1. 1. The story of Naboth is old in time but daily in practice. For who of the rich does not daily covet the goods of others? Who of the wealthy does not strive to drive off the poor man from his little acre and turn out the needy from the boundaries of his ancestral fields? Who is content with his own? What rich man’s heart is not set on fire by a neighbor’s possession? Not, therefore, was one Achab born, but, what is worse, daily is Achab born and never dies in this world. If one perishes, many others spring up; there are more to steal than there are to suffer loss. Not one poor man, Naboth, was killed: daily is Naboth struck down, daily is a poor man put to death. Alarmed by this fear, the human race is now departing from its lands; the poor man, carrying his latest born, wanders forth with his little ones; his wife follows in tears, as if accompanying her husband to his tomb. Less, however, does she grieve who weeps over the bodies of her dead: for, although she has lost a husband’s protection, she has his tomb; although she has not her sons yet she does not mourn for exiles, she does not groan at the hunger of her tender brood, which is worse than death.
2. How far, O ye rich, do you push your mad desires? Shall ye alone dwell upon the earth? Why do you cast out your consort in nature and claim for yourselves the possession of nature? ‘The earth was made in common for all, both rich and poor. Why do you arrogate to yourselves, ye rich, exclusive right to the soil? Nature, which begets all poor, does not know the rich. For we are neither born with raiment nor are we begotten with gold and silver. Naked it brings men into the light, wanting food, clothing and drink; naked the earth receives whom it has brought forth ; it knows not how to include the boundaries of possessions in the tomb. A narrow sod is ample enough for rich and poor alike, and the earth, which did not contain the desire of the rich man living, now contains him entire. Nature, therefore, knows not how to discriminate when we are born, it knows not how, when we die. It creates all alike, all alike it encloses in the bosom of the tomb. Who can distinguish the forms of the dead? Uncover the earth and, if you can, pick out the rich man. Clear away presently the rubbish from the tomb, and if you recognize the poor man, prove it; unless perchance by this alone: that with the rich more things perish. 3. Silken garments and robes interwoven with gold, in which the rich man’s body is enveloped, are losses to the living, not helps to the dead. You receive perfume, O rich man, and you are fetid; you destroy the beauty that belongs to something else and do not secure it for yourself. You leave heirs who sue one another at law. To your heirs you leave rather an hereditary trust than a voluntary advantage, because they fear to diminish and violate what is bequeathed. If the heirs are frugal they guard it; if extravagant, they drain it; and so you condemn good heirs to everlasting sollicitude or you leave behind evil ones :—wherefore let your deeds condemn you.
2. 4. But why do you think that while you are living you abound in all things? O rich man, you know not how poor you are, how needy you seem to yourself who say you are rich! The more you have, the more you demand; and whatever you acquire, yet you are still in need. Avarice is enkindled by gain, not quenched. Covetousness has, as it were, certain steps. The more of these one ascends, the more he hastens to heights from which there is a heavy crash when he must needs fall. More to be endured was he, however, when he had less. In keeping with his wealth his needs were moderate, but with the accession of his patrimony there came an increase of cupidity. He does not want to be ignoble in his wishes; poor, in his desires. ‘He so joins together two intolerable things that he increases the ambitious hope of the rich man and does not put aside the passionate longing of indigence. ‘Therefor Divine Scripture teaches us how miserably he is in want, how abjectly he begs. 5. Achab was king in Israel and Naboth was a poor man. The former was. wealthy in the opulence of his kingdom, the latter possessed a few clods. The poor man coveted none of the rich man’s possessions, but the king seemed to himself to be in want because the poor man, his neighbor, had a vineyard. Which then seems poor to you: he who is content with his own or he who covets another’s? One surely seems poor because of his fortune; the other, poor because of his destre. A rich disposition does not know how to want, an abundant wealth cannot fill the breast of the miser. The rich man, then, is covetous in his envy of another’s possession and there is a complaint of poverty.
6. But now let us consider the words of Scripture. And it came to pass, it says, after these words. Naboth, the Jezrahelite, had a vineyard near the palace of Achab, king of Samaria. And Achab spoke to Naboth, saying: Give me thy vineyard, and tt will be to me for a garden of herbs, because vt 1s mgh to my house, and I will gwe thee for it another vineyard. But tf wt shall please thee, I will give thee money for this vineyard, and it will be to me for a garden of herbs. And Naboth said to Achab: May God forbid that I giwe thee the inheritance of my fathers. And his spirit was troubled, and he slept in his bed, and he veiled his face, and would eat no bread.
%. The Divine Scripture had related that Eliseus, although he was poor, left his oxen, and ran to Elias, and killed them, and gave to the people, and clave to the prophet. For a condemnation, therefore, of the rich man who is described in that king, have these words been said beforehand, because, while having the benefits of God like that Achab, to whom the Lord gave a kingdom and granted rain at the prayer of the prophet Elias, he has violated the divine commandments.
8. Let us hear, then, what he says: Gwe to me, he cries. What other is the cry of one in want? What other is the cry of one asking a public alms, if not, Gwe to me? That is; Give to me, because I want; give to me, because I cannot find any other means of sustenance; give to me, because there is not to me bread for food, money for drink, price for nourishment, substance for raiment; give to me, because the Lord has given to you from which you should bestow; He has not given to me. (ive to me, because, unless you give, I cannot have; give to me, because it is written: Give alms. How abject these words, how mean! For they have not the disposition of humility, but the fire of covetousness. But in this very degradation, what effrontery! Give me, he says, thy vineyard. He confesses it is another’s, so that he asks what is not due him.
9. And I will give thee for it, he says, another vineyard. What is his own, the rich man scorns as worthless; what is another’s, he covets as most valuable. 10. But if wt shall please thee, I will give thee money. Quickly he checks his mistake by offering money for the vineyard ; for he, who desires to occupy all with his possessions, wishes that another possess nothing.
3, 11. And it will be to me, he says, for a garden of herbs. This, then, was his whole madness; this his whole passion: that a space should be obtained for paltry herbs. Not so much therefore do you yourselves desire to possess, as it were, something useful, but you wish to exclude others. You have a greater concern about the spoils of the poor than about your own gains. You think it a wrong to you, if a poor man have anything which is considered worthy of a rich man’s ownership. You believe it your loss, whatever is another’s. Why do the injuries done to nature delight you? For all has the world been created, which you few rich men are trying to keep for yourselves. For not merely the possession of the earth, but the very sky, the air, and the sea are claimed for the use of the rich few. How many people can this air feed which you include within your wide-spread possessions ? Do the angels have the spaces of heaven so apportioned as you set your boundaries and mark off the earth? 12. The prophet cries out: Woe to those that join house to house and farm to farm, and he accuses them of fruitless avarice. For they shun dwelling together with men, and so they exclude their neighbors; but they cannot flee because, when they exclude these, they again find others; and, when they have driven off the latter, they must come into the neighborhood of others still, for alone they cannot inhabit the earth. Birds join birds so that heaven is often overspread with the flight of their myriad throng; cattle join cattle and fish join fish; nor do they consider it a loss, but a profit in living, when they strive for a most numerous company; and they aspire to a certain protection in the solace of a larger society. You alone, O man, exclude your consort, you take in wild beasts, you construct habitations for animals, you destroy those of men; you conduct the sea into your estates that monsters of the deep may not be wanting, you extend the boundaries of your land that you may not possibly have a neighbor.
1%. For whom are such things kept, since you have read concerning the miserly rich man: He storeth up treasures, and knoweth not for whom he gathers them? ‘The idle heir is expectant, the fastidious grumbles that you may die late. He scorns increments to his inheritance and hurries to spend it. What therefore is more pitiful, when not even in him for whom you toil do you leave gratitude? For his sake you endure bitter hunger for whole days, fearing the daily losses to your board; for his sake do you institute daily fasts. 18. I know of a rich man who, in setting out for the country, was wont to count the rather scanty loaves brought from town, so that by the number of the loaves it might be reckoned how many days he was to be afield. He would not open his sealed granary lest any of his store should be diminished. For each day a single loaf was set apart, such as would hardly satisfy a niggard. I have learned also, on genuine evidence, that whenever an egg was put before him, he used to complain that a chick had been killed. On this account do I write this, that you may learn that God’s justice is an avenger which by your fasting takes punishment for the tears of the poor.
5, 19. How pious would be your fasting if you set aside the expense of your banquet for the poor! More endurable was that rich man from whose table the beggar Lazarus was collecting what fell, desiring to be filled; but his table also was made from the blood of many poor and his cups dripped with the blood of many whom he had driven to the halter. 20. How many are killed, so that what delights you may be secured! Deadly is your hunger; deadly, your luxury. One fell from a roof top when he was building spacious store-houses for your grain. Another fell from the highest branches of a lofty tree while he was searching for the kinds of grapes to bring down, from which wines worthy of your table might be pressed. Another was drowned in the sea because he feared that a fish or an oyster might be wanting to your table. Another was frozen stiff by the cold of winter while he was intent on tracking hares and catching birds in cribs. Another, if perchance he has done anything displeasing, is scourged to death before your eyes and sprinkles the very banquet itself with his flowing blood. Finally, there was a rich man who ordered that the head of a poor prophet be brought to his table, and who had found no other means of paying a reward to a dancing girl than that he should order the poor man to be killed. 21. I saw a poor man. led off that he might be forced to pay what he did not have, dragged to prison because wine was wanting to the table of the man of power, bringing his sons to public auction so that for the present he might put off his punishment. Some one perchance was found to help him in this necessity. The poor man returns to his home, beholding all his possessions plundered, and nothing left to him for food; he groans at the hunger of his sons, and laments that he had not rather sold them to one who could give them nourishment. He returns to his purpose, he decides to sell them. Yet the injury suffered through want and the obligations of paternal love were in conflict: hunger pressed him to the sale; nature, to his duty. Ready to die with his sons rather than be separated from them, he often made a move forward, as often drew back. Necessity however conquered, not his will; and paternal love itself yielded to necessity.
22. Let us consider now the storms raging in the father’s mind regarding which of his sons he should give up first. ‘“ Which” he says, “shall I sell first? For I know that the price of one will not suffice to feed the rest.” This alone is a fertile source for anguish! “ Which shall I offer? Which will the grain auctioneer look upon with favor? I shall offer my first born. But he was the first to call me father. He is the oldest of my sons, and I rightly honor him as the eldest. But I shall give my youngest. Yet I embrace him with a more tender love. For the former I blush with shame, the latter I pity. I groan at the rank of the one, at the age of the other. The former already feels a deep anguish, the latter does not understand it. J am moved by the sorrow of the one, by the inexperience of the other. I will turn to the rest. That boy caresses me more, this one shows me greater reverence. The former is more like his father in looks, the latter a greater asset. In one I sell my image, in the other I betray my hope. Ah, wretched me! I cannot find what to do, I have no choice. The forms of my misfortunes, the chorus of my tribulations, encompass me! 23. This is a madness of wild beasts, to select the one to be given up. But the very beasts, when they feel that dangers threaten themselves and their offspring, are wont to select the ones to be let go free, not those to be surrendered. How then shall I set aside the affections of nature. How shall I forget, how shall I put aside the mind of a father? How shall I auction off a son, with what speech shall I agree upon the price, with what hands shall I surrender a son into servitude, with what eyes shall I behold him as a slave, with what kisses at his departure shall I bid him farewell, with what words shall I excuse the deed? Son, I have sold you for my food. Hence the table of the poor man is now more deadly than that of the rich. The latter auctions off the sons of others, I sell my own; he imposes a necessity, I bring a free will. That my case may be more excusable, I will add: Son, you will be a slave for your brothers’ sake, so that food may be obtained for them. And Joseph, after being sold by his brothers into slavery, afterwards fed both them and his father. He will reply: ‘ But his father did not sell him, but wept for him when lost; and afterwards indeed Joseph came into the power of a rich man and could be set free only with difficulty. Subsequently his race served the riches of Egypt for a long time. Sell me, then, Father, on this condition: that rich men do not buy me. 24. I am at a loss, I confess, but what shall I do? I shall sell none. But while £ am considering one, I shall see all perishing with hunger. If I give up one, with what eyes shall I see the rest mistrustful of my lack of paternal affection, lest I sell others also? With what shame shall I return home, how shall I enter, with what feeling shall I dwell there who have denied myself a son whom disease has not carried off nor death snatched away?
With what conscience shall I consider my table which as with olive plants was graced round about with so many sons?”
25. These laments the poor man makes in your presence, and your avarice stops your ear, and your heart is not softened at the horror of the wretched deed. The whole people groan, and you alone, O rich man, are not moved nor do you hear Scripture saying: Lose thy money for thy brother and thy friends and hide tt not under a stone to be lost. And because you do not hear, therefore Ecclesiastes cried out, saying: There is another evil which I have seen under the sun: riches kept to the hurt of the owner.
But perhaps you may return home and talk with your wife. She may urge you to redeem the one sold. Nay, rather will she urge you to purchase female ornaments and finery with what you can free a poor man even at a small cost. She will impose upon you the necessity of expenditures that she may drink from a goblet set with stones, sleep on a purple couch, recline on a silver sofa, and load her hands with gold and her neck with strings of gems. 26. Hven in shackles do women delight, provided they be fastened with gold. They do not think that they are burdens if they are -costly, they do not consider them fetters if in them a treasure is resplendent. Women enjoy even wounds, so that gold may be inserted in their ears and that pearls may hang down. But even gems have their weights, even garments their coldness. ‘They perspire in their gems and shiver in their silks; yet the costliness of these things pleases, and what nature abhors, avarice commends. Emeralds, sapphires, beryl, agate, topaz, amethyst, jasper, and carnelian they seek with the greatest passion. Even if half their patrimony be asked, they do not spare expense while they are indulging their cupidity. JI do not deny that a certain brilliancy of these stones is pleasing, but still it is only of stones. And these very stones, polished contrary to the use of nature in order that they may put aside the roughness of rocks, admonish that it is rather the hardness of the heart that should be polished.
6, 2%. What artificer has been able to add one day to a man’s life? Whom have his riches redeemed from hell? Whose sickness has money alleviated? A man’s life does not consist in abundance, he says, and in another passage: T’reasures profit nothing to the wicked, but justice delwers from death. Rightly does David cry: If riches abound, set not your heart upon them. For what do they profit me if they cannot free me from death? What do they profit me, if they cannot be with me after death? Here they are acquired, here they are left behind. Hence we speak of a dream, not of a patrimony. Wherefore the same prophet well says of the rich: They have slept their sleep: and all the men of riches have found nothing im their hands, that is, nothing have rich men found in their works, who have conferred nothing on the poor. They have helped no one in need, they have been able to find nothing contributing to their own advantage. 28. Consider the name itself. “ Dis,’ the pagans call the governor of hell, the judge of death. “ Dis,” they call a rich man also, because a rich man knows how to produce nothing save death, and his should be the kingdom of the dead; his, the infernal abodes. For what is a rich man unless a kind of insatiable whirl-pool of riches, an insatiable hunger and thirst for gold? The more he drinks, the more he is set on fire. He that loveth silver, he says, shall not be satisfied with silver, and below: And this is a most deplorable evil; as he came, so has he departed ; and his abundance laboreth for the wind. And all his days are im darkness and sorrow and in great anger and evil and passion, so that the condition of slaves is more endurable, for they serve men, but he, sin; for he who commits sin 1s the servant of sin. He is always in snares, always in bonds; never is he free from shackles because he is always in crimes. How wretched a servitude it ig to serve sin!
29. He knows not the functions of nature itself, nor does he know even the regular successions of sleep, nor does he enjoy the sweetness of food, of which things no servitude is deprived: For sleep is sweet to a slave, whether he eat little or much, but as regards him that is filled with riches, there ws none that alloweth him to sleep. Cupidity excites him, his ever-wakeful anxiety to plunder another’s property disturbs him, he is tormented by envy, peeved by delay, worried by the unfruitful sterility of his crops, and troubled by abundance. Wherefore, to that rich man whose possession brought him abundant fruits, and who thought within himself, saying: What shall I do, because I have no room where to gather my fruits? And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and I will build greater; and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods lad up for many years, take thy rest, eat, drink and make good cheer, God answered: Thou fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee; and whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Not even God himself permits him to sleep; He troubles him as he thinks, and rouses him when he slumbers. 30. Nay, he does not suffer even himself to be at rest, who is solicitous about his abundance, and who in the fulness of his fruits utters the cry of one in need. What shall I do? he says. Is not this the cry of the poor man who has not the means of sustenance? In his want of everything he glances hither and thither, he searches his house but finds nothing that can be turned to food. He considers that nothing is more miserable than to succumb to hunger and to die through lack of food; he seeks a shortening of his death-agony and searches out more endurable sufferings in dying: he seizes a sword, suspends a noose, kindles a fire, looks for poison. And in doubt as to which to choose among these, he says: What shall I do? Then, recalled by the sweetness of this life, he wishes to revoke his intention, if he can only find a means of living. (He beholds all things bare, all things empty, and he says: “ What shall I do? Whence shall I have nourishment, whence clothing? I wish to live, if I may only have whereby I can sustain this life; but with what food, with what means of support?” 31. What shall I do, he says, because I do not have? The rich man cries that he does not have. This is the language of poverty. Abounding in fruits, he complains of his want. I have no room, he says, where to bestow my fruits. You could have imagined him saying: “I have no fruits, whereby I must live.” Is he happy who is in danger from his abundance? Nay, he is more miserable in his plenty than the poor man whose peril lies in want. The latter has an excuse for his misery; he, surely, suffers injustice and bears no blame. The former has no one to accuse save himself. 32. And he said: This will I do: I will pull down my barns. You could even imagine him saying: “I will open my barns, let them come in who cannot endure their hunger, let the needy come, let the poor enter, let them fill their bosoms.
I will pull down the walls that shut out the famishing. Why should I store away, I, whom God makes abound with what I may give? Why, with bolts on my doors, should I enclose the grain with which God has filled the whole round of fields, and which grows and abounds without one to watch it?”
7, 33. The hope of the miser is surpassed, the barns are filled to overflowing with the new harvests. “I had too little and to no purpose did I hoard it; more is grown. For whom do I gather it? While I was watching for an increase in prices, I lost the enjoyment of its benefits. How many poor men’s lives could I have saved with last year’s grain! Rather might those prices have delighted me, which are reckoned not in money but in favor. I will imitate holy Joseph in the preaching of kindness. I will cry out with a loud voice: Come, ye poor, eat my loaves, open your bosoms, take my grain. The plenty of the rich man, the abundance of the whole earth, ought to be a fruitfulness for all.” Yet you do not speak thus, but say: Z will pull down my barns. Rightly do you pull them down, from which no poor man returns burdened. Barns are storehouses of iniquity, not helps to piety. Rightly he pulls down because he knows not how to build wisely. The rich man pulls down his barns, who knows not those that are eternal; he pulls down his barns, who does not know how to distribute his grain, but to hoard it. 34. And I will build greater; he says. Unhappy man, distribute even to the poor what you are spending on the cost of your building. While you shun the reward of generosity, you incur losses through your constructions. 35. And he added: And into them will I gather all things that are grown to me, and I will say to my soul: Soul, thou hast much goods. The miser is always deeply worried by abundant crops because he thereby fore-sees a cheapness in food-stuffs. For abundance belongs to all, scarcity is lucrative to the miser alone. He is pleased rather by enormous prices than by the abundance of commodities, and he prefers to have what he alone may sell than what he may sell together with all. See him in fear lest his heap of grain overflow, lest, streaming out over the barns, it may pour upon the poor, and an occasion for some good be obtained by those in want. For himself alone he claims the products of the earth, not because he wishes to use them himself, but because he wishes to deny them to others. 386. Thou hast, he says, much goods. The miser does not know how to mention goods, except those which are lucrative. But I agree with him that those things which are pecuniary may be called goods. Why, therefore, do you make evils from goods, since you ought to make goods from evils? For it is written: Make unto you friends of the mammon of iniquity. For him, then, who knows how to use them, they are goods; for him who does not, they are rightly evils. He hath distributed, he hath gwen to the poor: his justice remaineth forever. What is better than this? They are goods if you bestow them on the poor, wherein you make God your debtor by a kind of pious usury. They are goods if you open the barns of your justice so that you may be the bread of the poor, the life of the needy, the eye of the blind, and the father of orphan children. 3%. You have the means of doing this: why do you fear?
I address you with your own words: Thou hast much goods lad up for many years, you can abound both for yourself and for others, you have plenty for all: why do you pull down your barns? I will show you where you may better preserve your grain, where you may enclose it well, so that thieves cannot take it from you. Store it in the hearts of the poor, where no weevil may consume it, and no age destroy. You have as storerooms the bosoms of the needy, you have as storerooms the homes of widows, you have as storerooms the mouths of infants, so that it may be said to you: Out of the mouth of infants and of sucklings thou hast perfected praise. These are the storehouses that remain forever, these are the barns that a future abundance will not pull down. For what will you do again, if more be grown to you in the next year? Again, therefore, you will pull down the barns which you are now getting ready to build, and you wil! build greater. Now God gives abundance to you that it may either overcome or condemn your avarice; wherefore you cannot have an excuse. Yet you reserve for yourself alone what He has wished to be grown through you for many; nay, you even deprive yourself of it, for rather would you be laying up for yourself, if you were distributing to others. For the fruits of good gifts return to the ones who bestow them, and favor for generosity returns to the author. Therefore it is written: Sow for yourselves in justice. Be a spiritual farmer, sow what will be profitable to you. Good is the sowing in the hearts of widows. If the earth returns to you more abundant fruits than it has received, how much more will the remuneration for mercy return to you many times what you have given !
8, 38. Furthermore, O man, do you not know that the day of death anticipates the bringing forth of the earth, but that mercy shuts out death’s assault? They are already nigh who demand your soul, and do you still put off the fruits of your works, do you still mete out to yourself a long time to live? Thow fool, this night do they require thy soul of thee. Well does He say might. At night is the soul of the miser demanded: it begins in darkness and continues in darkness. To the miser it is always night; to the just man, day; to whom it is said: Amen, amen I say to thee, this day thou shalt be with me wn paradise. But a fool ts changed as the moon. And the just shall shine as the sun, in the kingdom of their Father. Rightly is he charged with folly, who in eating and drinking places his hope. And therefore the time of death is urged by him in accordance with what is said by those who serve their gullets: Let us eat and drink; for tomorrow we shall die. Rightly is he called a fool who ministers things of the body to his soul, because he is storing away, without knowing for whom he is laying up. 39. And hence it is said to him: And whose shall those things be which thou hast provided? Why do you daily measure, and count, and seal? Why do you balance gold, weigh silver? How much better would it be, were you a generous distributor rather than an anxious custodian! How much more would it avail to your favor to be named the father of many orphans than to have countless staters sealed in your money-bag! For money is left here, favor goes with us to the judge of merit. 40. But perchance you may say—what you are commonly wont to say—: ‘“* We ought not to give to him whom God so cursed that He wished him to be in need.” But the poor are not cursed, since it is written: Blessed are the poor, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Not of the poor man, but of the rich does Scripture say: He that seeketh after prices for grain will be cursed. Furthermore do not look to what each deserves. Mercy is not wont to pass judgment on merit, but to render help in necessity; to assist the poor, not to weigh justice ; for it is written: Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor. Who is he that understands? He who feels pity for the poor man, who sees that he is his consort in nature, who recognizes that the Lord has made both the rich and the poor, and who knows that he sanctifies his fruits if he takes from them some portion for the poor. Therefore, since you have the means for conferring benefits, do not put it off, saying: Tomorrow I will give, lest you lose the opportunity of bestowing them. Delay in the case of another’s safety is dangerous; it can happen that, while you are delaying, he may die. Rather hasten on before death, lest perchance avarice hinder you tomorrow also and your promises be violated.
9, 41. But why do I say that you should not put off generosity ? May you not hurry to robbery! May you not extort what you covet !
May you not seek what is another’s! May you let pass what is denied you! May you bear patiently what is excused, and not hear that Jezabel, who is avarice, say with a loathsome flux, as it were, of vanity: “J will give thee the possession which you desire. You are sad because you wish to consider the measure of justice, so that you may not seize what is another’s: I have my rights, I have my laws, I will calumniate him that I may despoil him, and, that the possession of the poor man may be seized, his life will be beaten out.” 42. For what else is described in that story if not the avarice of the rich, which is a vain, loathsome flux, because, in the manner of a river, it carries off everything and transfers it elsewhere, bringing profit to none? ‘This Jezabel is not one, but manifold; not of one age, but of many. She says to all, as that other said to her husband, Achab: Arise, eat bread, and return to thyself, I will gwe thee the vineyard of Naboth, the Jezrahelite. 43. And she wrote a letter in Achab’s name and sealed vt with his ring; and sent it to the ancients and to those free citizens who were staying with Naboth. And it was written in the letter: Fast a fast, and place Naboth before the chief of the people, and place two men, sons of inquity, opposite him, that they may bear false witness against him, saying: he hath cursed God and the king. And lead him forth and stone him.
10, 44. How clearly the custom of the rich is portrayed! They are made sad if they are not seizing the property of others; they renounce food, they fast, not that they may lessen their sin but that they may commit crime. You may see them at such times coming to church, dutiful, humble, and assiduous, in order that they may deserve to obtain the accomplishment of their wickedness. But to them God says: Not this fast have I chosen, not if thou shouldst wind thy head about like a circle and spread also sackcloth and ashes, and not thus will ye call an acceptable fast. Not such a fast have I chosen, says the Lord. Loose every band of injustice, loose the bonds of violent contracts, let them that are broken go free, and tear asunder every unjust writing. Deal thy bread to the hungry, and bring the needy and harborless into thy house. If thou shalt see one naked, cover him, and thou shalt not despise the domestics of thy seed. Then shall thy morning light arise, and thy health shall speedily arise, and thy justice shall go before thee, and the majesty of the Lord shall surround thee. Then shalt thou call, and God shall hear thee; even while thou speakest, He shall say: Here I am. 45. Do you hear, O rich man, what the Lord God says? You too come to church, not to bestow anything upon a poor man but to take away. You fast, not that the cost of your banquet may profit the needy but that you may obtain spoil from those in want. What will you with your book and paper and seal and writing and bond of the law? You have not heard: Loose every band of injustice, loose the bonds of violent contracts, let them that are broken go free, and tear asunder every unjust writing. You present to me records, I recite to you the law of God; you write with ink, I repeat to you the oracles of the prophets written by the Spirit of God; you fabricate false testimonies, I ask for the testimony of your conscience, which, as your judge, you will not be able to escape or avoid; whose testimony you will not be able to refute on that day on which God will reveal the secrets of men. You say: I will pull down my barns; the Lord says: “ Suffer rather whatever is in your barn to be distributed to the poor, suffer those cellars of yours to benefit the needy.” You say: J will build greater, and into them will I gather all things that are grown to me; the Lord says: Deal thy bread to the hungry. You say: “I will take his house from the poor man”’, but the Lord says: Bring the needy and harborless mto thy house. How do you wish God to hear you, O rich man, when you do not think that God should be heard? If assent be not given to the rich man’s will, a pretext is fabricated ; it is reckoned an injustice to God if a rich man’s claim is opposed.
11, 46. He hath cursed, it says, God and the king. There is an equality in the persons, I suppose, so that there is an equality in the offense. He hath cursed, it says, God and the king. Lest the term “ curse” offend the rich man and he be injured by the very sound of the word, “ blessing ” is used for “ curse.” 'Two witnesses of iniquity are sought out. By two witnesses also was Susanna attacked, and the Synagogue found two witnesses to cast false accusations against Christ, and by two witnesses is the poor man put to death. Therefore they led Naboth out and stoned him. Would that he might even have been permitted to die among his own! ‘T’o the poor man, the rich grudges burial itself. 47. And vé came to pass, it says, when Achab heard that Naboth was dead, he rent his garments, and covered himself with haircloth. And it came to pass after these things, Achab arose, and went down into the vineyard of Naboth the Jezrahelite to take possession of tt. Rich men grow angry and calumniate so that they may do injury, if they obtain not what they desire. But when by their calumny they do cause injury, they pretend that they are sorry; yet sad and grief-stricken, as it were, not in heart, but in countenance, they set out for the place of the stolen estate and take possession by their unjust and violent procedure.
48. By this is Divine Justice moved, and It condemns the miser with befitting severity, saying: Thou hast slain, and thow hast taken possession of his inheritance. Therefore in this place, wherein the dogs have licked the blood of Naboth, in this the dogs shall lick thy blood and harlots shall wash in thy blood. How just, how severe a sentence: that he should be prevented from separating from the horror of his own death the same bitterness of death which he had inflicted upon the other! God beholds the poor man unburied, and therefore decrees that the rich man also be without burial, so that, even dead, he may atone for the tribulation of his iniquity, who thought that not even the dead should be spared. Hence his corpse, sprinkled with the gore of his wound, after the manner of a violent death, disclosed the cruelty of his life. When the poor man suffered these things, the rich man was blamed; when the rich man experienced them, the poor man was vindicated. 49. But what does it signify that harlots washed in his blood, unless perchance that a kind of meretricious perfidy or bloody luxury should be proclaimed to have been in the cruelty of the king, who was so fond of luxury that he desired herbs, and so blood-thirsty that, for the sake of his herbs, he killed a man? A fitting penalty destroyed the miser, a fitting penalty for his avarice. Finally, also, the dogs and the birds of heaven devoured Jezabel herself, so that it should be made manifest that the spoil of spiritual wickedness becomes the grave of the rich. Flee, therefore, a death of this kind, O rich man. But you will only flee a death of this kind, if you flee this kind of crime. Do not be an Achab, and covet a neighbor’s possession. Let not Jezabel dwell with you, that deadly avarice that persuades you to bloody deeds; that restrains not your desires, but urges you on; that makes you more sad even when you gain possession of what you desire, and that makes you destitute when you are rich.
12, 50. For everyone in abundance judges himself all the poorer, because he thinks he lacks whatever is possessed by others. He whose desires the world does not contain, is in want of the whole world, but the whole world of riches belongs to him who is faithful. He flees from the whole world, who, looking to his conscience, fears to be caught. And therefore Achab says to Elias, according to history—but according to allegory, the rich man to the poor man—: Thou hast found'me, mine enemy. How miserable the conscience that was grieved at its being discovered! 51. And Elias said to him: I have found thee because thou hast done evil in the sight of God. He was a king, even Achab, king of Samaria; Ehas was poor and in want of bread, and would have lacked the substance of life had not the ravens ministered food unto him. So was the conscience of the sinner cast down that he was not sustained even by the haughtiness of royal power. Therefore, like a common lowborn fellow, he cries: “Thou hast found me, mine enemy. and thou hast detected in me what I thought was hidden. No secrets of my mind escape thee; thou hast found me; to thee my wounds le open; captivity is at hand.” ‘The sinner is found when his iniquity is disclosed, but the just man says: Thou has tried me by fire: and iniquity hath not been found in me. When Adam hid, he was found, but the burial place of Moses has never been discovered. Achab was found, but not so Klas, and the Wisdom of God has said: The wicked shall seek me and shall not find me. Wherefore in the Gospel also, Jesus was sought and was not found. Hence guilt betrays its author. Wherefore, too, the Thesbite says: I have found thee because thou hast done evil in the sight of the Lord; for the Lord delivers up the guilty, but the innocent He does not betray into the power of their enemies. Hence, Saul sought holy David and could not find him, but holy David found king Saul whom he sought not, because the Lord delivered him into his power. Wealth, therefore, is captive: poverty is free.
52. And, rich men, you serve indeed a miserable servitude, who serve error, who serve covetousness, who serve avarice which cannot be filled. Any insatiable whirlpool is more rapid when it is swal- lowing what has been thrown into it, and, in the manner of a well when it overflows, it is polluted by mud and eats away at the ground with no profit to itself. Even by this example is it fitting that you be warned. For a well, if you draw nothing from it, easily becomes foul through undisturbed rest and base neglect; but if kept in use, it is sparkling in appearance and sweet to drink. So also a heap of riches, besmudged with dirt when piled up, is resplendent in use; but when left undisturbed, it is considered worthless. Draw something, then, from this well. Water will quench a flaming fire and alms will resist sins, but stagnant water quickly produces-worms. Let not your treasure rest, let not your fire abide; for it will abide in you unless you avert it by the works of your mercy. Reflect, O rich man, in what fires you are. Your voice is that of the one crying: Father Abraham, say to Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water to cool my tongue. 53. Therefore it is of profit to you whatever you bestow upon the needy; and whatever you diminish increases to your interest. It is yourself you feed with the food that you give a poor man, since he who has mercy on the poor is himself fed, and fruit is already in these things. Mercy is sown on earth, germinates in heaven, is transplanted in the poor man, and grows with God. Say not, God says, tomorrow I will give. How does He allow you to say, “ I will not give,’ Who does not allow you to say, tomorrow I will give? Not from your own do you bestow upon the poor man, but you make return from what is his. For what has been given as common for the use of all, you appropriate to yourself alone. The earth belongs to all, not to the rich; but fewer ‘are they who do not use what belongs to all than those who do. Therefore you are paying a debt, you are not bestowing what is not due. Hence Scripture says to you: Bow down thy heart to the poor, and pay what thou owest, and answer him peaceable words with mildness.
13, 54. For why are you proud, O rich man? Why do you say to the poor: “Do not touch me”? Were you not conceived in a womb and born from a womb as a poor man is born? Why do you boast of your noble lineage? You are even wont to go over the pedigrees of your dogs as you do those of wealthy men, you are even wont to praise the nobility of your horses as you do that cf the consuls. That horse was sired by that father and born of that mother ; this one rejoices in that grandsire, that one boasts of even more remote ancestry. But this is of no aid to him in the race; the palm is not given for noble lineage, but for running. More disgraceful is he in defeat in whom a noble lneage is also imperilled. Take care, therefore, O rich man, lest in you the merits of your ‘ancestors be put to shame, lest perchance also it be said to them: ‘Why have you appointed such an heir, why have you chosen such a one?” Not in golden ceilings nor in tables of porphyry is the merit of the heir. This glory does not belong to men, but to metals, wherein men are punished. By the needy is gold obtained and to the needy is it denied. They labor to obtain, they labor to find what they know not how to have. 55. Yet I wonder why, then, O rich men, you think you should be puffed up, since gold is rather the material of the stumbling block than a cause of commendation: For gold is a stumbling block also and woe to them who eagerly follow after it. Therefore the rich man is blessed that 1s found without blemish: and that hath not gone after gold, nor put his trust wm treasures of money. But just as if he cannot be known, he desires that such a man be pointed out to him: Who is he, he says, and we will praise him? For he has done what we should admire rather as something new than as something customary. And so he who can be commended in riches is truly perfect and worthy of glory. He that could have transgressed, he says, and hath not transgressed; that could do evil things, and hath not done them. ‘Therefore gold, wherein there is so great an allurement to sin, he commends to you not so much for its own sake as for its being a punishment due tomen. 56. Or do spacious halls exalt you, which should rather sting you with remorse, because, while they hold crowds, they exclude the cry of the poor—although it would be of no avail that this cry be heard, which, even when heard, gains nothing—? Turthermore, your very palace itself does not remind you of your shame, who in building wish to surpass your riches, and yet do not vanquish them. You cover your walls, you strip men naked. ‘The naked man cries before your house, and you neglect him. He cries, and you are solicitous as to what marbles you will use to cover your floors. The poor man seeks money and has it not; a man asks for bread, and your horse champs gold under his teeth. And precious orna- ments delight you, although others do not have grain. What a terrible judgment, O rich man, are you bringing upon yourself!
The people are starving, and you close your barns; the people weep bitterly, and you toy with your jewelled ring. Unhappy man, in whose power it is to save the lives of so many, and there is not the will! ‘The jewel in your ring could preserve the lives of the whole people.
57. Hear clearly what kind of praise befits a rich man: J delivered, ‘he says, the poor man from the hand of the powerful, and I helped the orphan, that had no helper. The blessing of him that was ready to perish came upon me, and the mouth of the widow blessed me. I put on justice; I was an eye to the blind, and a foot to the lame; I was the father of the weak; and below: The stranger did not abide without, but my door was open to every comer. And tf also I have sinned foolishly, I have not concealed my fault; nor have I feared a multitude of people so as not to declare it in their presence, if I have suffered the weak to leave my door with empty bosom. He mentioned also that the bill of the debtor, which he had, he returned cancelled, without the recovery of the debt. For why should I repeat these things too, that he says that he wept over every one in sickness and groaned when he saw a man in need, but himself in good things; and that for him rather were there days of evil when he saw that he had abundance, and others were in want? If he says this, who never caused the eye of a widow to weep, who never ate his bread alone without giving to the orphan—whom from his early years he nourished, fed, and instructed with the love of a parent—who never despised the naked, who covered the dead, who warmed the shoulders of the sick with the skins of his sheep, who oppressed not the ward, who never delighted in riches, who never rejoiced at the fall of his enemies; if he who did this, from his great riches began to be in need, if he derived nothing from such a great patrimony save the one fruit of mercy, what is to become of you, who do not know how to use your patrimony, who in great riches endure days of indigence, because on none do you bestow and to none do you give assistance ?
14, 58. Therefore you are the custodian, not the master of your wealth, who bury gold in the earth; surely you are its servant and not its lord. But: Where thy treasure 1s, there 1s thy heart also.
Hence in that gold you have buried your heart in the earth. Rather sell gold and buy salvation; sell a stone and buy the kingdom of God; sell your field and redeem for yourself eternal life. I speak the truth, because I confirm it by the words of Truth: Jf thou wilt be perfect, He says, sell what thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven. And do not become sad when you hear these words, lest it be said to you also: How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God! Rather, when you read this, consider that death can snatch these things from you, or the power of a stronger take them away; and furthermore, that you are seeking small things for great, perishable for eternal, treasures of money for treasures of grace. The former become corrupted, the latter endure. 59. Consider that you do not possess these alone. With you the worm possesses them; and the rust, which consumes money. These are the consorts which avarice has given you. But see what debtors grace gives: The lips of the just shall bless him that is liberal of his bread, and there shall be testumony of his goodness. It makes God the Father your debtor, Who, like the debtor of a good creditor, pays interest for the gift by which the poor man is helped. It makes the Son your debtor, Who says: For J was hungry and you gave me to eat; I was thirsty and you gave me to drink; I was a stranger and you took me in; naked and you covered me. For what is given to even one of the least, He says, is given to Him. 60. You do not know, O man, how to pile up riches. If you wish to be rich, be poor in the world so that you may be rich in God. Who is rich in faith is rich in God, who is rich in mercy is rich in God, who is rich in simplicity is rich in God; who is rich in wisdom, who is rich in knowledge, these are rich in God. There are some who abound in poverty and some who want in riches. The poor abound whose very deep poverty hath abounded in the riches of their simplicity, and, The rich have wanted, and have suffered hunger. And not idly indeed is it written: The poor shall be put over the rich and their own servants shall lend to their masters, because rich men and masters sow vain and evil things from which they do not gather fruit, but reap thorns. And therefore the rich shall be subject to the poor, and servants shall lend spiritual things to their masters ; just as the rich man asked poor Lazarus to lend him a drop of water. You also, O rich man, can fulfill this maxim: “ Bestow upon the poor, and you have lent to the Lord”; for, He that bestoweth on the poor, lendeth to God.
61. Now beautifully has holy David thus begun in the Seventy- Fifth Psalm, singing a hymn to God written to the Assyrian, that is, against the Assyrian of spiritual wickedness, the vain and foolish prince of this world: In Judaea God is known, that is, not in the rich, not in the mighty and the noble is God known, but in the soul that confesses Him. And his name, he says, 1s great in Israel, not in princes and consuls, but in him who sees God; for he is Israel in whom deep faith has been able to arrive at the knowledge of God. 62. And his place, he says, is in peace, where the peaceful disposition is neither agitated by the waves of various desires nor shaken by the storms of avarice nor set on fire with the passion of seeking riches. He is the one who beholds the eternal things and dwells in Sion, breaking all the instruments of spiritual wars and crushing the bows with which the devil is wont to aim his fiery shafts and brand deep passions in the breasts of men. But those shafts cannot harm the just man to whom God is light, and who is so far from the horror of the reeking darkness that in him the adversary cannot have place who is wont to enter even into princes, just as he entered also into the traitor Judas, cutting down, as in a forest of trees, the portals of faith, so that he might have an entrance into his heart and take possession of the tabernacle of the eternal name, that was consecrated by the office of the apostleship which had been conferred upon him. Therefore, like a wicked usurper, he cuts down the portals that he may enter with violence; but the Lord, like a dutiful master, makes his servants to shine and, by their resplendent merits and the clarity of their virtues, illumines the darkness of this world. ‘This favor with God have the peaceable and the meek who are settled in the sober tranquility of their minds, but the foolish of heart are troubled and are themselves the authors of their own agitation, because they are tossed by the tide of their desires and fluctuate in a kind of sea.
15, 63. Who these are, he signified expressly by saying: All the men of riches. He said all, he excepted none. And well did he use the term men of riches and not riches of men, that he might show that they were not the possessors of riches, but were possessed by riches; for a possession ought to belong to the possessor, not the possessor to the possession. Whosoever therefore does not use his patrimony as a possession, who does not know how to give and distribute to the poor, he is the servant of his wealth, not its master; because like a servant he watches over the wealth of another, and not like a master does he use it as his own. Hence, in a disposition of this kind, we say that the man belongs to his riches, not the riches to the man. For a good understanding to them that use it; but who does not understand, he assuredly cannot claim for himself the grace of understanding ; and so, overcome with the sleep of drunkenness, he has fallen asleep. Therefore men of this kind sleep their sleep; that is, their sleep, not the sleep of Christ. And they who sleep not the sleep of Christ have not the rest of Christ nor do they rise by the resurrection of Christ, Who says: I have slept and have taken my rest; and I have risen up, because the Lord will protect me. 64. In this world also do they fall asleep who are considered worthy of divine rebuke because they mounted horses that they could not curb. We read in another passage—the Church or the soul saying—: He made be the chariots of Aminadab. If, then, the soul is a chariot, see lest the flesh be the horse; but let the driver be the strength of mind which rules the flesh, and which, after the manner of horses as it were, checks its movements with the reins of prudence. They have fallen asleep, therefore, who have mounted the pleasures of the body, governing them with no moderation. Hence he preferred to call them riders rather than horsemen or drivers. For the driver, by training and skill, drives his horses as he wishes, so that he may urge them on in their course, or turn them back when ungovernable, or recall them when wearied, or bring them around gentle according to his will. Therefore when Elias was being taken up and carried in a chariot, as it were, to heaven, Eliseus cried out to him: Father, father, the driver of Israel and the horseman thereof, that is: you, who ruled the people of the Lord with good guidance, have received these chariots through the merit of your constancy and these horses coursing to Heaven, because the Lord has approved of you as a director of the minds of men; and therefore, like a good charioteer, you are being crowned as victor in the contest with the eternal reward. In the prophet Habacuc also, we read a passage addressed to the Lord Himself: Vhou shalt ride upon thy horses and thy riding 1s salvation! for He drove His apostles, whom he directed into divers places, that they might preach the Gospel in the whole world. Thou shalt ride, he says, as to a driver of horses, and not to arider. For the horseman also mounts, but so as to guide, and not merely to have a seat because, being slothful and lazy in his drowsy mind, he cannot continue his walking.
Of the horseman we read: And the horseman will fall backward, looking for the salvation of the Lord. For, since no one is without a fall, even if a horseman be brought down and turned aside by some earthly vices, yet, if he does not. cast aside the hope of rising again, relying on the divine mercy he comes to salvation. But as regards the rider, there is a clear proof that he is considered reprehensible, since Moses himself says in the Canticle of Exodus: The horse and the rider he hath thrown tnto the sea. And in Zacharias the Lord has spoken, saying: I will strike every horse with madness and his rider with foolishness. He did not say the horse only but also the rider, just as you have also in Exodus, the horse and the rider. For where there is a rider who cannot manage his horse, the horse rushes headlong and, through its unbridled fury, is carried to precipices and dangers. Why, therefore, do you put your trust in horses, O rich men? Vain is the horse for safety. Why do you applaud yourselves in chariots? Some trust in chariots, and some wm horses, but we shall be exalted in the name of the Lord. They are bound and have fallen; but we are risen, and are set upright. Do not love like amorous horses; do not be excited, O rich men, by the neighing of lust. Terrible is the Lord, and one whom none, whether rich or mighty, can resist. From heaven does He hurl His judgment.
16, 66. It is good that you should now rest and, ceasing from crimes, reverence the power of the Lord. Therefore it was said to the parricide Cain: Thou hast sinned, rest, that he might put a measure to his sin. Let your thoughts confess to the Lord. Do not say: “ We have not sinned.” Paul has said: Although I am not conscious to myself of anything, but added, nevertheless, yet am I not hereby justified. And you, even if you are not conscious to yourselves of anything, confess, however, to the Lord, lest there be anything which may escape you. For he who confesses to the
Lord and brings to confession the remainders of the thought shall keep holiday in the sanctuary of his mind and shall feast, not with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 67%. And so in conclusion, turning toward you, the prophet says: Pray ye, and pay to the Lord your God, that is: do not dissemble, O rich men,—the day is at hand—, pray for your sins, return gifts for the benefits which you have. From Him have you received whatever you may offer, to Him belongs what you are paying Him. Presents, He says, are mine, gifts are mine, that is, “the presents which you offer to me are my gifts; I have granted and have given them to you.” Therefore the prophet says: “Thou hast no need of my goods; hence I offer Thine own to Thee, since I have nothing which Thou hast not given.” It is faith that reconciles gifts, it is humility that commends offerings. By faith Abel offered to God w greater sacrifice. Above the gifts of his brother Cain was the gift of Abel pleasing because he surpassed in faith. Whence is it that the poor man’s sacrifice pleases more than that of the rich? It is because the poor man is richer in faith, more wealthy in sobriety. And since he is poor, he is of those of whom it is said: Kings shall offer presents to thee. For not in those who bring presents clad in purple does the Lord Jesus delight, but in those who govern their passions and by the power of their minds have dominion over the lust of the body. Pray, therefore, rich men! You have not in your works what is pleasing. Pray for your sins and your heinous offenses, and return gifts to the Lord your God. Return them in the poor man, render them in the needy, lend them in the destitute, whom otherwise you cannot placate because of your crimes. Whom you fear as an Avenger, make your Debtor. J will not take calves out of thy house, He says, nor he-goats out of thy flocks, for all the beasts of the woods are mine. “ Whatever you offer,’ He says, “is mine, because the whole world is mine. I do not demand the things that are mine; but rather the zeal of devotion and faith which you can offer from yourselves. I do not delight in ostentation in sacrifices; only, O man: Offer to God the sacrifice of praise, and pay thy vows to the Most High.”
68. Or at least, if it pleases, let us so interpret: that he said that the rich have slept their sleep; that he uttered first the rebukes of the Lord upon them; that he then spoke of his terror and praised the power of Him whom not even the rich can resist. Turning to all he says: “ Let the rich fall asleep, let the rich be rebuked, Pray ye, and pay to the Lord your God, all that are round about him bring presents, that is give thanks, O poor men, that God is not a respecter of persons.” Let them amass riches, hoard money, and pile up treasures of gold and silver; you pray, who have nothing else; you pray, who have this alone that is more precious than gold and silver. Return gifts, you who depart not from the Lord, and are round about Him, since you who were afar off have been made nigh. But they who seem to themselves to be nigh through their riches and power are afar off on account of their avarice. For no one is without, unless he whom sin shuts out, as it cast out Adam from paradise and shut out Eve; no one is afar off unless he whom his own crimes keep removed. 69. Therefore you who are stationed nigh, pray and return gifts Z’o him that 1s terrible, even to him who taketh away the spirit of princes; to the terrible with the kings of the earth, because He is not bought off by any rich man’s bribe. He is not changed from His purpose by the haughtiness of the powerful, Who fixes the rewards for guilt, Who the more he gives to anyone the more He demands of him, Who gave a kingdom to Saul although of humble station,—but because he did not keep His commandment, he lost both his kingdom and his life—, Who for their perfidy made many kings of the people of the fathers to be captives of the gentiles, and, that we now speak of the history before us, Who so ordered King Achab—ungrateful for divine favors—to be killed, that his wounds were licked by dogs. For since he had coveted the poor man’s vineyard, filled in vain with all the wealth of power, he was reduced by the Lord below the most utter want. There was no one found who would wash his wounds, none who would cover his body. ‘Toward him was wanting the kindness of men, and the fury of dogs took its place. Clearly did the miser find worthy assistants at his funeral.
17, 70. In this place the question comes up: how do we read that the Lord said to Elias: Hast thou seen how Achab has been moved at my presence? I will not bring evils in his days, but in his son’s days will I bring evils—or how do we say that repentance avails before God? Behold the king was moved before the face of the Lord and he went away weeping, and he rent his garments, and covered himself with haircloth, and put on sackcloth from that day on which he killed Naboth the Jezrahelite, so that mercy moved God and He changed His decree. Therefore either repentance did not avail and did not turn God to mercy, or the prophecy is false, for Achab was vanquished and slain. 71. But consider that he had a wife Jezabel, by whose will he was inflamed, and who turned his heart and made him execrable by reason of his excessive sacrileges. Accordingly she checked even this desire of repentance on his part. But the Lord cannot be considered changeable, if He did not think that He ought to keep for the one unmindful of his confession what, at his confessing, ‘He had promised him.