who eat flesh in the evening without loaves, 238Cand do they say that the majesty of God appears, if again loaves are eaten without flesh? let them keep such things to themselves, for those who, acquiescing in you, think that God is acknowledged in quails; but we, for whom at the end, toward the evening of the world, the Word was made flesh, say that God is acknowledged in that flesh only which he took from the Virgin: for this flesh of the Word of God no one ate either in the morning or at noon, but toward evening: for the coming of the Lord in the flesh was made toward evening, as John also says: Children, it is the last hour (I Joan. II) [Vulg. 1Jo 2:18 has Filioli, "Little children"] .-- In the morning, he says, you shall be filled with loaves. To us therefore the bread is the Word of God: He is the living bread which came down from heaven, and giveth life to the world (Joan. VI). But as to its saying that this bread is given in the morning, whereas he was incarnate toward evening, it is so to be understood 238Dthat the Lord came toward the evening of the world and near its end; but by his coming, since he is the sun of justice, he restored a new morning to believers; a new light, namely, of knowledge, in which they are filled with loaves who have received his precepts. Nor wonder that the word is called both the flesh of God, and bread, and is called milk and herbs, and is named diversely according to the measure of believers and the capacity of those who take it. Or, after the morning made by the resurrection, he filled believers with loaves, because he granted the books of the law and the prophets, before unknown, for the instruction of the Church, and he himself is made bread in the Gospel, while the other books of the law and the prophets or of the histories may be called many loaves, with which believers from among the Gentiles are filled. Whence: They shall go up into the mountain, and 239Ashall drink wine, they shall be anointed with ointment. Fittingly therefore do we receive flesh toward evening and are filled with loaves in the morning: because neither could we eat flesh in the morning, for the time was not yet; nor at noon, for scarcely do the angels eat flesh at noon, and to that order perhaps the noonday time is granted.

And in the morning. On the ninth day, when Christ, the sun of justice, by his coming restored to believers the things that were lost.

(ISID.) By the food of birds is figured the preaching divinely sent, which runs through sounding words, as winged things through the air, on which they are fed by faith who set out for the heavenly fatherland. Or the utterances of the old law, which fed the carnal people as with flesh through words divinely sent, as through flying things. Whence also it is given in the evening, because 239Ball things granted to them carnally were to have an end. But in the manifest light of faith the manna is given, which is Christ, namely the living bread which came down from heaven (Joan. VI), who is rained through the evangelical clouds upon the whole world: not now upon the murmuring and tempted Synagogue, but upon the believing and hoping Church.

VERS. 14.-- In the likeness of hoar frost upon the earth. The hoar frost signifies Christ: for the manna was first given on the Lord's day, and Christ rose again on the Lord's day.

Pounded. That is, most clean. For as wheat, or millet, or some other such thing is bruised in a little mortar with a pestle and stripped of its husks, so the body of Christ was stripped of mortality through the tribulation of the passion and the pestle of the cross. Or the small manna is the subtlety of heavenly 239Cdoctrine, which is pounded with the pestle that the literal sense may be stripped away.

VERS. 15.-- Man hu. (GREG., lib. XXVII Moral., cap. 7.) What is designated by the manna given from above to the children of Israel, save the wonder of the heavenly sweetness? For sweet is the food which is received from on high; it is called man hu, which is interpreted What is this? which we say when we behold what we wonder at not knowing. The soul therefore perceives the heavenly manna, when, lifted up by the voice of compunction, it is astonished at the new appearance of the eternal refreshment, so that, filled with the divine sweetness, it may rightly answer What is this? because while it is held suspended away from the lowest thought, it beholds those things which are from on high and wonders at them as at things unwonted. And when by this voice the deafness of our torpor is broken, the practice of the old life is 239Dchanged, so that the soul, breathed upon by the heavenly Spirit, both desires in the highest things what it had despised, and despises in the lowest things what it had desired.

VERS. 16, 17.-- According to the number of your souls, etc. (AUG., locutio 78.) Often Scripture calls men souls, the whole from a part: but not readily fleshes for men, but flesh; as in psalm LV: I will not fear what flesh can do; which it says more openly in the same psalm, what man can do to me. [Vulg. Ps 55:5 has non timebo quid faciat mihi caro, "what flesh can do to me," keeping the mihi which the second quotation retains] But it would not say, according to the number of your fleshes, as it said, according to the number of your souls.

VERS. 18, 19.-- According to what they were able to eat, etc. Because in the present life everyone ought to learn as much as 240Ahe can, lest he leave anything unexamined, lest he begin to learn when he cannot.

VERS. 20.-- But some of them left of it until the morning, etc. The beginning of the other life, in which it will not be permitted to give leisure to doctrine, but the manna will putrefy, and swarm with worms, that is, it will beget for them eternal punishment.

VERS. 21.-- And when the sun grew hot, it melted. Because then all understanding of Scripture will lie open, since now we see through a glass in a dark manner, but then we shall see face to face (I Cor. XIII).

VERS. 22.-- Double food. The things necessary, namely, for soul and for body. For in the seventh, which is understood as the age of the dead, there will, namely, be no place for working.

VERS. 23-32.-- The rest of the sabbath, etc. By hearing the word of God and doing it, or by living well and showing mercy 240Bto others. What was laid up for the sabbath was not corrupted, because good things done for the rest to come remain whole in the life to come. Otherwise worms boiled forth and what was kept putrefied: for those who lay up treasure for the sake of the present life and the love of the world, for them boils forth the worm that shall not die.

VERS. 33, 34.-- And lay it up before, etc. (AUG. quaest. 61 in Exod.) It can be asked where Aaron was to lay it up before the Lord, when there was neither any tabernacle, nor had the ark of the testament yet been set up. Or was it perhaps of the future, and did he therefore say lay up, that it might be understood that it could then be laid up before the Lord, when the ark was to be? Or rather was it said 'before the Lord' of that which is done by the very devotion of him who offers, in whatsoever place 240Cit were placed? For where is God not? But what he adds: And Aaron laid it up before the tabernacle to be kept, rather asserts the former sense. For in this manner Scripture spoke by prolepsis of what was done afterwards, when the tabernacle of the testimony began to be.

VERS. 35, 36.-- And the children of Israel ate manna forty years, etc. (AUG., ibid., quaest. 62. Another reading: And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, etc., as far as for God knew what they desired and from what kind of flesh he might satisfy them.

They ate manna forty years. The body of Christ, namely the Word of God, which we now perceive in a dark manner, but then face to face (I Cor. 13).

Until they came into a habitable land, etc. (AUG., quaest. 63 in Exod., tom. III.) Another reading: Until 240Dthey came into the region of Phoenice. By repetition he sets forth what land he said was inhabited, etc., as far as for antiquity changed the names of many lands, places, rivers and cities for certain causes.

VERS. 1, 2.-- All the multitude of the children of Israel therefore setting forward, etc. (ORIG., hom. 11 in Exod.) All who wish to live piously in Christ suffer persecution, and are assailed by enemies: and he who walks the road of this life ought always to be ready and to stand in the camp. Whence all the synagogue of the children of Israel set forward from the desert of Sin according to their camps by the word of God. There is indeed one Synagogue of the Lord. but it is divided into four camps, which are described in the book of Numbers as placed 241Around about the tabernacle of the Lord. Do thou therefore, armed and serving in the camp of the Lord, not entangle thyself in secular business, and keep watch always in the camp of the Lord, that it may be said of thee that thou hast set forward by the word of the Lord from the desert of Sin, and comest into Raphidim. Now Sin is interpreted temptation; Raphidim, soundness of judgment: he who comes well out of temptation comes to soundness of judgment. For in the day of judgment he will be sound. Whence Apocalypse II: To him that overcometh, I will give of the tree of life, which is in the paradise of my God. He therefore comes to soundness of judgment who orders his words well in judgment.

Sin. Here Sin is taken specially for one station out of those five which were from the Red Sea as far as mount Sina, which Josephus describes by name. For in general that whole desert is called Sin, 241Bas also Raphidim is.

They encamped in Raphidim. (HIERON. de Loc. Hebr., tom. III.) It is a place in the desert beside mount Horeb. And it is to be known that the whole wilderness as far as mount Sinai is called Sin, and that from the whole province the place of a single station also took its name, as Moab is the name both of a city and of a province. In this solitude there are five stations, Zuph, and the desert of Sin, Alus, Depheca, Raphidim. Whence it is well said that all the multitude of the children of Israel set forward from the desert of Sin by their stations according to the word of the Lord, and they came into Raphidim. Whence it is plain that many stations are denoted by the name of one region.

VERS. 3, 4.-- The people therefore thirsted there, etc. (ORIG., ubi supra ). Another reading: The people, he says, thirsted for water, 241Cand murmured against Moses. It was enough to say that he thirsted, what need was there to add water? The addition is not superfluous. There are therefore diverse thirsts, and each man has his own. They who are good hunger and thirst after justice (Matth. V). Others too say: My soul hath thirsted after thee, O God (Psal. XLI) [Vulg. Ps 41:3 has sitivit anima mea ad Deum fortem vivum, "my soul hath thirsted after the strong living God"]. But they who are sinners suffer not the thirst of water, not the hunger of bread, but of hearing the word of God. The people therefore thirsted for water, which ought to have thirsted for justice. But God, the instructor of the simple, the master of the unwise, corrects faults and amends errors, saying to Moses that he take the rod, and strike the rock, and bring forth waters. For he wills them now to drink of the rock and to make progress, and to come to the inner mysteries. For they murmured against Moses, and therefore the Lord commands that he show them the rock 241Dwhereof they may drink. For if there is anyone who, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the law according to the letter displeases him, because in many things it seems not to hold together, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, that from it he may drink and repair his thirst. But this rock does not give waters unless it is struck, and when struck it brings forth fountains: for Christ, being struck and slain upon the cross, brought forth the fountains of the New Testament. Whence Zacharias VIII: I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered. [Vulg. Zach 13:7 has the imperative Percute pastorem, et dispergentur oves, "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered"; the words printed here are those of Mt 26:31] For unless he had been struck, and blood and water had gone forth from his side, we should all suffer thirst for the word of God. Whence: And they drank of the spiritual rock that followed them: and the rock was Christ (I Cor. X).

(ISID.) The people, thirsting for water, murmured against 242AMoses: therefore God commands that he show them the rock whereof they may drink. But if anyone, reading Moses, murmurs against him, and the letter of the law displeases him, Moses shows him the rock, which is Christ, and leads him to it, that from it he may drink and repair his thirst.

VERS. 5.-- Go before the people, etc. Not Moses alone leads the people to the waters, but also the elders of the people. For not the law alone announces Christ, but also the prophets and the patriarchs and all the elders by birth.

And the rod, etc. (AUG., quaest. 64 in Exod.) It is read that Aaron, not Moses, struck the river with the rod. For Moses divided the sea with that same rod, not the river. What then does this mean: Take the rod wherewith thou didst strike the river? Or did he perhaps call the sea a river? and is an example of this manner of speech to be sought? Or was what Aaron 242Bdid rather attributed to Moses, because through Moses God commanded the things which Aaron did, and in the one was the authority, in the other the ministry? Whence: He shall be to thee for the people, but thou to him in those things which are unto God.

VERS. 6, 7.-- And thou shalt strike the rock. Christ, who was struck upon the cross by the Jews: to whom the rod came near, that is, the wood of the passion, that water might remain for the faithful.

VERS. 8.-- But Amalec came, etc. (STRAB.) Amalec was the son of Ismael, from whom are the Amalecites, who are also Ismaelites: these are the Saracens. Now it is interpreted drinking or licking up blood, and it signifies the devil, who ever assails the saints going out of Egypt and making toward the land of promise, and desires to drink the blood of souls.

242C(ORIG., hom. II in Exod.) The war made with the Amalecites is described. Before the people ate bread from heaven, and drank water from the rock, it is not said to have fought; but it is said to it: The Lord will fight for you, and you shall hold your peace. There is therefore a time when the Lord fights for us, and does not permit us to be tempted above what we can bear, nor suffer those unequal in strength to come to a stout encounter. Job also, being already perfect, fulfilled the contest of his temptation; and thou therefore, when thou hast begun to eat manna, the heavenly bread of the word of God, and to drink water from the rock, and when thou hast drawn near to the inner things of spiritual doctrine, look for the fight, prepare thyself for war.

VERS. 9, 10.-- And Moses said to Josue, etc. (ORIG., ibid.) Another reading: Moses said to Jesus: 242DChoose out men for thee, etc. Up to this point mention was never made of the blessed name of Jesus. Here first Moses called Jesus, and said to him: Choose men for thine own self. Moses calls Jesus, the law invokes Christ, that he may choose for himself mighty men from the people: Moses could not choose, but Jesus alone, who says in John XV: You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you (Matth. XII). He is the leader of the elect and the prince of the mighty. He contends with Amalec. For he himself enters into the house of the strong man, and binds the strong man, and plunders his vessels.

I will stand on the top of the hill. (ORIG., ubi supra. ) Moses, he says, went up not to the top of the mountain, but to the top of the hill. For it was kept for him to go up then to the top of the mountain when Jesus was to go up, 243Aand with him Moses and Elias, and there to be transfigured in glory. Now therefore, as not yet glorified by the transfiguration of Jesus, he does not go up to the top of the mountain, but to the top of the hill. And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel prevailed. Moses lifts up his hands, he does not stretch them out; Jesus, who embraced the whole world, being lifted up upon the cross, says: I have stretched out my hands to a people that believeth not (Isa. LXV). [Vulg. Is 65:2 has expandi manus meas tota die ad populum incredulum, "I have spread forth my hands all the day to an unbelieving people"; Rom 10:21, whose wording is nearest, has expandi manus meas] To lift up the hands, this is to raise one's acts to God, that a man may not have his acts cast down and lying on the ground, but pleasing to God and raised toward heaven. He therefore lifts up his hands who lays up treasure in heaven. For where the treasure is, there is the eye, there the hand. He lifts up his hands who says: The lifting up of my hands an evening sacrifice (Psal. CXL). If therefore our acts be lifted up, Amalec is overcome: whence Isaias 243BXXXV: Lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees. [Vulg. Is 35:3 has confortate manus dissolutas, et genua debilia roborate, "strengthen ye the feeble hands, and confirm the weak knees"; the wording printed here is nearest Hbr 12:12] If the people keeps the law, Moses lifts up his hands, and the adversary is overcome. If it does not keep the law, Amalec grows strong. Since therefore for us the fight is against the princes and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, if thou wilt conquer, lift up thy hands, that is, thy acts; let thy conversation be not on earth, but in heaven. Do thou too lift up thy hands to heaven unto God, fulfil the commandment of the Apostle: Pray without ceasing (I Thess. V); and then shall come to pass what is written, that as the calf licks up the green grass in the fields, so shall this people lick up the people that is upon the earth; wherein it is brought in that the people of God fought not so much with hand and with arms as with voice and tongue, and laid its enemies low by prayer. Lift up thy acts therefore, be instant in prayer: this is the Christian's 243Cfight, which overcomes the enemy. And I think that by this figure two peoples are signified, of whom one, from the Gentiles, lifts up the hands of Moses, and raises on high the things which he wrote and the understanding of them, that so it may conquer; but the other, that is, the Jewish people, does not lift up the hands of Moses from the earth, nor understands anything high or lofty in him, and so is overcome by its adversaries.

Having the rod of God, etc. (AUG., quaest. 65.) Now it is called the rod of God, which first was called Aaron's, afterwards is called Moses'. As the spirit of Elias is spoken of, which is the Spirit of God, of which Elias is said to be partaker; and the justice of God, which is ours. Whence: not knowing the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own (Rom. X), that is, 243Das though prepared by themselves for themselves.

VERS. 11.-- And when Moses lifted up his hands, etc. (STRAB.) Because when the law is understood mystically, and the passion of Christ is spiritually weighed, the devil is overcome and put to flight. But when the hands are let down, that is, when the precepts of the law are less zealously practised, the enemy follows after as victor.

VERS. 12, 13.-- Taking therefore a stone, etc. (GREG., homil. 33 in Evang.) Moses sat upon a stone, etc., as far as those whom she justly condemns, he himself mercifully sets free.

VERS. 14.-- For I will blot out, etc. (RAB.) In this he signifies that almighty God, through the law (which Moses signifies, and which pronounces concerning Christ), blots out 244Athe memory of the spiritual enemies. Whence psalm XIX: Their memory hath perished with a noise.

VERS. 15, 16.-- And Moses built an altar, etc. All who conquer the devil ought to build in their hearts altars of faith, on which they may offer spiritual victims.

VERS. 1-4.-- And when Jethro had heard, etc. That Moses, when he was about to deliver the children of Israel, sent away his wife and sons, whom afterwards he received back in the desert, signifies that preachers, when they are sent to the work of preaching, ought to unburden themselves of temporal solicitude: but when afterwards they are taken up to the episcopate or to some other dignity, then they ought to bear solicitude for those subject to them 244Bboth in spiritual and in temporal things.

VERS. 5-11.-- Jethro therefore came, etc. (ORIG., hom. 11 in Exod.) Another reading: After these things Moses came to the mount of God, and Jethro went out of the camp to meet him as he came toward him, nor did he lead him to the mount of God, but to his own tent. For the priest of Madian could not go up into the mount of God, nor yet go down into Egypt, nor could the wife of Moses; but now she comes to him with her sons. For no one could go down into Egypt, and undergo the contests of the Egyptians, save an approved athlete, and one who, striving in the contest, refrains himself from all things. Moses, because a great and mighty athlete, went down into Egypt to the contests and the exercises of the virtues; Abraham too and Jacob, who 244Cby his very name is an athlete, when he had gone down into Egypt, was made as the stars of heaven in multitude. To others it turns out contrariwise to have gone down into Egypt. I know that Jeroboam, fleeing from Solomon, went down into Egypt, and rent and corrupted the people of God; because going down into Egypt he received from king Susachim as wife Tethimene, the sister of his wife.

VERS. 12-15.-- Jethro therefore offered, etc. (AUG. in Locutionibus, locut. 85.) And Jethro the kinsman of Moses took holocausts, etc. He put took for offered: or is it perhaps a matter of the sense, not of the manner of speech, so that he is understood to have offered what he is understood to have taken; although Moses is not read to have sacrificed, nor Aaron, nor any one of the Hebrews who were led out of the land of Egypt: yet nevertheless it was said above that Moses set up an altar. But Jethro 244Dwe read to have been a priest of Madian, that is, of the nation of Madian. But it is a wonder if at his coming Moses began to sacrifice, and not rather he himself who was a priest.

And they came, etc. (ORIG., ubi supra. ) Another reading: There came, he says, the elders, Aaron, and all Israel, to eat bread with the kinsman of Moses in the sight of God. Not all eat bread in the sight of God, but they who are elders, who are the older men, that is, who are perfect, proved in their merits, who whether they eat or drink, do it to the glory of God. All therefore that the saints do, they do in the sight of God: the sinner flees from the sight of God. Adam, after he had sinned, fled from the face of the Lord, and being questioned answered: 245AI heard thy voice, O Lord, and I hid myself, because I was naked (Gen. III). [Vulg. Gn 3:10 has vocem tuam audivi in paradiso: et timui, eo quod nudus essem, et abscondi me, "I heard thy voice in paradise; and I was afraid, because I was naked, and I hid myself"] Cain went out from the face of the Lord, because he was unworthy of the sight of the Lord. Therefore they who receive a fuller knowledge of God, if they do evil, do it before God. Whence psalm I: To thee only have I sinned, etc. He who does evil before God straightway repents, and says, I have sinned. He who departs from the sight of God knows not how to be converted and to purge his sin by repenting. This therefore is the difference between doing evil before God, and departing from the sight of God.

(ORIG.) Not in vain did Jethro come to Moses, nor in vain did he eat bread with the elders of the people in the sight of God; he gives Moses a counsel approved and useful, that he should choose men, and appoint as princes of the people such as worship God, are able, and hate pride. For such 245Bthey ought to be as are not proud, and hate pride; that is, that not only should they themselves be without vice, but should hate the vices in evil men: I do not say the men, but the vices.

Before God, etc. (AUG., quaest. 66.) It is asked: where, seeing that there was neither a tabernacle, nor the ark of the testament, which were instituted afterwards? nor can we take this as said of the future, as it was said of the manna, which was placed in a vessel, a golden one, namely. Therefore we ought to take that as done before God which was done in honour of the Lord.

VERS. 16-18.-- I will show the precepts, etc. (ID., quaest. 67.) It can be asked how Moses here said, etc., as far as he could not judge justly.

VERS. 19, 20.-- But hear my words, etc. (ID., 245Cquaest. 68.) The first question is why God should have his own servant, etc., as far as whereby it becomes the fuller, the more freely it is extended into things heavenly and eternal.

Be thou to the people, etc. (ID., quaest. 69.) But as to what he adds, etc., as far as but whence this can be proved I know not.

VERS. 21-23.-- But provide, etc. Unto the keeping of humility he is instructed by a stranger, lest he who was learning so many secrets of God from God himself should be lifted up, and should think that he had no need of human counsel. It was also prefigured that the teaching of the Gentiles would surpass the knowledge and the pride of the Jews; and that the things which were lacking in the law, believers from among the Gentiles would suggest for their fulfilling, and would bring a spiritual understanding to the law of God. Moses also knew that the law would hear this people, and 245Dwould do whatsoever it should say, and that a lessening of the law would also come about at the suggestion of the Gospel.

And appoint, etc. (ORIG., hom. 11.) Thou shalt ordain them, he says, tribunes and centurions, and they shall point out [indicabunt; read judicabunt, "shall judge"] the people at every hour, but nevertheless what shall be of greater weight they shall refer to thee. Let the princes of the people and the elders of the commons hear, who ought at every hour to judge the people, always and without ceasing to sit in judgment, to settle suits, and to reconcile those at variance, to call back the discordant into favour. Let each one learn from the holy Scriptures his own office. Moses, he says, that he may be in those things which are unto God, and may set forth the word of God to the peoples. But the other princes, whom he called tribunes, because they are set over a tribe, or centurions, or captains of fifty, 246Awho are set over the lesser judgments, deciding those matters which pertain to individuals. And this figure I think is to be kept also in the world to come. Whence Matthew XIX: When the Son of man shall sit upon the throne of his majesty, you also shall sit upon twelve seats, etc. Thou seest therefore that not only does the Lord judge, to whom the Father has given all judgment (Joan. V), but he has appointed princes to judge of lesser causes; but the matter that shall be of greater weight, let them refer to him. Therefore the Lord says of one man, Matthew V: That he shall be in danger of the council; but of another, Matthew XII: He shall be in danger of hell fire. But also of every idle word they are said to render an account. And therefore he did not say that we shall render an account to God, as concerning perjury. But thou shalt render thy oaths to the Lord. Matthew XII: The queen also of the south 246Bshall rise in judgment with the men of this generation, and shall condemn it. [Vulg. Mt 12:42 has cum generatione ista, "with this generation"; cum viris generationis hujus, with its men, is the wording of Lc 11:31, which closes et condemnabit illos, "shall condemn them"] Behold another kind of judgment, Matthew XIII: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear: for all these things are a shadow of things heavenly and an image of things to come.

(IDEM.) As it is written in Ecclesiastes I: The eye shall not be satisfied with seeing, nor the ear with hearing, [Vulg. Ecl 1:8 has non saturatur oculus visu, nec auris auditu impletur, "the eye is not filled with seeing, neither is the ear filled with hearing"; the gloss takes up satiari from the form printed here] neither can we be satisfied in considering the things which are written, wherewith it may build us up, in how many ways it may instruct us. For when I behold that Moses, a prophet full of God, to whom God spoke face to face (Exod. XXXIII), received counsel from Jethro his kinsman, a priest of Madian, I am struck dumb with exceeding wonder. For Moses heard the voice of his kinsman, and did whatsoever he said to him. He did not say, Since God speaks to me what I ought to do, how shall I receive counsel from a man, and from a Gentile man, 246Ca stranger to the people of God? and he listens not to who it is that speaks, but to what is said. We therefore, if we find anything wisely said by the Gentiles, let us not, together with the author's name, despise the sayings also; nor, because we hold the law of God, does it become us to swell with pride and to despise the words of the prudent; but proving all things, let us hold fast that which is good. But they who today are set over peoples, I do not say if certain things have already been revealed to them by God, but if they have any merit in the knowledge of the law, disdain the counsel of an inferior, even of a priest, much less of a layman, much less of a Gentile: but Moses, who was meek above all men (Num. XII), received accepti the counsel of an inferior, that he might give to princes a pattern of humility, and might mark out the image of a mystery to come. He knew that one day it would come to pass that Gentiles would bring forth good 246Dcounsel, bringing to Moses a good and spiritual understanding for the law, and that the law would hear them, doing all things that they should say. For the law cannot do as the Jews say, because the law is weakened in the flesh, that is, in the letter, and can do nothing according to the letter. For the law brought nothing to perfection (Hebr. VII). But according to this counsel which we bring to the law, all things can be done spiritually, and sacrifices offered which now cannot be offered carnally; the law of leprosy can be kept spiritually. As therefore we understand, perceive and give counsel, the law does all things: but according to the letter not all things, but few.

VERS. 24.-- Moses did all things which he had suggested, 247Aetc. A man familiar with God, most wise, not blushing to be taught by a lesser man and a Gentile, gave a pattern to teachers, that they should not blush to be instructed by any whomsoever.

VERS. 26, 27.-- But whatsoever was of greater weight, etc. (AUG., loc. 88.) Others: But the weighty matter they referred upon Moses: for so the Greek speech has it, which the Latins have translated, to Moses. By that manner of speech indeed the very care itself is figured, whereby it was said upon Moses, as though a burden laid upon him is signified. And matter moreover weighty was said for a weighty question.

VERS. 1, 2.-- In the third month, etc. (ORIG.) Another reading: And the going out of the children of Israel from the land 247Bof Egypt was of the third month: on this day they came into the desert of Sina, and they set forward from Raphidim, and came into the desert of Sina, and Israel pitched there over against the mountain. And Moses went up into the mount of God, and the Lord called him from the mountain, saying: These things shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and thou shalt announce to the children of Israel, etc. And a little after: Go down and charge the people, and thou shalt purify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and let them be ready against the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down upon mount Sina in the sight of all the people. On this day the law is found to be given, which was written on tables of stone by the finger of God, as the things that follow teach. And this third day appears to be of the third month from the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt; from the day on which they kept the pasch, that is, immolated and ate the lamb, which was the fourteenth of the first month, as far as 247Cthat on which the law is given, fifty days are numbered, seventeen namely of the first month, the rest from the fourteenth itself. Then all thirty of the second month, which make forty-seven, and the third of the third month, which from the solemnity of the slain lamb is the fiftieth; and by this, in that shadow of things to come, according to the feast day of the immolated lamb; because on the fiftieth day the law was given, written by the finger of God. So in the very truth of the New Testament, from the festival of the immolated Lamb Jesus Christ fifty days are numbered, wherein the Holy Spirit was given from the highest places, who is the finger of God.

On this day, etc. On the forty-seventh day, namely, after they went out of Egypt, on the first day, namely, of June, they came to mount Sina, and there, when the two days were passed in which they were sanctified, on the third, 247Dthat is, the fiftieth, they received the law: and this is Pentecost.

(RAB.) In Sina there was one station, but the greatest of all. For there the law was received, the tabernacle set up. There Exodus and the greatest part of Leviticus and all the books of the law were almost wholly written.

VERS. 3.-- But Moses, etc. (GREG., lib. VI Moral., cap. 27.) Another reading: But Moses went up into the mountain, and the Lord came down to him. The mountain is the height of contemplation, into which we go up, that by gazing we may be lifted to those things which are beyond our weakness. But the Lord comes down, because, to saints who make much progress, he opens some small thing of himself.

VERS. 4, 5.-- The wings of eagles. He calls the teachings 248Aof the two Testaments, which bear us from the lowest things to the heavenly.

VERS. 6.-- You shall be to me a priestly kingdom, etc. Members, namely, of the high priest who is to come into the kingdom of heaven.

VERS. 7-9.-- He set forth all the words, etc. (GREG.) It is to be noted that the law is not thrust upon the unwary or the ignorant: but when the rewards which are due to those who keep it have been set forth, and the past benefits which they have already experienced, and the wonders, when of their own accord they devote themselves to the keeping of the law, the law is given to those who ask for it: so that according to their own promise, as men bound by a vow, those who violate it may be judged, and may not complain of violence done to them.

VERS. 10.-- Go to the people, etc. (ORIG.) Go down 248Band testify to the people, and purify it today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments, and let them be ready against the third day, etc. He who wishes to come to the word of God, let him hear what the Lord commands: he ought to come sanctified and with washed garments. For if thou bring soiled garments, it will be said to thee, Matthew XXII: Friend, how camest thou in hither not having on a wedding garment? No one therefore can hear the word of God, unless first sanctified, that is, holy in body and in spirit and with garments washed: for he is about a little after to enter to the marriage supper, to eat of the flesh of the lamb, and to drink the cup of salvation. No one enters to this supper in soiled garments; whence Ecclesiastes IX: At all times let thy garments be clean. [Vulg. Ecl 9:8 has Omni tempore sint vestimenta tua candida, "at all times let thy garments be white"] For thy garments were washed once by the grace of baptism. II Corinthians VII: Thou art purified in body, cleansed 248Cfrom all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit. [Vulg. 2Cor 7:1 has the first-person exhortation mundemus nos ab omni inquinamento carnis et spiritus, "let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of the flesh and of the spirit"] Acts XI: What therefore God hath cleansed, do not thou make unclean. [Vulg. Act 11:9 has tu ne commune dixeris, "do not thou call common"; Act 10:15 Quod Deus purificavit] Hear the manner of sanctification: go not near, he says, to a woman today and tomorrow, that on the third day thou mayest hear the word of God; this is what the Apostle says, I Corinthians VII: It is good for a man not to touch a woman, saving nevertheless to the weak the remedy of marriage. I Corinthians VII: But because the time is short, it remaineth that they who have wives be as if they had none.

Sanctify them, etc. (RAB.) He who desires to come to the sight of God, let him sanctify himself by faith and by conversation, and wash his garments, that is, his works, today and tomorrow, that is, in the present and in the world to come, that he may come to the glory of the resurrection, which the third day intimates.

VERS. 11.-- For on the third day, etc. On this day was given 248Dthe law written on tables of stone by the finger of God, this is the third day of the third month from the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt. From the day therefore on which they kept the pasch, that is, the fourteenth of the first month, until the law was given, fifty days are numbered, seventeen namely of the first month, the rest from the fourteenth, and all thirty of the second, which are forty-seven, and the third of the third month, which from the slaying of the lamb is the fiftieth: as from the passion of Christ, until the Holy Spirit is given, fifty days are numbered. for the finger of God signifies the Holy Spirit.

(ISID., Quaest. in Exod., cap. 28, tom. V.) On the fiftieth day after the pasch the law of Moses was given etc., as far as or because he spoke the truth of the law to the unbelieving through a mist, 249Athat seeing they might not see, and hearing they might understand us nos (Isa. VI). [Vulg. Lc 8:10 has et audientes non intelligant, "and hearing they may not understand"; the Clementine Is 6:9 reads Audite audientes, et nolite intelligere]

VERS. 12.-- Take heed, etc. (RAB.) First he forbids the people to go up into the mountain, and threatens death: now he commands that at the sounding of the trumpet they go up into the mountain, restraining, namely, human boldness, and inviting to obedience: because at the voice of preaching we ought to raise ourselves to things above, and not of our own accord to presume upon the searching out of the mysteries, but to follow the calling of God.

VERS. 13.-- Trumpet. As it were vocina: from vox, the voice, or from vocare, to call, or from bucca, the cheek

VERS. 14-17.-- And when they had washed their garments, etc. It does not suffice, for the virtue of contemplation, to cleanse one's works with the tears of penance, unless there follow chastity 249Bof mind and of body. Whence Matthew V: Blessed are the clean of heart, etc. And Wisdom I: Into a malevolent soul wisdom shall not enter.

VERS. 18, 19.-- And all mount Sinai was smoking, etc. (GREG. lib. VI Moral., cap. 27.) The Lord, being about to give the law, came down in fire and smoke, etc., as far as they overcome what they are.

(ID., lib. II Moral., cap. 2.) The sacred words in the opening of their narratives express the qualities and the bounds of their subjects, sometimes from the position of a place, sometimes from the position of the body, sometimes from the quality of the air, etc., as far as but they are recorded to have come in the evening when they were to punish Sodom.

VERS. 20-25.-- And the Lord came down, etc. (ID., lib. V Moral., cap. 26.) Moses went up, etc., as far 249Cas we in some measure echo him by stammering.

VERS. 2.-- I am the Lord thy God. (ORIG., hom. 8 in Exod.) Of him who despises the present world, that is to say Egypt, and, being translated by the word of God, is not found, because he hastens to the world to come, God says: I am the Lord thy God, etc. Not to those only who set out from Egypt, but to those who serve the Egyptians no longer, brought out of Egypt, out of the house of bondage (Psal. LXXX). The businesses of the world, the acts of the flesh, are the house of bondage: just as to leave the things of the world, and to live according to God, is the house of liberty. Whence John VIII: If you shall continue in my word, you shall know the truth, and 249Dthe truth shall make you free. Egypt, therefore, is the house of bondage; Judea and Jerusalem, the house of liberality. As, therefore, earthly Egypt is called for the children of Israel a house of bondage in comparison with Judea and Jerusalem, which for them is a house of liberty: so, in comparison with the heavenly Jerusalem, which is the mother of liberty, the whole world and the things that are in it are called a house of bondage: and because from the paradise of liberty men came, through sin, to the bondage of the world, the first word of the decalogue is concerning liberty: I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, etc.; this voice thou wilt not be able to hear in Egypt. Even if it be laid upon thee to keep the pasch, to gird thy loins, to take sandals 250Aupon thy feet, to hold a rod in thy hand, and to eat unleavened bread with bitterness. But neither in the first station, nor in the second, nor in the third, nor when thou shalt have passed the Red Sea, even if thou come to the sea and the bitterness be turned for thee into sweetness, nor in Elim, where were twelve fountains of waters and seventy palm trees, even if thou pass Raphidim by and climb the remaining stages, art thou yet judged fit, but only when thou shalt have come to Mount Sinai. Scarcely, therefore, wilt thou at some time deserve to receive the precepts of liberty, and to hear: I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. This, however, is not the word of a commandment, but it shows who he is that commands. The first commandment, therefore, is: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me. [Vulg. Ex 20:3 Non habebis deos alienos coram me, "Thou shalt not have strange gods before me"; Migne's own lemma at VERS. 3 below prints the Vulgate form, and the wording used throughout this gloss is the Septuagint's]

250B(AUG. quaest. in Exod.) It is asked: how are the ten precepts of the law to be divided? etc., as far as unless to that which was said: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me?

(ISID.) God gives to Moses the law of our innocence and of the knowledge of himself, which consists in ten words, written on tables of stone by the finger of God. There are three which pertain to the love and the knowledge of the Trinity, seven to the love of one's neighbour, by which human society is not injured. The first pertains to God the Father: The Lord thy God is one God, that, hearing this, thou mayest worship one God the Father, and mayest not pour out fornication upon many feigned gods. The second to the Son: Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; that is, do not think that Christ the Son of God is a creature, because every creature is made subject to vanity, but equal to the Father, God of God, 250Clight of light.

VERS. 3.-- Thou shalt not have strange gods, etc. (ORIG.) The first commandment is: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me; and there follows: Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness, etc. [Vulg. Ex 20:4 Non facies tibi sculptile, neque omnem similitudinem, "Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing, nor the likeness of any thing"; the distinction between idol and likeness drawn below rests on the word Migne prints] Some think all these together to be one commandment: but if it be so reckoned, the number of ten commandments will not be made up. The first commandment, therefore, is: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me, etc. The second, Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness, etc. Let us begin, therefore, from the first commandment: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me. If he had said, They are not, the statement would seem more absolute; but because he says, There shall not be, he did not deny that they are, but forbade that they should be to him to whom these precepts are given. Hence I think Paul took it, I Cor. VIII: If indeed 250Dthere are those who are called gods, whether in heaven or on earth. And in other places thou wilt find gods named, as there: A great king above all gods, and God hath spoken to God, etc. [Vulg. Ps 49:1 Deus deorum Dominus locutus est, "The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken"; the verse is adduced to show that Scripture names gods in the plural] Of lords the same Apostle says: Whether thrones, or dominations, etc. (Col. I.) But dominations are nothing else than a certain order and multitude of lords. In which the Apostle seems to open the sense of the law; as if he should say: Though there be many lords, who rule over other nations, and many gods who are worshipped by others: yet nevertheless there is one God to us, and one Lord. Whence Deut. XXXII: When the Most High divided the nations and separated the sons of Adam, he appointed the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the angels of God. [Vulg. Dt 32:8 juxta numerum filiorum Israel, "according to the number of the children of Israel"; the reading Migne prints is the Septuagint's, and the argument that follows stands on it] The angels, therefore, to whom the Most High committed the nations, Scripture calls lords 251Aor gods: gods as being given by God, and lords as having obtained power from the Lord. Whence it is said to them in psalm LXXXI: I have said: You are gods, and all of you the sons of the Most High. But you like men shall die, and shall fall like one of the princes; imitating, that is, the devil, who was made the prince of all unto ruin. Whence it is plain that transgression, not nature, made them accursed. To thee, therefore, O Israel, who art the portion of God and his cord, there shall not be, he says, to thee other gods beside me: because he who is truly God is one God, and he who is truly Lord is one Lord; but upon the rest, created by himself, he conferred this name not by nature, but by grace. Nor are these things said only to Israel according to the flesh, but rather to thee who hast been made Israel by seeing God in mind, and circumcised in heart, not 251Bin flesh; if only thou so act that thou be worthy to be the portion of God, and to be measured in the cord of his inheritance: otherwise let those be an example to thee who had been called to this, that they should be the portion of God, and, their sins requiring it, were scattered through all nations, and, having been brought out of the house of bondage, now serve not the Egyptians alone, but all nations. For he who sins is the servant of sin (Joan. V).

VERS. 4.-- Thou shalt not make, etc. (ORIG.) Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness, etc. Idols are one thing, gods another. For of gods the Apostle says, I Cor. VIII: If indeed there are many gods, and many lords, etc. But of idols, that an idol is nothing in the world; of likenesses, however, he did not add that they are nothing. But here it is said: Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness whatsoever. It is one thing, therefore, to make 251Can idol, another to make a likeness. For example, if a man in gold and silver, in wood or in stone, makes the figure of a fourfooted beast, or of a serpent, or of a bird, and sets it up to be adored, he makes not an idol but a likeness. But he who makes what is not, that is, a figure which the eye has not seen but the mind feigns to itself; as if a man should form a dog's head or a ram's upon human limbs, or two faces in the one shape of a man, or the hinder parts of a horse or of a fish upon a human breast; he who does this makes not a likeness, but an idol: for he makes what is not, nor has it anything like itself. Therefore the Apostle says that an idol is nothing in the world (I Cor. VIII). For no figure is taken from things that subsist, but what an idle and curious mind has invented. But a likeness is when something is formed out of those things which are either in heaven, or on 251Dearth, or in the waters: but as it is easy to pronounce concerning the likenesses of those things which are on earth or in the sea, it is not so concerning the heavenly ones; unless one should say that this can be understood of the sun, and the moon, and the stars, whose forms the heathen represent. But Moses, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, desired to forbid also those things which among them were in secret, such as Hecate and the other forms of demons, which the Apostle calls the spirits of wickedness in the high places, Ephes. VI; of which perhaps it is said: My sword is inebriated in heaven (Isa. XXXIV). For by these forms and likenesses they used to invoke demons for the repelling or the avoiding of evils. Yet it must be known that when thou hast resolved to keep this commandment, and to have one God and Lord only, 252Athis is to declare war upon all the others, whom thou didst renounce in baptism, confessing God alone, Father and Son and Holy Spirit. But confessing this, unless we love the Lord our God with the whole heart, cleaving to him with the whole soul, with the whole strength, we are not made the portion of the Lord, but, set on the border, we suffer those whom we flee to be offended, and him to whom we flee we do not make favourable. To whom the prophet says: Woe to the double soul (Eccli. II). And again: How long do you halt upon both feet? (III Reg. XVIII.) [Vulg. 3 Kg 18:21 Usquequo claudicatis in duas partes?, "How long do you halt between two sides?"] From those, then, we are cut down as fugitives, and by our Lord we are not defended as unstable, whence Jer. IV: Thy lovers are made thine enemies. [Vulg. Jer 4:30 contempserunt te amatores tui; animam tuam quaerent, "thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life"; the sentence Migne prints stands nearest Lam 1:2] Many are the lovers of the soul, taken with her beauty, with whom she has played the harlot, saying: I will go after my lovers who give 252Bme my wine, etc. (Ose. II): these she offends when she returns to her former husband. Unless, therefore, thou remain in whole faith with thy husband, thou art suspect for the crimes which thou hast committed; he marks all thy motions, thy looks and thy goings; he can see nothing further in thee that is wanton, nothing dissolute or prodigal. If, therefore, thou neglect the grace received, and entangle thyself in worldly businesses, straightway the unclean spirit returns with seven others more wicked (Matth. XII), that he may not be cast out again, and the last things become worse than the first. There is, then, no fellowship of the temple of God with idols. If we are God's, we ought to be such in whom God may dwell and walk; whence Isa. LII: You that carry the vessels of the Lord, go out and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you, etc. He says, therefore: There shall not be to thee other gods beside me.

252CVERS. 5-11.-- Thou shalt not adore, etc. It is one thing to worship, another to adore. A man can adore unwillingly, either flattering idolatrous kings, or overcome by torments, when he knows that an idol is nothing. But to worship is to be made over wholly to these with affection and zeal. He cuts off both, therefore, that thou mayest neither worship with affection, nor adore in outward show.

I am the Lord, etc. See the kindness of God: that he may teach us and make us perfect, he does not refuse the frailty of human affections; he does and suffers all things for our sake, and speaks to us by affections known and familiar to us.

(ORIG., ubi supra.) Every woman is either under a husband, and is subject to the laws of her husband (Eph. V), or is a harlot, and uses the liberty of sinning. He who goes in to a harlot knows that he has gone in to one prostituted and open to all, and therefore he cannot 252Dbe indignant about the others. He who uses lawful marriage does not suffer his wife to sin, but is kindled with jealousy to keep the chastity of the marriage, that he may be able to become a lawful father. So every soul is either prostituted with demons, and has many lovers that they may come in to her, now the spirit of fornication, now avarice, and after this will come the spirit of pride and very many others; yet the one does not envy the other, nor is moved with jealous rivalry, but they invite one another in turn; whence, he brings with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, etc. (Luc. XI.) So the soul that is prostituted to demons suffers no jealous rivalry of her lovers; but if she has been joined to a lawful husband, that is, to Christ, even if at some time she has been a sinner, he does not suffer her to sin further, nor 253Acan he bear that she should dally with adulterers; his jealousy is stirred up over her, and he defends the chastity of the marriage; but if he sees her violating the rights of the marriage, and seeking an occasion of sinning, he gives her a bill of divorce; whence Isa. L: For your iniquities has he put away your mother; and he who speaks this is both jealous and, moved by jealousy, says this. There is also this new kind of his goodness, that he receives her even after adultery when she returns and repents with her whole heart. Whence: If a woman go out from her husband, and sleep with another man, shall she return again to her own husband? etc. And elsewhere: And after thou hast committed fornication in all these things, I said: Return, etc. (Jer. III.) Here, therefore, if God being jealous requires and desires thy soul to cleave to him, if he keeps it, rebukes and is indignant, using as it were a certain jealous rivalry 253Btoward thee, know that there is hope of salvation for thee. But if thou despise the rebuke, his jealousy departs from thee, according to that: Therefore my jealousy departs from thee, etc. (Ezech. XVI.) See the mercy and the loving-kindness of God; when he wishes to have mercy, he says that he is indignant and is angry, as he says by Jeremiah: Thou shalt be chastised with sorrow and with the scourge, O Jerusalem, that my soul depart not from thee (Jer. VI). For he scourges every son whom he receives (Hebr. XII). But this is a terrible thing, this is the utmost, if we are not rebuked for our sins: for when we exceed the measure of sinning, even the jealousy of God will be taken from us, and he is angry no more.

Visiting the iniquity, etc. (ORIG.) Rendering the sins of the fathers upon the sons, etc. The heretics say that it is not the word of a good God, who says that one is punished 253Cfor the sins of another; yet they say that the God of the law is just, and they cannot show how he is unjust [injustus; read justus, "how he is just"], if he punishes one when another sins. But our inward man is said either to have God for father, if he lives according to God; or the devil, if he does his will; whence John VIII: You are of your father the devil, and you will do the desires of your father. As, therefore, the seed of God is in us, when, keeping the word of God, we do not sin, according to that of I John III, He who is of God sins not, because the seed of God abides in him; so when we are persuaded by the devil to sin, we receive his seed; when we do what he persuades, he has now begotten us, for we are born his sons through sin. But because we scarcely ever sin without a helper, as no one commits adultery alone, it is necessary that a partner in the adultery be made, 253Dand if not more, it is necessary that some man or woman be joined to the service of the crime: all of whom, as it were one from another, begotten according to the order of the persuasion, draw their offspring from the devil; as in the betraying of the Lord the devil entered into the heart of Judas, and begot the first son of sin, who could not do this alone; he went therefore to the Scribes and the Pharisees and the chief priests; there is born, therefore, from Judas a third and a fourth generation of sin. Let us see, therefore, how God renders the sins of the fathers upon the sons unto the third and the fourth generation, and not upon the man himself. For of the fathers nothing is said. The devil, therefore, because he has already exceeded the measure of sinning, like a garment clotted in blood, will not be clean in this world; he is not scourged 254Afor sin; for all things are kept for him unto the future. whence Matth. VIII): Why art thou come to torment us before the time? But the sins are rendered upon the sons whom he has begotten through sin, who, being set in the flesh, are scourged. God wills not the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and live (Ezech. XXXIII). Mercifully, therefore, he renders the sins of the fathers upon the sons, because the devil and his angels, who are also made the fathers of sin, are unworthy to be rebuked in the present: their sons, and those who through them have been taken into the fellowship of sin, receive in the present what they have done, that, being purged, they may not be made partners with the devil in punishment. Whence in psalm LXXXVIII: I will visit their iniquities with a rod, etc., but my mercy I will not take away from them. [Vulg. Ps 88:34 misericordiam autem meam non dispergam ab eo, "but my mercy I will not scatter away from him"; Migne's plural is what carries the argument to the sons] For God is 254Bjealous, and the soul which he betroths to himself in faith he wills not to remain in the defilement of sin, but to be quickly purged. But if she will not be purged, he will laugh at their destruction, saying to them, Matth. XXV: Depart from me, you cursed, into everlasting fire, etc. Let us know, therefore, that we are rebuked in the present, that in the future we may rest. Whence: When we are chastised, we are rebuked by the Lord, that we be not condemned with this world.

(ID.) In this saying the heretics are wont to reproach us, that it is not the word of a good God, who judges one for the sins of another. But those who shall say that the God of the law who commands these things is not good, yet call him just: nor indeed can they themselves show how it should seem agreeable to justice if, when one sins, another is punished.

254C(ISID.) The first commandment forbids stealthy deceit; the second, error; the third slays the love of the world; the fourth, impiety; the fifth, cruelty; the sixth, fornication; the seventh, rapacity; the eighth destroys falsehood; the ninth, the coveting of the world; the tenth, the thought of adultery. And it is to be noted that as the Egyptians are struck with ten plagues, so the tables are written with ten precepts, by which the people of God may be ruled and the demons slain. For the law was written on two tables that the two Testaments might be signified: or because there are two precepts of love, of God and of one's neighbour, on which the whole law hangs, and the prophets (Matth. XXII). For on the one are three precepts, which pertain to the love of God; on the other seven, which pertain to the fellowship of one's neighbour. But the tables were 254Dof stone, because the heart of the Jews was stony and unfeeling, hard and dull; whence Ezech. XXXVI: I will take away the stony heart, and will give them a heart of flesh. And the Apostle says (II Cor. III): Not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly tables of the heart, which, that is, may perceive and understand.

VERS. 12.-- Honour thy father, etc. This is the first of the seven commandments which pertain to one's neighbour. And rightly are they seven. For the number seven consists of three and four. And three befits the soul, which is irascible, concupiscible and rational. Four, the body.

VERS. 13.-- Thou shalt not kill, etc. (AUG., quaest. 61 in Exod.) And as to what was said: thou shalt not kill, it is not to be thought 255Athat anything is done against this precept in that the law kills, or that God commands someone to be killed: for he does it who commands what it is not lawful for the minister to refuse.

VERS. 14.-- Thou shalt not commit adultery. (ISID.) It is also asked: how does thou shalt not commit adultery differ from that which is said a little after: Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife? [Vulg. Ex 20:17 Non concupisces domum proximi tui, nec desiderabis uxorem ejus, "Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, neither shalt thou desire his wife"; the wording Migne prints is Dt 5:21's] For in that which was said, thou shalt not commit adultery, that also could be understood; unless perhaps in those two precepts of not committing adultery and not stealing the deeds themselves are marked, but in these last the very concupiscence: which differ so far, that sometimes a man commits adultery who does not covet his neighbour's wife, when he is joined to her for some other cause. But sometimes he covets, and is not joined to her, fearing punishment: and this perhaps the law wished to show, 255Bthat both are sins.

(ID.) Again it is wont to be asked whether under the name of adultery fornication also is held, etc., as far as and the unlawful use of those members ought to be understood to be forbidden.

VERS. 15.-- Thou shalt not steal, etc. (AUG., quaest. 71 in Exod.) But again it is asked how thou shalt not steal differs from that which is said a little after concerning the not coveting of a neighbour's goods? Not that everyone who covets his neighbour's goods steals; but everyone who steals covets his neighbour's goods. In that generality, where it is enjoined not to covet a neighbour's goods, that also which pertains to theft could have been contained.

VERS. 16, 17.-- Thou shalt not speak against thy neighbour, etc. (AUG., ubi supra. ) In that also which was said, etc., 255Cas far as and things of this sort.

VERS. 18.-- And all the people saw the voices, etc. (AUG., quaest. 72 in Exod.) It is wont to be asked how the people saw a voice, since a voice seems to pertain not to sight but to hearing, etc., as far as hear what shines, we are not accustomed to say.

VERS. 19.-- Speak thou to us, etc. (AUG., quaest. 73.) It is signified that fear pertains rather to the Old Testament, as love to the New; although in the Old the New lies hidden, and in the New the Old lies open. But how it can be granted to such a people to see the voice of God, if 256Athis is to be taken as understanding, since they fear that God should speak to them lest they die, is not sufficiently clear.

VERS. 20.-- Fear not, etc. (AUG., quaest. 74.) Thus they were to be restrained from sins, by fearing, that is, lest they should suffer sensible punishments; because they were not yet able to love justice, and they were tempted by the Lord, that it might appear of what sort they were; not that they might become known to God whatever sort they were, from whom nothing was hidden, but that they might become known among themselves and to their own selves.

VERS. 21, 22.-- And the people stood, etc. (GREG., homil. 6.) In certain places of Scripture the history is to be kept, etc., as far as Moses went to the darkness in which God was.

You shall not make gods, etc. (AUG., quaest. 76.) What was said in the first precept is repeated; and by the things of silver 256Band of gold, all idols are understood, as in psalm CXIII: The idols of the nations are silver and gold, the work of the hand of men.

VERS. 24.-- An altar of earth, etc. He shows that therefore, idols being forbidden, an altar of earthly matter is granted, that to the one God victims and sacrifices may be offered upon it.

(GREG., lib. III Moral., cap. 20.) To make God an altar of earth is to hope for the incarnation of Christ. For then is our gift received by God, when upon this altar our humility, that is, has laid whatever it does upon the faith of the Lord's incarnation. Upon an altar of earth, therefore, we lay the offered gift, if we make our acts firm by faith in the Lord's incarnation.

VERS. 25, 26.-- Of hewn stones. (ISID.) Hewn 256Cstones are they who cut the unity asunder, and divide themselves from the fellowship of the brethren: these Christ does not receive into his body, of which body the building of the altar signifies the figure. The stones not hewn, of which the altar is commanded to be built, are they who through faith are made firm in unity; of whom it is said, I Peter II: You are living stones, built together into spiritual houses. [Vulg. 1 Pt 2:5 et ipsi tamquam lapides vivi superaedificamini, domus spiritualis, "be you also as living stones built up, a spiritual house"] Upon these no iron has been laid, because they are uncorrupted, and have not received the fiery darts of the evil one: all make one altar in the unity of faith and the concord of charity. In numbering the precepts of the decalogue, Origen and Augustine, in the testimonies of the Gloss cited at the head of this chapter, seem to follow contrary opinions. For Origen holds that the ten commandments cannot be reckoned unless it stand thus: Thou shalt not make to thyself an idol, nor any likeness, etc. Augustine, however, though he does not reject that enumeration of Origen's, yet judges another, a different one, more fitting, so that he reckons the prohibition of making idols and graven images for the sake of worship to be the explication of the first precept: and then he sets down two precepts for restraining forbidden desires, one whereby the coveting of another's wife, the other whereby the coveting of all other things that are one's neighbour's, is to be restrained. Origen is followed by Athanasius in the Synopsis of Scripture; Gregory Nazianzen in the poem in which he numbers the ten precepts; Chrysostom in his second exposition of Matthew, homily 49; Jerome and Ambrose, chapter six of the Epistle to the Ephesians. Augustine's numbering, in that sense, is followed by the scholastic doctors, who, even as Augustine himself, prefer it to the former, yet without holding the former to be unfitting. And indeed the contrariety which a perverse disposition finds in subduing those two covetings would seem rather to have wanted two distinct precepts, since there are those who covet another's wife, and yet disdain to covet another's wealth or servants, and the reverse: but no true worshipper of God finds it difficult to spurn idols. Yet this diversity of numbering is, in the thing itself, nothing at all: for no precept is laid down by Augustine that is denied by Origen, or the reverse; but the one joins precepts by a certain ordering of subordination, which the other separates by reason of a verbal connection, and conversely. For Augustine joins the precept of not making idols to the precept of worshipping no God but one, because the former is subordinate to the latter and is the fuller explication of it, extending also to the forbidding of the ceremonies of the Gentiles: but Origen divides that same matter into two precepts, because they seem to be distinguished by the very structure of the sentence, with no mark of connection, just as the rest that follow: Thou shalt not have strange gods; Thou shalt not make to thyself a graven thing; Thou shalt not take, etc. And again, those two prohibitions of the twofold coveting Origen joins into one precept, on account of the sequence of the context, which seem to belong to one and the same sentence.

• 257A

VERS. 1. 6.-- These are the judgments, etc. (AUG., loc. 91 in Exod.) From now on those things are more distinctly explained which pertain to one's neighbour; the manner of speaking is to be noted, since it was said to Moses: These are the judgments which thou shalt set before them; the rest are said to the people.

If thou buy a Hebrew servant, etc. (AUG., quaest. 77 in Exod.) Lest Christians should here demand this of their masters, the apostle commands servants to be subject to their masters (I Petr. II), lest the name of the Lord and the doctrine be blasphemed: for from this it is plain that it was commanded as a mystery, because God commanded the ear of him who had refused liberty to be bored through with an awl to the door-post.

(GREG., hom. 3 in Ezech., tom. II.) It must be known that, 257Bsince the active and the contemplative life are from the grace of God, etc., as far as because that inmost rest is seen in a dark manner.

Six years. (ISID.) Serving in the six ages of this world, on the seventh day, that is, in the eternal sabbath, we shall be set free, if only we have been willing to be free while in this world we serve sin. But if we have been unwilling, the ear will be bored through in testimony of disobedience, and with our wife and our sons, whom we have preferred to liberty, that is, with the flesh and its works, we shall serve sin for ever.

VERS. 7-12.-- If a man sell his daughter, etc. (AUG., quaest. 78 in Exod.) She shall not go out as maidservants are wont to depart, etc., as far as it is understood that she shall go out with him freely, not separated from her husband.

VERS. 13-17.-- But he who lay not in wait for him, etc. (RAB., in Exod., tom. II.) For those who are homicides not of their own will, etc., as far as he shall have set of Christ, he shall be saved.

(AUG., quaest. 79 in Exod.) But if he did it unwillingly, and God delivered him into his hands, etc. This is so said, etc., as far as and therefore Judas justly betrayed him.

VERS. 18.-- If men quarrel, etc. (RAB.) It is the same thing, if a man, contending with his neighbour, has exasperated him by hardness of mind, or by niggardliness, that is, by despising him or by not taking counsel with him; and he, made weak by sadness, has languished away from the fervour of love: let the guilty man, by confession, expend upon the physicians, that is, the teachers, the labour of penance and the cost of the promised amendment, that they may raise up the sick man with the staff of consolation, and by the fomentations of preachings restore him to his former state of love. 257DIn correction discretion is necessary, lest he who ought to correct should kill, or should cast a man into despair or into hatred.

VERS. 22-28.-- If men quarrel. (ID.) If anyone, after the conceiving of the word, has injured another's soul through carelessness or through fraud, so that it cannot bring forth sound the living germ of a good work: even if that soul itself has persevered still living in the faith, it will be necessary, according to the ministry of the Gospel, that he make restitution 258Athrough penance for the loss inflicted. But if the soul itself, slain by error, after the bringing forth of the abortion, that is, of the death-bearing work, has persevered in unbelief, without doubt the seducer of it, as a true homicide, will be guilty of eternal death.

(AUG., quaest. 80 in Exod.) That he would not have an unformed birth pertain to homicide, etc., as far as and therefore not yet endowed with senses.

(ORIG., hom. 10 in Exod.) But if two men shall quarrel, and shall strike a woman with child, and her infant shall come forth not yet formed, he shall suffer detriment, as much as the woman's husband shall lay upon him, and he shall give for his own soul. But if it shall have been formed, he shall give life for life, eye for eye, etc. [Vulg. Ex 21:22-23 et abortivum quidem fecerit, sed ipsa vixerit: subjacebit damno quantum maritus mulieris expetierit, et arbitri judicaverint. Sin autem mors ejus fuerit subsecuta, reddet animam pro anima; the Vulgate has no formed/unformed distinction at all, and the whole gloss below expounds it; the reading Migne prints is the Septuagint's] Let us see first concerning him 258Bwho shall come forth not yet formed, how one of the litigants is commanded to be struck with the loss of money, whereas two are spoken of. And also this, that the woman's husband lays it upon him, and not upon them; and he shall give, and not rather they shall give. But if the infant shall come forth already formed, we easily understand the giving of life for life: that is, that the sin be avenged by death. But the things which follow it is worth while to explain. For neither does the infant, even formed, seem to have lost an eye in the womb, when struck by the heel of a litigant, and teeth it had not at all. For if we refer this to the mother, how does a woman miscarrying lose an eye, or suffer in her teeth? But be it that, struck either in the eye or in the tooth, she miscarried, and received a bruise or a wound, what shall we say also of burning for burning? Could a woman standing by men 258Cwho quarrel be burned, so that burning should be paid for burning? In Deuteronomy also these things cannot easily be explained. Yet in the Scriptures the members of the soul are named by the same words and offices by which the members of the body are used or called. Whence Matth. VII: Thou seest the mote in thy brother's eye, and the beam which is in thine own eye thou seest not. And Matth. XIII: He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And Rom. X: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach peace! Let not, therefore, the likeness of words disturb us. There are, then, two litigants, two disputing also about the doctrines or the questions of the law, and quarrelling about strifes of words; whence the Apostle, II Tim. II: Contend not in words, etc. And in the same place: Avoid the questions of the law, knowing that they beget strifes. They, therefore, who 258Dquarrel in these questions to the subverting of the hearers, strike a woman with child, and cast out an infant formed or still unformed. The woman with child is called the soul, which has lately conceived the word of God; whence: From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived in the womb and have brought forth (Isa. XXVI). They, therefore, who conceive and straightway bring forth, are not to be reckoned women, but men and perfect; whence elsewhere: If the earth brought forth in one day, and 259Aa nation was born in one day together (Isa. LXVI). This, then, is the generation of the perfect, which on the same day is conceived and born. And men bring forth according to that of Gal. IV: My little children, of whom I am in labour again, until Christ be formed in you. The perfect, therefore, and men bring forth straightway, that is, they carry through into works the word of faith conceived: but the soul which conceives, and holds in the womb and does not bring forth, is called a woman. Whence Isa. XXXVII: The pains of birth are come upon her: and there is not strength in her to bring forth. This soul, therefore, while two are quarrelling among themselves and putting forth scandals, is struck and scandalized: so that it casts away the word of faith which it had thinly conceived, not yet formed. For in some the word is formed, in some not formed; whence: Until Christ be formed in you (Gal. IV); for Christ is the Word of God. 259BHe, therefore, shall suffer loss who has struck it out. Concerning losses, therefore, the Apostle speaks of the teacher, I Cor. III: If any man's work burn, he shall suffer loss, etc. [Vulg. 1 Cor 3:15 detrimentum patietur, "he shall suffer detriment"; the exposition that follows is built throughout on the word damnum which Migne prints] And the Lord himself in the Gospel, Matth. XVI: What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, but lose his own soul? [Vulg. Mt 16:26 animae vero suae detrimentum patiatur, "and suffer the loss of his own soul"] Whence it seems to be shown that certain sins pertain to loss, yet not to destruction, because he who shall have suffered loss is said to be saved, though by fire: whence John says that certain sins are unto death, certain not (I Joan. V). But which are unto death cannot easily be discerned, For who understands sins? (Psal. XVIII.) But when, upon five minas, five others gained are brought back, and upon two, two (Luc. XIX), he who loses the reward of this gain is said to be struck with loss, like him who has given cause of scandal to a weaker 259Cand womanish soul. And he shall give according to what her husband shall lay upon him, and he shall give with honour to the soul that learns. The husband is the master Christ, or he who is for Christ a teacher of souls. He, therefore, shall suffer loss who contends to the subverting of the hearers, for the soul which had not yet a formed infant: which can be taken of the scandal of a catechumen. It can also come to pass that he who has injured should instruct and repair the soul which he has lost, and that with honour, that is, with modesty, with meekness, not with strife, as when he brought in the scandal. But when the infant shall have been formed, he shall give life for life. The formed infant may be seen to be the word of God in the heart of the soul which has received the grace of baptism, or which has received the word of God more evidently and more clearly. He, therefore, who struck shall render life for 259Dlife in the day of judgment, that is, before that judge who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Or, that he who shall be conscious to himself of so great a scandal, should lay down his own soul for the soul of the man scandalized, and even unto death give his labour that he may be restored to the faith. Let him lay down eye for eye: if he has injured the eye of the soul, that is, has troubled its understanding, let his eye be taken away from him by him who presides over the Church, that is, his understanding. If he has injured a tooth, which, receiving the food of the word of God, was wont to break it small or to grind it with the molars, that it might pass on a subtle meaning to the belly of the soul: if he has vexed and plucked out this tooth, so that by the wearing away of it the soul cannot subtly and spiritually receive the word of God, his tooth shall be taken away, who does not well break small and divide the foods 260Aof the word. For on this account perhaps it is said of the Lord: Thou hast broken the teeth of sinners (Psl. III). And elsewhere: The Lord shall break the grinders of the lions (Psal. LVII). So, then, the soul is said to be injured and struck through its members. He demands also hand for hand, and foot for foot. The hand of the soul is the power by which it can hold something and grasp it to the heart, as its act and its strength; and the foot is that by which it goes to good things or to evil. Because, therefore, the soul that is scandalized is cast down not only in faith but also in acts, which are signified by the hands, his hands are taken away by which he does not work well, and his feet, by which he does not walk well. He shall also receive burning, because he burned and delivered a soul to hell. By each of these things it is shown that the striker, all his members being lopped off, is to be cut away from the body of the Church, 260Bthat the rest, seeing it, may have fear, and may not do the like. Therefore the Apostle, when he describes the teacher of the Church, among other things enjoins, not a striker (I Tim. III): lest, striking women with child, that is, unwise souls, he should lay down life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, etc. Of such it is said, Matth. XXIV: Woe to them that are with child and that give suck in those days, in which they shall be scandalized, if it be possible, even the elect. [Vulg. Mt 24:19 ends at in illis diebus; the clause that follows welds on Mt 24:24 ita ut in errorem inducantur (si fieri potest) etiam electi, "so that even the elect (if it be possible) be led into error"] Yet it must be known that it does not belong to the perfect to be scandalized, but to women or to little ones; whence Matth. XVIII: If any man scandalize one of these little ones, etc.

VERS. 29-36.-- But if the ox was wont to push with his horn, etc. (RAB.) That is, if the master, that is the spirit, does not restrain the proud motion of the mind, and brings destruction upon souls, or 260Charm upon bodies, the guilt redounds upon the keeper. Whence in the sixteenth chapter of Proverbs: The heart of a man shall instruct his mouth, and shall add grace to his lips. [Vulg. Pr 16:23 Cor sapientis erudiet os ejus, "The heart of the wise shall instruct his mouth"]

Thirty shekels. That is, according to the commandments of the law, he shall make amends by faith and hope and charity.

Of silver. He shall repay the brightness of the divine word, in which they had been instructed in the faith of the Trinity and the knowledge of the decalogue.

If a man open, etc. (GREG., lib. XVII Moral., cap. 13.) To open a cistern is to penetrate the secrets of Holy Scripture with a strong understanding, etc., as far as thence the weakness of the hearers should slip down to the depths.

If another's ox, etc. (AUG.) This is to be observed not in the ox alone, but in every beast; for from the part the 260Dwhole is understood. But this cannot be done concerning the flesh of a beast that has been killed, on which they do not feed.

VERS. 1.-- If any man steal, etc. (STRAB.) According to the letter, five oxen are rendered for one ox, and four sheep for one sheep: because an ox has five uses, a sheep four. For an ox is sacrificed, ploughs, feeds, gives milk, and furnishes its hide for various uses; but a sheep is sacrificed, and feeds, and yields milk and wool. Allegorically, however, by the ox is understood any Jew, and if any Jew sell him, he will lie under the penalty of the law, which is contained in the five books of Moses. By the sheep, the Christian, who imitates Christ, 261Aof whom it is said: He was led as a sheep to the slaughter (Isa. LIII). If any man sell this one, let him render four sheep, that is, let him do penance according to the ordinance of the four Gospels.

VERS. 2-5.-- If a thief be found breaking open a house, or undermining it, etc. (AUG., quaest. 84 in Exod.) If a thief be found breaking in, and being struck shall die, etc., as far as for now he is more than a thief.

VERS. 6-13.-- If a fire break out, etc. (RAB.) We kindle a fire when we prepare correction for our subjects, that we may consume the thorns of vices. But it must be seen to, lest, while we pursue the vices, we injure the virtues, and harm before their ripeness those who had begun to bring forth the fruit of good works. He, therefore, who shall have done this, let him bear worthy penance, and what he has injured through slothfulness 261Blet him diligently restore.

The ears of corn. Tender hearers not yet coming to the ripeness of fruit: whose vices he who sharply and indiscreetly rebukes, casts fire as it were into the ears of corn, and does not suffer them to come to ripeness.

VERS. 14-16.-- He who from his neighbour, etc. We ask a loan of our neighbour when for an eternal recompense we take up the care of the Lord's flock. But if we always set before the eyes of the heart the fear of God, as of one exacting money, we are as it were always in his presence. Whence II Cor. V: Knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men. And elsewhere, II Cor. XII: As before God, in Christ we speak. The death, therefore, or the maiming of the beast is not imputed to the shepherd, if he has borne its care strenuously, and as though God were present; otherwise he is compelled to render the loss. 261CWhence Matth. V: He shall not go out thence, till he repay the last farthing.

VERS. 17.-- If the father of the virgin, etc. (RAB.) The sense of the sentence is historical, out of which the discourse is born. If, therefore, the historical sense builds up the reign of charity and destroys that of cupidity, there is no need for it to be expounded allegorically. Yet the reader ought to honour the sentence with the dowry of right faith, and to leave it untouched by his own exposition.

VERS. 18-20.-- Thou shalt not suffer wizards to live. Those who work by the sleights of the magic art and by diabolical feignings, understand as heretics, who are to be excommunicated from the fellowship of the faithful who truly live, until the evil-doing of error die in them

VERS. 21.-- Thou shalt not grieve the stranger. (RAB.) He commends the love of one's neighbour through the compassion of mercy, 261Dlest, moved by the goad of fury or of avarice, we neglect the right of nature. But what we wish men to do to us, the same let us do to them, and what we do not wish to be done, let us not do.

VERS. 22-24.-- You shall not hurt the widow and the orphan. (RAB.) By the widow, holy Church, which in the day of judgment awaits Christ, whom now she has not present; by the orphan, the Christian people, to whom the world their father, and Babylon their mother, is dead, may be taken: whom he forbids to be grieved by persecution or by worldly pride, lest perchance such harrying come to the spiritual ruin of those who vex them in vain with hatreds and reproaches.

VERS. 25.-- If money on loan, etc. [Vulg. Ex 22:25 Si pecuniam mutuam dederis, "If thou lend money"; Migne's nominative pecunia does not construe with the accusative mutuam] (RAB.) He warns the preachers 262Aof the Gospel not to seek superfluity, but having food and clothing, to be content with these, according to that of Matth. X: Freely you have received, freely give.

VERS. 26, 27.-- If a pledge, etc. (AUG., loc. 99.) He put the genus for the species: for it was so said as if he had given a pledge of any garment, whereas Scripture testifies from what follows that it speaks specially of him who has no garment but that one wherewith he may be covered by night.

(GREG., lib. XVI Moral., cap. 2.) A pledge, the confession of sin. For our neighbour is made our debtor, etc., as far as let him feel that what he has done amiss is presently remitted by us.

VERS. 28.-- Thou shalt not speak ill of the gods, etc. (AUG., quaest, 262B86 in Exod.) It is asked whom he called gods, etc., as far as or to be honoured with the services of latria.

VERS. 29-31.-- Thy tithes, etc. (ISID. in Gen., tom. V.) By the firstfruits of the crops or of the firstborn are shown the first beginnings of good works, etc., as far as and the effect of perfection is granted.

VERS. 3.-- Neither shalt thou have pity on a poor man in judgment. (AUG.) That is, lest against justice thou favour the poor man for mercy's sake. Mercy is good, but it ought not to be against judgment. Now Scripture calls judgment that which is just. But lest anyone, on account of this sentence, should think that God forbids mercy, there fittingly follows:

262CVERS. 4-6.-- If thou meet thy enemy's ox, etc. As if to say: show mercy even toward thine enemies, when the power is free from judging; for when thou leadest back the straying ox of thine enemy and restorest it, thou art not sitting as judge between any parties.

VERS. 7-9.-- Thou shalt fly lying. (RAB.) The Lord loves truth and judgment, and to the performing of these he exhorts his people, because he is no respecter of persons.

VERS. 10-12.-- Six years thou shalt sow thy ground. (AUG.) It is asked what the poor gather, if in the seventh year the land is thus spared, etc., as far as six years, when those things are gathered which are sown.

(RAB.) In the number six is the perfection of works, etc., as far as he that soweth in blessings, in blessings shall also 262Dreap. [Vulg. 2Cor 9:6 de benedictionibus et metet, "shall reap also of blessings"; Migne repeats the preposition of the first member]

VERS. 13.-- And by the name of strange gods, etc. He permits swearing by his own name, not because it is good to swear, but because he knew that men are prone to swearing; he does not will that they swear by the names of outward gods, lest by frequent oaths they be led into the worship of them. So too God does not approve victims, yet he had rather that sacrifice be made to himself than to idols.

VERS. 14-18.-- Three times in every year, etc. Here, that is, God requires the faith of the holy Trinity: for at the Pasch the Son is immolated, at Pentecost the Holy Spirit is given, at the Scenopegia the power of the Father's majesty is declared.

Three times in every year, etc. (RAB.) This 263Ais: at every season of the present life, and in the confession of the holy Trinity, through faith and hope and charity, you shall render the services of good works to God your creator. For we celebrate the Pasch in the month of new things, when, delivered by the blood of the unspotted Lamb from Egyptian servitude, we pass through spiritual waters out of the old man into the new, not in the oldness of the letter but in the newness of the spirit, whereby we come into the land of promise through the grace of Christ. But we celebrate the solemnity of the month of firstfruits when we consecrate to the Lord the firstfruits of our works, of our wills and of our words; the solemnity also at the going out of the year, when, the crops being gathered in, that is, the fruits of the virtues, we strive to come to the end of life and to the entrance of the heavenly kingdom; in tabernacles 263Bcommemorating for seven days, because through all the time of the present life we acknowledge that we are pilgrims, and seek rest not here but in the time to come, diligently taking care that we appear not empty in the sight of God.

The solemnity also, etc. (RAB.) When the crops, that is, are ripe, when the fruits of the whole year have been gathered: namely in September, which the Hebrews call by the Chaldee word thisri, תשרי, and the Macedonians ὑπερβεραῖον. At the beginning of it the Jews, keeping holiday, sound the trumpet more than in the other months, and offer more things; in which month is the day of expiations, and the day of the Scenopegia on the fifteenth day, which is the solemnity of Tabernacles.

VERS. 19.-- Thou shalt not boil a kid, etc. (AUG., quaest. 90 in Exod.) How it is to be understood according to the propriety of the words, I know not whether it can be found out, 263Cetc., as far as but afterwards it was not lambs in milk that suffered, but rams in the flock.

(STRAB.) Morally. The kid, that is, the sinner, is not to be boiled in his mother's milk, that is, dissolved by blandishments, but sharply rebuked and refuted.

VERS. 20, 21.-- Behold I will send an angel, etc. (RAB.) Josue signifies the leader of the people, who is therefore called an angel because he is sent to announce the will of the Lord; for ἄγγελος in Greek is called a messenger.

VERS. 22.-- I will be an enemy, etc. (GREG.) The root of all evil is pride, of which it is said in Eccli. X: Pride the beginning of all sin. Now its offspring are the seven principal vices: vainglory, envy, 263Danger, sadness, avarice, gluttony of the belly, lust. And because our Redeemer grieved that we were held captive by these seven vices of pride, he came full of the Spirit of sevenfold grace to the spiritual battle of our deliverance.

VERS. 23, 24.-- And an angel shall go before thee. (RAB.) Josue led the people of Israel into the land of promise, casting out seven nations and destroying their idols and their altars. Mystically the true Jesus exterminates these nations with their images, when he drives out the seven principal vices and every idol of the enemy from our hearts, that we may securely possess the land of our own nature.

Whom I will destroy. (CHRYSOST.) Every vice has its own dwelling in our heart, 264Aand, claiming that dwelling for itself, it exterminates Israel in the recess of our soul, that is, the contemplation of the highest things, and does not cease to oppose; for virtues cannot abide together with vices. But when the vices have been overcome by the Israelites, that is, by the virtues, the place which the spirit of concupiscence or of fornication possessed, chastity shall obtain; the place which fury had seized, patience shall claim; the place which sadness working death had occupied, saving gladness full of joy shall possess; the place which sloth laid waste, fortitude shall cultivate; the place which pride trod down, humility shall make honourable. And so, the several vices being expelled, their places, that is, the affections, shall be possessed by the contrary virtues; and these are named the sons of Israel, that is, of the soul that sees God: who, when they have driven out all the passions of the heart, are to be believed not so much to have seized 264Bother men's possessions as to have recovered their own; because, according to the ancient tradition, the sons of Sem obtained by lot, in the division of the world, the land of the Chananaeans, which the Chananaeans possessed by violence: whence by the just, judgment of God they were driven out. The will of the Lord also assigned the possession of our heart not to vices but to virtues, which after the transgression of Adam, when the vices grew insolent like Chananaeans, were driven from their proper region. But when by the grace of God they are restored by our diligence and by our labour, they do not so much occupy another's land as receive back their own.

VERS. 25-27.-- I will bless thy loaves, etc. (AUG.) Another reading: I will bless thy bread and thy wine, etc. Although these promises can be understood spiritually also, etc., as far as which the ungodly shall not receive.

264CVERS. 28.-- Sending out hornets. (AUG., quaest. 93.) I will send wasps, etc. This God promises, etc., as far as if anything is said by Christ.

Another reading. I will send wasps before thee, and it shall cast out the Amorrhites, etc. He turns himself from the plural to the singular number. And it shall cast out the Amorrhites is understood of the wasp, namely as of the locust, as of the frog: not that it is one, but by the singular the plural is understood.

VERS. 29-33.-- I will not cast them out from the face, etc. (STRAB.) These nations signify the vices, which are extinguished in the saints neither all together nor at one time, lest the monsters of the earth be multiplied, that is, lest they be lifted up into pride and vainglory and things of this kind. For when the saints fight against the greater vices and conquer, they leave 264Dthe lesser, and these are permitted to have dominion, lest through elation they fall more grievously. Whence to Paul was given a sting of the flesh for the keeping of humility (I Cor. XXII).

VERS. 1.-- And to Moses he said: Come up to the Lord, thou and Aaron, etc. (AUG., quaest. 85 in Exod., tom. III.) Up to this place the justifications of Scripture are understood, etc., as far as but the Latins say that those are justifications which the Greeks call δικαιώματα.

Thou and Aaron, etc. (STRAB.) Moses and Aaron and Nadab and Abiu. By these four are signified evangelical men, that is, those who follow the evangelical precepts. 265ABut by the seventy (which number consists of the number seven taken ten times, or of the number ten multiplied seven times) are signified those who, helped by the grace of the Holy Spirit, fulfilling the ten of the law, stretch toward the contemplation of the Creator. Or, according to the letter, those of whom it is said in Num. XI: Take unto thee seventy men, etc., among whom were Heldad and Meldad. [Vulg. Nm 11:16 Congrega mihi septuaginta viros de senibus Israel, "Gather unto me seventy men of the ancients of Israel"]

VERS. 2.-- And Moses alone shall come up to the Lord. (RAB.) First it is commanded that Moses and Aaron, Nadab and Abiu, and the seventy elders should come up to the Lord. And at once it is subjoined that Moses alone should come up to the Lord, and that the rest should not draw near, but adore afar off. Where we are morally instructed to weigh our own strength, and not to reach the citadel of contemplation beyond our power, but so far as the divine clemency 265Bcalls, and the rule of Scripture invites.

(GREG.) Moses, that he might receive the sublime precepts of God, climbed on high; and that he might penetrate inward things, he is hidden from outward tumults: because holy men, who are compelled by necessity to serve outward offices, always flee back studiously to the secret places of the heart, and there ascend the summit of their inmost thought, and receive the law as it were upon a mountain, while, the tumults of temporal actions being set aside, they search out upon the height of their contemplation the sentence of the supernal will.

VERS. 3-5.-- We will do (AUG., quaest. 95.) It is to be noted that again the people, etc., as far as they laid hold of justice.

VERS. 6-9.-- He took therefore, etc. [ID., quaest. 98.] 265CIt is to be noted that Moses now sacrificed for the first time, etc., as far as for that the decalogue was written on tables of stone appears afterwards.

Bowls. A cratera, or crater, is so called ἀπὸ τοῦ κρατεῖν, which is to hold, in that it is able to hold much wine.

VERS. 10, 11.-- Under his feet. God is not contained by place, nor does he set the members of a body in a posture, as it belongs to our body to sit, and to lie, to stand, and the like, which are of the body only. But God is a spirit. Therefore that he shows himself under a bodily appearance, or by signs bodily expressed, is not the appearing of his substance, which is what he himself is; rather the assumption of visible forms lies subject to all his power.

VERS. 12.-- Come up to me, etc. (BED., lib. I de 265DTabernac., cap. 11, tom. II.) Being about to speak of the figure of the tabernacle, etc., as far as that the Church might be designated as about to speak throughout the world with the tongues of all nations.

And I will give thee. (ID.) Like to this is that: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you (Matth. XXVIII). Therefore neither Moses, nor the apostles, nor anyone whatever, ought to teach other things than those which the Lord taught and prescribed by the decree of his counsel to be observed, in which he willed that we should have eternal life; and just as nothing of these ought to be passed over, so it is needful to commit to the hearers all things which he commanded.

VERS. 13.-- Moses and Josue rose up. (AUG., quaest. 103 in Exod.) Josue, not mentioned among those four, suddenly appears with Moses, etc., as far 266Aas that at the time now recorded he was not yet called Jesus, but when it was written.

(BED.) Josue signifies Christ in name and in action; who is called the minister of Moses, because Christ came not to destroy the law, but to fulfil (Matth. V). He follows the footsteps of Moses in all things, because in all that Moses wrote he is typically designated, and, as an inseparable companion, is found if he be rightly sought. Whence John V: If you did believe Moses, you would perhaps believe me also.

(BED., de Tabernac., lib. I, cap. 1, tom. II.) Aaron ( אהרן ) is interpreted the mountain of strength, Hur ( חור ) fire or light, etc., as far as and the mind burns toward the love of the Creator.

VERS. 15.-- And when Moses was gone up, (BEDA., ibid.) As the mountain the height of perfection, etc., as far 266Bas he protects with heavenly blessing.

VERS. 16.-- And the glory of the Lord dwelt. (ID., ibid.) Not the loftiness only, but the very name of the mountain, etc., as far as on the seventh we are bidden to rest.

Covering it with a cloud. (ID., ibid.) For six days he is covered with the cloud and with the glory of the Lord, etc., as far as that he might come through to the loftier gifts of the divine vision and converse.

VERS. 17.-- And the appearance was, etc. (ID., ibid.) The appearance of the glory of the Lord appeared as a burning fire, etc., as far as although they are not able to follow them fully.

VERS. 18.-- And Moses entering in, etc. (ID., ibid.) Moses, having entered the midst of the cloud, went up into the mountain, etc., as far as that by the observance of them they may come to eternal salvation.

• 266C

VERS. 2.-- Speak to the children of Israel, that they bring me firstfruits, etc. (BED., de Tabernac., lib. I, cap. III, tom. II.) We offer to God the firstfruits of our goods when, ascribing wholly to divine grace the good that we do, we profess with our whole heart that we cannot have even the beginning of a good action or thought save from the Lord; but that evils are always both begun and consummated by us at the instigation of the devil, and are not to be loosed save by the Lord's gift.

VERS. 3-6.-- And these are the things you must take, etc. (ID., ibid.) All the things which the Lord commanded to be offered materially for the making of the sanctuary, we also, who desire to be spiritual children of Israel, that is, imitators 266Dof the people that sees God, ought to offer spiritually: that by these voluntary oblations we may ourselves make a sanctuary within us, so that he may vouchsafe to dwell in our heart and to consecrate a habitation to himself.

VERS. 7.-- Onyx stones, etc. (ID., ibid.) These we offer, etc., as far as are signified the merits of martyrdom added to good works.

VERS. 8.-- And they shall make me a sanctuary. (ID., ibid.) The Lord showed Moses the tabernacle on the mountain, etc., as far as it received the glorious multitude of holy souls.

VERS. 9-11.-- According to all the likeness, etc. (ID., ibid.) We ought to imitate the angels by loving God 267Aand our neighbour, etc., as far as and after this life may bring thee into that tabernacle which thou imitatest.

Of all the vessels. (BED.) The vessels of the tabernacle are the several persons of the angels, of whom Jerusalem, the mother of us all, consists in true peace and unity.

And thus you shall make it. An ark, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 4.) The ark is commanded to be made, etc., as far as but he came in the likeness of sinful flesh.

The length whereof (ID.) It is asked of what size this cubit is, etc., as far as whence it appears that it designates that cubit which two palms make.

The breadth. (ID., ibid.) The breadth of one cubit for the dispensation of the Lord's charity, etc., as far as where we may love him with our whole heart, let us enter.

267B(ID.) Mystically. The length of the ark the long-suffering of Christ, etc., as far as because he bore with long-suffering the slowness of the disciples.

The height, a cubit, etc. (ID., ibid.) The ark has a cubit in height, etc., and as far as this little we have not save from him.

VERS. 12-15.-- And four rings, etc. (GREG. Past., cap. 11, tom. III.) The ark, the Church, etc., as far as which is in you, etc.

Two rings. (BEDA, ut supra. ) Because in the figure of the four living creatures, etc., as far as they expressed the things which pertain to the glory of the life to come.

VERS. 16.-- The testimony which I will give. (ID., ibid.) Of which the Apostle, etc., as far as he taught the judge of all ages.

267CVERS. 17.-- A propitiatory. (ID.) The propitiatory was a golden board of the same measure as the ark; so called because there God, appearing to Moses and speaking with him, was made propitious to the people; and it signifies mercy, whence it was fittingly above the ark, because his mercy is above all his works.

VERS. 18-21.-- Two cherubim also, etc. (ID.) Because of the fellowship of angelic peace, which cannot be had among fewer than two. Now the cherubim signify the angelic host; and the angels contemplate Christ in the highest concord and quiet; whence, with faces turned toward one another, they look upon the propitiatory, because they understand that they have that beatitude by the grace of God.

(GREG., hom. 6 in Ezech.) The two cherubim, which are called the fulness 267Dof knowledge, etc., as far as if he promised one thing while he denied another.

(BEDA, ibid.) In the singular number it is called cherub, כרוב but in the plural cherubim, כרובים etc., as far as they are well designated by wings spread out and fitted for flying.

VERS. 22.-- Thence will I give orders, etc., over the propitiatory. (ID., ibid.) Over the propitiatory, etc., as far as whence Habacuc says: In the midst of two living creatures thou shalt be made known (Habac. III). [Vulg. Hab 3:2 in medio annorum notum facies, "in the midst of the years thou shalt make it known"; the whole gloss rests on the two living creatures]

(BED., ibid.) In the ark the Church can be figured, etc., as far as wherein they themselves stand established upon the foundation of the highest truth.

(BED., ibid.) The table of setim wood, etc., as far as 268Awhence Cant. II: The king brought me into the wine cellar, and he set in order charity in me. [Vulg. Ct 2:4 Introduxit me in cellam vinariam, ordinavit in me caritatem, without rex, "he brought me in"]

VERS. 23.-- In height a cubit, etc. (BED., ibid.) That the height has a cubit and a half, etc., as far as it is not figured by a full cubit.

VERS. 23.-- And thou shalt make for it a lip., etc. (BED., ibid.) A golden lip is made on the table round about, etc., as far as according to the diversity of merits, the glory of each. [Vulg. these words stand at Ex 25:24; Migne's address repeats VERS. 23]

VERS. 24.-- A crown, etc., and over it another crown. (BED., ibid.) A golden crown is added, since through the Gospel to those who keep the commandments, etc., as far as that a loftier glory is kept for it in the receiving back of their bodies.

VERS. 26.-- For every one, etc. (BED., ibid.) The table 268Bof the tabernacle has four feet, etc., as far as they may enter into the kingdom of heaven.

VERS. 27.-- That the bars may be put through them. (ID., ibid.) Through the rings the bars are put for carrying the table, etc., as far as they carry the table of the Lord with the loaves and the vessels in four rings.

VERS. 29.-- Thou shalt prepare also dishes and bowls. (ID., ibid.) The various vessels which are made for offering libations, etc., as far as whence: Who, thinkest thou, is the faithful and prudent steward (Luc. XII)?

VERS. 29.-- Thou shalt prepare dishes, etc. (GREG., hom. 6 in Evang., tom. II.) What is understood by the bowls and the cups but the measure of preaching? etc., as far as but also small and subtle things, which afford knowledge as it were by a taste.

268C(IDEM.) One man, full of the doctrine of truth, inebriates his hearers, and as it were holds out a bowl; another is not strong enough to fill out what he perceives, yet, because he does declare it after some fashion, affords by a cup a taste. Those therefore who cannot minister bowls through the doctrine of wisdom, let them, so far as they suffice by the divine bounty, pour out to their neighbours cups of the word.

VERS. 30.-- And thou shalt set upon the table the loaves of proposition in my sight always. Josephus says that twelve loaves were made of fine flour, each of two tenths, which on the Sabbath were set upon the table, six on this side and six on that: upon each one a golden dish with a handful of incense, and thus they were kept until another Sabbath, on which the incense was burned; but the priests ate the loaves warm, putting back the incense.

268DAnd thou shalt set upon the table, etc. (BED. ubi supra. ) They are rightly called the loaves of proposition, because the word of salvation ought always to lie open to all the faithful, nor ought the word of comfort ever to be wanting in the Church: which word the Lord, proposing it to the world through the heralds of truth, willed to appear in his sight and to abound unceasingly, even unto the end, for those who hunger and thirst after justice.

VERS. 31.-- Thou shalt make also a candlestick, etc. (GREG., hom. 6 in Ezech.) The candlestick is Christ, in whom the nature of humanity shone with the light of the Godhead, etc., as far as the goblets therefore and the little spheres pertain to labour, the lilies to reward.

Thou shalt make also a candlestick of beaten work of the purest gold. 269A(BEDA, ibid.) The candlestick of the tabernacle, etc., as far as and by preaching and by doing he showed the brightness of the word to all.

And the branches, the goblets and the little spheres. (ID., ibid.) Namely, preachers proceeding from the shaft, etc., as far as which blooms for holy souls, that is, for eternal flowers.

VERS. 32.-- Six branches, etc. (ID., ibid.) The number six, in which the world was made, etc., as far as whence Paul: The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of God, and the communication of the Holy Spirit, be always with you all. [Vulg. 2Cor 13:13 sit cum omnibus vobis, without semper, "be with you all"]

Three out of one. (ID., ibid.) Three branches out of one side, etc., as far as he shall enjoy the vision of him.

(ID., ubi supra ). The goblets are made on the candlestick after the manner of a nut, etc., as far as because the continent of that 269Btime had three orders of saints by the same distinction of times.

VERS. 33.-- In the manner of a nut. (ID.) The nut signifies the Church, whence: He went down into the garden of nuts. [Vulg. Ct 6:10 Descendi in hortum nucum, "I went down into the garden of nuts"; Migne's third person moves the words out of the Bride's mouth] For the nut has a sweet fruit within, which is not shown without unless the shell be broken: so the life of the saints keeps the sweetness of grace in the heart, which is not known outwardly, save when, the dwelling of the flesh being loosed, they behold themselves in the heavenly light.

(ID.) The third branch likewise has three goblets and little spheres, and three lilies: because many married persons were before the law, under the law and under the prophets, who rejoiced to hear the word of the Lord, and to run his way, and to look for the rewards of good works.

(ID.) Likewise from the other side the first branch, the second 269Cand the third, three goblets and little spheres; three lilies also it had: because in both Testaments, among the doctors, among the continent, and among the married that are devoted to God, there were three orders by a distance of times. Namely in the primitive Church out of Israel, in our election out of the Gentiles, in the last gathering of the remnants of Israel: all of whom, inebriated in their own time with the word of life, desire to hasten in the way of peace, and to see the whiteness of perpetual light.

VERS. 34.-- And in the candlestick itself, etc. (ID., ubi supra. ) We have said that the candlestick itself, etc., as far as but hearts renewed through the Spirit receive them.

VERS. 35.-- And little spheres under every one, and lilies. Little spheres under two branches, etc.

(ID., ibid.) There are under the several goblets little spheres 269Dtogether with lilies, etc., as far as whence: His left hand under my head, and his right hand shall embrace me.

(ID., ibid.) The goblets, the little spheres and the lilies are under two branches, etc., as far as all the fulness of the Godhead corporeally.

VERS. 36.-- The little spheres therefore and the branches. (ID., ibid.) The whole work of the candlestick, etc., as far as whence: In tribulation thou hast enlarged me, etc.

VERS. 37.-- Thou shalt make. (ID.) The seven lamps are the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, which always remained in Christ, and are distributed to the faithful according to his will: these are set upon the candlestick, because the Spirit of wisdom and understanding rested upon him (Isai. XI).

270AThat they may give light, etc. (ID., ibid.) The lamps of the candlestick lighted up the tabernacle over against them, when Christ, full of grace and truth, bestowed on all out of his fulness; committing the word of the Gospel to the meek and the poor, conferring on the penitent the remedy of pardon, affirming that now is the time of sparing, in the time to come the time of the universal judgment.

VERS. 38.-- Snuffers also, and where the things. (ID., ibid.) The divine words, by which it is manifestly signified that in very many places not the letter of the law but the spiritual sense is to be kept: whence: If you be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.

(ID., ibid.) The snuffers, and the vessels where the things that are snuffed off are extinguished, etc., as far as saying: Whether prophecies shall be made void, or tongues shall cease, etc.

270BSnuffers also, etc. (ID., ibid.) There are certain precepts in the Scriptures, etc., as far as and elsewhere: Behold, I make all things new.

VERS. 39.-- The whole. (ID., ibid.) This is the body of Christ together with the head itself, that is, all the elect, etc., as far as because by the desert of their crimes they fall down into the abyss of oppressing punishment.

VERS. 40.-- Look. (ID., ibid.) There was shown to Moses on the mountain the pattern of the candlestick which he should make, etc., as far as he showed the pattern to his hearers by the performance of the work and by the word of doctrine.

VERS. 1.-- And the tabernacle shall so be made, etc. (BED., lib. II de Tabernac., cap. 3, tom. II.) [Vulg. Ex 26:1 Tabernaculum vero ita facies, "the tabernacle thou shalt make thus"; Migne's impersonal passive drops the command addressed to Moses] The tabernacle 270Cwhich Moses made in the wilderness, and the temple which Solomon made in Jerusalem, etc., as far as and they may be joined by the bond of divine and of proper love.

(ID., ubi supra. ) The figure of both sanctuaries can be distinguished thus, etc., as far as he depicts with a wonderful variety of figures.

Of twisted fine linen, and of hyacinth and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, diversified. (ID., ubi supra, cap. 2.) In these four colours of the curtains, etc., as far as the purple, of a bloody colour and dyed with the blood of shellfish, figures hearts devoted to God and ready to die for God.

VERS. 2.-- The length of one curtain shall have twenty-eight cubits, the breadth four, etc. (ID., ibid.) 270DIf from one up to seven thou number all the numbers in order, by a full order, as far as that through faith and good works it may tend toward rest.

Of one measure, etc. (ID., ibid.) Although the curtains differed by a varying embroidery, yet they were all tempered to one measure of length and breadth, because although the elect have differing gifts, yet there is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.

(ID., ubi supra. ) Josephus relates, etc., as far as the tabernacle is adorned as it were by the one connecting of ten curtains.

VERS. 4.-- Loops of hyacinth in the sides, etc. (ID., ibid.) By loops of hyacinth the curtains are coupled to one another, 271Aetc., as far as and they trust that they shall abide in it for ever.

(BEDA, ibid.) It was commanded also that fringes should be made at the corners of the cloaks, etc., as far as being gathered from the four winds, we shall be joined in an indivisible fellowship.

VERS. 5.-- Fifty each, etc. (ID., ibid.) In the fiftieth year, etc., as far as and in the receiving of which there is truly rest and joy, it is rightly figured.

(ID., ibid.) The curtains have fifty loops, because it is brought about by the gift of the Holy Spirit that the elect are coupled to one another in the fellowship of peace, which is the bond of perfection: and the hope also and the memory of that fellowship and peace to come, which is had in this life, makes those who are separated by times or by places to be of one accord in the same piety.

271B(ID., ibid.) The curtains have loops on either part, etc., as far as when the just are leagued together by a harmonious quality of virtues.

Thou shalt make also fifty rings. (ID., ibid.) This is more fully explained when it is said, etc., as far as nay rather, that out of all the elect the Church of Christ may be perfected.

VERS. 7.-- Thou shalt make also tent-cloths, etc. (ID., ibid.) This is found thus in what follows: He made also eleven tent-cloths of goats' hair, etc. The tent-cloths, with which the tabernacle is covered, etc., as far as while like tent-cloths they bear the storms without.

The tent-cloths of haircloth signify the coarse minds of men, which by the hidden judgment of God are preferred, however harshly, because they fear not to serve temporal cares, that they may 271Cbear the winds and rains of temptations.

Thou shalt make also tent-cloths, etc. (ID., ibid.) Haircloth belongs to penitents, etc., as far as yet how great is the perfection of their hearts is declared when it is said: The length of one tent-cloth, etc.

(ID., ibid.) The tent-cloths of haircloth, or of goats' hair, etc., as far as nor do they receive the apostolic grace.

(AUG., quaest. 108 in Exod.) There are eleven hairy veils, etc., as far as and whose sins are covered.

For a covering, namely lest the inner things, tender and bright, be troubled by any adversity whatever; for otherwise neither does the fine linen shine, nor the scarlet glitter, nor is the hyacinth adorned with its blue colour: those therefore who advance in the bosom of the Church 271Dought not to despise their superiors, if they see them taken up with outward things.

VERS. 8.-- The length of one tent-cloth. (BEDA, lib. II de Tabernac., cap. 3, tom. II.) The length has the number ten, etc., as far as who nevertheless, according to the measure of human perfection, are exalted among men.

The measure shall be equal. (ID., ibid.) Because there is one faith in which the whole Church is saved, etc., as far as where the solid firmness of a wall was wanting.

(ID., ibid.) Consider also the measure of the curtains, etc., as far as So much for the curtains.

(ID., ibid.) The tent-cloth has thirty cubits of length, etc., as far as in that they are leaders of the flocks that follow their lords.

272AVERS. 9.-- The sixth tent-cloth in the front. Mystically, however, in the front of the roof the sixth tent-cloth is doubled, when all who enter the holy Church are so initiated by faith and by the sacrament of the Lord's passion that they understand that they must always live by the imitation of it as well. For as it were at the entrance the sixth tent-cloth is doubled, that we may both obtain the sacraments of the Lord's passion and be instructed by his examples. Of the sacraments Peter says: Who hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. And he says also of the imitation of the passion: Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought.

VERS. 10.-- Thou shalt make also fifty loops in the edge of one tent-cloth. (BEDA, ibid.) As we have expounded these things above concerning the curtains, etc., as far as so much the more does he seek the help of his neighbour, 272Bwhereby he may be strengthened.

VERS. 11.-- Of brass, wherewith the loops may be joined, that of all there may be made one covering, etc. (ID.) Now the buckles are rightly of brass, made, that is, of a sounding metal, because the humble conscience of the just has a great voice with God. Whence the poor man of David, when he was in anguish and was pouring out his prayer not into the ears of men but in the sight of God: O Lord, (he says) hear my prayer, and let my cry come to thee.

VERS. 12.-- But that which shall remain over, etc. (ID., ibid.) That these things may be more fully understood, etc., as far as ten again of descent along the boards of the eastern wall.

VERS. 13.-- And a cubit. Because the tent-cloths passed beyond the curtains by one cubit 272Con the southern side of the house, and by another on the northern, and therefore reached to the ground, since these had thirty cubits of length and those two less.

VERS. 14.-- Thou shalt make also a covering. (STRAB.) The first covering was that of the curtains of fine linen, purple and scarlet; the second that of the eleven tent-cloths; the third of the reddened skins of rams; the last was of hyacinth-coloured skins. Now the curtains so covered that they came down at the sides, yet did not reach the ground; but the tent-cloths covered both roof and sides, and did reach the ground. But the reddened or violet skins covered the roof only, nor did they slope down to the other parts.

Of skins, etc. (BED., ibid., cap. 4.) The rams are 272Dthe doctors, the leaders of the Lord's flock. Whence: Bring to the Lord, O ye children of God, bring, etc. As if to say: O angels, appointed to this office, bring to the Lord into the heavens the imitators of the apostles. Hence also the sixth station of the people that went out of Egypt is named helin, that is, rams, in which there were twelve fountains and seventy palm trees, that so by name and by kind it might hold the figure of the apostles.

Reddened. (ID., ibid.) The skins of rams are reddened for covering the roof of the tabernacle, etc., as far as lest they fail amid oppressions, they fortify

Of violet skins. (ID., ibid.) The hyacinth is of a heavenly colour, etc., as far as that is, imitating the life of heaven.

VERS. 15.-- Of setim wood. (ID., ibid.) These boards 273Asignify the apostles and their successors, through whose discourse the Church was enlarged, etc., as far as nor was the Hebrew name translated, because this wood is scarcely found among other peoples.

VERS. 16.-- Every one shall have ten cubits in length, in breadth a cubit and a half. (BEDA, ibid.) The length of the boards is the height, which had ten cubits, etc., as far as: and I will show him my salvation (Psal. XC).

VERS. 17.-- In the sides. (ID., ibid.) It is mortised in the sides of the boards, etc., as far as we receive in the bosom of love, and believe that we are received by them.

VERS. 18.-- Of which twenty shall be on the south side. (ID., ubi supra, cap. 6.) How great the length of the tabernacle was, etc., as far as lest anyone think that virtues 273Bwithout work suffice him.

VERS. 19.-- For which thou shalt cast forty sockets of silver, etc. (ID., ibid.) The bases by which the boards were held up are the words and the books of the law and of the prophets, by which the apostles and evangelists proved that the things they willed to write and to preach were true and divine. Whence: Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by the prophets. And elsewhere: Now all this was done, that the scriptures of the prophets might be fulfilled (Matth. XXI). [Vulg. these words stand at Mt 26:56; the address Migne prints points to Mt 21:4, which reads ut adimpleretur quod dictum est per prophetam dicentem] And Peter says: We have the more firm prophetical word (II Petr. I).

(BED., GREG.) By the silver bases of the boards the order of the prophets is signified: who, when they first spoke of the Lord's incarnation, rose as it were as bases from the foundation, and sustained the weights of the fabric set above them, 273Cand they sustain the boards, that is, the apostolic preaching spread abroad in the world, as firm and molten bases: because the life of the apostles is instructed by their preaching, and is made solid by their authority. Whence two bases joined together are set under each board: because while the prophets agree in their words concerning the incarnation of Christ, they build up the preachers that follow, so that, in the point where they do not differ among themselves, they may fix those others the more strongly. They are commanded to be cast of silver. For the brightness of silver is preserved by use, and without use turns to blackness; but the sayings of the prophets, before the coming of Christ, were not in the use of spiritual understanding, since they could not be beheld through their obscurity, and therefore they remained as it were black: but after Christ, coming, wiped them before our eyes with the hand of his incarnation, 273Dwhatever of light lay hidden in them shone forth, and he gave the understanding of the preceding fathers into use, because he expounded the words by the things.

(BEDA.) Rightly are two bases set under each board, that the consent of the prophetic attestation in all the things which the apostles said may be shown. Or they are put beneath, two by two, at the two corners, that, the corners being well propped, the whole board may be able to stand upright: because the beginning of all apostolic and evangelical discourse is prefigured in the prophetic books, and the end of the whole life of the apostles and of their successors, from the beginning of faith unto the end of the present life, is inserted in the mystical boards of the old testament.

VERS. 20.-- On the second side also. The southern side, which looks toward the south wind, signifies the ancient people of God, 274Awhich, long ago receiving the light of the knowledge of the law, glowed with the love of God. The second side, which looks toward the North, signifies the Gentiles, who until the time of the incarnation were torpid in the darkness and cold of unbelief; of whose calling it is said: I will say to the North: Give up; and to the South: Keep not back (Isa. XLIII). As if to say: I will say to the people of the Gentiles, long benumbed without faith: Let there come of thy sons to the faith of my confession and of my love. Yea and to the people of Israel, which already enjoys the light of my knowledge: Keep not back the Gentiles from being received into the lot of election.

Twenty boards. (BEDA.) Now the board on either side was of one number, and of one measure, and of one making: because one and the same faith, hope and charity is preached to either people through the apostles, and to the promised land 274Bof the heavenly kingdom either people is called. Of both they receive a general precept: Going into the whole world, preach the Gospel to every creature (Marc. XVI), that is, to uncircumcision and to circumcision. And without any difference it is subjoined: He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.

VERS. 21.-- Two sockets. A base is a foundation, from the Greek βασεία, that is, I found. By the bases the prophets are signified, upon whose authority the apostles and all doctors lean. And they are called two because of the concord of the prophets, who all thought one thing.

VERS. 22.-- Toward the west, etc. (BEDA, ibid.) The western quarter, etc., as far as they are to remain in the Church unto the end of the world.

274CBut toward the western quarter, etc. (ID., ibid.) Rightly is the tabernacle completed in the western quarter, etc., as far as but also for the evils from which he delivered them.

(ID.) Rightly does the western quarter, which is said to look toward the sea, consist of six boards: because in the number six the consummation of a good work is marked; because in it the Lord consummated the adorning of the world; in it he created man in the beginning; in it he restored the human race by his passion. Or because there are six ages of the world, in which we must be perfected by good works, that we may come to the eternal glory and to the glory of the resurrection.

VERS. 23.-- And again two others. (ID.) That again two other boards, besides the first six, are commanded to be raised up at the corner behind the back of the tabernacle, 274Dwhich receive the wall coming from the eastern quarter and are joined to the wall of the western quarter, pertains to the reward of the life to come, which after the labours and the times of one life is secure, or made secure, being divided into a sabbath-rest, that is, the rest of souls after they are released from bodies, and the glory of the resurrection common to either people, to be ended by no end.

VERS. 24.-- And they shall be joined to one another. (ID., ibid.) [Vulg. Ex 26:24 Eruntque conjunctae a deorsum usque sursum, "and they shall be joined together from beneath unto the top"; Migne's sibi makes the joining mutual] Because the whole life of the elect tends by one faith and charity toward the things of heaven, and comes to the one end of the divine vision, and in one voice of right doctrine all the discourse of the holy preachers agrees. For the framing of the boards would fall apart from one another, if what one prophet or Apostle had said, another denied

275AAnd to the two boards also, etc. (BEDA, ibid.) The corner boards are joined in all things to the boards of the walls, etc., as far as the prophets foretold with a consonant voice that these things should be.

(ID., ibid.) Here the measure of the bases is not stated, etc., as far as but that it might be kept unmoved in secure quiet.

Thou shalt make also bars of wood, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 7.) The five bars which hold together the boards of the tabernacle, etc., as far as nor did he lay upon them other things than the commandments of the law.

VERS. 29.-- The boards themselves also thou shalt overlay with gold (ID., ibid.) The gilded boards of the tabernacle shine forth, etc., as far as but they gather also the light of the supernal recompense.

Which thou shalt cover with plates. (ID., ibid.) The bars are covered with plates of gold, etc., as far as when the spiritual 275Bunderstanding is shown full of mysteries.

VERS. 30.-- Thou shalt set up the tabernacle. (ID., ibid.) The pattern of the tabernacle, etc., as far as they compose both their work and their mind.

VERS. 31.-- Thou shalt make also a veil. (ID., ibid., cap. 8). This agrees, even according to the letter, with the beauty of the heavenly vision. For if thou consider the comeliness and the flames of the stars, the manifold appearance of the clouds and the rainbow itself, drawing out a thousand and diverse colours when the sun is turned away, thou shalt mark in heaven many more and fairer paintings than in the veil of the tabernacle.

Thou shalt make also a veil, etc. (ID., ibid.) This veil, as far as that he may appear before the face of God for us.

Thou shalt make also a veil of hyacinth and purple and scarlet twice dyed. (ID., ibid.) Thus far concerning the southern wall, 275Cetc., as far as colours when the sun is turned away.

VERS. 32.-- Which thou shalt hang before four, etc. (ID., ibid.) Now the four pillars, etc., as far as this shall not be there where there is nothing at all of evil.

Which indeed shall be gilded. (ID., ibid.) The pillars before which the veil is hung are gilded, because the powers of the angels, placed within the veil of heaven, are clothed with the grace of the highest brightness. They have heads of gold, because they have the mind by which they are ruled made bright by the presence of divine knowledge and vision.

(ID., ibid.) The pillars have bases of silver, etc., as far as the brightness of words is shown by the silver.

(GREG., Moral. lib. XXVIII, cap. 6). He commands the bases of the four pillars to be of silver, etc., as far as they carry the sayings of the evangelists by mouth and by work.

275DVERS. 33.-- And the veil shall be inserted, etc. (BED., ubi supra. ) Because it was in the eternal counsel of the Godhead, etc., as far as: in the day of judgment.

Within which thou shalt put the ark of the testimony, etc. Within this veil the ark of the testament was placed, because Christ, conscious of the Father's secrets, after his passion and resurrection, ascending the heaven of heavens, sits at the right hand of the Father.

They shall be divided. Because the Church, which consists of angels and of men, partly sojourns in the lowest places, partly reigns in the highest, has her citizens still separated one from another, the veil of heaven parting them.

VERS. 35.-- And the table without the veil, etc. (ID. ibid.) The table and the candlestick of the tabernacle signify the temporal 276Abenefits of God, etc., as far as bearing witness to him.

VERS. 36.-- Thou shalt make also a hanging, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 9). The narrative concerning the veil being set forth, etc., as far as because it rejoiced in the continence of flesh and of mind.

(ID.) According to the letter the tabernacle was a house consecrated to God, etc., as far as of breadth fifty.

VERS. 37.-- And five pillars. (ID., ibid.) The pillars by which the hanging is suspended, etc., as far as the evangelical Scripture not yet laid open.

Of setim wood. (ID., ibid.) The pillars of wood, etc., as far as: but Jesus Christ.

The heads whereof shall be of gold, etc., (ID., ibid.) The golden heads signify Christ, etc., as far as it is built up of the souls of the elect 276Bthat lack corruption.

VERS 1.-- Thou shalt make also an altar of wood. (BED., de Tabernac., lib. II, cap. 11, tom. II.) Namely because clean and uncorrupted ought those hearts to be in which the Holy Spirit dwells.

And three cubits. (ID., ibid.) Such, well nigh, is the stature of a man, etc., as far as it does not pertain to the altar.

VERS. 2.-- And the horns, etc. (ID., Ibid.) The altar of holocaust has four corners, etc., as far as it abides inviolable, nay rather the stronger.

VERS. 3.-- And thou shalt make for the uses thereof cauldrons. (ID., ibid.) The divers vessels of the altar, etc., as far as charity, never to be quenched, shall burn.

276CAnd tongs. (ID., Ibid.) The tongs are the preachers, etc., as far as they bid also to shine.

And fleshhooks, and firepans, etc. (ID., ibid.) The fleshhooks, which in Greek are called κρεάγραι, etc., as far as they should go beyond the measure of our capacity.

Receptacles of fire. For this were they appointed, that by them the holy fire might be carried from the altar of holocaust to the altar of incense, evening and morning, for the setting on of the incense; because the teachers carry fire as it were from the altar of holocausts to the altar of incense, when by teaching they advance their hearers from virtue to virtue, and, as their merits grow, to higher things and to the more inward secrets of the divine vision. And they who imitate the hearts of their neighbours fervent with piety become receptacles of fires, because the flame of the heavenly sacrifice, 276Dwhich they behold in their brethren's minds, they are busy to kindle in their own.

VERS. 4.-- And a gridiron after the manner, etc. (BED., ubi supra, cap. 18.) The whole altar was commanded to be made hollow, etc., as far as we think they learned it from the teachers of the Jews.

VERS. 5.-- Beneath the hearth, etc. (ID., ibid.) The altar has a hearth, etc., as far as they may be brought to the end of perfection.

(ID.) If it moves anyone according to the letter, etc., as far as it may be found the cleaner.

VERS. 6.-- Thou shalt make also bars. The teachers, namely, who may call the Jewry and the Gentile world into one grace of faith with harmonious mouth and work. Or, on either side of the altar 277Athere shall be bars for carrying it, when the preachers shall teach the minds of the faithful to hold the constancy of the virtues in prosperity and in adversity.

VERS. 8.-- As to thee Sicuttibi in the mount. (BEDA, ibid.) All the things which for us mystically, etc., as far as we are bidden always to do.

VERS. 9.-- Thou shalt make also a court. (ID., ubi supra, cap. 13.) As the Holy of holies, etc., as far as but the memory of it is rooted out from the inmost heart.

A hundred cubits. (ID., ibid.) It is agreed that the number of a hundred, etc., as far as and they may take up the continence of things temporal.

VERS. 10.-- And twenty pillars. (ID., ibid.) The pillars on which the hangings are hung, etc., as far as because they sound forth nothing other than the word of God.

277BWith bases, etc. (ID., ibid.) By the bases of the pillars, etc., as far as they shall never lack the fruit of a reward.

Of silver. (ID.) The heads not silvered over, but wholly of silver: because the teachers wholly subject themselves to the divine Scripture, and by meditating and preaching the divine words make over to them soul and body. For as the members cannot live without the head, so they, accounting the divine oracles their own life, never cease to bear these by obeying, and to exalt themselves by humbling themselves.

VERS. 11.-- In like manner also on the side. (ID., ibid.) The same things are repeated concerning the side of the North, etc., as far as they are commanded to be made on one side of the tabernacle.

VERS. 12.-- But in the breadth, etc. (ID., ibid.) The breadth of the court which looks toward the setting of the sun, as far 277Cas ten pillars lift up and bear it.

VERS. 13.-- In that breadth also of the court. (ID., ibid.) The breadth of the court looking toward the east, etc., as far as: and the life of the world to come.

Fifty cubits shall be. (ID.) By the fifty cubits of the eastern side are signified in general the beginnings of them that believe, because they are kept in the remission of sins and in the hope of future blessedness; and the particular distinction of these is subjoined, which, being well considered, is referred to the same end. For there follows.

VERS. 14.-- In which there shall be hangings of fifteen cubits allotted to one side, and three pillars, etc. (ID., ibid.) For fifteen, etc., as far as and to keep the body without complaint unto the day of the Lord.

VERS. 16.-- And it shall have pillars, etc. (ID., ibid.) 277DIn the entrance of the court there are four pillars, etc., as far as they spend all the senses of the body in the obedience of charity.

Of hyacinth, etc. (ID., ibid.) Rightly in this entrance of the court of the hangings, etc., as far as they adorn the hanging woven with a fair variety of colours.

VERS. 17.-- All the pillars, etc. (ID.) What he had said he inculcates the more diligently, that he may earnestly admonish the reader that none can be reckoned among the teachers of truth, that is, the pillars of the heavenly court, who shall not have learned to have, after the likeness of brass, an unconquered patience amid adversities; unless he shall have adorned himself by fencing himself about on every side, as with plates of silver, with the observance and the announcing of heavenly words; unless he shall have put himself under the divine 278Aprecepts by every subjection, as under a head of silver, and shall have made himself steadfast in the fear of God as upon a base of brass.

VERS. 18.-- In length, etc. (ID.) A hundred cubits of length, etc., as far as and it shall be made of twisted fine linen, etc.

VERS. 19.-- All the vessels, etc. (ID., ibid.) These vessels are men in the Church, etc., as far as the courts of the Lord.

VERS. 20.-- Command the children of Israel. (ID., lib. III de Tabern., cap. 1, tom. II.) All the adornment of the tabernacle being disposed, etc., as far as it may show the light of good action.

Of the trees of the olives. (ID., ibid.) It is to be noted that the children of Israel are bidden to offer oil, etc., as far as for 278Bthe burning of the incense of prayers.

VERS. 21.-- And they shall set. (ID., ibid.) For it belongs not to all to preach the mysteries of the faith to the people, etc., as far as to such as James says: Be ye not many masters, my brethren, etc. (Jac. III).

It shall be perpetual, etc. (ID., ibid.) This clause, like those which to the tabernacle, etc., as far as since God is all in all.

VERS. 1.-- Take also unto thee, etc. (BEDA, lib. III de Tabernac., cap. 1, tom. II.) How the tabernacle, etc., as far as and all the masters of the Church.

(ID.) Take also, etc. The making of the tabernacle being described, 278Cetc., as far as they are consumed by the fire of the vengeance from above.

VERS. 2.-- And thou shalt make a holy vesture. (ID., ibid.) The holy vestments of Aaron, etc., as far as and a dispenser of the word of God.

VERS. 4.-- And these. (ID., ibid.) How each of these was made, etc., as far as they ought to be excellent and glorious to the sight of the inward judge.

(GREG. Past., lib. II, cap. 3, tom. III.) The priest is bidden on either shoulder, etc., as far as as in the diverse fashion of the superhumeral the twisted fine linen shines white.

VERS. 6.-- And they shall make the superhumeral. (BED., lib. III de Tabernac., cap. 4.) Because on the shoulders we bear burdens, etc., as far as when through abstinence the flesh 278Dis wearied.

And scarlet twice dyed, and twisted fine linen, of embroidered work. (ID., ibid.) The scarlet shines with the appearance of fire, etc., as far as showing the scarlet in his own habit.

VERS. 7.-- It shall have two edges joined at the top on both sides, that they may be closed into one. (ID., ibid.) Of this it is said in what follows, etc., as far as than that we seek the rewards of the invisible life.

VERS. 8.-- The very texture also and all the variety of the work shall be of gold and hyacinth and purple, and scarlet twice dyed, and twisted fine linen. And thou shalt take. (ID., ibid.) Not gold in one part, etc., as far as the priest ought to be bright.

VERS. 9.-- Two stones, etc. That the priest may imitate the faith 279Aand life of the patriarchs, and be mindful of the twelve tribes in his sacrifices and prayers, and that the people, beholding, may not stray from the merits of the patriarchs.

VERS. 11.-- Set in gold, etc. (BED., ibid.) Fitly are the stones bidden to be set in gold and to be encompassed about, etc., as far as they may be able to slip away from the keeping of the mind.

VERS. 12.-- And Aaron shall bear their names before the Lord upon both shoulders for a memorial. Because the priest, diligently weighing at every hour the life of the saints that went before, ought in adversity and in prosperity to be fortified with the ornament of the virtues, so that, walking by the arms of justice on the right hand and on the left, he may be bent aside on no side of the lowest delight.

(BED. ibid.) For three causes the names of Aaron, etc., 279Bas far as or may set forth the examples of the fathers which they are to follow.

VERS. 13, 14.-- Thou shalt make also hooks of gold, and two little chains of purest gold, linked one to another, which thou shalt put into the hooks. (ID., ibid.) These hooks were in the topmost corners, etc., as far as they are to be knit together by charity and by good intention.

(GREG., Past., part. II, cap. 2, tom. III.) It is commanded that upon Aaron's breast the rational of judgment be fastened with binding fillets, etc., as far as subjects are not ruled without great fear.

VERS. 15.-- Thou shalt make also the rational of judgment with work, etc. (BED., ubi supra, cap. 5.) As in the superhumeral the perfection of works, etc., as far as they may study earnestly to think what befits them.

279CVERS. 16.-- Double. (ID., ibid.) The rational was made, etc., as far as that he may lay hold of the prize of the supernal vocation of God.

VERS. 17.-- And thou shalt set in it. (ID., ibid.) This setting of divers gems in the rational, etc., as far as that they too may deserve to be made members of the highest priest.

(ID.) We can in the varied comeliness of the stones, etc., as far as it profits him nothing.

VERS. 19.-- The onyx. (ID.) Rightly moreover the two onyx stones, etc., as far as he himself may advance to better things.

VERS. 22.-- Thou shalt make in the rational, etc. (ID.) The order of the work, etc., as far as and they would be moved apart one from another.

(ID., ibid.) The superhumeral the consummation of good 279Dworks, etc., as far as if he does not, hastening, hold it in with the hooks of good action.

(ID.) That the superhumeral was drawn tight with a belt, etc., as far as through the working of the virtues.

VERS. 28.-- A hyacinth fillet, etc. (ID., ibid.) The hyacinth fillets by which both habits of the priest are coupled are the bindings of heavenly desire, which, knit into the golden rings, draw the superhumeral together with the rational, when, the light of the everlasting fatherland being known, we sigh after that glory, and, that we may deserve to enter in, are earnest to serve in the tabernacle of the present Church with concordant faith, and life, and work, and profession.

VERS. 29.-- And Aaron shall bear the names of the children of Israel in the rational of judgment upon, etc. The names of the children 280Aof Israel Aaron bears upon his breast as a memorial before the Lord for ever, when the prelate never intermits the care of his subjects, but strengthens their life by consoling, rebuking, exhorting, and is busy to commend it to the Lord to be guarded with frequent prayers.

(GREG., lib. XXVIII Moral., cap. 9.) The priest, when he enters the tabernacle, is bidden to bear on his breast twelve stones graven with the names of the children of Israel: this is our Redeemer, who, offering himself a sacrifice for us, while he had strong preachers at the beginning, bore twelve stones under the head, in the first part of his body.

It behoves the priest to bear the memory of the fathers on his breast, chiefly when he ministers at the altar, that in the ministry which is 280Bthe more sacred he may the more skilfully adorn himself with his whole study, with all the industry of mind and of body, looking upon the examples of the saints, that as their earnest imitator he may present himself fitted to the divine gaze.

VERS. 30.-- And thou shalt put in the rational of judgment, etc. (BED., ubi supra. ) That the priest, namely, may remember, etc., as far as in that which he dispenses in God's stead.

And thou shalt put in the rational, etc. (AUG., Quaest. 117 in Exod.) In what thing or metal the doctrine and the truth are set upon the rational, etc., as far as set upon the λογίον.

VERS. 31.-- Thou shalt make also a tunic, etc. (BED., ubi supra. ) The priest is clothed with a tunic reaching to the feet, wholly of hyacinth, etc., as far as it is rightly added:

VERS. 32.-- In the midst whereof above there shall be a head-opening 280Cand a woven border round about it: as it is wont to be made, etc. The hyacinth tunic has a most firm head-opening, and a border woven out of itself, lest it be easily rent, when the beginning of a good work, propped by the strong root of the fear of the Lord, is proved to be fortified also against all the snares of the ancient enemy. Such a border clothes and adorns the priest's neck round about, when it affords to the ruler confidence in preaching heavenly things: this, that he has not only lived rightly in the course of his life, but has also begun his beginning from rectitude, like Samuel, Jeremias, John, who from their very infancy, filled with spiritual grace, were also set apart in the order of teachers. For because the voice is in the neck, by the neck is expressed the practice of right speaking, as it is wont to be done in the outermost parts of garments: as 280Dby the garments the works, so by the outermost parts of the garments the consummation of the works is figured. Or, the outermost parts of the garments are our last anxieties, in which the faithful, when they are compelled to end their life, strive the more intently to purge themselves of every stain of evils, taking heed with fear and trembling lest, being brought before the strict judge, they be cast out into the outer darkness for the filthy habit of vices, but may appear clothed, as the elect of God, with bowels of mercy, benignity, modesty, patience and charity, which is the bond of perfection (Coloss. III). The hyacinth tunic, therefore, has a border woven in the head-opening, as it is wont to be made in the outermost parts of garments: when an excellent teacher begins the work of the virtues from so great a perfection as another scarcely at any time arrives at by 281Along labour; and when with so great fear of service he walks at every hour with his God, as another, about to die and to enter upon the last judgment, scarcely suffices to have. But because the whole perfection of the priest consists in works and in the doctrine of truth, according to that: Jesus began to do and to teach (Act. I), rightly is it subjoined: And beneath at the feet of the same tunic (Exod. XXVIII).

Thou shalt make also a tunic, etc. (BEDA, ut supra. ) The tunic is called of the superhumeral, etc., as far as that from the head even to the feet it ought to be covered by the grace of the virtues.

VERS. 33.-- And beneath, etc. (GREG., lib. I Regist., c. 29.) When the ruler prepares himself to speak, etc., as far as you may hold the unity of the faith with wary observance.

(BEDA, ut supra. ) Beneath at the feet of the tunic there are made, 281Betc., as far as they disclose by the distinct sound of speech.

(ID.) We can understand in the twelvefold number of the gems of the rational, etc., as far as Of the same year David also says: Thou shalt bless the crown of the year of thy goodness (Psal. LXIV).

(ID.) Or as was said above, etc., as far as in the splendour of divers virtues.

VERS. 35.-- That it may be heard, etc. (GREG., ubi supra. ) The priest going in or coming back, etc., as far as the very works of the priest may cry out.

(BED., ubi supra. ) But if we will attend to the words of Josephus, etc., as far as it might be preached to the parts of the foursquare world.

VERS. 36.-- Thou shalt make also a plate, etc. (ID., ibid., c. 7.) The golden plate on the forehead of the high priest, etc., as far as that 281Cwe may confess that she has risen again.

Holy to the Lord, etc. (ID.) That which is bidden to be graven on the plate, etc., as far as which he repaired by his passion.

(ID.) We bear on the forehead the Holy of the Lord graven in gold, etc., as far as who ought to show to all an example of virtue.

VERS. 37.-- And thou shalt tie it. The plate which contains the Holy of the Lord is tied with a hyacinth fillet to the tiara of the high priest, when by the hope of heavenly rewards, which the hyacinth signifies, we are strengthened in faith, and keep the more closely undefiled the mysteries of our redemption, or the image and likeness of our maker and redeemer, the more we have known that there is no other way of salvation. Of the tiara it shall be said in its own place. 281D

VERS. 38.-- And Aaron shall bear. The priest bears, namely, the iniquities in the gifts and offerings which the children of Israel have offered and sanctified to the Lord: when for the fruits of worthy penance, that is, for alms and the other works of justice which the penitent do, he absolves them from the guilt of their crimes. These things indeed the divine ordinance figured in the habit of the high priest as to be so performed, and taught manifestly in words. But, alas for the grief! certain men receive offerings, nay rather exact them, and do not carry away nor chastise the iniquities of the people, when for this alone ought they to take carnal things, because they minister spiritual ones. But because he can labour effectually for his subjects, and preach, and beseech the Lord, whose 282Amind is always furnished with the memory of the divine name, it is fitly subjoined: And the plate shall be always on his forehead, etc.

And the plate shall be, etc. (BED., ubi supra, cap. 8.) If the plate written with the name of God shall have been always on Aaron's forehead, etc., as far as they hasten to earn.

VERS. 39.-- And thou shalt gird the tunic. (ID., ibid.) Why the linen one is called drawn tight, etc., as far as when it is said: And thou shalt make a tiara of fine linen, etc.

(BED., ibid.) In what manner this was made, etc., as far as it may render it harsh and hard to the hearers.

And the tiara, etc. (ID., ibid.) The tiara, which is called cidaris and mitre, etc., as far as he might accomplish by the fear of God.

(ID.) Of the making of the belt, etc., as far as and the other garments, when it is said:

282BVERS. 40.-- But for the sons of Aaron thou shalt prepare linen tunics, etc. (Ibid.) But it must be said of the belt of the high priest, etc., as far as and faith the girdle of his reins.

Thou shalt prepare tunics, etc. (ID., ibid.) The priests have linen tunics, etc., as far as and the smell may be worthily kept for God.

VERS. 41.-- And thou shalt vest with these, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 9.) With all these were Aaron and his sons to be vested, but distinctly, so that he indeed should use all of them; but the sons the last three, which are properly ascribed to them, when it is said: But for the sons of Aaron thou shalt prepare linen tunics, etc.

(ID.) The breeches, which are made for the covering of the shame of the body or of the flesh, etc., as far as with the breeches, 282Cnamely, the linen drawn tight, the girdle, and the tiara.

VERS. 1.-- But this also thou shalt do, etc. (BEDA, ubi supra. ) Thus far of what sort the habit of Aaron and of his sons ought to be, etc., as far as they show figuratively.

Take a calf. (STRAB.) Whosoever is high priest or priest ought to offer a bullock, that is, firmly to believe and to imitate the passion of Christ; and two rams, that he may believe that the same Christ consists of body and soul; and unleavened loaves, that is, cleanness of life; and sprinkled with oil, that among all the virtues he may not neglect the works of mercy, or, not of himself, but of the gift of grace, may believe that he has them.

VERS. 2.-- And a wafer. (BEDA, ubi supra. ) A wafer 282Dsprinkled with oil we offer to the Lord for our consecration, when all the things which we do grow fat through the inward grace of the Spirit in the devotion of the heart. Cakes anointed with oil, when we show without all doubt that the things we do are spiritual, for an example of living; by which oblations our consecration is perfected, while through good works and pure thoughts we acquire for ourselves, by God's gift, the merit of holiness.

And when thou hast washed the father, etc. (ID.) They are bidden first to be washed, then to be adorned with vestments, because whosoever undertakes the office of the priesthood ought to wash himself with the wave of tears, that he may approach worthy to the divine ministry.

283A(BEDA.) There might be understood in this washing the baptism of the sacred font, if it followed that one chosen to the priesthood should then first be washed with the water of baptism unto the remission of sins, and if the Apostle did not contradict, saying: Not a neophyte, lifted up into pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil (I Tim. III). [Vulg. 1Tim 3:6 Non neophytum: ne in superbiam elatus, in judicium incidat diaboli, "Not a neophyte: lest, being lifted up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil"; Migne prints no ne, so the purpose clause has lost its conjunction]

VERS. 5.-- Thou shalt clothe Aaron, etc. (ID.) It is to be noted that whereas in Exodus Aaron is asserted to be clothed with eight vestments, etc., as far as because he came in the name of the Father, saying: I am in the Father and the Father is in me: and he that sees me, sees the Father also (Joan. IV). [Vulg. Jn 14:10-11 ego in Patre, et Pater in me est joined to Jn 14:9 qui videt me, videt et Patrem; Migne's own citation names Joan. IV]

VERS. 9.-- After that, etc. (AUG., quaest. 25 in Exod.) Another reading, etc., as far as to be sanctified by Moses.

VERS. 10.-- Thou shalt bring near, etc. (AUG., quaest. 126.) 283BAnother reading, etc., as far as upon the calf to be immolated.

VERS. 18.-- It is an oblation to the Lord. (AUG.) An odour of sweetness to the Lord, etc., as far as draws in the odour with bodily nostrils.

VERS. 22.-- And the right shoulder. (GREG., Past., part. II, c. 3.) The priest by the divine law, etc., as far as he may invite to lofty things by the shoulder of work.

VERS. 30.-- And he that shall enter in. (AUG., quaest. 129.) How then does he say that it is proper to this one alone, etc., as far as and on both sides that would be kept which is written: Mercy exalteth itself above judgment (Jac. II).

VERS. 1.-- Thou shalt make also an altar, etc. (BEDA, ubi 283Csnpra, cap. 11.) The commands of the consecration being fulfilled, etc., as far as they draw near even in the body.

An altar. (ID., ibid.) Fitly also the altar of incense, by as much as it excelled in the brightness of its metal, by so much was it less in size: for the holier, the fewer.

Of setim wood. (ID., ibid.) Fitly of setim wood, like to the white thorn and incorruptible, etc., as far as it quickens with the varied grace of gifts.

VERS. 2.-- Having a cubit. (ID., ibid.) Of one cubit is the length of the altar and the breadth, etc., as far as he may spend the office of piety.

Foursquare. (ID., ibid.) Rightly the altar of incense, etc., as far as everlasting gladness shall be theirs.

Horns. (ID., ibid.) The horns signify the eminence of faith and 283Dof virtue, etc., as far as having the appearance of piety, they deny the power thereof.

VERS. 3.-- And thou shalt overlay it, etc. (ID., ibid.) Fitly moreover it with brass, etc., as far as with how great sweetness of God they are refreshed in the hiding of his face.

Both the gridiron, etc. (ID., ibid.) Well the gridiron of the altar, etc., as far as it is rightly subjoined:

Thou shalt make also to it a crown, etc. (ID., ibid.) The altar of incense has a crown round about: in those who are lesser in merits, and dare not openly protest that the reward of the good fight and of servitude and of faith is laid up for them: yet they do all things with the intention of pleasing God well, but with the hope of receiving the reward.

VERS. 4.-- And two rings, etc. (ID., ibid.) There can 284Abe taken in these rings the four books of the Gospel, etc., as far as the things that follow show: And thou shalt set the altar, etc.

VERS. 7.-- And he shall burn incense, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 12.) Incense, or thymiama, etc., as far as let us render thanks.

(ID.) And he shall burn incense, etc. In the morning, the sun being risen, all things clearly, etc., as far as in a dark place.

In the morning when he shall dress. (ID., ibid.) In the morning Aaron the incense, etc., as far as and they delight to have leisure for prayers.

VERS. 9.-- You shall not offer. (ID., ibid.) In what follows, etc., as far as they water their couch every night.

(ID.) We can interpret these altars, etc., 284Bas far as uque ad it can be taken.

VERS. 10.-- And he shall pray, etc. (ID., ibid.) Because Christ our priest, etc., as far as he rightly subjoins:

And he shall appease, etc. (ID.) Aaron appeases upon the altar of incense, etc., as far as Isaac and Israel, etc.

VERS. 11.-- And the Lord spoke, etc. The altar of incense being described, there remains the description of the brazen laver, in which the priests about to enter the tabernacle should wash their hands and feet; but one command is set before it.

VERS. 12.-- When thou shalt take. (BEDA, ubi supra, cap. 13.) Of this precept David was forgetful, etc., as far as his own riches.

VERS. 13.-- Half a sicle. (ID., ibid.) That is, ten obols, etc., as far as it can by no 284Cdisturbance of the unbelieving be corrupted.

VERS. 14.-- He that is counted in the number, etc. (ID., ibid.) The number twenty, etc., as far as awaits in heaven.

VERS. 15.-- The rich man shall not add, etc. (ID., ibid.) Because whether a man be great in merits and perfect, or little, and set in the advancement of the virtues, upon all alike is laid the law of the decalogue, by which they should love God and their neighbour

VERS. 16.-- And the money received, etc. (ID., ibid.) This is done when whatsoever good we do, etc., as far as it shall be smitten with the stroke of strict vengeance.

VERS. 17.-- And the Lord spoke, etc. (ID., ibid., cap. 14.) There can in this laver or basin, etc., as far as which watched at the entrance of the tabernacle.

VERS. 18.-- With its base. (ID., ibid.) The base on 284Dwhich the basin was set, etc., as far as: that you present your bodies, etc. (Rom. XII).

To be washed, etc. Christ also was washed with the water of this laver, before he entered in to offer at the altar, and burned the incense of his sacred body for our salvation on the altar of the cross: for out of love for us he shed tears, as at the raising of Lazarus.

VERS. 21.-- Lest perhaps they die. (BED., ibid.) For the death to be feared is the eternal one, etc., as far as: if he eats and drinks, etc. (I Cor. XI.)

VERS. 23.-- Take to thee (STRAB.) σμύρνα in Greek, in Latin is called myrrh, which is a tree in Arabia of five cubits, whose twigs the Arabians burn up, that they may sprout and bear fruit the better. From the reek of which 285Athey would contract incurable diseases, did they not meet it with the smoke of storax. The gum of this tree is properly called stacte, and by misuse also myrrh.

Of cane. It is the shoot of the cinnamon, and it grows in India or Ethiopia, of two cubits only. And it is called cinnamon, because after the manner of a reed it has slender and folded canes, of an ashen or black colour; which, being broken, give back a visible breath, and the slender indeed is precious; but the thick, cheap and despised. The cane is an aromatic kind near Libanus. Of myrrh, of cinnamon, of cane, of cassia. These four kinds signify the four principal virtues, by which with the oil of unction, that is, with the grace of mercy, the Church of God is to be dedicated and sanctified.

VERS. 29.-- And they shall be, etc. (AUG., quaest 135 in 285BExod.) When, namely, they shall have been anointed. What then shall now be the difference between those inner things which are covered by the veil?

He that shall touch. In like manner it was said above of the altar of sacrifices, which is so to be understood that it was lawful for the people to touch the tabernacle, when they offered victims, or any gifts whatsoever, and by touching they were sanctified, on account of that oil with which all things were anointed: not as the priests, who also, that they might discharge an eternal priesthood, were anointed from it.

VERS. 34.-- Onycha. Onycha is said to be a very small shellfish of sweet smell, of the size of a human nail: whence also it is called onycha in Greek, because ὄνυξ, onyx, in Greek is called a nail.

Galbanum. Galbanum is said to be the juice of a fennel-plant, and the best grows in Syria: it is gristly, 285Cand less woody, and by its smell serpents are put to flight.

And frankincense. Thus in Greek, libanum in Latin it is called, from Libanus a mountain of Arabia: for there is another Libanus, of Phoenicia, in which are the cedars.

Frankincense the best, namely that which is called masculine, because after the manner of a human testicle it is round, whose tree grows in Arabia, in a withe tangled and twisted according to the quality of the air.

Mystically moreover these four kinds signify the kinds of the holy virtues.

VERS. 35.-- And thou shalt make incense, etc. (GREG., lib. I Moral., cap. 39, tom. I.) We make incense compounded of spices, etc., as far as it does not scatter from itself an odour more subtle.

(ISID.) Incense, which is compounded of four most odorous kinds ground to the greatest fineness, that is, of stacte, onycha, galbanum, and frankincense, signifies the prayers of the faithful; although these four may see the four elements to signify: so that frankincense, which is bright, may be compared to air, stacte to the waters, galbanum and onyx to earth and to fire, so that by these there may be an incense pleasing to God of all things which are in heaven and beneath heaven, and in the earth, and in the waters

With work, etc. (AUG., quaest. 136.) We ought not to think that an ointment is made, but incense or frankincense, which is set upon that altar of incense where it was not lawful to sacrifice, and it was within the holy of holies.

VERS. 37.-- Such, etc. (RAB.) We, namely, who ought not to use prayers and divine praises in the flatteries 286Aof men. For God alone is so to be served, whence above it is forbidden that the flesh of man be anointed from it.

VERS. 2.-- Beseleel, etc., who is interpreted in the shadow of God. As if he should say, The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom (Psal. LXII). [Vulg. Ps 26:1 Dominus illuminatio mea et salus mea: quem timebo?, the very verse Migne's own next citation names as Psal. XXVI; his Psal. LXII points elsewhere] From him David is said to have drawn his origin, and the name of embroiderer, because Beseleel built the tabernacle with embroidered work.

VERS. 3.-- And I have filled (AUG., quaest. 128.) Whether those works are to be attributed to the gift of the Holy Spirit, which seem to pertain to handicraft? or whether this too was said significatively, so that they pertain to the divine Spirit of wisdom and of understanding and of knowledge, which are signified by these 286Bthings? Then also, whereas here he is said to be filled with the Spirit, that man with the divine Spirit of wisdom and of knowledge, the Holy Spirit is not yet read of.

VERS. VI.-- Oliab, who is interpreted my protection, as though he should say by his name, The Lord is the protector of my life; of whom shall I be afraid (Psal. XXVI)? And well do they build the tabernacle who so constantly trust in the Lord.

(STRAB.) It is to be noted that in the construction of the tabernacle the mystery of the Trinity is shown, as in the baptism and in the transfiguration. For in the baptism the Father sounded forth in the voice: and the Son was baptized; in the appearance of a dove the Spirit appeared. Ooliab also, who is interpreted my protection, father, the person of the Father: Beseleel also, who signifies in the shadow of God, the person 286Cof the Holy Spirit: of whom it is said. And the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee. For by the power of the Most High the Holy Spirit is understood. Whence the Lord says: I know that power has gone out from me (Luc. VIII). But the bidding, that is, the word by which the tabernacle was bidden to be made, is the Son, through whom the Father works all things in the power of the Holy Spirit.

VERS. 13.-- See, etc. In vain do the Jews glory in the legal observance. For it is openly said that it is a sign of that which is to come, namely of rest, and of blessedness; or of the rest of the saints in the present, because they rest from the tumult of worldly works and of vices.

VERS. 18.-- Two tables (AUG., quaest. 140.) Whereas God spoke many things, two tables only of stone are given to Moses, which are called the tables of the testimony; 286Dbecause all the other things which God commanded are understood to hang upon those ten precepts which were written on the two tables, if they be diligently sought out and well understood; as those ten themselves upon two, namely the love of God and of the neighbour: on which, namely, the whole law hangs and the prophets (Matth. XXII). [Vulg. Mt 22:40 In his duobus mandatis universa lex pendet, et prophetae, "On these two commandments dependeth the whole law and the prophets"; Migne has tota for universa]

VERS. 1.-- Make us, etc. Gods in the plural, although one calf only was made, after the likeness, namely, of the ox Apis, whom they worshipped in Egypt; but he who cultivates idolatry subjects himself to all vices, and serves as many gods and demons as vices.

VERS. 2.-- And Aaron said to, etc. (AUG., quaest. 141 287Ain Exod.) Aaron is understood to command hard things, that in this way he might call them back from that purpose. Yet that very hard thing was done, that there might be gold for the making of the idol: which I thought was to be noted on account of those who are grieved if they are bidden to have any such thing divinely done for eternal life, or to bear it with an even mind.

VERS. 6.-- And the people sat down to eat, etc. [Vulg. Ex 32:6 sedit populus manducare; Migne prints comedere] Eating and drinking drove them to play, and play to idolatry: because if the fault of vanity is not warily restrained, the unwary mind is devoured by iniquity. Whence: He that despises little things, falls little by little. [Vulg. Sir 19:1 qui spernit modica paulatim decidet, "he that despiseth small things shall fall by little and little", a future; Migne has the present decidit, and reverses the order of the first two words] For if we neglect to care for small things, being insensibly seduced, we boldly perpetrate even greater ones.

VERS. 8.-- These are thy gods. (AUG., quaest. 142.) 287BThe Lord, showing to Moses what the people had done concerning the calf and concerning the idol which they had made out of their own gold, says that they had said: These are thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Which it is not read that they said; but God showed that this was their mind, for they bore in their heart the sense of these words, which could not lie hid from God.

VERS. 10.-- Let me alone, etc. (GREG., lib. IX Moral., cap. 11.) What is it to say to a servant, etc., as far as he could not temper the anger of God for himself.

(ID., lib. XX Moral., cap. 6.) It can build up the reader according to the history, etc., as far as nor mercy of discipline.

VERS. 13.-- Remember Abraham, Isaac, etc. He brings in the fathers, who are loved, on behalf of the sons, who offend, 287Cand do not deserve to be heard; because the good things of the holy fathers often come to the aid of the sons.

VERS. 14.-- And the Lord was appeased that he would not do the evil. (AUG.) By malice he wished punishment to be understood here, as is that: The malice of their going out was esteemed. According to this both good and evil are said to be from God, not according to the malice by which men are evil. For God is not evil: but he brings evils upon the evil, because he is just.

VERS. 19.-- And being very angry. (ID., quaest. 144.) Moses, being angry, seems to have broken the tables of the testimony written with the finger of God. Yet by a great mystery the repetition of the New Testament was figured, because the old was to be abolished, and the New to be established. It is indeed to be noted with what great supplication he laboured to God for the people, 287Dwho was so severe in taking vengeance upon them.

VERS. 20.-- And catching the calf which they had made. (ISID. in Exod., tom. V.) The body of the devil is signified in the calf, etc., as far as he was swallowed up.

And he gave it to the children of Israel to drink. The Hebrews hand down that, when the children of Israel drank the water infected with the dust of the calf, those who had committed idolatry bore the dust of the gold upon their beards, by which sign also the guilty or those free of the crime appeared, and the guilty were slain.

VERS. 24.-- And they gave me, etc. (AUG., quaest. 145.) He spoke compendiously, etc., as far as he does not refute.

VERS. 25.-- For Aaron had stripped him unto the ignominy 288Aof filth and among his enemies, etc. [Vulg. Ex 32:25 spoliaverat enim eum Aaron propter ignominiam sordis, et inter hostes nudum constituerat, "for Aaron had stripped him by reason of the ignominy of filth, and had set him naked among his enemies"; Migne has in ignominiam] It is to be noted that what the people did is attributed to Aaron himself, because he consented to the doing of what they had ill demanded. For it is rather said, Aaron stripped them, because he yielded to them, than that they stripped themselves, who demanded so great an evil. With the ornaments out of which the idol had been fashioned, either because he had shown their evil will which lay hid before, or because he had lost the help and protection of God.

VERS. 27.-- Let every man put his sword, etc. (GREG., Past. p. III, c. 26.) The sword, etc., as far as Whence it is subjoined:

Let every man kill his brother, etc. He killed those whom he found to be punished by the sword of rebuke, and he does not spare those whom he loves by kinship of the flesh. If therefore he is called of God who is stirred 288Bby the zeal of divine love to smite vices, assuredly he denies himself to be of God who, so far as suffices, refuses to rebuke the life of the carnal.

VERS. 28.-- And they did, etc. (AUG. in Locutionibus, locut. 124.) He put the plural for the singular, etc., as far as and these manners of speech are interposed by fixed rules.

VERS. 31.-- Or forgive them, etc. (AUG., quaest. 147 in Exod.) He says this indeed securely, etc., as far as that he might pour out those words to God on their behalf.

VERS. 35.-- Which Aaron made. (AUG. quaest. 148.) It is asked: since Aaron was said above to have stripped the people, etc., as far as that which the Apostle says, crying out: For how unsearchable are his judgments: etc. (Rom. XI). [Vulg. Rom 11:33 quam incomprehensibilia sunt judicia ejus, "how incomprehensible are his judgments," and without enim; Migne has inscrutabilia] [Vulg. Ex 32:35 quem fecerat Aaron, a pluperfect; Migne has the perfect fecit]

• 288C

VERS. 1.-- And he spoke, etc. (AUG., quaest. 149 in Exod.) God being angered, etc., as far as he terrified them with his voice.

Go, etc. (ID., quaest. 150.) Straightway, as though to Moses himself, etc., as far as from the face of the Lord.

VERS. 2.-- I will send a forerunner. (AUG., quaest. 150.) God is with the just by visiting, by showing mercy, and by strengthening; but with the impious by avenging and by punishing. And the sense is this: With these I cannot be for thy sake, so as to avenge and to punish; nor for their sake, so as to visit and to strengthen: I will at least send my angel.

VERS. 4.-- The people hearing. (RAB.) He says that the people heard a most evil 288Dword, that is, a most cruel and most sorrowful one. For what greater benefit can be bestowed upon anyone than to have God's grace present, and to acknowledge his Maker to be favourable to him; or what greater peril is there than to endure the wrath of his Author? He has nothing of good who shall lack the grace and the presence of his Creator.

VERS. 7.-- Taking the tabernacle, etc. This is to be taken by way of prolepsis, if it is taken of that tabernacle which was shown to Moses in the mount, and made, the Lord enjoining it, by Beseleel and Ooliab. Or else it was another tabernacle, to which they were already assembling for judgment.

289AVERS. 8.-- And when he went out, etc. (GREG., hom. 13 in Ezech.) The Hebrew people, freed from Egyptian servitude, etc., as far as they endeavour to go forward.

And they looked, etc. (STRAB.) Moses holds the figure of the law. The Jewish people therefore looked upon the back of Moses, because it willed to understand nothing mystical, nothing spiritual in the law, but only the surface of the letter. Therefore his face was hidden, that is, the true and pure knowledge. When he had entered the tabernacle, the pillar of cloud came down and stood at the door. Another rendering says that when Moses wished to enter the tabernacle, the cloud set itself before him and hindered him. Here, however, it is said that when he had entered, the cloud spoke with him before the door. It is to be known, therefore, that he was entering 289Bsome part, namely the court, and then, before he entered into the tabernacle, the cloud set itself against him: in this place, therefore, it signifies those who are less perfect in knowledge and in work, and are not strong enough to penetrate the inmost things of the Scriptures. But elsewhere, when he entered into the midst of the cloud, he held the figure of the perfect, namely of those who search out the secret things of the mystical senses.

And the Lord spoke. Scripture speaks according to the opinion of the people, who thought that Moses spoke mouth to mouth with God, whereas he was speaking and appearing to him through a subject creature, that is, through an angel and a cloud. For his substance neither of men nor of angels (as it is) could anyone see, whence: But to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, etc. And elsewhere: He dwelleth in light inaccessible, etc. (I Tim. 289CI, VI).

(GREG., in I Reg., cap. 10.) The face of God is the knowledge of him. Now God is known through a glass, and is known through himself. Through a glass here, through himself in heaven. But the glass is that light which God inhabits; and he himself is that light which he himself is.

If therefore I have found grace, etc. (AUG., quaest. 151.) By these words Moses shows, etc., as far as that they may keep themselves clean and inviolate, and may go forward.

VERS. 17.-- And thee thyself I have known, etc. (AUG., quaest. 153.) Because I know thee above all men, etc. [Vulg. Ex 33:17 reads ex nomine, "by name"; Migne prints Augustine's prae omnibus, "above all," and the question that follows is put only because of it] Does God know some things more and some things less? etc., as far as but it is to be sought more diligently in the earlier 289Dparts of Scripture whether it be truly so.

VERS. 19.-- I will show. (AUG., quaest. 154.) When Moses had said to the Lord, etc., as far as the Lord Christ is called upon among all nations.

And I will call. (AUG., quaest. 154.) I will call, however, he said, not "I shall be called," putting an active verb for a passive, by an unwonted manner of speech, in which perhaps he willed to signify that he himself does this, that is, that it comes about by his grace that the Lord is called upon among all nations.

And I will have mercy, etc. (AUG., ubi supra. ) That which he added, etc., as far as thus God declared that he would show mercy.

(AUG., lib. de Praedestinatione et Gratia, cap. 10.) 290AThat men are called by God with no merits going before, etc., as far as if he who called should forsake them.

Thou shalt not be able, etc. (AUG., quaest. 154.) After the commendation of his mercy, etc., as far as one must die to this life.

VERS. 20.-- For not, etc. (GREG., lib. XVIII Moral., cap. 37, tom. I.) John also says: etc., as far as because satiety is ever kindled out of desire.

VERS. 21.-- Behold, he says, there is a place with me, and thou shalt stand upon, etc. (AUG., quaest. 154.) Again, when Scripture interposes the article and says, etc., as far as the faithful people stood upon the rock.

(GREG., lib. XXV Moral., cap. 16.) There is a place with me, etc. The place is the Church. The rock is the Lord; Moses, 290Bthe Jewish people, which did not believe the Lord preaching upon earth. It therefore stood upon the rock, beholding the back parts of the Lord as he passed by, because, that is, after the passion and ascension of the Lord, being led within the Church, it deserved to receive Christ by faith, and of him whose presence it did not see, it came to know the hinder parts.

(GREG. ibid.) There is a place with me, etc. The Church, namely, etc., as far as Of which solidity it is said: Upon this rock I will build the Church.

VERS. 22.-- And when my glory shall pass, etc. (EUCHERIUS, lib. de Form. spirit.) But God is said also to pass over, when out of the hearts of certain men, in which he was before believed by faith, afterwards, faithlessness creeping in or some offence whatever, he withdraws from them and passes over to others: as from the Jews to the Gentiles, 290Cfrom heretics to Catholics, and from any irreligious persons whatever to the religious.

And I will protect (AUG., ubi supra. ) and I will cover with my hand over thee, etc. [Vulg. Ex 33:22 protegam dextera mea, donec transeam, "I will protect with my right hand, till I pass by"; Migne prints Augustine's wording tegam manu mea super te], as far as then he weaves in what the Lord says afterwards: Hew thee two tables of stone, etc. [Vulg. Ex 34:1 Praecide … tibi duas tabulas lapideas, "Cut thee two tables of stone"; Migne prints Excide, "hew out"]

VERS. 7.-- Who renderest the iniquity of the fathers to the children and to the grandchildren unto iu the third and fourth, etc., (GREG., lib. XV Moral., cap. 22.) Since it is written, etc., as far as who saw that they were following after evil.

VERS. 14.-- The Lord is jealous. (AUG., quaest. 158 in Exod.) For the Lord God is jealous, etc., as far as and he destroys every one that goeth a-fornicating from him.

VERS. 20.-- The firstling of the ass, etc. (ISID.) By 290Dthe ass uncleanness is designated, by the sheep innocence. To exchange, therefore, the firstlings of the ass for a sheep is to turn the first beginnings of an unclean life to the simplicity of innocence, so that, after the sinner has done those things which the Lord rejects as unclean, he may now by his doing bring forth such things as he may lay clean upon the sacrifice of God.

VERS. 21.-- On the seventh day. (AUG., quaest. 160.) When he was giving precept concerning the Sabbath, etc., as far as that at every season there must be a resting on the sabbath.

VERS. 24.-- No man shall lie in wait (AUG., quaest. 161.) That which he said, etc., as far as where God was to have his tabernacle or temple.

VERS. 25.-- Thou shalt not immolate, etc. (AUG., quaest. 162 et 163.) What is it that he says: Thou shalt not slay upon 291Aleaven the blood of my immolated things? [Vulg. Ex 34:25 Non immolabis super fermento sanguinem hostiae meae, "Thou shalt not offer the blood of my victim upon leaven"; Migne's immolatorum meorum, "my immolated things," is the very wording the question that follows is built upon] Or does he here call those things his immolated things which are slain at the pasch, and give precept that there be no leaven in the house at that time, when the days of unleavened bread are come?

VERS. 26.-- Thou shalt not boil a kid in milk. (AUG., ubi supra. ) Thou shalt not boil a lamb in the milk of its mother, etc., as far as but it is a historical narrative.

(ISID.) Moses fasted forty days, and Elias, and the Lord himself. For it is enjoined upon us out of the law, out of the prophets, and out of the Gospel. Which testimony it has from these. Whence upon the mount the Saviour shone forth in the midst between the two persons, that we may bridle our greediness away from all the allurements of the world as by the fast of temperance, so long as the perfection of the Decalogue is preached through the four parts of that same world, that is, to the whole globe, 291Bso that ten multiplied four times may signify the number of forty.

VERS. 28.-- And he wrote upon the tables, etc. (AUG., quaest. 166.) It was said of Moses that he himself wrote, etc., as far as but by the grace of God.

VERS. 29.-- And when he came down. (ISID. in Exod., tom. V.) Moses went up again into the mount, etc., as far as whose image was in the tables.

(ISID. ibid.) When Moses came down with the tables, etc., as far as whence: Open thou mine eyes, and I will consider the wondrous things of thy law (Psal. CXVIII).

VERS. 30.-- But Aaron seeing, etc. [Vulg. Ex 34:30 Videntes autem Aaron et filii Israel cornutam Moysi faciem, "But Aaron and the children of Israel seeing the horned face of Moses"; Migne prints a singular participle, and the gloss beneath it has them see Moysen, Moses himself, not his horned face — which is the reading Origen's homily is built upon] (ORIG., hom. 12 in Exod.) It is written that Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, etc., as far as for the things which he speaks have glory, but it is covered and hidden, 291Cand all his glory is within.

(ORIG. ibid.) Consider this also, that in the law the countenance of Moses is glorified, although it be covered with a veil, etc., as far as that we, freed from the servitude of the world, may seek after the liberty of knowledge.

VERS. 34.-- And then he spoke to the children of Israel Isael all things which had been to him, etc. (AUG., quaest. 172 in Exod.) After Moses came down from the mount, etc., as far as that they might receive this name.

VERS. 5.-- Set apart. (ORIG., hom. 13 in Exod.) Another reading: Take from your own selves a redemption for the Lord, etc., as far as and thy silver, that is, thy word, tried.

291D(ID.) You know, who are wont to be present at the divine mysteries, etc., as far as all these things which are in us do them.

Every one. (ID.) Another reading: Each one of you, he says, etc., as far as so, if the master at his coming find anything of thine in his tabernacle, he claims thee for himself, and calls thee his own.

Brass. (ID.) It seems to be put for strength, etc., as far as Let all things therefore be offered to God: sense, speech, and voice.

VERS. 6.-- Hyacinth. (ID.) Let us see the rest: hyacinth, etc., as far as and you shall offer firstfruits to the Lord.

And scarlet twice dyed. (ID. homil. 13 in Exod.) Let us see why the scarlet is doubled, etc., as far as that 292Awith the light of knowledge he may mingle a little fire of severity.

(ID.) If any man worthily understand the going out of the Hebrews from Egypt, etc., as far as and it designates nobler garments: Put you on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh in its delights (Rom. XIII). [Vulg. Rom 13:14 induamini … in desideriis, "put ye on … in its desires"; Migne prints Induite vos and in deliciis, "in its delights"]

(GREG., ubi supra. ) In the construction of the tabernacle, etc., as far as they gave forth a sound as it were without light.

(ORIG., ubi supra. ) After these things the men received from their wives, etc., as far as whence: All men take not this word, but they to whom it is given (Matth. XIX).

VERS. 6.-- And goats' hair. (ORIG. hom. 19.) Goats' hair is offered, etc., as far as he who offers to the Lord the skins of rams.

VERS. 21.-- Whatsoever for the service, etc. (GREG., ubi 292Bsupra. ) In the adorning of the tabernacle the men together with the women offer gifts, etc., as far as they are brought forth according as he himself shall have given.

VERS. 27.-- But the princes offered stones, etc. (ORIG., ubi supra. ) The princes offered their gifts, etc., as far as that they may deserve to be set over the peoples.

(ORIG. hom. 9 in Exod.) The princes offer also oil that shall serve for the lamps and for the chrism, etc., as far as when the Lord shall have set thee in a green place, upon the water of refreshment.

VERS. 30.-- Beseleel. (RAB. in Exod., tom. II.) He is called a shadow, etc., as far as they strengthen their brethren by exhorting them in justice and judgment.

292CVERS. 1.-- Beseleel therefore made, etc. (RAB., in Exod. ) It is to be noted that not only from the royal tribe, etc., as far as he willed them to belong to the unity of his own body.

VERS. 2.-- And when he had called them, etc. (ORIG., ubi supra. ) And after the people had offered, Moses, he says, called, etc., as far as and oughtest thou to fit it in its own place and bring it forth?

And they who willingly, etc. (AUG., quaest. 170 in Exod.) And all who of their own will would go to the works, that they might finish them, etc. [Vulg. Ex 36:2 et qui sponte sua obtulerant se ad faciendum opus, "and who had of their own accord offered themselves to do the work"; Migne sets the Vulgate lemma and Augustine's vellent ire ad opera side by side] Moses made mention of certain men, etc., as far as but liberally and of his own accord devoted.

VERS. 4.-- Whereupon the craftsmen, etc. (AUG., quaest. 171). Note that the wise workers of the works were holy also in their manners: yet they could, if they had willed, have carried off much; but modesty forbade, or religion made them afraid.

• 292D

VERS. 1.-- And Beseleel made the ark. (ISID. in Exod., tom. V.) In the ark of the testament there was a golden urn, etc., as far as flourishing always with the greenness of immortal memory.

VERS. 2.-- A golden crown, etc. Because in that the Church is spread abroad through the four parts of the world, she is preached as girt about with the four books of the holy Gospel, which nevertheless is enclosed within the compass of one crown, that is, within the firmness of the same faith, that is, its unity.

VERS. 4.-- The bars also. (ISID., ibid.) Because strong and persevering teachers are to be sought out as timbers that cannot rot, who, ever cleaving to the instruction of the sacred volumes, 293Amay proclaim the unity of the Church, and, as it were with rings let in, may carry the ark; and they are commanded to be overlaid with gold also, that while they sound in the ears of others with their word, they themselves may also shine with the splendour of their life.

VERS. 6.-- He made also the propitiatory, etc. (ISID., ibid.) The propitiatory above the ark of the testament, etc., as far as because Christ is the head of the Church.

VERS. 17.-- And he made the candlestick, etc. Which signifies the Holy Spirit, who with sevenfold grace enlightens the Church that stands in the unity of faith; or Christ bearing the seven churches, in which the splendour of the sevenfold Spirit shines forth.

VERS. 23.-- With the snuffers. Which in Isaias are called tongs: namely the two Testaments, by which sins are purged, and which are joined together within themselves by the union of the Holy 293BSpirit.

VERS. 8.-- He made also a brazen laver, etc. (GREG., hom. 17 in Evang.) Moses sets a brazen laver, etc., as far as that we may strive to go forward by those things by which we know that they whom we venerate went forward.

VERS. 20.-- The pins also. (STRAB.) The pins, according to the letter, were fixed at the top of the pillars, to which the cords were bound: which cords raised the curtains from the ground, and, being made fast above by certain little loops but below bound to the aforesaid pins, stretched out the curtains, that they might not draw into a wrinkle.

But mystically the cords signify Holy Scripture, of which Solomon says: A threefold cord is hardly broken 293C(Eccle. IV): because Holy Scripture, consisting of history, morality and allegory, can be broken asunder by no doctrines of heretics. The pins, made after the manner of a tongue, signify the tongues of the teachers who expound Scripture. They raise the curtains also from the ground and stretch them out: because they teach their subjects to follow and to imitate heavenly things, and to draw no wrinkle of evil work or of deceit (Ephes. V).

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

VERS. 1.-- And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: In the first month, etc. (STRAB.) The first month of the year is Nisan itself, which is also April, in which the Jews 293Dcelebrated the pasch, and the tabernacle was set up. Allegorically, however, the first month signifies the beginning of grace, when the tabernacle of God, that is, the Church, was set up, when Christ, namely, being crucified, brought forth out of his side the mysteries of blood and water, by which the Church is dedicated and consecrated. And it is to be noted that this was the first month of the second year: for the first year was before the law, the second year under the grace of the Gospel, which the Lord blessed. Whence: Thou shalt bless the crown of the year of thy goodness (Psal. LXIV). For it was the year of goodness, in which the salvation of the human race appeared through the humanity of Christ: in this year therefore the tabernacle of God was set up, that is, the Church founded and exalted.

294A(RAB. in Exod., tom. II.) The first year is the whole time of the law, etc., as far as that the teachers of the Gospel may use these things in the confirmation of the faith.

VERS. 9.-- Thou shalt anoint the tabernacle, etc. (STRAB.) The tabernacle with its vessels is consecrated with the oil of unction; because whatsoever holy Church does with her virtues she ought to dedicate and consecrate to the grace of the Holy Spirit. For the oil of unction is compared to spiritual grace, by which the works of all the virtues are consecrated to the Lord.

VERS. 12.-- And thou shalt bring Aaron, etc. (STRAB.) The doors of the tabernacle, that is, of holy Church, are the apostles, through whom one must enter the court of heaven: to these are Aaron and his sons to be brought, that is, the whole company of the saints and chiefly of those set over them, that they may 294Bimitate them and follow their footsteps.

VERS. 16.-- And the bars. The bar not only binds the walls together, but also strengthens the pillars of the entrance, that they fall not down, nor bend away from their upright standing; because the Lord has both joined either people together in one faith of love, and strengthens their teachers, that they may persevere in faith and in action and in preaching. Nor is it wonderful if by the heads themselves, and by the bar which holds those heads together, Christ is understood; because he is the head of every elect person by ruling him, whence: The head of the man is Christ (II Cor. XI) [Vulg. 1Cor 11:3 omnis viri caput, Christus est, "the head of every man is Christ"; these are the words Migne prints, reordered, but his own citation names II Corinthians]: and because he not only raises up single men to seek after heavenly things, but also holds all together, and, that they may not be bent away from their upright standing nor be parted from one another by discord, confirms them with the bond of peace. To which is like that the Lord is called both lamb, and shepherd, and door, 294Csince the shepherd feeds the lamb, and both enter by the door; whereas properly he is the Word in the beginning (Joan. I, X): but of these none is proper to him, but figurative. Shepherd, because he leads to the pastures of life; door, because it is not except through him that one comes to the Father; Lamb, because he saves from Egypt. So here also he is figured by the heads, on account of the rule by which he is set over individuals, and by the bar, on account of the general providence, because he confirms all (Num. IX; III Reg. VIII).

(BEDA.) So the soul obtains diverse names for its diverse actions. While it gives life to the body, it is called soul; while it wills, it is mind; while it knows, it is understanding; while it recalls, it is memory; while it judges, it is reason; while it breathes, it is spirit; while it perceives, it is sense.

VERS. 33.-- Nor could Moses, etc. (STRAB.) 294DMoses therefore in this place, as in very many others, holds the figure of the Jewish people. Moses, therefore, the cloud standing in the way, could not enter into the tabernacle, because the Jewish people was never able to penetrate the sacraments of Scripture. For the cloud of the Lord brooded over the tabernacle by day, and fire by night: in this place the fire signifies the knowledge of the divine mysteries. For Holy Scripture is light to the holy, and to those confessing their own ignorance; but to the wicked, and to those boasting of knowledge, it is a cloud, because it blinds them.

(AUG., quaest. 176 in Exod.) A thing much to be wondered at is to be noted, etc., as far as a cloud by day, a flame by night.

Now in the tabernacle of the Lord there were boards, in whose 295Arings were fixed bars of sethim wood, by which they could be lifted and carried from station to station, all which things are full of mysteries. By the tabernacle we understand the present Church, in which there are boards, namely the saints full of humility, to whom five bars are fastened, that is, the spiritual knowledge of the five books of Moses, by which they may raise up themselves and others to the brightness of eternal blessedness. By the bars, therefore, as we have said, we understand the five books of Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the book of Numbers, and Deuteronomy: in which are contained the beginning of the world and its middle and its consummation. In Genesis is described the creation of the world, and in Exodus its re-creation; in Leviticus the administration of the sacraments of the Church; in the book of Numbers the evangelical 295Bpreaching; in Deuteronomy the last blessing. Whence also it is ended in blessings. And so there is in Genesis the order of creation; in Exodus the mystery of re-creation; in Leviticus the holiness of the Church's administration; in the book of Numbers the consolation of evangelical preaching; in Deuteronomy the consummation of eternal blessing. Now among these five books of Moses Exodus excels, which we now have in hand. For in it are contained both the things which befell the children of Israel in a figure, and fully the mysteries of Christ and of the Church. Here, however, it treats first of the actual going out of the carnal children of Israel, of the historical Egypt, in which is signified the spiritual going out of the spiritual Israelites from the true Egypt, that is, from the darkness of the vices. It treats also of the passage of the Red Sea 295Cand of the drowning of Pharao and his army, and of the deliverance of the people of God: in which is figured the baptism consecrated by the blood of Christ, in which the vices of the devil are drowned, and the souls of the faithful are delivered. It treats also of the battle of the Israelites with Amalec, in which is figured the victory of Christ and of his own, and the confounding of the devil. Then, when the list of the stations has been described, it treats of the law given on mount Sina; in which it is intimated to us that, being raised up from earthly things, we may learn to be made subject to heavenly disciplines. It treats again of the construction of the tabernacle and of its vessels, of the vestments of the priests and of the unction; in which is understood the present Church, and the diverse persons of the faithful appointed to diverse offices, just as the vessels were appointed to diverse uses, or offices, and the most sweet perfumes of the sacraments and of the consecrated prayers. Thus far of these things; now it is to be said that according to the order of history 296Aand according to allegory, this book is fittingly the second in the Pentateuch: for after he had treated in Genesis of the creation of heaven and earth, and of the entering in of the children of Israel into Egypt, it was fitting that he should consequently treat of their going out. Behold what is fitting according to the order of history: according to allegory also it was not unfittingly done. For after he had spoken of the carnal generation, by which through the sin of the first man we are born sons of the devil, it was fitting that he should straightway add concerning the spiritual regeneration, by which through the justification of the second man, that is, of Christ, we are born again sons of God. Now this book is called ἔξοδος in Greek, ואלה שמות veelle semoth in Hebrew, going out or departure in Latin: for this reason, because it treats of the going out of the children of Israel from Egypt. But it may be asked why this book 296Bis called Exodus, because it treats of their going out, whereas in the beginning it treats not of the going out, but of their entering in. To which it may be said that although it purposes to treat especially of their going out, yet because much time flowed by between the going out, of which it here treats, and the entering in with which the first book is ended or had been ended, in order that it may more suitably join its narrative together briefly, it first repeats concerning the entering in, and so descends the better to the going out. So we also in our discourses, when a long interposition has been made, being about to say other things, repeat what went before, that we may the better continue what has been said. These things being considered, the matter is to be looked at, which is the bodily going out of the children of Israel from Egypt, and the spiritual going out, holy, of the saints from the world. By its intention it admonishes us to go out spiritually from the conformity 296Cof the world, as they did who went out bodily from Egypt, that as we have been conformed to the world, so we may be conformed to God. The manner is such: touching briefly upon the entering in of the children of Israel into Egypt, it treats of their multiplication; then of the new king, who knew not Joseph and began to afflict the people; then of the plagues of Egypt, and at length of their going out and of the passage of the Red Sea and of the drowning of the Egyptians. At length it comes to mount Sina, in which the law was given, and it treats of the tabernacle, and of its vessels, and of the vestments of the priests and of the unction, and so it is ended.

Note that although the history is one and undivided which Moses set before himself to describe, yet they distinguish it by chapters and parts, or by books, that weariness may be taken away from readers, just as a traveller divides the road, which is undivided, into days' journeys, that the labour may be lessened and weariness be absent.